Page 16 of The Prodigal Brother Returns

Andee smiled. “We’re almost done.” She was Malorie’s mini-me and looked so much like her mother while she was making marks on her paper.

“Good. I told your mom I’d have you back in time for dinner.”

Reece handed him his pad and pencil. The list the boy had made was a little uneven, but readable. That’s all Blake needed. “Mom said you’re coming for movie night.”

“If that’s okay with you guys. I don’t want to intrude on time with your mom.” He had to be very careful not to overstep his bounds. The last thing he wanted was to start something with Malorie and her kids he couldn’t finish—not that she’d given him any signals that she’d be interested in anything personal. It was just that any involvement had the potential to interfere with writing his next book, which, thanks to Jonas’s summons, he still hadn’t started.

Andee waived aside his caution. She shared a look with her brother that Blake could not interpret.

“You could come to dinner. If you want. I’m sure it would be okay with Mom.” She handed over her list, the notations and amounts perfectly straight between the lines.

Blake smirked. He was just as sure Malorie would mind. “Thank you for the invitation, but I need to check on my brother and make sure he eats. I’ll come over after that, okay?”

Keeping to his word, he knocked on the guesthouse door at exactly six. Nathan hadn’t made his timely arrival easy. He was still cranky with Blake over his return to the ranch, and he hadn’t been happy being questioned about how much income the ranch was producing.

Nathan’s low growl rang in his mind.Don’t you need to get back to Sedona?He hadn’t told either of his brothers that he only had until he picked Timmy up at camp to find a solution to the ranch and Nathan’s problems.

Blake took a deep breath as he waited for one of the Harpers to answer the door. He’d forgotten how magical the hours before sundown could be during the summer. It wouldn’t turn dark until eight thirty or so. There was certainly enough work to be done on the barn to keep him busy for the next couple of hours. He just couldn’t bring himself to turn down Malorie’s invitation.

She opened the door and nearly took his breath away. Instead of the scrubs she usually wore, she had on a mid-calf, flowing summer dress that matched the color of her cinnamon eyes. Her shoulder-length hair was loosely stacked on her head. The tense woman who’d scolded him and his brothers when she first arrived had disappeared. At least for the time being.

“Hi. Am I too late?” He knew he wasn’t, but he’d learned from Tina that women appreciated men who were at least semi-aware of being on time.

“You’re fine.” Malorie opened the door wider and stepped back. “We’re just about ready to start.”

Andee and Reece put four bowls of popcorn on the coffee table. They secured the spots on both sides of their mom on the couch. Blake made himself comfortable in the overstuffed chair to the side, where he had a good view of the television and the sweet family snuggled together.

Overwhelmed by memories of him and Tina watching movies with Timmy after his therapy sessions, he stretched his legs out. Timmy’s favorite wasToy Story. They’d watched it so many times, Blake could practically recite the movie word for word. Since Tina’s passing, and as hard as he’d tried for Timmy, he’d forgotten how nice it felt to be part of a happy family.

But he hadn’t come to the Triple L to forge a new family, or to make any kind of a new start. He’d made a bargain with Jonas that he intended to keep. For a month and a half, give or take a week or two, he would run the ranch for his brothers. If he decided it was possible, they could stay after he picked Timmy up at camp.

After that, he didn’t know what Malorie had planned, but he would go back to Sedona and his books, and making sure Timmy had as good a life as he could without Tina being there to share the days with them—good and bad. He would have school and his therapies, but like Nathan, Timmy didn’t handle changes very well.

Watching Malorie with her twins only reinforced how important it was that Timmy was his top priority and that someday, maybe, Timmy would thrive and have more than his brother-in-law for family.

By the time the movie ended, Blake had the beginnings of a plan. Two weeks wasn’t long enough for Nathan to heal, but six weeks was enough time—hopefully—to complete his other reason for coming to the Triple L. He could make amends with his brothers if Timmy was okay with coming to stay on the ranch for part of the summer. That would also give him the time he needed to figure out what had happened to the thriving ranch that had been in his rearview mirror when he left.

The credits rolled. Andee and Reece yawned. Malorie tugged them up from the couch. “Say goodnight to Blake.”

“Goodnight,” they both mumbled, then dragged themselves upstairs.

Malorie walked him to the door. “They had a busy day. Thanks for that. It was all they could talk about during dinner.”

Blake stood on the threshold. If he weren’t carrying so much baggage, he would like to kiss her. But kissing would lead to talking. She didn’t know what he’d done to get himself kicked off the ranch, and since he didn’t want to talk about it, or Tina, kissing was not a good idea.

“Tomorrow, then,” he said, not too abruptly, he hoped, and headed for the barn. He still had to put the horses in their stalls for the night.

Not long after night descended, he got Duke, Angel, and Bella settled with fresh water. Off in the distance, an owl hooted. The haunting sound brought back memories Blake hadn’t expected to have when he returned to the ranch. Memories of his mom and dad and of the day he’d had to leave everything he knew behind.

Leaning against Duke’s stall, he scratched the stud’s face. “Hey, pal. Where are all your buddies?”

A vehicle pulled into the ranch yard with a soft rumble. Before Blake could investigate—it was late for visitors—Jonas walked into the barn.

“You’re a long way from Denver, brother.” Blake pulled a carrot out of his pocket and gave it to Duke.

He’d done some research the night before to see what Jonas and Nathan had been up to while he was stumbling his way through life. Jonas was easy to trace since he was a high-powered prosecutor with an office in Denver. Nathan, not so much.

“Don’t you trust me to stick to your plan?” Jonas’s brow shot up.

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