“How long can we explore?” Corey slid off his mount.
“You can’t go too far. Keep me in sight. I’ll give a shout when I want you to come back.”
As the boys moved away, sticking together, Darcy stopped at Nick’s side. “Mikey had a little trouble keeping his horse from wanting to eat as he walked, but otherwise they all did great.”
“Riding is good for both them and the horses. This ranch is big and has a lot of places they can explore.”
She looked around. “This would be a fun place to have a picnic.”
“That’s something we could do when the weather permits.”
Shielding her eyes, she shifted her attention to him. “You’ll be able to. A cold front is coming through tomorrow, and I won’t be here after the end of the month.”
Yeah, he had to remember that. He was attracted to her, and there was no future for them. She’d made it clear she loved her home. Long-distance relationships didn’t work. Too many barriers. “Who knows? Weather can change rapidly here in the winter. The other ranch site wasn’t nearly as big and didn’t have the opportunities this one has, like the ability to have a picnic in a place like this. I’m going to talk to Flint about having trail rides on the weekend. Not a bad way to keep an eye on what’s happening on the ranch too.”
Darcy tilted her head. “You know, back in Mobile I was good at organizing fund-raisers. I’ve been thinking the past few days, it would be fun to do a small one for the boys ranch. If I were staying longer, I’d go all out. The money could go to equipment and other items this place needs.”
“Sounds good. You need to talk to Bea—”
“Nick, come quick,” Corey shouted, about two hundred yards away.
Nick ran toward the boys, who were staring down an incline. It looked like they were all right, but the urgency in Corey’s voice had been clear. Something was wrong.
He halted with Darcy right beside him. “What’s wrong?”
Corey pointed a shaky hand down the slope.
Nick stepped forward. Below, a cow was down on the ground, trying to get up but not able to. “Darcy, can you take the boys back to the ranch, wait for Wyatt to come and then show him here?”
“Yes.”
He started down the incline. “I’ll call the vet and stay with the cow.”
“I don’t wanna leave. I found her. You might need me.” Corey stood his ground.
Darcy put her hand on his shoulder. “C’mon. I might get lost going back to the barn. I need y’all to guide me.”
“Oh, o-kay.”
Darcy waved at him as Nick knelt next to the cow and saw that it had a broken leg. If Wyatt had to put the animal down, he didn’t want the boys to see it. And once again Darcy had been here to help him. He didn’t want to get too used to that. She was leaving soon.
Chapter Eight
Darcy rode back to the barn for the second time that day to let the boys know that Wyatt would be able to cast the cow’s leg and save her.
With Flint’s assistance, the cow had been moved to a board and then loaded on a trailer. Wyatt and Nick were coming back with the animal, hoping to keep her calm. It was Darcy’s job to put the boys’ fears to rest. She arrived at the barn a few minutes before the men.
The second Corey saw her he ran toward her and met her at the back door. “What happened? Is she okay?”
“Yes, Wyatt will be putting a cast on her leg. They’re coming right behind me,” she said as the other two boys skidded to a stop next to Corey.
Relief transformed each child’s serious expression into joy.
When Bea and Lana approached, they interrupted the boys’ plans to help the cow.
Bea directed her look at Corey. “Y’all will not do anything unless the vet says so. You three can fix up a stall for the cow with Johnny.” She waved for the older teenager to join them. “Johnny, these guys are going to help you clean out the big stall so Wyatt can use it to work on the cow.”
He nodded and waited for the trio to follow him. The teen stuttered as he told the boys what they needed to get, but the young ones were oblivious to it.
Bea watched the group head to the stall with tools. “Johnny has been such a big help to Wyatt. He’d rather spend his time at the barn than at the house. If I let him, he’d sleep down here.”
“A lot of them would,” Lana said. “There’s something about animals that allow the kids to heal. That’s why this place is so important to the boys and has to stay open.”
Darcy waited until the children disappeared inside the stall. “Speaking of the ranch, I’ve discovered a couple of pieces of information about Avery after doing some digging. If I can catch her in a lie about one of them, that might prove she’s an imposter. But you need to be prepared. It’s possible she is the real Avery.”
Lana sighed. “I hope not. This ranch is too important for the boys to lose it at the last minute. We still have a couple of people to track down, like Gabe Everett’s grandfather. Then there’s Morton Mason—”
Darcy spied Wyatt entering the barn right behind Bea.
Bea interrupted Lana. “With everything happening today, I haven’t had a chance to tell you, Lana, that I found an address for Carolina Mason, though no phone number or email. So I’ll be writing her a letter about the boys ranch’s anniversary party. Hopefully she knows where her great-uncle is. If so, we’ll be set with that original resident.”
Wyatt began to open the other half of the front entrance, but he halted, the color washing from his face as he stared at Bea’s. Then, before Bea had a chance to say anything, he pivoted and hurriedly unlatched the door. But Darcy had seen his look of regret—and something else. A flash of anger?
Darcy spent the next hour keeping the boys quiet as they watched Nick, Johnny and Wyatt put a cast on the back leg of the cow. Flint kept her down and as calm as possible.
“Boys, it’s lunchtime,” Bea announced to the three younger ones.
