Page 2 of Roping Reba

Johnny folded his arms over his chest. “So that’s how it is?”

I shot him a smirk. “We’ll be back by dinner.”

Jax whooped with joy as we galloped out of the barn and into the open fields. The rush of the ride pushed back the weight of Johnny’s presence. But it never quite disappeared.

“Ms. Reba, you are the best,” Jax’s little voice shouted, his words interrupted by the bumps of my galloping girl and the wind surrounding us.

When we stopped down by the water, I hopped off and helped a laughing Jax down.

“You go so much faster than my papa.”

“Let’s not tell him that,” I said with a wink, right before the annoying man came up over the ridge on a horse of his own.

“I told you not to steal my kid.”

“Since when do I listen to you?”

“Yeah, Papa, since when?” Jax’s mimic was accentuated by a hand on his hip.

I couldn’t help but laugh. This kid always cracked me up. Johnny and Trina had him after a brief and difficult relationship. As far as I knew, even before Trina moved out of town, she barely saw either one of them. She’s been long gone for a few years now, and I honestly thought Jax was better off with his dad and the guys from the ranch. Ranch life in New York is just like it is here—a family affair. It may be a family you choose or one you are born into, but either way, you had people around who were there for you from the start. I’d spent a lot of years at Mac’s ranch when I didn’t know where to go or what to do with my life and I would always be grateful for the time I spent there but it had been time to move on so that’s what I’d done.

“Is she yours?” he asked, pointing to Black Beauty.

“No, she just retired, and I’m getting her ready for some ranch work around here.”

“Never in one place long are you, Reba?” Johnny sighed as we watched Jax stuff his face with the dark purple berries he found on a nearby bush.

“Not if I can help it.”

His voice dropped lower. “Scared to settle down?”

I exhaled sharply, the weight of the question hitting deeper than I cared to admit. “When I find what I want, I’ll stop.”

Johnny’s gaze sharpened. “And what is it you want?”

Before I could answer or lie, Jax ran up, hands full of berries. “Ms. Reba, try these!”

Saved by the kid. I met Jax halfway, avoiding Johnny’s intense stare. It was always like this. A game of cat and mouse, me dodging, him pushing. But he didn’t need to know what I wanted. Because he wasn’t the one I wanted to give it to me, at least not anymore. I tried to ignore him, focusing on Jax.

“I’ll ride back and grab us some lunch,” Johnny said, his voice tinged with something unreadable. “Stay here, and we’ll eat together.”

I rolled my eyes, but Jax cheered and then laughed as berries spewed out of his mouth and all over the place. That laugh... I’d do anything to keep hearing that laugh.

“Race you to the top of the hill?” I challenged.

He nodded like a madman and took off with me not far behind.

Johnny’s laughter was almost as sweet as his son’s, which was yet another thing that annoyed me about him. By the time I got to the top of the hill, I collapsed next to Jax, and we watched as Johnny rode back toward the Ranch.

“I’m not even hungry,” Jax said, tearing at the grass and throwing it up in the air. “Ms. Reba, why are you always mad at my papa?”

“Oh, little man, that’s grown up stuff.”

“So. I can be a grownup. The guys tell me all the time I’m a man.”

“I guess you are, aren't you? Take’s a man to do man’s work and that’s what you’ve been up to, huh?”

“Yeah, that and school. Which stinks, it’s boring, but the ranch has been boring lately too. Why don’t you come visit anymore?”

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