ZQ stopped for a traffic light in Phoenix when it flashed to yellow. The driver behind him took offense and laid on the horn. Ashley covered her ears and cussed a blue streak. She’d certainly changed, not just in attitude but in appearance.
Her long blond hair was cut close to her head—high and tight, like a GI recruit—and dyed black. Aviator sunglasses covered her eyes. The clothes she wore were more masculine than feminine, including the high-top Army boots. And damned if it didn’t look as if she’d bound her breasts. ZQ loved admiring the female form and he recalled her as being bustier than how she appeared today.
“I’ll be so glad when we’re out of this freaking town, away from all the freaking noise.”
“We’ll be on the interstate soon. Then it’ll be the roar of tractor-trailers whizzing past.” He glanced at her again. “You hanging in there, kid?”
“I’m hanging.” Her arms folded in a protective gesture.
“You’ve changed your hairstyle and overall appearance.”
She glanced out the passenger window. “Keeps the freaking guys away. That’s all I care about.”
“Freaking” must be the kid’s new favorite word.
Once his truck hit the interstate, the tires hummed as they ate up the miles toward home. “Expect Nance to go berserk when she sees you. She’ll smother you with kisses.”
Ashley smiled for the first time since he’d pulled in front of the YWCA where she’d been staying. “Do you think the dog will even recognize me?”
“She will once she sees you move and smells you. I was coming from the stables when JJ rode in on his classic Harley. Boy, was I surprised! Ol’ Nance sat in the sidecar, wearing a black brain bucket with a Trident and war vet decals on the front. Even with how I’ve aged, she recognized me right away.” He barked a laugh. “She liked to kiss me to death. God, I was glad to see them both. I miss my team.”
“Shit, Commander, you haven’t aged much. A couple gray hairs, maybe. You’re still a freaking stud. You’re lucky I trust you to keep your hands off me or I’d have to jerk the knife from my boot and slit your freaking throat.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “You think I’d let you get that damn close to me, young lady? Don’t forget, you never went through SEAL training. Navy boot camp, yeah, but you were clerical. Translations. You were brains. My men were brains and brawn.”
She smiled and jabbed her thumb into her flattened chest. “I always respected your continual line of rampant bullshit. Never believed a lick of it, but I jumped and looked scared just the same.”
ZQ chuckled. “Hope you still like to read. JJ’s buying you some books today. He wants you to feel at home in your quarters. You and Mom will have the only bedrooms upstairs. You’ll be sharing the same bath. The guys sleep in the new addition on the ground floor.”
“I love reading.” She cracked her knuckles. “How many guys are at the ranch now?”
“Three. JJ, Reece Browning, who you probably remember as Steelhead, and me. And the four ranch hands, of course. They stay in the bunkhouse on the other side of the stables. Some nights, depending on JJ’s mood, he and Nance sleep outside somewhere. It hinges on whether his PTSD is acting up or not.”
“Does he struggle with it, too?” Her voice softened. Yeah, she still cares about him.
“Honey, we all do. I’m over the worst of it, but I’ve been through months and months of counseling. JJ’s seeing the same psychiatrist now. It’s helping, but it’s a long difficult process. At times, it dredges up more pain than it soothes. Steelhead is barely speaking, so he has a long road ahead of him.”
As if she had to mull all that around in her mind, they fell into a comfortable silence while his vehicle nosed its way toward Eagle Ridge Ranch. Slightly over a hundred miles from home, ZQ pulled into a gas station to refuel. “Hungry? There’s a fast-food joint across the road.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll treat you to a sandwich and a soda. Right about now, my navel’s talking to my backbone.”
“You’ll stay with me?” Her eyebrows rose and tension lines formed around her mouth.
Shit, he’d have to use the head at the gas station. “Sure. No one will bother you. I give you my word. Lock your door when I go inside to pay for the gas and use the restroom.”
Once they entered the burger house, Ashley put on a defensive air. Her stance widened and she jammed her hands into her pockets.
“Hey, want some curly fries? I’m so glad to see you, I’ll spring for those, too.” He shoulder-bumped her while they waited in line.
Ashley shrugged. “Don’t matter a shit to me, Commander.”
“ZQ, honey. Most everyone calls me ZQ unless they’re pissed at me. Mom, who will insist you call her Junebug, calls me Zane Austin when she’s provoked.”
Ashley nodded. “The mom double-name tactic, I know it well.”
