Disclaimer: Janet E. owns her character's, I own the one's you didn't recognize right off the bat. I do not profit from my works.
Chapter 14
After Sissy and I hugged goodbye, we parted ways knowing we'd see each other tomorrow night. As Freddie and Evan were doing some complicated handhake, I tried to climb into the truck by myself. I managed to fall flat on my ass, when strong hands helped me up. Jake chuckled, "Mack was right, you do manage to get yourself into a bit of trouble."
I brushed myself off, and smiled sheepishly at him. "Yeah, I do that a lot." Leaning up against the truck I looked at him.
"You seem to manage though."
"You have no idea. I've been kidnapped, shot, beaten, trapped in a coffin, drugged and had more cars blown up and crushed than you can shake a stick at. Usually Ranger and the guys come to my rescue."
"Got the whole damsel in distress thing down, huh?"
"Yup. Evan is my knight in shining armor." I smiled, watching Evan waltz up to us.
"Mi'Lady."
"Sir Ramsey." I giggled.
"Mack. How the hell do you stay sane with all the trouble she gets herself into?"
"I don't. I just try to get to her before something bad happens."
"Bad? You consider kidnapping, getting shot, and cars blowing up good things."
"Could be worse. She could still be dating Ranger." Evan looked at me winking.
"Your boss?"
I winced. I really didn't like many people here knowing about Ranger and I. It was old news. Evan was engaged to me now. He was my future. "They parted friends." Evan explained. "If it weren't for him, I never would have met my Angel." He leaned down to kiss me.
"Amen to that." I smiled at Evan and then to Jake.
With Evan's help I loaded up into the truck and watched as Jake and Evan gave each other a man-hug. I gave him a little finger wave as we pulled away. Evan quieted and looked sideways at me. "I think you better know now. Jake has always been a player. I love him like a brother, but he's got issues. I know he's got at least three kids by three different women. And I'm pretty sure he's the father of my cousin's son. She never said who the father was, but I'm pretty sure."
I shook my head in disgust. "Why would he do that?"
"It's just the way he is. All the girls around here learned fast not to stay on his radar for too long. So he started dating girls from out of town."
"Well, just so he know's we're together."
"Angel." We drove the rest of the way to the house in silence.
The next morning we were eating breakfast with Momma and Pop when Justin and Junior came in from feeding the livestock. Justin sat across from me and Junior at the end of the table to my left. Momma placed plates of food in front of them and they began to inhale. "So, Darlin' what do you plan on doing today?"
"I don't know Momma? I would ask Justin to take me on a tour of the ranch but I know he has to help Pop and the boys vaccinate the heifers. Maybe I'll hang out and work with Comfort for a while."
"Comfort?"
"You know... Devil the escapee horse."
"Oh, Darlin', I didn't know you had renamed him. If that's what you want to do." Momma brightened, "Evan dear."
"Yes Momma?"
"I almost forgot to tell you. The boys will be here to help you today."
"You must have told them you'd bake your apple pies."
"And my cherry pies."
"Suckers!"
"Evan Michael! Ramsey! How can you talk like that about your friends? They are coming here to help your father... and YOU. The least you can do is be grateful."
He hung his head knowing if he went any farther he'd get his ears boxed. "Yes, Momma." I smiled, noting the way Momma winked at me. She had purposely shown me how to deal with Evan when in a difficult situation. Smart woman!
After finishing the breakfast dishes I headed upstairs to put my boots on. A knock on the door revealed Junior wringing his hands waiting to talk to me. "Junior? What's the matter?"
"Can I talk to you Steph?"
"Sure come in."
He looked nervous, and unsure of what to say. "I need your advice... as a woman I mean."
"Okayyy..." I answered, unsure of what he was about to ask me.
"See, it's Macey. My fiancee. She is putting me through the wringer. I don't know what to do."
"Okay, Junior What happened?"
"She up and left me last night." His head dropped into his hands and he began to cry. I hurried and shut the door. I sat him down on the sofa and patted his back. His whole body shook as he was wracked with sobs. He crumpled, placing his head in my lap.
"Oh, Sweety." I didn't know what to say. I let him cry, and get his anguish out. "Junior what happened?"
