The Maverick Cowboy(20)

He shrugged his powerful shoulders. "Then they aren't very useful around here, are they?"

She studied him over the rim of her coffee mug. "Are you trying to make me feel better now?"

"I'm just stating a fact." He held her gaze. "I'm going to do my damndest to make sure Maria gets to stay here and not go into a foster home, okay?"

"That would be good."

The kitchen door opened and Maria came through with Ruth. She looked as if she had been crying, and Blue shot to his feet.

"Is everything okay?"

Ruth patted Maria's shoulder. "She's fine. A big glass of milk and a cookie will settle her down nicely while you go talk to Nate, Blue."

Blue went out and Jenna turned to the child, who had taken the seat beside her.

"Hi, Maria, I'm Jenna. I sort of met you last night."

"Hi." Maria's voice was barely audible. Her hands were clasped tightly together on the table and her shoulders were hunched almost up to her ears.



       
         
       
        

Jenna wanted to wrap an arm around the girl's shoulders and tell her that everything would be okay, but she also knew that sometimes it wasn't. Whatever had led up to Maria being kicked out of her home certainly hadn't happened overnight and must have left longstanding scars.

"It's kind of scary leaving all your stuff behind and moving to a different place super fast, isn't it?" Jenna glanced casually over at Maria. "I had to do it a couple of times when I was a kid. Is there anything you forgot to bring with you? Anything you need?"

Maria swallowed hard. "I got my ponies, my journal, and my plushies, so I'm good."

"Cool." Jenna smiled at her. "I used to keep a bag packed with all my special stuff just in case, you know?"

Maria nodded. "I started doing that a while ago because sometimes Dad didn't come home, and then I'd get worried, and I'd go sleep at my neighbor's house." She hesitated. "Did your family kick you out as well?"

"Yeah-well, my mom had some problems, and sometimes she couldn't cope with us being at home, so we went somewhere else for a while."

"So you went back?"

The hope in Maria's eyes made Jenna's stomach hurt.

"Not for long. She really couldn't handle dealing with us."

"Just like my dad."

Jenna patted her hand. "You never know. Maybe he'll work it out. Just remember you're in a good place here with people who want to take care of you, and if there's anything you need or want to talk about? You can always ask me."

Ruth placed a glass of milk in front of Maria and a plate of cherry and chocolate cookies.

"Now, don't you worry, my darling girl. Leave Nate and Blue to sort everything out."

"He won't want me back." Maria stared down at the table.

"Who won't?"

"My dad who says he's not my dad. He hates me."

Ruth sat opposite Maria, her gaze full of sympathy. "Nate is probably going to have to talk to him, Maria. He can't just abandon you."

"Yes, he can, if he's not my dad." Maria took a sip of milk. "He told me."

"It's not as simple as that," Ruth said firmly. "Is it, Jenna?"

"Um." She really wasn't the best person to ask about fatherly behavior, seeing as her biological father was a complete failure as a human being. "I don't suppose it is."

"He said I wasn't his child and that meant he had no responsibility for me." Maria's voice cracked.

"Then he's an idiot," Jenna said. "Don't you worry, Nate and Blue will set him straight." She looked up to see Nate waving at her in the doorway. "I'll be back in a minute." 

* * *

Blue waited outside as Nate went to fetch Jenna. He wished he had his gun and something to kill. Even if Maria wasn't his kid, he still wanted to get hold of Daniel Lester and wring his neck. What kind of man did that to a child? Maria had believed that ass was her father for almost eleven years and had all that security and love ripped away in one day. He knew how that felt. What kind of selfish idiot put a ten-year-old on a bus to travel hundreds of miles by themselves?

Nate came and stood beside him. "I'll talk to the Sacramento Police Department. They might be able to find Daniel Lester's address."

"Cool, and I'll chase up the Lester I knew in the military."

"Is there a list you can consult or something?" Jenna had come out with Nate and stood listening quietly to them both.

