Epilogue
Six Months Later
Ellen took her coffee out to the porch as the sun crept up on the horizon.
Her thick ceramic mug warmed her hands as she hunched into her warm jacket.
The day before Thanksgiving promised to be crystal-clear blue skies for as far as the eye could see.
The chilly morning would rise to a respectable sixty-eight degrees by the afternoon.
She loved this time in the morning, while her children still slept, before the animals needed tending, when the birds were just starting to wake up. The peace, the silence, the overwhelming sense of awe.
John should be with her today. He should be with her every day. But it had been nearly eighteen months since he died, and while she would never stop missing him, the raw, stifling pain was gone, replaced by a dull ache that she suspected she would live with forever.
And that was okay. Because for the first time since his death, Ellen felt optimistic about the future.
River and Stormy, two of the four kittens born to the stray cat Cleo, ran over to her and wound around her ankles.
Ellen had planned for them to be barn cats when she brought them home from Travis’s at eight weeks old; they ended up being house cats.
They slept in Bobby’s room but got up with Ellen, coming downstairs as soon as they heard her making coffee.
She fed them and they came out with her to the porch.
After getting more pets, they wrestled on the porch for a minute, before running back into the house when they heard a truck turn up the driveway.
Right on time, Ellen thought. In fact, Ryan was a few minutes early.
He parked by the equipment shed and crossed the yard over to her, raising his hand in greeting. “Hello, Mrs. McKenna.”
“Help yourself to some coffee and a muffin.”
“I need to fix the—”
“It can wait. Eat first.”
“Is Avery up?”
Then they both laughed. Of course she wasn’t.
Ryan went inside.
He was a senior in high school now and he’d joined a school-to-work program where he got credit for interning for Ellen on the farm.
He worked four mornings a week from five thirty to ten, then went to school and took his required classes.
He had a counselor to whom he provided weekly reports about what he did, and Ellen paid him a stipend.
He often came on the weekends, not just to spend time with Avery, but to help—because being a farmer wasn’t a nine-to-five, Monday-through-Friday job.
Ellen wasn’t sure how comfortable she felt with Ryan and Avery’s relationship.
On her daughter’s sixteenth birthday this summer, he’d given her a promise ring—not officially engaged, but they might as well have been.
They’d been inseparable now for nearly two years.
Ryan intended to go to college and major in agricultural science, and Avery planned to go to the same college and major in agricultural business.
They would return to Whisper Creek Ranch and build a house and raise their family here on the family ranch.
Ryan was far more interested in farming than livestock.
They talked about it far too often for Ellen to think it was a passing fad.
Ellen believed in young love … she and John had fallen in love at eighteen.
But she also knew that farm life was hard, dependent on so many factors completely out of their control.
Government pricing. Weather. Environmental factors like disease in plants and animals.
She would help Avery and Ryan succeed because she loved them …
but was grateful that they had a plan that included college and options in case something happened to throw a wrench in their future.
Jake was doing amazing at the community college. He took classes three days a week and came home filled with genuine joy. He shared everything he learned with Lyla, who seemed even more interested in horses than her brother.
Ellen had wanted Jake to experience the world, go away to college, and then make a conscious decision to return and take over the farm. He disagreed. He wanted to grow roots here, and she finally understood. Her dreams were her dreams; she had to accept that her children had dreams of their own.
Lyla came out of the barn and walked over to her. “When did you get up?” Ellen asked.
“I don’t know, four? I couldn’t sleep, and Gracie is about ready to deliver. Jake told me to get him when it was time.”
“I’ll come out to help.”
“We got it, Mom. I know you have that meeting today with the lawyer.”
Lyla went into the house.
Sometimes, Ellen marveled at how self-sufficient her kids were.
Ellen was driving down to Dallas to meet with her lawyer. They had several things to work on.
Verdacorp went bankrupt when Mitchell couldn’t follow through with his deal to provide a continuous route for the natural gas pipeline.
The government contract went to another company, and the pipeline wasn’t even passing through their valley.
Some farmers were furious with Ellen for stopping the deal—they had hoped to get payments for years.
Others were grateful because they feared they’d be screwed over or that their land would lose value with the pipeline going through.
Ellen was not anti-progress. The pipeline was going to help all of them by providing cheap, reliable natural gas. But it would be built parallel to the highway, not cutting through farmland. There had to be balance, between progress and protecting the land that fed a nation.
To his credit, Rick went to bat for Ellen and tried to get Mitchell and Tom Garza indicted for property damage, conspiracy, and robbery.
Nothing stuck. Tom wouldn’t talk, and neither would Mitchell.
Privately, in a conversation between Tom and Travis that neither recorded, Tom admitted that he had sabotaged the farm.
He didn’t admit to damaging the roof that ultimately led to John’s fall and death, but he admitted to most everything else.
He gave Travis some ideas on how to nail Mitchell, but Ellen didn’t know what would happen.
After Ellen played the tape for her lawyer, he filed a civil lawsuit against Mitchell Robinson personally, since Verdacorp was now bankrupt. Just last week his lawyer offered a substantial settlement. Ellen was going to sign the paperwork today.