Corey turned to the director. “We want to stay and make sure she’s okay. Please.”
Bea exchanged a look with Lana and Darcy. “Wyatt is almost finished. Come up to the house and eat and then you can return and assist Nick and Flint.”
Flint stuck his head out of the open top half of the stall door. “I’ll let you three take turns keeping an eye on the cow with Johnny. She’s going to have a calf in about a month. We want to make sure they are both all right. Is that a deal?”
Corey’s eyes popped wide. All three kids happily agreed. “Do you want to join us?” Bea asked Darcy.
She peeked into the large stall. Like the boys, she wanted to stay and help, but Nick had already put the last of the plaster on the cast.
“Bring us back something to eat. Wyatt and I will be with old Bessie until you get back from lunch,” Nick said to Darcy.
“Bessie?” Did they name the cows in their herd?
“Yup. My name for her.” He gave her a grin and a wink. “Aren’t all cows named Bessie?”
“I think there’s a Flossie and Elsie.”
He laughed. “I’ve worked up quite an appetite. Lifting a cow ain’t easy work.”
“I’ll remember that.” Darcy gathered up the boys, and the group left the barn.
Once the kids were outside, they sprinted toward the house, leaving Lana, Bea and Darcy in their dust.
Lana chuckled. “I can’t believe they don’t want to walk with us.”
“Next they’ll be calling us old fogies,” Bea muttered, “and at the moment I feel that way.”
“Why?” Darcy asked.
“Did you see Wyatt’s face when he heard about me writing a letter to Carolina Mason?”
Lana’s forehead crinkled. “Yes. Didn’t those two date?”
“Yes, and she abruptly left town three years ago.
I’m not sure why, and I don’t think Wyatt knows either.”
“If anyone should know, it would be you or Carol.” Lana mounted the steps to the front porch.
“I’m discovering that while staying at the Blue Bonnet Inn,” Darcy said. “I feel like I know a lot of people in this town, and I haven’t even met them. Carol knows everyone.” And through it all, what Darcy had discovered about her biological father wasn’t good.
After eating lunch, Darcy made up a plate of food for Nick while Lana did the same for Flint and Logan, who had joined his dad. Johnny and Corey had already headed down to the barn while Mikey and Miguel finished their hamburgers.
As the group left the house, Mikey tripped on the stairs and cut his leg. Lana handed Darcy one plate and gave the other to Miguel.
Lana knelt next to Mikey, tears running down the seven-year-old’s face, and examined the injury. “We’ll be down after I clean this and get a bandage for him.”
Darcy and Miguel continued their trek. Inside the barn, Flint stood at the entrance of the tack room while Cowboy barked over and over at the closed back door.
She passed Flint his food. “Miguel has Logan’s. Y’all eat. I’ll see what Cowboy is upset about.”
“Thanks. If he doesn’t stop, I’ll take him home.” He held up their plates. “After we eat. We’re starving.”
“Is Nick with the cow?”
“Yeah.”
“Are Corey and Johnny there too?”
Flint nodded as he took a bite.
“Miguel, please give this to Nick while I see about Cowboy.”
When she neared the black Lab, he scratched at the door, looked back at her and then barked again. Maybe all he wanted to do was pee. He never ran off, so he should be all right. She exited with the dog. Cowboy charged around the side. She hurried after him in case she’d been wrong and he was escaping.
The scents of gasoline and smoke laced the air. Her steps quickened as she rounded the corner, the black Lab yelping at the gray smoke and flames eating their way up the barn.
For one, two seconds she stared at the fire. Then her gaze fell on a gasoline can nearby, cap off and knocked over.
As she dug for her cell phone, she whirled around and raced to get the people and animals out before it was too late.
* * *
Nick leaned against the stall door while Corey stroked the cow. Johnny had gone to get Bessie something to eat. Unlike a horse, a cow could be content lying on the ground, resting and munching on grass. They rarely ran around, which meant the leg should heal fine.
“Get out! There’s a fire!” Darcy’s warning instantly invaded the tranquil moment.
Nick jerked upright and swung around. “Where?”
She hastened to him and pointed. “That side of the barn in the middle. I smelled gasoline and checked it out.”
Flint ran out of the tack room with Logan and Miguel, gesturing for the boys to leave and saying, “Go get help at the house.” Then Flint asked Darcy, “Have you called 911?”
Darcy took deep breaths, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “Yes, but I didn’t let anyone at the main house know about the fire yet.”
“Nick, get everyone out. I’m calling Bea and shutting the front doors.” Flint pulled out his cell phone and strode away.
“Darcy, open the stall doors on that side and wave your arms to get the horses to run out the back.” Nick turned to Corey and Johnny. “Y’all try to direct the horses into the corral where you were riding this morning. Don’t worry if any of them get away. We’ll find them later.”
Already on his feet, Johnny rushed out of the stall, but Corey, hand still on the cow, didn’t move. “What about Bessie?”
“You don’t worry about her. I will. Go. Get out. Now.”
Nick stared at the cow. The cast was hard. Maybe she would walk out okay. He needed rope and possibly someone to hoist Bessie to her feet and move her outside. First, he had to see to the mare stabled on this side.
