Kate and Eddie worked in the expansive metal garage where all the farm machinery was kept, as she assisted him in repairing the huge combine machine that Monday afternoon, when they heard Burt's voice echo off the walls.
"Eddie, Kate, come here, I wanna talk to you."
They appeared from behind the machine and walked to where Burt was standing near the front of the garage.
"I've got a proposition for the two of you. This is what I'm gonna do; I'm buying Elizabeth's property, it's too damn close to my land for some city idiot to be making a spectacle of it. We'll be doing a private mortgage, in other words, I'll be holding the mortgage and the two of you will be making the payments to me with eight percent interest over a twenty-year period. It'll work just like a regular mortgage except I'm the bank. A contract of sale will be drawn up with all the details, but clean and simple. I have the authority to divide the property and the payments will reflect the value of each. How does that sound?"
They were speechless, mouths hanging open. Finally, Kate jumped into his arms and gave him a hug while Eddie let out a loud whoop and threw his oil-stained cap into the air.
"Sounds great, Burt," Eddie replied enthusiastically.
"I can't believe it, are you sure you want to do this?" Kate asked, releasing Burt and stepping back long enough to gather her senses. She didn't want Burt and Marge to do anything that might negatively affect their own finances.
"We're sure. Marge and I discussed it for a long time. We're doing fine, all we've got is Molly to look out for, don't have no other kids. It's an investment for me; you guys are the ones paying for the place, and if things don't work out for some reason, I'll keep it and farm it. This is a good thing for Marge and me also, not just for you."
Burt had to laugh as Eddie grabbed Kate in joy and swung her around until they both fell over from dizziness.
Molly, Sue, Amanda, Heather, and Marge helped Kate move into her new house. Eddie, his girlfriend Lisa, and his parents were assisting him in the moving of his farming equipment, which he'd been accumulating over the years, to the large barn that sat on his part of the property.
Marge and Kate packed a few more things into the boxes while the others carried them out. It didn't take long because Kate didn't have that many possessions. The younger girls were outside loading boxes into the old pick-up as they gabbed excitedly.
When the bungalow was emptied, Marge and Kate stood alone.
"I know you're only across that field, but I'm gonna miss you, Kate. You've lived at our place for a long time now and I've gotten used to you being here."
"I know, I'm gonna miss you too. You and Burt gave me a good home and a sense of security. I'll always be grateful to you both, for everything."
Tears slid down her face as Marge hugged her.
"On to the next part of your life, a new adventure," Marge said, wiping her eyes.
"That's right, just across the east field," she replied, they both laughed at how silly it was for them to shed tears when Kate would still be close by.
Molly walked in, "Hey, what are you guys crying about?'"
"We're not crying, we're laughing," Kate corrected her.
"Yeah sure, I wasn't born yesterday," Molly remarked. "I'm gonna miss you too, Kate, you're my big sister."
"Then just run up to my place, I'll always be there for you."
"I will," Molly answered as she took Kate's hand in hers.
"All right, let's get back to work. There's not that much to do down here, but Kate's house needs a good scrubbing. I'm armed with cleanser, Lysol, Pine-Sol and everything else you can think of," Marge refocused them. "And you all get to help," she added loudly, walking out into the autumn sun.
The girls moaned and groaned in response as they piled in the truck and headed for Kate's new home.
Her first night alone, Kate felt kind of funny and a little scared in her new dwelling. It was spick and span, smelling of pine cleaner rather than must. It needed to be painted, badly. But she had no money left over to spend on home decor or repairs, so she got creative. Kate collected the "mistake paint," from the Colton hardware store, which had been returned by customers who didn't like the color. It was only a few bucks and most of the colors weren't bad. She also went to local flea markets, garage sales and sorted through the farmer's junk before they hauled it to the dump.
