Her words struck a chord in Caleb’s heart, making his doubts roar back to life. He took a deep breath.
“Now, get out of here and let me unpack. I think I’d like to take a shower.”
As Caleb walked out of the room, he heard brother and sister teasing each other. The banter made him smile, reminding him of the exchanges he had with his younger brother, Sawyer. Now that Sawyer had his degree and no longer needed Caleb’s help, there was no reason for Caleb to continue working in the rodeo.
Lately, he’d been dreaming of his own ranch and wondered if that distraction caused the disaster or at least contributed to the accident.
Opening the side door to the horse trailer, Caleb hung his clothes and put his duffel bag on the bunk. He walked out to the corral behind the barn. His horse, Razor, trotted up to him, looking for a treat.
“Sorry, big guy. I don’t have anything.”
The horse nudged him. Razor could always be depended on to bring him out of his funk. “Did you see her? Kaye is home. I’d only seen pictures of her, but meeting her in person—wow.” Absently, he rubbed Razor’s nose as he thought of those blue eyes, which could bore through a man. You weren’t going to hide anything from her.
Too bad he hadn’t met her before Albuquerque.
Razor lifted his head and galloped around the fence. It brought a smile to Caleb’s face.
“I see your horse is in high spirits.” Joel stopped beside Caleb.
Caleb rested his booted foot on the bottom rail of the fence. “How’s your grandfather, really?”
“Doc says he should be fine. They want him to keep his arm in a sling for the next few days, but nothing was broken. Badly bruised, but not broken. How that tractor didn’t do more damage than it did, I don’t know. God was looking out for Gramps.” Joel kept his gaze on Razor.
“That’s for sure. I’m glad I rode out to that pasture.” Caleb still remembered the numbing fear that had raced through him when he’d seen the overturned tractor.
“I’m thankful, too.”
They both kept their cell phones in their back pockets, and it had proved to be a blessing. Caleb had called and Joel had come within ten minutes.
A deep sigh escaped Joel’s mouth. “It’s been a day of surprises.”
An understatement. “Did you know your sister was coming?”
“Not a clue. I talked with her last week, and she mentioned she was feeling stronger but didn’t say anything about coming home. The equine therapy has helped. First time I saw her in the hospital in San Antonio after she’d been wounded, it shook me, and that was weeks after the explosion. It gets to a guy’s gut to see his little sister so broken.” He looked down at his clasped hands and took a deep breath. “Seeing her now, it’s mind-blowing.”
“And she’s home.”
Joel laughed. “Yeah. I often wondered what she was going to do after the army, if she would come home.”
“You have part of the question answered.” Which was more than Caleb knew about his own life. “Are you glad she’s here?”
“Of course, but I’m not sure if she sees it that way. She was good at what she did. The career she loved is over thanks to a suicide bomber, and she comes home to find—” he swept his arm in a wide arc “—this mess with Gramps and the drought. Not to mention she doesn’t even know yet about the charity rodeo that I somehow got appointed the head honcho.” He blew out a breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “How that happened, I still don’t know. This is just one more thing to add confusion to her world. And my world.”
They watched Razor.
An idea popped into his brain. “I think I know something that can keep your sister busy and might help her decide what she wants to do.” Caleb wanted to laugh out loud at his great idea.
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“Put her in charge of the charity rodeo. Let her organize it. You’ve been complaining constantly about all the things you have to do since you drafted me into this shindig. I thought you were going to drop like a sack of feed when you saw Nan White on the organizing committee.”
Joel shuddered. “Who would’ve thought?”
Anyone with eyes, but Caleb decided not to mention it. “I think with all the different things you and I need to do, giving it to Kaye would keep her busy and she could think of the future.”
Joel’s distressed expression turned into a grin. “I like how you think, friend.”
“Do you think she’ll accept?”
Joel shrugged. “Don’t know. But I’m going to give it a shot, because heaven knows I don’t want to ramrod it.”
Caleb shared his friend’s feelings about being in charge, but with Kaye running the show, their prospects looked mighty good. And oddly enough, the idea of working with Kaye appealed to him in ways that he didn’t understand.
Chapter Two
“Who knew you could cook?” Kaye teased, loading the dishwasher. She leaned against the counter, and her fingers snagged the top wire shelf of the appliance. “And you have a dishwasher—a brand-spanking-new dishwasher.” It boggled the mind. Nothing else in this room had changed for over twenty years but this happy little appliance.
Joel leaned back in his chair and grinned. Caleb grabbed his glass of tea and gulped, but she saw his smile.
“A Crock-Pot.”
Joel’s response didn’t make sense. She’d been talking dishwasher. “What?”
“That’s my secret to cooking. Once Gramps and I discovered it in the back of the cabinet, we started using it. We had dinner ready when we came in at night.” His voice rang with pride.
“It prevented us from starving, that’s for sure,” Gramps added. The bruising on his face had colored even more, making Kaye want to grimace, remembering when her face had sported similar bruising.
“Well, you’ll have to give me some recipes. It’s been a long time since I’ve cooked for myself or my ex—” she swallowed the rest of the bitter word, glancing at Caleb to see if he caught her mistake “—on a regular basis. I think I’d rather be out in the field working with the locals than cook. I guess I didn’t get the cooking gene from Mom.” She wanted to snatch back the words. How was she going to do this when she kept stepping on land mines?
“Do you have any idea what you want to do now, Sis?” Her brother’s question snapped her out of the past.
“You mean, what do I want to do when I grow up?”
That brought laughter.
“Well, I haven’t—”
“I have an idea,” Joel said.
That had a suspicious ring. She glanced at her grandfather, then Caleb. There was a twinkle in Caleb’s eyes that set her teeth on edge. She couldn’t tell if Gramps was smiling since his face was so swollen.
“I’m afraid to ask.”
Joel stood. “Come with me and I’ll show you.” He led everyone into the formal dining room. Scattered papers covered the entire surface of the table. “I’m in over my head, and I think with what you did in the army, you can help me.”
“At what?” She stared at the mess. It looked like her brother had left the windows open in the dining room and the wind had scattered everything. Stepping to the table, she picked up several sheets. Calf tie-down, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, bareback riding. “A rodeo?” She looked at the three men gathered around.