4. Cara
Chapter four
Cara
Like every Sunday, I parked our car in our usual spot, under the great oak tree in front of the ranch house.
Riley had unbuckled his seat belt and had run halfway up the gravel path leading to the house before I even pulled the key out of the ignition.
I got out of the car and breathed in the cold, fresh air. The day was nice, considering it was almost December. The sun was shining on the wooden ranch house and the stables and barns behind it. In the distance, I could see a few horses out in the pasture, grazing peacefully in front of the majestic, snow-covered mountains. Cedar Creek Ranch was a sight straight out of an old-school epic western movie. Riley loved it here. We both did.
The horse ranch, a few minutes away from Brightwater, belonged to Terrence and Annette Spencer, the kindest, most generous people I’d ever met in my life.
Terry had been a friend of my dad. He’d visited us often when I was still a child, but after my father died, Terry disappeared from my life as well.
But when I found myself pregnant at twenty-one, without a home or a job, Terry was the one I called. He was the only person I could think of. Everyone else in my life was gone one way or another, and my dad’s old buddy was my last hope. And despite not having seen me for many years, he jumped into his pickup truck and picked me up at the gate of the Benton estate right away, no questions asked.
Terry and Annette took me in. They allowed me to live with them free of charge for nearly two years. And when I finally found a day care for Riley, they set me up with my landlady, Arlene Miller, and helped me build a life for myself.
Those two—and their son, Wyatt—were the closest thing Riley and I had to family, and we drove over for breakfast on Sundays religiously.
“I’ll go check on Atticus!” Riley yelled over his shoulder.
“Don’t take too long. I’m hungry!” I called after him, but he was already heading for the stables.
I rang the doorbell, and Annette opened the door, greeting me with a hug. She was smiling, but there was an unusual hint of sadness in her eyes.
Was it another relapse? Worried, I took a step back and checked her from head to toe.
Annette had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her early twenties, long before I met her, even before she met Terry. She was dealing with her disease as best as she could. Although she’d suffered some permanent loss of sensitivity in her right hand and leg and her balance wasn’t too good, an outsider could hardly tell she had a chronic disease—unless she had a relapse. During a relapse, anything could happen. Sometimes, it was just a tingling foot. Other times, she was bedridden for weeks. Unfortunately, those relapses had gotten more frequent in the past few years. Until she started a new therapy the previous year, that was. The new medication was working very well and had kept the disease at bay.
“Are you okay?” I asked. “Are you feeling well?”
“You know me. Nothing holds me back.” She smiled, but she still looked a bit pale, and I didn’t fail to notice she’d avoided answering my question.
“Is it your MS?” I asked, not satisfied with her answer.
“No, no, it’s not a relapse. I’m okay, really, Cara. Come into the kitchen. The bacon is still in the frying pan. Is Riley at the stable?”
I nodded as I followed her into the kitchen. “He’s saying hi to Atticus.”
“He’s such a sweet boy. Hey, Terry, come down. Cara and Riley are here.”
“Do you need any help in the kitchen, Annette?” I still wasn’t convinced her MS wasn’t bothering her although I didn’t notice any outward symptoms.
“No, it’s fine. Sit down. It’s almost ready.”
I pulled out a chair and sat down at my usual place at the wooden dinner table in the breakfast nook. The large bay windows allowed a wonderful view of the property. In the distance, Riley was leaning against a paddock fence and petting a white horse.
Terry came down the stairs. He didn’t look like his usual sunny self either although a smile wiped away the frown when he spotted me at the table.
“Morning, Cara,” he said in his deep, warm voice. “How did Riley’s contest go?”
Annette whipped around. “Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot over—I almost forgot. How did it go? Tell us everything.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “He won first place,” I announced, full of pride.
Terry clapped his hands. “Ha, I knew it. That boy is chock full of talent.” He nudged me in the side. “Got it from you.”
“I guess so. But he also practices a lot. Talent is worthless if you don’t hone your craft,” I said. “Look at me. I haven’t painted in so long I would probably struggle to get a stick figure right.”
