by Katie Lane
It was the perfect opportunity to leave. But Cru couldn’t leave without saying goodbye. Nor could he bring himself to wake them. So he quietly got to his feet and headed to the bathroom. The faucet in the bathtub dripped and it took three tries to get the toilet to flush. Obviously, the inside of the house needed as many repairs as the outside. Once he left the bathroom, he headed down the hallway and found the room he’d stayed in when he’d been there. Chester was right. The bedroom was filled with a bunch of junk, but the twin beds looked the same—right down to their blue chenille bedspreads and Cru’s initials carved into the wooden headboard of one.
He moved the boxes of old books and record albums from the bed to the floor and lay down. He chuckled out loud when he saw the naked Playboy centerfold still taped to the ceiling. He’d been so smug when he’d pulled the magazine from his suitcase and showed it to the boy he was rooming with.
Logan McCord hadn’t been impressed. He hadn’t even asked to look at the magazine. Of course, he’d been a brooding James Dean type who hadn’t been impressed by much. But regardless of his moody personality, he and Cru had hit it off and become the best of buddies that summer. Logan didn’t say much, which worked out well for Cru, who loved to talk. They had remained friends over the years, calling each other to check in every few months. And if there was ever a time to check in with a fellow Double Diamond boy, it was now.
Cru pulled out his cellphone. Logan answered in his usual blunt fashion.
“So you’re still alive. I thought one of your many women might’ve strangled you in your sleep by now.”
He laughed. “That’s why I never spend the night with women.” He glanced around. “So you’ll never guess where I am.”
“Jail.”
Again he laughed. “You were the criminal who loved hot wiring old cars and taking them for joyrides. I was the law-abiding bad boy.”
Logan snorted. “A real saint who shoplifted condoms.”
“Only because I didn’t want word getting back to Chester and Lucas that I was buying them. But they found out anyway when Mr. Sanders caught me stealing them from his store. Man, he was pissed. The entire town had been convinced we were nothing but a bunch of delinquents. Remember the nickname they gave the Double Diamond?”
“Bad Boy Ranch. And we were pretty bad the first few weeks we got there. I don’t know how Chester and Lucas put up with us.”
“Not just put up with us, but stuck up for us. Sanders would’ve turned me in to the sheriff if Chester hadn’t shown up and talked him out of it. Of course, I still got a stern lecture on the drive back to the ranch about stealing. But a few weeks later, I found those condoms in my top drawer.” He smiled at the memory, but it was a bittersweet smile. “They aren’t doing good, Logan.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m here at the Double Diamond. I was on my way to California and got a wild hair to see the two old cowboys. I thought they’d been ranching and enjoying life. But they aren’t. They’ve sold all the cattle. Chester can barely see and Lucas has sprained his ankle and is limping around—not to mention that he’s having trouble remembering things. Remember what a great cook he was? Well, now he makes beef vegetable soup with no beef and no vegetables. It was burnt broth with egg noodles.” Just talking about food made Cru’s stomach grumble with hunger and he rolled to his feet and headed to the kitchen to see if he could find something to eat besides leftover soup.
Logan blew out a breath. “Damn. Have they gone to see a doctor?”
Cru snuck past the living room where the two old cowboys were still napping. “The last doctor Chester saw told him he needed to get his cataracts removed, but Chester says there’s nothing wrong with his eyes. Just like Lucas thinks his ankle only needs some time to heal. Which is probably true if he’d stay off it.”
Cru went into the pantry to look for a jar of peanut butter to make a sandwich, but he only found a stick of deodorant, a pair of underwear, and canned goods. He spotted a can of kidney beans and it made him hungry for Lucas’s chili. Lucas had taught him how to make chili and numerous other dishes. He hadn’t wanted to learn how to cook, but being on kitchen duty was better than being on bathroom cleaning or stall mucking duty. And learning to cook had ultimately worked in his favor. It turned out that women couldn’t resist a man who knew his way around a kitchen. He grabbed the can of beans and a can of tomato sauce before he left the pantry.
“Those two have always been stubborn,” Logan said. “So they don’t have any ranch hands to help them?”
“No, and the ranch shows it. It’s falling down around their ears.” He looked in the freezer for any kind of ground meat that he could use for chili. He found a package of ground beef, but he also found an Almanac and a pair of socks. It looked like Lucas wasn’t just forgetting ingredients.
“I guess I just thought they’d be roping and riding forever,” Logan said with sadness in his voice.
“Yeah, I know. But according to Chester, they only have one old mare who’s too old to ride.” Cru pulled Lucas’s old cast iron Dutch oven out of the drawer beneath the stove. Lucas had cooked everything from bison pot roast to his famous chili in the seasoned pan. Now he probably didn’t even remember where he’d put it. Cru placed the pan on the stove and turned the dial to light the burner. When it wouldn’t light, he remembered that he needed to light it with a match. While he searched the drawers, Logan continued.
“Do you think they had to sell all the livestock because they’re struggling financially?”
“It makes sense. If they’re too old to ranch, all they have to live on is two social security checks.” He found a lighter and lit the stove.
“I should’ve checked on them. They believed in me when no one else did.”
