Free His Texas Bride by Deb Kastner Page B

least, not many of them. Most of the kids come from Ferrell, and some from neighboring towns.”
    “How do you advertise?”
    “Word of mouth, primarily. The Tri-County News occasionally writes an article about the ranch. I’m a member of a national organization. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to deliver this snack to my little kiddos.”
    Buck raised an eyebrow but stepped sideways, out of the doorway. “This isn’t over.”
    Ellie scoffed and stepped through the doorway, not looking back. “Whatever you say, Buckshot,” she replied, purposefully using the same pet name she’d had for him when they were youngsters, hoping it would throw him off a bit.
    It must have, because he didn’t say another word, although Ellie could feel his eyes on her back all the way down the hill. She smiled to herself. She wasn’t done fighting for this ministry.
    Not even close.
     
    Buck was still mulling over Ellie’s use of her special pet name for him the next morning, over a hot cup of coffee. Ellie had remembered that after all these years? He remembered all too well. How could he have walked away from that kind of love?
    Ellie and Tyler were nowhere to be seen. They were probably not even awake yet, he guessed. It had long been Buck’s habit to watch the sun rise, and the fact that he was currently unemployed and taking a little R & R, as Ellie put it, didn’t keep him from waking before dawn.
    This wasn’t rest or relaxation.
    This was torture, plain and simple. He and Ellie couldn’t say a single word to each other without undertones of unspoken dialogue—why she wanted to stay on at the ranch and why he couldn’t let her do so.
    If it were anyone else renting his ranch, Buck would have sent them packing the moment he’d learned about his mother’s will. But Ellie was his tenant, which changed everything, and they both knew it.
    Count on Ellie, though, to try to take advantage of his generosity to plead her case. Why couldn’t she just realize she wasn’t going to get her way in the end and start looking for somewhere else to do her ministry? It sure would make it easier on both of them if she would.
    But Ellie had always been a stubborn woman. There was no reason to think she’d be anything else just because twenty years had gone by.
    Not his Ellie.
    No. Not his Ellie.
    Buck knew he needed to stop thinking that way, or he was going to end up in a world of hurt. He was obviously already headed in that direction, and it wouldn’t take much to send him right over the edge. He sighed deeply and took another sip of his still-steaming coffee.
    He was so startled by the sharp rapping on the front door, he nearly spilled his coffee in his lap. Surely Ellie didn’t have clients calling at this time of the morning?
    Standing stiffly, he jammed his hands through his hair and stretched. Only two days with Ellie and he was already getting soft in the head. He promised himself a good long horseback ride—to clear his head—later on in the morning and moved to the door, pulling the curtain slightly to one side so he could peer into the early morning mist.
    Travis Martinez.
    And with what looked to be a dozen red roses, not so hidden behind his back, and a goofy grin on his face. It didn’t take Buck more than a millisecond to figure out what that meant.
    Buck’s hackles were up faster than a cat with its tailon fire. He didn’t even stop to think why and had the itching desire to slam the door closed on wide-smiling Travis before he’d even opened it to the man.
    Travis Martinez, Buck remembered, had been the male lead in the same musical where Buck had first noticed Ellie. Travis had been in the same class with Buck, but where Buck had been the football hero, Travis had been the drama geek. Their paths had rarely crossed back then.
    But Travis wasn’t the same gangly boy Buck remembered. He had, Buck acknowledged crossly, grown several inches since high school and had filled out a bit. And if Travis’s toothy-white