Rancher to the Rescue

by Patricia Forsythe

  Zannah threw her hands in the air. “So now he becomes Mr. Chatty.”

  Phoebe came and sat beside her. “He seems to think this is a great idea, that it’ll solve all the financial problems. I knew money was tight since he canceled repaving the main road last fall, but I didn’t know how bad.”

  “I’m only now finding out.” Zannah looked back at her wall of memories. “It’s all changing now.”

  “And you hate change.”

  “Yes. All those years I was in college in Las Vegas, then working—”

  “At a job that didn’t suit you.”

  Zannah gave a small shrug. “True, but all those years, I knew Eaglecrest was here. That Dad and Sharlene and you and Aunt Stella were all here, would always be here. That gave me stability—knowing I had someplace to go.”

  “You romanticized this place, fantasized it into being more wonderful than it is,” her levelheaded cousin pointed out. “Because your job showed you so much of the worst in people.”

  “I know,” Zannah admitted. There was no point in lying, especially not to Phoebe, who could cut through any nonsense in a hurry. “In spite of all my college courses—”

  “In which you excelled.”

  “Book learning sure doesn’t prepare a person the way being on the front lines does. I began to catch on when I had my internship, but throughout all the training, I still had a pie-in-the-sky idea that I was some kind of guardian angel or...or a knight on a white horse who would charge in and instantly make people’s lives better, rescue every child in need, turn some abusive spouse into a saint.”

  “That was a heavy load to be expecting of yourself.” Phoebe gave Zannah a searching look. “You realize that whole fantasy was because you felt like you should have saved your mom, right?”

  Zannah gave a self-deprecating little shrug. “We’ve had this discussion before. Numerous times.”

  “And I only mention it now because you’re still dealing with it.”

  “I always will be. I know that now. No one could have told me that at the age of twenty. I thought I could deal with it by having a complete change, running away. I thought it would be okay if I was near family. Since Casey and Vanessa were in Vegas, it was good, but when they got jobs in Phoenix, that all changed.”

  “So you went through all that upheaval and you’re back home facing another one.”

  “Yes.”

  Phoebe reached over and gave her a hug, then stood up. “The question now is how are you going to handle all this?”

  Zannah looked up. “What do you mean?”

  “Uncle Gus heading off to look for the Lost Teamsters Mine. I can’t wait to hear what Mom has to say about that, by the way. He’s determined to do it, so you can’t stop him.”

  “I realize that.” Zannah crossed her arms tightly.

  “Oh, don’t get defensive. I’m only saying that you can’t change his decision, and as for the situation with Brady Gallagher, you can’t fantasize it away. Even though you hate change, you have to accept it. You have to make it into a situation you can accept.”

  “We’re the same age,” Zannah said in a marveling tone as she stood up. “How is it you’re so much wiser than me?”

  Phoebe winked. “More time on the back of a horse. Who was it that said, ‘The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man’? Or in this case, a woman.”

  “I don’t know. I’ll look it up.”

  Phoebe laughed, and Zannah focused on her cousin. “I’m sorry. I’ve only been thinking about myself. This will affect you and everyone else, too. How are you feeling about it?”

  Phoebe shrugged. “I’m taking a wait-and-see approach. If Gallagher’s expertise improves things and makes it easier for you, I’m okay with it. If not, we’ll have a problem. By the way, if this is actually going to happen, you and Gallagher need to call a staff meeting and let everyone know their jobs are secure. The news has already spread through the staff like a brush fire.”

  “Oh, of course, I should have thought about that.”

  “It’s been a busy day.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  With a grin and a wave, Phoebe left the room. Zannah looked back at the wall, seeing not the past but the future. Things were about to shift, but maybe it wouldn’t be all bad. There were still plenty of memories to be made.

  * * *

  BRADY STOOD BESIDE the table in the barn where he had spread out various horse-grooming items. He glanced first at his phone, then at the tabletop. He hoped that he had everything he needed. He had watched six different videos last night, and the information was crowding out anything else in his head. He knew his first priority should be looking at the books, but he was intrigued by the reality of getting up close and personal with the animals, which were such a huge part of operations here at Eaglecrest.

  He knew he could ask Phoebe for help, but she was tied up with the guests on the long trail ride. And he’d assured Zannah he could do this. He picked up what the online videos had described as a curry comb but what he thought looked like a medieval torture device and turned to see which horse looked like it would be most likely to appreciate being groomed by a complete novice.

  Yesterday’s foe lifted her regal head over the top of the stall door and fixed him with an unblinking stare.

  “Not you, Belinda. We have history. And you know what they say—‘Never go back to a woman who dumped you.’”

  “Who says that?” Zannah asked from behind him.

  Brady glanced over his shoulder. He was becoming accustomed to looking foolish around her. “My brother Miles. And he would know. It’s happened to him a few times.”

  Zannah smiled as she walked up to him. She was dressed in work clothes—short-sleeved T-shirt, jeans and boots, and he wondered briefly if she ever got out and had fun. His gaze swept up to her face as he gauged her mood. She looked rested, he decided, and more cheerful than she’d been last night.

