Colter Gamblers: Gambling On A Heart Part 7

"He was my closest friend since kindergarten."

She couldn't hold back the snort. "Yeah, well, Jake has only ever taken care of number one. Trust me, I know."

Tracy didn't want to talk about Jake. She'd called her lawyer, but didn't get much satisfaction from him. If she didn't think of something fast, she could lose her son. But right now, Zack didn't need to know her problems with Jake.

"Do you have any leads regarding the cattle thieves?" she asked.

Zack cleared his throat and shifted his weight onto his other boot heel. "No. There was another one sometime last night over in Hamilton County."

"c.r.a.p. Neither your office nor TSCRA has any leads?"

Zack shook his head and dropped his voice to a husky whisper, which did all sorts of crazy things to the fluttering in her lower belly. "Nope. I have some ideas, but no concrete evidence."

She had to get her out-of-control libido corralled. "Wanna share?"

"You know I can't do that."

"Why not? Unless it's me you're considering hauling off to jail for stealing cattle, I don't have any intention of telling anyone. I want these thugs caught as much as you do. They stole my brother's steers."

Zack stared at her for a long time, then sucked in a deep breath. He leaned closer, and in that low, rumbling timbre, he said, "Have you noticed the new Silverado Brent Parker is sporting around town? I thought he was still laid-off."

She furrowed her brow and flashed to her conversation with Henrietta just two days ago. "Yeah, I have. And I think he is still officially out of work, but Granny Parker said he's been riding shotgun with Jake driving truck."

Zack's brow wrinkled as if he was in thought. "Well, keep your ears open, will ya? I know the government is extending unemployment benefits and from what I hear Jake's making out good hauling cargo, but I doubt Brent's making enough sitting on his b.u.t.t to buy a thirty-thousand-dollar truck."

In the second half, the Hamilton Broncos rallied and tied up the game. Mandy returned to sit between Zack and Tracy during the last quarter. Her excitement was contagious as she bounced up and down. Was it solely due to the gameor the sugar she'd no doubt consumed?

While the Broncos had the ball, she looked up at Tracy and asked, "Do you like to ride?"

Tracy smiled and looked into the girl's bright upturned face. Her pigtails were askew and wisps of uneven dark hair fell around her heart-shaped face. Tracy's fingers itched to fix the wayward hair, but she wouldn't dare. It wasn't her place. "Yeah. I don't have a horse of my own anymore, but I can use one from the stable. Dylan and Charli have a lot of horses."

"Daddy has lots, too. He just bought a bunch of mares that he wants to have babies. We also have lots of cows. Do you have any cows?"

"Like the horses, they belong to my brother and his wife, but I live on a ranch."

"Oh, that's right. Miz Charli and Mr. Dylan have the cows. Anyway, we have big ugly cows. SanSana GerGert"

"Santa Gertrudis," Zack supplied and shook his head. He gazed upon his daughter with an emotion shining in his eyes that couldn't be called anything but love and pride. "And they are not ugly."

"Yeah, they are. But Daddy said that he wants to make the CW into a cattle ranch again. And not just raise horses like Pappy and Uncle Paul did." Mandy prattled on while Tracy regarded Zack with a sideways glance. "He and Uncle Lancewell, he's not really my uncle, he's my cousin, I guess. Uncle Paul's son. Anyway, Daddy said they want to get on the ball because Mr. Dylan and Miz Charli are gonna corner the market."

Tracy grinned. "Really? He said that?"

Mandy vigorous nodding sent her pigtails bouncing. "Uh-huh."

"I think Miz Tracy has heard quite enough about my adventures in ranching, Amanda Jean." Zack quelled his daughter's tell-all with a note of amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice.

Tracy looked at Zack and crossed her arms. "So, what do your dad and uncle think of your ideas?"

"They already know my opinion. Cartwrights have been raising cattle since Cole Cartwright won this county in a poker game."

She laughed and shook her head. "Well, if it hadn't been for his first cousins Elijah Blackwell and Dylan Ferguson talking him into playing in the game, you wouldn't have that land."

Zack scowled at her. "Why do the Fergusons and the Blackwells always bring that up? Jake always claimed we somehow cheated his side of the family out of something."

She groaned. "Please, I really try not to think about the fact that you and I and Jake are cousins, considering all that happened between us and...well, Jake and I were married, for goodness sake."

"Distantlyvery distantly. Eight generations. I wouldn't even call us related anymore, in fact."

Mandy wrinkled her nose and looked from Zack and Tracy. "Wait, you're cousins? That means y'all can't get married."