“Your photography is art too,” Cara said as she placed a plate full of crispy bacon on the table. It smelled amazing.
I sighed. I enjoyed my job as a photographer—most of the time, at least—and it kept us afloat financially although never being sure when the next payment would come in could be a struggle. But it wasn’t the life I’d imagined for myself.
Before I could get too lost in my melancholic thoughts, Wyatt entered the kitchen through the mudroom.
Terry and Annette’s son was a handsome, blond twenty-two-year-old, who shouldered the brunt of the workload now that Terry and Annette were getting older. If anyone in Brightwater loved horses more than Riley, it was Wyatt. Those two could spend hours at the stable. He was like a big brother to my son, and Riley worshipped him like a hero.
He was wearing muddy riding boots, and his sweatshirt was covered in horsehair. He grunted out a “Hi, Cara,” stomped right past Annette, making a face like someone had threatened to turn his favorite horse into sausage. He took a bottle of water out of the fridge, and walked back out, not before shooting his father a deathly glance.
Irritated, my eyes followed him until he disappeared through the door.
I leaned back and put my fork down. “Okay, enough of the charade. There’s clearly something going on, and I would like to know what’s wrong.”
Terry and Annette exchanged a look.
“I don’t want to pull her into this, Annie,” Terry said gruffly.
“She will have to know sooner or later,” Annette said. “Tell her now, before the boy comes back.”
“Tell me what?” I asked, alarmed. “Terry, what is it? Is it Annette? Is the MS getting worse?”
Annette shook her head. “No, that’s not it. I’m actually doing really well.”
“The new medication she’s on is a gift from God,” Terry added.
“But it’s expensive,” Annette said. “And that’s the problem.”
I swallowed. Suddenly, the bacon didn’t smell that enticing anymore. “Money trouble?”
I prayed I was wrong because that was the one thing I couldn’t help them with, but the way Terry’s jaw tensed told me I was right.
“It’s bad,” he said, his gaze fixed on his untouched plate full of scrambled eggs.
“How bad?” I asked.
He opened his mouth, but all that came out was a strained breath. He shook his head.
After a long, heavy moment of silence, Annette answered in her husband’s stead. “We might have to sell the ranch.”
Her words hit me like a whip to the face. “No! No, no, no, that… No!”
That just wasn’t possible. Cedar Creek Ranch without Terry and Annette? Terry and Annette without Cedar Creek Ranch? I couldn’t even imagine a world like that. They lived and breathed for this ranch and its horses. What would they even do without it?
“I love this ranch, and I love horses,” Terry said, “But they don’t make you rich. We’ve already had to let go of all our ranch hands over the years. Wyatt is working day and night, but we still run a deficit most years, and adding the medical expenses on top of it… We have amassed a lot of debt.”
“My medication is several thousand a month,” Annette added with a sigh. “I offered Terry to switch back to the old meds, but—”
“I will never allow that,” Terry said sternly. “I would sell the shirt on my back before I allow you to give up that miracle drug.”
I shook my head. “But selling the ranch… There must be another way.”
“If there is, I don’t see it,” Terry said. “And we recently got a really good offer. Really, really good. We could retire with that kind of money.”
“And Wyatt?”
“I guess he would have to find another ranch to work on. Or another job entirely.”
Wyatt with another job? Never going to happen. The boy was basically a centaur. “What kind of offer is that? Who wants to buy the ranch?” I asked, feeling defeated.
“They don’t want to ranch. They just want the land,” Terry said.
I didn’t like the sound of that at all. “For what?”
“Some kind of factory. What was it again, Annie? Computers?”
“Computer chips,” Annette said.
I buried my head in my hands. “You are telling me you want to sell Cedar Creek Ranch to some tech company so they can tear it down and build a chip factory here instead?”
“We don’t want that,” Annette said.
“It’s the last thing we want,” Terry said. “This ranch has been founded by my grandfather. I’ve spent my whole life here. Believe me, Cara, we are not making this decision on a whim.”