Cru unwrapped the ground beef and put it in the pan. “Me too. They taught me more in three months than I’d learned the fifteen years before. So what do you think we should do to help them?”
“I don’t know. But it sounds like they can’t be left alone. Can you stay there and keep an eye on them until we can come up with a plan? I know it’s a lot to ask. But I’m not asking you to do it indefinitely. Just until we can figure something out.”
“Me? Why don’t you come?”
“Because I opened a new auto repair shop and don’t have the time. It sounds like you do.”
“Well, I don’t. I’m on my way to California.”
“For work?”
He really wanted to lie. Instead, he stated the obvious. “Look, I’m not the man for this job. I’m the irresponsible one, remember? What about Holden? He was always the reliable one. And I bet he doesn’t have a job to worry about. His family has more money than they know what to do with.”
“Last I heard, he’s estranged from his family and works fulltime representing people who can’t afford an attorney.”
“It figures. He was always a do-gooder. What about Lincoln, Val, or Sawyer?”
“You know that Val is busy writing his next bestselling thriller. And I don’t have a clue how to get in touch with Linc or Sawyer.” Logan paused. “Accept it, Cru. You’re it.”
Cru rubbed a hand over his face. Shit. This is what he got for being impulsive and taking the turn to Simple. “Fine. I’ll stay for now. But we need to figure something out soon.”
“We will. I’ll do some research and see if I can’t contact one of the other guys and get someone there to help you.”
“Good. It will probably take more than me to convince Chester and Lucas that they can’t continue to live here by themselves. They need to sell the ranch and move to one of those retirement communities on a golf course.”
“You know they don’t golf. And I can’t see either one of those old cowboys leaving that ranch unless it’s feet first. Is there someone in town we could pay to help them?”
“I’ll look into it. Maybe Penny Gardener would be willing to do it. She seems to be fond of them. You remember Penny, don’t you? She’s Evie’s younger sister.” When
Logan didn’t say anything for a long time, Cru thought the call had dropped. “Logan? You there?”
“I remember.”
Cru flipped the frozen meat so it could brown on the other side. “Evie was hard to forget. Although now that I think about it, I spent more time with Penny than with Evie. She followed me around everywhere telling me those stupid knock-knock jokes.”
“If I remember correctly, you didn’t seem to mind. Her adoration stroked that gigantic ego of yours.”
He had liked Penny’s attention. She’d been a pretty cute kid. And now she was a stunning woman. “You can never have too much female attention. And I wouldn’t mind Penny Gardener stroking something now. The little freckle-faced girl has grown into a beautiful woman—a little angry, but beautiful.”
“You saw Penny? Was Evie there?”
“She might be at the ranch, but she wasn’t there when I almost mowed Penny and her horse down with my Porsche.”
“You’re still reckless, I take it.”
“I’m not reckless. As Lucas used to say, I’m just foot loose and fancy free.”
“And a busy butt.” Lucas’s voice had Cru glancing over his shoulder to see the old guy scowling at him. He had always been possessive about his kitchen, and it looked like things hadn’t changed. “What are you doing in my kitchen?” he snapped.
“I’ll call you later,” Cru told Logan before he hung up and turned to Lucas. “I had a craving for your famous Texas chili.”
The scowl disappeared. “Well, why didn’t you say so? I can have a pot whipped up in no time.” Lucas’s eyes squinted. “Now let’s see. What do I need? Beans!” He headed to the pantry and returned with two cans of green beans.
Cru’s stomach flip-flopped at just the thought of green bean chili. “Why don’t you let me make the chili, Lucas? I haven’t made it in a long time and I want to see if I remember the recipe. Besides, you shouldn’t be standing on your sprained ankle. You don’t want Penny getting mad at you, do you?”
Lucas hesitated for a moment before he nodded. “You’re right. That little gal is as sweet as peach pie most the time, but she does has a wee bit of a temper.” He handed the green beans to Cru and winked. “And today all that temper seemed to be directed at you.”
Penny had been all fired up. And if Cru had learned anything about women over the years it was that they didn’t usually get all fired up over men they didn’t care about. Penny still felt something for Cru. And since he was stuck here, he might as well find out exactly what that was. He smiled. Suddenly, staying there for a while didn’t seem like such a bad punishment.
He turned back to the stove and continued stirring the hamburger. “So how often does Penny stop by?”
“I can’t remember what days people come callin’. She comes by a lot and more when me and Chester caught the flu last winter.”
Cru glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t you get the flu shot?”
“I’m not gettin’ a needle stuck in my hide to keep me from getting a few sniffles.” Lucas hobbled over to a chair and sat down.
“The flu shot isn’t for colds, Lucas. It’s for the kind of flu that kills people.” He left the hamburger cooking and pulled out another chair. “Put your foot up.” Once Lucas had his foot propped on the chair, Cru went to the freezer and took out a bag of frozen peas.
“Make sure to put those in the chili last or they get too mushy,” Lucas said.
Cru rolled his eyes. “They aren’t for the chili. They’re for your foot.” He placed the bag on Lucas’s ankle before he went back to the stove. “Why haven’t you hired a ranch hand to help around here?”
