Redemption Ranch. Leann Harris

“You can thank Charming for that,” Beth explained. “He kept knocking me into the stall wall and I lost both of my shoes.” She hurried back into the stall, found her shoes and slipped them on. Closing the stall door behind her, Beth said, “Okay, I’m ready.”

       At the stable door, Beth glanced over her shoulder and smiled at Tyler and Dogger.

       With her heart light, she walked back to the house with Sophie.

       Sophie linked arms with Beth. “What happened back there?”

       “He offered his friendship.”

       Sophie stopped. “Who—the dog or Tyler?”

       Beth grinned. “Both.”

      * * *

       Tyler watched Beth and Sophie stroll up the curved walkway to the main house. From their body language, he could tell the women knew each other and were friends. Sophie’s dark head leaned close to Beth’s light brown curls and they laughed.

       Sophie stopped, looked at her friend, then at the stables. Tyler resisted the urge to step back. What had Beth said? They resumed their stroll to the house.

       Tyler turned around and walked to Charming’s stall where his dog sat. “So, bud, what’s going on?”

       The dog looked at him, but didn’t move from his spot in front of the stall door. The horse stuck his head out and nodded. Tyler didn’t know how he felt, but the shock of seeing Dogger allowing Beth to pet him had rocked him back on his heels. Since Tyler had found the wounded pup on that rutted road outside Mosul, there had been a special bond between man and dog. They were both survivors. He’d survived the tornado that killed his parents, and Dogger survived the car explosion. Dogger befriended all the men of his unit, but when the chips were down, Dogger always settled in with Tyler. His best friend and fellow bomb tech, Paul Carter, teased Tyler about what his fiancée was going to think when he showed up in Oklahoma with the mutt who’d want to sleep in the bed between them. They found Dogger a few weeks before Paul died disarming a bomb.

       His mind shied away from the painful memory.

       Charming whinnied, bringing him back to the present.

       Tyler stepped closer and stroked Charming’s nose. “Okay, big guy, I get the drift. You want some attention.” Tyler had a roll of Lifesavers in his shirt pocket. He grabbed the roll, peeled off one and popped it in his mouth. Charming butted him with his head.

       “Want one?”

       The horse nodded.

       Tyler pulled another candy from the roll and offered it to the horse. He didn’t have to offer it twice.

       The ghost of a smile curved Tyler’s lips.

       This afternoon had been chock-full of revelations. Or maybe he should say bombs. When Zach announced at the impromptu party after church that he would become a father, his family and friends had cheered. But Tyler recalled that wounded look that filled Beth’s eyes before she quickly looked away. When she turned back, a smile lit her pretty face and she kissed both Sophie and Zach. But there’d been a sadness in her green eyes he’d identified with. He doubted her brother and sister-in-law had noticed it, as focused on their own joy as they were, but he saw it.

       Tyler kept careful watch on Beth and saw her slip out of the house and head toward the barn. He tried to talk himself out of it, but followed her, anyway. To do what, he didn’t know, but he trusted his instincts. They’d served him well in Iraq.

       When he walked into the stables a few minutes ago the shock of what he saw knocked him breathless. Of all the things he expected to see, maybe Beth crying or sitting in a corner having a pity party, her petting Dogger wasn’t on his list.

       He glanced down at his dog.

       “So what’s happening, old friend? How come you’ve decided to become a pal to the folks around here?” For the first time since they’d arrived back from Iraq, Dogger had offered his friendship to a new person. “Not only did you sidle up to Beth, but Charming, too? What’s going on?”

       Dogger raised his head off his front paws and cocked his head.

       It was hard to get used to the idea of Dogger making friends. He felt a slight shift in his feelings about being at the ranch. A little less of an outsider in this family-run business.

       After his last tour ended, Tyler didn’t re-up, but went home to Oklahoma. It’d been a hard transition, and Dogger had become his lifeline. Tyler didn’t have to explain to his dog how he felt, why his moods were all over the map or give details of what happened while he was in theater.

       His foster parents wanted to understand, but he felt as if there was a deep chasm between them. And his ex-fiancée didn’t want to know anything about his Army days and thought he should shake it off.

       Shake it off.

       That’s why she was his ex-fiancée.

       Of course, there was his embarrassing reaction at the Fourth of July picnic where some of the youth at the church pulled the prank of setting off cherry bomb firecrackers under the picnic tables where they were seated. He freaked out in front of all the church members, the town council and mayor of their little town. The noise was so similar to the bomb that killed his friend, his instant reaction was to duck. Afterward, when he spotted the boys laughing at everyone, he’d let go with a dressing down that brought the picnic to a halt and tears to the youthful offenders. The gathered witnesses understood Tyler’s reaction. No one scolded him, but his fiancée gave him such a look of disgust that Tyler knew the engagement was over, much to his relief.

       The next morning Tyler had hugged his foster parents and told them he’d be in contact. His fiancée was nowhere to be seen after the picnic, but she’d left her engagement ring with his foster sister. In the ten months since he’d been gone, he’d called home once, but it didn’t go well.

       He and Dogger roamed the country until he’d run into Zach McClure in that restaurant in Albuquerque over a month ago. The more he thought about it, the more he knew that “chance” meeting wasn’t just chance.

       Since being here, something inside him had eased. Of course, that also could be credited to being in the same city as his best buddy’s family. He’d finally worked up the nerve to call Paul’s mom. She welcomed him with open arms, making him feel even guiltier for not saving Paul’s life. Tyler immediately saw the pain in Paul’s younger brother eyes and knew this was where he was supposed to be. Somehow, someway, he would try to make up Paul’s death to Riley.

       Dogger’s move today surprised and unsettled Tyler, and yet, oddly enough, he trusted the dog’s instincts. Dogger seemed to be able to actually discern a person’s heart. Dogger didn’t like his ex-fiancée and had growled at her the first time they met. Things had not improved between them. Dogger had pegged her.

       “I’m going to need your help with the kid tomorrow. He needs a friend.” Tyler squatted by the dog’s side and ran his hand over his head. “You’ll like him. You liked Paul, and I know you’ll like his kid brother.”

       At least he prayed he would. Tyler would need all the help he could get to win over the reluctant boy.

      * * *

       Tyler sat on the edge of the bed and ran his fingers through his hair. The dream—no nightmare—had seized him again, but before it could end, Dogger woke him.

       The dog jumped down from the bed and sat beside Tyler.

       “Thanks, boy.”

       Dogger cocked his head.

       Why’d he have that dream tonight? He hadn’t had the nightmare since he’d started working at Second Chance.

       He knew he couldn’t go back to sleep, so he slipped on his jeans, grabbed a can of soda from the refrigerator and walked out onto the porch. He parked himself on the top step. At one time, he would’ve grabbed a beer, but after a bender in Denver that landed him in the hospital,