Kate was naturally artistic and tasteful; she painted the walls a tannish-khaki color and the woodwork a lighter contrasting shade of cream. She couldn't afford expensive borders, so she made her own stencils with Burt's woodworking tools and stenciled the tops of her walls in various country scenes that usually included trees, mountains and barns. A different stenciled design was painted in each room; the dining room was adorned with fruits and vegetables, the living room had trees and farmhouses, the kitchen presented cows and barns against rolling hills. Flowers were the theme in the large upstairs bathroom, clay flowerpots of varying sizes filled with towels and magazines stood about. Her bedroom was painted a warm peach color, wheat stacks tied with long ribbon bordered those walls. On one of her house-junk searches, she'd found large heavy canvas feed sacks lying in the corner of a barn and about to be thrown out. She gladly took them and cut them open into large squares, as they were big enough to use as area rugs. She painted them with a large plaid pattern and tossed them on her wood floors. Marge helped her make curtains out of old tablecloths, sheets, pieces of scrap material or whatever else they could find. Kate painted or refinished any piece of old furniture that was being thrown away or sold for a few bucks at the church rummage sale. The church was getting rid of a couple of old pews because they'd acquired new ones, so Kate happily accepted them. She refinished the wooden farm table in her dining room and set the pew benches on either side of it. A pitcher of flowers and an antique piece of lace topped the table and completed her new dining room set.
With a passion, Kate worked on the house day and night, often quite late into the night. The sensations of happiness and pride it gave her were extraordinary. She was so happy that it scared her, life couldn't be this good to her, something bad had to happen. She couldn't have imagined herself ever living or feeling like this, never in her wildest dreams.
Kate accomplished her renovations in only a couple of weeks. She knew she'd pushed the limits and was exhausted but she felt her labor had been well worth it, for every time she came home after a long workday, she felt so comfortable and connected to her house, it was as if she was meant to be there.
Tray had stopped by almost daily to guide her with the more difficult things, like fixing rusted plumbing that leaked. Even the hands dropped by to see if she needed any assistance; they knew something about everything. They helped her with replacing outdated wiring and the rotted wood that was sagging on the front porch and also refastened the shutters. Tray had brought her a couple sheets of flowers for her to plant in the front yard, realizing she didn't have the extra money to purchase that kind of luxury.
As Kate came home that cold Monday evening nearing the end of September, a strong feeling of wanting to share her good fortune swept over her; it was time for her to have a party. Part of owning a home was sharing it with others, filling it with the warmth of good people. She invited Burt and Marge, Molly and her friends, all the hands and their wives, the women she'd become friends with from catalogue night, and of course, Tray, Eddie and Lisa.
Kate had spent the entire day cleaning her house and making food. She had chips and vegetables to dip, melted cheese concoctions over crackers and little breads, slabs of ham, potato salads, and chowder. She set everything out buffet style in the dining room, upon the large table. She'd even strung some white lights across her front porch and on the majestic maple that stood in her front yard.
She had tin buckets filled with blooming marigolds in vivid auburns and reds sitting on the front porch, their spicy perfume mixing nicely with the pleasurable food smells drifting out of her kitchen window. An old metal glider she'd painted forest green res
ted on the front porch along with a few wooden rocking chairs that Lisa had seen by the side of the road. She'd found an old arts and crafts porch light at the Colton flea market that Eddie had promptly hung for her. All in all, her home looked lovely and inviting and she couldn't wait to share it with the people who'd become her friends and family.
The evening air was cool and dusk was already settling in by six o'clock that first weekend in October. Kate had a few minutes to sit down and relax before showering and getting ready for her company to arrive. This would be the first time she'd ever entertained guests in her life and she was nervous. She tied back the sides of her hair, letting the back hang long, applied a little makeup and lip color, zipped up her tan chino skirt and tucked in her long sleeved ribbed navy sweater that complimented the red highlights of her hair. A pair of navy flats and she was ready. She ran down the stairs and put some music on softly in the background, nothing like Trisha Yearwood to set the right mood.
