Chapter Two
T he door to the three-room homestead house, built in 1910 by Spence’s great-great-grandfather, creaked in classic haunted house style as Spence pushed it open. When he stepped into the small living area, the musty scent of abandonment hit his nostrils and he wrinkled his nose. “I’ll stay in the main house.”
“After all the work the folks have done to keep it rodent free? Come on.” Reed, Spence’s older brother, followed him inside the hundred-year-old dwelling. “Perfect guesthouse.”
No. It had been the perfect playhouse for Em and Cade, who’d claimed it as their own years ago. The lack of insulation and the outdated fixtures and plumbing made it a not-so-perfect guesthouse. The only reason it was still standing was because Em loved it and when the roof had started to go, Daniel had chosen to replace it rather than bulldoze the place as common sense decreed. He had a hard time saying no to his only daughter.
“Come on—it’s perfect,” Reed said in an encouraging voice.
“So sayeth the guy with running water and electricity.” His brother occupied the house their grandparents had lived in, next door to the main ranch house, while Spence was currently living in the main house. He would have claimed the second bedroom in the little house, but Reed’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Lex, stayed there when she visited from Bozeman where she lived with her mom and stepdad.
Reed grinned at him. “You, too, can have those amenities. It’ll just take a few days to hook them up.”
Spence shook his head. “Not being a prima donna or anything, but—”
“You’re totally a prima donna.”
“But I think I will continue in the folks’ house. I don’t know how long I’ll be here, and I don’t have a lot of spare cash to sink into this place.” He was pretty certain that the old wiring and delicate plumbing system would present a whole nest of new problems if they were put into use.
“That I understand.”
Spence was remarkably debt free because he didn’t sink money into things that didn’t give a decent return, and when he had debt, he paid it off as quickly as possible. He owned his truck and the travel trailer he lived in on locations if his expenses weren’t covered by his contract, which they usually were. He had enough money in the bank to meet his needs for several months—actually, for more than a year if he was frugal—and he planned on rustling up some welding jobs while he was in the area. But he was not going to sink capital into a rundown homestead house when his mom assured him that she loved having him in his old bedroom. It would have been better if it wasn’t now her sewing room, but in the few days he’d been home, they’d managed to work around one another.
“Can you still ride?” Reed asked as they stepped out of the homestead house.
“What kind of question is that?” Spence hooked the hasp that served as a secondary lock to the place.
“When’s the last time you were on a horse?”
“I can outride you.”
“We’ll see about that tomorrow.” When they planned to ride the allotment fence prior to turning out the cattle.
“Yeah.” Spence lifted a hand to shade his eyes as he studied the dust plume rising behind the truck that barreled into sight where the driveway emerged from the tree line. “I’d say Dad has something on his mind.”
“Shit.” Reed propped his hands on his hips. “I was hoping that we were done with this crap.”
Spence watched his brother’s face tighten. Reed was engaged to Trenna Hunt, the daughter of the guy who was raising hell with the family in an attempt to gain right-of-way across their best hay field in order to build a resort on the mountainside. Spence couldn’t say that the family was wild about the idea of having a resort looking down on the ranch, but they could accept it, mainly because they had no choice. Hunt owned the land. What they couldn’t accept was a barrage of traffic traveling across their fields on their way to Hunt’s resort. Carter Hunt had another option to access the property, but it involved building a bridge across the deep V of a narrow rocky canyon called Robber’s Gorge. That option would be wildly expensive, so Hunt continued his quest to get the Kellers to bow to his wishes.
Daniel Keller and family were not prone to bowing.
By the time the truck pulled to a stop, Reed and Spence were waiting by the barn. To Spence’s surprise, Henry Still Smoking, their longtime ranch hand who was supposed to retire, but didn’t seem able to get the job done, was at the wheel. The normally easygoing guy looked as pissed off as Daniel, which was saying something.
