The Cowboy's Lesson In Love. Marie Ferrarella

Scottie Fox’s father?” she asked.

      Hearing the man’s name suddenly took her back over the years, to a time when neither of them was a decade old yet. Shania did her best not to shiver as an icy sensation ran down her spine.

      “How could I forget?” she cried. “That man almost beat Scottie to death before Scottie’s mother and grandfather pulled him off Scottie.” The man’s name suddenly came back to her. Henry Fox. “Later, Henry claimed that he didn’t remember the incident at all. Is—Ryan, is it?” she asked, pausing as she tried to remember the name Wynona had just used.

      Wynona nodded. “Ryan Washburn.”

      “Is Ryan’s father like Scottie’s was?” Shania asked, appalled.

      That had been an extreme case. From what she could see, Ryan didn’t have any visible bruises on his body and he had worn short-sleeved shirts.

      “No, at least I haven’t seen any evidence of any violence, but the man is just as distant, just as removed, as Henry Fox first seemed. Washburn showed more interest in his horses than he did in his son.” Wynona looked at her cousin, a feeling of helplessness washing over her. She wanted to fix this. “That boy is starved for affection and attention.”

      “And you went to tell the dad that he needed to shape up and provide that for his son,” Shania guessed.

      It didn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination for Shania to reach that conclusion. Wynona had always been a softhearted person.

      “Well, what would you have done?” Wynona asked.

      Shania sighed. With a surrendering shrug of her shoulders she said, “Probably the same thing that you tried to do, Wyn. But realistically, that doesn’t change the fact that you realize that you can’t change the world.”