Page 12 of The Unbuttoned Ranger
“You? On a farm?” Mark asked in surprise. “You never told me.”
“Honey, they make designer boots that are to die for.” Albert told CaDee, “You learn fast, and her farm is so remote it barely exists on a map.”
CaDee realized hiding in a metropolitan city wouldn’t work. Maybe starting over in the country with Carsen was their best choice.
“I’ll call her first thing in the morning. I’ll text you her address.” Albert tapped away at his phone.
“Would she even want to hire someone without any experience?” The idea seemed foreign to her.
He waved a hand through the air.“Don’t worry, I’ll handle Aunt Piper. You just show up and I’ll make sure she’s expecting you.”
Her phonedingedand she read his message.“Texas?”
“You know, the state where everything’s big,” Albert said with a smile.
Texas. She rolled the thought around inside her head. What choice did she have? CaDee couldn’t allow her son to suffer because of her decisions.“Please call your aunt.”
“I will.” Albert assured her.
“Thank you. Both. We should go. It’s risky for us to even be sitting here.” She scooped up the envelope and stuck it inside of her pocket.
“I’m going to miss you,” Mark said once she had Carsen tucked into her arms and they were outside of the diner.
“We’re going to miss you. One day, we will see each other again.” Although she spoke the words, she knew there was a chance she wouldn’t see her friends again. Now that Dante had found her and Carsen, they couldn’t take the risk of coming back.
Chapter Six
“Pa, you didn’t have to go to so much trouble this morning.” Sharp peeked over at the pan of sizzling bacon and his mouth salivated. He was finally getting his appetite back. Something about being shot and left for dead changed a man.
“You don’t want to eat?” Bradley Creed stabbed the air with the fork he was using to flip the meat.
“You know I’ll eat, but I think you’re trying to fatten me up,” Sharp teased.
Two weeks had passed since his return home to recuperate. At his recent doctor’s visit, he was cleared to begin doing chores. He had a mental list of everything he wanted to do at Creed’s Creek Ranch. The land used to be a veritable hive of activity, livestock roaming the pastures, and hands tending to the fields. Now, it was like a ghost town. Bradley had sold the cattle, some acres of his land, and the hands had all scattered for greener pastures over the years. Creed’s Creek was only a sliver of what it used to be when Sharp left for the military. Each time he came back to visit there were more changes. He guessed the changes started way back when his ma passed away.
The only thing that hadn’t been touched by time was the interior of the farmhouse. Everything was exactly the way Shyla Creed had placed it like a shrine to the woman Bradley had deeply loved—the“bread and butter” as he’d always referred to her.
Sharp thought at one point his pa might meet someone and remarry, but now that he was up in his years and starting to have health issues, Sharp guessed Bradley’s shot at a second chance had passed.
There were two things that Sharp had promised himself when he was laying in the dirt dying. If he lived, he’d see Creed’s Creeks become the reputable ranch it had been once upon a time. And get married. That was a stretch by any means considering he hadn’t even been on a date in years.
Now that he had plenty of time, turning the ranch around seemed practical, but marriage was another matter. Unless he met someone by chance, finding a partner in Fin’s Creek would be difficult.
“You mean like your old man.” Bradley rubbed his protruding stomach.“It’s taken a lot of work to get this purty.”
“Didn’t Doc Walters tell you to start watching your calories and get some exercise in each day? Bacon is going to be the death of you.”
“Pfft. What does old man Walters know?” Bradley went back to flipping the bacon.
“Aren’t you and Walters the same age?” Sharp asked innocently.
“Don’t worry about me, son. You’re lucky to still be planting your two feet on the ground every day.” A sadness crawled across his leathered and wrinkled features.
“I’m feeling better. Like a new man.” As if a reminder to take things easy, he felt a sudden twinge of pain in his ribcage.“Doc told me I can start doing some things on the land. Build up slowly until I get back to a normal routine.”
“Just like I said, those quacks don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. You’re still too weak to be working. You should be resting.” Bradley placed the cooked bacon on a folded paper towel and laid out more slices into the hot skillet.
“Are you feeding an army, Pa?” Sharp reached for a cup from the cabinet and poured himself coffee. He worried about his father and his health.
