Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
L eni juggled a drink carrier holding coffees for her and her sister with her purse as she walked out of Mountain Brew a few days later. Her mind was on a hundred different things, from taking care of her sister and the store to what she was going to feed Max for supper and always with underlying thoughts of Chevy.
What was he doing? What was he thinking?
What was she doing with him?
And why had her giant logical brain turned to mush so that she couldn’t get through an hour without thinking about him?
She hadn’t seen the tall cowboy the day before. He and his brothers had spent most of it moving a herd of cattle from one pasture to another and then catching up on chores when they got back that night.
But he had texted her a few times throughout the day, and every time her phone had buzzed in her pocket, she’d gotten a thrill of anticipation at what he might have to say.
His messages had all been sweet, asking how her day was going or just telling her he was thinking about her.
They were supposed to get together that night. He was picking her up at six and taking her out for barbecue at the Tipsy Pig. But first, she needed to bring her sister this decaf skinny iced caramel macchiato and shower off the scent of coffee in her hair.
Her car was parked on the street in front of the shop, and her heart swelled as she saw the handful of sunflowers that she was sure a certain handsome cowboy had picked and put under her windshield wipers.
She called Chevy as she drove back to Lorna’s. “Thanks for the flowers. They’re gorgeous,” she said as soon as he picked up.
“What flowers?” he asked. “Is some guy giving you flowers? Tell me his name, and I’ll kick his ass.”
“Very funny.” She couldn’t remember the last time a man had bought her flowers. Or picked some for her from the side of the road.
“I’m glad you like them. From your text earlier, it sounded like you were having a rough day. We’ve got a sick calf, so I had to run into town real quick to grab some antibiotics. I knew I wouldn’t have time to stop for more than a minute, and I saw the sunflowers and thought they might make you smile.”
“They did.” Although seeing him would have made her even happier. “Next time, text me and I’ll run you out a coffee.”
“I was gonna poke my head in, but I could see a line of people through the window and just didn’t have the time to wait.”
“Yeah. It felt like we were busy for most of the day. Is the calf okay?”
He let out a weary sigh. “He will be.”
“You sound tired. Are you sure you’re up for coming into town for supper?”
“Heck yeah. I am tired, but I’m not gonna miss out on a date with the hottest aerospace engineer in town. I may come home early and hit the sack though. We’re moving cattle again tomorrow, so I need to be up before the sun.”
“More cattle?” She didn’t remember them having that big of a herd.
“Yeah, we made the decision to get a hundred extra head this year. It should pay off in the end, but it’s a lot of extra work, especially with Ford spending so much time working on his and Elizabeth’s farm too. But Gramps has a buddy, Bucky Ferguson…not sure if you remember him, he and his wife have that place up the canyon. He used to drive that old blue pickup with the one gray fender.”
“Sure, I remember Bucky. His wife worked at the school.”
“Yeah, that’s him. Anyway, his son has a big outfit in Texas, and he told Bucky he could spare a guy to send up here for a few months to help with the corn harvest and to get in our winter wheat. And we could sure use the help to wean calves and move all those cattle from the summer pastures to the winter ones. Plus, we’ve got fences to mend and plenty of maintenance crap we’ve been neglecting since we were so busy with calving in the spring.”
“Sounds like it’s a good thing you’re getting some help. When’s he supposed to arrive?”
“Not sure. Soon as Bucky’s boy can spare him. Hopefully soon.”
“Yes, I hope so. I hate hearing that stress in your voice.”
“I’ll be fine. This is the life of a rancher. Always another chore to do.”
“I’m at the house, so I’ll let you go,” she told him, pulling into the driveway. “See you in a few hours. And thanks again for the flowers.”
“Sure thing, darlin’. See you soon.”
“I’m home,” she called out as she walked through the front door and deposited everything onto the kitchen counter.
Max came racing into the kitchen to crash into her, and she bent down to let him wrap his arms around her neck as she squeezed him tight. There is nothing like a hug from a five-year-old to make the stress of a rough day melt away.
She arranged the sunflowers in a vase before carrying the iced coffees and a plate of cookies into the back room where her sister was nursing Isabel and concentrating on the notes she was furiously taking in a notebook.
“Thanks sis. You are the best,” Lorna said, taking a bite of a cookie and a big sip of the coffee then letting out a long sigh. “That is so good. And I’m just going to pretend there is caffeine in it.”
“What are you working on?” Leni asked, perching on the side of the sofa.
Izzy had apparently finished because Lorna handed her to Leni to burp as she pulled her clothes back together. “With everything that’s happened, I’d almost forgotten about the festival this weekend.”
