Hearts Crossing Ranch Anthology

by Tanya Hanson

  “Leave it,” Ma boomed. “I’ll get it tidied up before long. We never use this room other than important events or feeding our tourists. Time to start supper as it is. Thanks for spending the afternoon with me.” Ma winked at Mrs. Densmore, and Pike realized they’d gossiped for hours. No doubt she had brought Ma to speed on all of Daisy’s misbehaviors.

  But then, Ma had already declared Daisy a child of God. Besides which, she could make friends with a statue. The wayward young woman had somehow already worked her magic on Kelley and gotten under Ma’s skin. Was it possibly time Pike, too, became her friend? Friend. Nothing more.

  But right now, he wanted a shower and comfortable clothes. Over the clang of the doorbell, he heard a thousand rattle-tattles as something spilled all across the floor.

  “Answer the door, will you, Pike?” Ma asked. “Clumsy me. I just dumped a package of split peas and Karen is helping me chase ’em down.”

  Last thing he wanted to do, but Ma never took no for an answer. He didn’t want to see Daisy and get his heart pumping again for some fool reason. Yet at the same time, he wanted to see her…bad. Feel that heart bumping around in his chest.

  Heat flooded him as he walked to the foyer. With shame, he had to admit it: he was attracted to Daisy Densmore, something he needed to quash and within the next nanosecond. Friend? Ha.

  He opened the door and she stood in front of him, in a better sweater this time, her once-endless black hair trimmed a good foot shorter than this morning, layering like petals around her face. His heart jumped so far up his throat he couldn’t speak.

  5

  “Hi Pike.” Daisy tried to hold her voice steady, like she was talking to just anybody, on just anybody’s front porch. Truth was, Pike wasn’t just anybody, and she had better get rid of the feeling right now. Even still, her blood flooded her veins at a hot, furious pace. All day she’d wondered if she ought to regret stalking away from him this morning, but from the dark spark in his eyes, she reckoned she’d done the right thing.

  Her doubt was easy to smash, seeing his glower. If he’d wanted to be with her, he would have followed.

  What an absurd notion. Of course he didn’t. She was the enemy and deservedly so. Once, she’d fallen hard for his brother, and his loyalty would lie with Kenn—and her loyalty lay with Elway, something Pike obviously wanted to take from her.

  At least Kelley and Mrs. Martin had started to thaw. She didn’t know if it was an honest attempt at befriending her or a task they believed their Lord wanted them to undertake, but for now, she didn’t care. She didn’t need the Lord in her life, but she did need friends and respectability.

  So why did Pike Martin standing in front of her take her breath away?

  “Is my mom ready?” she asked, fighting for a normal voice. Like slow motion, she watched Pike’s man apple move in his neck as he swallowed. Like many modern men, he usually let a day or two’s worth of stubble fur his cheeks, and Pike wanting to put down Elway or not, she fought another urge to run her hands across his face.

  Suddenly Pike chuckled like it was any other day and she was anybody else. Her heart lightened until he spoke. His good humor had nothing to do with seeing her.

  “Nope. She and Ma are chasing down split peas.”

  “Oh, dear.” She tried to smile, the urge to touch those cheeks tamed but not gone. “Those hobnail vases.”

  “None other. You might as well come on in.” His voice took on a hard edge. “Doubt they’ll let us escape slave labor.”

  It was a grudging invitation, but she took it. Pike might despise her, and Kenn most certainly did, but Mrs. Martin and even Kelley had begun friendly overtures. Around here, Daisy needed all the influential contacts she could get.

  But he didn’t move right away or usher her in. Instead, his soft voice, the gentle voice of the hoedown that had potential to be her undoing, landed in her ears. “Your hair. You cut it or something. Looks nice.”

  She took the compliment as if it were a priceless jewel. Likely he meant it even if he didn’t like her. The hairdresser had cut off twelve inches and done a bang-up job with what was left.

  “Thanks.” She fluffed the layered edges, somehow unwilling to tell him she’d donated the tail to Locks of Love, for wigs to help out chemotherapy patients who’d lost their hair. The other reason seemed more important to reveal. “I…I needed a change. Something different.”

  Pike wouldn’t understand, but it was something deep down inside her. Changing herself inside and outside and starting over.

