by Zoe Matthews
“I am sure Kathy knows what she is talking about,” Sierra said as she smiled at the older woman. “Are the kids okay here? Do you want me to take them with me?”
Kathy waved her hand at Sierra. “They’re fine. I enjoy their company. We will just finish these last few rows and then we will be done for the day.”
“Sounds good,” Sierra commented and looked around towards the far part of the meadow. “Do you know where Sadie is?”
Kathy pointed towards the river. “I think she went in that direction.”
“Was she going on a hike or just to the river?”
“I don’t remember seeing any gear on her and she told me she would leave Brooklyn for only a little while, so my guess is she just went to the river.”
Sierra nodded, glad to hear that she wouldn’t need to look too far for Sadie. “I am going to go find her.”
“That sounds good. We will be fine here,” Kathy waved her hand again, this time in farewell as Sierra stepped around the fence.
Sierra started walking on the path that led to the river. She knew just where Sadie would be. On part of the riverbank, there was a large flat rock that jetted out over the water. Sadie liked to go there when she needed to think or make a decision.
The river was one of Sierra’s favorite places to go, too. Part of the river that ran by the meadow was mellow. Unless there was a huge run-off in the early summer from a heavy snowfall, it was generally very shallow. Parts of the water was deep enough to swim and fish in. Other parts were shallow enough to wade. Most of the shoreline was rocky, but there was a small area that actually had sand. Her girls loved to spend hot summer days in that part of the river alternating between building sand castles and cooling off as they waded in the river.
As the river continued down the mountains, it became rougher with even a few white rapids. It was perfect for river rafting and Sierra knew that rafting would be one activity to be offered on their ranch to guests.
Sierra walked along the shoreline and saw Sadie sitting a short distance away on the flat rock. She was letting the cold water flow over one of her hands.
“Hi, Sadie,” Sierra called over the sound of the river as she drew closer to her sister. She wanted to make sure Sadie knew she was coming. Out of all of her sisters, Sadie was the hardest for her to get along with. She seemed angry all the time with everyone except her daughter, Brooklyn. Sierra usually just stayed out of her way, but with her father’s letter in mind, she thought she would at least try to touch base with Sadie.
Sadie turned and looked at Sierra with her usual scowl on her face, but she didn’t turn away, which would have been her way of telling Sierra to leave her alone. Sierra kept walking until she was standing near the rock where Sadie was sitting.
“Do you mind if I sit?” Sierra asked. Sadie shrugged her shoulders, so Sierra dropped down on the cool smooth rock next to her.
They sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the beauty of the day. It was a little cool since it was only the middle of May, but she could feel the sun’s warmth when it shown through the trees. Sierra watched a bird hop to the edge of the river and ate a few insects on the water’s surface. She also noticed a few small minnows in the water.
Sierra glanced at Sadie and felt concern for her sister. She had not seen Sadie truly happy since before Brooklyn was born. When Sadie was around 22 years old, right after she graduated from college, she met and married a man named Hunter, all within a two-month period. It was a whirlwind courtship. Sadie became pregnant with Brooklyn soon after the wedding and Hunter took off, abandoning them both. As far as Sierra knew, Sadie did not have any contact with Hunter, and he had never seen his daughter. After Hunter abandoned Sadie, she moved back on the ranch, and had Brooklyn a few months later. She had been on the ranch ever since.
Sierra knew that what had happened with Hunter had hurt Sadie deeply. She did not know if Sadie would ever be able to get past it. Sierra didn’t know any of the major details since Sadie was a very private person and had refused to talk about it. Sierra had never pushed the issue.
“What do you think about Sheridan’s idea?” Sierra finally asked, just to start the conversation.
Sadie glanced at her as if gauging whether Sierra really wanted to know. “I like it, actually. I know this ranch has been losing money for the last few years and Sheridan has been pretty worried about keeping things going.”
“What job do you want to do?”
“I want to be over the activities for adults.”
Sierra knew that job would be perfect for Sadie. She was a very outdoors-type person. She was always hiking, mountain climbing, skiing, or snowmobiling. Anything that she could do outside, she did it. Even though Brooklyn was only three years old, Sadie took her daughter with her whenever she could and if it was safe. Brooklyn seemed to enjoy the outdoors as much as her mother.
“I’m going to be over the activities for the children and teens,” Sierra commented. “I guess we probably will be working together.”
Sadie nodded in agreement. “I’ve already told a few of my friends about it. If we really can open by September, we already have a few guests that want to come.”
“That’s great!” Sierra exclaimed, glad to hear this news. She knew Sadie was a member of a hiking group and those people would probably enjoy being part of the opening of their dude ranch.
They talked for a while about their ideas. Surprisingly, they each had similar ones, only the activities would need to be geared to the age group they would be over. Sierra also wanted to have quite a few activities the children and teens could participate in and be outdoor events.
