A Rancher's Pride

chapter Ten





The instant Sam saw Kayla flinch, he dropped his arm to his side.

She stood staring at him, her pupils widened to dark pools, and he realized just how much he’d frightened her.

“Listen, calm down. I’m sorry,” he said, almost running the words together in his hurry to explain. “I was only going to point to Town Hall. I want you to go up to the courtroom with me to see the judge. He’ll tell you the truth. Come with me, please. If I go in ahead of you,” he added, fighting to keep resentment from his voice, “you might think I talked him into lying for me.”

For a second, he could see her waver, torn between agreement and flight. She took a long, deep breath, then turned and walked toward Town Hall. She waved her hands in the air to Becky, who entered the building ahead of them.

He let Kayla walk ahead of him, too, and gave her plenty of room to go through the double doors into the building without crowding her. His stomach churned with both guilt and regret. Her words had torn him up inside. But he’d never meant to scare her.

Inside the courtroom, Ellamae sorted through paperwork at a small desk in the corner. Becky sat in the judge’s leather swivel chair behind his huge old desk, her face all Sam could see above the surface. The judge stood beside the chair, grinning down at her. At their approach, he looked up.

Kayla’s hands began moving.

“Now, young lady,” he said to her, “if you’re telling this little one to move, hold on, because she’s got my permission to sit here.”

As they watched, he swung the chair in a gentle circle, while Becky flipped her hands back and forth in the air. He waited till the chair came to a halt before turning back to them.

“Well, this is a surprise, isn’t it? I didn’t expect to see you two setting foot in my courtroom again so soon. What can I do for you?”

Sam hesitated, feeling like a danged fool for bringing Kayla in here. What could the judge do, anyhow?

Kayla didn’t believe anything Sam said. Hell, she didn’t even consider he’d told the truth about his own child. Why would she accept that he’d never touched his ex in anger?

“Judge—” He drew a deep breath, fighting humiliation at the thought of what he had to ask. A bead of sweat ran down his temple. For once, the overhead fan sat still, just when he needed it most. He brushed the moisture away.

“Judge Baylor,” he started again, “would you tell Becky’s aunt why my ex-wife was covered with cuts and bruises when she left town?”

The man’s brows leveled out, straightening almost into one solid line.

From her seat in the corner, Ellamae looked up.

Beside him, Sam could see Kayla tense.

“Well, Sam,” the judge drawled, looking from one to the other of them, “it’s not clear to me why I’m the one doing the telling. But you know I never mind giving out explanations.” He looked at Kayla. “Your sister got herself involved in an automobile accident.”

“When?” she asked.

“As I recall, this happened only a few days before she left Flagman’s Folly for good.”

“How do you know this?”

The judge frowned, and Sam knew she’d just crossed a line. But the man answered mildly enough. “It was common knowledge, practically soon as it happened.”

“I was on the volunteer rescue,” Ellamae spoke up. “She’d rolled her car into a drainage ditch between town and the ranch. Lordy, she’d gotten thrown around pretty bad. No seat belt.” She shook her head.

“Fortunately,” the judge added, “there were no other vehicles involved. And no other passengers.”

“I—I see.”

Sam heard Kayla give a deep sigh. When she turned toward him, he stiffened. She hadn’t trusted in his honesty before. Nothing she could say would make up for that now.

“I’m sorry.” She looked at him, her eyes shining. “I didn’t know—”

“Yeah.” He turned away, his step heavy. So, now she did know. The truth. It made no difference. Had he really expected it to change anything?

“Sam, please—” Her voice broke. She moved around to stand before him. “I’m truly sorry. I saw the cuts and bruises, and I only knew what Ronnie told me.”

From across the room, he heard Ellamae’s gasp.

Now she and the judge knew something, too, and they hadn’t had to work very hard making the leap to figure it out.

“Let’s just go,” he said.

She gestured to Becky, and a second later he heard sneakers on the wooden floor. He was about to start out of the courtroom when the judge called his name. Freezing in place, he took a deep breath. After what seemed a long while, he turned back.

First he looked down at Becky, standing beside him.

Then he looked at Ellamae, who stared, her eyes huge.

Finally he looked at Judge Baylor, the man who’d always managed to slap him down. The man who’d never let him forget his past. And who had the power to decide his future.

