Blame It On Texas by Kristine Rolofson

in town? Long enough to talk Gert into a retirement home? Long enough to sell the ranch and kick him and the boy out? He’d tried this afternoon to ask Jake if he knew anything about his grandmother’s future plans, but they’d been interrupted before he could get to it. Still, Gert had told him to buy more breeding stock, had given the green light to his ideas for improving the range lands, had agreed to tearing down some of the buildings that would blow down in the next storm. Gert had even hinted that she’d be willing to sell some shares of the Lazy K to the right man.
    “Dad,” the boy said, tugging on his sleeve as if to remind him that he was standing there. “She’s gonna like it, right?”
    “Sure she is, but—”
    “Good.” Danny, dressed in clean clothes that were too small for him, picked up the tissue-wrapped gift and gave his father one of his rare smiles. “This is the best part, you know.”
    “Best part of what?” They wouldn’t stay long, wouldn’t even move from inside the back door. They could be in and out in five minutes and then Danny would go to bed happy.
    “Birthdays.”
    “And the best part is what, the presents?”
    “Yep,” the boy said, pushing the screen door open. “Can I have a party when I’m nine?”
    “Sure.”
    Danny turned back toward his father. “Really? You mean it?”
    “I’ll do my best,” Dustin promised, though he didn’t know where the boy would be come fall. And he wasn’t even sure when his birthday was, exactly. He’d have to find out without Danny catching on that he didn’t know when the boy was born. Damn Lisa for this whole mess, he thought for the hundredth time. She’d no right to mess up the boy the way she had and leave other people to pick up the pieces, but that was Lisa. A more selfish, self-centered woman hadn’t been born.
    “Are you coming with me?”
    Dustin hesitated. “You want me to?”
    “Yes,” the boy answered, his eyes big. “It’s getting dark.”
    “Well, then I’m coming with you,” he said, following the boy out the door and into the dusk. It was his favorite time of day, when chores were done and the wind had died down and everything seemed to be settled into place for the night. Kate and Martha should have gone by now, leaving Gert to go to bed. The old woman’s lights were off before nine most nights and here it was almost that time now.
    “I’m not really scared,” Danny whispered,waiting for Dustin on the porch. “You know that, right?”
    “Yeah.” He hid a smile. “I know that. Sometimes a guy just likes a little company at night.”
    “Yeah,” the boy echoed. “Sometimes a guy does.” They walked together in silence. “You think she’ll like it, right?”
    “Right.”
    “It smells.”
    “It’s supposed to.”
    “Oh, yeah, I forgot.” He sniffed the package. “Flowers, huh?”
    “Roses.”
    “Okay. Roses, roses,” he whispered to himself, trying to memorize the name of the scent, Dustin supposed. He escorted the boy to the back door of the sprawling ranch house and knocked against the peeling frame of the door. The whole place needed work. From sanding and painting the house and outbuildings, to repairing the cracked windows on the second story, to putting a new roof on the barn, the Lazy K needed a lot of work to lose its neglected appearance. If it were his…
    It wasn’t the first time Dustin had caught himself thinking that way, knowing that the amount of money he’d managed to save over the past few years while working at the Dead Horse wouldn’t be enough for a down payment on the outbuildings, never mind the house and land. Still, if Gertwas willing to sell shares, then maybe anything was possible.
    “Come on in,” he heard Gert call, and Danny was three steps ahead of him into the kitchen, the present clutched in his small hand and the birthday card scrunched into his jeans pocket, no doubt.
    “Pizza,” Danny declared, sniffing the air before hurrying over to where