Smoke began to fill the barn, its insidious smell invading every crevice. Flames ate at the outside of the wooden wall.
Nick opened the stall door and tried to coax Ginger out. Her eyes wild-looking, she backed away from the exit, her nose flaring. “Easy, girl. You’ll be all right,” Nick said in a soft, calm tone.
After a long thirty seconds, Ginger finally shot out of the stall and raced for the back door. Nick glanced out to make sure all the horses were accounted for in the corral. He was missing one—a black gelding.
Flint was occupied with organizing the staff and teenage boys to hose down what they could until the fire department arrived. Nick would have to take care of Bessie and check to see if the gelding had gone toward the front because his stall door was opened wide.
As Nick hurried back in for Bessie, the big black horse charged toward him. He dove to the side and the gelding ran outside.
Darcy quickened her step to him. “He was the last one. The stalls are empty except for the cow’s. What do you need me to do?”
“Hold the rope while I get her to stand and then we’ll walk her out.”
After securing Bessie with the rope, he gave it to Darcy. As she stood in front, trying to coax the cow, he urged Bessie to stand, no mean feat with a cast on. Once Bessie was up, Darcy led her toward the exit.
Nick pivoted one last time to make sure the barn was clear, but the smoke had grown denser. He could hardly see the other end. A beam crashed down, flames engulfing it.
“Nick, get out,” Darcy shouted from the back door.
He hastened out the exit as the sound of the building beginning to collapse drowned out the crackling of the fire. Grabbing Darcy’s hand, he put distance between them and the barn, the blaze quickly spreading up one side and across the roof.
Two fire trucks barreled down the gravel road toward them.
“It’s too late to save the barn, but at least they can keep the fire from getting out of control and destroying more of the ranch,” Flint said to Nick when he reached him.
The loud whinnies from the nearest corral vied with the noise of the fire. The scent of smoke hung heavily, and the staff began steering the boys to the house. Some of them were crying, others stunned.
When Corey didn’t want to leave, Darcy walked to him and said something that Nick couldn’t hear, but Corey nodded and trailed after the others.
Nick glanced at the paddock twenty yards away. “Should we move the horses farther away?”
Flint nodded. “Just in case the wind picks up. Let’s put them in the pasture on the other side of the main house for the time being.”
Nick stared at the nearest ranch structure, his eyes watering, his throat burning from the smell. “Are there any halters and reins in the storage barn?”
“No, because we’re using this one as our primary barn for horses.”
“Then I’ll head to my ranch and bring enough back to move the horses. I need to park my truck farther away anyway. It shouldn’t take me too long.”
“Go. There isn’t anything we can do now but pray.”
“I’ll help you, Nick,” Darcy said beside him.
For the first time in years, Nick sent up a silent prayer that no one was hurt and nothing was damaged except for the barn. It could be rebuilt with the insurance money.
Darcy hopped into the cab of his pickup with two bottles of water, and they pulled away from the chaos at the boys ranch. He let out a long breath, clasped the drink and downed half of it. “Thanks. That’s what I needed.”
“That’s the first fire I’ve been in, and I never want to repeat that experience. I had trouble with that black gelding. All I could do was pray he found his way outside the barn. I opened his stall and barely jumped out of his way.”
“I noticed even in the corral he was more agitated t
han the other horse.”
“I’m glad we were able to get Bessie out. Corey was so worried about her.”
Nick drove through the gates of his ranch. “What did you say to him to get him to leave with the others?”
“I promised him I would make sure the barn was rebuilt even better than the one that burned.”
Nick frowned. “How can you make him that promise? You’ll be leaving in three weeks.”
“I’ll get the town behind it. As I told you earlier, I’ve had a lot of experience with fund-raisers. When the people see what the boys lost, they’ll help. Instead of using what we raise for equipment, we can use it to rebuild the barn. A fund-raiser could also show Fletcher Phillips that Haven supports the ranch.”
“He’s probably the one behind the fire.”
Darcy gasped. “You really think that?”
“If gasoline was used, it was arson. It has to be someone who doesn’t like the boys ranch. That fits Fletcher.”
“How about Ned? He was furious that Corey was taken away from him.”
Nick parked by his barn. “That was the alcohol talking. If Ned ever stopped drinking, he might be the father Corey needs. I know that’s most likely not going to happen, but I can hope it does.”
“You knew him when he wasn’t an alcoholic?”
“Years ago, when they lived in Haven.” According to Uncle Howard, Nick’s father had been a better man too, before Nick’s mother died. “Believe me, I know that if he doesn’t stop drinking, he’ll keep doing what he’s been doing.”
“Are you talking about your father? I got the impression that he had a drinking problem based on something you said before.”
For a moment, he considered telling her everything about his father, but the words wouldn’t come. Confiding in Darcy was a risk he didn’t dare take.
Chapter Nine
Darcy slipped into Lila’s Café to meet Avery for coffee before going to the church to discuss the fund-raiser. The fire department had confirmed it was arson, which didn’t surprise her. Gasoline cans didn’t just lie around the boys ranch.
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