Chapter 9
NINE
Eat whatever you want. And if someone tries to lecture you about your weight, eat them, too.
—Holly’s secret thoughts
HOLLY
They’d been gone for hours, and the ranch was quiet except for a few workers here and there getting the fence repaired.
It was a hard repair, too.
“This looks like someone cut the damn wire.” The ranch hand by the name of Judson showed his friend. “Doesn’t it?”
Crest, who looked to be the youngest in the group, said, “It sure does.”
I walked closer to get a better look.
“You should call the sheriff,” I found myself saying.
“Why?” Crest asked.
“Because if someone did this purposely,” I pointed out, “then they could’ve caused a lot of damage. If a person had hit any of those cows, they would’ve likely had to hit them going pretty fast. It’s a blind curve. Not to mention you can’t really go left or right because of the mountain.”
“Oh,” he said. “I guess I’ll call the bossman and ask him what he wants me to do.”
I smiled and went walking back to the ranch house, wondering why I felt out of sorts.
As I made my way closer to the house, I decided it was because I didn’t like being idle.
I liked doing things that kept my mind busy. I liked working and making money. Making myself useful.
What I did not like doing was standing here twiddling my thumbs.
Every person I passed I smiled at. Each person barely smiled back.
Everyone was in a terrible mood.
They were all hungry.
All tired.
And all of them were wearing such ferocious scowls that I thought it’d be better for me to leave them alone rather than entertain them.
I remembered Joe’s words from when I’d eaten dinner with them.
“Enid only comes on Tuesday through Thursday,” Joe said. “Sorcha comes the rest of the days. And sometimes everyone goes hungry.”
I’m not sure why, but I found myself in the ranch kitchen cooking.
I decided on queso, beans, and rice since I’d all but mastered this particular recipe, and everyone loved it.
My old college roommate had taught it to me, then handed off the reins when she realized that I could make it better than her.
I was almost completely done with everything when the first sign of life came back to the ranch.
Tired, sweaty, and looking a little dusty, Joe and Jetty were the first ones I saw.
DeeDee and Catalina showed next, along with two dogs that I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Coty and Brodie, the heeler cattle dogs that used to run cows with the family.
I hadn’t seen them in weeks, which made me think that Juliana had somehow been able to keep them in the divorce.
Both dogs walked right up to the edge of the walk, drank heartily from the always-filled dog bowl there, and then lay down in the sun. Happy and replete.
I didn’t see any signs of Denver, nor several of the ranch hands that’d disappeared with them earlier.
Opening the door to the back of the house, I called out to the group that was sitting there looking exceptionally tired. “Food’s on!”
They all looked at me so hopefully that it would’ve been comical had they truly not looked like they were ready to drop.
They’d left out that morning at half past seven, tearing out of the yard with nothing.
Hell, Denver had even left bareback with only a rope in his hands—we wouldn’t talk about how hot it was to see him steer a horse with only those strong, powerful thighs encased in chaps.
“What’d you make?” DeeDee asked. “It smells absolutely amazing!”
“Beans and rice with queso,” I answered as I saw more ranch hands trickle into the yard heading our way.
The ones that’d been here the entire time, likely.
The kitchen filled with people eating my food, and I was so caught up in everything that was going on that I didn’t see the arrival of a white suburban until someone was knocking on the door.
Seeing as everyone was mid-meal, I waved the girls off and answered the door myself.
“Hello.” I smiled at the man.
His eyes narrowed.
“Georgina Lorena Cain?”
The official-looking man had my hackles rising.
It was Denver who came strolling up, looking dusty as hell, scowling ferociously, and being all sexy in his intimidating way.
“What do you want?”
“I’m here to ask if this is Georgina Lorena Cain.”
“And who wants to know?” Denver asked.
I narrowed my eyes at Denver and gestured for him to leave.
He did, but I could tell that he wasn’t very happy about it.
He walked inside and closed the door, but I knew he was on the other side just waiting to pounce.
“I’m Lester Tides,” the man said, looking visibly relieved that Denver was no longer there to intimidate him. “I’m with the State’s office. If you’re Georgina Lorena Cain, you’re being served.”
“That’s me,” I said carefully.
I knew what this was about.
Honestly, I’d been expecting it, too.
My mother would never let my father leaving his life insurance to me slide.
I took the papers and walked inside without saying another word to him.
When I got inside, Denver was at the stove plating his food so high that queso was spilling over the sides.
I chose his moment of inattention to find a plastic grocery sack in the pantry to stuff them inside.
Those papers were something I’d be dealing with later.
“This is amazing,” Jetty said with what looked like a second portion on his plate. “Who’d you learn this recipe from?”
