Samantha’s Cowboy by Marin Thomas

father when I entered kindergarten.” The school district had forced Wade’s mother to take him to a medical clinic for vaccinations before allowing him to attend school. His arms had been sore for a week afterward.
    “Did your mother ever marry?”
    “No.” Wade believed his mother had loved his father even as she took her last breath. “She died of cancer when I was ten.”
    “Oh, Wade. I’m sorry.”
    “When she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and learned she had only a few months to live, we returned to Tulsa and she asked my uncle to raise me.”
    “Where were your grandparents?”
    “They’d passed away years earlier.”
    “Was it difficult adjusting to a new family?”
    “Yes.” His aunt and uncle had afforded Wade little time to mourn his mother before they’d demandednothing less than his best behavior and effort in school. “My uncle enrolled me and my cousin in a boys’ private school, and I worked hard to earn good grades.”
    Samantha nudged his side with her elbow and smiled. “So the glasses are just for show? You aren’t a brainiac?”
    “I inherited bad eyesight but not a high IQ.” Wade suspected his birth father had possessed more charm than intellect. “My son inherited the genius gene from Carmen’s side of the family.” Her brother was a physicist, the other a bio-medical engineer and her mother had been a concert pianist. Carmen was a smart woman but preferred shopping and socializing to using her brains. “Luke amazes me. He’s a walking encyclopedia with a photographic memory.”
    They ate in silence for a minute, then Wade said, “To make a long story short, I studied and earned good grades because I wanted to make my mother proud of me.” At least Wade had begun with that mindset. As years passed, pleasing his deceased mother had shifted to earning his uncle’s respect and securing a foothold in Dawson Investments.
    “How about your cousin. Is he an investor, too?” Samantha asked.
    “Jarrod’s a dentist. He lives in California with his life partner, Richard.”
    “I see.”
    “Jarrod calls around the holidays but his relationship with my aunt and uncle is strained.”
    “That’s too bad.”
    Wade agreed. His mother’s death had driven home the point that life was too short to allow rifts to growbetween family members. His uncle had stopped short of disowning Jarrod when he learned his son was gay, but he’d asked Jarrod to leave Tulsa, fearing his son’s lifestyle would negatively impact Dawson Investments’ reputation.
    A reputation that was at risk if Wade didn’t recover Samantha’s trust fund.
    “So…” She waved a hand in the air. “What was the reason again you couldn’t climb a tree?”
    “Guess I got sidetracked.” He grinned. “There weren’t any opportunities to climb trees at the boys’ private school. I did take a fencing class but my glasses slipped too often and I usually ended up on the losing side of a saber.”
    “What about horseback riding?”
    “Tried that, too, but couldn’t stay in the saddle.” The horse had bolted as soon as he’d put his foot in the stirrup. Wade had clung to the saddle horn for almost a mile, one foot dragging against the ground. When the animal finally slowed and he’d been able to free his foot, he’d twisted his ankle and had ended up on crutches for a month. From that day forward, Wade stuck to studying during his free time. “I don’t remember my uncle ever mentioning where you went to college.”
    The fork hesitated midway to her mouth, then she shoveled the food inside, chewed and swallowed. As if she hadn’t heard his previous statement, she said, “I’m debating whether or not to build a storage barn in addition to a large horse barn on the property.”
    Dollar signs flew around in Wade’s head. “How many barns do you need?”
    “A smaller structure would be nice to store extra feed and farm equipment.”
    “You mean tractors?”
    “Plows and harvest machines. I intend to