“You know how suspicious Chester is. He doesn’t trust just anyone. And do you know what ranch hands charge now? Why, it’s highway robbery.”
So they were struggling to make ends meet.
“Maybe you could sell a few pieces of land,” he said as he opened the can of beans with a hand held can opener. “Just enough to hire a ranch hand . . . and maybe a cook.”
“I don’t need anyone helping me cook. And I’m sure not going to sell my ranch to some yahoo like Hank Gardener.”
He turned to Lucas. “Penny’s dad offered to buy the ranch?”
“The jackass showed up here a month ago and made us an offer. As if we’d sell cow crap to that arrogant man. He’s the reason we had to close down the boys’ ranch after only one year. Hank got the town all riled up about us bringing in a bunch of delinquents to rape their daughters and pillage their stores.”
Hank Gardener might be an arrogant jerk, but selling the ranch to him would solve all of Chester and Lucas’s problems. With the money, they could buy a place anywhere they wanted to. Maybe they could even keep the land the house was on and hire someone to help them. Now all Cru had to do was convince them.
“But Penny is Hank’s daughter,” he said. “I thought you liked her.”
Lucas snorted. “If I thought Penny or her sister Evie had a say in running the Gardener Ranch, I might think about selling Hank the north pasture he’s so interested in. But the man doesn’t let those girls have a say in anything. He ran Evie off with his mule headedness and treats poor Penny like an employee instead of a daughter.”
“Where did Evie move?”
“She lives in Abilene with her son. And as much as I love Penny, I wish she’d join her. A flower can’t grow in the shade of an old oak. She needs to get out from her father’s shadow and become her own woman.”
Cru started adding spices to the chili. “She looked like she was her own woman to me.” A feisty woman who would probably be just as feisty in bed.
“On the outside maybe, but on the inside, she’s still an insecure little girl hoping to gain her father’s love after she lost her mother. It’s hard to go without a mama and daddy’s love. Their love is what shapes you growing up.”
Which probably explained why Cru was so misshapen. He’d gone without both.
Chester shuffled into the kitchen and sniffed the air. “What’s cookin’? It actually smells good for a change.”
Lucas immediately bristled. “How would you know if somethin’ smells good, you old fart? Your sense of smell is as bad as your eyesight.”
“Well, my sense of taste is just fine. And there was no beef or vegetables in that beef vegetable soup, you ornery old cuss. Just limp noodles.”
Before things could escalate, Cru jumped in. “It’s probably good we didn’t eat beef for lunch because I put plenty in the chili we’re having for supper.”
Chester turned to him with surprised. “You stayin’ for supper, boy? What happened to your sick friend in California?”
“He just called and said he’s doing better. So if it’s okay with you and Lucas, I thought I’d stay for awhile.”
Lucas and Chester exchanged big smiles. “I never thought in a million years that it would be this boy that came back,” Chester said.
Lucas nodded. “I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways.”
Cru didn’t know about the Lord, but it certainly seemed like fate had brought him back to the Double Diamond Ranch.
Chapter Four
“Man, it’s hot for March,” Dylan Matheson, the new ranch hand, voiced Penny’s exact thoughts. He rose up in the saddle and pulled a bandanna out of the back pocket of his jeans, then wiped off his forehead.
He was only twenty-four, but having grown up on a ranch, he was the most experienced of the cowboys she and her father had interviewed. Maybe too experienced. Not for the first time, she wondered why a college graduate with so much potential would want to work for minimal pay. Of course, maybe he loved ranch life as much as she did and the money just wasn’t as important. She could be making twice as much if she lived in a big city and used the business degree she’d gotten in college. She had tried it. But after only six months in Houston working for a marketing company, she’d had the same realization as Dorothy—there’s no place like home.
Even if it was hotter than hell.
“Get
used to it,” she said. “The temperature will only get higher.” She pointed to the grain silo, continuing the tour of the ranch she was giving Dylan. “That’s the south silo. It’s where we store the grain and fill the feed trucks. But unless there’s a brush fire that destroys the grazing grass, you won’t have to deal with that until winter.”
If Dylan stayed that long. Ranch hands came and went like the seasons. And Penny couldn’t blame them. The Gardener Ranch’s starting pay wasn’t enough to compensate for spending long hours out in harsh winter weather, something she had pointed out to her father time and time again. Daddy refused to listen. Just like he refused to listen to other suggestions she made for improvements to the ranch. He always thought he knew best. Even when he didn’t.
Maybe Evie was right. Maybe she was under her dad’s thumb. But it was better than forgetting her heritage like Evie was doing. This land had been loved and cared for by generations of Gardeners. It’s where she and Evie belonged. And sooner or later, Penny was going to convince her sister of that.
“Is that fence the end of your property?” Dylan asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.
She nodded. “The other side is the Double Diamond Ranch.”
“Looks like the property line runs right through that creek. Who owns the water rights?”
“Both ranches have permits to use the water, but the Diamond brothers got their permit way before my father so they have seniority. Whenever there’s a drought, they have rights to the water first. They don’t have any cattle now, but when they did, it ticked my daddy off something fierce. Hank Gardener doesn’t like being second to anyone.”