I glanced surreptitiously at the man who was now leaning against the counter with a plate in his big hand, shoveling food into his mouth at the speed of light. In between bites and chewing, he wore a scowl.
“I had a roommate from Texas,” I said, forcing myself to look away. “She had the art of queso, rice, and beans down pat because she said it’s her favorite meal when she goes back home and eats Tex-Mex. It’s fantastic.”
“It is,” DeeDee said. “Oh, my god. This is like the best thing that I’ve ever put in my mouth!”
“She’s not lying,” Jetty said around a mouthful. “I don’t have enough words for how great this food is.”
“I went home with her once and we had Tex-Mex nearly every single time we went out to eat. So she could fill herself up on it before we came back to college. This is a pretty good replica, of course, but it’s not nearly as good as the stuff at the restaurants.”
“We’ll have to go to Texas and experience this in person one day, Daddy,” Catalina ordered. “We’ll need like three days. One day to fly down there. Eat that night. One day to experience the great state of Texas, and then we fly home.”
“I think I can handle three days for more of this,” Denver muttered, his gaze going out the front window. “Shit.”
I looked to the side to see a police cruiser coming to a stop at the front of the house and a white Beemer pulling to a stop directly behind it.
Juliana.
There was also a golf cart flying across the manicured lawn, heading right for the cruiser.
“Shit,” Denver groaned.
“What’s Grams doing here?” Joe asked. “Didn’t you take away her driving privileges?”
“Sure did,” Denver muttered as he reluctantly set his plate down, looking furious.
He walked out of the house, passed by the big-ass sheriff with his permanent scowl, and marched right up to his mother.
“Uh-oh,” Catalina murmured.
“What?” I asked.
Catalina started eating pieces of chicken off her dad’s plate, which was now in her hand.
“Grams hit a stump last month, and they took away her driving privileges. She moves pretty slow now, and doesn’t have the reaction time to be driving anymore.
She got a concussion from that incident, and Dad, Uncle Sawyer, and Aunt Sorcha decided that she wasn’t allowed to drive anymore.
Not even the golf cart. Needless to say, Grams was pissed.
But she understood. Looks like she might’ve forgotten. ”
She opened up the window between the front porch and the living room, and we all watched on as the confrontation ensued.
“Sinclair Anderson Windsor, now’s not the time for berating me,” she urged. “Let’s first talk about why this woman is back on my property when she’s been trespassed.”
What?
That was news to me.
“Grams got her trespassed when she came back onto the property and tried to steal Gram’s Christmas Cactus off our porch.” Catalina kept me up to date. “Mom’s not allowed to be here anymore. Not even to pick us up.”
“Whoa,” I breathed.
“I’m here because that man stole my dogs! I’m pressing charges.”
Grams ignored her and looked at the sheriff.
“Sheriff Black.” Margery nodded. “It’s nice to see you again. How are you?”
Sheriff Black’s scowl softened as he looked at the old woman. “I’m doing good, Margery. I’m sorry to intrude.”
“Oh, you’re never an intrusion, Sheriff Black.” She eyed the man up and down. “It’s always a really nice day when I get to see a man that looks mouthwatering in uniform.”
I swear to all that was holy, Sheriff Black’s cheeks pinked.
“Where are my dogs, Sinclair?”
“I don’t have your dogs,” Denver replied. “I’ve been running cattle all afternoon. I literally just got back to the ranch.”
We all looked to the side of the house where you could see the dogs still lying in the sun, looking exhausted and happy. Brodie’s tail thumped slowly with his excitement.
Dead asleep, he was still in a great mood.
“You do,” she accused. “I got a doorbell alert that showed you sent the girls in to take them.”
“I didn’t send anyone anywhere.” Denver crossed his arms. “Black, she needs to get the hell off my property.”
Black nodded and turned to the woman. “Time to go, ma’am.”
“You would choose him. Your precious club president over doing the right thing.” Juliana sneered at the sheriff. “I’ll just go over your head.”
“You go to the station, and they can give you a number for who to call,” Black suggested with not an ounce of facetiousness. He was completely serious. “It’s time to go now.”
Juliana gave a look around the place, spied us in the windows, and her face changed to completely passive. “Fine.”
Then she left.
The sound of the spoon Catalina was using to scrape her dad’s plate clean of food was the only thing you could hear in the silence that followed her departure.
Hours later, I remembered the papers that I’d forgotten on the kitchen counter of the Windsor Ranch house.
I almost got up to go retrieve them, but eventually decided that they could wait until morning.
I didn’t want to overthink tonight, anyway.
At least, not about my mom.
A certain sexy cowboy, however…