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They waited off to the side until everyone was checked in, and then he swung his leg over the ATV to lead the group out to their assigned blinds. They’d spend three days and two nights here at Hope Eternal Ranch, and if Nate rode out to the wetlands on the ranch tonight, he’d find their domed tents behind the blinds he’d spent a month improving and even building.
Other cowboys drove big side-by-sides with the people who’d paid to come find the birds they’d never seen before, and they followed him in order of when they’d drop people off. Once there, Nate went over the rules with them and made sure each blind didn’t need any last-minute repairs or trash removal.
After the last drop-off, he drove back to the ranch with the last side-by-side behind him, and he and Ken parked in the equipment shed and marked all the paperwork so whoever looked at it would know who was where and for how long.
“Done,” Ken said, sighing. “I’m over in the stables. Where you goin’?”
“I have to run back to the Annex,” Nate said. Connor should be up by now, as it was almost nine o’clock, and Nate liked to check in with him early in the day to make sure he was okay and knew Nate would be back by lunchtime. “I’ll walk with you over to the stables.”
Once there, Nate bent to get a cold bottle of water out of the cooler at the end of the row, and when he straightened, he found Ginger coming toward him. “Hey,” he said, grinning at her. They hadn’t really had a conversation about taking their relationship out of the shadows, but after her birthday lunch and shopping afternoon, it had just happened.
“Hey.” She kissed him quickly, and added, “Are you headed back to see Connor?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll walk with you.”
He wasn’t going to argue with a woman who wanted to be with him, so they set off for the homestead.
“Are you excited to go to the beach this weekend?” she asked.
“Sure,” Nate said. “I haven’t been in years.” Sometimes, he tried to see the Gulf of Mexico from the ranch, but even if he thought he could, he knew he couldn’t. Any water he could see wasn’t the whole, huge Gulf. A couple of islands existed between this part of the coastal bend of Texas, and he wanted to stand on the edge of the continent, dig his toes in the sand, and look out over the vast water.
He glanced at Ginger. “And I see what you mean about getting off the ranch sometimes.”
“It’s big, but it can feel really small at times,” Ginger said. “But you’re doing okay?”
“Just fine,” he said.
“Your meetings with Martin are going good?”
“Just fine,” Nate said, not wanting to talk about his parole officer. He didn’t like being reminded that he was still technically in the Bureau of Prisons, and he couldn’t wait to be a free man.
“Good,” Ginger said, seeming to get the hint that Nate wasn’t interested in expounding on these topics. “I’m not excited at the early wake-up call for a day on the beach.” She added a quick smile to her sentence. “But one day we’ll be able to sleep in.”
Nate’s pulse slammed against his ribcage, because he didn’t know the details of their weekend beach excursion. He didn’t have to know. He just did whatever Ginger told him. “What time are we leaving?”
“Seven, probably,” she said. “The beach is about a half-hour away, and it’s the best until about ten or eleven.”
“Mm,” he said, his brain whirring around how he could spend the morning on the beach when he needed to make the last drop for Oscar. He had to get Oscar off his back and out of his life. He’d never negotiated the date or time of the cash drop-off, so maybe he could try to postpone it until next weekend.
“Then, my parents will bring lunch and all these tables so we don’t have to eat on the sand. My sisters and brother will be there.” She cast him a look, completely unaware of the panic building and building in his chest. “You ready to meet all of us?”
“Sure,” Nate said, his voice only a little scratchy.
Ginger laughed and nudged him with her hip. “You’ll be fine. They’ll love you.”
“They know I’m in the Residential Reentry Program, right?” he asked, trying to find something he could grab onto to get out of this beach day.
“Yes,” she said. “They know I operate the ranch as a center for the BOP.” She glanced at him. “You’re not seriously worried about that, are you?”
“Of course I am,” he said. “You aren’t?”
“I don’t know,” she said, her voice at half its usual volume.
Nate let the conversation stall there, because they were almost to the Annex, and he really needed some silence and privacy to figure out what he was going to do on Saturday. It didn’t sound like they’d be leaving the beach before two, and the bank was only open from ten to two on Saturdays.
The panic stole through him, but he kept it dormant, a silent scream moving through him as the back door opened and Connor came running across the deck. “Dad!” he yelled, and Nate fully stopped then.
