Second Chance at Sunflower Ranch (The Ryan Family #1) by Carolyn Brown

Chapter Four



Addy drove with one elbow stuck out the window of the truck that pulled the trailer the boys were stacking hay on. She saw Jesse coming out across the field from his truck, and her breath caught in her throat when he removed his shirt. His chest had always been broad, but sweet lord, looking at his bare skin glistening with sweat gave her a case of hot flashes that had nothing to do with the sun beating down on her arm.

She turned the radio on and upped the volume so the kids could hear. Garth Brooks was singing, “If Tomorrow Never Comes.” Right then she wished that tomorrow would never come, that she would never have to tell her daughter the truth about her father.

She glanced in the side mirror to catch Jesse staring at her reflection. When he caught her eye, he tipped his hat and went back to work. Could he be thinking the same thing that she was? The words to the song asked if the love they had known from the past was enough to last if there was no tomorrow. She and Jesse had agreed when they were only thirteen that they couldn’t ever be more than good friends, because if they were, it might ruin their best friend status—and then that last night before he went to the military, they had crossed the line. Who could know if that one crazy night would have developed into something else if she had been willing to keep in touch with him? The only thing she knew for sure was that, for her, the love they had shared that night had lasted twenty years—but it was past time to let all that go. She and Jesse were adults now, and the choices they had made had changed them.

“Mama!” Mia yelled over the top of the music on the radio.

Addy realized the truck was veering right toward a hay bale and quickly got it under control. She did her best to keep her eyes on the field in front of her, but every few minutes she stole a fast glance at Jesse. Why did he have to be so damned sexy?

When no more bales could be loaded onto the trailer, the kids hopped into the bed of the truck. Just as she started driving toward the barn, Jesse opened the passenger door and slid into the wide bench seat beside her. He twisted the cap off a bottle of water, handed it to her, and then did the same with a second one and turned it up for several long gulps.

“Thank you, but the hay haulers are supposed to be back there together.” She took a sip and set the bottle between her knees.

“I’m too old to sit back there,” Jesse said. “I don’t want those kids to hear me groaning after only two hours of hard work.”

“You are getting pretty damn old,” she said.

“Hey, now!” Jesse raised an eyebrow. “If I’m remembering right, you are four days older than I am.”

A strand of kinky brown hair had escaped her ponytail and was hanging in front of her oversized sunglasses. She tucked it behind her ear and kept her eyes on the rutted lane back to the barn. “You’ve been out on a twenty-year adventure filled with danger, and that makes you look”—she lowered her sunglasses and glanced at him—“about five years older than me.”

You are flirting. Her grandmother’s voice was loud and clear in her head.

Am not, she argued. I’m just being a friend to Jesse like I used to be.

“I missed you, Addy. Why didn’t we keep in touch?” he asked.

“You had your dreams to follow that involved getting away from this ranch,” she answered. “I had mine, and they went in separate directions. Our paths just separated, Jesse.”

“And yet, here we are right back where we started,” he said.

“Yep, hauling hay like we did when we were kids,” she agreed as she backed the trailer into the barn. “Guess it’s tougher than we thought to get away from our roots.”

“Ever wonder where we’d be if we had stayed in Honey Grove?” he asked.

Just every single day, she thought. “There’s no use in thinking about what happened in the past. Those days are gone.”

“What about the future?” he asked as he opened the truck door.

“No use in worrying about that either. We just have today, and right now the important thing is that we get this hay stacked so these boys can collect their paychecks and knock off work by noon,” she told him.

“I’d forgotten it was Saturday,” he said with a grin. “You going to the Wild Horse tonight?”

“Those days are in the past, too,” she told him.

“Still got your fake ID?” he asked.

“Of course I do.” She didn’t tell him that she had an old cigar box with everything they had ever shared through their eighteen years as best friends and neighbors.

“Me, too,” he said.

* * *



Mia had already formed a hay-tossing brigade and had several bales stacked when Jesse got out of the truck and back to the trailer. “We’ve got this if you want to go on to the house and visit with Poppa.”

“Reckon I’d best stick around and earn my keep.” Jesse stepped in front of the line and caught the next bale that she threw over the side of the trailer.

Mia shrugged and shot him a dirty look. “Suit yourself.”

“You got a problem with me, boss?” he asked.

She cut her eyes over to the other side of the barn where her mother was gathering up bottles of water for everyone. “Not if you stay away from my mama. I teased her about flirting with you, but she doesn’t need a boyfriend at her age.” She bent down and whispered for his ears only.