  “Come on in.” Pike led her inside and she felt a flush coming. Last time she’d been inside here, she’d come to Sunday dinner with Kenn, long before…long before Tony.

  Long before she’d lost her mind, her faith. A good man.

  It smacked her in the gut, then. How could she…how could she have started out with Kenn only to find herself later on attracted, as she was now, to Pike? Obviously, she was nothing but a faithless hussy, out for herself.

  Pike was laughing at the two moms while she de-cluttered her mind of the awful thought. No. Even Daisy Densmore wasn’t that lost of a soul. Even in the most awful times, she’d done her best to love Tony and had never bloomed an unfaithful thought. Tony was over and done with, and Kenn happily engaged. Her attraction to Kenn’s brother couldn’t be a bad thing, could it?

  She joined Pike and their moms picking up peas, her mom giggling, Mrs. Martin giving her a careful once-over. Elaine Martin was a good woman, the kind the Bible extolled. At least, Daisy snorted silently, the Bible had worked on somebody. Maybe Mrs. Martin’s peaceful, loving nature would rub off on Mom.

  “You’re going to Pastor Hale’s Singles Bible Study tonight aren’t you, Daisy?” Elaine Martin said shrewdly, obviously meaning something she wasn’t asking.

  Daisy, who liked Pastor Hale, had considered it for about five seconds, but no. God was a thing of the past, the Bible a book with advice for souls in better shape than hers—souls not as lost as hers. Besides, she was leaving Mountain Cove. No need to suck up to people with wide eyes and pointing fingers.

  “No.” She shook her head as she helped her mom gather a collection of craft items. “I need to get Mom home and start supper.”

  “My stars, let me tell you what a grand cook this girl is,” her mom announced, and Daisy felt a flash of pride. Mom seemed honest in her praise. For once, the glance she tossed Daisy flashed with approval not anger. “Why, Joel can’t stop talking about it.”

  Suddenly, Pike started up a coughing spree, and her mood darkened. Of course. He knew she was after Kelley’s cooking job. Last person he’d want on wagon train trips with Kenn all summer long.

  Without a care in the world or a thought in her head, Mrs. Martin babbled on. “You just give your mom the keys to your car, Daisy dear. Have supper here with us. Karen’s been feeding your dad just fine for years. Then you can ride to Bible study with Pike and Scott. They’ll get you back to your ranch after.”

  Her heart raced. Whatever appeal Pike had must be doused. All it was, she reckoned, was leftover gratitude for his kindness at the hoedown. Not a real man-woman possibility, so she had to stay away from him. Grabbing the box of her mother’s craft supplies, she shook her head. “Thanks, Mrs. Martin, but no. Mom can’t drive a stick shift. And I’m OK, really. I don’t think…” She hesitated but then braved the truth. “I can’t think anybody really wants me there.”

  “Course they do. It’s all about forgiveness and forgetting.” Mrs. Martin persisted with a big wink, and Daisy caught Pike’s glare. Jaw clenched, he shook his head slightly at her as if in a dare. Glaring back, she almost took his mom up on it.

  As if to break things up, Pike reached for the box. “Let me help you load this.”

  She followed him back outside to her car.

  “Just so you know. Pastor Hale runs a good program. You’re welcome there. God doesn’t shut anybody out. But...”

  Ah, she knew now why he’d taken her outside. It was as if his silent cr
iticism, his warning yelled right out at her.

  “I know what you’re going to say, Pike.”

  “How’s that?”

  She shrugged. “Let’s say I have good intuition.”

  He smirked. “Doubt that.”

  Somehow her feelings hurt, and she didn’t understand. His opinions, his attitudes shouldn’t matter anything at all. And she had to let him know once and for all. “I consulted with another vet today, in Sunset Hills. She’s agreed to see Elway tomorrow.”

  Pike’s teeth grit with a nails-on-chalkboard flinch. “So you doubt my diagnosis? Doc Fahmy’s, too.”

  “Don’t get all high and mighty on me. I told you I wanted another opinion.” From a female vet, she added silently. I don’t need another man to toy with my emotions. To break my heart.

