by Zoe Matthews
“Uhm…no. Stella, there’s been an accident.” Sheridan paused and Stella cringed at what she knew wasn’t going to be good news. “Dad’s dead.”
She lowered herself into one of the metal patio chairs and whispered, “What?”
“There was an accident and his plane crashed into the side of a mountain.” She could hear the unshed tears in her brother’s voice. “Sis, I need you to come home.”
Stella nodded her head, the threat of tears stinging her eyes as she tried to deal with the shocking phone call. “I…I’ll try to be there tomorrow. If not then, the day after.” She sniffed and tried to shut off the emotions that were threatening to swamp her. Don’t break down here! Get through lunch and then you can fall apart!
“Okay. Let someone at the ranch know and I’ll send someone into Denver to pick you up.”
“Fine. Hey, I need to go.” Stella didn’t wait for his reply; she simply hung up the phone and then sat there for several long minutes trying to digest how her world had just changed. Her father was dead. Dead! At least this time she hadn’t been at fault!
Chapter 1
August 29th, two days before the Grand Opening…
“Hey, sis. Where do you want these boxes stacked?” Spencer hollered as he walked into the large kitchen of the lodge.
“What boxes?” Stella asked, a note of worry in her voice. “I’m not expecting any more boxes.”
Spencer gave her a charming smile and nodded his head towards the doorway, “Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are a slew of boxes out there, and some of them are beginning to melt.”
“Melt?!” Stella exclaimed, pushing her way past her twin to survey the thirty boxes of frozen foods that now sat melting in the foyer of the lodge. “Where did these come from?”
She searched the boxes, looking for the bill of sale and then scowled when she read it. “Darn it! These weren’t supposed to be delivered until next week!”
“Hey, no problem. Tell me where you want them and I’ll see that they get there.” Spencer was the more level-headed of the two siblings. He played his cards close to his vest, and unlike Stella, he didn’t seem to have any of the anger she so often displayed.
Stella sighed, “Let me go move some stuff around in the freezer. I just hope there’s enough room in there for all of this food.” She headed toward the far side of the kitchen and the large walk-in freezer and refrigeration unit the construction crew had recently finished installing.
With her father’s death nearly four months earlier, she had given up her job in California and moved home to be with the rest of her siblings, at her father’s request.
Richard Collingsworth had been a hard man to have as a father, not giving affection easily, and for Stella, that had been almost okay with her. She and Spencer were twins, and while she was very close to her twin brother, the same could not be said about her relationship with her other siblings.
Stella had struggled with anger issues for most of her life in regards to her family; having carried a load of guilt on her shoulders in regards to her mother’s death. A mother she had never gotten a chance to know since the woman had died after giving birth to her.
While Spencer had been born easily enough and without any complications, Stella’s birth had been very complicated. Her mother had begun hemorrhaging before Stella could be born and an emergency C-section had been performed to help save both mother and infant. Stella had survived, but her mother had died several hours later.
For as long as Stella could remember, her father had been distant and reluctant to spend time with her. She had grown up attributing that to his lack of ability to deal with the loss of his dear wife. Her mother.
Stella had grown up angry at her father, and that had spilled over to her siblings on more than one occasion. That was why his will had come as such a surprise. He’d apologized for ignoring his children and not giving them a better sense of family togetherness. To help correct the problem from his grave, he’d required all of the Collingsworth children to return to the family ranch and live there, together, for no less than six months.
Stella had balked at giving up her position at the restaurant, but when the rest of her siblings arranged to come home, she eventually followed suit. Her oldest brother had announced that he wanted to turn the Majestic Mountain Ranch into a working dude ranch, and Stella had immediately claimed the position of overseeing the kitchens and menus for the guests. And she was loving her job! She loved being the one in charge of the menus, the food, and everything associated with it.
Having time with Spencer had been wonderful, and she had also grown closer to her other siblings. She propped the doors open on the freezer and then turned the light on. She looked over her shoulder and was pleased to see Spencer coming right behind her.
“What’s in these boxes?” Spencer asked, carrying a stack of two boxes and following her into the large walk-in freezer.
“Meat. Beef, chicken, pork, elk, turkey…everything I need for the next two weeks of meals.” Stella began moving other boxes around, indicating that Spencer should begin stacking the boxes in the now cleared space. They worked together for the next thirty minutes and Stella tried to push away her irritation from earlier when she found out that the boxes had arrived early. She knew she needed to learn to take her cue from her twin and relax a bit more. Having the food delivered early wasn’t the end of the world. But she definitely would find out why it was delivered early so the mistake wouldn’t happen again.
“Want some fresh lemonade?” she asked Spencer when they were almost done.
“Sounds good. Any cookies to go with it?” Spencer asked with a knowing grin. He’d never made a secret of his love for her cooking, and always told her he was her biggest fan and would happily taste test anything she chose to cook.
“As a matter of fact, I do have some cookies. The girls were here yesterday afternoon and helped me.”
“And they left some? I’m going to have to talk to my nieces about that,” Spencer laughed, snagging a chocolate chip cookie from the plate she offered him with a smile.