I took his hand to comfort him. Poor Terry. Poor Annette. They didn’t deserve this. They were the last people on earth to deserve this. “Is it a done deal?”
“Not yet,” he said. “There’s a team from the company coming on Tuesday. They want a closer look at the land. Discuss details. That kind of stuff.”
Annette sighed. “I get sick to my stomach just thinking about these suit guys crawling all over our beautiful land.”
“Tuesday,” I repeated. “At what time? I want to be there. I will not let you go through this alone.”
Riley had, of course, picked up on the mood during breakfast. He asked me about it after we got home, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him yet. I clung to the hope that the catastrophe was somehow still avoidable for his sake.
I loved Cedar Creek Ranch, but it meant even more to Riley. He’d spent the first year of his life there. The rustic ranch house had been his very first home, the stables his playpen, the horses his first playmates. It was his safe haven, his happy place, his retreat when the walls of our small one-bedroom apartment were getting too restrictive.
So I remained silent. I diverted and made excuses and changed topics when he brought it up again at dinner.
But once he was fast asleep in his room, and I was cuddled up in my blankets on the pull-out couch in the living room, I let my emotions run free. I cried. For myself, but mostly for Terry, Annette, and Wyatt, who might lose their home, and of course, for my Riley, who was about to face the first big heartbreak of his life.
I spent most of Monday with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Originally, I had an engagement photoshoot scheduled, but the couple had broken up after a fight over some ex drama over the weekend, so that appointment would most definitely not happen. Adding insult to injury, on top of the Spencers’ financial woes, my own bank account balance started to look worrying too. I had no idea how to afford the PocketQuest for Riley, and I could only pray my car wouldn’t give up before the holidays.
At least Riley was in a good mood. He was still high on his contest win, and on top of that, he presented me with an A- in math when he came home from school on Monday. Yep, he was smart as well as artistically talented. I really had lucked out with that kid.
Then the dreaded Tuesday came. I packed Riley’s lunch and sent him to school with a kiss before I put on my winter coat and my scarf and climbed into the car to head for Cedar Creek Ranch.
I had no idea about what to expect. What would happen? Who would be there? Would Terry seal the deal and sell the ranch? I only knew I didn’t want that day to happen, but I had to be there anyway.
Terry and Annette had supported me through all my challenges and struggles. Now it was my turn. I had to be there for them.
My stomach clenched when I walked up the path to the house.
Terry opened the door. He looked pale and had dark rings under his eyes that told me he’d slept even worse than me. Annette was inside the house, nervously pacing, checking the windows every time a car drove by.
Wyatt was notably absent.
“He’s hiding in the stables,” Terry told me when I asked about him. “He’s very angry right now.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Terry.”
He exhaled. “It’s hard to understand these things when you’re a hot-blooded young man like Wyatt. At that age, you always think there’s an easy solution to every problem.”
The sound of car tires on gravel ended our depressing conversation. We all knew what it meant. The people in the fancy suits had arrived.
Annette hurried to the door, her face a stern mask, and Terry followed her, stiff and reluctant.
I hung back, trying to be a calming presence without imposing, but I didn’t think I was doing a very good job, because my nausea was rising in my throat at the thought of what would come next.
But even my worst nightmares didn’t compare to what happened next.
We heard footsteps on the gravel path. Terry and Annette exchanged a tense look, and I clenched my fists to keep my hands from shaking.
The doorbell rang. Annette schooled her face, putting on a smile that almost looked convincing, and opened the door.
Over her shoulder, I could see a man stepping into the hallway.
“Hello, Mrs. Spencer.”
The sound of his voice made my breath hitch in my throat, and my heart sped up in terror.
No. It couldn’t be . What had Terry said was the name of that tech company again?
Annette stepped aside, and every doubt was wiped away. I was face to face with my biggest fear.
The man the company had sent to assess Cedar Creek Ranch was Ellis Benton.