The Baby Gamble (Texas Hold'em)

Still…

“Maybe someday I will,” she allowed. But not this week. Or next. Right now she had too many other things to deal with. She wasn’t sure she had the capacity to handle whatever answers her mother might give her.

“HOW’S YOUR DAD?” Blake asked Luke a couple of hours later as the two men walked back across the street to the hospital parking lot, where they’d left their cars.

Luke’s father, Henry Oliver Chisum, founder of the Circle C Ranch, had suffered a stroke six months before, and the tall, proud cowboy now struggled to walk, even with a cane.“He’s good.” Luke’s voice might have had a bit of forced cheer to it. Blake couldn’t be sure. “I tried to get him up on a horse yesterday, to bolster his spirits. They say that mind over matter can heal, but my dad wasn’t having any of it.”

“And your brother?” Had they not had a beer or two, Blake would probably never have thought to ask such a personal question. Wasn’t even sure why he had, except that he’d heard the other guys ask that same question every single week since Luke’s return.

He just wasn’t sure why.

“Cantankerous as always.” Luke’s grin fell a little short. “He’s always resented me, though I’ve never quite been able to figure out why. This time around, I know why, though. He thinks I’m pushing Dad too hard.”

“And maybe he thinks you’re going to run out on him again.” Blake had heard enough talk around the poker table to wonder if that was true, though only Luke would know. But by all accounts, Hank Chisum was a fair man. A likable one. A kind one. Except when it came to his much younger adopted sibling.

According to the other members of the Wild Bunch, Hank’s attitude never made sense.

“Maybe he’s afraid you’re going to come in, stir things up and then be gone, leaving him to deal with the backlash.”

“Maybe. Couldn’t really blame him, I guess, but I’m not going to. I’m home to stay.”

“I don’t doubt you,” Blake was quick to add. “Just trying to see things from Hank’s point of view. The one left at home so often feels abandoned.”

“Well, if that’s what he’s struggling with, he can get in line.” Luke’s sardonic reply was a step back from his usual jovial personality. Forced or not.

“I heard the guys razzing you about some girl you left behind,” Blake continued. “She wanting to get in line, too?”

The grin he’d expected to see didn’t appear on the cowboy’s face. Nor was there even a hint of humor in his eyes.

“You could say that,” Luke said, with more emotion in his tone than Blake had ever heard. “Becky’s the nurse at River Bluff High School now, but when I knew her she was the most beautiful eighteen-year-old girl ever to have lived.”

“You had it bad, huh?” Blake leaned an elbow against the Lincoln, commiserating with the other man.

“Worse than bad.”

“So what happened? I’m assuming if she’s sore at you for running out, she must have returned your sentiment. At least somewhat.”

“Stupidity happened,” Luke said, as if there was still some leftover bitterness from that particular sting. “Becky was the sheriff’s daughter, and he’d made it known to all the boys that it was jail or hell if anyone messed with his daughter. So we all stayed clear of Becky. One night the poker guys and I were playing and getting a little drunk. They dared me to ask Becky for a date and I didn’t want them to think I was chicken so I did. Becky and I hit it off and we became a couple around school. Then someone told her about the dare. I had forgotten about the stupid dare, but she was crushed, thinking I was talking to my friends about her. She wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say. The sheriff told me he’d kill me if he ever saw me around his daughter again.”

“And you believed him.”

“I was eighteen.” Luke pulled a set of keys out of the front pocket of his jeans. “My brother had been making life a living hell then, too. Jake had already skipped town. Brady was lea

ving. Cole was going to college. It was clear I wasn’t going to be welcome running the Circle C anytime soon. Right about that time this army recruiter came through, promising us the world if we signed up.”

“So you did.”

“Yep.” Luke tossed his keys in the air. Caught them. And headed over to his truck without another word.

NINE O’CLOCK. Annie had been talking to Becky for more than an hour, and still wasn’t eager to hang up. To be alone with her thoughts. Much of the time they’d discussed a kid Becky had seen too many times at school. She suspected the young woman was being sexually abused by a family member.

Not the kind of thing they normally heard about in a small town like River Bluff.Becky had been struggling incessantly, trying to figure out what she could and should do. And after weighing all the issues, she’d just decided to turn the case over to the authorities. If she was wrong, she could lose her job. If she wasn’t, however, she might be saving a life.

“How’s Shane been this week?” Annie asked as her friend seemed to come to peace with the decision.

“Okay.” Becky drew out the word, making it sound as though she wasn’t entirely sure. “He’s doing his chores. Being respectful. He’s in by curfew. And seems to be getting his homework done.”

“But?”