of the road. All of you came up to the main ranch to interview, and I’m sure you saw the homestead. It’s the huge, hulking building you can see from here. The ranch wives sometimes get together to cook there, sometimes it’s my cousin, sometimes my sister. Whoever it is will send out a text on the ranch group text, which I added all of you to about twenty minutes ago. I’m going to text out a welcome for you to everyone, and you should get it. So let’s see.”
He started tapping on his phone, and a few seconds later, he said, “There. Keep in mind that there are probably forty or fifty people on this group text. It’s for ranch business only. And important ranch business at that.” He indicated the group of them. “We have a text string for the five of us too. I put my wife and my admin team on it—that’s Bear, Ward, and Ranger—so they can help me manage things while I’m going through my physical therapy and healing. Okay?”
“Yes, sir,” August said while the others gave similar words of assent.
“Just be mindful of what you send to the big group,” he said. “It includes all of my brothers and sister, all of my cousins, and all of their wives. All of our cowboys and cowgirls on the upper ranch as well.”
August’s phone chimed, and his was the first among them. Within seconds, various sounds and signals filled the air, and he chuckled. Preacher’s name sat on the text, but August knew it was a group message from the four little heads in the icon. He quickly named it “Whole Ranch Text” and looked back toward his cabin.
Hailey sat on the top step, her backpack on her shoulders, and he whipped his attention back to his phone. They didn’t have to leave for another ten minutes, and his adrenaline sank back into his stomach.
“All right,” Preacher said. “I’m going to take Walt and Bill with me. Jess and August, I’d like you back here in a couple of hours, and we’ll go through the same thing I’m going to do with them right now.” He met August’s eye first, and much more was said between them.
August appreciated the silence and the understanding, and he nodded. The meeting broke up, and he headed back down the road to the cabin in the corner. “Ready, my sweets?” he asked his daughter.
Hailey wore a sunny smile as she came down the rest of the steps. “I’m glad you get to take me to school now, Daddy.”
“Me too,” he said, distracted by another chime on his phone. Etta had texted, causing his heart to burst and bump and beat with more enthusiasm.
Do you need any help getting Hailey home in the afternoons? Remember how I’m not doing anything with the outreach programs right now?
August’s first instinct was to decline the help. He’d been planning to have Hailey ride the same bus she’d been riding back to the apartment building where they used to live. Then, she could stay with Ruth, the next-door neighbor that had been kind enough to take her in the mornings.
My mother isn’t doing well right now, Etta continued while August fought with himself. I’ll be down in town anyway, and she can come up to the ranch with Mitch, Lincoln, Cameron, and Kyle. They’re all coming to a pudding cup afternoon at the homestead anyway. I’d love to have her too.
August felt the world tip. Would he rather send his daughter back to a stuffy, cat-riddled apartment with a seventy-three-year-old woman? Or up to a vibrant, beautiful homestead with a vivacious, gorgeous woman and four other children his daughter’s age?
The pudding cups really pushed him over the edge, and he typed quickly. That would be fantastic, Etta. Thank you.
You’ve seen my truck, she sent back. Let her know I’ll be in the parent pick-up zone.
Just the fact that Etta knew there was a parent pick-up zone at the elementary school told August a lot. He’d never dropped off or picked up his daughter from school, and a new sense of failure came over him. He’d been trying so hard to be both mother and father to Hailey, but with bills to pay and difficult schedules to manage, he hadn’t been doing a very good job.
He’d been praying for a solution to the things he struggled with, and as he sent another thank you to Etta, he wondered if the woman had been placed in