his fingers harder together. “Her skin don’t look soft, her lips ain’t red and she don’t smell pretty.”
“Uh, no, but—”
For the first time Ethan looked up at him, his mouth set in a determined line. “She ain’t gonna be my new ma and we ain’t ever gonna be a family.” It was both a plea and a decree. “I don’t want no other ma. ’Specially one who ain’t even a real girl.”
“I didn’t bring you here to find you a new ma.”
“Why’d you come here then? You’re a card player, not a rancher. I seen you. You’re real good. Ma said so, too.”
Despite the truth in them, Ethan’s words made Jack uncomfortable. “Trust me,” he said, his face hardening, “living in saloons is no life for a kid.”
Ethan whirled away to face the wall. Tentatively, Jack touched his back. He was about to ask what the matter was when he caught sight of a corner of the yellow cloth Ethan still gripped, his thumb rubbing the edge of it.
“You miss your ma,” Jack said softly, “don’t you?”
Ethan sucked in a broken breath.
“Of course you do. And you’re going to miss her a good, long while. I can’t make that easier for you.”
A shudder passed over Ethan and he stifled a sob, roughly wiping the back of his hand against his eyes.
Impulsively, Jack put his arm around Ethan’s shoulders and drew the boy close against his chest, holding him awkwardly as Ethan finally let go of his tears.
It wasn’t going to be easy for either of them. But Jack had to make it work.
Serenity, a wooden spoon in one hand and a crumpled dish cloth in the other, flitted about the kitchen like a skittish bird, checking a pan here, a platter there. “I started so late on supper, it’ll never be ready on time.”
“It’ll be ready,” Hallie said, not looking up from the cornbread batter she stirred with unnecessary force. “I’m here to help you. And we won’t have Dakota underfoot in here. This is one place he’s sure to stay clear of.”
“You don’t like him much, do you?”
Hallie stopped stirring and stared at the girl. “He practically stole my ranch.”
“He bought it from the bank,” Serenity pointed out, avoiding looking at Hallie as she began setting the plates on the long pine table. “He is letting us all stay. He can’t be so bad, can he? Besides, he’s awfully nice to look at. So clean and polished and all.”
“What difference does that make?” Hallie said, irritated that Serenity would even notice. “And he’s only letting us stay because he wants me to teach him how to run this place.”
Serenity stopped in the motion of putting down forks, biting at her lower lip. “You mean he’ll make us leave after he learns?”
Hallie heard the flood of fear in Serenity’s anxious voice. At fifteen, Serenity had fled her grandparents’ home to escape an arranged marriage. Orphaned as a toddler, she’d been raised by her grandparents and had always loved them. But the mere idea of marrying a man twice her age repulsed and terrified her, so she’d run away, ending up on Hallie’s doorstep a month later, bedraggled, half-starved and looking for work.
Hallie knew part of Serenity still expected either her grandparents or the man she’d been promised to to one day show up and try to claim her, even after two years. She could see that the idea of being forced away from Eden’s Canyon terrified the girl.
“Don’t worry yourself, Dakota won’t be around long enough to learn,” Hallie told her. “He’ll hit the trail just as soon as he figures out there’s no excitement here. I know his kind.”
She stopped short of saying she’d lived with his kind all her life—both her brother and her father. Serenity had a soft spot for Ben, and it was no good telling the girl anything that might be opposite the image she had of him.
“I don’t know about that,” Serenity said, her expression thoughtful. “He does have Ethan now.”
“You wait and see.” Hallie began scooping spoonfuls of batter into the square pan, slapping it so hard that yellow drops spattered over the worktable. “He may be the gambler, but I’d wager my stake in this ranch that Jack Dakota won’t last here six months.”
“I’d ask you to shake on that, but I can’t win something that’s already mine.”
Hallie jumped at the sound of Jack’s deep voice behind her. All at once she felt unsettled and annoyed, and angry at herself for letting him do that to her. She’d known lots of men—cowhands, ranchers, even a few gamblers Ben played with. But none of them ever made her feel like she couldn’t move without tripping over herself.
She turned to look as Jack, with Ethan at his side, strolled into the kitchen. The man was clean-shaven, dressed in a fine white shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders beneath a black leather vest, and his pants clung to his hips as though they’d grown there.
Glancing at Serenity, she saw the girl’s admiring look. But when Serenity turned and saw Hallie watching, too, the girl flushed scarlet and quickly switched back to setting the table. Hallie realized she had no ally there.
“We don’t dress for supper,” Hallie told Jack, as she went back to her chore, shoving the pan of cornbread into the belly of the iron stove. She wiped her hands down her pants, leaving a streak of yellow, and imagined she must look a right pretty sight compared to Jack’s and Ethan’s spit and polish.
“We didn’t,” Jack said. He leaned against the worktable, smiling at her rumpled hair and the smudge of flour on her nose. “We came to offer our help.”
“Help?” Hallie looked him up and down. “With what?”
“You tell me.”
Before Hallie could tell him anything, Serenity pushed a wooden pail into Jack’s hands. “If you could get us some water from the barrel out back, I’d be obliged.”
Jack took the pail with a smile. He looked to Ethan. “We’ll do it together. You can hold the pail.”
Ethan shook his head. “I’ll dip it out.”
“Fair enough.”
No sooner had the two stepped down the back stairs than Ben, head hanging low, ambled into the kitchen with Tenfoot, followed by Eb and Big Charlie, the other two ranch hands. “Evenin’,” they muttered more or less in unison as they moved to take their places on the benches at either side of the table.
Hallie noticed Serenity flash a sweet smile as Ben shuffled past her to his seat, but the smile faded when Ben seemed not to notice her. Best he didn’t, Hallie thought. The last thing Serenity needed was to lose her heart to a boy who wouldn’t know what to do with it even if he wanted it.
Jack and Ethan came through the back door just as the others settled in their seats. All eyes turned to the strangers. Hallie never invited guests to the ranch, making the men immediately suspicious of anyone new.
“This