Sierra wanted to bring up her letter from their dad, but something told her deep inside not to, so in the end, she just continued to talk to her sister about the activity program. Maybe she would be able to talk to Sadie about the letter another time. She was glad Sadie had opened up, even a little bit, about her ideas with her.
Chapter 6
Logan Williams taped the last box shut and set it aside to be loaded into the back of his truck. He sighed with relief that he was finally done. He didn’t have much in the way of belongings, just the personal items for him and his twin boys, Mason and Noah. In fact, most of the boxes held things for the boys.
He had been working on a Wyoming ranch for the past eight years. He had started out with a low paying job working the cattle while he was in college, but was able to slowly move up after he graduated until the owner gave him a coveted position over the horses. Logan loved horses and was very good at training and controlling them. In fact, some of the men he worked with called him “the horse whisperer” because of his ability to take an out of control horse and train it to be ridable in just a few days. He didn’t think he had any weird gift for handling horses. He just seemed to be able to communicate with them and train them without using some of the harsh techniques other trainers used.
Logan had loved his job and had expected to be on the Wyoming ranch for a few more years while he saved every penny he could to purchase his own land. His dream was to someday own enough property to have his own horse ranch. He wanted to breed and train horses for cattle and riding.
But a few months ago, the owner died of a heart attack, and his oldest son, Chad, inherited the ranch. When this happened, Logan knew his days were numbered. The son had always hated Logan and resented the fact that Logan could do many of the jobs around the ranch easily while Chad had to work very hard to learn things. Logan also had all the other men’s respect, while Chad had very little. Logan knew he would not be able to work under Chad, but he had made an effort to try. A few weeks ago, Logan had quit in disgust when he caught Chad being harsh to a horse while he was trying to train it for a saddle. Chad had refused any advice or help. Logan knew he could not stay around and watch.
He was renting a small home that was located in a nearby town close to the ranch that came furnished with furniture, beds, and dishes. He boarded his stallion, Dakota, on the ranch he worked at
and had given one of the men who used to work under him the responsibility of the horse’s care until he could find a new position on another ranch.
A few days ago, a call came about a new job, but it was not one that he was expecting. His best friend from college, Sheridan Collingsworth, had offered him a job with horses on his ranch in Colorado. At first, Logan was confused since Sheridan’s ranch was a cattle ranch and they didn’t have a lot of horses, especially not enough to employ someone full time for their training and care.
Sheridan told him that his father had died and the ranch was now his. He wanted to turn the ranch into a dude ranch and he wanted Logan to be over the horses, the buying, training, and care of them. Logan hadn’t even needed to think about it. He accepted the job on the spot, before he even knew the salary and the fact that a small cabin came with the pay. He didn’t care that he would need to move to another state.
His boys were another reason he wanted to leave Wyoming. They were four years old and had been living with their grandmother, his late wife’s mother, almost since they were born. He had married Sarah while he was still in college. They had been so happy together. At the time, she was working as a waitress and money had been very tight, but they hadn’t cared.
When he graduated and was able to get a better position on the ranch, they decided to start their family. It took almost four years for Sarah to get pregnant with the boys. She had had two other pregnancies but had miscarried both before she was three months along. When she had been able to carry the boys past the first three months, and then when they found out she was carrying twins, they were thrilled. Then the unthinkable happened. Sarah was diagnosed with colon cancer. She had been 25 weeks pregnant at that point. She refused to have any chemotherapy or radiation. She wanted to give their boys the best chance at life. She was able to carry them until the 35th week; then they were born, a little early and small, but healthy. They had only needed to stay in the NICU for a few weeks.
Sarah immediately started treatment after they were born, but it had been too late. The cancer had spread. She died when the twins were almost a year old.
Sarah had been a wonderful mother to the boys. Being a mother was what she had wanted more than anything. After her death, Logan fell apart. He could hardly remember the first few months after her death. It was a blank fog for him. Harriett, Sarah’s mother, offered to take over the care of the boys and Logan let her. At the time, he was glad she was available and willing to look after them. She even moved them into her large 4000 square foot home. Logan allowed the change, thinking he was doing the best for Mason and Noah. It was supposed to have been a temporary situation, but it became permanent without him even realizing it.
When the boys were three, Logan wanted to make some changes and move the boys back in with him, but he allowed Harriett to talk him out of it. The woman was great at laying on the guilt. What if something happened while he was at work? What if the boys needed something he couldn’t give? They were happy at her house. They had all their needs met. Out of respect for Sarah’s memory, and since Harriett was Sarah’s mother, he backed off.
