pulled out a gold business card case. “Can you give him my card? I’d love to talk to him.”
“Actually, you met him that night at the diner,” Brooke reminded her. “He helped me get you out of there.”
“Ooh.” Whitney’s eyes widened. “I had wondered who he was. He seemed to disappear like Superman reverting to Clark Kent.”
“Superman?” Brooke echoed with a grimace. “Let’s not say that to his face, okay?”
Whitney laughed. “Deal, as long as you give him my card.”
Brooke agreed, but after Whitney had left, she turned to her friends, and said, “Can you see my brother making naughty S&M leather? I don’t think so.”
“Now who’s the one judging?” Emily said, hands on her hips. “You don’t have any idea what she might want from him.”
They all looked at each other—and grinned.
The following Monday, Brooke’s dad was running an errand to a motor-supply store in Carbondale, so Brooke drove her mom to an appointment with Doc Ericson in Valentine. As they arrived back home, they could see Josh walking across the yard, Tyler trailing behind him at a sloooow pace. Brooke drove around to the ramp built to bypass the kitchen stairs, parking and helping her mom use her walker to get inside.
“You’re not going to work with Tyler?” Sandy asked.
“Josh and Adam can deal with him today. I thought we were starting on the cookie dough we mean to freeze before Christmas.”
Sandy eyed her. “Hiding from the boy already?”
Brooke grinned. “Not at all. He’s good at letting you know he’s only here because he has to be, but he’s more interested than he lets on. Smart, too. I just thought Josh should take a turn, so I could hear all about it.”
“So you think our stint as a community-service ranch is going well?”
“I do.” Brooke sat on a stool at the breakfast counter and considered her mother. “It just feels good to make a difference in someone’s life, you know? I mean, look at Adam.” She hesitated, realizing it might be a bad idea to discuss him, but it was too late now. “He was in even more trouble than Tyler, but Coach McKee took a risk and ended up making a man out of him. Adam says Coach changed his life. I wish more kids could have that opportunity. Tyler’s not bad, but his mom can’t be around much, and it’s too easy for him to hang with guys who are only interested in having a good time. Who knows if his brother is getting sucked back into the wrong crowd, too? That’s got to be bad for Tyler to see.”
“That’s two students you’ve taken on,” Sandy pointed out, seating herself with a sigh beside her daughter. “You just . . . glow when you talk about your work with them. What about taking on more students?”
Brooke chuckled, linking her arm with her mom’s. “You think Dad would approve of turning our ranch into a probation-department resource?”
Sandy laughed, too. “No, we’re too small an operation, spread too thin, to do much of that. You’ve taught Steph to barrel race because she asked, but what if you advertise yourself as a riding instructor? You’ve been teaching Tyler to ride already. You could take on other students.”
Brooke stared at her mother in surprise, feeling the revelation wash over her.
Sandy continued, “Yes, part of the year the weather will inhibit you, but you’ll manage.”
“Mom, Josh and I are the ranch foremen. I think it might take too much away from my job.”
“Josh has something he loves, sweetie. So does Nate. Do you begrudge them that?”
“No, of course not!”
“Why would they begrudge you? I think you can all work it out together. It wouldn’t be full-time, after all. And maybe Adam wants to stay on. That would really help.”
“I don’t know about that,” Brooke warned her. “When his grandma is better, he’ll probably leave. I don’t think he feels like he fits in here anymore.” She forced herself to act casually as she stood up to reach the recipe box.
“Do you think there’s something troubling him?” Sandy asked.
Brooke hesitated even as she sat back down, looking into her mom’s concerned face. “You should have seen how he reacted when people called him a hero the other night. He told me a few things about what happened to him in Afghanistan. It was . . . pretty terrible, and he blames himself when he shouldn’t.”
“They say time heals—and they wouldn’t say it so much if it wasn’t true. He seems like a