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* * *
“YOU WERE MIA last night.”
Conway stepped away from the tractor where he was in the process of attaching the mist sprayer he’d rented in Yuma the day before. Will hovered in the barn doorway.
The second-eldest Cash brother had once been a tie-down roper, but the past few years he’d spent more time working construction jobs than he did riding the circuit.
“Since when did you start keeping tabs on me?”
“It was Mack’s birthday yesterday, you dumb shit.”
Well, hell. He’d forgotten. “I was helping a friend out.”
Will walked farther into the barn. “I suppose your friend needed help with her bed.”
His brother’s words prompted a vision of Conway slipping between the sheets with Isi. Disturbed at how easily his mind put him and Isi together as a couple he said, “You need to go off and rodeo for a while.”
“Why’s that?”
“Lately you’ve been as sociable as a rotting tooth.”
“We all can’t be as popular with the ladies as you are,” Will said.
Normally Conway would relish a game of verbal sparring with his brother, but he didn’t have time. “I’ll call Mack and wish him a happy birthday.” He tested the lock that held the fan sprayer in place then hopped on the tractor seat.
“Where’d you get the sprayer?” Will asked.
“Jim Baine leased it to me.”
“Since when did the feed store start renting farm equipment?”
“I don’t know, but when I went to Tractor Supply in Yuma to browse sprayers, the salesclerk told me to stop by Jim’s, so I did.”
“How much did he charge you for it?”
“A hundred dollars for the week.” Several months ago their oldest brother Johnny had informed the family that the farm was in financial trouble. Conway and his brothers had pitched in their savings to make up the missed mortgage payments so any new equipment purchases would have to wait.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, because I sure as hell would like to get paid back the money I contributed to produce this crop,” Will said.
Ever since Johnny had handed over control of the pecan groves to Conway, the rest of his brothers believed it was their duty to comment on how he did things. Will wasn’t a farmer, but Conway felt a special connection with the land and he intended to do everything in his power to produce a healthy nut crop and that meant doing things by the book—like spraying for insects during the month of October.
“Don’t worry, bro, I’ve got things under control.” Conway grinned. “But if you’re willing to help out, you can—”
“No way.” Will raised his hands in the air. “I build things. I don’t grow them.”
“Is the construction business improving?”
“Ben’s got several small jobs lined up to keep us busy.”
Not busy enough to prevent Will from harassing Conway. “I’d love to chat, but I need to spray a few rows before I leave.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m watching a friend’s kids while she goes to school and works at night.”
“Your friend wouldn’t happen to be a waitress at the Border Town Bar & Grill, would she?” Will asked.
“Why?”
Will chuckled. “You’re the guy two women were fighting over when one of them got her nose broken.”
“They weren’t fighting over me. Isi—”
“Who’s Isi?”
“The waitress at the bar. She took a punch that was meant for me.”
“Ouch.” Will shook his head. “I don’t get why women fawn all over you.”
“Because I’m the handsome Cash brother.” Conway grinned.
“Yeah, right. Wait until word gets around that you’re a pecan farmer and not the swaggering rodeo hero you want everyone to believe you are.”
Conway didn’t give a crap how his new career might affect his image. For a while now he’d been wanting to settle down and it was only a matter of time before he found the right woman.
“This Isi must be special if you’re sprucing up for her.” Will motioned to Conway’s short hair.
Isi was special, but not in the way Will meant. Conway ignored his brother and started the tractor. The engine sputtered and coughed before settling into a loud roar, then he shifted gears and drove out of the barn.
He lined up the sprayer then moved through the first row of trees, contemplating Will’s words. There was no reason he couldn’t work on the farm and rodeo weekends until he found the woman of his dreams. As a matter of fact, he’d head up to Payson on Saturday and enter the Frontier Days Rodeo. Who knows, maybe he’d run into his soul mate.
* * *
“AND HE LET us sit on the tractor,” Javier said.
Isi listened to the boys chatter about their day with Conway while she made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.
Miguel set two plastic cups on the table. “Next time I get to go.”
“And he let me push the brake and—”
“Okay, enough,” Isi interrupted Javier, hoping to ward off a fight. Miguel was jealous that his brother had gone to the tractor store with Conway while he’d stayed in preschool.
“I wanna tractor when I grow up,” Javier said.
