McKettricks of Texas: Garrett by Linda Lael Miller

smiled from over by the clothesline, where she was unpegging white sheets and dropping them into a basket.
    Julie stared at her sister, amazed, angry, admiring. Libby’s happy grin seemed to dim a little around the edges as she left the basket behind in the grass, billowing with what looked like captured clouds, and came toward her.
    â€œMom!” Calvin yelled again, evidently thinking Julie hadn’t noticed him. “Look! I’m riding a horse! ”
    Julie’s smile felt brittle on her face, and slippery, barely holding on to her mouth. Be reasonable, she told herself. No need to panic.
    â€œIsn’t that—wonderful,” she said.
    Libby was at her side by then. “He’s all right,” she said, very quietly, and with big-sister firmness. “Garrett wouldn’t let anything happen to Calvin, and Tate and I were right here all the time.”
    Julie swallowed, watched as Garrett took off his hat, plunked it down on Calvin’s head. The little boy’s face disappeared inside the crown, and his muffled laugh of delight was sweet anguish to Julie.
    Her Calvin.
    It hurt to love so much.
    â€œI guess this ride’s over, pardner,” Garrett told Calvin, reclaiming the hat and settling it back on his own head. Allthe while, the man’s eyes never left Julie’s face, and even caught up in a tangle of conflicting emotions, she would have given a lot to know what Garrett McKettrick was thinking just then.
    Keeping one arm around Calvin’s middle, Garrett swung his right leg over the horse’s neck and jumped easily to the ground. Set Calvin on his feet.
    Giggling, the little boy staggered slightly and whooped, “Whoa!”
    Garrett was still watching Julie.
    She marched toward him, gave another rigid smile and reached down to grab Calvin’s hand.
    â€œWe have dinner plans,” she said, and while she was looking back at Garrett, she was actually speaking to Calvin.
    Wasn’t she?
    Calvin looked up at her. The sun lit his hair, and he shielded his eyes with one grubby little hand. “But Tate’s going to barbecue,” he protested. “Hot dogs and hamburgers and everything. ”
    â€œAnother time,” Julie said.
    Calvin jerked his hand free of hers, and she felt stung, somewhere down deep. “But I want to stay here!”
    Garrett took off his hat again, held it in one hand as he crouched next to Calvin. “A cowboy always speaks respectfully to a lady,” he told the boy, “especially when that lady is his mama.”
    Calvin’s lower lip jutted out. “She’s just mad because I got on a horse without permission,” he said. He turned to Julie again, his round little face and baby-blue eyes full of rebellion. “Aunt Libby said I could ride with Garrett! And she’s the boss of me when you’re not here!”
    Inwardly, Julie sighed. Outwardly, she kept her cool.“We can talk about this in the car, Calvin,” she said evenly. “Get your backpack, please. Right now.”
    Furious, Calvin pounded off toward the house to retrieve his belongings.
    Garrett rose back to his full height. For a moment, it seemed he was about to say something, but in the end he just turned, stuck a foot in the stirrup and mounted again. He rode up alongside Tate, and one of the twins—Audrey, Julie thought—leaped from her dad’s horse to her uncle’s, whooping like a Comanche on the warpath.
    Garrett and Tate turned their horses and rode down the gently sloping creek-bank to let the animals drink.
    Which meant Julie and Libby were alone for the moment, with Calvin still inside the house.
    â€œIf you didn’t want Calvin to ride,” Libby said mildly, “you should have told me.”
    Julie realized she’d been holding her last breath and let it out in a whoosh. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I was just—startled.”
    Libby raised one eyebrow, watching