The Last Chance Ranch Read Online Free

it might be good for those boys to be closer to the land, so I wrote the proposals and got a bunch of grants.”
    He made it sound simple, but Tanya had a feeling the path had been far from easy.
    They drew closer to the buildings, and anxiety sharp as talons clawed at Tanya. She could see figures moving in the corrals and around the house. Was Antonio among them? “I’m so scared,” she blurted out. “Do you think he’ll recognize me?”
    “No,” he replied quietly. “He was only three, Tanya.”
    “I just don’t want him to feel he has to like me or forgive me. I just want to see him.” She swallowed. “So much.”
    “I know.” He slowed a little, as if to give her time to collect herself. “This is best, his not knowing who you are right away. He doesn’t understand the court orders, so he thinks you didn’t want him.”
    A bitterness twisted her lips. She had been vulnerable after the trial, too weary to fight Victor’s family any longer, and desperate to see that Antonio had a good home with someone she trusted. To make sure it was Ramón and not one of Victor’s sisters, who hated her, Tanya had agreed to sever contact with Antonio as long as she was in jail. With her lawyer’s help, she had managed to have the restriction lifted upon her release from prison, but that didn’t make up for the lost eleven years. If she were Antonio, she’d feel betrayed, too.
    She lifted her chin, feeling suddenly stronger. This was what she had waited for—to see her son again. Whether he knew she was his mother or not was beside the point. Thanks to Ramón’s kindness, she would have the chance to know her child.
    “Thank you, Ramón,” she said. “You didn’t have to give me this chance, and I am very grateful.”
    “De nada.”
He gave her a lazy wink. “I needed a cook.”
    Then they were pulling into the driveway, beneath the gold leaves on the branches of the cottonwood trees. A swarm of boys lifted their heads to watch. Tanya gathered her purse and put her hand on the door, scanning the faces eagerly. Would she even know him after so long?
    Her gaze caught on a youth on the porch, eating an apple. Unlike Ramón, he wore his straight black hair short, combed back from his high forehead. The style showed off a dramatically carved and beautiful face—those heavy dark eyebrows, the distinctive and beautiful Quezada nose, his father’s high cheekbones—and Tanya’s blue eyes, striking in the dark face.
    She had been afraid she might cry, that even all those years of training herself to hide her emotions couldn’t help her at this moment. Instead, as she stared at the face of her son after more than four thousand days of waiting, she smiled.
    * * *
    Ramón watched Tanya step out of the truck. There was shyness in the angle of her head, a certain hesitancy as she glanced at the pack of boys who milled toward her, but she didn’t cower. He pursed his lips, watching them take her measure, and was pleased when her chin lifted, when she met their eyes without flinching.
    Good, he thought. After the way she had reacted to him in the bus station, he had been afraid she wouldn’t be able to stand up to this inspection, that her abusive relationship had ruined her permanently.
    Standing there, her expression carefully neutral, she met the gaze of these rough boys with a roughness of her own. She knew where they came from. She’d been there. They saw it, too, and their predatory instincts were appeased, at least for the moment.
    Ramón smiled. “Gentlemen,” he said, in spite of the covert glances some of them swept over Tanya’s shapely form, “this is our new cook, Ms. Bishop.”
    There were murmurs and nods. The newer boys looked to the ones who’d been residents longer for clues to the right behavior. “You’ll meet everyone sooner or later,” Ramén said, rounding the truck to stand near her. He pointed out and named a few of the closest faces, knowing the only one she would remember was the last.