Chapter Thirty-Eight
The kitchen table only has four chairs, so we pull up stools from the island.
Mom places a pot of coffee, the cream and a jar of honey in the centre of the table.
We all take a seat, and Cash pours us each a cup.
I quietly watch steam rise from my mug. Out of the corner of my eye, Cash’s mom watches me.
Since getting here, she hasn’t said a word except hello. Her gaze is sceptical, but not rude.
“So,” I begin, “the three of us all wanted to meet so we can clear the air on some things that have happened here. This ranch has been in our family for a very long time, but there were a lot of things we didn’t know about.
I discovered documents in an old desk that gave us glimpses into its history and the history of the valley. ”
Cash, Kaylee and I tell the story, from start to finish – how Daisy and Joaquin loved each other, how Earl targeted the ranch and the sorrowful details of Mama Clara, Joaquin and Daisy’s deaths.
“Dahlia?” Cash’s mom speaks first. “I know it may only be a legend, but I’ve heard old timers swear it happened – is there any explanation for why the cliffs turned red?”
“All I know is this ranch has an effect on people. I wonder if folks always knew in some way the injustices that occurred and needed a way to see what they already believed. Does that make any sense?”
She nods.
“Or, your aunt Daisy had a little magic up her sleeve and she had something to say,” Rhett says.
We all chuckle at the rugged cowboy’s statement.
“Oh, he’s not joking.” Kaylee laughs. “He believes women are connected to the earth in ways men will never understand.”
I sip my coffee, thinking Kaylee is lucky to have him. Mom gives Rhett a long, admiring look. When he catches her gaze, he blushes and reaches for the honey.
“What’s the honey for?” he asks.
“For your coffee, of course,” I say.
Rhett lifts a single brow.
“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”
“Oh, I won’t. I’ll try just about anything.” He lifts the honey dipper and adds a good swirl to his coffee. A little creamy coffee is left on his moustache when he looks up, astonished. “I’m impressed. This is really good. Why isn’t honey always served with coffee?”
“I know, right? That’s what I’m always saying.” Rhett and I exchange smiles, and he wipes his moustache clean with a finger.
“I need to tell you something else.” Kaylee looks at my mom and Cash’s mom, who are sitting side by side. “I made a big mistake on the night of the party. I dropped the cigarette in the mulch that started the fire.”
Mom almost knocks her coffee over in surprise. I rest my hand over hers on the table.
“It’s OK now,” I tell Mom. “Me and Kaylee are good. Right?”
“That’s right,” Kaylee says with a grateful smile. “And I talked to Daddy last night. I told him I wanted to do whatever it takes to make all this up to you – everything from the past with Earl, and now with the fire I caused.”
Mom uncovers her mouth and Rhett hands me the deed to the eighty acres. “I signed it back to you, Dahlia, and next week I’m bringing my excavator up to the ditch line. We’re diverting all that water back to your ranch.”
I’m all at once grateful and consumed with grief. These gestures are more than I could ever ask for – but the irony is they won’t save the ranch from debt. It’s too late.
“Thank you, Rhett.” I use a cloth napkin to pull a tear from the corner of my eye. Cash rests his hand on my leg and gives it a gentle squeeze.
“I’m not done yet. Cash told Kaylee about the debt you have. We’re going to pay it off for you.”
My eyes dart from Cash to Rhett. “I can’t let you do that!” I burst out. “The debt wasn’t your fault. The taxes are tens of thousands of dollars—”
“Dahlia.” Rhett pats a gentle hand on the table.
“None of this was your fault either, but we want to make things right. And, believe me, the family trust can afford it. That, plus a lump sum for what Earl should have paid for the property, adjusted for inflation, will be put into a business account for you. You’ll need to get an EIN number, liability insurance, articles of organization, but I’d be happy to help you with all that. ”
“No! Are you serious?”
Rhett laces his fingers together around his coffee cup.
“Very. If you really want, you can see the debt pay-off as a loan. I have a feeling you’re going to do very well here, and you can repay it when it works, but it’s not necessary.
I’ll wire you the money as soon as you get things in order.
You can plant a new orchard, buy a truck, whatever you need. Or do something new.”
I look to Mom on my left, to Cash on my right, and cover my face with the napkin. After a few words of disbelief to myself and more tears, I jump from my stool and swing my arms round Rhett.
“Thank you! Thank you!”
After Mom thanks him too, we all take a walk outside.
Cash’s mom wants to see the ranch and Rhett wants to check on his calves.
As we walk and talk, we admire the pastures with tiny green shoots and leafy alfalfa spreading across the ranch.
It won’t grow tall enough to cut like I hoped, but I’m glad we got the calves here.
Kaylee was right. Between them fertilizing the ground and the ash from the fire, it may grow well enough to choke out the weeds in spring.
Cash and Mom chat, and I hang back to talk to Cash’s mom. “Thank you for coming, Ruth. I imagine it wasn’t easy to hear that Cash had been coming up here.”
She regards me. “No, it wasn’t.” She’s quiet for a moment as she looks around.
“I love that boy right there and he scares me, Dahlia. Every time he gets on a bronc I fear for his life. But I let my fear and superstition get the best of me when it came to this. It was partly my fault he lied. Somewhere along the line I made him so worried about hurting my feelings he forgot to trust himself. He didn’t need to be protected from this place – he just needed to know the truth.
” She looks up at me as we get to the orchard. “We all needed to know, didn’t we?”
“Yeah,” I say as we walk through the trees. Black ash litters the orchard floor with truths that are hard to bear – a curse undone but not forgotten.
“Did Cash tell you Joaquin gave Daisy all these trees?”
“No. He did?”
“Yep. And,” I emphasize, “they lived for a hundred years.”
Ruth plants her feet and stops me. As someone who knows plants, she needs no explanation to know how unlikely that is.
I just nod my head and say, “Crazy, right? An arborist came up and she believes some of the trees have enough life to come back in spring,” I tell her.
“She said the ash from the burned trees will provide nutrients for the trees that survive and the most interesting thing she said was, ‘Leave it to the bees. Eventually, they’ll help everything come back to life.’”
“Dahlia, this ranch is wonderful. I wish I’d have known sooner.”
“We’ll just have to make up for lost time, then. Come up whenever you’d like. I think you and my mom need to talk. You have a lot in common.”
Ruth smiles. “I’d like that.”