There was a marked silence on the phone, but he could tell the caller was on the line. “Hello?” he repeated, becoming less happy to play this little game. Still, no response. “I think you must have the wrong number.” Wyatt started to hang up.
“Wait.” The female voice was urgent.
His heart stilled as though a ghost had passed right through him. He eased the phone back to his ear. “Who is this?
“I’m sorry. Is this the Last Hope Ranch, owned by the Kinnison family?”
Wyatt’s curiosity was piqued. “It is.
“Are you Wyatt or Dalton?”
Wyatt’s gaze narrowed. He set his cup on the table. “I’m going to ask one more time. Who is this?”
“I apologize. My name is Liberty.”
His gaze darted to the answering machine, checking again the “unknown” status. “I’m sorry, I don’t know anyone by that name.”
The woman chuckled and it had an eerie, too familiar sound to it.
“That’s because few people have a mother who would name their kid Liberty. She had a unique gift for naming her children.”
Wyatt remained silent. He sensed the other shoe was about to drop.
It did.
“Kind of like Wyatt and Dalton.”
“I don’t understand.” Wyatt raked a hand through his hair.
“Eloise was my mother. She had me about two years after she moved out here with my father.”
Wyatt nearly dropped the phone. He reached for a chair and sat down to process the news. “So, what you’re telling me is that you’re my…sister?”
“Well, half sister, technically.”
“Right.” He frowned. “And how do you know about us? How to reach us?”
“Mom talked about you guys and the ranch all the time. She painted such a wonderful picture of it.”
“Odd, since she didn’t stick around to live here.” He didn’t bother to hide the residual bitterness inside him.
“She died a couple of years ago. Someone should have called. I realize that now, but I wasn’t sure what to do. My father didn’t like my mom to talk about you or the ranch. She only talked to me about it in private. For what it’s worth, I think there might have been times she regretted her choices,” Liberty replied softly. “But I can understand why you’d be angry with her.”
Wyatt chewed on the corner of his lip. What did this woman want from him all of a sudden? “If you don’t mind me getting to the point, Ms….”
“Please call me Liberty, or Libby if you prefer.”
“Miss Liberty,” he stated, allowing himself a wry grin. “Is there something I can do for you? I don’t happen to have any of my mother’s mementos. Is there a medical issue?”
“No, nothing like that.”
Wyatt shrugged. “What is it? Money? As I understood it, your father is pretty big out there.”
“Yes, he is and no I didn’t call for money.”
“I’m not sure what more we have to discuss, then, Liberty. But this is kind of a bad time for me. I’ve got to check on a cow and I’ve got a lot going on this next couple of weeks. So, uh….”
“I heard something about a wedding.”
“From who?” he asked genuinely surprised.
“I called the newspaper to track down your phone number.”
Wyatt made a mental note to speak to Maggie, the owner of the paper, next time he saw her.
“Congratulations, by the way.”
“Yeah, uh, thank you. I appreciate you calling and maybe one of these days when things settle down, we can talk again.” He stood, anxious to end the call and head down to share this strange news with Dalton.
“I’ve never been to a real wedding. Here in Vegas, they’re mostly drive-through.”
Wyatt released a quiet sigh. He began to feel this was more than a hi-you-have-a-half-sister call.
“Weddings are great for reunions, aren’t they?”
“Um, well it’s going to be very small. Just her folks, my brothers, a few friends.” What does this woman want?
“You have more than one brother?”
He reassessed his words. “Rein is Jed’s nephew. He came to live with us after his parent died. Not too long after Eloise left,” he added with a bite in his voice. “Listen, I have one question.”
“Sure.”
“What do you want?”
He heard a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. “I need a place to stay.”
Ah, there it was. “Don’t you have a job?”
“I did. I quit.”
“And what does Daddy think about that?”
“He doesn’t know yet.”
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t told him.” She hesitated. “I don’t want anything from him. To be honest, I watched him use my mother until she finally had nothing more to give. He used his money to lure her back to him and then—” She broke off and the phone was silent. “I left home when I was eighteen, and I’ve been on my own since.”
Wyatt’s gut twisted. He didn’t want to feel sorry for her, but he couldn’t ignore her.
“My mother talked about the project your stepdad wanted to build. I was hoping that if that was true, I might be able to stay in one of the cabins for a few days. Just until I get on my feet and figure out where I want to go.”
No! his mind screamed. “Liberty,” he stated flatly, “I appreciate your situation, I do, but the truth is the cabin idea is still not off the ground. After Jed died, the ranch kept all of us busy.”
“I see.”
“You understand it’s nothing personal.” Oh, hell yes, it was.
“Sure, and with the wedding and all…I understand. It’s just that she talked so fondly about the two of you. I was hoping to maybe meet you and see if you were really as wonderful as she made you seem.”
Guilt slapped Wyatt’s conscience. Dalton would kill him. What would Aimee think? “I have a hard time believing she talked fondly about us. She abandoned us.”
“People confess their sins on their deathbeds, Wyatt. If God forgave her, why can’t you?”
