Chapter 4
KAT
Kat barely slept that night, though she definitely gave it her best shot.
She lay in bed and stared at the dark ceiling, going over and over her options, trying to convince herself she hadn’t made a massive mistake in quitting her job.
Not only had she quit, but she’d burned that bridge for sure.
There wasn’t a chance she’d get hired back after that phone call.
She had a moment or two of panic that night.
But in the end, she decided this was a cord that needed to be cut.
Even if the ranch didn’t work out for her, she needed a change in her life.
She needed to find a new place, one where she felt like she belonged.
On Monday, she drove all the way back to her apartment and started packing.
Her apartment was a studio, so she didn’t have much to pack.
What she couldn’t fit in boxes in the back of her car, she would hire movers to bring.
She left a key with Jessie and asked her to let the movers in when they showed up.
Jessie’s response to hearing the story of what happened between Kat and her boss started with, “You did what?” and ended with, “Well, somebody had to say it to him.” In general, her other coworkers supported her just as much.
They all felt the same about their manager and his unfriendly tactics, so Kat was hardly criticized at all.
On Tuesday, Kat got up at the crack of dawn and cleaned out her desk well before her boss typically showed up.
She wasn’t in the mood to have any kind of confrontation with him, so she did her best to avoid it.
When she was all packed, she said her goodbyes and left for the ranch.
Leaving Houston behind was more sweet than bitter because, for the first time in a long time, Kat had that energizing hope that so often comes with big changes.
She was actually giddy about the prospect of changing her whole life.
She recalled there being a cabin on the property, so she decided she would stay there for the night rather than booking another room at the B&B.
From today onward, she would give all her energy, all her hope, and all her resources to the ranch.
Kat was a goal-driven woman, and as soon as she had a finish line in sight, no single person could stop her from running toward it.
Right now, that finish line was saving her uncle’s ranch.
He’d entrusted the task to her, and she had no intention of letting him down.
She could not possibly have predicted how much harder than expected that would turn out to be.
Kat arrived at the ranch in the early evening, pulling slowly up to a broken gate on a long, poorly maintained, gravel driveway.
She got out of her car to tug it open and found it took all her weight just to move it a few inches.
Didn’t Tony ever have to leave the ranch?
Did he just grapple with this thing every time he came and went?
“That’s OK,” she told herself. “This can be fixed. No problem.” She got the gate open with great effort, drove her car through, and then closed it again with even more effort.
She was sweating by the time she started toward the open door of the ranch’s one and only working barn.
“I’m going to need to get in better shape for this job,” she said to herself with a laugh.
A gruff voice came from inside the building, “Oh, you won’t need to worry about a gym membership or anything like that.
This place’ll whip you into shape real quick.
” The voice laughed and a figure emerged from the barn.
He was a tall, older man with a husky build, a week of stubble on his chin, and hair that was about seventy-five percent gray.
He looked unreasonably friendly as he said, “Welcome to the ranch. You must be Katherine. Roy told me so much about you. I’m Tony. ”
When he held out his hand, Kat shook it without really thinking.
Only after letting go did she realize how dirty his hands were.
She cleared her throat and tried to surreptitiously wipe her hands on her jeans while introducing herself.
“You’ve got it right. I’m Katherine, but most people call me Kat.
I thought I’d just jump in with both feet and get to know the ranch. ”
Tony’s grin was wide and warm. “Well, little lady, I’m happy to show you around.”
“Great! I’m so excited,” Kat said, smiling back.
“I guess you found the barn, so we’ll start here,” Tony said. He led her into the darkness, and Kat stiffened up a bit.
This felt a bit creepy, if she was honest, though Tony wasn’t giving off any creepy vibes or red flags.
She reminded herself of the kind of man her Uncle Roy was and how careful he was about who he surrounded himself with.
He would never have left the ranch to Kat with a dangerous man in charge of it.
If she knew her uncle at all, he would have immediately fired any employee who displayed any kind of predatory behavior.
“I guess we should get some lights in here,” she said, offhandedly.
Tony laughed. “You’re probably right. My eyesight isn’t the best, so I’ve kind of gotten used to not seeing everything clearly.
” He showed her the horse stalls and told her they had one horse left.
Then he showed her where the tools to clean up were kept, the hay to feed their sole horse, and the buckets they used to offer water, treats, or medication, usually hidden in the treats.
Kat pulled out her phone and started taking notes: Fix front gate. Repair lighting in barn. Paint barn. Repair stables. She would have to prioritize it all later. Right now, the most important thing was getting it all down.
“White Lightning is out in the pasture right now,” Tony said. “Would you like to meet him?”
Kat nodded. White Lightning. What a name!
She imagined a powerful stallion of a horse, bright white, running like the wind.
Part of her knew her imagination was probably supplying an exaggerated, romanticized version of the horse, and she tried to lower her expectations.
However, there was no chance she could possibly have lowered them enough.
White Lightning was more of a dirty cream color, and he didn’t come close to moving fast enough to warrant the word lightning being part of his name. He was clearly old, lacking a bit in muscle tone and energy. “Is he a geriatric horse?” Kat asked.