“What festival?” Leni asked, her focus more on balancing her niece on her knee and positioning the palm of her hand in the right spot on her belly. Izzy gurgled as she leaned forward, her head hanging over the top of Leni’s left hand while she used her right to pat the baby’s tiny back.
“Oh, come on, you haven’t been gone that long. The Beans, Brews, and Bands festival.”
“Do they still do that thing?” Of course Leni remembered the annual chili cook-off. The majority of the businesses in town participated, creating their own recipes for chili that they passed samples of out to festivalgoers who then rated and judged their favorites. Two of the local breweries sold beer and wine, and they had several bands that played music throughout the day.
It was a summertime favorite in Woodland Hills, and the whole county showed up.
“Yes, of course they still do it,” Lorna said.
Izzy let out a good burp, almost as if she’d had one of the brews from the festival. “Good girl,” Leni told her then looked back up at her sister, still not getting the significance. “So, why do you care so much about the festival? Did you have tickets to go to it or something?”
“No, I don’t have tickets to go . Mountain Brew is one of the participants. This is the second year we’ve had a booth, and last year, we almost took the title of Best Chili.”
“Wait? You mean you set up a stand and hand out chili samples?”
“Heck yeah, I do. Or I’m supposed to. And last year, we killed it with sales of iced tea and lemonade. We had these special water bottles made with our logos on them, and we sold them for fifteen bucks a pop and earned ten dollars profit on each one. Last year, we cleared over two thousand dollars before selling out right after lunch, so this year I went all in, got an even better deal on the water bottles and ordered five times as many.”
Leni frowned. “Yikes. That’s a bummer. But I guess you can just save them for next year.”
“No, you’re not getting it. We’re still doing the booth.”
“Who’s we ? You and your trusty knee-scooter, Betty?”
Her sister gave her one of those stares that meant serious business. “No. I mean we as in you and me . And Emily, I guess,” she said referring to the Johnson girl who worked at the shop. “And anyone else I can talk into helping us.”
“Are you serious? You still want to try to make chili, run a booth, and sell a thousand water bottles of iced tea and lemonade?”
Lorna nodded. “And I’ve also been thinking about asking you to make a bunch of your cookies, individually wrapping them, slapping our stickers on the front, and selling those too. I looked on Amazon, and we can get the cello bags by tomorrow, and I’m sure our little print shop could easily make me a couple hundred stickers by then too.”
Leni almost choked, and she was sure she was bug-eyed as she stared at her sister. “You must be joking now. You want me to make two hundred cookies by this weekend? Like, you know today is Wednesday, and the festival is what? On Saturday?”
Lorna nodded. “We’ve still got tonight and two full days, and I know how you love to plan and execute a project. We can get the ingredients tomorrow. And I already called Elizabeth, and she said she’d love to help at the coffee shop on Friday, so you can have the whole day off to bake.” She frowned again. “Although we’re going to have to make the chili that day too.”
“And we’re going to accomplish this all with your broken ankle and nursing a newborn baby? You’re crazy.”
“Maybe, but that’s never stopped us from pulling a plan together before,” Lorna said. “Remember when we arranged that whole surprise birthday party for Mom’s 40 th ? You didn’t believe we could pull that off either, and yet we still had a bouncy house, a chocolate fountain, and Mom’s favorite band set up in our backyard.”
Leni laughed. “That was a fun night.”
“Come on. We can do it,” Lorna said, a pleading tone in her voice. “I’m not totally helpless. I can sit at the kitchen table and put stickers on the bags and stuff cookies in them.”
“Well then, that’s practically everything.”
Her sarcasm was not lost on her sister.
“Will this be tough? Yes. But I promise it will be doable.” Lorna held up her notebook. “I’ve been working on a plan and a schedule all afternoon. We can’t make the lemonade and iced tea until the night before, but I’ve already got multiple huge ten-gallon water coolers for the drinks and several five-gallon buckets purchased to put the chili in. The chili we give away for free, but we just do small samples, so we don’t have to make as much as you’d think. I’ve already placed an ice order with the grocery store for Saturday, and I got the water bottles months ago, so those have already been washed and are ready to fill.”
“Sounds like you’ve thought of everything.”
“Everything except how to find a few more volunteers to help us.”
“Do you want me to ask Chevy and his family? He told me he would do anything for me. I’m not sure he knew that meant baking two-hundred cookies and making a ten-gallon vat of chili, but I’d bet he’ll still be willing to help.”
“That would be great. Except the Lassiter Ranch has their own booth. They’re the ones who took the winning prize last year.”