by R. C. Ryan
“You know I don’t mind, Dad. I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be than up in those hills.”
Zachariah shared a knowing smile with Roscoe and Otis, who were grinning from ear to ear. “Unless it’s in town running the table at the Hitching Post.”
Sam chuckled. “Well, yeah. That’s a given.”
Mac indicated the young woman across the room. “Have you met Penny?”
“We met.” Sam couldn’t help but study her backside as she bent to remove a roasting pan from the oven. She was wearing slim denims and a faded T-shirt, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, making her look even younger.
She barely gave him a glance before setting the pan on top of the stove and lifting the lid.
Sam inhaled the amazing aroma that drifted toward him, making his mouth water.
Zachariah turned as Finn walked in carrying his ever-present briefcase stuffed with legal documents. “Ah. Finnian. Just in time for supper.”
Seeing Sam, Finn’s face creased into a wide smile and he crossed to his brother. “Hey. How’re things in the hills?”
“Quiet. How’s the lawyer biz going?”
“I picked up another client today.” He tossed aside his briefcase to accept a longneck from Mac. “You know a rancher named Edgar Hanover?”
His father thought a moment before nodding. “Does he have a ranch up on Stony Mountain?”
“That’s him.” Finn turned to Zachariah. “He wants to take on the county for creating a dam that dried up the branch of the Stony Mountain Creek that feeds into his land.”
Zachariah arched a bushy white brow. “I’ll remind you. The county has deep pockets, Finnian. They’ll spare no expense. You’ll be up against an experienced legal team that is kept on retainer for only one purpose—to shoot down the locals who complain about the way things have always been done.”
Finn turned to Sam, and the two wore matching dangerous smiles.
Finn took a sip of beer before saying, “I figured as much. That’s why I told Edgar Hanover I’d be happy to represent him.” In an aside, he said to Zachariah, “And I’m hoping you’ll give me the benefit of your expertise.”
“Going up against the big guns, are you, lad?” The old man rubbed his hands together. There was nothing he liked better than a chance to step back into the ring and use his years of experience as one of the top trial lawyers in the state. “You have as much of my time and expertise as you want, Finnian, my boy.”
They looked toward the door when Ben and Becca walked in holding hands. In Becca’s other hand was a leash attached to a big brown dog with floppy ears.
“Hey. What’ve you got there?” Sam was down on his knees, ruffling the dog’s fur and accepting sloppy dog kisses in return.
“This is Archie.” Becca’s voice was warm with love. “We just got him from the rescue in town. We thought about a puppy, but then we decided to give a second chance to an older dog that needed a home.”
“What breed of dog is he?”
“A pure mutt.” Ben drew an arm around his wife. “Becca always wanted a dog. I think he’ll be good company when I have to work nights.”
“And a great watchdog,” Sam said with a grin. “He’ll lick any intruder to death.”
The family was laughing as they gathered around to pet the dog. If a wildly wagging tail was any indication, Archie was lapping up all the attention.
Ben accepted a longneck from his father. “We were just taking a look at how our house is shaping up. Conway is doing a fine job.”
Mac gave a nod of approval. “Conway Miller is a good, honest building contractor. You two hired the best. When does he think you’ll be able to move in?”
“Not for another six or seven months. But that’s okay. Becca and I are comfortable in the little house in town.” Ben looked around. “I’m glad to see we’re not too late for supper.”
Sam gave a snort of laughter. “Some things never change.” He put an arm around his sister-in-law’s shoulders. “I thought Mary Pat was giving you cooking lessons.”
Becca nodded. “She is. But only when she’s in town, which isn’t nearly often enough to suit me.”
“Or to suit Dad,” Sam said in an aside, causing Mac to blush. “Have you met Penny?”
“We met in town before she came to work here.” Becca hurried over to give the young woman a hug. “Hi, Penny. I hope it’s all right that we’ve barged in on you without warning.”