Kate was happy to see that Burt, Marge and Molly were the first ones to arrive. Being with Marge would help her relax a little before the rest of the guests showed up.
"Kate, the place looks wonderful, it really does. I don't know how you got it together so fast," Marge gave her approval as she helped Kate take food out of the fridge and placed it on the table.
"Thanks, I love working on it, I've been obsessed. I'm always happy when I walk in that door, it feels right."
"It's your home, that's why," Marge smiled back at her. "There's the doorbell again, I'll finish up in here, you'd better greet your guests."
Kate left to let her friends in, Marge watched her go, feeling proud of her. She'd accomplished a lot this past year. She'd come to love Kate like a daughter, even if she weren't the type to outwardly express emotions. She was part of their family, part of the community and now that she'd bought this place, Marge felt secure in knowing she'd stay...
Things started off a little quiet, but then the conversation became more animated and grew until it was loud and the air was filled with laughter and talk. Kate was pleased to see everyone had come to the count of thirty guests. Folks filled their plates with the various foods and their glasses with wine, beer or punch. The candles burned bright, people sat on the couch, on the chairs in the kitchen, outside on the front porch and the kids ran around in the yard.
Kate liked walking around, seeing everyone have a good time, taking it all in, enjoying this celebration that she'd been able to put together. She watched the kids screeching and laughing in her yard as they chased fireflies and some unlucky toads that were hopping about. She looked at Marge and Burt smiling among the circle of people that had gathered around them, she looked at Tray's handsome face as he discussed horses with a couple of men from the stables and she wondered how in the world did her life get this good, how could this have happened to her.
It was almost midnight by the time everyone left. Happy but tired, Kate shuffled back inside from where she'd been waving to the last couple driving away and closed the wooden door behind her.
"Let's go to bed," Tray suggested, Kate leaning her head on his shoulder as they walked through the kitchen and turned off lights.
"That's a great idea."
He helped her put away what little was left of the food, blow out all the candles and tossed the paper plates into a big garbage bag. Then they dragged themselves upstairs to the master bedroom. Kate closed the window except for a crack, the chilly night air having cooled the room.
"Don't worry, I'll warm you up," Tray teased her as they stripped down to their underwear and climbed in under the heavy quilt.
"Ooh, that feels good, I was freezing," Kate shivered as she snuggled against his warm body.
"You seem happy," he said to her, running his hand through her hair.
"So do you," she retorted.
"I'm not talking about that, you know what I mean."
"I know exactly what you mean and I am happy, everyone had a great time and so did I."
"You should be proud of yourself; this house, the party, everything was terrific. You amaze me."
"That's a nice thing for you to say," she replied, leaning up on an elbow to look at him.
"I'm sincere, you take on anything and you do it well. You succeed without depending upon anyone or compromising yourself. You belong to Montana, Kate, this is your home now and I want you to stay—always."
It meant a great deal to her to hear him say that. His words were firm in truth. He never said anything he didn't mean and if he couldn't say something with conviction, then he said nothing at all.
"It feels like home, I feel like I finally belong somewhere."
He wiped away the tear that slid down her face, "whatever you've been through in the past breaks my heart, but it made you who you are now and I love who you are. I do love you, Kate."
"I love you too," she responded, gazing directly into his eyes.
She put her head on his chest and he held her tight, then made love to her gently. They fell asleep to the loud song of crickets and tree frogs chirping at the full golden moon.
"What's bothering you, Kate, you're moving slower than usual today. You know we've got to pick up the pace. We're gonna be harvesting next week," Eddie brought her back to the present.
"Sorry, I'm ready to drive the tractor, I'll be right behind you."
"We're all gonna be working 'til ten o'clock or later every night until harvest is over, so if you're tired, you'd better get to bed earlier and leave Tray alone," he lectured her.
"What? I'm sure you're not leaving Lisa alone much these days, she's got a blissful look on her face," she gave it right back to him.
"That's right, any night with me and a woman will look that way."