"We had a fight about her going out at night. I suspected she'd been cheating on me." He wiped his tears with his sleeve. "She even came home one night and smelled like men's cologne. I called her on it and she said she had bumped into a guy at the bar. Then another night she came home without any panties on. I know she left with some on, I saw them. She said I was crazy and I must have been thinking about another night." He started to cry again.
"Junior. Let me guess. She got mad said you were crazy and she couldn't handle you acting all jealous and nutso. Right?" He nodded. "She packed her things and threw it into her car. But the things she packed were the expensive and costly things right?" He nodded again. "She left most of the clothes, most of the shoes, the heirlooms, and the pictures. But she took the car, the expensive shoes, the expensive clothes, all her make up, all her hair stuff and the ring right?"
He sniffled. "Yeah, how did you know?"
"Because I watched half of the girls in the Berg do that to their husbands, boyfriends or fiancee's. It's what they do when they get caught cheating. They throw it all back on the man."
"But why?"
"So she doesn't feel guilty for hurting you. She's trying to place the blame on you. In her mind she's trying to tell herself that you are the problem. When it really is her."
"She's cheating for sure?"
"Not sure. But if you love her and you are willing to forgive her, talk to her. If you're not ready to forgive or forget, than you need to move on." I smoothed the hair out of his eyes. "Junior, I'm telling you this from experience, love is a hard thing to get right. You have to work at it. You BOTH have to work at it. If someone fails to put in the effort, it starts to fall apart. One person can not do it alone."
"So what do I do?"
"Talk to her. Let her know how you stand." I kissed his cheek. "You have to decide if you want her or not."
He sat up and hugged me, "Thanks Steph. I didn't know who to talk to. Momma would have gone after her with the shotgun. And I can't talk to my brothers, they don't know about stuff like this."
"Junior. Evan would understand. After what Brittany put him through, he would understand."
"Thanks Steph. I'm glad you're a part of this family now. I'm glad Evan got his head out of his ass and finally caught you. You're the perfect match for him. I love you Steph."
"I love you too Junior." I hugged him again, just as Evan walked into the room.
"Hi." He said, slowly looking from Junior to me. "Everything okay?" I shook my head, no.
"Can I tell him Junior?" I turned to look at him.
"Okay." His shoulders slumped again and he leaned back in the sofa resting his head on the back, eyes closed.
"Baby. Macey left Junior last night. He suspected she cheated and called her on it. And she moved out on him."
"I'm sorry, man. Is there anything I can do?"
"Nope. I gotta go talk to her myself." He turned his head to look at Evan in the eyes. "Don't you dare mess up with Steph. We'll keep her and kick you out of the family. Got it?"
Evan laughed but knew Junior was dead serious. "Yeah, man. I got it."
Junior hustled out of the room leaving us to contemplate the situation for ourselves. "Guess, it didn't take him very long to warm up to you."
"Nope. All of a day and a half. Why?"
"He doesn't like new people. But I think he knows you're a really nice girl." Evan smiled and drew me into a hug. "I know I think you're a nice girl. The kind you bring home to Momma." He laughed softly.
"So, are you going to head out to the far pasture yet?"
"Not until the guys get here. Should be anytime. The sensor for the front gate went off a few minutes ago."
"Okay. I guess I'll see you around lunch time." I bent to pick up my boots.
"Angel?"
"Hmm?" I looked up to see him partially out the door, head poking into the room.
"I love you."
"I love you too Baby." I felt all warm and fuzzy. Every time he told me he loved me it only reenforced the fact that we had come a long way. We started out as strangers, then aquaintances, the co-workers, then friends and now lovers. I was left pondering our future as he went to greet his friends.
Most of the morning I spent brushing and combing Comfort. He seemed to really enjoy the feeling and I didn't have the heart to stop. I ran my hands around him, feeling for any sore spots or injuries. I noticed that his hooves were seriously overgrown and needed tending. I decided to ask Pop to call a ferrier for Comfort. But before I did I noticed a wonderful aroma coming from the house. I followed my nose and found myself in the kitchen watching Momma pull two pies out of the oven. The sound of my inhale made her smile. "Darlin' if you want a piece of pie all you have to do is ask."
"I don't want to be a pest."
"Nonsense Darlin'. I always make an extra pie or two. I'm suprised Evan never told you about my pies. They're legendary around these parts."
"No. But I'm willing to taste test to find out for myself."
