Deep Trouble by Mary Connealy Page B

visiting your brother?”
    “Yep, Bartholomew and Darius live in the southern part of California. Gabriel just up and handed his stock over to a neighbor and spent the last year roaming.”
    “Wait a minute.” Tyra shook her head so hard she whipped herself in the face with her single, long dark braid. “I thought you told me you and your brothers all ganged up on him and wrote a whole buncha letters begging him to come and see you before he settled down for good.”
    “We did. We hadn’t seen him for a long time. He went through Nebraska to visit Ephraim, and then he went on east to where Canaan farms in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Felix lives in East Texas. He headed to California and was going to end up here before he headed home. I haven’t seen much of him. I moved west when the boy was thirteen, and the only time I’ve seen him since was when he came through with the cavalry. Then he only stayed a couple of days. But Ma always sent her letters, and we’d pass them along to each other. So we stayed in touch that way until Ma died.”
    When Gabe had been here, it had been long enough for Tyra to get ideas. “So if you begged him to do it and he did it, why do you sound like he did something wrong?”
    “No man abandons his ranch like that.”
    “Then why’d you ask him to?” Tyra wanted to fight on Gabe’s behalf. He’d thank her when he finally got here.
    “Figured maybe he couldn’t handle his own place. I told my brothers about Maddy having such a pretty little sister. Your pa needed help on his place. Gabe’s gotten too old to still be wandering. We’ll introduce him to you, show him the ranch, and get him settled for good.”
    “What about his ranch in Wyoming?”
    Abe shrugged. “What about it? Let someone else have it.”
    Tyra wanted Gabe, but she wanted to knock Abe over the head with a stout branch, too. “He’s not gonna thank you for planning his life, Abe.”
    It didn’t miss Tyra’s notice that they were planning hers along with Gabe’s. But since their plans suited her right down to the ground, she didn’t kick up a fuss about herself. She could have her dream husband and never have to leave home.
    “Sure he will, once he sees how pretty you are, Tyra, honey.” Maddy patted her on the shoulder.
    Looking into Maddy’s blue eyes, the exact same color as Tyra’s, she knew she was being treated like a child. Tyra was a tough woman. Born and raised on some mighty hard land in southern New Mexico. But she’d be the baby of the family until the day she died.
    She did want Gabe though. So she postponed fighting to be treated like an adult. She’d do the fighting after she was a married woman. Then she and Gabe’d stand shoulder to shoulder and tell all their bossy family to leave them alone.
    Except for her pa. He needed help, but as long as he was drawing breath, he’d always be in charge of the Morgan spread. The Rocking M was his. He had shed his blood for that land. Tyra had three older brothers who had struck out on their own after they realized Pa was too stubborn to move aside and let one of his sons be a real partner. But now Pa was aching in his joints and he got tired a lot faster. He’d lost a lot of his love of the ranch when Ma had died. She was buried in a quiet grave along with two little sisters. Pa was ready to let a son-in-law in, Tyra just knew it.
    She sure hoped that suited Gabe okay, because her heart was set on it.
    “So when is he supposed to come then?” Tyra tapped her toe impatiently as she sat at the kitchen table in Abraham and Maddy’s cozy cabin, quiet now with their four sons in school.
    Abe grinned. “Why don’t you and Maddy come to town with me? I’ll take the wagon in to pick up the young’uns. It’s the last day, so we won’t make ‘em walk this once. I told Gabe to write if’n he got delayed. If there’s a letter or a wire, we’ll know when he’s showing up.”
    Tyra smiled. “I’ll run home and see if Pa needs any supplies, but