It wouldn’t bring John back. And while she wanted Mitchell in prison, that wouldn’t happen …
at least not right now. There were still investigations going on, and even Congresswoman Jeanne Culvers had been raked through the media coals.
People were complaining about her part in giving favoritism to Verdacorp in the pipeline deal, and while she hadn’t overtly done anything illegal—that they knew about—public opinion had shifted against her.
Three longtime families had paid a visit to Travis last weekend and asked him to consider running for Congress—specifically in the primary against Jeanne Culvers.
They showed him a poll they had commissioned that showed she had a lot of baggage and that he—Travis McKenna, seventh-generation farmer and Army veteran—was the best candidate to take her out.
He said he would think about it.
Another good thing that happened was that Mitchell had moved down to his house in Dallas. Clive was managing the farm, and while he tried to extend an olive branch to Ellen, she refused to take it.
She was done with the entire Robinson clan.
Once the settlement from Mitchell Robinson came through, Ellen would make offers on several pieces of land in the area.
She already had verbal agreements with three landowners.
Her lawyer was also creating a second LLC for the ranch, this one for Whisper Creek Winery, as well as updating her will.
There were so many changes going on she could hardly keep them all straight, but Avery—the business brains in the family—was working closely with Travis to learn the logistics of running a ranch.
Travis was taking over the business end until Avery graduated from college, then she would work side by side with her uncle until she felt ready to take over the business reins on her own.
And Travis … Ellen wished John could see how well Travis had been doing these last six months.
Sobriety was only part of it. He had started his own dog training business, and he had a plan to save the pecan orchard.
By next spring, they would have a healthy pecan crop.
And maybe even running for Congress … that seemed like reaching for the stars, but McKennas never ran from a challenge.
Grow or die … Now they were growing in many directions, and if one part failed, they had other parts they could lean on.
For the first time in a long time, Ellen felt they were going to be okay.
Penny came out to the porch. She was using her cane regularly now. Her eighty-fifth birthday was coming up right before Christmas, and she was worried about falling. But her age hadn’t stopped her from maintaining control over her kitchen.
“I swear, Ryan is eating for an army,” Penny said with a smile.
“We work him hard.”
“He’s a good boy.”
“He is.”
“I talked to Margery yesterday when you were at George and Millie’s place.”
“How are she and the baby?”
“Her husband is coming home next month,” Penny said. “It’ll be the first time he’ll hold that perfect little girl of his.”
Margery had delivered a six-pound, two-ounce daughter named Amelia Rose nearly at term. Susie went back to college in September, so Margery was alone in her house.
“When does he have to go back?” Ellen asked.
“He isn’t. He’ll be stationed permanently at the Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth.”
That was less than two hours from their house in Rock Creek.
“I’m happy for them.”
“Margery is over the moon,” Penny said. “She, Susie, and the baby are coming for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.”
“I’m glad. The more the merrier.”
“We have the Perez family coming, the Mendozas, the Pritchards and their four kids, Greg and his two girls, and Travis invited his friend Chris from the Army—he’s married with three or four kids, I don’t remember. Maybe five now.”
“I’m sure more will stop by. I’ll ask Ryan and Jake to get the tables out of storage. It should be nice enough weather to eat out on the porch. I’ll set up the heaters just in case there’s a chill.”
Penny said, “And I think Jake is bringing a girl.”
Ellen froze. “What?”
“He hasn’t told you?”
“Told me what?”
Penny just smiled and walked back inside.
Was Jake seeing someone? And why wouldn’t he have told her?
Her kids were growing up too fast.
Bobby ran out, screen door slamming behind him, Whiskey at his feet. “Hi, Mom!”
“Where are you going?”
“I want to see Gracie before school! She’s going to have a foal!”
“I heard.”
He turned around, walking backwards. “Why can’t I stay home from school? Why does Lyla get to stay home and I have to go? I can help.”
“Because Lyla has straight As and you don’t,” Ellen said.
“Aw, man!” Then he ran off to the barn.
Avery had her license and drove herself, Lyla, and Bobby to school now that Jake had graduated.
Avery had always been responsible, but she had grown up the most since the events six months ago.
She’d helped Gianna convince her parents to let her go back to college—she was now living on campus and attending the University of Texas in Dallas.
Carl and Rose were selling the rest of their land to Ellen and had already moved to a small home on the river in Gordonville, close enough where Ellen and the family could visit.
Ellen had a lot of plans, and Travis was helping her make them a reality. Jake wanted to start breeding horses. He was also working on breaking in more work horses, which would also help with chores on the ranch.
John would be proud.
She wished he were here.
Looking at the rising sun, she thought that maybe he still was.
Ellen went inside as Jake and Lyla were getting ready to spend the morning in the barn making sure there were no complications with Gracie’s delivery. Jake gave Ellen a spontaneous hug on his way outside.
“Love you, Mom.”
No matter how life had tried to break her, she felt whole again.