Page 6 of The Texas Cowboy's Rescue

Deke followed herinstructions and had the table set in a short time. Then he found the cabinet with the glasses and mugs and took care of the juice and coffee.

Kenzie clearly noted it. Especially that he had set her mug of coffee next to her spot along with the sugar bowl. She smiled across at him as she retrieved the butter dish and syrup containers, setting them on the table. He saw her nod. “I’ve noted a time or two in the break room that you seem to prefer your coffee with sugar only. Pilots do have to be observant.”

“I see. Thank you. I normally don’t expect a guest to work for their meal.”

“I had a very kind lady who lived next door to us for a couple of years and would keep an eye out for me when one or both of my parents were not into doing that. Any manners I have come courtesy of her due diligence on that score.” He stepped over to take the plates with food from her, adding them to the center of the table. He noted where she indicated her chair was and then he pulled it out, waiting for her to take the seat.

“Thank you,” she said, and the smile had grown a bit. “This is indeed a treat. I can’t remember ever having a guest hold my chair for me. Your neighbor should be proud.”

“Well, I hope I made her proud a few times before she left this world. She deserves a throne where she is now for putting up with a ten-year-old juvenile delinquent poster child.”

She looked like she was about to respond with a comment on what he had just said, but Brooke and Ranger came back to rejoin them. After that, attention was on the food before them.

“Mama,” Brooke said after a few minutes, “Ranger has the best manners ever. I told him to wait while I washed my hands and all, and he did. He sat right beside me. And he didn’t come into my room until I told him it was okay.”

“Really? Very impressive. Perhaps some of his good manners might help you to remember yours, and elbows off the table, young lady.”

“Oops! I forgot. Sorry.” She turned her attention to Deke. “How old is Ranger?”

Deke had to think backward a bit. “He was three in dog years when he began his training for our unit. We worked together for four years. So he is seven years old, as most would count it. But in dog years, it makes him about forty-nine.”

“Wow, he doesn’t seem so old.”

“Well, he doesn’t act like it, that’s for certain.”

“So he had to retire from the Army?” Kenzie joined in with her question.

Deke shook his head, then took a thoughtful sip of his coffee before making a reply. “He didn’t retire because he was old. Ranger was retired because he had been wounded and, just like me, we had reached our end of service to the military. So they sent us both home. I was lucky enough to have been in a position that carried some weight behind my request to have him spend his remaining years with me. Anyway, it’s time Ranger and I get on our way. We have some things to do today. But I do thank you, Ms. Brooke, for sharing your box of puppy paw-print bandages and the medicated cream. You have the makings of being a great nurse, just like your mother.”

“Maybe Ranger can come over and play sometime. If he gets bored or you need someone to watch him or something,” Brooke said and gave a hopeful smile, pouring on an extra dose of charm from those eloquent eyes as she looked up at Deacon from where she was on bent knees beside the dog, giving extra ear rubs.

“I’ll keep that kind offer in mind. You have a good day and maybe give up climbing trees for a while? Or perhaps find a safer tree house or something like that.” He added the last with a grin and a wink. He looked over at Kenzie, and the grin changed to a smile, plus a little more. Then a dawning thought hit her. Perhaps he had his own barrier? One that he might be loosening? “Thanks again for the meal. I’ll see you at theofficeon Monday.” Then he gave a hand signal, and Ranger fell into step beside him as they headed down the path in the direction of the orchard. Kenzie was left to reevaluate some of those preconceived notions.

She realized that the man had spoken more words in the last couple of hours than in all of their previous times together. And something also told her that there might be more layers to him than the arrogant flyboy she first pegged him as. But then she wasn’t the best judge of males, as past experience would vouch for. Yet the way he spoke to Brooke, and the way he behaved with his dog and wanting to take care of him for life, indicated there was a soft spot possibly close to where a heart might be located. That certainly placed him in a different category than her ex. And he had complimented her as he spoke to Brooke. It caught her off guard.

