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

“Oh, yes, we did.” Pearl smiled. “We had declared that we would never even kiss each other because that could lead to a relationship, and we couldn’t imagine ever losing each other for a friend. But one night, on a hayride, I almost fell off the wagon and he saved me. We had that first kiss and threw caution right out in the pasture. We were married a year later, right here on this ranch. It was called the Ryan Ranch in those days.”

Addy was suddenly wide awake and intrigued. “When did it change?”

“They weren’t using the bunkhouse in the winter, so we took up housekeeping out there. Sonny’s mama took sick in the spring and passed away the first of summer, and his dad, God love his soul”—she stopped and took a drink of her root beer—“couldn’t boil water, clean a house, or even do laundry. He offered us the ranch, free and clear, if we’d move into the house with him and help him until he died.” Pearl drew her knees up and wrapped the tail of her gown around her ankles. “Sonny’s dad was killed in a tractor accident a year after we moved in, and Sonny inherited the whole place. I had a bouquet of wild sunflowers that Sonny picked for me the day we got married. I saved the seeds from those flowers, and we planted them out there by the gate posts where you turn into the lane. Those reseed the land every year and produce more, reminding us that we are still best friends as well as an old married couple these days.”

“That’s a beautiful story. Is that where you got Sunflower Ranch then?” Addy asked.

Pearl smiled and nodded. “Sunflowers because I love them, and the new brand became the SR ranch for Simon, or Sonny as he’s been known his whole life, Ryan. It all fit together so well that it seemed like it was divine. Now, this old lady has rattled on enough about the past. We should both get some sleep. Good night, Addy, and please don’t ever leave us.”

“Okay, but only if you promise to tell me if all this turmoil starts to upset Sonny,” she agreed.

Addy hurried inside when the first drops of rain blew in from the southwest. She went straight for Mia’s bedroom to be sure her daughter was all right. Even as a child, she had hated storms. Last summer, she had still come into Addy’s bedroom, dragging her favorite blanket behind her, to sleep on her mother’s bed when it stormed.

Staring at her from the doorway, Addy was reminded of just how much she did look like Jesse with all that dark hair and heavy lashes laying on her high cheekbones. She tiptoed across the room just as a flash of lightning lit up Mia’s face. Memories flooded Addy’s mind like a video of her daughter’s life.

The first picture was one of Addy holding Mia on her shoulder while she worked on her college classes. She had taken two weeks off after the baby was born but had kept up with all her assignments—then for the rest of the semester, she had worked with Mia in her arms.

Then there was one of Mia when she had cut her first teeth. Addy and her grandmother had walked the floor with the baby night after night, trying to ease her pain and get her to sleep. Other images followed one after another. Mia when she took her first wobbly steps in the living room, and when she said her first words. With her first sheep and her first blue ribbon, and then sitting on the porch of the house where they’d first lived here in Honey Grove those few months before moving to the ranch.

“Your father missed all that because I didn’t tell him about you,” she whispered as she tucked the sheet up around Mia’s shoulders.

She tiptoed out of the room and eased the door shut, then went to her own bedroom. A flash of lightning jumped out of the sky and seemed to land right below her window when she pulled the curtains back. A glimmer of yellow showed in the bunkhouse window through the rain. Was Jesse having trouble sleeping, too?

Addy sighed as she dropped the curtain and touched her lips again. It was still there—the same sensation she’d felt before. “If I’m honest, I’ve always loved him for more than a friend. That’s probably why I can’t seem to last in a relationship with anyone else. I can’t give them my heart when he’s got it in his pocket.”





Chapter Fifteen



Jesse sipped on a cup of coffee as he set the table for breakfast and then got the jams and jellies out of the refrigerator. “Quite a storm last night wasn’t it, Dad?” he asked.

Sonny looked up. “I didn’t hear a thing, but I did see that we had gotten a little rain when I got my paper off the porch.”

Pearl refilled his coffee mug. “Darlin’, we had lightning and thunder, and it rained cats and dogs and baby elephants.”

“I slept right through it, but you should tell Henry to make a drive around the fences and count the cattle this morning,” Sonny said.

“Want me to do that rather than bring the alpacas over?” Jesse asked.

“No, Henry can take care of it. Those animals will be better off over here so we can take good care of them,” Sonny answered.

“Will do.” Jesse nodded.

“Will do what?” Addy asked as she entered the kitchen. “I should have been up thirty minutes ago to help with breakfast.”

“Don’t worry about it. Jesse already had coffee made when Sonny and I got in here this morning,” Pearl said. “We were talking about that storm last night and bringing the alpacas over here today.”