They reached the front of the line and ZQ called the waitress “honey” so Ashley wouldn’t feel ill at ease when he used the term on her. He carried the tray of food to a booth.
She unwrapped her cheeseburger and tucked into it as if she hadn’t eaten for three days. Once she crumpled the wrapper in her hand, she pulled a long drink of soda from the straw. “So, I’m supposed to call your mom Junebug?”
“Oh, she’ll insist on it. I have to warn you, she’s always wanted a big family. For one reason or another, I was the only child. She loves having team members come to stay for a while. She calls them her ‘boys.’ ” He tipped his cup of Coke toward her. “You’ll be her first daughter and she will dote on you. Just accept her goodness and we’ll all be happy.”
“You and your mom are tight, huh?” Ashley tipped her head back and wrapped her tongue around a curly fry, reminding him of a nine-year-old. Lord, he hoped he wouldn’t have to teach her manners. He didn’t recall her behaving like this when she was in the Navy.
“Everyone’s tight with my mom; she won’t have it any other way.”
Ashley was all eyes when he slowed and eased the pickup onto a gravel-covered lane between a couple of Texas red buckeye trees. Just beyond were two tall wooden poles with a large sign hanging between them, declaring this as home—“Eagle Ridge Ranch.” Below in smaller lettering was “Owned by the Quinlan Family for generations, past and future.”
“I’m really on a ranch like they show in old TV movies,” she said in awe.
“This isn’t a ranch for show, honey, it’s a working ranch. We raise cattle, lots of Longhorns, Herefords, Black Angus, and horses. Mom has her chickens she insists on letting loose a few hours a day. Plus four pygmy goats, more for pets than anything, but they are the damndest annoying critters. Fruit trees and gardens. Although I wish she’d slow down with her age and rheumatoid arthritis. But as you’ll soon learn, she’s a woman with a mind of her own.”
He drove around the original log house with its brick additions, past the fire pit he and the guys talked around most nights, beyond the stables into the garage. He turned to her after shutting off the engine. “Welcome home, Ashley. Stay as long as you like. I’ll get your duffel bag from the back.”
“Boss!” Elroy, his foreman, jogged toward him. Excitement was imprinted on his face. His smile deepened the wrinkles in his leathered cheeks.
He set Ashley’s bag on the garage floor. “Hey, man, what’s up?”
“Magic Moon dropped her foal around ten this morning. Beautiful filly. Nice markings.”
“Come on, Ashley. You’ll want to see this.” ZQ grabbed her elbow and jogged toward the stables. Elroy tried to keep up. “Magic Moon okay?” She was ZQ’s favorite mare with the sweetest disposition.
“Yeah, I took good care of her. You’ll see.”
ZQ opened the stable door. “You should have called me when her labor started.”
“I knew you’d be drivin’ today. I didn’t want you gettin’ a speeding ticket from bein’ in an all-fired hurry to get back.” His ranch foreman had a strong tendency to look out for ZQ as well as the animals and property. In his opinion, Elroy was worth his weight in gold.
“Elroy, meet Ashley Vogel. She was the translator for our team when we were In-Country. Ashley, this is the best ranch foreman in all of Texas, Elroy Blackwell.”
Elroy, puffed up from ZQ’s compliment, touched the brim of his cowboy hat, its band stained with sweat. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Ashley smiled in response as she clung to ZQ.
He rounded the corner to Magic Moon’s stall, noticed the clean straw and other extra pains Elroy had taken with ZQ’s prized mare. “Hey, pretty lady. How’s Daddy’s favorite mare?” He patted her neck and she nickered before rubbing her face against his chest. “You know you get prettier every day.” He reached into his shirt pocket and wrapped his fingers around two sugar cubes. She gently picked them off his flat, outstretched hand while he rubbed her face with his other hand. “Do you have something to show me?” She turned her head and stepped aside so he could see the spindly-legged filly. “Magic Moon, you did good. What a beautiful foal. Excellent markings, wouldn’t you say, Elroy?”
“I think so, boss. You matched her with a good stud. Looks like you got yourself a strong-lookin’ colt there. Yes, it surely does.”
ZQ glanced at Ashley. “What do you think?”
“She’s beautiful,” Ashley breathed. She looked over her shoulder at ZQ. “May I touch the colt?”
“Let’s introduce you to Momma first, so she knows you’re okay. This is her first foal. She’ll be understandably protective and jittery.” He made the introductions and Magic Moon sniffed Ashley’s hands and snorted. “Move slowly toward the colt and touch her gently, honey.”
