Lindsay McKenna

by High Country Rebel

  She smiled and the dog barked softly as if he understood.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  BY THE TIME Cat arrived with Talon at his mother’s house at one o’clock the next day, everyone was waiting for them. Val and Griff had come out to meet them once they parked, wanting to know if she needed help. Cat wasn’t used to this kind of concern and care from so many and used Talon’s hand to move slowly to Sandy’s apartment. The sun was high overhead. It was a perfect day.

  Once inside, Sandy, who had been sitting in one of the two overstuffed chairs, got up and came to greet Cat.

  “How are you doing?” she asked, giving Cat a gentle hug of hello.

  “Much better,” Cat assured her. She released Talon’s hand and watched as the woman hugged her son. It did Cat’s heart good to see the look of love on both their faces. Family was everything. For a moment, her heart grieved because her own family had been so much less than what she saw shared between Sandy and Talon. She turned to find Miss Gus sitting in a chair.

  “Hey, Miss Gus. How are you?” Cat slowly walked over and smiled at the silver-haired woman. She was all dressed up in a bright red short-sleeved blouse with ruffles around the neck. Usually, Miss Gus was in rancher mode with work clothes. She had on a pair of white slacks, too.

  “I’m fine, Cat.” Gus reached up and squeezed her hand, staring at the brace on her knee. “We were glad you three could come to dinner last night. How’s the knee today?”

  “I’m doing better,” Cat joked. “The brace really helps me be able to walk. Hate those crutches they gave me.” Cat saw a beat-up leather briefcase leaning against the chair where Gus sat.

  “Well, it all turned out okay. Have a seat,” Gus said, pointing at the couch. “I want you, Sandy and Talon to sit over there.”

  Cat grinned and nodded. Miss Gus, being the elder, had the say. “Sitting sounds good,” she said.

  “Grab a cookie there,” Gus said, pointing at the tray of cookies on the coffee table next to the couch. “Val is makin’ us coffee.”

  Cat was happy to sit down. She chose the end of the couch where she could rest her knee against the arm and keep it out of the way of people walking. Ordinarily, Cat would be up, in the kitchen, helping Val, who was setting a bunch of mugs on a tray and filling them with fresh, hot coffee. The noise and laughter in the room warmed her as nothing else could. Griff was slapping Talon on the shoulder. They were joking and laughing about something. Sandy was looking much healthier. She went over to help Val in the small kitchen. The window curtains were all drawn aside, allowing in lots of light and slats of sun. It made Cat feel good that Sandy was coming back so strongly after the chemo treatment.

  Talon leaned down and kissed Miss Gus on her fuzzy crown of silver hair. Cat grinned as she saw Gus blush. Talon scooped up some cookies and Miss Gus told him to sit at the other end of the small couch, leaving room for Sandy to sit between them.

  “Want one?” Talon asked, handing Cat a cookie before he sat down.

  She grinned and took it. “Thanks.” He gave her that look that made her go weak with need. He’d taken off his black baseball cap and set it on the lamp table next to where he sat down.

  The air was festive and Cat saw Miss Gus watching the proceedings. She always reminded Cat of a hawk sitting high on a tree watching the land that she flew over. Miss Gus had a sparkle in her eyes today and Cat sensed something was going on but wasn’t sure what it was.

  Val brought over the tray and set it down on the coffee table. She handed Miss Gus the first mug, then as Sandy sat down on the couch, she handed her the next one.

  “Coffee, Sandy?” Cat asked, grinning. She used to drink coffee but, with chemo treatment, it hadn’t tasted good to her any longer.

  Sandy nodded. “First cup, Cat.” She held it up. “Progress.”

  Laughing, Cat said, “For sure. That’s great!” Val handed Cat her cup and Cat thanked her.

  Griff and Val brought two wooden chairs from the table and sat down on either side of Miss Gus. Soon, everyone was settled in a more or less circle of chairs and the couch.

  “Well,” Miss Gus said, “I gotta tell all of you, this is a day to celebrate. Cat, we’re glad to have you among us. You gave us all a scare the other day.”

  Cat felt heat crawl up her neck. “I’m glad to be here, too, Miss Gus.” And she looked down the couch toward Talon, who had a serious look on his face. “Thanks to Talon and Zeke, I’m sitting here with all of you.”