Daniel Keller grimaced as he worked his way out of the truck. He’d had back surgery a few years ago, and now he was looking at another round to fuse the vertebrae about those that were already fused. The price of ranch work, the surgeon had said.
Indeed. Ranch work, coupled with stubbornness and a refusal to accept that he might have to change his ways. The prospect of the second surgery had slowed him down a bit, but Spence couldn’t help wondering if his dad would be right back at it once he healed a second time.
But with Reed home, and Henry reluctant to pull the plug, Spence figured his time at the ranch would be over in the early fall. Once winter set it, there wasn’t much to do beyond feeding cattle, which Reed could handle.
“What happened?” Reed asked Henry, giving their dad a chance to regain his composure after the pain of getting out of the rig.
“That asshole found a loophole to shut off the irrigation to the east fields.”
“We’re junior water rights holders by one year,” Daniel explained. “One year. And since Hunt has been using that right in a piddling way, he’s kept it. Now he plans to pretty much drain the canal before it reaches us.”
“What if he gets to put a road across the field?” Spence asked.
“I imagine his water usage would revert to normal,” Daniel said grimly. “Meanwhile, the field dries up.”
*
What was she going to do without Vince?
Hayley’s stomach began knotting while she helped pack and load his truck. Vince’s acceptance into law school had been something of a long shot this year and with the labor market being tight, she’d hoped that he’d get into law school next year.
Selfish wish. She should have worked harder at a backup plan, but in reality, how? It seemed unlikely that she could have found someone to wait in the wings just in case Vince got the call he’d been waiting for.
Tonight she’d post on social media to see if she could find additional help for the summer. The situation wasn’t dire. She and Connor and Ash could handle the work, but she needed a second come fall when the boys went back to school. She could use a second right now to help with the general workload —especially now that she was developing the farmer’s market side gig. That was for personal satisfaction, and it could slide, but she’d just gotten her greenhouse and was excited to start production.
“That’s it, boss.” Vince came out of the duplex cottage, pulling the door shut behind him. Remy snuffled at his pant leg, and he bent down to rub her ears. “I think I’ll put her away and say goodbye,” he said.
Hayley nodded and watched as Vince pulled a carrot out of his shirt pocket and called the pig to the yard, where he gave her the carrot before locking the gate. “She can’t chase me now.”
“Unless she digs under the gate.”
“I’ll be gone.” Vince gave Hayley a long look and she could see how torn he was about leaving.
“It’s not like I’m never going to see you again. And who knows? Maybe I’ll need a lawyer.”
“Are you kidding? I plan on being on retainer once I pass the bar.”
“That you will,” Hayley said before opening her arms and giving him a hug. “Thank you for staying with me after Dad died,” she said. He could have headed back to Missoula then and gotten a better-paying job while he waited to hear about law school, but instead he’d stayed and helped her run the ranch while she grieved her father’s passing. She was forever grateful and, although she’d known this day was coming, it was so much harder to deal with than she’d anticipated.
Her throat felt thick, and she swallowed. Vince looked like he was also on the edge of emotion, and Vince didn’t do emotions, so Hayley stepped back. “Keep in contact, visit often, and consider spending Christmas here.”
Vince laughed. “Will do. Thanks, boss. Take care of my sweetheart for me until I have a place that I can keep her.”
“Will do.”
Remy, sensing that the love of her life wasn’t returning anytime soon, squealed and ran the fence as Vince drove away. Then she stood watching through the slats as the truck disappeared.
“We’re on our own,” Hayley said to the pig as she let herself into the front yard. Remy ignored her, continuing to watch through the slats.
Vince had done her a favor by staying, and now she was doing him a favor by not needing him. She’d sidestepped his questions about how she planned to replace him, and he stopped asking after the third try. She’d manage because that was what she did.
Hayley let Greta out of the house, and the little terrier trotted across the lawn to stand next to Remy as the pig stared down the driveway. If Greta needed a new foster home, Hayley would once again volunteer. Remy needed a friend. Hayley found her phone and was searching for the number to Whiskers and Paw Pals when a call came in.