“Don’t encourage them. We would have twice as many cookies, but Sheridan happened to walk through the kitchen while we were mixing up the dough, and he showed the girls how to eat it right from the bowl with a spoon!”
Spencer chuckled at the look upon her face. “I’ve seen you do that plenty of times.”
Stella sniffed and pretended to be offended. “A good chef always tastes their creations before serving them.”
“Or cooking them it would seem,” he added; ducking the kitchen towel she threw his way.
She was just about to go retrieve the towel and take a second shot at hitting him with it when her cell phone rang. She pulled it from her apron pocket, frowning when she didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Is this Stella Collingsworth?”
“Yes. This is Stella. Who is this?”
“Ma’am, my name is Frank Douglas and I’m afraid I’m calling with bad news.”
“Bad news?” Stella asked. She cringed as she inadvertently remembered the last time she received a phone call with bad news about her father’s death.
“Yes ma’am. I regret to inform you that your former roommate, Jennifer Baker, was killed in a tragic car accident two nights ago.”
Chapter 2
Stella stumbled into the counter. “Jenny’s dead?” She was stunned. Jenny had been her roommate up until her father’s death. She and Stella had been best friends for longer than that. They had been there for each other during both good and bad times, and Stella had been closer to her than she was to any of her sisters. At least, until recently when she had moved back to the ranch. She had been so busy the last few months working with her siblings to get the dude ranch up and running, she hadn’t talked to Jenny near as often as she had wanted to. She had been planning to invite Jenny and her daughter to come up for a visit in a few weeks, but hadn’t made the call yet.
“Wher
e’s Misty?” Stella asked hurriedly, worried that something might have also happened to the daughter of her best friend. Misty was seven years old and Stella had really missed having her around. Her nieces had been a nice distraction, but they were all much younger and she missed having the older girl around to help in the kitchen without the fear that she might cut herself with a knife.
“Miss Collingsworth…”
“Stella. My name’s Stella,” she insisted.
“Stella. Misty is the reason why I’m calling. Miss Baker left a will naming you Misty’s legal guardian. Were you aware of this?”
Stella blinked and ignored the whispered questions coming from Spencer. She remembered when Misty was born, Jenny had asked her to be Misty’s guardian in the event that anything happened to her. She remembered only a few years ago, Jenny had made it official with a will. “We had discussed that, yes. Is Misty okay? Was she hurt in the car wreck?”
“Yes, she’s okay. No, she was not involved in the accident. It’s my understanding she was at home with a sitter. When would you be able to get here, Miss Collingsworth?”
Stella cleared her throat. “Uhm…well, it’s 9 a.m. now, so if I can get a flight out of Denver, I could be there by late afternoon, or maybe this evening.”
“Perfect. I will have someone meet you at the airport and bring you to my office directly. Misty will be retrieved and be waiting for you here.”
Retrieved? She’s not a coat! “Wait! What do you mean by the word retrieved? Where is she now?” Stella asked suspiciously.
“Child services had no other choice but to place her in temporary foster care, since there are no living family members. There were no openings in private homes, so she has spent the last few nights in the children’s ward at the state orphanage,” the attorney explained matter-of-factly, like he was discussing an item and not a precious child who just lost her mother.
Orphanage? Oh, poor Misty! She must be terrified! Don’t worry, sweetie. Aunt Stella’s coming to get you.
Stella clenched her jaw and told the man, “Get her out of there. Do whatever paperwork you need to, but get her out of there. And tell her I’m coming. I will be there to get her before the day ends.”
“I will do what I can. There will be some paperwork for you to sign, and you may need to return to California at some point to finalize the guardianship papers, but we can cross that bridge when it gets here. Will you be wanting to go through Miss Baker’s belongings before leaving California?”
Stella couldn’t even begin to answer that question. The dude ranch was set to open in two days’ time, and there was so much left to do…But she couldn’t leave all of Jenny’s belongings in limbo. The landlord wouldn’t be happy about that, and one day Misty would want to have some of her mother’s things.
“Uhm…I’ll plan on staying a few days and I’ll arrange to have a moving company pack up her belongings and either put them in storage or transport them to Colorado. Did she leave…” she hesitated, not sure how to word her question.
The attorney seemed to read her mind. “Miss Baker left everything to you and her daughter. She specifically stated that she trusted you to dispense with her belongings in any way you saw fit.”
She would. Jenny and she had spent many nights talking about their childhoods and Jenny knew how much Stella had missed having a mother growing up. Now it seemed her own daughter was to suffer the same fate. Suddenly, it became imperative that Misty not grow up angry at the world around her, and that she feel loved and accepted each and every day of the rest of her life. Stella would see to it!
“I can do that. I’ll see you later this afternoon.”
The attorney gave her his personal cell phone number and asked her to send him her flight information as soon as she got it. He promised to do everything within his power to make the coming hours as easy as possible.
Stella really didn’t care about his assurances. Her best friend was dead, and the little girl that called her “aunt” and was as close to a daughter as she’d ever had was languishing in some sterile, foreign orphanage!
