“Well, no babies right now,” Andy said. “I’m not ready for that yet. Mom and Dad have offered all of us kids a plot of land on the ranch. Dad wants to build homes for each of us on the property and I think that’s a great idea.”
“Yes,” Gabe said. “We’re hoping that all of you will agree to have a home built on the ranch.”
“Will you take them up on it, Andy?”
“Yes, we will.” She smiled up at Dev. “Steve is working on design plans right now. We’re excited about it.”
“You’ll have to share your dream home blueprints with us,” Gabe said.
Sky and Luke wandered over.
“Hey, I hear you’re engaged to this brother of ours, Anna. Can I see your engagement ring?” Sky asked.
Anna held out her hand to the woman pilot. “Sure can.”
Luke shook hands with Gabe. “Hey, Bro, congratulations. This was a big surprise to all of us. You’ve always operated in stealth mode and here, you sneaked in a marriage proposal, catching all of us off guard.”
“Well, you had plenty of time to find the right woman, Luke,” Gabe teased, releasing his hand. “I just beat you to it, under the radar.”
Scratching his head, Luke gave him a merry look. “I didn’t think I’d ever settle down. I liked traveling between North America and Australia. I like fighting fires. But things are changing in my life. I’m older and beat-up enough physically that I’ve stopped my hotshot days and decided to go into a fire management position like this one at the airport.” He grinned. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll find the right partner, huh?”
“Never can tell,” Anna said, reclaiming her hand from Sky, who had gushed over the ring.
“No,” Luke murmured, “you’re right. But hey! I’m glad you two birds are going to take over the Wind River Ranch whenever Mom and Dad decide enough is enough and retire.”
“Oh,” Sky hooted, elbowing Luke in the ribs, “you know Mom is never going to retire! She might say she is, but she’s an idea machine for this century. She’s always got something new up her sleeve that she wants to do here at the ranch to improve it.”
“That’s true, Sis,” Luke agreed, pushing his fingers through his short brown hair.
“And me?” Steve said, joining the group, “I might slow down on our architect jobs around the world, but I’ll never truly retire from it.”
“If you love something,” Anna told them, “you’ll do it all your life.”
“I think we’ve all found our passion,” Sky agreed. “And if you love what you’re doing? Why should you ever retire from it?”
“Makes good sense to me,” Steve said, grinning. “But not having the ranch to juggle daily at some point in the future will be helpful. Especially for your mother, who has more ideas than she has time here on this Earth.”
They collectively laughed and nodded. Maud was a powerhouse, no question.
“I hear,” Dev said, “that Anna and Maud have some great ideas for future directions for our ranch home?”
Anna nodded. “We do. And I’m sure Maud will tell you all about them when we sit down to eat.”
“DINNER’S ON!” Sally called at the entrance to the living room.
Gabe picked up Anna’s hand. “Come on, let’s go.” He gave Ace a hand signal and he leaped up happily at their side.
Everyone laughed because Sunday dinner was a constant in their lives growing up. And there was a seat designated for each person. Gabe liked that. The “herd” moved as one and walked down the long hall, chatting and laughing.
It felt so good to be home. As a child, after he’d finally come out of his shell, thanks to Maud and Steve’s gentle and patient loving, Gabe felt free, happy with parents who truly loved him, and had healed many of his abandonment wounds. Joining the DEA and going undercover had been a move into a dark place within himself, once again. He knew he’d done a great deal of good on the war against drugs, but he’d grown exhausted by the emotional and stressful game of maintaining his cover. The last few days, sharing them with Anna, loving her, being loved, he felt like a butterfly that had been trapped inside a hard, unyielding chrysalis, and was finally emerging from it into the pure light of day. Of hope. He glanced over at Anna. She was wearing a light wool pink pant suit that she’d bought in Jackson Hole with Maud yesterday. The color matched her cheeks, and he absorbed the sparkle in her eyes, the love in them for him, and it made his heart soar.
