by M Elle Kelso
David went back to Blake’s ranch literally walking on air. It had been a while since he’d flown but it had come back with no problem; a little like riding a bike. Once he had the renewal ticket on his license, and purchased insurance, he would be able to go where he pleased, when he pleased, at a moment’s notice.
Looking for Kaycee in the kennel and not finding her, he headed to the main house. Blake and Kaycee were sitting in the kitchen, watching their twins play with a couple of Golden Retriever puppies. David poured himself coffee and sat. Watching his godson was something he never tired of. Occasionally, like today, he felt a pang of something he thought might be jealousy, that Blake and Jared had their families, while he was alone. He hadn’t felt that way until Jared and Annie brought their adopted threesome home. That was when he realized that he was now the odd man out.
He couldn’t relate to their lives the way he used to. They were now married, family men; he was single. And while he got to play with their children whenever he wanted, it wasn’t the same. His responsibility to them was as a friend and god-parent, not as a parent. He had never felt the difference before; but now, it was a glaring fact of life.
David watched the puppies escape the grabbing fingers of the two toddlers, then interrupted Blake’s reverie.
“I filled in the papers on a Bell JetRanger® helicopter today. And I’ve agreed to fly with Mike Williams tomorrow so I won’t be around for most of the day. He’s picking me up before six a.m. in my back pasture; then I’ll be doing the flying, with him supervising. He has to get a rancher from around here down to Cheyenne and then on to Colorado. So, for this week, don’t assign me anywhere. I won’t be here. And before you ask, I’ve already asked Hooch to take care of my place.”
“Do you know who the rancher is?” Kaycee joined the conversation. “I ask because my father is going to Cheyenne and Colorado tomorrow, and I thought he had arranged for Mike to fly him. Maybe it’s my dad you’ll be chauffeuring around.”
“That would be okay with me. If it’s someone I know, I won’t feel so bad if Mike has to chew me out about something. Although after this afternoon, I don’t think that’s going to happen. It’s amazing how fast it came back. And if it’s your dad, then I won’t be left out of the conversation.”
Blake watched David, sensing that there was something else bothering him, but not knowing what it was. It was David’s wistful look at the twins that made him wonder if David was feeling like an outsider now that both Jared and Annie and he and Kaycee had families. They’d have to make sure he didn’t get left out.
It was one thing to have time with your own family, but to suddenly leave David on his own was something he didn’t want to do. He’d have to remember to mention it to Jared and Annie, too.
“Kaycee, how’s the party coming for the weekend?” David was reluctant to push if Kaycee hadn’t done anything, but his anxiety level was building as he waited for her answer.
“Actually, I managed to get hold of everyone, and it will have to be Saturday night. Dad and Suzanah are committed to something in Casper on Friday, but everyone’s available and willing for Saturday. Even C.J. And I made a change to your suggestion: I invited everyone to stay overnight so we can all have a lazy breakfast on Sunday. When I invited her, she hesitated, but she finally said yes. And you owe Hooch a big favor. He changed his plans so he would be going into Douglas on Saturday instead of Friday, just so he can bring her out with him when he returns. She was fine with that, and she didn’t hesitate to agree to stay over until Sunday afternoon, and she knows you’ll be taking her back. I didn’t tell her it would be in the helicopter, just that you would take her. Now, it’s up to you. That’s all I can do, except to wish you luck.”
Kaycee’s smile told him that her best wishes were with him and that she would do whatever she could to help him.
“Thanks, Kaycee, I owe you one, too. I’ll not forget this. As long as I get my license renewed by Friday, I will be able to fly her home. And I know that going in the helicopter will thrill her.”
“Oh, yes, I also told her to bring jeans, that it was a casual weekend, and that, at some point, we’d probably all go riding. So if you want to trailer Mirage and that pretty chestnut mare that she was riding, I think her name was Dreamer, to our place early on Saturday, we’ll have enough horses for everyone. Jared and Annie can use our horses and Dad and Suzanah and Hooch probably won’t ride. Don’t know what Paul Sorne will be doing either. They’re all coming to dinner, but after that, it’s just whatever happens. I’m not planning anything in particular.”
“That works for me. And yes, I will bring the horses over, and both saddles, since I have hers at my place. Guess I’d better get home and get my chores done, I won’t have time tomorrow, except to turn the horses out, before we leave and I’m not sure what time we’ll be back.”
David rose as he spoke and headed for the door.
“Talk to you later, Blake; thanks Kaycee. I won’t forget this.” David clapped his hat on his head as he hit the door and was gone.
“I think he’s one happy cowboy, right now, don’t you?” Kaycee asked Blake. “I just hope everything works out for him and C.J.. I think they’d be good for one another.”
“We’ll have to call you Dolly Levi if you keep this up.” Blake smiled at her, his reference to Hello Dolly an often repeated one, as everyone presumed it was Kaycee who’d managed to get her father and Suzanah together and the same people suspected she’d had some small part in the pairing of Jared and Annie. She was never sure why she got the blame except that, inadvertently, her problems had brought everyone together.
“Let’s just hope that none of us is making a mistake. I think they’d be good for one another, but I could be wrong.”
