In For a Penny

Raven Black paid the driver and retrieved his luggage from the trunk of the yellow and black cab. As the car retreated down the winding ranch road, Ray looked over the home he hadn’t been back to in seven long years.

He shook his head and kicked the red dirt with the toe of his sturdy boot. No, the Lazy C Bar Ranch had never truly been his home. It belonged to the Conner family. Raven Black had been a foster child. He’d come to the Lazy C Bar after Marty Conner had found him beside the road, close to death, when he was thirteen. She’d brought his skinny, battered body home with her and called the sheriff.

Social services had placed Ray in the care of the Conner’s from that day on. The sheriff found his father and arrested the drunk, abusive man for child abuse and the county social services had approved the Conners’ request for guardianship.

Retrieving his olive green duffle bag, Ray made his way to the front door of the Spanish-style ranch house. It was the first time since Marty’s funeral he’d been back. Ray squeezed his eyes shut in a sudden burst of pain. Marty Conner was the only mother he’d ever known. She’d been widowed before he’d ever come to live with her and her son Zane, who even then, ran the ranch.

Ray walked into the shade of the overhang and sat on one of the soft comfortable chairs. Thinking about Zane made his knees weak, which was funny because Ray stood six-foot, three-inches and weighed over two-hundred pounds. Rubbing his forehead, he felt sick to his stomach. Zane always made him feel this way. He’d been in love with the man for years, and Zane treated him like any other hired hand.