"Cut youself a slice of cherry from the pie safe." She pointed to a cabinet alongside the massive wall of windows. I pulled open the door to find a cherry pie sitting on the top shelf. I cut two slices and set them on the table with two cups of coffee. I sat down waiting for Momma to finish putting the pies on the cooling racks. She sat in her chair handing me a fork. She dug into her slice and I followed suit. When I tasted the wonderful magic she called cherry pie, I moaned and my eyes rolled into my head.
"Momma! That is so heavenly!" I smiled at her, "You should think about selling these. You'd make a fortune."
"Why thank you Darlin'. I used to work at a bakery in a town about an hour from here. Pop came in one day after he had gone to buy some parts for his truck. We fell in love and got married less than a month later. We then had our three little ones and the rest is history." She sipped her coffee. "I know you had a rocky road to get to my Evan. He always called me everytime you got hurt. He felt like it was his fault, that he couldn't protect you. He has loved you for so long I think I've thought of you as part of our family for many years. I can see you love him too."
"You know it's funny Momma. When I thought about all the times he came to my rescue, and the times we spent hanging out as friends, I never really knew how he felt about me. I liked doing surveilance with him because we would talk about life, our dreams, our hopes. I remember a night when we were sitting outside of a factory waiting on a skip to surface, and I asked him what he wanted most in life." I paused and started to tear up. I shook my head to stop my tears, and choked out, "He... he told me the one thing he wanted most in life was to marry me and have a family.' I allowed the tears to fall, "I remember laughing and telling him he was a smartass. But I remember the look of sadness in his eyes when I said it. Had I known he loved me all these years I could have spared him the pain of that comment."
I took a big gulp of my coffee. "I never was good at relationships. I had the worst kind with Morelli. On again, off again. We never really saw eye to eye, and he tried to change me. He wanted me to be the stay at home Berg wife, taking care of the kids, the dog and the house. He wanted me to give up being a BEA and give up Rangeman. I couldn't do that. I loved the guys too much to do that, and I didn't love Joe enough to give them up. I know that all the guys at Rangeman love me in their own way. Ranger let me love him but he couldn't let himself love me the way he wanted to. But Evan, I always knew he was special. I would catch him looking at me and I would get a warm fuzzy feeling, and when we would work together I would be on top of the world. And the times when he got hurt, were the worst. I nearly lost it a few times. Lester still teases me about how I flipped out more about Evan getting hurt than I did for Ranger. And it's true." I shook my head."Why did it take my mind years to figure out that I love Evan, when my heart knew the first time we met?"
"Darlin'." Momma patted my hand and stroked my hair. "The heart wants what it wants, whether our brain understands it at the time or not."
"Momma, I love Evan with all my heart. I'm just sad that it took me this long to figure it out."
"We can all thank God you did figure it out. Especially Evan."
"Momma, before Evan, I couldn't see myself ever having a family. But two nights ago, I had a dream." I told her about the dream I had about the baby and the little boy. I told her about 'Uncle Carlos' and the guys. Finally I told her about what the little boy said about having a big happy family. She smiled and tears rolled down her face.
"Before Turk and I got married, I had a dream, too. I dreamt that I had three beautiful boys standing next to the two of us." She wiped the tears away. "In my family, when you dream of such things, we think of it as God's way of telling us that he is blessing the union and it's his way of giving us a glimpse of our future."
"Oh, Momma. I want a family with Evan. I am ready to be the mother of his children." I smiled.
"You are ready Darlin'. And so is Evan."
"Well," She said, pushing herself up from her chair. "Do you want to help me put lunch together for the men? We can take it out to them around 1330."
"Oh, no. Not you too?" We started to make sandwiches, and salads.
"Well, when you have three boys who enlist, it becomes part of your life."
"Three? Junior was in the military too?" I added fresh fruit to the basket.
"Yes. He did his own thing. He went into the Marines. When Evan and Justin get mad at him they call him a Jarhead. But he did real well, made the rank of Sergeant before he was given an honorable medical discharge. He was shot by a sniper in his right leg outside of Falujah, Iraq. It shattered his femur, it had to be surgically repaired, he has a titanium rod relacing most of his right femur. It was very hard for him, but he did his rehab and worked exceptionally hard at hiding the fact he was injured in the first place."
"I had no idea. I'm usually really good at picking up on some type of an injury, even an old one. I didn't notice even the slightest limp."