ZQ kept rubbing and patting the large horse, his voice low and praising. Magic Moon nuzzled her owner some more. ZQ watched the care and awe Ashley used on the filly and came to a snap decision. “Elroy, I think we’ll name the colt Vogel’s Moon in honor of our new guest. I’ll do the purebred paperwork on her and get her registered right away. You did an excellent job taking care of both the mare and the filly. Not that I’d expect anything less from an old expert like you.”
Elroy beamed. “Thanks, boss.”
Ashley had whirled around, her mouth agape. “Are you really going to name her after me?”
“Are you going to help Elroy take care of her? You’ll have to follow his orders.”
Her face expressed happiness for the first time since he’d opened the door to the truck for her hours ago. “Oh, I’d love to. Elroy, I’ll do whatever you say. I don’t know anything about ranch animals, so you’ll have to be patient with me.”
“I can do that. You just show me you’re willin’ to work hard.” He waved an open hand around the stables. “You see how clean this place is kept. Any horse apples dropped are scooped up right away. The cement floor scrubbed and hosed down.”
“Horse apples?”
“That’s horse shit to a city dweller like you.” ZQ shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. This might be a damn good thing for the girl. Taking care of the colt would get her mind off herself and give her a sense of purpose. Help her heal.
“I’ve got a lot to learn.” She had her head leaning against little Vogel’s Moon’s side. “But I will. Don’t you worry.”
ZQ could tell things hadn’t gone well between Mom and Ashley Vogel when his mother stormed into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. She placed some homemade cookies on a plate and set it between her and ZQ. She and her scowl flopped onto a chair.
He reached for a snicker doodle. “Gee, my favorite cookies. How’d you guess?” He shoved one in his mouth and chewed.
She slapped the air near his arm. “Huh, as if I don’t know my baby boy’s favorites.”
“Did you get Ashley settled in okay?” ZQ grabbed another cookie.
His mom stirred a spoonful of sugar into her coffee, then took a sip. “Yes. Why on God’s green earth is she making herself out to be a man?” She broke a cookie in half and bit into it. “I told her to shower and pretty herself up before she came down for supper.” Fine crumbs fell off the cookie half she shook at ZQ. “If looks could kill, you’d be on the phone with McDaniel’s Funeral Home right now.”
“We’ll give her two or three days to settle in. If she’s still rude, I’ll lay down the law.”
“I’ll give her some space. Do my part to make her feel welcome, but I won’t abide a snooty attitude.” His mom sipped her coffee and brushed her hair off her forehead. “She wants more locks on the bathroom door, by the way.”
ZQ nodded. “I’ll take care of it. She’s hiding from men, Momma. Afraid she’ll be attacked again. I told you how ISIS raped her. Sodomized her. I don’t know if she can ever respond to another man, and poor JJ is crazy about her. Has been since the day she arrived on our team’s base as our new translator. We may have a bit of a lover’s spat on our hands when JJ sees what she’s done to herself.”
“Don’t you think you ought to warn him? Fudge and buttermilk, she looks like one of them Goth kids and a unisex one, at that!” She spun her coffee cup around the way she always did when she was worried about someone. “JJ and Nance went for a walk. The man reminds me of a cheap watch wound too tight.”
“You’re right. He needs to be told. I’ll hunt him down as soon as I register the new filly. I was just resting my eyes from all that driving before I sat in front of the computer screen to fill out the registration forms.”
“Put your glasses on, son.” She shot him the mother look.
He stood, leaned, and kissed her upturned face. “I don’t need my momma to order me around.”
He’d just set one booted foot into the living room when the ultimate command slapped his ears. “No. You need me to tell you how to romance a girl and make me a grandma. And not with that no-account Wanda, either.” His mother was set on having a grandchild. Her demands were growing stronger all the time.
Just what kind of father would he make when his black ops team traveled to God knew where for weeks or months on end? There were no guarantees he’d make it back. No, he couldn’t saddle a wife and child with an unstable life like that.
The sight on the sofa surprised him. Piper was curled against Reece, her little arms banded around his waist as if she was afraid he’d leave her while she slept. Reece’s head was flopped to the side, gentle snoring filling the room. Three books and a doll lay on the sofa next to him.
ZQ snapped a picture of the drowsing duo with his cellphone and smiled. If anyone could bring Steelhead out of his silent world, it would be this little magpie. The kid could outtalk the town’s gossips—and Warrior Falls had some doozies.