  Gus snorted. “Good thing! I had a surprise I was gonna spring on Sandy, here, and when we heard what happened to you, I held off.”

  Cat grinned over at the elder. “I love surprises.” She looked at Sandy. “Did you know about this?”

  Sandy shrugged. “No. Nothing.”

  Gus chortled and hauled the beat-up, scarred leather briefcase and set it in her lap. “That’s what a surprise is supposed to be! A surprise.”

  Val leaned over and helped Gus get the straps loosened so the briefcase could be opened. Gus pushed the top back and thanked her granddaughter.

  “Now,” Gus said, peering intently at Sandy, “this has been a surprise that’s taken a lot of twists and turns. We had last-minute upsets with Cat being kidnapped. Just thank the good Lord that things worked out all right,” and she gave a nod to Talon.

  Talon said, “Zeke did the hard work, Miss Gus.”

  “Yes, that dog is mighty special,” Gus agreed. Her hands were shaky and she peered down into the briefcase, hunting through the sheaves of paper.

  “Gus? The originals are in this one,” Val said, pointing to it.

  “Oh, okay. Thanks.”

  Gus pulled out a lot of paper. Val took the briefcase off her lap and set it next to her chair. Settling the papers in her lap, Gus looked over at Sandy. “Now, you know your ranch, the Triple H, has gone through five owners since you were forced to sell it. Right?”

  Sandy became serious. “Yes, that’s right, Gus.”

  “Well, what you didn’t know is that I’ve had my eye on your ranch for a long time. Every time it came up for sale, I wanted to get a chance to put a bid in on it. Four of those times, I found out too late it was for sale.”

  Gus looked around at the intent expressions on the faces of her loved ones. “The last time, the owner came to me, telling me he was gonna sell it and move back East. He was tired of playin’ cowboy.”

  The group laughed.

  Gus smiled like a wolf. “I asked him what he wanted for it. And it was way too much. I went over to check it out and I told him I’d buy it, but at a lower price.”

  Sandy gasped, her eyes widening. “You bought it, Miss Gus?”

  Holding up her thin hand, Gus said, “Now, Sandy, let me finish tellin’ the story, will you?”

  Sandy smiled and looked over at Talon. His whole focus was on Miss Gus. “Fair enough,” she murmured with a smile.

  “Now, what I’m gonna tell you is private.” She placed her hands over the pile of papers in her lap. “For most my life, I moved from Jackson Hole over to Cheyenne. I met and married my husband, who inherited his father’s five-thousand-acre cattle ranch. We worked hard, expanded it and by the time he’d died, our ranch had fifty thousand acres to it. Between us, we had one of the best ranches in Wyoming. Might not have been the largest, but it was one of the most productive.” Gus gave Val a warm look.

  “I moved back to the Bar H when Val was sixteen. My daughter, Cheryl, had married Buck, who was an abuser. When I realized what was goin’ on, I sold the ranch and came home to protect my daughter and granddaughter from the likes of him.”

  Val reached out, sliding her hand along Gus’s small shoulder. “You were like a fierce mama wolf. My father never laid a hand on us from the moment you moved back into the house with us.”

  Gus nodded, her thin, reedy voice cracking. “Yes, that’s right.”

  Val smiled at her grandmother. “But you gave up so much to come and protect us, Gus, when we couldn’t even protect ourselves. You sol
d a ranch that you and your husband had worked so many decades to expand and make a prime business model.”

  Griff nodded and shared a look with his wife, Val. “Gus, you sacrificed your entire way of life to be with Val and her mother. There’s not many people I know who walk away from their life to do that.”

  Gus snorted. “Oh, stop! I wanted to do it.” She patted Val’s arm. “I’ve never regretted a moment of that decision.” Looking at the three people on the couch, she said, “Bottom line was when I came back to the Bar H, I had a lot of money in the bank from the sale of our ranch. Griff here has an MBA from Harvard and he’s been helpin’ me to invest it wisely and make more money.” She patted his cheek. “And so when the Triple H came up for sale again, I asked him to go over and deduce just what it was worth. The ranch was goin’ downhill because the owners, past and present, didn’t know how to be ranchers. When Griff came back with a bottom line, I had him drive me over to the guy who wanted to sell it. Griff went through the list of why the ranch wasn’t worth what he thought it was.”