“You know I’m used to cooking for a crowd. The more the merrier.” Penny bent to pet Archie.
It was obvious that Penny and Becca had already become comfortable with one another.
Becca reached for a platter. “The least I can do is help pass things around.”
As the others took their places around the table, Zachariah joined the two young women in passing platters of tender roast beef with garden potatoes and green beans, along with rolls warm from the oven.
To keep Archie busy, Becca took a plastic bag of dog food from her pocket and set it in a bowl in a corner of the room.
When they were all gathered around the table, Mac suggested they join hands in honor of their missing member, Mary Pat, who always insisted on a blessing whenever she managed to join them.
He smiled as he intoned, “We’re thankful for this food, this family, and those who aren’t able to be here with us this day.”
With murmured words of approval, they dug in.
“That was a fine meal, Penny.” Mac glanced at the young woman seated across the table.
For the most part she’d eaten dinner in silence, content to let the others carry the conversation.
“Thanks, Mr.…” She paused and corrected herself. When Mackenzie Monroe had hired her, he’d asked her to call him Mac. “Thanks, Mac.”
“Where’d you learn to cook like that, Miss Penny?”
She smiled at Otis, easy in his company. “I have three brothers. I learned early that growing young men like to eat.”
“I bet your ma was a good cook, too.”
She stared hard at the table. “My mom died when I was ten.”
Otis stared helplessly at Mac, who strove to lighten the mood. “I’m sorry to hear that, Penny…Mary Pat said you earned your teaching certificate at the university in Bozeman.”
She nodded. “I started studying online, and finished at Bozeman.”
Becca put a hand over Penny’s. “I went to college there, too. I bet we were there at the same time. Wouldn’t it be something if we had mutual friends?”
Penny gave a shake of her head. “I didn’t have much time to socialize. I carried two jobs while I was there. I worked in a little café in the mornings, and right after class I worked in a coffee shop off campus.”
“And I thought my schedule was tough. When did you sleep?” Becca asked.
Penny gave a short laugh. “Good question. Mostly I went without it. But I didn’t mind. Getting my teacher’s certification was worth it.”
Sam winked. “I always thought it would be fun to be teacher’s pet.”
Seeing the heat that stained Penny’s cheeks, he added quickly, “But if you’re a teacher, why aren’t you teaching?”
Mac turned to explain. “Penny was brought to Haller Creek by the school board to replace Nancy Carter.”
Sam nodded in understanding. “Pryor Carter was telling everybody that he and Nancy were finally having a baby after six years of trying.”
“Unfortunately, Nancy lost the baby.” Mac sipped his coffee. “She and Pryor have been really shaken by the loss. Her doctor said work would be the best way for her to move on with her life, so she asked Chet Butler and the board to keep her job available. The board agreed that they were legally bound to honor their commitment to her, since technically she was still under contract.”
Sam glanced at Penny. “But what about your job?”
She shook her head. “Mr. Butler explained that since I never got a chance to sign a contract, I had no legal rights.”
“Couldn’t you teach somewhere else?”
She sighed. “With school already in session, all the positions are filled. Mr. Butler offered to let me sub whenever one of the teachers needs a day, and I’m happy to do that, but I have a lot of college debt to clear. I need a full-time job, and Mary Pat suggested I come here.”
Sam arched a brow. “Not surprising. Mary Pat seems to have a logical solution for every problem under the sun.”
Sam’s words had Mac nodding. “That’s our Mary Pat, all right.”
“Do I smell pumpkin pie?” Roscoe’s question had Penny pushing away from the table, glad for the change in conversation.
Over her shoulder she called, “I think it’s cool enough to cut now. I made whipped cream, too.”
“I’ll help.” Sam walked to the refrigerator and removed a bowl mounded with whipped cream. Even before he reached for a spoon he’d dug his finger in to taste. “I’ll be darned. Not out of a can or carton, but the real thing.” He dipped a big serving spoon into it and ate it in one gulp.
