Chapter 2
A cool morning breeze flowed through the open door of the bus when Joelle awoke the next morning. When she got her bearings and realized that she was in a sleeping bag on the floor, she turned over to find Ford right beside her—eyes wide open and a big smile on his face.
“Good morning,” he whispered.
“How…why…” she stammered.
“I told you that I might be joining you,” he said. “Grandpa snores. If you listen…”
Joelle quickly pushed back the part of the bag that she’d used for cover, pulled the edge of her sleep shirt down to cover more of her legs, and made her way on her knees to the door.
The sun had just begun to light up the sky, and the snoring coming from the two tents was causing a poor old possum that was between them some major issues.
The animal would sneak up to one of the tents between the loud noises and then run back to the safety of a tree when the chorus of snores started up again.
“You’ve got to see this,” Joelle said.
Ford came out of his sleeping bag and eased over beside her. “What am I looking at?”
She pointed toward the tents and the tree where the possum had taken refuge. “Watch for it! Watch for it! Here it comes.”
“That’s a possum,” Ford said.
“Yep, watch what happens when the noise starts,” Joelle said with a giggle.
The animal eased up to the edge of Billy Joe’s tent and sniffed at the edge. Then the snoring started, and it made a hasty retreat to the tree.
Ford chuckled. “And that is why I’m sleeping in the bus. I found one set of earplugs in my duffel bag, and even they didn’t block out all the sound. But I am a little worried about you.”
“Why would you worry about me?” Joelle asked.
“You didn’t even open your eyes or wiggle when I slipped in here and crawled into my sleeping bag. I could have been anyone…”
She stopped him by putting up a palm. “I knew when you arrived, and I sleep with a Smith & Wesson under my pillow. If you’d been someone about to harm me, I would have shot you and kicked your sorry carcass out the door.”
“I think I love you,” he said with a grin.
“Why? Because I can take care of myself?” she asked.
His grin widened. “Because I slept like a baby last night for the first time in weeks. I think maybe you have magic powers.”
“Sure, I do,” she teased. “But, honey, it wasn’t me that helped you sleep. It was finally getting some peace and quiet after a long day on the road, a heavy supper, and getting away from that tent out there.”
“Don’t forget the power of earplugs,” he teased—or was he flirting?
***
Sharlene, Nita, and his grandfather hadn’t lost a bit of momentum during the next two days on the road, but they perked right up as they got closer to the dude ranch.
Ford wondered if this was what it would be like to take a bunch of young kids to an amusement park.
That made him think about having a family and all he had given up to make a career of the service.
You are only thirty-eight years old, boy. His grandmother’s stern voice popped into his head. That’s not too old to start a family, and it’s high time you settled down. It would be a shame to let the ranch that’s been kept in the family for years go to strangers.
Ford might have argued with her, but Sharlene yelled and startled him. “Stop! Don’t go past it!”
“Past what?” Ford asked.
“The sign that we’re coming into Colorado,” Nita said. “We want to get our picture made with every welcome sign we pass.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ford pulled over close to the WELCOME TO NEW MEXICO sign and a few miles on farther down the road he did the same at the WELCOME TO COLORADO sign and let them all get out of the bus and take pictures.
Two pickup loads of folks honked and waved as they went by at the last sign.
Another stopped long enough to ask if they’d sell the bus and trailer.
“Not in a million years or for a million dollars,” Sharlene told them.
Ford shook his head in disbelief that anyone would really be interested in buying anything as unsightly as the VW bus. If it could talk, he figured the poor thing would ask to hide in a garage with a cover thrown over it.
“We’re almost to the dude ranch,” Joelle said. “Are y’all ready to sleep in real beds tonight?”
“Yep,” Billy Joe answered, “but the camping out has been fun. I could do this all summer.”
Ford bit back a groan. “You’d get tired of tents when it gets really hot.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” Billy Joe asked.
“Yes, sir, I am,” Ford answered. “Next stop…”
“Is the first place to buy gas and use the bathrooms,” Nita told him. “My last two bottles of sweet tea have hit bottom, and I noticed the gas needle is below a quarter of a tank.”
Ford nodded. “That’s exactly what I was about to say, and while we’re in the store, I’m going to buy a big cup of coffee.”
“You don’t like my campfire coffee?” his grandfather asked.
Ford shook his head. “That’s not coffee. That’s road tar mixed with motor oil.”