  “I wondered if you would be out here since I didn’t see you in the office.”

  He told her his reason for starting with grooming.

  “Sounds like a good idea.” She looked at the items on the table, then pointed to his phone. “Have you been watching videos?”

  “Yeah, and I think I know where to start.” He held up the curry comb. “I start with this, right, to, uh, get out the, um...” He glanced at his phone. “Dirt and dead hair.”

  “Well, you could, but you’ll be chasing your horse all around the corral.” She nodded toward the big doors that opened to the outside.

  “What?”

  “We talked about this yesterday, remember? Your first step is to secure your horse. It’s best to use a quick-release knot.”

  “Right. Of course. I don’t know how to make one. I should have paid more attention in Boy Scouts.”

  Zannah grinned. “Would you like me to show you?”

  Brady recognized the question as the peace offering it was. “Sure.”

  “Good. This should be easy, since you’re a quick study.”

  He chuckled as she went into a nearby stall and came out leading a palomino mare. The plaque on the stall door said her name was Buttercream. He gathered the grooming tools, returned them to the wide-mouthed bucket where he’d found them, then picked it up and followed Zannah to the corral.

  “By the way, how are your blis—Oh,” she said as she looked down and spied his comfortable old sneakers. “Number one rule, even more important than tying up your horse, is never wear sneakers when you’re working around large animals. They’re not sturdy enough to withstand the weight of a horse stepping on your foot.”

  “And boots are?”

  “More than something designed for walking or looking cool on a basketball court.”

  “Got it.” She was right, and he should have thought of that.

  He shrugged.
“So what do I do? You told me not to wear my boots, then assigned me to groom horses.”

  “Well, obviously, I should have thought that through a little better. Now, watch and learn.”

  Zannah guided Buttercream to the corral fence and took the lead rope. Brady watched carefully as she demonstrated how to tie a quick-release knot. After she showed him a couple of times, he felt that he had mastered it, smugly tying one that passed her critical inspection.

  “By the way,” she said. “Phoebe reminded me we need to call a staff meeting to tell everyone what’s going on, that my dad is looking for an investor, and it might be you, but their jobs are secure.” She gave him a pointed look. “Their jobs are secure, right? We don’t want anyone quitting.”

  Brady nodded. “I was going to suggest that. It’s usually the first step when we buy into a new business.”

  “You mean take over.”

  He let that slide as he went on. “But things haven’t happened that way here.”

  “No kidding,” she murmured.

  “Set up a time to meet with the staff. It will be better coming from you, but we’ll have to present a united front.”

  Zannah’s lips tightened, but she nodded and turned back to the task at hand.

  “Grooming isn’t difficult, but if you do it right, it’s a good workout for you,” she said, picking up the curry comb. “You only have to remember to cover the entire animal, and to follow the steps.”

  Brady took out his phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Recording the steps,” he answered, tapping the device to turn on the video recorder and aiming it at her.

  “Excellent plan. That way, I won’t have to give you another lesson.” She turned back to her task, instructing him as she did so, showing him where to stand, cautioning him about letting the horse know exactly where he was with each step, then having him practice.

  Brady didn’t know what to expect at the upcoming staff meeting, but he knew it wouldn’t be easy. He decided to cross that bridge when he came to it. He leaned against the fence and steadied the hand holding the phone along the top rail. He found that he didn’t have to focus on recording but could allow himself to be entranced by Zannah’s no-nonsense approach to the task, her firm but gentle touch, the way she praised Buttercream for her beauty and docile nature.

  Zannah’s own hair was in a braid, no doubt to keep it out of her way. It slid back and forth across her shoulders as she moved. He admired the way her biceps flexed and stretched as she worked.

  This kind of task was second nature to her, something she had no doubt done her whole life. He’d only known her a couple of days, but she didn’t seem like most women he knew. They all had busy lives and careers, families that needed them, their own interests, causes they fought for. Gus had told him that she had graduated from college and worked as a social worker, but he hadn’t elaborated on why she’d left that career and returned home. Now it seemed that her whole focus was Eaglecrest.

  None of their so-far testy conversations had been personal, but he wanted to know more about her. Ranching and cowboying were a whole new world to him, and he was eager to learn whatever she could teach him. He knew they would have to become friendlier in order for that to happen, but he wasn’t sure how to do that. He’d never tried to partner with a woman before, and with Zannah, he felt like he’d jumped straight into the deep end. He probably needed to think of her as a business partner first and a woman second.

  When he found his attention wandering to her hips as she bent to brush Buttercream’s legs, he brought himself up short.

  “I, uh, think I get the idea,” he said as he stopped recording. “I will, um, go and take a look at those books.”

  “What?” she asked, looking around.

  “See you later,” he called over his shoulder as he hurried toward the corral gate.

  “Don’t forget that we’re getting up close and personal with some cattle later on.”

  “Can’t wait,” he called over his shoulder.

