A Cowboy's Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    He reminded himself that he wasn’t that kid. Not now. He had moved on. He had finished college. He had worked his way upin the sport of bull riding. He hadn’t made a lot of money, but at least he had something to show for his life.
    His attention returned to the halls of the nursing home, sweet old people sitting in chairs next to the doors to their rooms, hoping that someone would stop and say hello. A few of them spoke, remembering him from a long time ago, or from his visit last week.
    His own father sometimes remembered him, and sometimes didn’t.
    â€œWell, there you are.” Today was a day his dad remembered.
    â€œDad, how are you?” Clint grabbed the handles of the wheel-chair and pushed his dad into the room.
    â€œI didn’t say I wanted to come in here.”
    â€œI don’t want to stand in the hall.” Clint sat on the bed with the quilted bedspread and raggedy stuffed elephant that one of Jenna’s boys had left for their granddad, even though their granddad rarely acknowledged their presence.
    â€œSo, did you find a job?” his dad quizzed as his trembling hand reached for a glass of water.
    Clint picked up the glass and filled it from the pitcher on the table. He eased it into his dad’s hand. It was full and a little sloshed out. Clint wiped it up with a napkin and sat back down on the bed.
    â€œI have a job. I’m a bull rider. And I’m going to work for Janie.”
    â€œThat old woman? Why would you work for her?”
    Clint glanced out the small window that let in dim afternoon light shadowed by the dark clouds of another storm. He had to shrug off his dad’s comments, the same comments he’d always made about Janie.
    There were questions Clint would like to ask now. Did his dad really dislike Janie, or was he just embarrassed that her money had put food on their table and clothes on their backs? He breathed deep and let go of the anger.
    Too many years had gone by to remind his father of that time,and to hurt him with the truth that would have sounded like accusations. He stood and walked to the window. Behind him his dad coughed.
    â€œI could use a drink.”
    Clint shrugged but didn’t turn away from the window, and the view of someone’s hayfield. A tractor sat abandoned in the middle of the field, half the hay cut and the other half still standing. Something must have broken on the tractor. Not that it mattered. But for a moment he needed to think about something other than the past, and his dad still needing a drink, even with his liver failing.
    â€œWhere’s your sister? Is she home from school yet?”
    His dad had slipped into the past, too.
    Clint turned, shaking his head as he sat down on the bed. It was easy to forgive a man who was broken. The surprising thing was that he even felt compassion.
    â€œDad, Jenna is in Missouri. She’s going to Iraq.”
    â€œWhy would she do that?”
    â€œShe’s in the Army.” He took the water glass from his dad and set it on the table. “Dad, do you remember? Jenna is twenty-seven. She has two little boys.”
    â€œShe shouldn’t have had them without a father. She should have married that boy.”
    â€œHe didn’t ask.” Clint had to fight back a remaining shard of anger over that situation. The ramblings of an old man he could overlook. The past could be forgiven. His sister being hurt, that was something he still had to work on.
    â€œWhat’s your sister going to do with those boys?”
    â€œI’m going to take care of them.”
    His dad laughed. “You? How are you going to take care of two little boys? Do you even have a job, other than working for Janie?”
    â€œI’m helping her niece with the bucking bulls she raises.”
    His dad’s eyes widened at that and then narrowed as hesmiled. “Are you in love with her? I imagine she’s way out of your league.”
    How could one