"He doesn't see himself as injured. He sees himself as healed and ready to move on with life."
I smiled and helped Momma grab four of the pies. We tied bandanas around to protect them and tucked them into a cardboard box. Momma handed me a knife and had me slice a dozen and a half lemons putting them into a large berverage crock. She added water, additional lemon juice and sugar syrup. When we finished, we gathered up the basket, the box and the beverage crock and headed for Momma's truck. We loaded up and headed out through the pastures to a field far from the house.
We pulled up and parked near the other work trucks sitting at the edge of a large circular pen full of black beef cattle. Momma and I left the truck and unloaded the food onto the dropped tailgate. Pop, three ranchhands and the boys were finishing up the last of the vaccinations as I watched as Evan turn and smile at me. He waved and made his way over to the side of the pen. I climbed up enough to lean over and kiss him. The sound of cat calls and smoochy sounds came from the direction of the guys. Evan rolled his eyes and kissed me again, pulling my head forward with a hand to the back of my neck. When we broke apart, I was blushing and he was beaming his crooked smile. Momma sighed and shook her head, "Evan. Get Pop and the rest. It's time for lunch."
I climbed back down off of the fence and headed back to the truck. Filling cups of lemonade, I watched the guys approach. They were dirty and dusty, but joking around. We sat anywhere we could find a comfortable spot to eat and dug in. Evan and I sat in the bed of Momma's truck back to back leaning against each other. We listened to Pop tell stories of when all the boys were kids. One in particular interested me the most. Pop recounted the story of how Evan, Crash, Freddie, Deeter and Justin were coming back from a football game when they encountered a woman lying in the middle of the highway just outside of town. They stopped to see if she was okay. When she came to she was screaming about her babies in the truck. Apparently the truck ran off the road down a steep embankment and she managed to crawl up to the road for help. Once the boys realized there were kids in the truck, Deeter stayed with the lady, Justin drove to the nearest phone to call for help, while the rest of the boys climbed down the hill to where the truck had come to rest against a patch of trees. They searched the area and finally found the kids. They found the kids all right. They were kids, as in baby goats. She had been headed back to her farm with ten newly purchased nubian goat kids, and went off the road. The boys rounded them up bringing them up to the road. The ambulance came and carted the lady off leaving the boys with the goats. Evan decided to drop them off at the local feed store to hold until she could collect them. After she was released from the hospital she paid a visit to the high school to personally thank the boys.
Pop smiled at the young men around him. "That was one of the proudest mement of my life. To see so many of our young men doing what was right. Makes a man proud to be a father." He angled his head towards Deeter, Freddie and Crash, "And I guess these boys too."
Deeter nodded, "You've always been a great role model Pop. Since my dad died you've stood in and helped me when I needed it. Thanks Pop." Pop smiled and nodded.
We finished our lunch and Momma brought out the pies. "Thank you!" Freddie yelled, and was first in line for a slice of Momma's apple pie. Twenty minutes later there was nothing left in the pie tins and the men looked a little stuffed.
Evan poked his belly and groaned, "I'm going to have to do extra mat time for the next month for all the food we've eaten here." He grimmaced.
"Could be worse."
"How?"
"I could tell Grandma you need a workout partner."
He looked horrified. "You wouldn't dare!" The men started to laugh.
"What's the matter Mack? Afraid of a little old woman?"
The look he gave them was typical Rangeman, dark and brooding. "You meet her and tell me you don't want to run for the hills. That woman has fingers as fast as lightning. She'll pinch your ass before you can blink." They started to roll with laughter. "And wait until she starts talking about your 'package'! Makes a grown man want to cry."
I was dying laughing, but nodding in agreement. Choking out the words, "She is the ONLY thing every man at Rangeman is afraid of. They literally run from her. She pinched Evan on the rear twice the night she met him. It was great!" I squeeked out, tears rolling down my face. "I can't wait for you all to meet her. She's a pip!"
The laughter finally died down and we cleaned up lunch. The men gathered up their supplies and loaded them into one of the farm trucks. Pop came over to Evan and placed his hand on his shoulder, "Evan. Are you going to take care of that job I asked of you?"
"Yes, sir. I brought my rifle. I'll take Angel with me. I should be done by 1630."
"You'd have just enough time to get back and clean up before you have to leave. Better get to it."
"Yes, sir."