The Wyoming Kid. Debbie Macomber

lonely.”

      “I’ve got plenty of friends, plus you guys practically next door,” he told her. “Besides, Tom’s around.”

      At this reminder of the teenage boy living at the ranch, Letty asked, “How’s that going?”

      Lonny shrugged. “All right, I guess.” He liked the kid, who was skinny as a beanpole and friendly but still reserved. “He’s a hard worker.”

      Letty reached for Chase’s hand. “It was good of you to give him a job.”

      Lonny didn’t think of it that way. “I was looking for seasonal help. He showed up at the right time.” When Lonny found him in the barn, Tom had offered to work in exchange for breakfast. The kid must’ve been half-starved, because he gobbled down six eggs, half a pound of bacon and five or six slices of toast, along with several cups of coffee. In between bites, he brushed off Lonny’s questions about his history and hometown. When Lonny mentioned that he and Chase were hoping to hire a ranch hand for the season, Tom’s eyes had brightened and he’d asked to apply for the job.

      “I’m worried about you,” his sister lamented, refusing to drop the subject. “You do need someone.”

      “I do not.”

      Letty studied him for a long moment, then finally acquiesced. “Okay, big brother, you’re on your own.”

      And that was exactly how Lonny wanted it.

      Chapter Four

      Tom Meyerson finished the last of his nightly chores and headed for his room in the barn. Stumbling onto this job was the best thing that’d happened to him in years. He’d been bone-weary and desperate when Lonny Ellison found him sleeping in his barn. That day, three months ago now, he’d walked twenty or twenty-five miles, and all he’d had to eat was an apple and half a candy bar. By the time he saw the barn far off in the distance, he’d been thirsty, hungry and so exhausted he could barely put one foot in front of the other. He didn’t think he’d make it to the next town by nightfall, so he’d hidden in the barn and fallen instantly asleep.

      Life had been hell since his mother died. The doctor had said she had a weak heart, and Tom knew why: his dad had broken it years before. His father was a no-good drunk. There’d been nothing positive in Tom’s life except his mother. Fortunately, he was an only child, so at least there wasn’t a younger brother or sister to worry about. Shortly after he graduated from high school last spring, nearly a year ago, it became apparent that his father’s sole interest in him was as a source of beer money. He’d stolen every penny Tom had tried to save.

      The last time his money had mysteriously disappeared, Tom had confronted his father. They’d had a vicious argument and his old man had kicked him out of the house. At first Tom didn’t know what to do, but then he’d realized this was probably for the best. He collected what was due him from the hardware store where he worked part-time and, with a little less than fifty dollars in his pocket, started his new life. He’d spent twenty of those dollars on a bus ticket to the town of Red Springs, then walked from there. All Tom wanted was to get away from Thompson, Wyoming, as far and fast as he could. It wasn’t like his father would be looking for him.

      Life on the road was hard. He’d hitchhiked when he could, but there’d been few vehicles on the routes he’d traveled. Most of the time he’d hoofed it. He must have walked a hundred miles or more, and no matter what happened, he never wanted to go back.

      When Lonny Ellison discovered him, Tom was sure the rancher would file trespassing charges. Instead, Lonny had given him a job, a room and three square meals a day, which was more than he’d had since his mother’s death.

      The phone in the barn rang, and Tom leaped out of his bunk where he’d been reading yesterday’s paper and hurried to answer it. Lonny wasn’t back from town yet, he noticed, because his truck wasn’t parked out front.

      He lifted the receiver and offered a tentative, “Hello.”

      A short silence followed. “Tom?”

      Tom’s heart began to pound. It was Michelle, a girl he’d met at the feed store soon after he’d started working for Lonny. Like him, she was shy and although they hadn’t said more than a few words to each other, he enjoyed seeing her. Whenever he went to the store with Lonny, she made an excuse to come out of the office and hang around outside.

      “Hi.” Tom couldn’t help being excited that she’d phoned.

      “You didn’t come in this afternoon,” Michelle said, sounding disappointed.

      Tom had looked forward to seeing her all week, only to be thwarted. “Lonny decided to drive into town by himself.” Tom had searched for an excuse to join him, but none had presented itself, so he’d stayed on the ranch. He liked the work, although he’d never lived on a ranch before, and Lonny and Chase were teaching him a lot.

      His afternoon had been spent repairing breaks in the fencing along the road. The whole time he was doing that, he was thinking about Michelle and how pretty she was.

      “I wondered,” Michelle whispered, then hesitated as if there was more she wanted to tell him.

      Her father owned Larson’s Feed, and she helped out after school. The last time he was in town, he’d casually mentioned that he’d be back on Tuesday and hoped to see her. He wanted to ask her out on a date but didn’t have any way of getting into Red Springs without borrowing Lonny’s truck and he was reluctant to ask. Lonny had already done plenty for him, and it didn’t seem right to take advantage of his generosity.

      “Lonny had to pick up his niece after school,” Tom added.

      “Oh.”

      Michelle didn’t appear to be much of a conversationalist, which could be a problem because he wasn’t, either.

      “I was hoping, you know…” She let the rest fade. Then, all at once, she blurted out, “There’s a dance the last day of school. It’s a pretty big deal. The whole town throws a festival and the high school has this big dance and I was wondering if you’d go with me.”

      She said it all so fast, she couldn’t possibly have taken a breath. After she finished speaking, it took Tom a few seconds to realize what she’d asked him. He felt an immediate surge of regret.

      The silence seemed endless as he struggled with what to tell her. In the end, he told the simple truth. “I can’t.”

      “Why not?”

      Tom didn’t want to get into that. “I just…can’t.” He hated to disappoint her, but there was nothing more he could say.

      “I shouldn’t have asked…I wouldn’t have, but—Oh, never mind. I’m sorry….” With that, she hung up as if she couldn’t get off the line fast enough.

      Tom felt wretched. He didn’t have the clothes necessary for any dance; in fact, he’d never attended a dance in his life, even in high school. Those kinds of social events were for other kids. He was sorry to refuse Michelle, sorrier than she’d ever know, but there wasn’t any alternative.

      As he returned to his room, Tom lay back on the hard mattress and tucked his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. It would’ve been nice, that school dance with Michelle. All they’d done so far was talk a few times. The thought of holding her in his arms imbued him with a sense of joy—a joy that was unfamiliar to him.

      Tom gave himself a mental shake. He might as well forget about the dance right then and there, because it wasn’t going to happen. His joy quickly disappeared.

      

      JUST BACK FROM SCHOOL, Joy was still furious over her confrontation with Lonny Ellison. The man had his nerve. In an effort to forget that unfortunate episode, Joy tried to grade the spelling-test papers, but she soon discovered she couldn’t concentrate. The only thing she seemed able to do with all this pent-up anger was pace her living room