The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch - Maisey Yates Page 0,89
hope that I...do his memory proud.”
Of course, there was no guarantee she would even get the job. None at all. She might not. It was possible. Barbara still wasn’t especially thrilled with her. No matter how good of a performance she had turned in today, there was going to be opposition. And she was still pretty confident that she was going to get the job, but...
Suddenly, she felt overwhelmed, and her eyes felt prickly. And she was filled with a sense of horror. Because she did not do this in front of her family. She didn’t do this in front of anyone ever. She just didn’t. There was no reason for her to have an emotional breakdown. She was fine. She was with her family.
And they were strong for each other. She wasn’t going to have a weird emotional breakdown.
Everything felt tangled inside of her. She had been feeling strong a moment ago, transformed, and now, somehow, she felt weak. She didn’t know how to reconcile those two things.
Or maybe it wasn’t two things. Maybe it was one thing.
Maybe it was all just her.
Maybe she was somehow more fragile now.
And she couldn’t afford that. Couldn’t afford to give in. She wasn’t fragile.
She was capable. She was the tough one, and that was why everyone at the table was looking at her like she’d grown a second head, or maybe another personality.
“Everything is fine,” she said.
“No one said it wasn’t,” Ryder said.
“But you’re looking at me like you’re afraid I’m going to freak out. I’m not going to freak out.”
“So you’re not under stress because of your job?”
“No,” she said. “How’s yours? I know ranching can be difficult.”
“Well,” Ryder said. “Sometimes I worry the cows don’t like me anymore.”
“They don’t,” Rose said. “They never did. They told me.”
“They don’t like you very much either, Rose,” Ryder said.
“I’m fine,” Pansy said. “I’ve been doing this job for a long time.”
“Whatever happened with that kid? The one that you took out of the barn the other day?” Logan asked.
“Oh,” she said, realizing that she had never actually given her family the whole story about Emmett. “He was West Caldwell’s half brother. You know, West. My...my landlord.”
She shot what she hoped was a surreptitious look toward Iris, Rose and Sammy. All three of them appeared to be on very good behavior, but that was almost more concerning. Because they were never on good behavior. Well, except maybe Iris.
“That’s a coincidence,” Ryder said.
“Well, not really. I mean that he was in our barn is, but that he was in Gold Valley isn’t. When West came to look for his family, I think Emmett was afraid that it meant West wouldn’t have a place for him in his life anymore. I mean, so I gathered. I helped get the kid settled in at his place, and he was...he was behind some of the mischief that’s been happening in town. I also encouraged Barbara and Carl not to press charges for the thefts. He’s been doing community service.”
Ryder frowned. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
It didn’t surprise her that it was Ryder who put up some opposition to this idea. He was a by-the-book kind of guy. And truly, Pansy had to be grateful for that. Because it was her brother’s stalwart sense of right and wrong that had made him give up so many years to raising his siblings. But that meant sometimes he was rigid, hardheaded and completely unsympathetic when people didn’t behave in the way that he did.
He was grounded, levelheaded. He’d never done a spontaneous thing in his entire life.
Sometimes she thought that was why he was such good friends with Sammy. That Sammy was, in some ways, his expression of a part of himself that he could never let out.
He didn’t mean to be unkind, and he didn’t mean to be harsh, but he often was.
“Yes,” she said. “I think it’s a good idea. I think it’s the only thing that will work. And I’m already putting up with opposition from City Council. So, I don’t need opposition from my own brother.”
“I’m just saying,” Ryder said. “I don’t like the idea of some kid getting away with criminal activity. I don’t feel like that teaches him anything.”
“I know you’re a big fan of harsh punishments,” she said, somewhat dryly, since Ryder had essentially never laid out a punishment in his entire raising of them.
“I just think that sometimes going too soft on somebody causes more harm than good.”