The Healing Ranch

Chapter 9

Tate awoke from a restless sleep on the sofa bed to the smell of coffee drifting through the air. He could faintly hear the noises of Megan in the kitchen and heard shuffling on the stairs. Even though he had never heard the sound before he somehow knew it was James coming down the stairs. In fact everything about this morning seemed familiar to him somehow, as if he woke up in this house everyday, instead of in the small, lonely bunkhouse.

"Good morning Margaret honey. That coffee smells delicious." James voice carried into the living room and Tate flinched a bit. Obviously it was a bad day for the man. Tate stopped at this new thought. When did he become so used to be here that he even knew the other mans moods? He shook his head as he got up and stretched, before pulling on a fresh set of clothes. He had never stayed in a place longer than a week ever since he started drifting. 

"Good morning." He heard Megan's voice softly answer James, and felt sorry for her. 

"Mornin' everybody." He strode into the kitchen to find James already at the table and Megan at the counter mixing batter for pancakes. She turned and smiled at him. 

"Good morning Tate. Do you want coffee?" When he nodded his head she poured him a cup and then brought it to the table for him and he nodded his thanks. He noticed the bags under her eyes and felt a pang. So she hadn't slept well even after he had left her. The scar running under her eye seemed to be more prominent today and he wondered if she usually covered up the edges of it. He also found himself wondering how exactly she had gotten it. 

"Margaret what's for breakfast?" James suddenly spoke up and Megan turned around without missing a beat. 

"Cinnamon bun pancakes. Your favorite. I decided to make something special." Something about her voice and the way she moved around the kitchen brought Tate right back to Texas and to his momma's kitchen. He could almost hear her soft voice and smell her specialty pancakes cooking. Clearing his throat, he pushed his chair back abruptly. 

"You know, I think I need to check on the horses before breakfast. Just to make sure everyone is doin fine." He saw the question in Megan's eyes but ignored it, trying to escape before the homesickness took control of him. 

*******

Megan watched Tate go in confusion. Had she done something wrong? Was it because of what happened last night? She decided to ignore him and focus on making her grandma's special pancake recipe. Her dad was muttering at the table as he read the newspaper, saying something about how cattle prices were down. Megan smiled a little to herself to hear it because it wasn't often her dad knew what was going on enough to know where he stood on the matter of cattle prices. Tate didn't come in when breakfast was ready, and didn't come into the house until after Megan had cleaned everything up from breakfast. He took the plate she had made for him and ate silently, which was pretty unusual for him. 

"Is something bothering you?" She questioned softly, laying another cup of coffee in front of him, before turning to keep on kneading the bread dough on the counter. Today seemed like a baking day to her and she loved being in the kitchen. It was the one thing that made her feel almost normal.

"Nope. Just didn't sleep that well." He grunted and she felt guilt course through her.

"I'm so sorry about last night. Also the sofa bed probably isn't the comfiest. Hopefully the bunkhouse will be ready for you to be back in there soon." When he didn't reply, she frowned a little bit. "Look if something is wrong, you know you can tell me right?"

"Megan look. I know we have become friends over the past few weeks that I've been here but I don't need to tell you everything okay? I can have a bad day now and then." He didn't look up at her while he said it, just kept shoveling pancakes into his mouth, as if he just wanted to be done them as fast as he could. She turned away from him and gave the bread an extra hard punch.

"Sure you can. Just don't take it out on me." Anger and hurt made her voice sharp, but she didn't regret it. She couldn't help that he had decided to be all snippy.

*****

Tate avoided the house for the rest of the day. He hadn't meant to be rude to Megan, but the fact that she had been making bread had also brought him back home. He missed his home, missed his family, and most of all missed his momma. He hadn't been back home in a little over two years, but couldn't seem to make himself go. Instead he pushed himself further and further away. His mind was clouded with thoughts of home and why he couldn't go back as he walked back from his bunkhouse after checking the damage there. It would need a lot of time to dry and air out and he sighed, wishing he could move back into the solitary little place. Suddenly a thud from inside the barn caught his attention and he hurried forwards towards it. Inside he found Megan laying in the middle of spilled oats, her wheelchair tipped over and one of the wheels spinning lazily in the air. He rushed to her quickly.

"Megan are you okay?" He moved to lift her up, but she quickly pushed him away and then slowly pushed herself into a sitting position. 

"I'm fine." Her voice was sharp and he realized he had probably hurt her feelings this morning. Especially after she had told him all about her accident. 

"What happened?" She rolled her eyes a little.

"Obviously my wheelchair tipped over when I was feeding the horses. Listen I don't need help. And I don't want to bother you when you are having a bad day." He groaned at her words, and ran his hand through his hair. Womenfolk just liked being difficult he guessed. 

"Look I'm sorry for what I said this morning. It wasn't anything you did okay? I guess I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed." She nodded but still refused help.

"I've got this on my own okay?" He couldn't do anything but step back and watch her slowly drag her chair towards herself. After three of four tries she finally was able to push the chair over and it landed on it's wheels. She then sat there, staring up at the chair for a long time until finally she slowly hauled herself up into it. Tate felt his eyes widening.

"Impressive." She just looked at him before bending to pick up the now empty feed pail and wheeling back over to the feed bin. By the time she came back, Tate had the mess cleaned up and she had seemingly forgiven him for his rude behavior. 

"I couldn't always do that. And if I'm strapped into the chair when it tips, there is no way I can ever get myself up. That's why I stopped strapping myself in. Some people need the strap to hold them in, but I have enough feeling in my hips and butt to hold myself in. To me it's safer for me to be able to fall out of the wheelchair to fall in the wheelchair if that makes any sense." She said all this while mixing Diesel's feed and Tate nodded in understanding. 

"You have a lot of upper arm strength too." 

"Comes with time and hard work I guess." She didn't say anything else to him, instead just turned back to her work. This time though, it didn't feel as if she was ignoring him, more like she was just doing her job in silence. Tate shook his head as he watched her silently going about her chores. She was a strong woman, just liked his momma. Again the pang of homesickness hit him, but this time it was accompanied by the comfort that he could see his momma reflected in Megan. And right now that was enough for him. 

*****

Sorry if the spacing is weird in this chapter! Also this author's note isn't in italics because I am actually writing on a computer for the first time; usually I am writing on my phone. Hence the no italics and the possible weird spacing. I haven't figured that stuff out yet! So if anyone has any tips please let me know! Also please , please vote and comment if you are reading, and enjoying this story. It gives me more motivation to update faster when I know people are actually reading and appreciating the work put into this! Anyway thanks for reading! :) ~ S