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Chapter Twenty
The weeks until Connor’s adoption hearing flew by, as December was a very busy time around ranches in Texas. It was birthing season, and most of Ginger’s cowboys went to neighboring cattle ranches to help with all of that, and that left Hope Eternal shorthanded.
Ginger worked from sunup to sundown—and beyond, as the sun set a bit earlier than usual in the winter.
Nate didn’t go anywhere, and together, they kept the ranch going, and Ginger couldn’t wait until February or March. Of course, then there was something new to be done around the ranch.
The morning she needed to be ready to accompany Nate and Connor to court, she fed the horses with Emma, who rarely came out onto the ranch. But dire circumstances required everyone with even one good leg and one good arm to help out.
Emma didn’t hate working around the ranch, but she much preferred observing it from behind the safety of the windowpane. Not only that, but Emma really couldn’t handle the heat. Thankfully, this close to Christmas, the sun’s heat wasn’t really an issue. At least not yet.
Ginger moved steadily down the right side of the stable while Emma fell rapidly behind on the left side. The ranch housed and cared for over seventy horses, and Ginger had never fed them all by herself.
That morning, she very nearly did, though Emma helped, and Nate worked in the next aisle over. Ginger didn’t often get a chance to just bend and empty yesterday’s buckets, get new ones, check on every animal. She thought she needed to take a shift in these stables more often, but overseeing the ranch required almost all of her energy.
After a few hours of checking, feeding, and watering, an alarm went off on her phone.
“Time to go,” Emma said, straightening and stretching her back. “I can finish.”
“There’s just three left,” Ginger said, silencing the alarm.
“I can do it.” Emma flashed her a smile and stepped over to give Ginger a hug. “I hope it goes well today. Call me as soon as it’s done.”
“I will.” Ginger clung to her best friend, so glad she’d been able to convince Emma to come out to Hope Eternal all those years ago. She did like living off the beaten path too, so it hadn’t really taken all that much convincing.
Emma nodded after she stepped back, and Ginger headed for the rectangle of bright light that signaled the doorway. Her nerves weren’t cut out for court hearings, she knew that. She’d only been to the one, but it had taken a miracle to get herself dressed that morning. If Connor hadn’t been there, looking at Ginger with those wide, hopeful eyes, she might not have gone.
She honestly didn’t know.
But she was going to go today, and she looked left as soon as she exited the stable. Only a moment later, Nate came out, peeling his gloves from his hands. “Ready?” he asked.
“Ready to go get changed,” she said. “Where’s Connor?”
“He should be at the Annex,” Nate said. “I told him to stay in bed when he woke up. We put Pop-tarts and his dinosaurs on the bedside table last night.”
Ginger grinned as Nate reached her. He bent down and kissed her, smelling like horses and oats and leather. She loved the sight of him, the smell of him, the taste of him.
“Mm,” he said, pulling away. “Come on. He’s probably been awake for about fifteen minutes.”
“I guess you’ll know by how many crumbs he has in the bed.”
Nate groaned. “This was a bad idea.”
“But we got the horses fed,” Ginger said as they started back toward the house. “Emma will finish, and she’ll get the chickens taken care of too.”
“We should stop and get her one of those bundt cakes she likes.”
“She’d like that,” Ginger said, impressed that Nate remembered Emma liked the miniature bundt cakes from a shop that didn’t make anything else. “She really doesn’t like working on the ranch.”
“We’ll get her two then,” he said. “Because she had to help so we could go to court.” He reached for her hand and squeezed it tight, a clear indication of his nerves.
“It’s going to be okay,” Ginger said. “It’s all approved.”
“I’ve never been to an adoption hearing,” Nate said.
“Neither have I, and neither has Connor. It’ll be okay.” Ginger had to keep telling herself that as they separated to go to their respective parts of the house to get ready. Twenty minutes later, Ginger hurried down the steps and into the garage. Nate and Connor waited in her truck, both of them wearing dark suits, complete with a white shirt and matching striped tie in blue, maroon, and gold.
“Wow,” Ginger said, sliding behind the wheel. “You two match.”