Finn chuckled. “That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen you offer to help. Now I know why.”
“So do I.” Penny fished a second spoon from the drawer and took the bowl from Sam’s hands. “After you’ve licked that one clean, you can put it in the sink. I don’t want you passing your germs around to the rest of us.”
“Hey.” Sam tried to reach over her shoulder with the spoon, but she was quicker and snatched the bowl away.
She shot him a withering look. “If you want a piece of pie, you’d better not try that again in my kitchen, cowboy.”
While Sam stepped back, the rest of the family hooted with laughter.
“Guess the lady told you who’s in charge, bro.”
At Finn’s taunt, Sam was forced to drop the spoon in the sink and take his place at the table. But one bite of pumpkin pie smothered in whipped cream had his smile returning.
Penny Cash may appear shy, but she certainly knew how to take charge. And she could cook. He was willing to overlook her obvious character flaw as long as he could indulge his sweet tooth on something as good as this.
“So,” Finn said around a mouthful of pie. “I guess you must have missed your nights in town while you were stuck up in the hills with nothing but cows for company. Planning on heading to the Hitching Post tonight?”
Penny’s head came up sharply, and she regarded Sam with a look of disdain, the way she might study a big, hairy spider.
Seeing the look of disapproval on her face, Sam gave a slow, reluctant shake of his head. “That was the plan. But after three weeks in the hills, and a full stomach, I’ve decided I need to sleep in a real bed.”
He saw the rigid line of Penny’s back as she walked to the stove and couldn’t resist adding, “There’s time enough for teaching the yokels the game of nine ball some other time.”
Chapter Two
After second slices of pie, and many cups of coffee, the family began drifting from the kitchen to the old-fashioned parlor, where they gathered around the fireplace.
Before Penny could tackle the dishes, Ben and Becca shooed her away.
“We barged in uninvited,” Becca explained. “So we’ll tackle the cleanup.”
“But it’s my job…”
Ben gave a firm shake of his head. “You cooked. We’ll clean. It’s a rule of the house. I’m sure there are plenty of other chores you need to see to.”
She shot him a look of surprise, followed by a slow smile. “As a matter of fact, I have baskets of laundry to sort.”
“There you go.” Ben added with a smile, “Besides, this is the perfect excuse for some alone time with my bride. We’ve both been putting in too many hours at work lately.”
Penny gave them plenty of privacy, heading to the mudroom to pick up a basket of clean laundry. Walking to the parlor, she chose a side table in the corner to sort and fold.
Archie, panting from a run around the room to sniff every corner, settled down underneath the table and curled himself into a ball before falling asleep.
As Penny worked, she couldn’t help hearing snatches of conversation.
Mac’s voice. Low. Tentative. “With fall closing in, we never know when the weather will turn.”
Sam took a pull on his beer. “All I know is, up in those hills I was in a sauna, it was so hot.”
“All the same, we need to start getting the herds ready to bring down to the winter range.” Mac looked at Sam. “How many wranglers should I hire?”
“That depends. How tight is money right now?”
His father shrugged. “It’s always tight. But I remember plenty of years we got caught with an early snowstorm, and the cattle were trapped in the hills.”
Ben’s voice interrupted. “What’s this about trapped cattle?”
They looked up as Ben and Becca, holding hands and wearing matching secret smiles, stepped into the parlor to say good night.
At once, Archie was awake and running up to them. Becca snapped on his leash before straightening.
“You’re looking awfully happy about doing kitchen duty, bro.”
At Sam’s words, Ben merely wiggled his brows like a movie villain. “Wicked happy. We actually managed a little alone time. Now we need to head back home so I can work the night shift. What’s this about the cattle?”
“Nothing we can’t handle,” Mac assured him. “You’ve got enough on your plate, son.”
“You know I’m always available when you need me, Dad.”
Mac nodded. “I know that, and I appreciate it.”