  She knew her lack of confidence in him, her deep-down suspicion of retaliation infuriated him. Just as she knew he wouldn’t want her as chuck cook. But at least she had somebody in her corner about the other important issue roiling in her gut, her brain, her life. “Just so you know. I’m applying for Kelley’s job.”

  His head shook in that way again. “She’s not leaving for good. It’s job sharing, as I see it.”

  Daisy shrugged. “Well, I don’t care if it’s part-time or not. I need the job.”

  “No way. Any new hires, it’s a family consensus.” He glared. “We Martins are all for one, one for all. And I sure won’t go for it. Not after all…” He stopped, but she read his mind again. Not after all you did to Kenn. Not after you think I’d put your dog down out of some petty revenge.

  “I’m plenty qualified,” Daisy persisted.

  “Dream on,” Pike said, turning from her so quickly she barely heard him. But she sure enough heard the loud slam of the big front door.

  ****

  “G’bye, Mrs. Densmore,” Pike thought to call out before he stomped up the stairs. At thirty-one, he reckoned he had grown up enough to call her by her first name, but formality was more professional, what with Elway between them, and better all around considering that daughter of hers.

  Thoughts of friendship with Daisy that he’d had just moments before vanished like dew in the hot sun. Nonetheless, his burgeoning attraction for her still blazed and wouldn’t die no matter how hard he tried to kill it. He tossed his shoes against a wall and grimaced, knowing full well Ma had heard it. Hoop had been right. It was about time Pike left his childhood bedroom. Adding a modular home to the twenty acres Pa had left him seemed more and more a mighty fine idea. If he had his own place, why, he wouldn’t have run into Daisy just now and gotten all hot and bothered.

  When he heard Ma clomping up the stairs, he knew his idea to be more than fine, and it could be fact outside of a month. He had some money saved.

  She knocked first but didn’t wait for an invitation, busting in like she always did. Well, he couldn’t fault her. She was his ma and she’d never change. Still, it was time to let her know before she started on something else, and that was most likely Daisy.

  As he pulled a T-shirt over his head, he mumbled into it, about building up his own place.

  “What? Can’t hear you.” Ma plunked herself on the bed and it creaked. Long as he could recall, she’d been a substantial woman, but she carried herself like a queen and her endless activities—and meddling—had kept her in good shape.

  “I said, I’m gonna look into putting down a house on the acres Pa left me.”

  His head wiggled out of the shirt’s neck in time to see her face. Surprised, he watched her nod, not start some sort of carrying-on.

  “Not a bad idea. You must be thinking about settling down, I reckon.”

  He wasn’t, but from her knowing smile, he figured Daisy must be sprouting in her head. He had to shoot down that nonsense, and quick. “No. I’d just like some privacy.” He said the last word pointedly and noticed her cheeks pinked like an apricot.

  “Well, I sure won’t impose. I’ll be gone in a second. Just thought you need to know some changes are afoot.”

  Pike’s heart hardened. “I already know. Hoop mentioned Kel going only part time. I hope it’s just for a while.”

  “Why, you sound like you hope her restaurant venture fails.”

  Heat rose. He hadn’t thought any such thing or at least admitted it to himself. “’Course I don’t.” he muttered. “It’s just…change is hard.”

  “Tell me about it,” she said pointedly, and he felt more heat than ever. Ma had lost Pa, lost Grim-Gram, lost tons of money, but always relied on the Lord. The events of life, she claimed, were merely leading her onward on her faith’s journey and upward into heaven. “But our strength is made perfect in our weakness.”

  He didn’t say anything, didn’t know quite what to say.

  Ma went on. “Well, while you’re in this poor mood, I’ll lay more change on you.”

  A scatter of chill bumps rose on his arms at her ominous tone. “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “What I mean is good changes but they’re gonna annoy you.”

  He took a deep breath. Daisy as chuck cook. Of course. He held his tongue.

  “I’m going to be busy helping Rachel after the baby arrives,” Ma stated, something Pike already knew.

  Pike shrugged. His older sister, second sibling after Hooper, was expecting a baby boy soon. An attorney with a busy practice and a husband deployed to Iraq, she no doubt needed Ma’s help. Interference, he chuckled deep down.

  “So I am going to semi-retire from my job as head of guest services.”