Sally took Ace into the kitchen where she had a special dinner waiting for him. She presented everyone seated at the long table with a platter of bison roast, a family favorite. There were steaming mashed potatoes, a dark, fragrant gravy, sliced and colorful zucchini, carrots and pearl onions in a garlic sauce, applesauce sprinkled with cinnamon, and toasted, buttered French bread, hot from the oven. Everyone clapped and thanked her for her hard work and efforts. She smiled and told them, “I have Gabe’s favorite dessert: bread pudding with caramel sauce.”
The whole crowd made oohing and ahhhing sounds of pleasure in unison. Luke, who loved it just about as much as Gabe did, rubbed his hands in glee.
“I’ll skip dinner and just go straight to dessert, Sally,” he said, grinning.
The whole table hooted at him.
“No way,” Maud said, waving her fork in Gabe’s direction. “You always tried this as a child, too.”
“Well, you know? What works, works, Mom.”
“Didn’t work then, and it won’t work today,” Maud said firmly, giving him her best motherly scowl.
Everyone laughed, the meat platter, the veggies, and applesauce being passed from one to another as they filled their plates.
Gabe savored Anna at his right. This was the first family gathering where they were engaged to be married. For him, it was a special late afternoon, one he would not forget. He appreciated the slats of sunshine pouring in through the crocheted white curtains over the windows, making the dining room glow. Earlier, Steve had driven to the small florist store in Wind River and bought an arrangement of flowers, mostly highly fragrant spring freesia, in many bright colors, which now sat in the center of the table in a cut-glass vase.
Talk ranged around the group, with Maud filling them in on the idea of putting together a children’s mini ranch and farm. Everyone thought it was a great idea. Sally brought a bottle of white wine and a bottle of red to the table. Everyone poured what they wanted and sipped it with their meal.
Sky and Andy told stories of their flights to help others who were injured, sick, or in an auto accident, taking them to the hospital via their helicopter. Luke told stories from his months spent in Australia, fighting fires.
They were all, to a person, glad to hear that Gabe and Anna had resigned from the DEA. Everyone confessed they were worried for Gabe being undercover. So was he, but he’d not admit that to the group.
“Do you think you’ll be happy doing something so pedestrian as learning to run a ranch?” Sky asked Anna. “I mean, you’ve done heroic, bold, and courageous things for your country and ours, as well.”
Anna held Sky’s sincere gold-brown gaze. “You mean being a racehorse and suddenly deciding to gear down to plow horse speed?”
The whole table smiled and laughed at her analogy.
“That’s good,” Sky congratulated. “Yes, to go from high stress and danger to something, well, more quiet, peaceful, and safe.”
“I’ve been wanting to get out of the sniper business for some time now,” Anna admitted to them between bites. “I’m tired of being hunted.”
“And,” Gabe added darkly, “Anna has a million-dollar bounty on her head in her country. She can’t go home even if she wanted to.”
The table grew silent, scowls, worry, and surprise in everyone’s expressions.
“That’s awful,” Sky whispered, shaking her head. “What is your mother saying about all of this?”
“I’ve been on Skype with her a number of times the past few days since we announced our engagement,” Anna told the table. She pulled the
French bread apart and laid it on the edge of her plate. “I’ve convinced my mother to donate the estancia where I grew up, that’s been in the family for over a hundred years, to an international organization that will utilize it to help underprivileged children from around Guatemala. They will make a school out of it. I can’t think of a better change for the estancia than that. She would do that when she’s ready to retire. Maud and Steve have talked with her and he’s drawing up plans for a mother-in-law house here on the ranch for her. She likes the idea of staying with us during the summer and then going to a new home in Florida where it won’t be so cold the rest of the months of the year.”
The table nodded in unison over her mother’s decision.
“My mother will continue to work at the highest levels of Guatemalan politics. She’s a force for good in our country. But from June through September, she will fly up here to be with us after she retires. Until then, she’ll take vacations from her duties with the government, as she can.”