Tracy didn't miss the wince Zack couldn't quite hide. She took a deep breath. "No. I mean. If your daddy and I wanted to get married, we could. Like he said, we aren't really cousins anymore."

"That's good." Mandy pointed toward the all but forgotten football game and squealed. "Oh, look! The Cowboys got another touchdown!"

The crowd cheered, but Tracy and Zack stared at each other.

Once the celebration calmed down, Tracy cleared her throat. "I didn't realize you were so interested in the CW."

Zack's shoulders were stiff as they moved in a shrug under his light blue shirt and black vest. He plucked a piece of gra.s.s and studied it as he played with it between his fingers. "There was a time I wasn't. Now, it's all I have."

Mandy chirped, "You have me."

Tossing the blade of gra.s.s, he smiled and then tugged on one of her pigtail. "Yes, I do."

As the Cowboys got the ball back after the Broncos fumbled it on the first down, Mandy turned to Tracy again. "Daddy really misses Momma. I think we need"

"Mandy..." Zack's voice was full of gentle warning and underlying sadness. "I don't think Miz Tracy cares whether I miss your momma or not."

But he was dead wrong. Tracy was extremely interested in how much Zack still cared for his dead wife. "So," she said and forced herself to redirect the topic. "Mandy, how'd your first couple of weeks of first grade go?"

Mandy nodded enthusiastically. "Good. I already can read lots."

"That's great. I bet Daddy reads to you." Why did that a.s.sertion hurt so much?

"Yeah, he does almost every night when he puts me to bed before my prayers. When he's not working, anyway."

Words from her constricted throat wouldn't be possible even if someone held a gun to her head. She turned away and found her son among the boys battling over the football. He was her life, and she'd never give him up, but how she wished his father wasn't the man who had sired him.

Bobby threw an interception on the next play, giving the ball right back to the opposing team with only a few minutes on the clock. Jake called a timeout and pulled his son over to the sideline. Bobby's head hung low as Jake berated him. The evening sun glistened off the silver-colored helmet as it bobbed in curt little nods.

When Bobby went back onto the field, she looked at Jake. His face was a mask of calculated consternation, his feet apart, his fists on his hips. He called out to his team and they rallied behind their quarterback. Jake would be a bear if the Cowboys lost the game, making Bobby feel as if he'd lost it for his team. Bobby never saw the wrongness of his father's actions and words. To him, he deserved the cold shoulder and the criticism he'd get later if they lost.

"Do you like fixing hair, Miz Tracy?"

Mandy's question reined her attention back to the little girl stealing her heart. She worked to paste on a smile. "I feel like I'm helping people. I can make someone feel pretty if I can do their hair in a way they like. Sometimes folks just want someone to talk to and that helps them, too. But I'm thinking about going back to school. I've always wanted to be a doctor. It will take me forever, though."

"I don't like the doctor." Mandy wrinkled her nose. "I always get shots when I go there."

Tracy laughed and looked up at Zack. Surprise seemed to register in Zack's widened eyes as he studied her. Did he remember a similar conversation? They'd talked most of one night prior to graduation. He'd made love to her for hours, but when they'd rested, he'd held her close and asked her why she'd wanted to be a doctor.

Her answer seemed as idealistic now as it had when she'd told him. I want to help people, make them well again and heal disease. For as long as she lived, she'd never forget the awed expression that had come to him looking up into her face as she'd leaned over him.

The same expression that was on his face now.

"My momma was a nurse," Mandy said dragging Tracy back to the present.

"Yes, I've heard." Tracy forced her smile to reappear.

Zack cleared his throat. "Mandy..."

Bobby was getting his team ever closer to scoring the winning touchdown. People around them jumped to their feet, but Zack and Tracy remained sitting.

"I wish I had someone to show me how to do my hair. Can you show me?" Mandy's words were almost lost in the sudden cheering erupting around them when another Cowboy ran the ball to just inches from the goal line before being deflagged.

Zack's intake of air was a warning, but Tracy couldn't look at him. This was between her and his little girl. "Sure. You'll have to talk your daddy into bringing you over to the shop sometime. We'll have a girl's day."

Zack's smile was borderline grimace. "I think we need to watch the game. Our team is about to win."

The crowd around them went wild. Her son and his team had pulled off a win. Zack's gaze connected with Tracy's, and something monumental churned deep within the dark blue fire.

Was it hatred?

Or was it something else entirely?

Chapter 6.

Friday after school, Tracy drove Bobby to his father's automotive service station, which Jake had taken over when his father died five years ago with cirrhosis from years of alcoholism.

