I’m feeding the pregnant mares, but I’ll be up for some grub as soon as I finish.”
Tuf nodded and breathed in the crisp air off Bull Mountains. Time to face the family, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Midnight, who continued to circle the pen.
“I’ve dreamed of riding a horse like you all my life,” he muttered under his breath.
Midnight flung his head and stomped his hoof again in protest as if he understood every word.
“Tomas. Tomas. Tomas!”
Only one person called him that. His mother. Damn! Royce had called. He turned around as his mother flew across the yard in a dress and heels. At the sight of her silver hair and smiling face, his heart thumped against his ribs. Oh, how he’d missed his mom.
How did he explain the past two years?
Chapter Two
“Tomas!” His mom grabbed him in a bear hug. He held on with arms that felt weak, but he was buffeted by a strength he couldn’t describe. Being over six feet, he leaned down so she could kiss his cheek. He’d started doing that when he was about fourteen.
Sarah stroked his face and then ran her hands over his shoulders, arms and chest, much like when he was younger and a horse would buck him into the dirt. “Are you hurt? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Mom.” The family stood behind her all dressed in their Sunday best. Some of the faces he didn’t recognize. The guys were in pressed jeans, pristine Western white shirts with bolo ties. The women were in dresses or suits. Before he could see anything else, his brothers, Aidan and Colton, nicknamed Ace and Colt, barreled into him with fierce hugs, and then twin cousins Beau and Duke and Uncle Josh. He’d missed this connection to family.
Someone grabbed his arm and jerked him around. His sister Dinah’s fiery hazel eyes flashed up at him. “Where have you been? You’ve had us all worried sick.”
“Hey, sis.” He reached for her and lifted her off her feet into a tight embrace.
“Be careful. She’s pregnant,” Sarah warned.
“Oh.” Tuf eased her to the ground.
Dinah laughed. “Get that look off your face. I’m respectably married.” She pulled a guy forward. “This is my husband, Austin. You remember him?”
Austin Wright. His sister had married Austin Wright, Cheyenne’s brother. How did that happen?
Before he could find an answer, his mother linked her arm through his. “Let’s go to the house. It’s cold out here. We have a lot to celebrate. My baby is home.”
Baby. Usually when she called him that, it would cause sparks of resentment to flash inside him. Thank God he had finally outgrown that reaction.
Dinah also linked her arm through his, and they made their way into the house through the spacious, homey kitchen to the great room. He barely had time to remove his hat. People milled around him. To the right was a long buffet table laden with prime rib and all the fixings. In a corner stood a ten-foot spruce fully decorated. The piney scent mixed with vanilla and cinnamon filled the room with a relaxing feeling of warmth enhanced by the fire in the river-rock fireplace. A large maple mantel showcased rodeo trophies from every member of the Hart family.
He was home.
But he felt as if he’d been dropped into enemy territory and he was waiting for the first round of fire. This time, he knew, he would be hit. There was no way of escaping the inevitable.
Ace approached him, carrying a baby in a pink blanket. “I want you to meet Emma, the first Hart grandchild.”
“You have a daughter?”
“Yep. Isn’t she beautiful?”
Tuf looked at the perfect baby face with swirls of blond hair. “Yes, she is. Does she have a mother?”
Ace frowned at him in that familiar way Tuf remembered well, especially when Tuf had done something to displease him, like wearing Ace’s best boots to a rodeo. “Of course—Flynn.”
“McKinley?”
Ace’s frown deepened to a point of aggravation until Flynn walked up. “Don’t look so surprised, Tuf,” the beautiful blonde said.
“How did you manage to lasso him?”
She leaned over and whispered, “It wasn’t easy, but I finally found the magic rope.” She winked and gently took her daughter from Ace. “She’s only three weeks old and all this celebrating is too much for her. I’ll put her in the bassinet in Sarah’s room.”
“Congratulations,” Tuf said to his brother.
“Thanks. Glad you’re home,” Ace replied, but Tuf felt he wanted to say a whole lot more. They both knew this wasn’t the time. Ace was the oldest, the responsible one and the head of the family, next to their mom. And Ace would hold Tuf accountable for two years of silence, two years of ignoring the family and two years of shirking his responsibility to said family. Accountability was coming but it would not be tonight.
His other brother, Colt, edged his way toward them. “Now, Ace kind of fibbed about the firstborn Hart grandchild.” Colt pulled a boy of about eleven or twelve toward him. “This is Evan, my son.”
Tuf stared at the boy and then back to his sandy-haired, handsome brother. Love-’em-and-leave-’em Colt—that’s how he was known around the rodeo circuit. Romancing the ladies came easily to him, while Tuf found it almost painful sometimes. Maybe because his brothers cast long shadows and it was hard to walk in their wake. Seemed as if all his life he’d been trying to prove he was tough enough to match his older brothers and cousins.
“Nice to meet you,” the boy said and held out his hand.
Tuf took it. “Nice to meet you, too, Evan.” The last time Tuf was home, there had been no mention of Evan, and now wasn’t the time to point that out.
Reaching behind him, Colt pulled a brown-haired woman forward. Leah Stockton. “You know Leah. We’re married and these are her kids, five-year-old Jill and three-year-old Davey.”
Tuf touched his forehead. “Am I in another time zone or something? Colt is married with a ready-made family?”
Colt punched Tuf’s shoulder. “You bet.”
Leah hugged him. “Welcome home, Tuf.”
After that he was lost in a sea of unfamiliar faces. His cousin Duke strolled over with his new wife, Angie, and her eight-year-old son, Luke. He also met the new bride, Sierra, and his uncle Josh’s wife, Jordan, who walked with a white cane and had a yellow Lab Seeing Eye dog named Molly. He didn’t get the whole story, but he could see Uncle Josh was very much in love.
Seemed Sierra owned the Number 1 Diner in town and Jordan was her aunt. He was beginning to think there was something in the water. In the past year, his whole family had gotten married.
His mom shoved a plate of food into his hands. “Eat. We’ll talk later.”