Kaycee’s small frown caused Blake to laugh.
“You, admitting to being wrong? This I gotta see.” With that, he stood, grabbed Kaycee and gave her an enormous hug, rocking back and forth with her, his way of taking comfort from her presence.
“I guess I’ve spent enough quality time with my family, better spend some work time. I’ll be back in an hour or so, ready for supper anytime after six-thirty.”
Kaycee watched Blake head to the cabin that was their business office, a feeling of warmth enveloping her, and making her feel pity for anyone who didn’t have what she had. If she could help David and C.J. feel this way, then she had to do it.
When Mike Williams arrived the next morning, David found out that he’d picked up their passenger first, and that it was, indeed, Patrick Morgan.
“You okay with me doing the flying, Patrick?” David asked, over the headset.
“Mike already told me about this, and I have no problem with it. I know you’re trying to get your license renewed for the weekend, and I know why. Pretty strong motive to succeed, I’d say.”
Patrick’s hand squeezed David’s shoulder from behind, a show of support David was glad to have.
“So, we’re off to Cheyenne, then Colorado. These regular meetings you attend?”
“Actually, we’re going to try to catch us a thief.” Patrick’s voice over the headset sounded like an angry lash.
Patrick’s reply staggered David and Mike. They hadn’t known the reason for the flight.
“What do you mean by ‘thief’?” Mike asked.
“I mean a rustler, or a gang of them. Someone is making off with cattle from all the big ranches around here, in bunches of anywhere from thirty to fifty. When you run as many head as I do, it’s only when we do the fall round-up or start working with the calves in the spring that we realize that we are actually missing cattle and how many. As close as we can figure, our ranch alone has lost over one hundred and fifty in the last two years. And when we start accounting for the cattle we have and what’s missing, it’s all either cows with calves at foot that are only a day or two old or it’s pregnant cows. So in reality, that doubles the numbers. And the other ranchers around here are having the same problem. When we started talking to e
ach other about it, we realized it was a bigger problem than anyone actually thought it was. So we decided to have a meeting and sent out notices to all of the ranchers in this part of the state. By the time we got replies back from everyone, we realized that over a dozen ranches have been hit, and the number of cattle missing is well over a thousand. Right now we’re getting about eleven hundred dollars for a bred cow, so you can see where someone is making a killing here. ”
“So, this meeting is to do what?” David was curious.
“Today we’re meeting in Cheyenne with one group, and in Colorado with another. Actually, David, if you want to come with me, we were talking about bringing in your agency in an advisory capacity, so you could answer any questions we had today.”
“Good God, Patrick! I just did the math. That’s a lot of money these guys made off with. Over a million. And I’d be happy to come to the meeting with you. As long as Mike is okay with that, too.”
Mike’s voice on the headset assured him.
“It’s fine with me. I’m going, too. My dad has been affected. He’s lost about eighty bred cows and I’ve already told the group that we can use my helicopter to try and do some aerial investigating. You know the drill, fly over and see if we can spot anything. Tire tracks that shouldn’t be there, a holding pen someplace that doesn’t belong. We’ve already done some preliminary planning, and if you and your partners come in with us, you can suggest other things to look for.”
David suddenly realized that while they had been discussing the rustling, he’d been flying along as though it had been last week that he’d flown last, not nearly five years ago. It gave him a rush of pleasure to know he’d not lost his touch.
“Have you talked to Blake about this, Patrick?”
“No, I was going to talk to him tonight, if we got home in time. Do you think it will be alright with him?” Patrick’s voice sounded worried. “Is the agency really busy right now?”
“No, we’re not too busy for you, ever, and I know doing this will be no problem. In fact, we’ll all like this one. It’ll keep us closer to home.”
David thought that the closer to home he could stay for the next little while, the more he could do about C.J. McCormack.
“I can tell you right now that we’re in. Does that help?”
“Oh, my, yes! That will mean at the meetings today we can discuss it knowing that you’ll be helping. And if, at any time, you, or Mike, want to add anything to the conversation, please just butt in. We’ll be glad to have the input.”
A few minutes later, David approached Casper airspace and was busy on the radio with the airport control tower. Once he set the little helicopter down on the helipad, he once more spoke to Patrick.
“Have you given this information to anyone else, Patrick? The police? The newspapers? Anyone?”
David went through the shut-down process from memory, not bothered by trying to talk and do that at the same time. That made him feel even better. Mike Williams was watching the whole process and smiling to himself. Obviously, he must be doing it right.
“Not yet, that’s one of the things we’re going to talk about today. Why?”
Patrick thought he knew where David was heading, but waited for him to take that road in this conversation.
“How about letting C.J. in on the story, getting her involved with your meetings, letting her in at the ground level. That way, when it’s time to release stuff to the papers, she will know all of the background and she can maybe write press releases, or something like that, to make sure that the information that needs to get out is there, and in a way that it will be used and understood.”
Patrick was nodding his head as Mike turned around, indicating to Patrick that he could remove the headset he’d been using. Now, talking normally to them, he told David his idea.
