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

“What do you want to do with this bundle of wool?” Addy asked.

“Sell it and put the money in my checking account.” Mia brought out three bottles of cold water and tossed one each to Addy and Jesse. She twisted the top off hers, took a long drink, and then wiped the sweat from her face with the tail of her tank top, showing off a belly ring that Addy had no idea her daughter had gotten. When Mia sat down on the floor across the room from her mother, her shirt rolled up in the back and there was a tattoo of a rose across the small of her back.

“When did you get a tat?” Addy whispered.

“Ricky gave me this one for my birthday.” She shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about getting another one, maybe two hearts entwined with mine and his initials in them, right here.” She pulled down the neck of her shirt and pointed to her chest.

Addy downed half the bottle of water to keep from saying anything.

“Did you want a tat?” Jesse asked.

Mia jacked up her chin in defiance. “Ricky wanted me to have one, and I thought it was sweet of him to pick out a rose. He says I’m his beautiful red rose, and this will always remind me of how much he loves me. If I get another one, it will show him that I will love him forever.”

“So you’ve been dating him since February?” Jesse asked.

Mia shook her head. “We’ve been seeing each other since right after Thanksgiving last year.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Addy asked.

“I knew how you would react,” Mia told her.

Jesse’s body glistened with sweat and his hair was soaked when he sat down on the floor of the shed not far from Addy. Just having him close gave her strength, but she still thought maybe this thing with Mia was just a dream—no, not a dream, a full-fledged nightmare.

Jesse turned up his bottle, took a long drink, and said, “That’s pretty amazing shearing for a nineteen-year-old girl.”

“Are you one of those men who think women can’t do something good?” Mia’s tone was cold enough to scare away the sweltering heat.

“Not at all. I served with women, even knew a couple of snipers who were female,” he said. “If that’s all you got out of my statement, then you missed the point altogether.”

Addy tried a different approach. “I can’t stop you from going, but I can freeze your bank accounts since I’m the primary on both of them.”

“I don’t need any of that money. I’ll just cash the check I’m getting today. That should be enough to keep us in hotels and food until we find where we want to live. Ricky thinks we’ll start driving toward California and maybe find a place in Nevada. I want to check out the mountains in Colorado or maybe Wyoming before we make a decision,” Mia said.

“Will you call your mother every day?” Jesse asked. “She’ll worry about you.”

“Nope, but I will call her once a week on Sunday afternoon if we aren’t somewhere that has no service.” Mia pointed at him. “But this isn’t any of your concern. It’s between family, not outsiders.” She turned back to focus on her mother. “Ricky and I’ve been living together this last semester of school. He got kicked out of the dorm for smoking pot, but it was his roommate who had the stuff, not Ricky. We rented an apartment together. We passed most of our classes, so we have a full year of business courses under our belts, and I have ranching experience so finding jobs won’t be a problem.”

“Sweet Jesus!” Addy muttered. “What do you mean, most of your classes? Last semester you had all A’s.”

“Well, this semester I failed three classes.” Mia shrugged. “I’ll retake them later if I go back. Ricky and I haven’t decided what we’re going to do at the end of summer. If we don’t want to work on ranches, we may both join the Army, if they’ll promise to station us at the same places. I hear the truck coming to get the sheep. I can get them herded in without y’all’s help. I just have to go by the house and get my stuff, then pick up Ricky…” She smiled at her mother. “I’ll call you on Sunday.” She dashed out the back door without so much as giving Addy a hug.

Jesse moved over to sit closer to Addy. “Are you going to survive all this?”

Addy pulled her knees up, propped her elbows on them, and buried her face in her hands. “Wake me up, Jesse, and tell me this was all a nightmare. What did I do wrong? How could I have been so blind as to not know she had moved out of the dorm. Pearl and Sonny paid so much for her to live there.”

He slung an arm around her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, but today is very real. Want me to call Grady? Does he know that I’m Mia’s father?”

“Hell, no!” Tears flowed down her cheeks. “He wouldn’t understand any of this, and he’d have a million questions about why I didn’t see it happening. I failed by not giving her a father figure…and now she’s about to ruin her life. I can’t even imagine her…in the Army,” Addy said between sobs.

“Right now, that might be the best place for her and Ricky both.” Jesse pulled her closer to his side. “There’s no way they’ll promise them the same duty stations, so she’d be separated from him and have some time to think for herself without him telling her what to do. From what y’all have told me about him, he probably wouldn’t last past basic training. But before that happens, it’s a sure shot that he’s about to spend every bit of that money she’s getting today. You would be wise to freeze her accounts, or he’ll use that up, too.”