"Not really an official one, but we had enough friends in common that I'll be sure to pick up his trail."

"Good to know." Nate put on his hat. "I'll keep in touch." He nodded at Blue and smiled at Jenna before giving her a peck on the cheek. "Bye, hon."

Blue wanted to roll his eyes, but just managed to restrain himself until Nate was in his vehicle.

"His kissing still needs work. He missed your mouth again."

"He was being polite in front of you."

"Yeah, right. I had to handle the screen door and stop you getting by me, and I still managed to find the right spot." He sighed as Nate pulled away with an airy wave. "I suppose I'd better get on with finding Jim Lester."

"And I'd better check in with Ruth about whether there are any jobs for me to do on the ranch."

* * *

Blue punched the number he'd jotted down in the back of his notebook into his cell and took a deep breath. He'd spent most of the afternoon chasing old Marine buddies on social media and had finally come up with a current cell phone number for the Lesters.

"Hello?"

It was a woman's voice.

"Hi, you might not remember me, Rosa, but it's Gunnery Sergeant Blue Morgan here, I-"

"I remember you. How are you doing? Did you want to speak to Jim?"

"Yeah, if I could. That would be great."

"He's at work and he can't take calls there. Do you want me to ask him to call you when he gets home?"

"Yes, please."

"Just let me get a pen and paper."

He waited as she bustled around banging drawers and heard a small yappy dog barking in the distance.

"Okay. Fire away."

He gave her his number and she repeated it back to him. "And what are you doing these days, Blue? Still barhopping and lady killing?"

Blue winced. "Nah, I've settled down. I'm too old for all that now. Once I get out of the military, I'm going to help run a cattle ranch."

"How cool is that?" She laughed. "Do you remember that night you took me and my sister-in-law out when she was visiting and Jim was still overseas? It was really kind of you. We had such a blast."

"That was Angelina, right?" Blue took a chance even as his stomach knotted up. "She was your sister-in-law? I thought she was your sister."

"She might as well have been. We practically grew up together." Her voice sobered. "She married Jim's brother."

"After I met her?"

"Well, when you met her they were going through a bad patch, and she'd kind of left him and wasn't acting like a married woman-if you know what I mean."



       
         
       
        

Yeah, he knew. Blue briefly closed his eyes. Oh crap.

"She did go back to him, though, and they were together until quite recently." The sadness was back in Rosa's voice. "She had cancer-the kind they can't cure, and she recently passed away. They have a daughter called Maria. I do hope she's okay. I'll have to call and see how she and Dan are doing."

Blue stared at the old green drapes in his bedroom and took a deep breath.

"I know where Maria is. That's why I called today."

There was silence filled only with yappy barks and then Rosa spoke again. "What on earth do you mean?"

"Apparently Dan decided that Maria wasn't his child and put her on a bus to me."

"Madre de Dios," Rosa whispered. "I thought no one was ever supposed to know."





Chapter Nine

After something of a search, Jenna finally found Blue out in the barn. She'd come back out to the ranch to attend to one of the piglets that had been badly bitten by a rat and walked into a Morgan family conference about where the hell had Blue gone? She'd offered to help look for him while Ruth got dinner and had started in the most obvious place. He was sitting in Messi's stall with his back against the wall. He didn't look up when she sat next to him and adopted the same pose.

Messi was finishing up his hay, and his long tail swung gently back and forth, providing some very basic air-conditioning as wisps of hay floated down to the floor to join the straw bedding. The heat coming off the horse suggested Blue had just returned from a long ride.

"Hey." Jenna kept her tone casual. "You know they are all worried about you up at the house, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, what's up?"

Blue sighed. "Just that I'm a complete bastard."

"I wouldn't say that." Jenna put a comforting hand on his denim-clad knee. "What happened?"

"I tracked down Jim Lester and spoke to his wife, Rosa."

"The military family you knew? What did she tell you?"

He stayed quiet for so long that she almost expired from holding her breath.