The Cowboy’s Tattered Heart (Paperback)

Chapter 1

Rain pounded against the old glass windowpanes. With each gust of wind, another smattering of water droplets dragged downward until they disappeared from sight. Robert glanced up from the latest past due notice in his hand.
Ever since Evelyn passed, he’d found it harder and harder to keep this place afloat. She’d been the one raised here. She’d been the one to make him agree to raise their children in this forsaken place. And he’d done it because he was so deeply in love with her.
But their only child was now grown and starting a family of his own—five boys, grandchildren he rarely saw anymore since Michael and Carol had moved to Austin. The capital of the state was just too far away for frequent visits.
His eyes dragged to the notice once more. Perhaps it was time to sell the ranch and move closer to family. He was still young. He hadn’t quite hit his fifties yet, so maybe he should see the world.
Lightning flashed outside the darkened windows, followed by a deafening boom that rattled the whole farmhouse. Robert tossed the notice aside and stood. The light that flickered outside the windows wasn’t lightning. It was headlights.
Who in their right mind was making a social call this late at night in this kind of weather? He peered out into the darkness but couldn’t decipher anything beyond shadows. The windshield wipers swished back and forth, rain pelting the car and being illuminated by the headlights.
The car just sat there with no movement for a while until he lost his patience. He grabbed his hunting rifle that hung on the wall of his office and strode out the door and down the hall. Whoever was in that car didn’t know who he was, or they wouldn’t be just sitting there like they weren’t supposed to be here.
The heavy wooden door creaked on its hinges as he tore it open. Flicks of raindrops pelted him despite his position under the porch awning. The wind pushed the door open wider, and he held up his rifle to his shoulder.
“Whoever you are, I’ll give you one minute to turn your car around and get off of my property.” His voice was lost on the wind, but he knew the driver saw him. There was no way he hadn’t.
The driver’s-side door opened, and the silhouette of a man stood beside the car with his hands in the air. “Robert Stone?”
“That’s me,” he called back.
“Is your son Michael?”
That was when Robert’s eyes darted to the front window of the car. The interior had been illuminated from the open door. In the front seat was a little boy he hadn’t seen in about a year, though he would have recognized him anywhere. Even from this distance, he could see Luke was distraught.
Robert’s heart jumped in his chest, and he lowered his weapon. “Where’s my son?”
“Sir, we’ve been trying to reach you, but the phone we had listed has been disconnected.”
“Where is my son?” he hollered through the storm.
“Mr. Stone, can we come inside? The boys are tired. It’s been a long drive.”
Something terrible had happened. He felt it in his bones the second he saw Luke’s small face. Before this man even got to his doorstep, Robert knew he no longer had a son.
***
Two weeks later
Empty.
That was the only thing that Robert seemed capable of feeling. Sitting at the kitchen table with four of his grandsons did nothing to ease the ache of his only son being gone. First his wife, then his son.
Luke’s small hand grasped his fork tightly, pushing the peas on his plate from side to side. Out of all of them, Luke remembered his grandfather the most, but the relationship between them was still strained. Robert couldn’t remember the first thing about raising kids. It had been far too long. Even though Luke was nine and could handle a lot of things on his own, he was still too young to help out on the ranch.
Wyatt sat beside his brother, mimicking his every move. The six-year-old clearly idolized his older brother. It was unclear if he realized his parents weren’t coming back.
Robert glanced over at Colt and Wyatt, who gleefully threw peas at one another. The twins were just over three years old. They were more of a handful than Robert was prepared for, which was one of the biggest reasons he’d reached out to an agency and hired a nanny.
Then there was baby Caleb. He wasn’t sleeping through the night, and the lack of sleep wore on Robert more than anything else. Robert should have told the social worker that he couldn’t take on five boys right now. He should have let the man find a home to place them in.
But deep down, he knew he couldn’t do such a thing. These boys were family. His son would never have forgiven him if he’d turned them away. Carol had come from the foster system. Though she’d turned out all right, that didn’t mean these boys would.
Luke glanced up from his plate. “Can I be excused?”
“You barely touched your food.”
Luke pushed the plate away. “I’m not hungry.”
Dalton followed suit. “Me neither.”
The twins stopped their food fight, and their focus shifted to Robert. They didn’t need him. They needed their parents.
Robert wiped at his mouth with his napkin then placed it on the table. “Yeah. Go on and get ready for bed. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
Luke scrunched up his face. “We do?”
He nodded. “Your nanny comes tomorrow. She’s going to take care of you while I figure out what to do with the ranch.”
“What do you mean? Are we leaving?” Luke’s worried voice caught Robert off guard, but there was no easy way to explain what was happening.
He cleared his throat as he got to his feet and gathered his plate. “It’s complicated, son. You’ll understand when you’re older.” He nodded to the dishes. “Go on, then. Clear your place, and then you can help me with your brothers.”
Luke dropped his gaze. His shoulders slumped so much it almost appeared as though he’d lost a few inches.
A twinge of pain shot through Robert’s heart. If Evelyn were here, she wouldn’t have wanted him to give up so easily. She would have demanded that he do whatever it took to give these boys something stable to hold on to. This ranch was likely the only thing they had left to remember their folks by.
Life just wasn’t that easy. It was time they learned that valuable lesson. Sometimes, things just didn’t work out the way people expected.
Once the boys were all in bed, Robert settled down at his desk with a groan. Before him was a stack of documents from Michael’s lawyer. Various things like custody, beneficiary information, and more stared up at him from his desk. He picked up a letter with his name on it then froze when he heard a small voice from the hallway.
“Grandpa?”
He glanced over to the door, and Luke’s face materialized.
“I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here.”
Robert dragged a hand down his face. This was what he was afraid of. “Sometimes, things happen for a reason.”
“Mom used to say that,” he mumbled.
“She was a smart lady.”
“I know.” Luke moved farther into the office. “What if I promise to help? I can feed the animals and clean the stalls. You can teach me.”
His soft words tugged at Robert’s heart, cracking it wide open. He didn’t know what prompted his response, but he found himself saying, “I suppose we can give it a try.”