  Taken aback, Pike didn’t find words for a few seconds. Retirement? Even semi was unbelievable. Not having her finger in every single pie about the ranch and its maneuvers didn’t sound a whit like Ma.

  “Well, what about Chelsea helping out?” His youngest sister, a recent high school grad and Ma and Pa’s little after-thought, needed a job before heading off to college in Boulder.

  Ma shook her head. “She just landed a job waitressing at the Butterbean Café. Tips’ll pay her better than I can.”

  “But weekends…”

  “Chelsea will be too busy with her barrel racing.”

  “I just…don’t know what to say,” Pike muttered because he didn’t. Ma flapped her hands; apparently she wasn’t done.

  “And I’ve been thinking on this for a while. We need a gift shop here on the ranch.”

  “What?” He felt the Twilight Zone descending. “We’ve got our online store.”

  “Yes, indeedy. T-shirts and postcards of our horses. Nancy Bee’s handmade silver jewelry. But guests like to buy things like that when they get here. Or as souvenirs to take home.”

  “All right, I guess. But if you’re retiring, even part-way, who’s gonna manage all that?”

  He almost bit off his tongue. She couldn’t want Daisy somehow, could she? With a trill of anger, he just didn’t understand how this faithless troublemaker had so overtaken his ma’s heart.

  “Not me. Karen Densmore. She and I talked about it all afternoon.”

  “What?” Pike might as well have had a bucket of cold water dumped over him. Again. “She runs a boutique in town,” he protested. “She can’t be two places.”

  Ma shrugged now. “Her rent’s going up too much to keep Ruffles and Spurs going. She’d be bringing along with her a loyal customer base. Besides, she said many of her customers are from our wagon train tours and Cowboy College anyway. Why make them go all the way to town to buy their trinkets?”

  Pike felt his mouth open almost to his clavicle.

  “She’s got all the retail experience. And she’s got contacts for bottling Kelley’s barbeque sauce and blueberry jam. Kelley’s vegetarian dog biscuits. Karen can handle all that. Plus…” Ma took a deep breath. “We’re adding consignments. Joanne Hale home-makes old fashioned soaps and bath salts, and Roberta Lewis does hand-crafted sweatshirts. I won’t have to do a thing but clear out Grim-Gram’s granny-flat so Karen can set up shop in it. It’s just a hodge-podge of junk I’ve
been needing to get rid of anyway.”

  “I don’t believe any of this.” He leaned against the wall for support. “You cooked this up right now, today, this afternoon, over your split-pea vases?”

  Ma beheld him boldly. “No.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Pike said in such a strangled voice Ma’s face paled. Ever an honest woman, this was an insult to be sure. He lowered his head like he was five and stared at his bare feet. “Sorry, Ma.”

  “All right. But what’s this enmity to the Densmores? You and Daisy have a spat, the way you stormed up stairs?”

  “A spat?” The word reminded him of squabbles between…between a couple. “We aren’t even friends. She keeps insinuating I recommend Elway being…being put down is some kind of revenge.”

  “I’m sure you misunderstood.”

  “I’m sure I didn’t. And what’s with this new-found love for them?”

  Ma’s face darkened. “Karen and I have always been friendly. And loving our neighbors is the Lord’s command. Not mine.”

  “OK, I get that. But Daisy? You want Hearts Crossing to employ her? The thought’s insane!”

  Ma stood, half-balanced on the surgical sandal protecting her bunionectomy. “Second Corinthians twelve, verse nine. ‘Gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.’ The Lord’s at work here, Pike. With her. She’s got ‘infirmities’ and made plenty of messes, but God’s power is growing in her. And if I can be of help, well, it’s His hand guiding me.”

  “So…Daisy’s a-a-a mission project?”

  “No. She needs some direction. She needs a job. Friends. She’ll direct guest services here on the days she’s not on a wagon tour cooking. I should be able to handle the other times.” Ma headed toward the door and tossed over her shoulder, “Oh, and she could use a real good man.”

  His fury raged. Wishing he hadn’t already thrown his shoes in a very uncharacteristic loss of temper, he flung his dress shirt against the wall where it didn’t make one single sound.

  “Ma, she had a good man. Kenn. Look how she treated him. Look who she picked in his place.”