Always a McBride by Linda Turner Page B

right?”
    Glancing up from his thoughts, he found both Phoebe and Merry grinning at him. For the first time in a longtime, a blush stung his cheeks. “I feel like I just put my foot in my mouth and I didn’t say a word.”
    â€œI seem to have that effect on people,” Merry chuckled. “It’s nice to meet you, Taylor. Welcome to Liberty Hill.”
    â€œThank you,” he said gruffly, and only just then realized that the puppies she was holding had to be heavy. “Here, let me take those for you. Where did you want them?”
    â€œIn my truck,” she said, nodding toward the white Explorer sitting at the curb. “Thank you.”
    â€œNo problem,” he assured her, and easily carried the puppies to the truck.
    â€œHe’s nice,” Merry said quietly to Phoebe, “when he lets down his guard. He should do it more often.”
    Phoebe didn’t know if she would have described him as nice or not, but she had to agree with Merry. When he forgot to be so angry, he was devastatingly attractive. Who would have thought it?
    Walking with Merry out to her truck as Taylor carefully deposited the puppies in the back seat, she was still marvelling at the change in her guest’s attitude when he turned back to Merry and said solemnly, “Phoebe said your father is dead. I’m sorry to hear that. I was hoping to talk to as many of the old ranchers in the area as possible about the old days.”
    â€œDad would have enjoyed that,” she said with a smile. “I remember when I was a kid, he used to tell us stories about the ranch that his father told him.”
    â€œHow old were you when he died?”
    â€œTwelve,” she replied. “It was a shock for all of us—he was only forty-four. My mother was in shock, of course, but I think it was hardest on my brother Joe. He was eighteen and about to go off to college whenDad died. Mom wanted him to go on and go, but Joe knew she couldn’t run the ranch by herself and raise the rest of us. So he did it for her.”
    â€œWhat about college?” Taylor asked. “Did he ever go?”
    â€œNo,” she said simply. “Zeke went on to get his Ph.D, I went to veterinary school and Janey became an RN, but Joe never went. We owe him a lot. If he hadn’t run the ranch and helped put all of us through school, there’s no telling what any of us would be doing now.”
    Taylor doubted that any of them would have ended up waiting tables—they all sounded too intelligent for that—but there was no question that their lives would have been different if it hadn’t been for the fact that Joe had sacrificed his own education for theirs. And that gave him a lot to think about. He’d always thought that if his father had any other children, they’d probably been blessed with a golden childhood, free of the worries and lack of security he’d grown up with. Apparently, they’d gone through rough times, too, if Joe had to give up college to keep the family afloat.
    For a moment, he almost felt sorry for the unknown Joe. But then a bitter voice in his head pointed out that while he, himself, had been living in roach-invested government housing as a child, his half brothers and sisters had been growing up on a ranch that was, no doubt, nearly as big as Rocky Mountain National Park. Poor Joe? He didn’t think so.
    â€œYou would all have probably still found a way to go to college,” he retorted. “And your brother would still have turned out to be a rancher whether he went to college or not. It’s obviously in his blood.”
    â€œActually, it’s in all our blood,” Merry replied with a smile. “Janey and I might not be working the ranchlike the boys, but we love it as much as they do. I guess that’s why we all built our homes within a few miles of the homestead. It’ll always be home.”
    Because she was a McBride, Taylor thought