Second Chance Christmas

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They were the first civil words Cooper had gotten from his brother this morning. Eighteen-year-olds didn’t take well to being grounded for skipping school.

Cooper frowned. It had only taken the Lost Dutchman truck and trailer but a minute to maneuver into the spot. Usually Jesse was a “slow turn, careful back-up and three attempts to get it perfect” kind of guy. Cooper figured it took more than the year Jesse had been working for the Lost Dutchman to get used to hauling several horses in a gooseneck trailer that made it feel as if you were in charge of a semi.

Elise stepped down from the driver’s side. She wore an emerald green button-down shirt that he was certain was Eva’s and form-fitting jeans. The boots were hers, well-worn. She gave him a slow wave, said something to the passenger in the truck, and then started to unload the Lost Dutchman’s horses as if she’d never been gone.

Garrett muttered something about “needing to get back to the store.”

Cooper wondered what was wrong this time. Yesterday, she’d been there to let him know his brother was again causing trouble. Today couldn’t possibly be something she wanted to do: not in Apache Creek and certainly not with him.

Elise worked slowly, walking into the trailer, standing at the first horse’s shoulder, cueing him to move backward. Giving that horse a gentle pat and a good word once he was out, she moved on to the next. He’d ordered three, knowing he’d get five because Timmy and Jesse would bring their own.

“Where’s Jesse?” He kept his voice even. No matter what, she was a potential customer.

“Tire blew out last night and now we’ve a trailer with a bent axle.”

“Everyone all right?”

“Yes, it just meant that he got in very late.” Her face was a little pale and her lips were together in a thin line that he recognized as consternation. Nope, she didn’t want to be here.

“Somehow,” she said, “I became the go-to person to bring Timmy for his ride.”

“Aunt Elise is nice.” Timmy came around the trailer and hugged her legs even while she tried to lead horses over to the fence and loop their ropes over the top rung. After a moment, she gave up, lifted Timmy into the air, and swung him in a circle. The smile was real. Too bad it didn’t go all the way to her eyes.

Usually, Cooper would have motioned Garrett over to help, but Garrett was just as angry with Elise as he was with Cooper. She’d busted him and tattled. That made her public enemy number one.

Elise finally let go of Timmy. The boy pretended to be dizzy and fell to the ground.

“It’ll be fine. I still ride on occasion. Your brother coming?” She looked over at Garret.

“No, Garrett’s in charge of the store. Come Monday, per your suggestion, he’ll be going over to Karl Wilcox’s place and repairing the damage done by the truck.”

“The other kids, too?”

“Not the girls. They’ve convinced their parents that they thought they were only going for a quick ride before school and were terrified when it turned into off-road and extreme trucking.”

“And David?”

“I’m not sure. His mom hasn’t returned my call.”

Honestly, Cooper hoped not. Right now Garrett wasn’t strong enough to be a good influence on David. The two just seemed to lead each other into more trouble.

“My dad’s been talking to his mother. Looks like he’ll be volunteering at our place.” She started to walk away, then stilled. Turning around, she looked at Cooper’s horse. “You’re riding Percy Jackson?”

He’d allowed her little sister to name his horse, all to impress Elise.

“I trained him all through the summer before college. By the time I hit junior year, he turned into the best roping horse I’ve ever had.”

She looked as if she wanted to say something. Instead, she turned to her trailer and started unlatching the doors. Pistol was the last horse Elise led out and clearly unhappy with his position. He bumped into Cooper, a little like Garrett, personally making body contact in a you’re-not-my-boss kind of attitude.

“Whoa, boy,” Cooper said.

His mother drove up then in their open-air mini-bus with “AJ’s Trolley” painted on the side. He’d gotten the logo idea from the Lost Dutchman work trucks. Any advertisement was good advertisement.

Other than his mother, the only female on board was a curly-haired redhead, who smacked gum and had a forty-five-year-old body wedged into a twenty-five-year-old’s outfit.

The hair wasn’t real, either.

When Cooper had signed her up over the phone, she claimed she could ride. Soon they’d find out if she was telling the truth.

The teens were off the bus in a shot. Others moved more slowly, sipping the last of their coffee; some were taking pictures and talking excitedly. Taking a breath, Cooper said, “Now that the horses are ready, I’ll match you to a mount and we’ll get going.”

“I wouldn’t mind that one,” the redhead said, looking at Pistol.

“He belongs to the wrangler from the Lost Dutchman,” Cooper said without hesitating. Elise neither smiled nor frowned at her description; she just kept working.

He put the redhead on a speckled gray mare.

“Flea-bitten,” the redhead complained. Meaning, either the woman was knowledgable about horses or she didn’t mind being derogatory without knowing what she was talking about.

Elise spoke up. “He’s part Arabian and offers a good seat.”

The woman nudged the horse into a slow walk, then into a trot, making it look easy.

“You’ve got a lot of teenagers,” Elise said in a low voice to Cooper. “Is that typical?”

“They go to my church. We’ve formed a sort of gold-panning club.”

“Garrett a member?”

Cooper checked to see what his brother was doing. Garrett, however, was nowhere about. “No, I wish he were.” Almost for emphasis, Cooper looked at his watch. “It’s time to go.”

The driver’s door to the AJ’s Outfitters bus slowly opened and Karen Smith gingerly stepped out. Another not-so-good day. He kept thinking his mom would rebound, soon, but Dad’s death had changed her. “Elise Hubrecht! Is that you?”

