Chapter 8
The next day at lunchtime, he drove back to the ranch house and there were Marjorie and Ellie waiting for him. As pretty as a picture. And perfect.
He was doing his damn level best not to let his own feelings get in the way of their arrangement.
But it was hard. When they were sharing a house like this. Sharing a dinner table.
When the connection between Ellie and him was beginning to feel like something deeper than it actually was.
He was just so attracted to her. Sharing a small space with her, when they were in the kitchen for example, maneuvering around each other, was the world’s most beautiful torture.
He didn’t dislike it. But it was risky. Yeah. It was real damned risky.
When she smiled up at him as he took Marjorie from her arms and fastened her into the baby seat so they could head out onto the ranch, he had to stop himself from putting his hand against his chest to soothe the spot where his heart ached.
This was nothing like anything he’d ever experienced. He’d never seen a man and a woman working together to raise a child, to give that child the best they could offer.
No. His own parents had been so damn selfish.
This time with Ellie and Marjorie was giving him a glimpse at something he hadn’t really believed existed. A glimmer of hope that he couldn’t afford to obsess on.
As they drove away from the house, he tried to view the scenery through her eyes. He’d bought this piece of land two years earlier. Begun construction on the house a year and a half ago.
His dream. This place had always felt like a dream. The tall, stately mountains, the majestic pine trees.
The view of the valley below.
The ground here was volcanic. Red lava rock and black obsidian emerged from the ground in a great many places, and petrified wood was plentiful, including a grove of petrified trees that stood in his favorite spot on the property.
He paused his truck right in front of it. “This is a petrified forest,” he said.
“On your property?” she asked, her eyes going wide.
The trees were thick, with jagged tops and bark that looked more like rock than wood.
Veins of pale white and reddish brown ran down the length of them.
The trunks stood in a circle, surrounded still by living pines that stretched up high toward the sky, the sun filtering down around them making them look like a pagan altar.
“Yeah,” he said. “In the mid 1800s there was a series of eruptions in Oregon that lasted thirty years or so, and it formed a lot of the volcanic landscape here. But you’re a teacher, so you probably know that.”
“I don’t teach science, so no, I don’t. I don’t know about volcanoes, but I could tell you about Zane Grey going to Rogue River.”
“Then I can teach you about volcanoes and you can teach me about literature.”
She laughed. “I’ll let you in on a secret. I like literature just fine, but if I’m going to choose my own reading material, I prefer genre fiction. Give me thrillers, mysteries, and romance, thank you.”
“I’m not a big reader. You’ll have to recommend something to me. I’ll have time to read now that I’m a homebody and a dad and not out riding in the rodeo.”
The word made his heart catch in his chest. A dad. He was. And Ellie was a mother. Another thing they had in common was that they’d walked into that hospital as two single people and walked out as parents.
Silence settled between them, the only sound the pop of his engine as it cooled. “This is really beautiful,” she whispered.
“Yeah. It gives me kind of a thrill, having a piece of this.”
She looked sad, and he felt something shift inside him.
“It’s really cool that you have this,” she said.
He saw himself through her eyes then. A man who wanted to grab hold of something lasting because of everything he hadn’t had way back then, and she wasn’t really wrong.
He’d bought this place partly to flex his newfound success. Hell, it was part of why he’d come back to this town in the first place.
But now his motivation had shifted. Marjorie had shifted his purpose.
“She’s going to love playing here,” he said.
Suddenly, this place meant something else. It was different, and so was he. He didn’t care if he was better than anyone else. He just cared that his little girl—yeah, his little girl—had the best place to play. “This is going to be like a magic portal,” he said.
“A fairy forest,” she agreed, immediately picking up his mood.
“She’s going to be able to run all around here, bring her friends.”
“And no one will get mad when they’re noisy,” she said.
“And it won’t be embarrassing because it’s a mess.”
“And we won’t make her vacuum when they’re here. Or do her piano lessons or her ballet drills.”
“And there will always be food in the pantry.”
This was like making vows. The real creation of a family, then and there, in the presence of the petrified trees.
It was a deep, meaningful moment that he felt all the way down to his bones.
“Forever and ever,” she said.
“Hell yeah,” he said.
He put the truck back into drive, and they continued down to his main pasture, where most of the cattle were.
He drove the truck right through the field and parked it just a few feet away from the herd.
He took the car seat out of the truck as she got out the picnic basket, and he set Marjorie in her car seat in the truck bed. He and Ellie sat on the tailgate, situating the basket between them.
“Did you want with mustard or without?” she asked, holding a choice of two sandwiches out to him.
“With, thank you.”
“I had a feeling. If you wanted without I was going to be in trouble. Because I don’t like it.”
He laughed. “Why didn’t you just ask?”
She wrinkled her nose, and she was just so cute, it actually made him ache. “I don’t know.”
“You’re a silly thing,” he said.
The sun was warm, and the view was perfect.
The companionship was pretty good too.
“Your mom really made you practice the piano when you had friends over?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. “She was really strict. Like I said, there was no room for mistakes.”
“And your sister’s response to that was to jump into making all the biggest mistakes?”
“Yes.”
“And your mom’s not proud of you?”
“Not really. Because being a teacher doesn’t make you a lot of money. However, people respect the profession. So, there’s an element of it that she does like, in spite of herself.”
“Well, when you actually do go talk to her about the baby, I want to go with you.”
“I can’t put it off anymore.”
“Well, we had a good day today. Let’s not make it bad. Tomorrow. We’ll swing by tomorrow.”
He was ready to handle any response the woman had to throw at them.
Ellie wasn’t going to have to handle it alone.
Hell, as far as he was concerned, Ellie would never have to handle her mother alone again.
He would make sure of it.