She disconnected the call and then closed her eyes, counting to ten before opening them with tears spilling down her cheeks. She looked at her brother. “I need a ride to Denver.”
Spencer had come around the counter while she was on the phone and laid a comforting arm on her shoulder. “Sure, but what’s going on?”
Stella felt tears spring to her eyes, “My best friend Jenny died last night. She left me in charge of her seven-year-old daughter.”
Chapter 3
Stella spent a few minutes allowing Spencer to comfort her, and then she forced her tears back and adopted her chef attitude. The one that got her through a dinner service when the meat had been over-cooked, the salad prep had been botched, and the restaurant was filled to over-flowing with hungry, impatient customers.
She shooed Spencer off to ready his plane and let Sheridan know what was going on. Then she got to work. She called Kathy, the housekeeper over at the main house, and asked her to come to the lodge so she could go over the menu she had planned for the first few days the ranch would be open to paying customers.
Kathy had worked for the Collingsworth family, along with her husband, for so many years. Stella had no doubt that she could handle the opening day or two if she couldn’t get back to Colorado in time.
She next went upstairs in search of Stephanie. Her older sister was the consummate organizer and had quickly claimed the guest quarters, and the interior decorating of the new lodge and refurbished guest cabins as her domain. Another one of her sisters, Sadie, was a very skilled artist, painting wonderful watercolors of the surrounding landscape, and as Stella climbed the winding staircase that led to the upper floor, she couldn’t help but smile softly as she passed some of her sister’s artwork along the way.
She found her on the third floor, hanging a lovely mountain scene above the fireplace in the master bedroom. The third floor only contained four large suites, designed for large groups or family units that wanted to room together.
“Steph?” Stella asked, swallowing to try and dispel the tears she’d yet to release.
Stephanie turned around, but the smile of greeting on her face was quickly replaced by concern. “Hey! What’s wrong? You look like your best friend just died.”
Stella lost her battle with her emotions and burst into tears. “She did!”
“What?! Oh, sis. I’m so sorry. Are you talking about Jenny?”
Stella nodded, unable to speak amidst her tears. Stephanie crossed the distance between them and wrapped her in her arms. Through her tears, she noticed Stephanie was moving a bit slower than usual and she briefly wondered if her MS was acting up again, but dismissed the concern with her sister’s words. “I’m so sorry. What happened?”
“She was killed in a car accident.” Before Stella could say anything more, Sadie wandered into the room.
“Did I miss something?” she asked, puzzled at why her sisters were hugging each other and Stella, the sister she always viewed as the angry and standoffish one, was crying.
“Hey, Sadie. Stella just got some news about her best friend out in California. She passed away.”
Sadie immediately joined the sisterly hugging session. “Gosh, Stella. I’m so sorry!”
“Stella, I’m so sorry to hear about your friend,” Sierra said, also coming into the room out of breath as if she’d just ran a mile.
Stella looked over at her and nodded. “Thanks. I have to tell you I still can’t quite believe it.”
“That’s understandable. I ran into Spencer at the main house and he said your friend left you in charge of her daughter?” Sierra asked.
Stella saw Sadie and Stephanie give each other a look, but she ignored it and answered Sierra. “Yes. Misty is a wonderful little girl, but a bit on the quiet side. I can’t stop imagining how scared she must be.”
“Kids are resilient. She might take a few days or weeks to adjust, but there’s plenty of
love here to go around, and I can hear in your voice how much you care for her,” Stephanie commented as she gave Stella another hug.
“She’s kind of like my surrogate daughter. That’s why I was coming to find you. I need to go get her and take care of the paperwork in California.”
Stephanie smiled. “I can’t wait to meet her. Sadie, Sierra, and I will handle things here with Kathy. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“But we open in two days,” she reminded them.
“We’ve got this. Don’t we girls?” Sierra asked, sharing a smile and nod with the rest of her sisters.
“Go get that little girl and bring her back here,” Stephanie told her.
“Spencer said he’d fly me to Denver…”
“And I will,” Spencer said, coming into the room with Sheridan right behind him. “In fact, we need to get going. Sheridan got you a seat on the 1 o’clock flight, and if we don’t leave in the next half hour, you’re never going to make it.”
Stella smiled at Sheridan and when a hug was offered, she gratefully accepted it. “I knew I’d go back to California, I just didn’t think it would be quite this soon.”
Sheridan hugged her close, whispering, “Don’t worry about the ranch. We’ll manage until you get back here. Go do what you have to do and then come home.”
Chapter 4
Home. That word kept rumbling around her brain as she impatiently waited for the flight from Denver to Los Angeles to be over. She’d just barely made her flight, having had to take a taxi from the smaller Jefferson County Airport to Denver International. But she’d made it and two hours into the flight, she was beginning to get antsy and nervous.
Would Misty be willing to leave her home and everything she’d known to go with Stella to Colorado? What if the authorities wouldn’t allow her to take the child out of the state? What if she couldn’t give Misty what she needed to cope with her mother’s death?