He hesitated, unable to respond like any normal son would when he learned that his estranged mother had died. But he couldn’t summon an appropriate emotion. She was gone. That was that. Forgiveness wasn’t something he was prepared to deal with immediately, but maybe someday he could truly forgive her. Forgetting, however, would take longer.
“Listen, I’ve kept you long enough, Wyatt. All the best with your wedding and you can tell Dalton he has a half sister. Or not. Maybe one day, like you said, we’ll be able to meet.”
Wyatt frowned. He couldn’t let the conversation end this way. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-one.”
“College?”
“I started on a degree in interior design from a college out here, but had to quit because of my job and frankly it pays better—or it did.”
He didn’t want to delve into that, but something gnawed at him. Maybe it was the twinge of desperation in her voice, as though she’d called her big brother for advice because she had no one else to turn to. Why else would she have called after all of this time? She didn’t ask to be his half sister and hell, before today, he hadn’t even known she existed. But there was a reason she’d called and it prompted his next words. “One of the cabins is getting close to done. When was it you needed a place to stay?”
“What?”
He sighed, unsure if he should let it go or repeat his watery invitation. “You mentioned needing a place to stay. When would you need it?”
“Really? Oh, Wyatt, you’re a lifesaver. Really, I can do stuff, you know. Rake out the barn, pitch manure.”
Pitch manure? He had to smile. “Rein is pretty set on getting these cabins up and running before summer, so I’m not sure how long you’d be able to stay.”
“Just until I can get on my feet, promise.”
He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, not overly confident about what he’d just done.<
br />
“There’s a bus that can get me to Billings next Friday. From there, I can get a cab to bring me to End of the Line.”
“Let me know your itinerary and we’ll send someone to pick you up at the station in Billings.”
“Seriously? Thank you, Wyatt.” There was a crack in her voice and she sniffled. “I’ll call you with my schedule.”
“Okay.” His brothers, on the other hand, were going to crack open his head and search for his brain when they heard this news.
A few minutes later Wyatt drove up next to Dalton’s truck. They took the news about as he expected.
“And you invited her here? Are you out of your mind?” Dalton slapped his work gloves on the countertop he’d just jockeyed into place. Rein didn’t respond and continued to bolt down the cabinet.
“What was I supposed to do, pretend she doesn’t exist?” Wyatt argued. “She’s only twenty-one and it sounded like she didn’t have much of a relationship with her father.”
Dalton walked over to the sliding glass door and looked out over the markings where a brick patio had yet to be built.
Rein hadn’t weighed in yet. Wyatt turned to him. “What’s your opinion?”
He glanced up in his usual calm, unfettered way. “Hey, she’s not my half sister.”
“Then you’re saying you agree with this?” Dalton shot back at Rein.
“Nope, just sayin’ she’s not relation.” He glanced at Dalton, then Wyatt. “Then again, there is the small matter of Jed’s dream.”
Dalton tipped his head. “Seriously?”
Rein shrugged. “He wrote in his journals that what he wanted was a place where people could find themselves and get a fresh start.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Frankly, you all can sit here and bat this around all you like, as for me, my focus—whether she stays here or not—is to get these cabins up and running.”
Until that moment, Wyatt hadn’t considered how Jed might see this. He’d have taken her in in a heartbeat.
Rein shrugged. “He did choose to rename it the Last Hope Ranch.”
Wyatt looked at Dalton. “And she’s family. Aren’t you the least bit interested to meet our sister?”
Rein tossed Wyatt a raised brow.
“Half sister,” Dalton reminded him. He turned to Wyatt and jabbed a finger at him. “Fine, then you take full responsibility for her, Wyatt. Gawd almighty, she could be a crack head for all we know.”
“This from a guy whose name is carved in a booth at Dusty’s?” Wyatt folded his arms over his chest.
“You know what I mean. We don’t know anything about her.”
“I know she sounds like an intelligent person. Seems she had a good-paying job up to recently. She had started to earn a degree in interior design, but apparently her job paid better. And her name is Liberty. Doesn’t sound like someone we have to be concerned about being on crack.”
“Her name is Liberty?” Dalton pressed with a grimace.
Wyatt looked at Rein. “She says she only needs a place to stay until she can decide what she’s going to do.”
Dalton began to rip the protective plastic from another cabinet while he mumbled under his breath. “Rein, can you help me out here?”
His fair-haired brother stood and slipped his hammer in the loop of his tool belt. The man was the image of organized perfection no matter what he did. He leaned his hand on the countertop and ran it along the smooth, granite surface. “I can see your predicament, Wyatt. However, I’m inclined to side with Dalton on this. You don’t really know very much about her.”
Wyatt blew out a heavy sigh. He needed to talk to Aimee, get her spin on this. “Well, here’s how I see it. If we can’t open up these cabins to Liberty, because we feel she might have a troubled background, then who the hell are we supposed to open them up to?”
Rein looked at Dalton. “He does have a point. Unless we have some sort of contractual agreement for every guest to sign requiring they meet some rigid list of rules, we’re going to run a risk of not knowing what kind of person we might be renting to.”