  * * *

  “BUTTERCREAM, WHAT DO you think bit him?” Zannah asked out loud as she watched him swing through the gate and disappear around the corner of the barn. “He moves pretty well for a man with blistered feet.”

  The mare answered with a gentle swish of her tail, as if to say, “Don’t know, don’t care.”

  Zannah shrugged and finished her task, then went to notify the staff about the meeting. There would have to be two—morning and evening—so that everyone could choose the one that fit their schedule best. This was a big deal, though, so she knew the first meeting this evening would be packed.

  When that was done, she went to assist Chet Barnes as he instructed some of their younger guests in the basics of roping while most of the adults were gone on the long trail ride. They started out by learning to make a Honda knot in a rope that would allow them to have a loop loose enough to throw but flexible enough to tighten when necessary.

  Cow horns attached to hay bales simulated an animal to be roped. Several guests stuck with it all afternoon, while a few decided to take a break and sit in the shade drinking prickly pear lemonade.

  Zannah had always loved watching Chet teach. He had been working at Eaglecrest and teaching cowboying classes for twenty years. He was slow talking and gentle, especially with the little kids. Six-year-old Liam Bardle followed Chet around, a faithful shadow, trying to emulate his new hero, even going so far as to try and stand and walk exactly as Chet did, the toes of his boots pointed in a little.

  When Liam managed to get a loop around one of the cow horns, he was overjoyed and glowed under Chet’s quiet approval.

  As she gave help where it was needed, Zannah thought about everything that had happened. She was still deeply hurt by her father’s secrecy, but she was putting that aside for now. Her more immediate problem was learning how to deal with Brady, make him see matters from her perspective.

  The biggest disconnect between them was that to him, Eaglecrest was a business, a means to an end, probably a short-term commitment. To her, it was family, her heritage and history.

  She didn’t know if she could make Brady understand that. She had lived her entire life thinking her father understood it—after all, he and her mother had taught her how important the ranch was to them all. Their family, all four of them, had worked together toward the goal of keeping the ranch successful. To have Gus throw it over like this was beyond her understanding.

  Zannah straightened suddenly, startling a few guests. She gave them a reassuring smile and moved away from the fence as she tried to deal with the anger she was feeling. She wasn’t simply angry with Gus, but with herself. Ever since this bombshell had been dropped on her yesterday, she’d been reacting, not acting.

  She had to make sure she was fully involved in everything that happened in order to avoid any further shocks, or at least anticipate them. She had to focus on Eaglecrest, not on her own resentment. This wasn’t happening just to her. Besides, nothing would be solved by avoidance.

  After signaling to Chet that she was leaving, she turned and strode purposefully toward the office. She may have been dropped into the middle of an unwanted and unplanned partnership, but that didn’t mean she was going to be willfully ignorant of what was going on.

  When Zannah reached the office, she swung into the room so fast that Brady jumped and looked up from the pile of papers on the desk.

  “Oh, uh, hello, Zannah. Somebody chasing you?”

  “Came to see how you’re doing with the books.” She strode across the office so forcefully, he scooted the chair over a few inches. Grabbing another chair, she pulled it over and sat beside him. “So, how are you doing with the books?”

  Brady gave a soft laugh as he answered, “I feel like I’m hacking my way through a paper jungle.”

  “I know the feeling.” She moved her chair closer
and took control of the computer. “Let me show you what I was able to find in all of this.”

  For the next two hours, they sorted through papers and found several unpaid bills and a few checks that needed to be deposited.

  At the end of that time, Zannah sat staring in consternation at the debt Eaglecrest had accumulated.

  Brady rubbed his hands over his face and shook his head. “Well, at least now we know. Finding this out is part of due diligence. It’s a mess, but Gus hasn’t tried to hide anything.”

  “How have we stayed out of bankruptcy?” she asked shakily.

  Brady pointed to the pile of unpaid bills. “I’m guessing that some of these people are your dad’s friends, ones who knew he’d pay them when he could. Most of them are fairly small. I think he moved money around to pay what absolutely couldn’t wait, like utilities.”

  Zannah put an unsteady hand to her forehead. “Yes, and they must have known or suspected we were in trouble.” In frustration, she formed her hands into fists and pounded them against her knees. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

  “I don’t know anyone around here yet, but I’m guessing they didn’t want to cause him embarrassment. They were being good neighbors.”

  “Maybe, but you can’t run a business like that. We can’t, and our neighbors can’t.”

  Brady stood and closed the laptop into which they had been entering data on a spreadsheet, then stacked up the folders where they had filed the papers they’d uncovered.

  “That’s true. Come on,” he said, reaching down to tug her gently to her feet. “I think we’ve looked at enough red ink for today. Why don’t you show me some more of the ranch?”

  She stared at him, trying to sort out her thoughts about what they’d found. Seeing what they faced, she didn’t know why he wasn’t already packing his bags and hitting the road. That was what she wanted, wasn’t it? But she knew Gus would simply find another investor—maybe even Fordham. That was unthinkable.