“Wonderful!” Sky murmured.
“We are going to build her a home here on the ranch,” Steve told everyone. “I’m working with Maria on architectural drawings right now. We trade PDFs of it and she gives me guidance, feedback, and I think we’ll be done by midweek.”
“Which means,” Maud said happily, “we can begin building it now.”
“Yes,” Steve agreed, “and we’ll get it enclosed by September and finish the inside, as well as furnish it with Maud and Maria’s direction, in time for her to come next June for the wedding. And speaking of that, I’m also working on plans for Gabe and Anna’s home, which will be about a mile from where the main ranch house is at. We’ll have it enclosed before the snow flies this September, too.”
“I’m sure looking forward to that,” Anna told them. “For years, I’ve not been able to stay at the estancia and put my mother in danger. Here, she can stay with us for three weeks, and I’m sure going to enjoy it.”
“We’re really becoming a family once more,” Sky sighed, giving Anna a warm look. “I loved growing up here with everyone. We were thick as thieves then as we are to this day.”
“That’s an understatement,” Steve said, grinning down the table at Maud, who rolled her eyes.
Everyone laughed.
“Well, Anna,” Luke teased, “you are now a member of the original Gang of Four. We’ve already voted Dev into it.”
Sky giggled and poured gravy into a second helping of mashed potatoes on her plate. “Oh, Anna! Wait until the four of us tell you ALL the trouble we got into here on the ranch growing up!”
Anna raised her eyebrow at Gabe. “And I’ll bet you were the ringleader . . .”
The table burst into laughter and quick nods of agreement.
“Guess I’ve been caught red-handed,” Gabe admitted wryly, giving his siblings a sour look.
“Even as a kid,” Sky said, “Gabe always flew under the radar. You never saw him coming.”
“No,” Luke opined, pretending agony, “it wasn’t until after he gotcha that you knew you’d been had.”
Anna snickered. “Hey, he’s black ops, people. That’s just the way we operate.”
“And so,” Luke teased her mercilessly, “we now have a second black ops family member.”
“Wrong, dog breath,” Andy said, giving Luke a sly glance. “Dev here was in black ops, too, as a Nightstalker pilot in the Army. He was undercover, also. We’ve even got an animal on the ranch that’s black ops!” Everyone laughed and nodded their heads knowingly.
“I guess that means we all have to watch our step, eh?” Sky said, giving everyone a merry look.
“Well, one thing for sure,” Maud told all of them, “there’s going to be no secrets among us.”
“But the black ops types,” Andy said, “will be the first to find them out if there are.”
Steve chuckled and shook his head. “Who knew we would become a stealth family?”
“Really,” Maud said, finishing off the food on her plate.
“But,” Anna reminded all of them, “people in black ops will ALWAYS have your collective back. To me? It’s like a huge insurance policy on our family. We in the black ops community know the good guys from the bad ones. We’ll spot them coming a mile away. We can warn the entire family more quickly. That’s a good thing.”
“Yep,” Andy agreed, “we’ll circle the wagons on the ranch and family and stay safe.”
“Well,” Maud intoned dryly, “I feel sorry for anyone who wants to defraud, lie to, or dupe any of us.”
There was a serious nod of agreement by everyone at the table.
“Speaking of that,” Gabe said, “you all know that Elisha Elson saved our lives. I’d like to give you an update on his working with the FBI. Earlier, he helped us, warned us, and the prosecutors are working with his defense attorney to turn evidence over on the Pablo Gonzalez drug ring from Guatemala. He and his mother, Roberta, are going into Witness Protection. Elisha is going to continue to work with prosecutors on indicting a far larger group within the drug ring, as a result. And when the time comes, he’ll give evidence against them in court. He’s not going to federal prison like his brother Kaen is.”
“That’s terrific,” Sky said. “What will happen to the Elson homestead?”
