It Takes a Cowboy

He sat on the couch in Blair’s living room, his only company the small gray cat that curled on his knee. He wasn’t sure he deserved even her careless affection.

For perhaps the hundredth time that day—if not more—he glanced at his watch. He had no idea when to expect Blair and Jeffrey. It was nearly 9:00 p.m., and he’d been waiting since before noon, after spending all night sitting in airports and airplanes. Wanda Townsend had let him into Blair’s house once he’d explained to her that it was urgent he talk to her niece and great-nephew as soon as they returned. Apparently, she wasn’t aware he wasn’t on their good side at the moment; she had seemed to think it would be perfectly fine with Blair if he waited inside.

Scott hoped Blair wouldn’t be too upset with her overly trusting aunt for letting him in.

After an hour had passed with no sign of them, he’d called the ranch, thinking maybe they’d changed their minds and gone there, after all. That was when Carolyn had let him have it about his insensitive behavior.

“It’s bad enough,” she had chided, “that you leave everyone here missing you and wondering when they’ll see you again—if you don’t get yourself killed first. But to disappoint a little boy—not to mention the nicest woman you’ve met in a long time—well, that’s just too much, Scott.” She had gone on to call him selfish and thoughtless, and to predict a sad, lonely old age for him if he didn’t reform his ways. “I only tell you these things,” she had added, “because I care about you and I want you to be happy. And I don’t think you’ve been truly happy for a long time.”

Her words still ringing in his ears, he was tempted to start pacing, but he’d done so much of that already today that he was probably wearing a path in Blair’s carpet. He couldn’t stop remembering the finality in her voice when she had told him goodbye. He had known when she hung up that he had to do whatever it took to win her back. As Carolyn had so bluntly pointed out, Blair was the best thing that had happened to him in a long time. And he wasn’t going to let his old fears about commitment drive him away this time.

He only hoped it wasn’t too late.

When he heard her garage door go up, he stiffened, his sudden tension causing the little cat to look up with an inquiring meow. Blair and Jeffrey were home—and he had some fast talking to do to win back their confidence.

Hearing them enter the kitchen, he set the cat on the floor and stood, turning toward the doorway. The cat ran into the other room to greet them, but Scott remained where he was. Waiting.

Jeffrey was talking, his voice carrying from the other room. Whatever he and Blair had done that day, the boy had enjoyed it, judging from his obvious excitement. Scott couldn’t help smiling a little, thinking that Jeffrey sounded exactly the way a ten-year-old boy should sound—noisy, enthusiastic, secure.

And then Jeffrey and his aunt walked into the living room and spotted Scott. Their smiles froze, then faded away.

It broke Scott’s heart that Jeffrey was immediately transformed into the boy he had first met—angry, sullen, suspicious. Scott had done that to him this time, he realized sadly. The only difference was that, instead of huddling alone and withdrawn, the boy moved closer to his aunt, as if seeking support from the one person who had not yet betrayed him.

Blair’s expression was stunned. If she felt any pleasure at seeing him, it was masked by her surprise. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “How did you get in?”

“Your aunt let me in. After I promised not to pilfer the silver.”

Neither Blair nor Jeffrey smiled at his feeble attempt at a joke. They just kept looking at him, making him feel a bit like something that had slithered out from under a rock. He cleared his throat and looked at the boy, thinking he might be the easiest to appease. “What have you got there, Jeff? A stuffed monkey?”

The boy glared at him. “Me and Aunt Blair had fun today. We didn’t need you—or your old ranch.”

“Jeffrey.” Blair rested a hand on his shoulder. “There’s no call to be rude. Scott was very nice to make his ranch and his staff available to us, even though we chose to decline the invitation.”

She made the word “nice” sound like an insult, Scott thought with a wince. He shook his head at her. “Let the boy speak his mind. Okay, Jeff, let me have it. Tell me what you think of me.”

Jeffrey didn’t waste time. “You lied to us. You said you would be there today and then you left. You just expected someone else to take care of us. That’s what my dad always does. He makes promises and he never keeps them. And that’s not right!” he added fiercely

.

It was the first time Scott had ever heard Jeffrey express any anger toward his father. Judging from Blair’s expression, she was as surprised as he was. It hurt that the boy had compared him to a man who had caused him so much pain, and yet he knew he deserved the blow. “No,” he said quietly. “It isn’t right when someone you trust lets you down.”

“And you made my aunt cry,” Jeffrey added, visibly startling Blair again. “I saw her, last night when she thought I was asleep. You gave me a hard time when I got lost and made her cry. You said she didn’t deserve it.”

Scott looked apologetically at Blair’s flushed face. “No. She didn’t deserve it from either of us.”

He took a deep breath and went down on one knee to look eye-to-eye with the angry boy. “I’m sorry, Jeffrey. What I did was thoughtless and stupid. I didn’t realize it was so important to you for me to be there today—I thought you just wanted to see the ranch. But that’s no excuse. I invited you to visit me, and it was wrong of me to desert you that way.”

Jeffrey was making a valiant effort not to cry, but one tear escaped him. He dashed impatiently at it. “Then why did you?”

Scott wished he could understand that better himself. “My only excuse is that I’ve been on my own for so long that I’ve gotten selfish. When my buddy called to invite me to go surfing, it was just habit to grab a bag and take off. I thought you’d be happy with your aunt and my staff and my foreman, Jake. I even left instructions for my favorite horse to be available to you. I just didn’t understand that you really wanted me to be there, too. I was a jerk, Jeff, and I’m very sorry. I hope you can forgive me.”

Jeffrey shot a quick look at his aunt. He was obviously swayed by Scott’s apology, but he wasn’t a child who trusted easily. For good reason. But Blair didn’t give him an answer. Her silence made it clear that it was up to Jeffrey to decide whether to forgive Scott for hurting him.

Jeffrey drew a deep breath. “Okay,” he said a bit grudgingly. “But don’t ever do that again,” he added with a shake of his finger.

“I won’t,” Scott said. “From now on, if I make you a promise, you can count on it. It would take a major emergency to cause me to let you down again. Something involving fire or blood or winds in excess of seventy-five miles per hour, at least.”

To his satisfaction, a reluctant smile tugged at the boy’s lips. “Okay, I get the point.”