  Gus grinned, a sparkle in her eyes that she shared with Griff. “Now, I always thought I was a real horse trader, but you know what? Griff here is brutal when it comes to bargaining. And when he bargains, he’s got his facts straight and in order.” She rubbed her hands and cackled. “By the time Griff gave the owner the presentation, the guy agreed on the sum that I wanted to pay for it, not what he’d asked for originally.” Gus beamed at Griff. “I’ve got one heck of a horse trader for a son-in-law!” She patted Griff’s broad shoulder.

  Griff blushed.

  “So,” Gus said, “that leads us to these papers.” She picked them up in her hands. “Sandy, I saw you give up everything that meant anything to you. We were all aware, because you were our ranch neighbor, that you’d lost two husbands that you loved. And with Talon gone and in black ops, you were on your own with the cancer. I know we all pitched in to help you, but darlin’ girl, I saw the light of life go outta your eyes when you had to sell your home to pay off those damnable medical bills.” She slapped her hand on her knee. “It made me angry that if a person got sick, they had to sell their home to pay the damned bills. That isn’t right. You and Bradley had always been good neighbors to my daughter, Cheryl, and my granddaughter, Val. I wanted to do something to thank you for being the kindhearted person you’ve always been.”

  She gave the papers to Griff. “Give ’em copies?”

  Nodding, Griff took the papers and handed a stapled group to Sandy and to Talon. Lastly, he leaned across and handed the last group to Cat.

  Sandy frowned, looking at the papers. “Gus…this is a deed….”

  “Yep, sure is, Sandy.” She gave her a huge grin, looked at Val and Griff and then focused on her. “I’ve bought the Triple H back for you, Sandy. For you and your son, Talon. Now, before you say anything, I have just one request. The Triple H is five hundred acres of prime grazing land for cattle. I’d like you to agree to lease me two hundred acres that I could run our herd on each summer for the next twenty years. After that, the lease expires. What do you say?”

  Sandy stared down at the deed in her hands. The top paper had her name and Talon’s name on it. Tears came to her eyes and she looked up at Gus, who was frowning and staring at her with great seriousness in her wrinkled expression. “Miss Gus…this…this is a shock….”

  Talon rapidly read the first page of the deed. His heart thudded in his chest. Lifting his chin, he stared at the elder. “You really did this?”

  “Sandy, the ranch is yours again,” Gus said gently. “You have your home back.” And then she looked over at Talon. “And your son has his family’s ranch back, as it should be, to be passed on to him and his family.” She smiled over at Cat. “And it wasn’t lost on me that Talon and Cat are more than likely to get married sooner rather than later. So, Cat has a family ranch to marry into. She never had much of a life as a child. Not even what I’d call a halfway decent family. Now she has everything back that was taken from her when she was so young.”

  Cat felt tears jam into her eyes. Miss Gus’s stern face blurred for a moment. She heard Sandy sob and press her hands to her face, weeping. Talon leaned over, sliding his arm around his mother, drawing her into his arms, holding her, his eyes bright with unshed tears.

  “Miss Gus, you really are a guardian angel,” Talon rasped. “Thank you….”

  “Humph, I ain’t no angel, Talon Holt!” She waggled her finger at him. “Now, you’re a hired wrangler on our ranch and you need to keep workin’ for us to make money to get your ranch back on its feet.” She turned to Cat. “And you, young lady, you got a fork in the road starin’ at you. I know you love Talon, and I betcha there’s a marriage comin’ soon. Val, Griff and I thought you might like a little weddin’ present that was money instead of goods.”

  Val pulled out a check from the briefcase and stood up, leaning across the coffee table and handing it to Cat. “Gus didn’t know you were going to hurt your knee. She felt this check for a hundred thousand dollars would be like a dowry for you and Talon. A little something to help get the Triple H back on its feet.”

  Gasping, Cat took the check. She gave Gus a look of disbelief and then turned, looking over at Talon. He seemed utterly stunned.