“I want to involve someone from one of the papers. But not yet. I think we need to find out exactly who has been hit and how many cattle have been lost. And any time I say specific number of cattle, I mean bred cows or cows with a calf at foot, so you can double the number.”
“All right. Do you want me to speak to her and see if she’d be interested in doing that for you, when you’re ready to have her? I can ask her this weekend. Or you can. You’ll be there, too.”
“That’s a good idea, David. She’d be ready to go when we’re ready so we wouldn’t lose any time. Do you think she’d do it?”
“I think she will, and if you wanted to pay her back for her efforts, you could let her break the story in her weekly paper, giving the other papers the information for the next news day. And she can put her byline on the story in the other papers, too. That should help raise her prestige with the other papers in the area.”
David was thinking that C.J. probably didn’t need that kind of help, she was doing a pretty good job on her own.
“I’ll talk to her on Saturday about it. You’re right; if she’s up to speed when we’re ready to break this, then we can get it out faster.”
Patrick was smiling to himself, glad he’d brought up the subject. He would be getting his news angle covered and helping David and C.J. at the same time.
Mike interrupted, trying to get the two men out of the helicopter. “Come on, you two, our ride is here. We don’t want to keep him, or the rest of the meeting, waiting.”
The three men strode toward the waiting car, each looking forward to doing their share at the upcoming meeting.
C.J. spent twice as much time as normal on her hair Saturday afternoon, and took forever to decide which shirt to wear with her faded, butter-soft riding jeans. When she thought about what she was doing, she felt foolish, but went right on doing it. Knowing that this was just a bunch of people, nobody bringing dates, just the married couples and the rest of the gang meeting for the evening, she didn’t want to admit that she was making so much fuss over her choice of clothes. But she knew why.
She knew.
She sighed at her reflection in the mirror, knowing that was as good as it would get. The dark green shirt, with her black jeans and her red hair accenting the whole thing looked pretty good. And her leather jacket was the same dark green as the shirt, so she was coordinated. And that was all the time she was spending on getting herself ready. Hooch would be there soon, so she had run out of time, anyway. She just hoped she was dressed informally enough. She hastily grabbed a plaid, flannel shirt from her closet and stuck it into her suitcase, just in case. She had enough clothes in there to stay for a week.
The sound of Hooch’s horn at her front gate sent her into a spin. Turning out lights, getting her things together, she got to the door about the same time he did.
“Hi, C.J. Ready?” Hooch was smiling at her, his friendly face making her feel more at ease by the moment.
“I think so, Hooch. I just have to set the timer on my lights. If you’ll take my case, I’ll be right there.”
“No hurry, I can wait. Anything I can do to help?” Hooch sank his tall frame against the porch railing, obviously in no hurry.
“No, I’ve got everything under control, just this timer, then I’m done.”
C.J. was frantically trying to get the timer to snap into the on position, a job made difficult by her nerves.
“Whenever you’re ready, there’s no rush. I’m a little early as it is.”
Hooch watched, knowing he could fix the timer if he had to, but willing to let her do it herself to save face.
“There.”
C.J. stood and turned to Hooch.
“That’s it. We can leave now.”
Hooch offered his arm in a funny, gallant sort of way, making C.J. laugh. She took the offered arm with a curtsy, getting into the mood. If light-heartedness was the way to get to the ranch in one piece, she was all for it.
Once she was there and saw David again, who knew what would happen?
David was pacing his bedroom, trying to decide what to wear. He knew it was to be very casual, but he didn’t know whether to wear his blue jeans and a s
hirt or his black jeans and black sweater. Suddenly, he looked at himself in the mirror and burst out laughing. He was behaving worse than the women he knew. Kaycee never seemed to spend much time in front of her mirror, neither did Annie. He didn’t know about C.J. but he suspected that because of her job, she probably spent a few more minutes; but today, he’d taken forever to get ready.
Well, enough was enough. He decided on the black jeans and sweater, with his black leather jacket, knowing that in this color, he looked the part of some dashing film hero, about to jump into his car and go rescue the fair maiden. Well, he didn’t know about the car, his black truck would have to do. And as for the fair maiden, he didn’t really know if she wanted rescuing, by him, or by anyone else.
Once more, he started pacing. He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake, having Kaycee put on this dinner party to get C.J. out to the ranch. If it was a mistake, it was too late to do anything about it. So get on with it, he told himself, taking one final look in the mirror.
Kaycee’s big kitchen was a hive of activity, the first of the guests had already arrived. Jared and Annie were there, their adopted babies crawling around the floor with Blake and Kaycee’s twins. To have five babies underfoot and still be able to manage the kitchen was a feat Kaycee seemed up for. But, when it got to be time to remove hot pots and roasters from the big ovens, she decided it was time they left the kitchen for a safer floor in the other part of the house.
“Blake, Jared. Take the babies to the family room, please. Things are getting too hot in here for them. I don’t want anyone getting burned.”
The two men, with help from Paul, Patrick and Suzanah, herded the children out of harm's way, leaving Kaycee and Annie in the pleasantly quieter kitchen.
“Are you sure David said we should bring that wild bunch, Kaycee?”
