Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,22

and surveyed it. He could sweep his eyes across the room in less time than it took to inhale, and he didn’t see anything he couldn’t leave until tomorrow.

He left the office too and walked through the insufferably hot equipment shed to the door. Outside, it was actually a little cooler, because a breeze played with itself as it raced around the ranch. He walked the distance back to Ted’s cabin, where he’d left his car and his kids.

Ted had them all on the front lawn—Thomas, Remmy, Connor, and Missy—and he was currently putting on a show with the four blue heelers that liked to follow him around the ranch. Dallas had heard all about Paula, Simon, Randy, and Ryan in letters Ted had written him, and instantly his mood improved.

Ted had always been a fun-loving man with a big laugh, and Dallas had wondered how he could maintain that while in prison. Of course, Ted hadn’t been beaten on his first day in River Bay, and he hadn’t had to suffer with those injuries to this day.

Dallas groaned as he sat down on the front steps to watch Ted demonstrate how Ryan could sit, shake, and spin. He clapped along with the kids, and Ted grinned around at everyone.

“Done already?” he asked, taking up the other half of the steps as he sat beside Dallas.

“Yep,” he said.

“Teddy,” Connor said. “Can I get out one of those lemon pops?”

“Sure thing, bud,” Ted said, standing up. “Take everyone with you and eat them on the back porch, okay?”

“Okay.” Connor led the way inside the cabin, and Ted sat back down.

Dallas glanced at him, his feelings of inferiority rearing up and choking him. He wanted to ask Ted how he knew what to say and how he could deliver it with such happiness. Dallas had nearly snapped at Thomas that morning, and he’d had to apologize later.

“Now what?” Ted asked.

Dallas didn’t look at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, what are you going to do now?”

“I got a job here,” Dallas said. “Was that not obvious?”

“No, I know that,” he said, his dark eyes finally hooking into Dallas. “Is that what you want?”

“Sure,” Dallas said. “It’s a mechanic job, which is exactly what I wanted.” He didn’t mention that he’d been considering opening his own shop. “I need to sell my house in Houston and get out of that cabin, though.”

“Yeah, those birdwatching cabins aren’t the nicest.”

That was the understatement of the year, but Dallas didn’t say more. The silence stretched between him and Ted, but it wasn’t awkward. His back ached, though, and Dallas had to get up and get his kids to school in the morning.

He groaned as he stood up. “Thanks, Ted, but I better get going. Lots to do tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sure.” Ted stood too, his keen eyes missing nothing. “Do you have painkillers in that cabin?”

“No.”

“Take some with you.”

Dallas didn’t argue; he simply followed Ted inside and accepted the pills. Ted smiled as he handed them over. “Must be bad.”

“Why’s that?”

“You didn’t even argue.”

Dallas swallowed the pills and met Ted’s eye again. “I can do this, right, Ted?” He let so much vulnerability seep into his voice, and he knew he wore it on his face too.

“Of course you can,” Ted said. “Listen, you lived in a dorm with fifteen other men. That was no picnic. You had to watch your back more than others, and it was already practically broken.” He didn’t smile or make light of what Dallas had been through. “This is fixing some tractors and driving your kids to school. You can do this.”

There was so much more going on than just the surface things of fixing vehicles and taking care of his kids. He wasn’t sure he knew how to do either of those things either, but they were certainly easier than trying to untangle the complex emotions surrounding Martha, his feelings of failure when it came to Thomas and Remmy, and this whole new attraction to Jess.

“Okay,” Dallas said, because what else was there to say? He went out to the back porch, gathered his kids, and they made the ten-minute drive back to the cabin they could call home for now.

Dallas sat at his desk, the laptop already open and waiting for him. He’d been working in the equipment shed at Hope Eternal Ranch for two weeks now, and Nate and Ginger were set to return that evening. He couldn’t wait to show them both what he’d been doing.

Every vehicle the