“Mom. Hi.”
She’d been taught from a young age to call her mom Reba when they were around people, but in the privacy of her kitchen, she could call her mother anything she liked. And she liked Mom. That was what her kid was going to call her. That or Mama. She wasn’t picky as long as she wasn’t referred to as Hayley.
“Hi, sweetie.” Reba’s voice was low and husky. Hayley had long admired her mom’s voice modulation. “I just wanted to touch base before leaving.”
“Thanks, Mom.” She’d been through this procedure too many times to ask, “Are you sure about this?” Because her mother would indicate that she was passionately certain that this guy was the one and yes, heading off for a multi-month tour of South Pacific islands was the perfect way to spend the summer. A week here, a week there. Exactly the way Reba liked to live life, and the exact opposite of how Hayley liked to live, another reason she’d moved to the Lone Tree.
The important thing was that Reba was happy, and, thanks to her lawyer, who was actually husband number two after Hayley’s dad, her assets were tied up in a way that it was hard for a new beau to get at. Not that Reba would let them. She loved to fall in love, but she also liked to live well, and she was not about to risk the latter for the former.
“I’ll be out of the country for two, maybe three, months, but I promise that the second I get back into the States, I’ll visit.”
“That would be nice, Mom.”
They chatted for several more minutes about superficial things because that was what they were comfortable with. They’d never shared mother-daughter secrets, nor had Hayley wanted to. She’d realized from a young age that her mom wasn’t like other moms, and by the time she’d moved in with her dad, she’d been comfortable having one ‘normal’ parent. Her other parent, her mom, was like an elusive butterfly. Beautiful and charming, she’d flit in and out of Hayley’s life, and because that was the only relationship Hayley had known with her mother, she’d accepted it—for the most part. Sometimes she envied her friends with two normal parents, and at other times, when she had friends dealing with strife in their families, she was glad her parents had figured things out so early. She remembered no fights between her mom and dad because she’d been so young when they split up. By the time she was aware of their interactions, they’d developed a distant, yet amiable, relationship for her sake. So, no full-time mom, but no upheavals, either.
By her late teens, she’d come to understand that if her mom hadn’t accidentally become pregnant with her, she wouldn’t have had children at all. Reba was open about having her tubes tied after Hayley’s birth, and equally open about her diagnosis of endometriosis in her early thirties, which had caused her to have a partial hysterectomy. Ironically, like her own mother, Reba had fertility issues, but had still managed an accidental pregnancy.
Hayley was hoping to do the same, but without the accident part.
Hayley wished her mom a safe trip, didn’t let on that she couldn’t remember the name of the current beau—John, Jean, Jean-Ralphio, something like that—and then hung up with the usual empty feeling that followed a call with her sole parent. Now that her dad was gone, she realized that she wanted a mom mom. She didn’t have one. But... she could be one. And she was going to.
After hanging up, she ambled down the hallway to the room next to her bedroom. The room that had once been her dad’s, which she was turning into a kid’s room. She hadn’t done much yet because she was half-afraid of jinxing herself and never having a kid. It appeared that time was not on her side.
Hayley was almost twenty-nine and when her last visit to the doctor had indicated that she, too, was in the early stages of developing endometriosis, she’d decided to act. Unlike her mother, she wanted children, which meant doing something before her body began working against her. There were many avenues to achieve that goal, and she may well try them all, but to begin with, she was going with the old-fashioned way.
Well, maybe not old-fashioned, since it involved medical intervention.
She leaned against the doorjamb and studied the room, which she’d painted a delicious pale green and trimmed with white. Good start. She’d had meetings with counseling personnel at the clinic she’d chosen, and now it was a matter of picking a father from the fine catalog they had on hand, and deciding when to start Operation Baby.
She was thinking late fall, after the fields had been harvested and the ground turned over and the cattle brought in. The big question was how long it would take to get pregnant via artificial insemination—after she chose a father, of course. That was another issue slowing her down. That damned catalog with all those guys staring back at her. What if she chose wrong?