“Roberta has sold it to us,” Steve said.
Brows shot up around the table.
“We wanted to help Roberta out,” Maud told them. “With the money from their homestead and ranch, they are going to be financially stable.”
“They can start a new life without worry about money,” Gabe said.
“That’s right,” Steve said. “And, we’re in negotiations via our Realtor to legally buy the Rocking G, the ranch next door, from the DEA, who has agreed to sell it to us.”
“It’s a done deal on both properties,” Maud assured them. “We’re just working through the mountain of paperwork to make it so.”
“WOW!” Luke said, “You’re buying up a huge chunk in the southern part of the valley!”
“We have plans for it,” Maud said slyly.
The children laughed and shook their heads.
“Maud and Steve are going to turn the Rocking G into a working cattle ranch during the summer months,” Anna shared. “There’s everything there we need to teach inner-city children about how a ranch works and runs. It will become the center to teach inner-city children about ranching and animal management.”
“And,” Gabe added, “the infamous Elson homestead will be torn down, rebuilt as a school and dormitory, and will be called Wind River Farm. Steve is working on plans for cottages and a school, plus huge gardens and greenhouses, for the property. Kids who want to learn how to farm, grow crops and food, as well as raise animals like sheep, goats, and milk cows will learn hands-on starting next July.”
“Right now,” Steve said, “I’m drawing up architect plans for both structures. We have already contacted local contractors to start building the cottages on each property for children and their adult supervisors.”
Maud smiled dreamily. “And Steve has configured both places to be able to handle twenty-five children at a time. We are giving the children a two-week training that they can take back to their schools come fall. A lot of handouts, PDF booklets, an interactive website, as well as workbooks will be created for them. And every child will not only receive a tablet with WiFi and internet when they arrive, but they will also take it home with them, plus lots of lesson information that their teachers can share with the whole class. The kids will tell their personal experiences and stories of what they’ve discovered at the ranch or the farm. We’re hopeful that when that happens, other kids will want to come. They will be flown out free by several airlines who are here at the regional airport and have donated the flights to the children. I’ve just wrapped up a five-year agreement with three airline companies. This will allow us to pay for things from our side of the ledger so we’re not in the red, either.”
“It’s important to
make a business solvent,” Steve agreed. “And we knew that going into this new area of education, our payback will be children who will be educated, aware of our environment, of rural living and what it’s like outside of city living. That will pay America dividends in the long run. Sometimes, there are things money cannot buy and this idea is one of them.”
Maud smiled happily. “There’s even more, kids. My mother, Martha, has gotten twenty-five colleges and universities around the country to agree to give any child who goes through our program a full scholarship in one of the rural minor or majors of their choice. That means each child who completes our two-week farm or ranch course has a guaranteed full scholarship, including dorm facilities, for two or four years, depending upon who they choose to receive their education from. It can be in agriculture, science, or medicine.”
“That’s incredible,” Luke said, awed. “Double wow. What an opportunity for those kids.”
“We’re focusing mostly on children of color and new immigrants to our country, because we want to support them in becoming fully involved citizens of the US,” Steve added.
“But that doesn’t mean impoverished white children are left out, however,” Maud said. “We’ve worked out an algorithm that gives ten percent to each group, so that no one gets more of a share than the other. There will be fifty percent girls and fifty percent boys. It will be fair and balanced for all.”
“That’s good,” Andy said. “We don’t need some group pointing a finger at your efforts and saying it’s skewed or prejudicial in some way.”
“All children deserve a break,” Maud said. “They are our future.”
Andy sighed. “This is all such good news. There’s a win-win for everyone involved. Mom, you are just incredible in your vision and how you see helping others who have less than we do.”
“Your grandmother Martha pounded that into me at a very early age,” Maud replied fondly. “They traveled often and always took me around the world with them. I got to see third-world countries and they had so little water, medicine, or food available. It left an indelible impression on me and I never forgot it.”
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