Page 2 of Coming Home to Maverick

He’d endlessly analyzed the events of his wedding day and he and Bailey’s relationship, and still he couldn’t imagine how he could have acted differently. And he didn’t know what more he could do now. You can’t prepare to be blindsided. And he knew his mama had been hurt in her own way. She’d given her heart to Bailey and had, in some ways, lost a daughter when the woman had left.

Mama nodded. “Yes. We’re with you whatever you decide to do—or not do.”

He wrapped an arm around her. “I don’t know what I want to do. But I do know I love you, Mama. Let’s go have some of Cook’s food.”

She laughed. “The best thing you ever did was hire a cooking staff.”

“I see no reason why you have to be the one to make your signature hotcakes.”

“Sometimes I go make sure they’ve got it right,” she said with a smile.

“I have no doubt. And they’re delicious every time.”

She stood on tiptoe. He dipped his head so she could kiss his cheek and give it a pat. “You’re a good man, Maverick. You deserve to be happy.”

“I am, Mama. What more could a dusty cowpoke need?”

She wiped her hands on the front of her apron and then took it off. She placed it on a hook, and together they entered the house and made their way into the large dining room. Maverick stood in the doorway. All three of his brothers were in town, and each of them sat at the table. Heaping piles of pancakes waited on platters down the center of the table. Almost as much bacon, eggs, toast, and thick slices of ham made his stomach grumble. Instantly, his mood lifted.

“Brothers.” He nodded. No one heard him.

Nash stood from his chair. “You can’t even go there. If I’m riding Spice, no one’s gonna beat me. Not you, not Tommy, no one.”

“You’re a mess, Nash.”

“Take a look in the mirror before you go making comments, Decker. When’s the last time you brought home a first place?”

Mama cleared her throat and nodded toward the sign on the wall behind her. “Dawson happiness starts at home.”

The brothers grumbled but closed their mouths.

Mama treated this room as the center of their family. She kept their portraits in there, their senior pictures from high school. The wall also held two phrases the family lived by. “If you’re unhappy, get to work” was displayed in large sweeping letters on the opposite wall from the one Mama had just quoted. The brothers stood when Mama entered. She sat at the head of the huge, thick wood table that dominated the room. Then her eyes turned to Maverick, alerting his brothers to his presence.

“Hey, Maverick! How’s the colt?” Dylan asked. He was the one who took care of the horses, including their training and breeding.

Maverick felt their eyes on him as he moved to sit at the other end of the table. “He lives up to his name. Good test run for Colton, though you’re gonna have to save him. Maybe sooner than later.”

Dylan nodded. “He’ll come around. They both will. Colton came highly recommended. He has a way with horses like no one I’ve ever seen.”

Maverick was grateful they were talking business. “Nash, I heard your new horn.”

“Isn’t it awesome!” he said, his grin wide. “I’m taking the Jeep with me when the circuit starts.”

“You’re going this year?” Mama poured herself some water.

Everyone looked at their mother as Nash nodded. “Of course, I’m going. You said if I finished out two years helping on the ranch, I could spend the next doing the rodeo circuit.”

Mama didn’t answer. And she avoided Maverick’s gaze. If no one else stayed, Maverick was the one who stayed. And so far, he’d been happy with that. He didn’t have a problem with taking over for his father; he’d always known some day he would; he’d just thought it would be later. There’s nothing else he would rather be doing anyway, he told himself.

Decker, Dylan’s twin, usually disagreed with everything Nash said on principle. But he sat quietly, which Maverick found suspicious.

“What are the predictions on the team this year?”

Mama held up a hand. “Wait. Before we get into all that, let’s pray.”

Everyone waited for Mama to say a few words. “You know I’m proud of you boys. We miss those not with us, your father most of all, but I know he’d be even more proud of every one of you. Thank you for what you give to the ranch. It’s a huge endeavor. Your father gave everything he had to this ranch, knowing it would help take care of each of us for as long as we took care of it.” Her eyes traveled to each man at the table, and Maverick knew she desperately needed the ranch. He supposed he did too. It was the only thing they had left of their father. If the ranch lived, their father did too. Mama closed her eyes. They held hands around the table and bowed heads.

“Dear Lord bless this family. Bless this land. Bless the women my boys are going to one day marry. And today especially bless Maverick. We’re grateful for every thing in our lives that you placed there in such a perfect way, the hard times and the easy. Amen.”

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