Isi cut the sandwiches in half, placed them on paper plates then added apples slices to the meal. “What would you do with a tractor, Javi?”
“I’d help Mr. Conway on his farm.”
“Does Conway Twitty Cash have cows and pigs on his farm?” Miguel asked Isi.
“I don’t know, honey.” She joined the boys at the table and smoothed the hair off Javier’s forehead. “You don’t feel warm.” He wouldn’t make eye contact with her and she reminded herself to tell Conway not to give in to her son if he complained about going to school.
Once the boys ate and brushed their teeth, she sent them outside to play in the yard and began making phone calls. Fifteen minutes later, she’d gotten nowhere—each of the women she’d found in the Sunday want ads had already taken babysitting jobs. Later today she planned to put up a flyer on the campus bulletin board and hoped a student wanting to earn extra cash before Christmas would contact her.
A knock rattled the door. “It’s me.” Conway stepped into the trailer and his smile faltered. “You’re upset. What’s wrong?”
For a man who spent yesterday chasing after two demanding four-year-olds and sleeping on a dollhouse-size couch, he looked well-rested.
Well-rested? That was a unique way to describe sexy.
Isi ignored the voice in her head. “I’m not upset. I’m discouraged.” She closed her notebook. “I haven’t had any luck finding a sitter.”
“Did you try the online classifieds?” He stopped next to the table and his half smile tugged a sigh from Isi.
“I don’t trust those online sites,” she said.
“Why not?”
“They’re full of child predators.” Poor Conway. He was really clueless about raising children.
“Can you put them in day care after school?” he asked.
“There isn’t a facility open until midnight.” She waved a hand in the air. “Besides, I don’t have the money for extended child care.”
“I suppose I could keep watching the boys until you find a new sitter.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?”
She laughed. “The twins are a lot of work.”
“They aren’t so bad.”
Wait until he spent more time with her sons, then the novelty would wear off. She went to the window to make sure the boys were in the yard. “I told Javier that he has to stay at school. Please don’t let him talk you into signing him out.”
“I wanted to speak to you about that.”
She stuffed her books into her backpack.
“Javier told me that he’s getting picked on at recess.”
“You mean teased?” she said.
“Why haven’t you spoken to his teacher about it?”
Isi jerked as if he’d slapped her. “You think I’ve ignored the problem?”
He shrugged. “Then why are the brats still tormenting Javier?”
Angry that Conway believed she was an uncaring mother, she lashed out. “I don’t know what he told you, but his teacher assured me the situation is being dealt with.” An image of her son cornered by miniature thugs on the playground popped into Isi’s mind. She felt bad that the boys had been placed in day cares and preschools the past three years, but she’d had no choice—not if she intended to make a better life for them. Isi blinked hard.
“You’re not going to cry, are you?”
“No.” She fussed with her backpack.
Conway wiped the pad of his thumb across her cheekbone, catching the tear that escaped her eye. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She sniffed. “It’s... I don’t have... Never mind.”
“Never mind what? Talk to me.”
“I’m doing the best I can, Conway. I complained to the head of the preschool that Javier said kids were picking on him, but she insisted that the boys would work things out on their own.”
“How long ago did you speak to this lady?”
“I guess it’s been a month.”
Conway’s jaw hardened. “I can help. Will you trust me to handle this?”
“You don’t have any experience with kids.”
“I grew up fighting bullies who picked on me because of my name.”
His comment triggered more tears. “The teacher said I should encourage the boys’ father to become more involved in their lives, but that’ll never happen.”
“Why?”
“Their father refuses to acknowledge that the boys are his.”
Conway scowled. “Make him take a paternity test.”
“He’s already married with kids.”
“You slept with a married man?” Conway gaped at her.
“He didn’t tell me he was married.”
“And you didn’t ask him?”
“He wasn’t wearing a wedding band, so I assumed he was single.”
“The boys’ father should be paying child support. If he helped out financially, you could afford day care.” Conway swept his hand in front of him. “You’re barely getting by raising them on your own.”
“We’re fine.” She wasn’t proud of accepting government assistance to help meet her monthly expenses and put food on the table, but as soon as she earned her degree, she’d find a full-time job with benefits and be able to support herself and the boys all on her own.
“Being a single parent isn’t easy.” She swallowed hard. “I have no one to—”