  “That’s a nice dowry,” Talon finally admitted, his voice thick and unsteady. “Thank you, Miss Gus.”

  “Have ya asked her to marry you yet, Talon?”

  “Er…no, ma’am, I haven’t.” Talon grinned a little at the feisty old woman. “But it’s going to happen very shortly.”

  “Better,” Gus mumbled, eyeing him. “You two were meant for each other. Even a blind fool could see that.”

  Cat wiped her eyes, staring down at the check. “Miss Gus…this is just too much….”

  “Well,” Gus said, “look at it this way. I talked to Jordana McPherson. She’s a doctor. And she told me yesterday that it would be doubtful you’d ever be able to do firefighting again with that kind of knee injury. The way I look at it, Cat, you have some choices starin’ you in the face. You can either remain in the fire department as a paramedic, which may or may not be good for that knee of yours. Or—” and she raised her eyebrows “—with that money, you could choose to get married to Talon here, stay at the ranch and not only be part owner, but be a full-time wrangler. Jordana said that being a wrangler was a lot less stressful on that knee of yours. And—” she wriggled her silver brows “—she also hinted that if you wanted a part-time job at the hospital, they have an opening for someone who’s a paramedic.”

  Shock rolled through Cat. She put her hand on Sandy’s shoulder as Sandy sobbed against her son. They were good tears. Tears of happiness, not sadness. Talon’s eyes were moist and she loved him so much in that moment as he held his frail mother in his arms. Gus had just given them all a better life with her incredible generosity. As she looked over at Val, Griff and Gus, who were all smiling and who also had tears in their eyes, Cat had never felt so happy. Or so hopeful.

  She slowly stood up, set the check on the coffee table and walked over to Miss Gus. Leaning down, Cat kissed the woman’s cheek and whispered, “You are the best guardian angel in the world, Miss Gus.”

  She squeezed her gently and added, “I love you so much. I never knew my grandparents on either side of my family but if you don’t mind, I’m going to adopt you as my grandmother?”

  Gus pursed her lips and studied Cat. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, child.” She patted Cat’s cheek. “I’ve had my eye on you for a long time. And that’s why I wanted you workin’ at the Bar H. You’re special, Cat. You’re responsible and you’re loyal. I think Talon’s getting one heck of a wife and partner at his side.”

  Cat smiled tearfully and pressed one last kiss on Gus’s wrinkled forehead. “You are incredible, Miss Gus. Thanks for letting me have you as my grandmother. That’s worth more than any amount of money….”

  *

  “I’M STILL IN SHOCK,” Cat admitted, lying in Talon�
��s arms on her couch in her condo. Night had fallen and she was exhausted by the day’s unexpected events.

  He kissed her hair. “You? So am I. I don’t know if my mother will ever get out from under the shock.” And then he smiled.

  “So much has happened,” Cat whispered, her arm around his waist, content to be held by him. “And then Gus tells your mom that she’s hired a group of men to repair not only the inside of your ranch house, but put on a new roof, new and improved double windows… Wow!”

  “And tomorrow,” Talon said, “we can all go home.” He eased her away, studying her in the soft light from the kitchen. “And I haven’t even officially asked you to be my wife. My partner. Will you?” Because he couldn’t conceive of anything more right in his life. Searching Cat’s shadowed eyes, which suddenly grew moist, her lips parting, Talon leaned down, kissing her slowly, deeply and with all the tenderness he had. Her mouth was soft and he could taste the salt of her tears as they silently ran down her cheeks. Sliding his hand across her jaw, he wanted to convey, with everything in his heart, what he held for her alone.

  They’d come so close to losing each other. He knew it would take him time to deal with the ramifications of what had almost happened.

  As he moved his mouth across hers, cherishing her scent, her tears and love he could feel radiating from her heart to his, Talon had never felt so grateful. Cat was here, in his arms. He would marry her. And he would love her. Now he knew what love was. What it felt like. How it breathed new life and breath into his shattered, grieving heart. Cat had replaced his loss of Hayden with new, beautiful promises of life to come. Her love was helping to heal his tortured past, helping him to realize how much good was left in his life. When she had come into his life, when she had looked down at him, sick and dying, Talon had not known how important Cat was going to become to him.