She always felt like she was abandoning her baby when she left him with Jake on his weeks. They shared joint custody of Bobby, which meant he spent every other week with his father.

Jake lived beside the business in an old trailer that couldn't quite be considered ramshackle, but definitely needed some TLC. Tracy remembered the day Jake carried her over the threshold. His parents had given them the former rental as a wedding gift. And never allowed her to forget that, in their eyes, her parents had given the newlyweds nothing. They'd never considered the small fortune from her parents that Tracy sunk into the place to make it livable worthy of mentioning.

Across the street, Jake's mother, Sandy, lived in an old two-story, which also needed a date with the handyman. The house had probably been beautiful once upon a time, built by one of Jake's Blackwell ancestors. In contrast to the overgrown gra.s.s in front of Jake's house, flowering pots and a flock of pink flamingos filled his mother's yard. In a small carriage house beside the house, Sandy had her beauty parlor. Tracy had worked there until the day she'd announced she was leaving Jake.

"Dad will take me to my game tomorrow," Bobby said as she parked next to the curb, bringing her out of her ponderings.

Tracy looked over her shoulder at her son in the backseat. "Okay. But I'll be there, too."

Bobby shrugged and concentrated on gathering up his backpack. "Can we all go out together? Dad said if we win again, he'd take me out to eat."

She turned in the seat. "Bobby, you know that isn't a good idea."

"Why don't you like Dad?"

She resisted the urge to close her eyes. Tracy wished she could tell him the truth about her relationship with his father, but he was too innocent to understand. Even if he hadn't been young, she couldn't tell him. Destroying Bobby's belief in his father was beyond her ability to do. Someday Jake would do it himself.

"He said it's your fault you're not married anymore."

Tracy swallowed her retort and took a deep breath. Ah, Jake was at it again. He'd been making her out to be the bad guy in their divorce since the day she'd packed her things and moved out. Most people in town still believed she'd left Jake for another man because she'd moved to Waco for a while. After all, once a cheater, always a cheater.

"Sometimes people just can't get along, sweetheart."

He watched her with imploring eyes, and it broke her heart that the standard answer wasn't enough anymore.

As he opened the door to get out, Bobby mumbled, "I don't understand why you married him. Or why everyone made such a big fuss about Uncle Dylan's wedding. n.o.body stays married anyway."

How could she tell her son that love makes the difference?

When Jake came out from one of the open bay doors of the garage, Tracy exited the Taurus and came around to watch Bobby stop in front of his father.

"Hey, T-Rex." Jake smiled as he ruffled Bobby's brown hair.

"Hi, Dad." Bobby moved in a step and lifted his arms as if he wanted to hug Jake. But he didn't; instead, he stepped away again and crossed his arms. "Are we gonna go fishing tomorrow before the game? You promised."

Despite all of Jake's faults, he loved Bobby. They were buddies. "You bet. Tonight I thought we'd go out for supper and rent a movie. I'm even closing up early. I just need to get the fire chief's truck done."

"Can I see whatever I want?"

"Anything." Jake glanced at Tracy. "Say 'bye to your mom and then go see Grandma over in the big house. She's got somethin' for you."

Bobby turned toward her. "'Bye Mom."

"I love you, sweetheart."

For a moment, Tracy thought he was going to hug her as he had when he was little. Instead, he mumbled, "Love you, too."

"I'll see you tomorrow at your game," Tracy reminded him.

He nodded, gave her a quick wave and then turned away. With almost everything within her, she wanted to gather him up in her arms. She watched Bobby look both ways before sprinting across the street and up the steps of his grandmother's front porch.

"We need to talk." Jake's even voice jolted her into turning toward him. "And time's a-wasting. Marlin McPherson won't be too happy if I don't get that water pump done on his bucket of rust and bolts."

"Yes, we do need to talk." Tracy bit on her bottom lip and fidgeted with her keys in her hand. "We have to do something about Bobby's behavior. He copped a terrible att.i.tude Sat.u.r.day at Dylan's wedding."

Jake put his hands on his hips and scowled at her. "I had tickets to the Rangers game for weeks. As soon as your a.s.shole brother decides to get married, my plans have to be thrown out the window. Last weekend was supposed to be mine. He never acts up when he's with me."

"He never 'acts up' when he's with you because as long as he plays football the way you want, he can do whatever he wants. You never set any rules."

He stepped closer and leaned into her face. "By the way, I will not allow your latest fling to yell at my son. No wonder he has a bad att.i.tude when he's with you if you let your flavor of the week abuse him."