Chapter 19 #2
"This is the most fun I've had in months," Mae said to me during a water break. "Look at them. Look at this place. Full of life again."
I looked. Blaine was laughing at something Tre said, his face flushed from exertion. Lily was arguing good-naturedly with Jake about the rules. Richard and Susan were sharing a bottle of water, their shoulders touching in that easy way of long-married couples.
"It's a good place," I said.
"It's home," Mae corrected. "For all of us now. Including you."
Miguel had wandered over from the barn, watching with interest. "This is pickleball? I've seen videos."
"Want to learn?" Lily asked, offering her paddle. "I need a break anyway."
What followed was twenty minutes of chaos as Jake tried to teach Miguel the basics while Tre offered contradictory advice and Richard demonstrated serves that hadn't been legal since 1985. By the end, Miguel was laughing so hard he could barely hold the paddle, and even Hector was smiling.
As we continued the tour past the old equipment barn, Lily suddenly stopped again.
"Wait. Is that what I think it is?"
She was peering through the barn's side window. I followed her gaze and saw what had caught her attention: a sleek shape under a dusty canvas tarp, unmistakably a sports car.
I grinned. "You still have that fancy spaceship? How's it working out for you on the ranch?"
"It's working out great," Blaine said dryly. "As a home for mice."
"Wait — you have a McLaren?" Lily looked at her brother incredulously. "And you're keeping it in a barn?"
"Where else am I going to keep it? I drove it out here when Grandma called, then again when I moved for good. It's been under that tarp ever since."
"That's not entirely true," I said, unable to keep the laughter out of my voice.
Blaine shot me a warning look. "Caitlin — "
"What?" Lily's eyes lit up. "What happened?"
"The first night I met your brother," I said, "he drove that thing across a muddy yard in a panic and got it stuck up to the wheel wells. I had to tow him out with my truck at four in the morning."
Lily's jaw dropped. "You didn't."
"He did." I was fully laughing now. "Standing there in his Stanford sweatpants, covered in mud, next to his half-million-dollar car. I told him it was about as useful on a ranch as a tiara on a pig."
Richard burst out laughing. Susan covered her mouth with her hand. Mae just shook her head, eyes twinkling.
"That's the most romantic meet-cute I've ever heard," Lily said, laughing so hard she had to wipe her eyes.
"It wasn't a meet-cute," Blaine protested, his face reddening. "The mare was in distress. I wasn't thinking about the car."
"Clearly," Richard said. "Son, I taught you better than that. You never drive a sports car across unpaved terrain."
"There was a horse emergency!"
"There's always a truck emergency too. It's called using the right tool for the job." But Richard was smiling. "I'm just glad Caitlin was there to bail you out."
"I've thought about selling it," Blaine said, clearly trying to change the subject. "Put the money into the ranch."
"You should," I said. "What are you going to do with it out here?"
"That's what I keep telling myself." He looked at the covered shape, something wistful in his expression. "I bought that car the week we closed our Series B funding. It was supposed to be proof that I'd made it."
"And now?" Mae asked softly.
"Now I'd rather have a truck that can haul hay bales and a trailer that can transport horses." He smiled. "Turns out 'making it' looks different than I thought it would."
Mae reached up and patted his cheek. "Your grandfather would say that's called growing up."
Later, while Blaine showed his parents the breeding operation, Mae asked me to walk with her. We ended up at the paddock fence, watching Sovereign Sun graze in the afternoon sun.
"Earl picked him out as a yearling," Mae said. "Drove six hours to look at him, came back talking about nothing else for weeks. 'That one's special, Mae. That one's going to be something.'" She smiled at the memory. "He was right. He usually was, about horses."
"Blaine talks about him the same way," I said. "About all of them. He's learning fast."
"He has good teachers." Mae looked at me sideways. "Hector tells me you've been teaching him more than just horse doctoring."
"Hector talks to you?"
"Every week. Has since Earl passed." Her eyes twinkled. "He's very impressed with you. And Hector is not easily impressed."
"I'm just doing my job."
"No, honey. You're doing much more than that.
" Mae turned to face me fully. "You're helping my grandson find his place in the world.
You're helping him become the man I always knew he could be.
" She reached out and touched my arm. "Earl and I had fifty-three years together.
Built this ranch from nothing, raised our children, weathered every storm. You know what the secret was?"
I shook my head.
"We made each other braver. Every hard decision, every risk, every leap of faith — we made them together. And because we had each other, we were never afraid." She squeezed my arm. "I see that in you two. That same fearlessness. That same partnership."
My eyes were stinging. "Thank you, Mae. That means more than you know."
"I know exactly what it means." She smiled. "Now. I hear there's been some trouble with Vernon Cole. Tell me everything. That man's been a thorn in this valley's side for thirty years, and I want to know how my grandson is finally going to bring him down."
I laughed, surprised by her fierceness. "You want the whole story?"
"Every detail. I've got time."
So I told her. And by the time I finished, Mae Callahan was grinning like a woman half her age.
"That's my boy," she said. "That's my grandson."
That evening, after dinner had wound down and everyone had dispersed, Lily found me on the porch swing.
"Room for one more?"
"Always."
She settled beside me, tucking her feet up. The night was clear, the stars brilliant overhead.
"I love this," she said quietly. "I forgot how peaceful it is here. My apartment in Palo Alto is nice, but it's not... this."
"The quiet is my favorite part."
"I can see why you fell for it." She glanced at me. "The ranch and my brother both."
"Both kind of snuck up on me."
"The best things usually do." She was quiet for a moment. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"Could you see yourself staying? Long-term? Building a life here?"
I thought about the question carefully.
"I see the potential of building something here," I said. "Blaine and I are still getting to know each other, but so far... we work. It feels right."
"That's a good answer." Lily reached over and squeezed my hand. "Honest. Not rushing into promises you can't keep."
"I've done that before. Didn't end well."
"Haven't we all." She was quiet for a moment. "I've watched my brother date women who wanted his money, his connections, his status — never just him. And then you came along, covered in barn muck, saving his horse at two in the morning, completely unimpressed by his net worth."
"I didn't even know about the money when we met."
"Exactly." She squeezed my hand again. "You look at him and see him. The awkward guy who talks to horses and gets manure on his boots. Not the tech mogul with the McLaren gathering dust in the barn."
I laughed. "The McLaren that got stuck in the mud."
"The McLaren that got stuck in the mud," she agreed, grinning. "I'm really glad he found you, Caitlin."
"I'm glad I found him too."
We sat in comfortable silence, watching the stars.
"How long can you stay?" I asked.
"A week, maybe two. I'm between assignments, so I've got flexibility." She smiled. "Long enough to help out around here and make sure my brother doesn't do anything stupid."
"That's a full-time job."
"Tell me about it. I've been doing it for thirty-two years."
I laughed. "Well, you've got backup now."
"I'm counting on it." She stood, stretching. "I should get some sleep. Long drive today, and Grandma will be up at dawn. She always was an early riser."
"Lily?"
She paused.
"I've never had a sister," I said. "But if I did, I'd want her to be like you."
Her face softened. "That might be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." She leaned down and hugged me. "I've never had a sister either. Maybe it's time we both got one."
"I'd like that."
"Good night, Caitlin."
"Good night, Lily."
I watched her walk into the house, then turned back to the stars. Somewhere inside, I could hear the murmur of voices — Mae and Susan, probably, catching up after too long apart. The sound of family, filling a house that had been too quiet for too long.
I belonged here. Mae had said it, and Lily had confirmed it, and somehow — impossibly — it felt true.
For the first time in a long time, I wasn't just visiting someone else's life.
I was home.