She left the door open. She usually hurried back to the store, especially if Garrett was in charge. Instead, now she somewhat limped across the lot and took Elise into her arms. “We have missed you. If I’d known you were along for the ride, I’d have saddled up to come, too.”

Leaving Garrett alone to manage the store. Cooper didn’t think so. “Mom, Elise is in town for the weekend.”

“I heard you might be taking a job at the high school,” Karen said.

“Slim possibility.”

Cooper raised an eyebrow. He’d heard she’d be out of work in a week and had plenty of bills to cover.

“I need some help here,” someone called. At first Cooper attributed the high-pitched voice to the redhead, but instead it was a middle-aged man who was tagging along with a younger man. Both looked to be businessmen. They were probably on a quest to escape their overburdened desks.

Cooper had to hurry because Timmy was heading their way, and in Cooper’s experience, businessmen usually didn’t take kindly to six-year-olds telling them what to do, especially if the six-year-old was better at it than they were.

“So, how’d you wind up going on this ride?” he heard his mother ask from behind him.

Cooper helped the businessman while Elise explained about her brother-in-law’s misadventures. “He’s still asleep. Not to mention, he managed to cut up his hand trying to get the spare on.”

“We think the world of Jesse. He’s been talking to our youth about his experience going to prison—how he found faith while he was inside and turned his life around, taking the job at Lost Dutchman when he got out and committing to his fresh start. I think the single girls still get a kick out of him. They, whether teen or not, show up every time to hear his message about avoiding trouble, rising above your raising, and forgiving self. I just wish more listened.”

“Jesse’s spoken at the high school in Two Mules, too.”

Cooper wasn’t surprised.

“He’s a blessing,” Karen said. “The kids admire him, but Garrett’s not quite getting the message. He summed it up one night with an ‘I don’t like when people tell me not to do what they did. Obviously, to them, at one time, it looked like a whole lotta fun. I want to make my own mistakes.’”

“Did you point out that Jesse had to spend five years in prison paying for his mistakes?”

“Yes, but it didn’t seem to impress Garrett. His ‘not gonna happen to me’ stance remained firm.” Karen looked over at the dust blowing up from the road as Garrett drove away. “Thank you for corralling him yesterday morning. I don’t know what’s gotten into him. We all miss his dad, but this behavior...”

Looking over at Elise as she leaned in to hear his mother’s words, Cooper wondered if she could help. If she was willing to stay. Problem was, she ran when the going got tough. Always had. At first, it had been on Pistol’s back and through Lost Dutchman property, never far. Then, when everyone needed her, when he needed her, she’d run away to the big city, never planning to return.

Cooper didn’t dare trust Garrett to a woman who couldn’t stay. Not so close to their father’s departure.

With that thought, he stepped away from the young businessman he’d just shown how to mount. Looked as if the redhead wasn’t the one he needed to worry about, so he decided to treat her just like everyone else; except, he didn’t need to spend three minutes telling her what kind of horse she was on.

He waved goodbye to his mother and then swung onto the back of Percy Jackson and led the pack. The redhead, whose name turned out to be Jilly Greenhouse, fell in love with the speckled gray ten minutes out.

“This is great.”

Cooper soon realized that if Jilly just knew when to stop talking, she’d be perfect on the trail. She took Timmy under her wing. He was the only other person chewing gum. Strange thing to bond over, but friendships had been formed by less.

The horses knew their way, so Cooper dropped back, checking on his charges. The two businessmen were from New York. It turned out they were father and son. The father grew up riding and now regretted not giving his son the same upbringing. The son looked as if he’d rather be anywhere but here. Jilly scooted her horse over to the young businessman and soon her chattering distracted him.

As if knowing her job, Elise took the end. Only the pack mules were behind her, the panning equipment they carried making its presence known with every step. The five teenagers were in front of her. Judging by their backward glances, they wished she were in front of them.

They were the same age, Cooper and Elise, both of them twenty-eight. She didn’t look it. She still looked the same as she did the last time he kissed her.

When everyone seemed comfortable, Cooper launched into his desert drawl. “We’re heading up a trail on the Superstition Mountains. You can also consider this the Tonto National Forest. No matter, this is wilderness. Today is approximately sixty-eight degrees. We sun-dwellers call this winter.”

The businessmen chuckled appreciatively. One of the teenagers offered Elise his jacket and told her she rode a horse well. Cooper realized that when he’d been doing introductions, she’d been off doing something to one of the horses. The kid would be all kinds of embarrassed when he found out that Elise was Jacob Hubrecht’s middle daughter, the one with all the rodeo trophies.

Hiding a smile, Cooper continued his monologue. “We’ll be heading to an area known for after-rain puddles and streams. Hopefully, the rain has moved some gold out of caves and down the side. On a good day, you can make up to fifty dollars.”

“And on a bad day?” Jilly asked.

“You’ll have fifty insect bites.”

He earned a few chuckles before he continued, “We’ll be riding amidst boulders and both saguaro and barrel cactus.”

Two riders coming down the trail stopped and cautioned Cooper about a bobcat they’d seen a short way up.

About the time Cooper was going to mention the jumping-cholla cacti, Timmy squealed, like only a six-year-old could do. “Aunt Elise, there’s something sticking me, by my ankle.”

“The dreaded teddy bear cholla.” Elise easily slid from Pistol and went to the boy, adding, “Nothing cuddly about it.” In a few moments, she’d taken her pocket knife, removed the culprit before its hollow stems could do much damage, and had Timmy calm and ready to move forward, although now on the lookout for pods that would aim their painful oval balls of needles at him.