“I would’ve thought a he-man soldier like you would like a cup of good strong joe,” Billy Joe argued.
“I would,” Ford said as turned off on the next exit, “and I’ll buy one when we stop for gas.”
Joelle covered a yawn with her hand. “And I’m getting one, too.”
“Good Lord!” Sharlene groaned. “We’ve raised a couple of pansies, Billy Joe.”
“Hey, now,” Joelle argued. “I teach school. That’s a tough job.”
“And probably as rough as a war zone in some ways.” Ford took up for her.
“Point taken,” Billy Joe said, “and by the time we’ve been out on this road trip for a while, y’all might even be able to be tough enough to drink my campfire coffee.”
***
Joelle hadn’t been asked to drive a single time since they left Texas.
The few times she had mentioned taking over for a while, Ford had told her that six hours a day wasn’t a big chore.
She wondered just exactly why she was even on the trip if she wasn’t needed to help out.
They made a quick stop for gas and a bathroom break, and then it was off to the dude ranch.
Ford slowed the bus down to a crawl on the winding dirt road that lead to the place, and what should have been a short trip turned into a thirty-minute ride.
The three older folks had unfastened their seatbelts and were sliding open the back door as soon as Ford brought the bus to a stop. With Sharlene right behind her, Nita made a dash for the office door to register and get the keys to their cabin.
“Wait for me,” Billy Joe called out as he joined them. “I want to know where the honky-tonk is, and the dining hall where we’re having supper.”
Nita gave him a thumbs-up and kept walking. Joelle thought about getting out of the bus and going with them but figured that her aunt might take that as a sign that she couldn’t take care of her own business.
“You are fighting with yourself,” Ford whispered.
“Yes, I am,” Joelle told him. “Aunt Sharlene is almost eighty. She has run a ranch on her own, but here I am, wondering if I should go into the office with her to make sure she gets everything she needs.”
“I understand,” Ford said. “Those three can probably run circles around us. Yet, we are driving them around and thinking we need to help them. They could easily do their own driving, so why did they insist we go with them?”
“They’ve got high hopes that we will take over the ranches,” Joelle answered. “And they’re out to prove to us that they’re getting so old that they need us.”
“Huh!” Ford almost snorted. “They’ll be pulling calves and hauling hay every day until they drop.”
“Yep, but they want assurance that when that day comes, what they have worked for is going to be in good hands,” Joelle told him. “Do you think you’ll give in and take over for Billy Joe?”
Ford removed his cap and ran his fingers through his hair.
Joelle remembered him doing that same thing when she had the crush on him years ago, and crazy as it seemed, she thought it was downright sexy—both then and now.
He put his cap back on and shrugged. “I don’t know.
It would be the smart thing to do, and I enjoy ranching.
I think I’m rebelling against the idea of someone else making decisions for me.
I’ve lived in a world of higher powers for twenty years, and I think maybe that’s long enough. What about you?”
Joelle had nodded in agreement with every word he said.
“You are preaching to the choir. I was a military kid, and we lived by strict rules. Neither my granddad, nor my dad ever wanted a thing to do with ranching, but now Daddy is telling me that I should leave my teaching job. He says that it would be a shame for the family land to fall into a stranger’s hands. ”
“I’ve heard the same things,” Ford said. “Looks like we’ve got some tough decisions to make before we get home, but on a different note, are you going to this honky-tonk place with them tonight?”
“Are you?” Joelle asked.
“Grandpa will throw a fit if I don’t,” Ford answered.
“Maybe I should take my pistol to protect you from all the women who are going to flock around you,” she teased.
“Maybe if you’ll dance every dance with me all evening, I won’t have that kind of problem. The women will think I’m taken, and all those guys whose jaws will drop when they see you will leave you alone at the same time,” Ford said.
“Now, that sounds like a win-win situation to me,” Joelle agreed and stuck out her hand. “It’s a deal.”
Hot little sparks danced around the cab of the VW bus when he clasped her hand in his and shook it. Seemed like the infatuation she had had with him back when she was a teenager wasn’t as far in the past as she had thought it was.
Sharlene came out of the office with a map of the ranch and handed it to Ford. “It’s only about a city block from right here, so I’m going to walk. I need to stretch my legs.”
Billy Joe fell in beside Sharlene and pointed to a building across the gravel road. “Me, too, and right there is the honky-tonk, which means that it’s close to our cabin.”