Soldier's Secret Child. Caridad Piñeiro

arms wrapped around herself. Silent.”

      “Sorry to hear that, but she is coming out of her shell. She seems to talk to T.J. and Joe a lot.”

      “That’s a good start. Where are they?” Jewel asked as she scanned the great room and saw no sign of them.

      “I saw them heading out back, probably to finish up their chores before the weekend. I’ll go see what they’re up to,” she said and at her boss’s cue of approval, she went in search of them.

      As she suspected, they were at the corral, but not working. The two boys sat on the top rail of the fence, Sara between them, head bowed down.

      She was about to approach to make sure everything was okay, but then T.J. brought his hand up and patted Sara’s back in a familiar gesture. She had seen Tim do it more than once when comforting his young son and it twisted her heartstrings that Tim would not see the man T.J. would become.

      Which was followed by a wave of guilt as she realized that maybe Fisher never would either if she didn’t tell him about his son. If she didn’t make amends for what had happened in the past between them.

      Certain that the teens were better off without her presence at that moment, she returned to the ranch house and the game of memory she had left earlier.

      But even then she experienced no relief as the children matched up the first few letters.

      F.

      S.

      I.

      Certainly someone somewhere was telling her it was time to consider what she would do about Fisher.

      Fisher sat across from his dad in Miss Sue’s, enjoying the last of his ribs and delicious fries.

      It wasn’t as if he and his dad couldn’t have made themselves dinner. Since their mom had left, the three men had learned how to provide for themselves, but with it being Friday night and all, they needed a treat.

      Plus, he hadn’t wanted to waste time cooking when he could be spending it talking to his dad, especially since his time in Esperanza was ticking away quickly. Just a few more weeks and he would head back to the military.

      As he ran a fry through the ketchup and ate the last piece of tender meat on the rib, the cowbell clanged over the door. A trio walked in—Macy’s son with another boy and a teen girl.

      They stopped at the door to wait to be seated. As the hostess showed them to a booth, they passed by.

      “Evening, Mr. Yates,” T.J. said to his dad and nodded at Fisher in greeting as well.

      “Evening, T.J. Are these friends of yours?” Buck Yates asked, flicking his large hand in the direction of the other teens with T.J.

      “Yes, sir, they are. Joe and Sara, meet Mr. Yates. He’s the sheriff’s dad and this is the sheriff’s brother—Captain Yates.”

      Joe and Sara shook hands with the men and then the trio excused themselves.

      “Polite young man,” Fisher said, slightly surprised given the accounts provided by his brother about T.J.’s antics.

      “He’s a good kid, just a little angry ever since his pa died,” Buck said and pushed away his empty plate.

      “It must have been rough,” he said, imagining how difficult it would have been on both Macy and T.J. His own brother had suffered greatly as well since Tim had been his lifelong best friend.

      Luckily, Jericho had been Macy’s best friend also and had been by her side during the long months that Tim had battled cancer. At least Macy hadn’t been alone, but it didn’t stop the sudden clenching of his gut that maybe he could have been there for her, as well.

      He drove that thought away quickly. Being away from Macy was up there on the list of reasons he had joined the military.

      Maybe the top reason, he mused, thinking back to the night that had forever sealed the course of his life.

       Chapter 4

       Esperanza, Texas

       Eighteen years earlier

      Jericho stood at the plate, bat held high. His hips shifting back and forth, his body relaxed. He waited for the pitch.

      Jericho’s team was down by one. Tim Ward was on third base and another player on second with two men out. It would be the last inning unless they were able to get some runs on the board.

      Fisher sat beside his dad on the bleacher and called out encouragement. “You can do it, Jericho.”

      His yell was followed by Macy’s from where she sat a few feet away and a row down from them. “Go-o-o, Jericho-o. One little hit.”

      She sat beside Jericho’s latest girlfriend. He couldn’t remember her name because Jericho never kept a girl for too long, much like him. The Yates boys were love ’em and leave ’em kinds of guys, he thought.

      Macy, on the other hand, wasn’t a love ’em and leave ’em type of girl. Until recently, everyone thought she and Tim were a forever kind of thing what with them going off to college together. Except that in the past few weeks, Macy and Tim didn’t seem to be a thing anymore, which meant that Tim had loved her and left her. That struck him as downright stupid.

      The crack of the bat pulled his attention away from thoughts of Macy.

      Jericho had lined a rocket of a hit up the first baseline and deep into the corner of the stadium. Tim would score easily to tie the game, but as people got up on the bleachers and started cheering, it was clear the ball was deep enough to maybe score the man from second.

      The outfielder picked up the ball and with all his might sent it flying home, but the man from second was already well on his way to the plate. The ball sailed past the catcher as the man slid into home to win the game.

      The wild cheering and revelry of the hometown crowd spurred on the players who ran out onto the field to celebrate the victory. After a few moments of exuberant celebration, both the players and the crowd finally quieted down and the players formed a line to shake hands with the other team.

      As they did so, the crowd began to disperse from the stands.

      “I’ll see you at home, son,” his dad said, clapped him on the back and waved at Jericho on the field.

      He jumped down from the bleachers and weaved through the crowd of well-wishers until he reached Jericho, whose new girlfriend was already plastered to his hip.

      Tim and Macy stood across from one another awkwardly, clearly no longer a forever kind of thing and surprisingly, he was kind of glad about that.

      “Hey, big bro,” Jericho said as he joined them. “Tim, Cindy and I are heading to Bill’s for a post-baseball bash. Want to come hang with us?”

      All three of them, but not Macy? he wondered and shot a glance at her as she stood there, hands laced primly together in front of her.

      “No thanks, lil’ bro. Just came down to say congrats on winning the game.”

      “We’ve gotta run. What about you, Mace?” Jericho said, either clearly oblivious to the tension between his two friends or choosing to ignore it.

      “I’ve got…things to do,” she replied, peeking up at him from the corner of her eye.

      “We’re history, then,” Jericho said and left with Cindy bumping hips with him on one side and Tim on the other.

      He jammed the tips of his fingers into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on the heels of his boots, hesitant now that he and Macy were alone. “So what’s so important for you to have to do on a Friday night?”

      A blast of pink brightened her cheeks before she straightened her shoulders and faced him head on, determination in her brown-eyed gaze.