Free A Cowboy for Christmas by Bobbi Smith

fine,” Nick told them. “Let’s get him on back home.”
    “The orphanage isn’t my home!” Steve lifted his head defiantly, the look in his eyes tortured.
    “I know how you feel, Steve. Believe me, I know,” Nick said.
    Steve had been at the orphanage since the death of his parents several months before. Nick knew he was alone in the world now, and afraid—so very afraid. The coming holiday season would be his first without his family, and Nick understood how being at the home only magnified the pain and loneliness the orphaned boys experienced.
    As they started back to the orphanage, Nick glanced one last time in the direction of the train station and then shook his head. That couldn’t have been Danny getting on that train. It still pained Nick to think of his lost brother. He hadn’t seen or heard from Danny in all these years. He’d never known what had happened to him, and that was why he had followed his calling to become a pastor and to work at an orphanage. He cared deeply for the boys. He wanted to give them a place where they would know they were loved.
    Nick looked down at little Steve and offered up a silent prayer that he could find some way to win the boy’s trust and help heal his pain. His own adoptive parents had helped him through the hard times, and he wanted to be there for these boys to give them whatever support they needed to grow up to be good, upstanding, honorable young men.
    It was a long walk back to the orphanage, but they made it. Miss Lawson, one of the teachers, saw them coming and hurried to open the door and let them in.
    “You found him!” she exclaimed in delight.
    “Thanks to Marty and Joey,” Nick told her as he set Steve on his feet before her.
    Miss Lawson hugged both Marty and Joey. “Good job.” Then she turned to speak with Steve. “Thank heaven you’re back. I was so worried about you.”
    Steve lifted his head to look at the tall, thin, gray-haired teacher. She was one of the strictest teachers there at the home, and to find out she’d been worried about him, surprised him. “You were?”
    “Why, yes. You’re my best speller. What would I do without you in class, young man? You set the example for all the other younger boys.”
    Steve had never had any open praise in his life for his studies. He was taken aback by her words. “I do?”
    “Yes, you do, and don’t forget it. Come see me when you’ve finished talking with Reverend Miller and I’ll go over the assignments you missed today so you won’t fall behind in your studies. All right?”
    Steve nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
    Nick was impressed with her handling of the situation. “Joey, Marty, I’ll see you two at dinner. Steve, come with me.”
    Steve followed the reverend into his small office off the main hall. He stood before Reverend Miller’s desk, his head hanging in shame, his shoulders stooped with weariness.
    Nick sat down at his desk and looked at the boy. “You can sit down, Steve.”
    Steve looked up, shocked. Usually when anyone got in trouble at the home, their punishment was strict. He’d been expecting to be spanked. “I can?”
    “Yes.”
    He quickly sat in one of the two chairs positioned in front of the reverend’s desk and waited to see what Reverend Miller was going to say.
    Nick saw the puzzlement in his expression. “I know you’re going through a hard time right now, Steve. This time of year with the holidays coming . . . Well, it’s hard to be without your family. I know, because I’ve been there myself.”
    “You have?”
    “I was orphaned at a young age, just like you,” Nick explained, and he went on to tell him of his time at the orphanage. “It was traumatic for me to be taken from my older brother, Danny, and I ran away from my adopted home to go back to find my brother. When I got there, though, Danny was gone. It turned out my brother had run off to try to find me, and I was returned to my adopted family. I stayed with them after