The judge came around his desk and rested one hand on the wooden railing in front of the row of spectator seats. Sam eyed him, saw the man’s knuckles tight on the rail and knew what to expect.

“I doubt you need me to put this in words,” the judge said, in the softest voice Sam had ever heard come from him. “But I’ll share it, anyway. You can’t take things out on this young lady for believing what your ex-wife said. We all know only what others are willing to tell.”

You could’ve heard a cactus flower drop to the floor in that room.

Even Becky, as if sensing something wrong, stood without moving.

He couldn’t look at Kayla. Didn’t want to see what would show in her face.

“Yeah,” he said at last, staring across the courtroom again. “Gotta hand it to you, Judge.” He laughed without humor. “You just summed up the whole history of my bad marriage, right there in that one short sentence.”



SAM THOUGHT JUDGE BAYLOR had finished making his point.

He’d thought wrong. The man had only begun.

When he’d asked Sam to stay for a “short spell in my chambers,” Kayla had looked suspiciously at them both.

He could just see the protest on her lips, the indecision in her eyes. But, finally, she simply said she would go ahead to the market with Becky, and Sam could meet them when he was done.

Unwilling to let her hear whatever else the judge wanted to say, Sam had agreed.

Now, in chambers, Judge Baylor sat back in his swivel chair and eyed Sam up and down.

He immediately flashed back more than a decade ago to the day he’d come before the judge for the first time.

Right after the night he’d set fire to the Porters’ barn.

He tried to push the memory away and managed to do it—only to face the judge’s double-barreled glare and to hear the man putting his own thoughts into words.

“Y’know, Sam, it’s been a while since you first came into my courtroom.”

“Yeah.” And since then, the judge had never managed to see any good in him.

No surprise, since Sam hadn’t been good for much for a while after that. The judge’s warning that he’d toss him in jail and throw away the key had kicked off a rebellious streak in him that he’d never known existed.

Or maybe it had started before that….

Again, the judge voiced what Sam was thinking.

“I went easy on you back then, son, on account of your losing your daddy.” He frowned and shook his head. “Too easy, perhaps. You made life hell for your mama, you know.”

Sam nodded.

“But your daddy was a good friend of mine. I owed it to his memory—and to Sharleen—to allow you the chance to straighten up. I’m glad you took me up on it—” he glared again “—even if it was in your own good time.”

“I was…mixed-up back then, Judge.”

The man snorted. “Well, that hasn’t changed much, has it? Sam, I’m not rightly sure what’s going on between you and that young lady. But it’s not sounding to me like you two are getting along.”

“We’re managing,” he said as easily as he could, fighting not to break into a sweat again.

The judge looked doubtful. Was the man going to renege on the six weeks he’d allowed them and make his decision right now?

Had Sam lost his daughter already?

He wouldn’t go down without a fight. He wouldn’t go down at all. “We’ve been out around town today, having Becky meet a lot of the townsfolk.”

“That’s good. That’s very good.”

Sam elaborated, detailing the story of their travels. It seemed to appease the judge. His goal accomplished, Sam didn’t waste any time getting out of the courtroom.

If only his words could have that effect on other people.

On one woman in particular.

As he headed back up Signal Street toward the market, he thought again of the judge’s earlier statement. The one he’d made about people only knowing what others wanted to tell them.

And not tell them, Sam should have added.

Like the news Ronnie had never bothered to share with him.

Still, the judge’s remark had started a question that kept circling around in Sam’s brain, big and bothersome as a green-eyed horsefly.

No one knew better than he did that Ronnie couldn’t shoot straight with a story if she tried. So how could he blame Kayla for falling for her sister’s lies?



THE AFTERNOON HAD GOTTEN hotter and stickier as it went on. Kayla swept her hair off the back of her neck to cool it. From her seat on the top porch step, she watched Becky play with her friend, Pirate.

Sam had met them at the market as planned, though he didn’t say a word about his time with Judge Baylor. In fact, he’d barely said a word about anything.

Thank goodness she’d had the rental car outside the café. She would never have made it back to the ranch if she had been forced to share Sam’s pickup truck. To tell the truth, the tension between them made her want to run.

Only the knowledge that she couldn’t take Becky with her kept her from leaving town altogether.

She wasn’t going anywhere without her niece.