They’re vetted. The clinic has a stellar rep.
True. And it wasn’t like she was going to go cruising for a baby daddy in person. That wasn’t her style. She might have come out of her shell, but not to that degree. The catalog it was.
Hayley pushed off the doorjamb and closed the door. The house was quiet, too quiet sometimes, reminding her that her dad was gone, but despite the silence, the house had a good feel. She’d put hours and hours into making it cozy after returning home from college, and she loved everything about it, from the sunny kitchen to the colorful throw pillows she’d made last winter.
Funny thing, she thought, as she lit the burner beneath the teakettle—she was never without a project or goal. In high school, she’d been driven to become valedictorian. She’d ended up salutatorian, but she could live with that. When she went to college, she’d graduated cum laude with a degree that was actually pretty useless in a practical sense, though she didn’t regret her course of study. Going to college had broadened her perspective and better prepared her for parenthood. And now she was pouring her energies into making the ranch a real home and having a baby. Making the best of the life she had.
She only wished that her dad could have been there to be a grandfather to the child. He would have been the best grandpa...
Hayley blinked the sting away from her eyes and focused on matters she did have control of. Running the ranch. She needed help in that regard, so tomorrow, when she took Greta to Whiskers and Paw Pals, she’d ask around, see if anyone knew of a reliable person looking for ranch work.
*
“It’s okay, Grandpa.” Lex, Reed’s fifteen-year-old daughter, grinned over her shoulder. “I know that word too.”
She might know the word, but Spence wished his dad would watch his tongue.
Lex made a show of closing the dishwasher, twisting the knob to start it, then dusting off her hands. “I’ll just head next door so that you can speak freely.”
“Thank you.” Daniel’s voice sounded a touch choked, but he maintained a straight face. He waited until Lex had grabbed her sweatshirt and headed out the door before repeating the word he shouldn’t have said in front of his granddaughter.
Spence’s mom, Audrey, set an affectionate hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Well said,” she murmured without a hint of irony.
“I think it sums up the situation,” Reed said. “Now we need a solution.”
Daniel put his hands on the table in front of him, tucking his thumbs under the edge. “Last time we had a water issue, you guys were little, so you probably don’t remember.”
“No,” Spence said. “We do.” The issues the drought had caused had been hard to miss. The canal had dried up and fields on the east side of the ranch had gone yellow after only one cutting of alfalfa. On the west side, however, they’d managed two more cuttings, thanks to being able to pump leased water and continue irrigating.
He met his dad’s gaze, realizing where this was going. “You got water from the Lone Tree Ranch.” Their nearest neighbor and the most water-rich ranch in the valley.
“And hope to do it again. The thing is that Old Darrell was still alive at the time, and I dealt with him. Now both Darrell and Hank”—Hayley’s grandfather and dad—“are gone, which might complicate matters.”
“Because you don’t know Hanna?” Reed asked.
“Hayley,” Spence corrected. “Her name is Hayley.”
“Yeah. Sorry,” Reed said.
“Hayley,” Daniel repeated. “I only recognize her because of her hair. No, I don’t know her.”
“I know her,” Spence said.
“You know her?” Reed asked. “How? You left home before she graduated and as near as I can tell, you haven’t spent much time back here.”
“I know her from high school.” Reed cocked his head in a disbelieving way, and Spence explained. “We had an encounter.”
Audrey lifted her hands as if to ward off what he was about to say next.
“She saved my ass,” Spence said.
“When? How?” Reed scowled at Spence.
“I was a senior, and this is going to sound kind of stupid now, but you remember Lucas Barstow?”
“That mountain?” Reed said. “Kind of hard to forget him. What happened?”
“I might have run my mouth at him once too often, and before the bus left for the championship basketball game, he locked me in the equipment shed. You know Coach’s rules back then. If you’re not dressed out by warmups, you’re not playing.” And even though he’d been a top scorer, the coach would have kept his word.
