Page 19 of The Prodigal Brother Returns

“Hi, guys. I want you to meet my son.” He wasn’t used to being someone’s dad. “Timmy, this is Miss Malorie and Reece and Andee.”

Timmy peeked out from behind Blake. “I’m a superhero.”

As the sun added a glow to the brown curls stopping just short of her shoulders, Malorie’s brows slid up. “Hi, Timmy. It’s very nice to meet you.”

And because she didn’t hesitate for a second, Blake broke his own rule and fell for her. Just a little.

“See, Mom. I told you Timmy was a real boy,” Andee crowed with a triumphant grin.

A breeze gently moved tall grasses. Butterflies fluttered around them. Birds screeched overhead. And against his express order, Blake’s heart expanded.

To distract himself from the longing filling his chest, he looked around, taking in the pond. Wild vegetation had grown up around the edges. Even though the ranch was a shadow of its former self, the awesomeness of the surrounding mountains reminded Blake of how much he’d loved growing up here.

He didn’t look at Malorie, but instead breathed in the ranch sights and sounds he’d practically forgotten. And in that moment, he decided it couldn’t hurt to give the three kids running to the water’s edge to look for frogs the same experience he had growing up. Maybe while he was at it, he could share life on the ranch with Malorie too. If she was interested.

Chapter Six

If her crankypatient was to be believed, Nathan couldn’t wait another day to get out of bed and use the wheelchair that he was sure had been taunting him from the corner of the room. Malorie couldn’t blame him. Keeping him resting his pelvis for a full four days so the fractures could begin to heal was probably the best she was ever going to get from the man. Thankfully, Jonas was fixing breakfast in the kitchen, not so far away that, if she needed help, he was close enough to step in.

She glanced at the clock. Blake usually visited his brother at nine. The good news was that the brawl she’d walked into on her first day on the ranch hadn’t been repeated. That was a good sign since she hadn’t had any luck finding her replacement. The brothers mostly ignored each other unless Blake had a question about the current workings of the ranch. Questions Nathan didn’t particularly like answering.

She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but she couldn’t miss their intense voices when she was sitting nearby doing her charting. Had they always had broken communications like that? Even as kids?

When he talked to her, Nathan was just fine, in his way. Blake was no slouch either when it came to giving her all the details about what the twins were up to.

In the last two days, he’d created some temporary screens that made the dining room into a semi-private cubicle. That was a nice olive branch—for what, she didn’t know—and should have earned him points with Nathan. That he hadn’t been given some grace didn’t seem to bother Blake, but Malorie felt the snub on his behalf.

Their relationship wasn’t any of her business, except for how it impacted her patient’s recovery. Though she was still on the fence about staying, she had a job to do, which included remaining on the Triple L long enough to get Nathan back on his feet. Literally. If being on the ranch eased Andee and Reece’s grief at abruptly being abandoned by Mark, then stay, she would.

With her morning rounds done—vitals, and clean clothes placed within his reach—to give him some room to wash up without the embarrassment of having a practical stranger all in his business, Malorie turned her back to Nathan, busying herself with writing everything down so his progress could be relayed to his doctor.

When she heard the slide of the sheet being pulled up, she turned and asked, “Ready?”

His brow was furrowed and he was a little breathless, but Nathan nodded just as Blake came around the screen, pushing the wheelchair. Timmy peeked from behind his back.

“So, is your patient ready to get up?” He rolled the chair to a stop at the side of the bed.

She didn’t want Nathan doing too much too soon. He didn’t like being immobile—who would?—and if his continued scowl every time he saw Blake was anything to go by, he didn’t appreciate his brother having a front-row seat to his immobility.

Jonas stuck his head into the makeshift room. “Need a hand?”

“Yes.” She smiled encouragingly at the brothers. “I’ll get him into the wheelchair and you”—she gave Blake the same mom stare that she used on the twins when she wanted them to do something they might not like—“can take him onto the porch for some fresh air and a nice visit, while I change his bed.”

She raised the head of the bed and reached over to help Nathan slide to the edge.

Maybe if she made her famous—okay, just with the twins—chocolate chip pumpkin muffins? What was that old saying? The quickest way to cheer men up was through their stomachs? Or something like that. It’d never worked with Mark. He hated chocolate. But maybe the Lohmen brothers would be so impressed with her baking skills that they would do more than grunt at one another. Which could lead to finding a solution to the problem that kept them from being a happily functional family unit.

Her solution was probably overplaying how much magic her muffins had, but the Triple L deserved a family who loved her and didn’t fight over whatever it was that had Nathan testy again this morning, and Blake wearing his stoic face whenever he had to deal with his brother.

There had to be a way to heal the rift between them. She couldn’t imagine Andee and Reece not speaking to one another. If it wasn’t an open conversation over her yummy muffins that moved the brothers to get past their differences, she would just have to keep looking for the hook that could bring them back together.

She positioned the wheelchair.

“Hang on there, Malorie,” Blake interrupted her mental planning. “Nathan’s a big man, and you don’t look strong enough to heft him into that chair.”

She stretched to her full height. “I beg your pardon. Are you suggesting I can’t do my job?”

“Not at all. It’s just that—”

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