Once they arrived back at the house, the minute they unpacked the groceries, Sam had disappeared into his office, where Sharleen had set herself up at his desk, her foot propped on a stool, to use the computer.

Eager to be away from both mother and son, Kayla had followed Becky into the backyard.

Her face flushing—and not just from the heat of the day—she sagged against the porch railing.

Why had she blurted out that accusation against Sam? Why hadn’t she refused to go talk with the judge? She’d have been so much better off. Yet, that wouldn’t have been fair to Sam.

Long ago, Ronnie had made her promise never to breathe a word of what she’d been told to anyone. And now that Kayla had accused him of such a terrible act, she had learned all too clearly why Ronnie had sworn her to secrecy. She had lied.

As Kayla had also accused Sam of doing.

Across the yard, Becky and Pirate disappeared behind the barn. They liked to walk—and, in the puppy’s case, sniff—their way around the huge building. It always took a while.

Still agonizing over what she had done, Kayla dropped her head onto her upraised knees and groaned. How could she ever make up to Sam for the way she had treated him?

Her throat tightened as if to prevent her from saying the words aloud. Her head spun, and again, it wasn’t due to the heat, but from all the thoughts whirling in her mind. Now that she had learned the truth about Ronnie’s injuries, she had to question everything Ronnie had told her. Had to reexamine everything she had thought she’d known about Sam.

There was one thing she could swear to, though, and from her own knowledge. All Sam could think about was winning over the judge and taking Becky away from her.

If accusing him of abuse hadn’t turned the judge against her, it would certainly give the man pause. Again, she worried over what had happened that afternoon in the private conference in his chambers. She should have stayed there. She should have protested the two of them going off together. Who knows what deal they might already have made?

An agreement that might be all the judge needed to decide Sam should keep custody of Becky.

All thanks to Kayla’s own misinformed actions.

What was she going to do to make the judge see she was the best person to care for Becky?

From behind her came the sounds of the screen door hinges. She turned to find Sam leaning against the kitchen door frame, his slumped posture almost mimicking hers. She would have laughed, except he looked the picture of misery, and chances were if she could get her hands on a mirror, she would find she looked the same.

“Listen,” he said, “I just came to tell you—” He stopped, looking past her. “What the hell is that?”

She turned quickly, her thoughts flying to Becky.

Her niece had just rounded the barn with Pirate prancing beside her.

“Call her over here,” he demanded.

She looked at him in surprise. “Why? She’s okay.”

“Not with that mutt around her, she isn’t.”

“Your puppy won’t hurt her. He and Becky have played together before this.”

“He’s not my dog. Just call her,” he repeated.

She could see his frustration mounting. At the sight of the dog or at his own inability to talk to Becky, she couldn’t tell. But she had to acknowledge that he’d know better than she would if there were something wrong with the dog.

She motioned Becky to come to her.

As Becky neared the porch, Pirate followed at her heels. When she started up the steps, Sam leaned over the railing to yell at the dog, waving him away. The confused pup bounded once after Becky, backed up a couple of paces, ran in a circle. At last, he stood still, his head cocked and his eyes trained adoringly on her. Sam yelled again. Pirate retreated a few feet, gave a low whine, turned to go. He paused once to glance back before finally loping away.

Becky looked just as confused as her furry friend. Her eyes wide, she snapped her fingers, then tapped her fingertips twice on her cheek. “Dog? Home?”

Kayla nodded.

Sam had retreated into the kitchen, and she could see him punching the keypad of the cordless phone.

Becky climbed onto the porch swing, where she had left her doll. Kayla gave the swing a push to start it moving.

A minute later, she heard Sam’s voice on the phone.

“This is Sam Robertson. Tell Porter to keep his animals off my land. Including that mangy dog of his. That mutt gets anywhere near my daughter again, and I’ll see Porter gets what he deserves…. Right. You do that. Word for word. He gives you any grief about delivering my message, you just let me know.” He dropped the phone back onto its base.

After giving Becky another push on the swing, Kayla turned and went into the kitchen, closing the screen door softly behind her.

Sam stood with his arms folded, his hips braced against the counter, his irritation still evident. He had overreacted to seeing the puppy. But no matter what he claimed for his reason, she knew he’d jumped so quickly at the sight of the dog in an effort to protect his daughter.