“Hayley heard me pounding and managed to let me out. Then she drove me to the game.” He decided to leave the part out about the cop stopping them. “We passed the bus, and I was waiting there when it arrived.” He smiled reminiscently. “You should have seen the look on Barstow’s face when he saw me leaning against the lamppost as the bus drove up.”
“Hayley Parker. Red hair. Braids. Glasses. That Hayley Parker.”
“She’d lost the braids by then. Still had glasses.” He’d been impressed at how coolly she’d handled matters. “I’ll get you to the game,” she’d said matter-of-factly. And then she did.
“You owe her a favor,” Daniel said.
“Yeah. I do.” Plus, he hadn’t properly thanked her for rescuing his sorry ass. “But I think that I might be the guy to talk to her about this situation.”
“I don’t know,” Audrey said slowly. “Maybe your dad should.”
Daniel met Spence’s gaze. “Spence?”
“I’ll do it.” He owed Hayley, and he had an idea as to how to repay her, which might tip a decision as to water in their favor. Or maybe the money they’d pay would do that.
“I need details,” he said. “How much water did we lease, what did we pay then, and what’s a fair rate now?”
Audrey pushed back from the table. “I’ll get you that information.”
His mom was one of the most organized people he knew, which was why the Keller Ranch ran so smoothly. A few minutes later, she returned with a manila folder, which she opened and placed in front of Daniel.
“This amount of water would see us through,” Daniel said after reviewing the contract. “We only need to irrigate the fields bordering the Hunt property. This time the west side is good.” Being fed, as it was from a different, newly constructed ditch with a different water source. That water could only be used on the west fields, but leased aquifer water could be pumped wherever it was needed.
Spence looked at the figures, then said, “I’ll talk to her today.”
“Be convincing,” Daniel said. “Otherwise, I’m not sure what we can do other than to let that asshole win.”
Then they’d have to decide between a major thoroughfare across their property with the associated collateral damage, or watering the field.
Spence knew that Daniel would let the field dry up and blow away before he kowtowed to Carter Hunter; therefore, his mission was clear.
Nail down a lease, regardless of the conditions. Daniel would rather pay through the nose than let “that asshole,” Carter Hunt, win.
*
Greta laid her bristly chin on Hayley’s leg as they left Marietta. Hayley settled a protective hand on the dog’s warm body as she brought the truck up to speed. She’d intended to drop off the terrier at Whiskers and Paw Pals so that her adoptive mom could pick her up, only to find that the adoptive mom was no longer employed by the Hunt Ranch and couldn’t keep Greta until she came up with a new place to live.
“So what did she think she was going to do at the end of the season?” Elena Romero, the shelter manager, asked Hayley. “It drives me crazy when people lie on the applications. She said she was a year-round employee and now we find that she was seasonal, and she did not get fired. She quit.”
“You’re certain?”
“I called out there. Talked to Dawn Hunt herself.” Carter Hunt was something of a jerk, but everyone liked his second wife, who participated in many community events and charities. “We need to amp up the vetting situation.”
“Along with everything else you do,” Hayley had said as she cuddled Greta against her. “And how many failures have you had in the past year?”
Elena looked skyward. “Two.”
“Not bad considering the number of animals you’ve homed. I heard that someone took in a potbellied pig.”
“It’s not a permanent home.” Elena made a sad face.
“I think it might turn into one.”
Elena’s eyes widened. “You’re adopting Remy?”
“I think Vince will, after he finishes law school. In the meantime, she’ll live with me.”
“Excellent.” Elena tilted her head at the little dog. “Care to foster Greta again?”
Hayley rubbed the little dog’s ears. “Of course.”
“Care to adopt?”
Hayley made a face. “If I start adopting, I’ll never stop.” And she had no idea how busy she was going to be in the future. “But... you never know.” If push came to shove, she would indeed adopt the little dog.