They called good night to everyone, and Becca paused to hug Penny before taking her leave, with Archie tugging on his leash.
The others returned their attention to the cattle drive.
“We’ve got some time.” Sam glanced at Otis and Roscoe. “If we bring the herds down in smaller bites, instead of one big drive, the three of us can handle it.”
Mac sipped his beer. “I can help, too.”
Sam held up a hand. “Not this year. With Ben and Finn working in town, somebody needs to keep up with all the chores around the barns. The three of us can handle it, Dad.”
Mac clapped a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “You’ve been doing double duty for a while now. Just so you know, we can afford to hire some help.”
Penny picked up an armload of towels and headed toward the stairs. As she walked past, Sam’s gaze narrowed slightly as he tracked her progress up the steps until she was out of sight.
“Now that’s an expense we could do without.”
At his muttered comment, Mac shook his head. “I couldn’t say no to Mary Pat. The poor girl is stranded here with no family and no job.”
Sam turned to Zachariah. “And you’ve been replaced as chief cook and bottle washer.”
“Perfect timing,” the old man said. “I’m thinking Finnian here is going to need a good many hours of my help as he muddles his way through his first high-profile trial against the big guns in government.”
Finn chuckled before tipping up a longneck. “You got that right, Zachariah. Looks like you and I will be burning a lot of midnight oil.”
After storing the clean towels in a linen closet, Penny closed herself in the guest room she’d been given when she’d been hired. It was on the far end of a long upper hallway. It was a big room, bigger even than the tiny living room at her family home. The scarred wooden floor was cushioned by a rug in soft hues of pale coral, yellow, and spring green. The big bed had a plain white down comforter brightened by a handmade throw in pale coral, folded at the foot. A high, wide window boasted a window seat, with a grand view of the hills rising up in the distance. Best of all, it had its own bathroom, all done in gleaming white tile. Well, she thought, it hadn’t been so white or gleaming when she’d first arrived. But after removing years of dirt and neglect, it looked brand new, as did the old hardwood floor.
Every time she stepped into this room she felt a little thrill. All hers. Her very own private sanctuary. No nois
y brothers barging in. No demands being made on her.
Not that she’d ever minded caring for her brothers, or her elderly great-aunt, who had moved from a retirement home after the death of Penny’s father to be with her family. Without Aunt Lucy, the authorities would have stepped in to place the children in foster care. But having an adult in the home, even one who used a wheelchair, meant that they could stay together. And for that, Penny would always be grateful. It meant more work for Penny, but it was a labor of love. As for Danny, Cooper, and Curtis, they’d been good boys. But boys required a lot of discipline to keep them from going wild. She’d done all she could to give them everything she knew her parents had wanted for them. Now they were men, and in charge of their own lives.
In charge.
It’s what she’d studied for, sacrificed for, dreamed of. Being in charge of her own future.
She’d been so deliriously happy when she’d been hired to teach in Haller Creek. It would mean freedom. Independence. But best of all, molding young minds. Helping sweet children be all they could be.
By the time she’d learned that the job offer had been rescinded, she’d already severed all ties with life in Dennison, a little town nearly two hundred miles from here. She’d spent the last of her savings to move to Haller Creek. When she’d met with the board president to consider her options, she’d been in a deep well of fear and despair.
All those years of hard work and studying late into the night to pursue her dream. And the dream had been hers for one brief, shining moment, before it had been cruelly snatched away.
Now, instead of walking into a classroom, she was living among strangers, doing the same things she’d been doing for a lifetime. Cooking. Cleaning. Except, instead of being in her own comfort zone, she was far from home, without a friend.
She shook her head.
That wasn’t true. She would be forever grateful to Mary Pat for listening, for caring, and for steering her toward this job. At the moment she may be nothing more than an interim cook and housekeeper, but without the need to pay for room and board, she would be able to save every dollar she earned here, so that by next summer she could accept a teaching position somewhere else and once more pursue her dream.