“That’s something we need to take up with Clive when we start drawing up the responsibilities and rights of our proposed tenants,” Wyatt stated. “For now, I say allowing Liberty to live here is a good test to whether we feel we can or should move forward with Jed’s vision for this place.” He shot a glance from one to the other men. “Are we agreed, then?”
Both men nodded.
“Good, then we have a lot of work to do, because she arrives on Friday at the Billings bus station.”
“A week before the wedding?” Dalton stared at him like he’d sprouted gills.
“I guess I can’t think of a better time for a family reunion.” Wyatt shrugged. “How bad can it be?”
Dalton and Rein stopped working and looked at him. “Does Aimee know?” Dalton asked.
“Not yet, but she will, and I’m sure she’ll be fine with it.” He clapped his hands together. “Now show me what I can do to be helpful.”
***
“Does this kind of thing happen often out here?” Aimee’s mother sat in stupefied awe. The pie from Betty’s teetered on her lap as she careened forward to watch the five deer sauntering across in front the car.
Aimee had chosen to take the back way to the ranch, with its tree-lined winding road. She loved the wooded county back way, especially this time of day when the sunlight sliced through the leaves. Spring, however, had started the movement of the animals back to their feeding grounds, seeking safe havens to bring their young. “Only when word gets out that I’m driving nearby.” Aimee replied with a straight face.
Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “Aimee Jo.”
“I do have to say living up here has taught me to respect wildlife more than I ever have before. Generally man and beast get along fine, as long as everyone knows their boundaries.” She hadn’t yet mentioned the incident with the mountain lion at the ranch. She didn’t want her parents to worry about her living out there.
The last little fawn hoped over a log and trotted after its mother. “Fascinating. Have you seen any other type of wildlife up here?” her mom asked.
Aimee started the car forward again. She pulled up to where the county road met the highway, not too far from where the big cat had caused the Suburban to slide off the road. She looked both ways before she pulled onto the highway. “I’ve seen some strange things at Dusty’s bar.”
Her father interrupted. “You never did say how your fundraiser went, other than to tell us it was the night Wyatt proposed to you.”
Mainly because that had been the most amazing night she’d ever spent with a man, followed by a string of pretty spectacular nights thereafter. In the whirlwind state of things, Aimee had forgotten to mention the successful outcome of the event, despite the little mishap in the bar. Aimee glanced at her father’s reflection in the mirror. “We collected enough to fill the food pantry in town until at least Easter, thanks in part to the Kinnisons’ generous donation to the cause.”
“I’m so glad to hear he supports you, Aimee. It’s so important,” her mother added.
She smiled. It was true. Wyatt had one of the biggest hearts of any man she’d ever met. He’d just never allowed anyone to see that side of him before, other than Dalton and Rein.
“Sounds like my kind of guy. I can’t wait to meet him,” her father said. “What about these cabins you mentioned? You suppose they might be ready by the time the wedding rolls around?”
The project, to her understanding had been placed on virtual hold, with Rein doing as much as he could in his free time. He’d used his portion of the money Jed had divided among the three, in addition to the equal partnership shares in the ranch holdings. Since their engagement, however, Wyatt had decided to refinance the ranch in order to move the plans forward and that made both Rein and Dalton very happy. In fact, Wyatt had texted her they’d worked on one of the cabins most of the day. She hadn’t thought about it but having the cabins available to guest
s would certainly help solve a multitude of problems with wedding accommodations. Her parents had slept on her double bed the night before, while she lay restless on the couch, thinking of Wyatt’s luxurious king-sized bed, not to mention other things. Her folks had been very diplomatic about her cozy quarters, but she noticed her dad’s slight limp when he’d gotten his coffee that morning. “I don’t know what the cabin’s status is.” She looked at him in the mirror. “But you can bet with Rein in charge they will be very nice. Wouldn’t it be great if they were ready by the wedding? It’d be so convenient since we’re having the ceremony at the ranch.”
“Yes, I wanted to ask you about that.” Her mother cleared her throat. “Don’t they have churches in End of the Line?”
“One. But we wanted a small wedding and since we met at the ranch, we decided to have it in the great room. With a vaulted ceiling and gorgeous cathedral windows and the mountains in the distance, the view is breathtaking. It’s like a beautiful, rustic chapel.”
“It sounds lovely and your pastor? Who will that be?” her mother pressed.
“We plan on having Pastor Tony from the Trinity Lutheran Church in town. I know you always wanted a church wedding, Mom, but I promise it will be legit.”
Her mother patted her arm. “Oh, heavens, I’m not worried at all.” She glanced at Aimee. “Okay, maybe a little, but there are so many other things I feel are much more important.”
They came around the last curve and there was the ranch sprawled below, a welcome sight to Aimee. Already she thought of it as home.
Her mother leaned forward and looked through the window. “Oh, Ward, would you look at that?”
From their vantage point above, you could make out the cabins and the framework of others awaiting completion. The small creek that ran across the backyard sparkled in the waning sunlight. “Isn’t it gorgeous?” Aimee preened at the sight of her parents’ awe-inspired expressions.
“Seems the boy is doing well for himself,” her father commented.
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