But Logan wanted his boys with him and now that he had a new job and was moving to Colorado, it was the perfect excuse to get them back with him. He was very concerned that Mason and Noah were getting out of control. Harriett gave into them for everything. They were becoming very spoiled little boys and Logan didn’t like it.
The day Sheridan called him about the job position, he went right over to Harriett’s to break the news. She was livid. He didn’t think he had ever seen her so angry. She threatened him with legal action if he took the boys away from her out of state. This scared Logan until he looked into it. From what he could tell from his research, he knew it would be very unlikely that a judge would refuse his rights to his boys. Besides, taking him to court would cost money and he knew Harriett did not have very much, even though she lived in such a big house. It was the house Sarah had grown up in, but Logan knew she had taken out a few loans against it. In fact, he was paying her quite a bit of money for the care of his boys. She was not very good with money. When it came right down to it, he didn’t think Harriett would follow through on her threat.
Logan got into his truck and drove to Harriett’s house. He had agreed to allow Harriett to keep the boys for these last few days, and they did not know yet that they would be leaving with him. He had asked Harriett not to tell them since he wanted to be the one to explain the changes.
When he parked in front of the house, he was glad to see Mason and Noah in the yard playing. Harriett was nowhere to be seen which suited him fine. He knew she was probably watching from the window even though he couldn’t see her.
“Dad!” both the boys yelled when they saw him and they came running over for hugs. He got down on their level and wrestled with them for a bit.
“It’s good to see you boys,” Logan told them with a grin. “How was school today?” He knew Harriett had them in a small preschool that was run out of a woman’s home just down the street.
“We didn’t go,” Mason said.
“You didn’t? Why not?” Logan asked with concern.
“Grandma says we can’t go anymore. There isn’t any more money to pay for it because something happened to your job,” Noah reported.
“Aren’t you working anymore?” Mason asked with concern.
Logan tried not to let his frustration show. He knew there was money to pay for it because he gave Harriett the money to cover the costs. He hated it when Harriett told the boys that they couldn’t do something because she couldn’t pay for it. She always worded it as if it was his fault. He decided to deal with that problem later.
“I have something to tell you,” Logan told them. “Let’s go sit on that bench over there.” He pointed to a small wooden bench that sat under a large shade tree.
After he sat down, both boys insisted that they sit on his lap, so he had one on each knee. “I want to tell you that there will be some changes. Your grandmother is right. I am not working on the ranch anymore, but I was able to get another job.”
“Really? Where?” Noah asked.
“In Colorado. We are going to be moving there in a few days.”
“Where is Colorado?” Noah asked. He looked like he was going to burst into tears.
“The place where I am going to work will take a little over a day to get there from here.”
“That is really far. Are you going to move by yourself? Are you going to leave us?” Mason asked a little fearfully.
“No, I am going to take you boys with me,” Logan explained. “I wouldn’t go that far by myself.”
Both boys looked happy that they would be going too and Logan felt relieved. Sometimes he wondered if the boys would rather be with Harriett than him.
“We are going to live on a very large ranch in the mountains. I am going to take care of their horses. We are going to live in a cabin on the ranch.”
“Really?” Noah asked with excitement. “We get to stay with you all the time?”
“Well, while I am working, you will probably need to be watched by someone else, but we will work that out.”
“So we can see you every night?” Mason asked.
“Yes, we will see each other every night. We will all sleep together in the same cabin.”
Mason and Noah started jumping and running around with excitement.
“When do we leave?” they both started asking.
At that moment, Harriett walked up to them, her lips thinned in disapproval. “So you told them,” she said in a flat voice.
“Of course I did,” Logan answered with confusion. “I told you I was going to tell them today.”
“When are you leaving?”
“I will be ready to go in a few days,” Logan informed her.
“Just take them now,” Harriett said with anger. “I have their bags packed. Just take them now!” she repeated as she turned and walked away.
Logan watched her walk away and for
a moment he was tempted to go after her. She had been a great help to him with the boys, especially after Sarah died. He did not want to leave with bad feelings. Then he felt two sets of eyes watching their grandmother walk away and then look at him with uncertainty in their faces. He decided it would be best to talk to Harriett later.
“Do you hear that, boys?” Logan did his best to sound like what just happened was not a big deal. “You get to come with me now. Shall we go get your things?”
The boys took their cue from him and started to jump and run with excitement again. When Logan entered the house, he saw suitcases and boxes just inside the door. Evidently, Harriett had planned this. Quickly he made a game out of it and after a few trips (and one spilled box that needed to be cleaned up), all the boys’ things were in the back of his truck. Logan buckled the boys in their car seats in the extended cab and then looked around for Harriett, but he couldn’t see her. Shrugging his shoulders, he got in and drove off. He would have to deal with Harriett later. Right now, it was time to look forward to his new life with his sons. He was a little surprised that the boys were not showing sadness at leaving their grandmother.
