Read Online Unbound Pursuit by Lindsay McKenna - Free Book Online

and look at you now. You’re talking about getting federal support to help us out.”
    A good feeling moved through Wyatt. His father had always been one to praise his children when they deserved it. He loved his dad deeply because he’d been such a good role model. All four kids had turned out well. Unlike Mark Reuss, who had a snake for a father. “Well,” he murmured, shutting the lid on his laptop, “let’s see where this leads us. When I know more, I’ll pull you aside and we’ll talk privately.”
    “But you’ll have a plan, right?”
    “For sure,” Wyatt said, smiling a little as he shut the lap top, leaving it on the bench as he rose.
    Hank stood a little stiffly, rubbing his lower back. “Okay, but now I’m worried about putting anyone out in that area, Wyatt.”
    “What I’d do, Dad? I’d get your wranglers together and tell them to stay away from that zone. As long as your fence line is standing, you can wait a couple of days or weeks until I can get a mission plan created for you to resolve this problem.”
    “Sounds good.” Hank clapped his hand on Wyatt’s back as they sauntered toward the tractor. “How’s your lady doin’?”
    “Tal wanted to drive in with Mattie to see her kindergarten class.”
    “Yeah, saw ’em leave after breakfast,” Hank said. “I don’t know what to do about Mattie,” he grumbled, shaking his head.
    “She’s depressed,” Wyatt said, feeling that same sense of helplessness he heard in Hank’s voice. “You and Mom have tried to get her to a doctor?”
    Snorting, Hank picked up a wrench. “More times than I care to add up. She absolutely refuses to take drugs to help her depression. She says it’s grief and that it will end when it’s supposed to.”
    Wyatt set the laptop aside and rolled up his sleeves to his elbows. Often, his mechanically minded father would fix the ranch equipment. Wyatt had learned everything from him. Just getting to spend some downtime with him warmed his heart, despite the circumstances. “Come on, let me help you with this engine. Two people working on it should get it done in half the time.”
    Hank grinned and handed the wrench to Wyatt. “Just like old times, huh?”
    Wyatt grinned and took off his black baseball cap, setting it beside his father’s straw hat on the tractor’s cowling. “Yep, the good ol’ days, Dad.”
    *
    Mattie had hugged the last of her five-year-olds good-bye for the day. It was three p.m., and she smiled over at Tal, who had sat quietly in the back of her large classroom, observing. “I want you to sit and keep that ankle rested while I clean up around here,” Mattie said, hurrying toward the front of her room. Her students had been painting today, and there were a lot of Mason jars to pick up and brushes to clean before the place would be ready for tomorrow morning.
    Tal smiled, sitting at one of the long wooden tables. “I’d say these thirty kids keep you hopping, big-time.” Mattie was wearing a red corduroy jumper with a white long-sleeved blouse beneath it. Although “official” kindergarten wasn’t going on right now due to the long holiday, Mattie had offered to babysit her charges so their parents could go back to work after Christmas, which Tal thought was damned nice of her. Mattie’s auburn hair was twisted up into a thick mass at the top of her head. Tal admired the smattering of freckles that stood out against her cheeks.
    “Well, school doesn’t officially start again until January second, but I like to offer this place so the parents don’t have to put their kids in day care. I try to do more creative things with the kids, like painting, drawing, and making things with their hands.”
    “I think it’s a great idea,” Tal said. “Tear them away from their computers, the electronic gadgets that disconnect them from people and society.”
    Frowning, Mattie hurried around, picking up jars from the tables and bringing them to the double sink at the rear of the room.