And no matter how she felt about him, she had to give him credit for that. Which she did. The trouble was, how she felt about him had started to change.

That knowledge roused more mixed emotions in her than she had time to think about right then.

She walked toward him, thought better of it and sidestepped to prop her elbow on the adjacent counter. “I didn’t realize the puppy wasn’t yours. I thought he belonged on the ranch.”

“No.”

“Well, no harm done, is there? He seems like a nice dog, always gentle with Becky.”

“That’s not the point. I don’t want my neighbor’s animals on my land.”

She nodded. “That’s understandable.” She didn’t understand it, but that was the most soothing thing she could think of to say right now. Hoping to distract him, and to be honest, to satisfy her blatant curiosity, she said, “When you’d come to the door before, you had started to say something.”

He stretched both hands out beside him, resting them on the edges of the countertop. He looked down, scuffed one boot against the floor, cleared his throat. But he said nothing.

Her face began to flush again. “Sam, I hope you’ve accepted my apology for what I did. And for…” She faltered, then went on. “…for dragging the judge and Ellamae into it.”

He looked up at her, his eyes narrowed. A shiver ran through her. She couldn’t have explained what her own response meant if she’d tried.

“Hell of a thing we had to come to, wasn’t it,” he asked, “for me to prove what I’d already said?”

“I know. Sam, I really am sorry.”

“Yeah, well, listen,” he said, hurrying now, running his words together just as he’d done outside Town Hall. “You want to know what I’d come outside to tell you. It’s only…whatever else is going on around here, I know getting tripped up in Ronnie’s tall tales isn’t your fault.”

“I really had no idea it wasn’t true,” she said, wincing even as she said the words, realizing they only helped make the uncomfortable situation worse. But she couldn’t live with knowing what she had done. She swallowed hard. “Will you forgive me?”

He stared down at the toe of his boot for so long, she thought he wouldn’t respond. Finally, he said, “You were getting back at me.”

“No—”

“Yes. For my bad manners in not introducing you properly to folks in town.”

No, she wanted to tell him. Well, all right, maybe in part. But mostly for trying to steal my niece from me. How could she say that, when his only reply could be, Like you’re trying to take my daughter from me?

“Ronnie used to find ways to get back at me, too,” he said.

“Sam, I—”

“I got you the truth about one of Ronnie’s stories,” he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken. “Now let me tell you about the rest of them.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, almost in a sigh. “I spent a lot of time a while back trying to shake off the dust of Flagman’s Folly. I met Ronnie at a rodeo in Abilene and—wham!—before I knew it, we’d gotten hitched.”

Kayla wanted to interrupt. She didn’t need to hear this. But if it would give her a clearer picture of Sam, she couldn’t afford to stop him. Besides, in her heart she wanted—needed—to know the truth. About everything.

“Sounded like a good idea at the time,” he continued, “but we started fighting from day two. I don’t blame her for all of it, but she didn’t give anything much of a try. From the minute we came back here, things got worse. She didn’t like the town, never liked living on the ranch.” The skin around his eyes tightened, as if he’d winced to avoid a blow. “Tell the truth, I think she never liked me much, either.”

Kayla gasped. “I can’t believe that.”

“Don’t I know it.” His voice hardened. “Seems like there’s a lot around here you can’t believe, until it gets shown to you. Well, I could bring you to the judge, and I did. I can’t bring you to Ronnie. Maybe when you see her, you ought to put that idea to her yourself.” Suddenly, he shoved against the counter, pushing himself upright. “And another thing. For the first six months of our marriage, I didn’t know she even had a family. She told me she was an only child and her parents were gone.”

At that news, Kayla almost staggered. She reached out, grateful for the counter beside her.

She had always admired cool, sophisticated Ronnie. Always. That image had started to crumble after their meeting with the judge earlier that day. And now, she didn’t know what to think.

What Sam had said was ridiculous. “That’s not true about her family. Ronnie’s mom is gone. My mom is her stepmother. But Ronnie still has her dad—my dad. And two half sisters.”

“Guess her memory’s pretty patchy about that. It wasn’t till she started threatening to leave that I learned about y’all.”

“I can’t—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You can’t believe it.” He moved forward, coming so close she had to raise her chin to look into his eyes. “Well, as we say around here, ‘can’t never could do nothing.’ Maybe it’s time you started figuring out just what you can believe.”