It was just something to say to her daughter, to be nice. That’s what made him say it. Then she caught herself. Kenzie realized the old habit she had developed with her husband had reared its head. His words had always rung hollow and were generally meant to cover up some trouble that he was about to bring to their doorstep or to present a false persona to someone he needed to impress, that he was such a fine family man. She had had to put on a fake smile and add an adoring nod to keep the peace too many times. But Deacon Hayes didn’t have an agenda that she could imagine, and he sounded truly sincere. Either way, she had some reconsidering to do where this pilot was concerned.

Chapter Four

“Well, it’s goodyou could make it over to join us for this family get-together. Sammi Jo’s gone all out, planning today for the better part of a year now,” Beaudry commented, shaking Deacon’s hand as he stepped through the doorway into the main house of the Aces High Ranch. Deacon couldn’t help gazing around the heavily carved mahogany of the massive staircase and the wide marble and wood floors of the entryway and onward down the hallway that ran deeper into the first floor of the three-story, couple of centuries-old cattle baron’s mansion.

“People who’ve lived here all their lives tend to not notice the effect it might have on others who haven’t,” Beaudry continued. “But it’s a home that’s known quite a bit of history... good and bad... and survived. Each generation has added to it, so who knows what it will look like when our children inherit it? But at least it will be here for that to happen, while so many other ranches have been sold off at auction and lost for good.”

“And now that you’ve had Burkitt History 101, according to big brother here,” Jaxson began, motioning Deacon to come into the large room to the right of the entry, which he assumed was a den area, full of more wood, high ceilings, and heavy leather furnishings. A massive landscape painting hung over the dormant fireplace. “Take a load off and have a cold beverage.” Jaxson handed over one of the two bottles he had in his hands. Deacon accepted it with a smile. The three men chose their chairs and settled in, clearly each trying to feel their way along an unfamiliar path.

“I’m glad we could have a bit of time before the festivities really get underway and the other guests arrive to try to reconnect on some level.” Beaudry took the matter in hand as was his usual straightforward path. Jaxson was content to take it at a slower pace and trust his silent regard to read more from the person across from him.

“It goes without saying, which really means we need to say it again,” Beaudry carried forward. “We owe you. For what you did for our families... for our wives and children. You went where others wouldn’t and brought them out safe and sound, and we are here to celebrate another birthday and give thanks that you also have come back to your Texas roots as an added plus. We really thought something happened to you when we lost touch and then met walls of silence from the military over the years.”

“Forgive Beaudry,” Jaxson finally spoke up. “He tends to be the one of us who got the most gift for gab. I’m sure you have your reasons for going silent all those years. You had another life than we did here. The bottom line is that you’re here now, you’re blood, and that says it all. The rest is up to you. We’ve learned the value of family that we didn’t necessarily have growing up, but we were blessed to have found life partners that civilized us a bit.”

“I’d say that there was some gap there, too, but I guess we just want to catch up with whatever you might want to share with us.” Beaudry put the period on what the brothers were trying to say.

Deacon took a long draw from his drink, marshaling thoughts and feelings that were definitely new for him to have. But he liked the direct route that he seemed to share with the two men in the room. “We grew up in totally different situations. Guess that formed us in a certain way. Sounds like you both had changes that were positive in your lives... building families and all.” He paused and gave some consideration to what came next.

“We share a mother. I’m sorry that she left you in the way she did. For most of my life, I would say that I always figured that you might harbor some resentment toward me in a weird sort of way. I’m not sure if you want to even hear mention of her, but she always spoke of you both with a mixture of pride and sadness. I know that she didn’t have it easy with my father. Then he died... too much into his liquor bottles. And then she took up with another man that wasn’t much better.

“I took off to the military as soon as I could because I didn’t see any other options open to me. Fortunately, or not, I seemed to have an aptitude for the jobs they had me do. It could have been a career gig for me, but things went south on an assignment one day and I was lucky to survive. But my usefulness was curtailed, and so I used my training to get into civilian air evac. And then I parlayed that, along with an investor from the old days before the military, into a fleet of copters. Besides air evac, which we began with, we branched out into working with ranchers in being wranglers in the sky, helping move herds, survey animals, hunt predators, you name it.”

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