“Something we have in common,” Tony answered with a chuckle. He reached out to White Lightning and called him closer. “C’mere, old boy. You want a carrot?” He pulled a carrot from the pocket on the front of his overalls. How long he’d been keeping it there, Kat didn’t even want to guess.
The old horse slowly meandered toward them, looking like every step was exhausting. “I guess it’s a good thing he has a nice place to retire,” Kat said, trying to put a positive spin on things. “We should all be so lucky.”
“If anyone wants to pay for my room and board and feed me carrots when I’m retired, I’ll take it,” Tony said. “We all deserve good golden years, White Lightning included. Would you like to meet the goats and emu?”
Kat smiled to herself. This guy was exactly the sort of person she could see her uncle hiring. He was sincere and kind of pure in an oddly lovable way. Then, his most recent comment finally sank in. “Wait… Emu?”
“Yeah,” Tony said. “Our emu. His name’s Edison. Found him running along the highway one day. It was a trick to wrangle him, but I managed it well enough. I’m assuming he escaped from an emu ranch in the area, but I couldn’t find an owner, so I decided we could keep him. I mean, why not?”
“There are emu ranches in North Texas?” Kat said in disbelief.
“Oh, sure!” Tony answered, gesturing for her to follow him. “There’s lots of them. Guess Edison got lucky because he escaped and wound up at a ranch that doesn’t sell emu meat. So now he’s family.”
Tony led Kat to a pen not far from the barn where a large, Jurassic-looking, flightless bird was lounging.
It stood and came trotting over as soon as it saw Tony.
“Oh no! I forgot treats for you,” Tony said, and Kat had a hard time believing that was really true.
Tony seemed to be the type of guy who was always ready for anything.
“I’ll show you how to give him a nice shower with the hose when the temps go up. It’s his favorite thing,” he said.
“You seem to be pretty fond of these animals.”
“I am, of course,” Tony answered with a sad smile.
“They’ve been my only company since we lost Roy.
Anyway, none of the current livestock will be sold for meat, so I think it’s fine to get attached.
The goats are good for milk and cheese.” As he spoke, he gestured toward another pen with a couple of older goats in it.
The fence around them was missing some boards in a few sections. “Sandra and Stacy,” Tony informed her.
Kat added repair goat pen to her to-do list. Then she paused and added their names to the note, just to help remember them. “So, none of these animals are for sale?” she asked.
Tony shook his head. “They’re all too old.
Mostly, they just hang around and entertain me, which they’re experts at, obviously.
I’m not that easy to entertain.” That last sentence was clearly sarcastic, but it put an idea into Kat’s head.
The idea wasn’t fully formed yet, but she felt the spark of it and spent the rest of the tour thinking about it.
After getting the lay of the land on the ranch, Kat finally asked the question she’d been dreading. But it had to be asked. “Can I take a look at the books?”
“Ah…” Tony cleared his throat and scratched his chin awkwardly. “Well, Roy wasn’t a very organized person. I do know he wrote some things down, but toward the end there, he wasn’t feeling one hundred percent and he let some things go.”
“That’s OK,” Kat said, doing her best to ignore the creeping dread she was feeling. “I enjoy a good challenge.”
The office was a trailer sitting beside the cabin, which brought back so many memories as soon as Kat saw it.
She knew her uncle’s cabin, spent the night there once or twice.
The trailer, though, she’d never really gone into before.
It was her uncle’s office, and she’d never had any interest in seeing it, being a child who was far more interested in petting as many animals as she could get her grubby little hands on.
Cautiously, she pushed open the door to the trailer and stepped in. And she was immediately hit by a musty smell and the sight of stacked paperwork on almost every surface. This would take hours to go through, but at least there were records. She closed her eyes and stepped back out of the trailer.
“Sorry about the mess,” Tony said with a half-hearted shrug.
She waved his concerns away. “It’s not your mess, so don’t you worry about it. I’ll handle it. Now, can you let me into the cabin so I can get settled in?”
“Sure thing,” Tony said. “It’s unlocked anyway. I don’t even know where the key is, to be honest. Roy never had the need for that kind of security here, it being so far out of the way. We don’t get a lot of visitors.”
That spark of an idea flashed in Kat’s head again.
She was in advertising, and getting eyes on a product or place was what she was good at.
She had no experience in ranching for food products, but she knew how to create an experience that people would pay to have.
Was that what her uncle meant for her to do when he left the ranch to her?
The interior of the cabin wasn’t much more luxurious than the trailer was. On the plus side, it lacked that musty smell, but it was about as minimalist as they come. “That’s OK,” Kat told herself. “I’m used to a studio. It’s a good thing I don’t have too much furniture.”
“That’s the spirit,” Tony said from the doorway. “It’s plumbed, so you’ve got running water at least. And the woodstove there will keep you warm in the wintertime.”
Kat paused, realizing he meant there was no central heating. She’d be chopping wood all winter if she didn’t want to freeze. “This is… great,” she said, still trying to make herself believe it. “No, really. It has so much potential. I can work with this.”
She had a cozy cabin to live in, a large property with one working barn and two more abandoned buildings that could be renovated into…
something. A gift shop? A farmer’s market?
Her mind was spinning in the best possible way.
Ideas were forming in her subconscious. She could make this work.
She had to believe it. If she didn’t believe it, she’d break down, and breaking down, giving up, was unacceptable.