Page 2 of Rancher's Return

There were three kids currently in the program who didn’t have homes to go back to. And he had connected with them. It had been yet another turning point.

But that’s when he had seen himself clearly. He had a trust fund he hadn’t touched since he left Lone Rock. He had been living on the ranch, taking the barest of bare minimum pay. He had no possessions. He was like a monk with a vow of poverty, supported by the church. Though the ranch was hardly a church.

He used his paycheck for one week off a year, where he usually went to some touristy ski town, stayed in reasonable accommodations, found a female companion whose name hedidknow and spent a nice weekend.

But otherwise... He didn’t have much of anything.

And he could.

He considered taking all his money and donating it to the ranch, but it was well funded by many organizations and rich people who wanted to feel like they were doing good in the world while getting a write-off on their taxes.

And then he remembered he had a unique resource.

His family.

He could give Reggie, Marcus and Colton a family. A real family.

Yeah, he was an imperfect father figure, but he had found that made it easier to connect with the kids at the ranch. Additionally, he had a mother and a father, six brothers and a sister. And they were all married with children of their own. He could give these boys a real, lasting sense of community.

And that was when he had decided to adopt those boys, buy a ranch in Lone Rock and reconnect with his parents. They had met on neutral ground, at various rodeo events over the summer.

His dad had been angry at first; his mom never had been. But he had explained what he had been through, what he had been doing and why he had been absent for so long, and ultimately, they had forgiven him. And welcomed him to come back home. He also knew they had done some work priming his brothers and sister to accept his presence. Or at least, the presence of the boys.

But...

He also had the sense all was not forgiven and forgotten when it came to his siblings.

Even so, he was looking forward to today’s reunion.

At least he was pretty sure the sick feeling in his stomach was anticipation. And maybe some of the anger that still lived inside of him. At this town, at himself.

Well. Hell.

He supposed he didn’t have a full accounting of all his emotions.

There was nothing simple about the loss this place had experienced all those years ago. His friends should be thirty-eight years old. Just like him. But they were forever eighteen.

He looked at his sons, sitting on the bench seat of the truck, with Marcus in the back.

It wasn’t a coincidence that he had adopted three of them, he supposed. A more obvious mea culpa didn’t exist. But then, he had never pretended he wasn’t making as firm a bid for redemption as he possibly could.

Yeah. Well.

It was what it was.

“So we’re meeting your whole family today?” Marcus asked.

“Yeah. For better or worse.”

“You haven’t seen them in twenty years,” Colton said.

“No.”

“God, you are so old,” Colton said.

“Yeah. Really ancient,” Buck said. “And feeling older by the minute around you three assholes.”

“I do think you have more gray hair since you adopted us,” Reggie said.