"Oh please, Eddie, there's hundreds of gallons of gasoline in this garage and all your hot air could set them off like a nuclear explosion."
"Come on, Burt's waiting for us in the back of the west field."
"All right, let's ride," she climbed into the cab of the massive tractor and pulled it slowly out of the garage.
Eddie followed behind in a very large pick-up as they headed out. The tractor was kind of wily and one needed to concentrate to drive it, but Kate couldn't handle driving the wide pick-up, it shifted too rough for her and was tough to maneuver. Eddie watched over Kate as he drove behind her, he didn't like women driving this big tractor anyway, he preferred her to use the smaller ones.
She was going too fast, the west field was bumpier than the others, it had more natural rocks and hard earth than the fields she usually drove on. She went over a particular patch of rough chunky earth and the tractor almost tipped over. The whole side came up off the ground and sat tipped in the air for a second. It could have gone either way, slamming Kate on her side, but it fell back onto its tires. Eddie screeched on his breaks and ran up to the tractor.
"What the hell are you doing," he practically screamed at her, "you're not concentrating, you could've been killed, not to mention, this is a two hundred thousand dollar machine."
"Shut up," she yelled back at him, jumping down from the cab and walking out into the field, there wasn't anywhere to escape to in the middle of a thousand acres.
She stood with her back to him and didn't say a word, he hoped she wasn't crying, he hated when girls cried because he never knew what to say. Besides the wind rustling through the grasses, it was dead quiet, Kate's eyes were glued to the ground. Eddie finally approached her.
"Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get so mad."
"It's all right," she replied, not elaborating.
"I uh, I was afraid you were gonna get hurt. You should've seen that thing go all the way up on its side from where I sat."
"You should've felt it from where I sat," she retorted.
"Yeah, guess that was worse," he laughed.
She smiled, "I'm not so great at driving that thing, I've only been on it a few times."
"It's tricky, you gotta drive it slower than the smaller ones, especially o
ut in this part of the ranch."
"That would've been nice to know before I got on."
"I did tell you," he pointed out.
"Did not," she argued weakly. "Look, it doesn't matter anyway. It's my fault, I wasn't driving it correctly. Luckily, nothing happened, so let's just forget about it."
"Fine," he agreed. "Do you want to drive the truck and I'll take the tractor?"
"No, I'll just go very slowly, I can't give up or I'll be afraid to ever use it again."
"Be careful," he advised.
She paused before climbing back in, "how honest are you with Lisa?"
"What?"
"Do you tell her everything about yourself, have you told her about your past, about things you're not proud of, about things you don't like about your life or yourself—stuff like that?"
"Most of it I guess. I tell her what I think is important, not all of it is good. I told her about my past relationships, the times I thought I was in love. She knows about my wild sister and some of the family members who are not exactly respectable; the ones who drink or gamble too much. But there's problems in every family, unless they're lying. Basically, I don't have anything to hide..."
"I didn't say I was hiding anything," she interjected defensively, "there's a few things I don't talk about much."
"So what's the difference between not talking about something and hiding?"
"I'm not sure. Some things you don't talk about because they really don't affect what you're doing in the present, they just don't seem to matter," she rationalized.
"Maybe not, they only matter if they bother you or get in the way of the relationship."
"How sensitive, Eddie, been listening to talk-radio?"
"Is that what I get for sharing?" he pretended to be hurt.
"Maybe."
"Let's just shut up and get over to Burt without you killing yourself in that tractor," he suggested.
She laughed at him before climbing back into the cab.
Kate had a big old claw foot tub in her main bathroom upstairs. She was working twelve and fourteen-hour days now, like everyone else at Red Oak, and every other rancher in Mare's Creek. If she had the energy, by the time she got home, her favorite thing to do was soak in a hot tub with a cup of tea and browse through magazines. She couldn't just lean her head back in the tub because she knew she'd fall asleep right there in the soothing water.
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