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He drove right off the ranch, needing to get away and get away now.
* * *
An hour later,he knocked on Ginger’s door. At mid-morning, he wasn’t sure where she was. He hadn’t cried. He hadn’t raged at God. He’d simply driven around town, then through it. Down the beach a little bit, and then to Hope Eternal, where he could sometimes hear the ocean roaring if he went right to the southern edge of the ranch.
He wanted to go to the beach right now. He could lay in the water and drown out all the earthly noise around him.
The door opened, and Connor stood there. “Uncle Spence!” He launched himself into Spencer’s arms, who gripped the child tightly as every emotion he’d kept caged for the past couple of hours emerged.
“Hey, bud,” he whispered into the boy’s cornsilk hair, his eyes pressed closed. This was how fathers felt about their sons. Connor wasn’t even his son, and Spencer loved him so much. He couldn’t imagine hurting the boy in any way, and everything jumbled inside him.
“Is your momma here?”
“Right here,” Ginger said, and Spencer’s eyes flew open. Connor stepped back, and Spencer grabbed onto Ginger, his chest heaving as his eyes burned with tears. “Hey, hey,” she said gently, holding him as tightly as he was her. “What happened? Are you okay?”
He couldn’t answer her, and she said, “Connor, go get your dad. Tell him we need him and all the boys here as quickly as possible. Hurry up now.”
Spencer didn’t want to cause a problem. He didn’t want eyes on him at all. And yet, when he thought of Nate and Ted, Luke and Dallas, and Slate, he decided it would be okay. They’d understand, as they’d all dealt with difficult family situations over the past couple of years. They’d handled stressful times, where their pasts had come back to haunt them.
“Spencer,” Ginger said. “You’re scaring me.”
He stepped back and swiped at his eyes. “It’s my dad, Ginger. He came back, and he stole money from the Coopers.” He hung his head and stepped into the house. Ursula, Ginger’s trusty, loyal German shepherd whined and nosed his hand. He crouched down in front of her and scrubbed his fingers along her ears. “I think I might be bleeding. He had a knife.”
“I’ll get the first aid kit,” Ginger said, closing the door and walking into the kitchen. Spencer couldn’t look away from the dog, and Ursula rested her head against his shoulder, somehow telling him everything would be okay.
“Come on over here,” she said from the kitchen. He straightened and did what she said. He couldn’t look her in the eye, but Ginger added, “It’s going to be fine, Spence. We’ll get you cleaned up, and Nate will be here, and it’s all going to be just fine.”
He nodded, because he wanted to believe her. He lifted his left arm, where the dull pain had started to throb. “I think he got me on the back of my forearm there.”
She sucked in a breath, and that caused Spencer to look at her. With eyes as round as dinner plates, she said, “Yes, he sure did.” She met his gaze. “This might need stitches, Spencer.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Spencer said.
The front door opened, and Nate said, “Ginger?” in a panicked voice. He ran toward them, taking in the situation. “Slate’s right behind me. The others are coming in.”
Ginger looked at Spencer, and Nate met Spencer’s eyes, his sliding down to the wound on his arm.
Without another word, Nate stepped closer and grabbed onto Spencer and held him right against his chest. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “It’s all okay.”
Spencer’s composure broke again, because he really wanted Nate to be right, and he was really tired of holding everything together.
Slate arrived next, then Ted and Dallas. Luke entered the house last, with Connor in tow, and while Ginger doctored up the wound as best as she could, Spencer told them what had happened.
Finally done and completely exhausted, he accepted the cup of coffee Ginger offered him. The five men he’d met and learned to know and love over the past few years simply looked at him. They’d each taken a barstool, and at the curved counter, he could see all of them.
“I’m going to have to go talk to the cops,” Spencer said, bending his arm back to look at the gauze pad Ginger had put over his cut.
“Yes,” Slate said. “But you did the right thing.”
“No one got hurt,” Ted said. “I mean, besides you. The Coopers are all okay.”
Spencer nodded, because that was one great miracle. He loved Wayne and Chrissy Cooper, their loud, grumpy sons—and their youngest daughter. Misery drove through him again, because he hadn’t heard from Clarissa in weeks. They weren’t long-distance dating at all, and that hurt almost as much as the slice his father had put in his flesh.
“He can get the help he needs now,” Luke said quietly.
“Maybe this will be his second chance,” Dallas said. “People only know what they know, right? He’ll learn something new, and he might come out different.”
Spencer nodded, because the living proof of that sat at the counter with him. Times five.
Nate slung his arm around Spencer, and they looked at one another. “Don’t give up on him yet,” he said. “You don’t have to have him in your life, but Dallas is right. Maybe he’ll go to prison for a little bit, and maybe when he comes out, he’ll be someone new and different.”
“People change,” Spencer whispered.
“Yes, they do,” Nate and Ted said together.
Ginger turned from the oven, a sheet tray of chocolate lava cakes in her hand. “People do change,” she said. “But chocolate stays the same.” She grinned at Spencer, who smiled right on back.
Even though he’d left Hope Eternal Ranch, he’d come here for the comfort he needed. They’d welcomed him back with open arms—and chocolate cake.
He wondered if Clarissa would do the same, and he knew she would. He took a lava cake and said, “Okay, now I need help with my girlfriend too… She sort of left town and went silent, and I need to figure out how to get her back.”
