Free The Promise of Forgiveness by Marin Thomas Page A

doing in here?”
    â€œWhat does it look like?” Mia tossed a pile of soiled hay into the barrow. “I’m getting used to the poop,” she said. “The barn smells like our old yard when the Lil’ Stinky truck pumped out our septic tank.”
    â€œI’ll finish up. You can go back to the house.” He removed the pitchfork from her hand and stabbed the pronged tool into the dirty hay.
    Mia jumped aside when horse dung sailed through the air, missing the barrow. “I picked out names for the horses,” she said.
    â€œOh, yeah?” Apparently his boss had passed on his stubborn streak to both his daughter and his granddaughter.
    â€œThe black one is Pretty Boy, the gray one is Sugar, and the brown one is Lonesome.”
    Mia sprawled across the hay bales stacked in the corner. “Do you have any kids?”
    Joe braced himself for the sharp pain that always pierced his heart when he thought of his son, but this time there was only a twinge. Until last night when he’d unloaded on Ruby, Joe hadn’t spoken about Aaron to anyone—not even to Hank. “I don’t have any children.”
    â€œI wish I had a brother or a sister,” she said.
    Joe had wanted more children after Aaron was born, but Melanie had said one was all she could manage. Would a second child have held their marriage together after they’d buried Aaron? Maybe not, but he’d have had a reason to wake up each morning. Another son or daughter wouldn’t have erased the pain of Aaron’s death, but it might have prevented Joe from shutting himself off from others. Having someone who depended on him would have encouraged him to at least give a damn.
    â€œHave you ever been married?”
    â€œYes.” Joe set aside the pitchfork, then broke open a fresh hay bale and spread it in the stall.
    â€œI wanted my mom to marry Sean, but she broke up with him for no good reason.”
    So Ruby had been involved with a man before leaving Missouri.
It’s none of your business
. Maybe not, but he’d spilled his guts in the bar, so he got a free pass to be nosy. “What happened to Sean?” When Mia didn’t answer, Joe turned and came face-to-face with Ruby.
    She struggled to keep a straight face. “What happened to Sean what?”
    His gaze darted past Ruby—Mia had snuck off. “Sorry. Your daughter mentioned him, but it’s none of my business.” He pushed the barrow to the next stall, which had already been cleaned.
    â€œSean and I were together for nine months before I ended the relationship.” Ruby stared into space.
    â€œRegrets?” he asked.
    â€œNot really.”
    That wasn’t exactly a
no.
“What happened with Mia’s father?”
    â€œWe never married. I gave him a lot of chances to do right by me and Mia, but he blew us off.”
    â€œHold still.”
    â€œWhat?” Ruby’s eyes rounded.
    Joe brushed his fingers against her shoulder. “Spider.”
    â€œDid you get it?” She swatted her hair and jumped around. “I hate spiders.”
    â€œYou’re going to break your neck if you keep flinging your head like that.” He grinned at her antics.
    She was halfway through the barn before she stopped and faced him. “I came in here to tell you that Hank made tuna sandwiches for lunch.”
    â€œWhat did Randall want?”
    â€œThe deputy was more interested in why I’m at the ranch than in finding cows.”
    â€œI figured as much.”
    â€œAre you busy later?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWould you mind giving me a tour of the ranch?” She spread her arms wide. “Apparently I’m going to inherit all this when Hank dies.”
    Joe hoped that day wasn’t coming anytime soon. He liked working at the Devil’s Wind—it was the first place that had felt a little like home since he’d left Tulsa.
    â€œSure. I’ll show you the