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

“What storm?” Mia yawned. “I could have slept until noon.”

Addy gave her a brief hug. “You must’ve been tired to sleep through that one. You’ve always been terrified of storms.”

Jesse noticed that Mia wiggled free of Addy’s embrace and then headed for the coffeepot. She poured herself a cup and carried it to the table without even asking if her mother wanted some. Jesse quickly made Addy a mug full and handed it to her.

“Sorry, Mama.” Mia shrugged. “I figured you’d been up long enough to get your own.”

“Thank you, Jesse.” Addy smiled up at him.

“So are we still walking the alpacas over this morning, or do you want me to do some other stupid jobs?” Mia asked.

“Thin ice,” Addy said in a low voice.

“All right,” Mia huffed, “other meaningless jobs.”

“Getting thinner,” Addy said.

“Sorry, Jesse,” Mia said. “I’ll try not to offend anyone else this morning.”

“That’s better,” Addy said.

“Yes, we are moving the alpacas,” Jesse answered, “and Mia, there are no stupid or meaningless jobs on a ranch. You should know that by now. Everything that needs to be done is important and deserves our best efforts.”

“Whatever.” She raised one shoulder in half a shrug, as if he didn’t deserve a full one. “Nana, after we get the alpacas over here, I thought I’d help you bake cookies this afternoon.”

“You’ll have to take that up with Jesse,” Pearl said. “Say grace, Sonny, before the gravy gets cold.”

Everyone bowed their heads, and Sonny gave the shortest prayer Jesse had ever heard. When he raised his head, he smiled at Mia. “Honey, your mama can help my precious Pearl make cookies. You are needed on the ranch, but Jesse is the boss.”

“Even over Henry?” Mia split a biscuit open and covered it with sausage gravy.

“That’s right.” Sonny took out a portion of scrambled eggs and passed the bowl on to Pearl. “Even over Henry. Jesse will even be my boss at the end of the summer. He will be running the whole ranch by then.”

“What if Cody and Lucas come home?” Mia set the bowl of eggs on the table when they reached her.

“They are all equal owners of Sunflower and will share in the profits, but Jesse will be the boss and get a salary since he’ll be working on the place,” Sonny explained.

“Who’s going to take care of the bookwork?” Mia pressured for more.

“Addy took over when you left us,” Pearl answered. “She’s going to show Jesse the program in the next few days.”

“I messed up pretty bad, didn’t I?” Mia added two spoons full of sugar to her coffee.

“Yes, you did, but maybe someday, you’ll prove yourself again,” Sonny told her.

Mia’s gaze across the table at Jesse made him uncomfortable, and he seriously thought about giving her the whole afternoon off to bake cookies. “So what’s the verdict…boss?” Her tone was so cold that he changed his mind.

“When we get the alpacas over here, we will be driving into town for a load of feed, and then we need to clean as many watering troughs as we can this afternoon. I noticed green algae growing on a couple of them. We also need to put a little oil in the windmill bearings. It was squeaking last time Dad and I made a drive around the fence line. I’m thinking that, tomorrow, we’ll help Henry and the hired hands put up new fencing around the property across the road, and Friday, you and I will clean out the shearing shed real good,” he answered. “I can’t spare a good hand like you to make cookies.”

“Yes, sir!” she smarted off.

“I’ll try to make sure we’re all done by noon on Saturday so you can go to the bake sale with Mama and Addy, though.” He smiled brightly.

“We always knock off at noon on Saturday, and pay the hired hands for their week’s work,” she reminded him.

“You’ll be paid for three and a half days of work,” Jesse said. “Please pass the eggs. If no one else wants any more, I’ll finish them off. We’ve got a long day ahead of us. Mama, would you fix up some sandwiches for us? I’ve already got a cooler with bottles of water and tea in the truck. We probably won’t have time to come in for dinner.”

Mia groaned and filled another biscuit with strawberry jam.

Jesse made a second plate of biscuits and gravy. “This can be a good day or a bad one. I choose for my part to make it a good one because you and I get to work together. It’s up to you whatever kind of day you have.”

Mia shot him a dirty look. Jesse wondered if she’d be so surly with him if he had been in her life the whole time. She had had a big disappointment because of bad choices. Getting over that and accepting that the blame was as much hers as Ricky’s would take time, and hopefully, in the end, she would be ready to accept him as a friend if not a father.

Addy nudged her with a shoulder. “Remember that you put yourself in this position. You can bring yourself up out of it with hard work and determination, but it won’t be an overnight or even end-of-summer thing. The choice is yours.”

“I don’t make good choices anymore,” she muttered. “Jesse, you’re the only one who isn’t totally biased toward me at this table, so you have to choose for me from now on.”