Free True-Blue Cowboy Christmas by Nicole Helm Page A

gut. As much as Thack Lane irritated her, her gut feeling was that his controlling came from caring.
    â€œI just wanted to make sure you were going to come back to the ranch. Grandpa said you were, and Daddy said you weren’t. I want you to come back.”
    Oh, this little girl. Summer had once been this little girl, desperate for someone to open up her life. For a few years, she’d latched on to anyone Mom brought wherever they were, hoping that person would be the key to making things different.
    They never were, and then Summer had gotten old enough to be of interest to those strangers, and everything had changed. Mom had started to use that interest, and that’s when Summer had run.
    â€œWe’re caught a little bit between a rock and hard place, Kate.” Instead of touching the girl, Summer held out a hand. An invitation. She had come to greatly appreciate the freedom of an invitation.
    Kate happily took it. Summer couldn’t possibly fight the wave of protectiveness that swept over her. Even if Thack did care, even if Kate’s grandfather did care, they weren’t enough for this little girl with stars in her eyes and glitter snow in her imagination.
    Summer gave her hand a little squeeze. “How about this? I promise to keep trying to convince your father that I’m safe for you to be around. But you need to promise me you won’t disobey him.” Summer couldn’t quite settle into that black-and-white ultimatum. “Unless it’s absolutely gravely important.”
    Kate hopped. “I so super promise.”
    Summer nodded. “All right. Then we need to get you back home.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œNo buts. No arguing. We have to work together, and we have to play by the rules. The rules are very, very important. They can keep you safe.”
    Again Summer chafed at the black and white of that statement, but she began pulling Kate toward the Lane property. “And if you ever feel like a rule is wrong…” Summer searched for the right words for a seven-year-old. “There are ways to…” This was so not her place, but she couldn’t step out of the situation anyway. She just couldn’t. “You don’t just disobey them. You try to change them.” And if you can’t—you run far, far, far away.
    But that was an answer for another day.
    Kate kept squeezing Summer’s hand as they walked toward the trees. She gave a test swing and grinned when Summer went along with it, their joined arms swinging cheerfully.
    â€œDo you know how to ride a horse?” Kate asked.
    â€œI’ve been learning. They still make me a little nervous.”
    Kate wrinkled her nose. “Why? Horses are great. Daddy still won’t let me ride without a helmet or without him right next to me.” She sighed gustily. “I can’t do anything by myself.”
    Summer felt bad for asking, considering she knew what it was like to grow up without a parent, and how the question rarely had an easy, happy answer. At the same time, though, she thought she should know, if for no other reason than to better understand what was going on.
    â€œKate…” She took a deep breath, trying to walk the line between being helpful and…whatever it was that meant keeping her nose out of another family’s private matters. “Is it just your dad and your grandpa at your house?”
    â€œYeah. We have ranch hands for part of the year, but I’m supposed to stay away from them, too.”
    â€œAnd your…mother?” Summer closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see Kate’s face as she answered that question. She wouldn’t be able to handle it if she caused the girl grief or sadness or—
    â€œShe’s gone.”
    Summer blew out a breath, finally looking at Kate’s face. Her answer hadn’t told Summer anything useful, and her expression wasn’t all that haunted or hurt. How was Kate’s