by Zoe Matthews
Spencer leaned closer to her and then took her hand and pointed to a row of three stars, in a perfectly straight line in the western sky. “There.”
She looked for a minute and then smiled, “I see it! What other constellations can you identify?”
Spencer smiled at her and then located Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper, and Alpha Centauri. He looked a little closer and then he found Mars and Venus as well.
“See that red looking star, there by the tip of the Dipper?”
“Yes. What is that one called?”
“Mars,” he told her.
“Really? Like, the planet?”
“Yes. Sometimes you can see Saturn as well, but we’d need a telescope for that.”
“Do you have one?” she asked eagerly.
Spencer shook his head. “Not here. I have one back in New York, but I never really got a chance to use it there.”
“You need to get one here. You could even offer star gazing nights for the guests. Maybe you guys could even put some log benches or something out in back of the lodge for people to use.”
Spencer looked at her and then smiled, “You sound like you really like it here.”
Emma grinned back at him. “I really do. I’m so tired of the city. The noise and the people and the traffic…I want to live somewhere, where I can plant things and know they’re going to grow.”
“Smog is a deterrent to that, I’m guessing?” he asked her lightly.
“Definitely! You have such a marvelous place here. I’m sorry I have to leave the day after tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure I want to see you go, either. Getting to know you this past week has been fun.”
Emma was quiet for a moment and then she offered, “I have more vacation time coming. And my ticket through the airline offers me the ability to change my ticket without any penalty.”
“Then stay. You’ll be here to help the girls’ plant stuff, and it will give us more time to get to know each other.”
Emma was quiet for a moment and then she nodded, “I’d like that. Your sisters are pretty cool.”
“You all seem to be getting along really well.” Spencer was silent for a moment, looking up at the stars. When he saw a falling star, he closed his eyes and made a silent wish.
He’d never felt so connected to another human being that he wasn’t related to. Emma and he had gotten along really well via email, but in person, he felt like he’d known her for years rather than mere months.
He wasn’t ready for her to go back to the city. He wasn’t sure where a relationship between them might end up, but he was very attracted to her both physically and mentally. He admired her intelligence, and her gentle spirit. She was fairly laid back, which he really appreciated, and yet she had an internal drive that urged her towards excellence.
He’d never seen one of her finished landscape projects, but her attention to detail in the drawings she’d made for his sisters was a testament to the quality of her workmanship.
“Let’s walk for a bit,” he suggested, jumping down from the top of the fence and then reaching up for her. He placed his hands at her waist and felt that familiar tingle rush up his arms again.
He lifted her down, her diminutive height dwarfed by his own. He took her hand and then walked her down the fence line. As the reached the juncture of the pastures, he stopped and turned to face her. “Have I told you how happy I am that you came out here?”
Emma smiled up at him. “Yes, but it’s nice to hear again.”
Spencer brushed a lock of hair off her cheek and then cupped her jawline, “I want to kiss you.”
Emma met his gaze, barely able to make out his features in the darkness of the night. “I think I’d like that.”
Spencer lowered his head, meeting her as she raised on her tiptoes and touched his lips gently to her own. The tingles were back, and this time he didn’t wonder at their origin - or what they meant. He simply closed his eyes and enjoyed their kiss. Emma was everything he could have asked for in a girlfriend. But did they have enough in common to go beyond that? Only time would tell.
Chapter 10
The next morning…
“That roof looks to be pretty intact. And the cabin looks like it has several rooms,” Bridger commented as they made another pass over the first of three line shacks they were going to be checking out.
“How many miles away from the Ranch House is this?” Sadie asked.
“Probably ten miles with the current trail system. If we put a bridge over the river a few miles back, we could cut the travel time in half,” Spencer told everyone.
“Do we have time to install a bridge this late in the season?” Hunter asked.
Bridger shook his head. “Probably not. We’ve gone up quite a bit in elevation and the leaves are almost completely off the trees here. We’d have to wait until summer more than likely.”
Spencer turned the plane east and said, “Well that eliminates the next one on the list.”
“Why?” Emma queried.
“It’s easily at nine thousand plus feet. And it’s even further away from the main buildings.”
“What’s the elevation on the third one?” Sadie asked.
“It’s actually at about the same elevation as the Ranch House, and it’s only about three miles through the valley floor.”
“Three miles doesn’t sound too bad.”
“No, and the trail is already wide enough for the gators to travel. It’s the most used line shack currently, but it wouldn’t be hard to retrofit. If I remember what Sheridan told me, it has three bedrooms, an open concept kitchen and living space, and is elevated enough to prevent critters from easy access.”
“That sounds real promising. Why don’t we head back and a few of us will just go pay it a personal visit?”
Spencer nodded his head and turned the plane back for the runway. “Sounds good.”
Ten minutes later, Spencer landed the plane and helped his passengers disembark. “Are you heading out now?”
Bridger looked at the others and then nodded. “Might as well. You coming?”
Spencer shook his head. “Unfortunately, I need to do some paperwork for the ranch. Emma, would you like to go with them?”
Emma smiled and then shook her head. “I actually need to take care of a few things so that I can stick around a while longer.”
“You’re going to stay?” Sadie asked with a smile.
“Well, I only have another ten day of vacation, but – yeah. If it’s okay with you all.”
“Please! Stay as long as you like. When we get back maybe we can sit down and get those plants and flowers ordered?”
“Sure we can. We might even get lucky and they’ll arrive while I’m here to help you get them in the ground.”
Spencer and Emma waved the others off and then started for the gator that had been left parked in the small shed at the edge of the runway.
“You could have gone with them,” he told her.
“I really do need to arrange for more time off and then I need to call the airline. Besides, it wouldn’t be much fun without you. Maybe I can help you out once I’m done?” Emma asked.
“Sure. Let’s go.”
Spencer drove them back to the Ranch House, showed her where she could take care of her business, and then pointed in the direction of his small office. “Come join me when you’re finished.”
Emma smiled at him and he headed for the front hall. He grabbed the mail, noticing the large manila envelope right off the bat. It was addressed to him, and the return address was Colorado Springs and belonged to the investigative firm he’d hired to conduct a study of his father’s plane accident.
Taking the mail into his office, he closed the door and then slid a letter opener beneath the flap of the envelope. He extracted the five page report and laid them down in front of him. Part of him didn’t want to read the results.
Once he finished reading, he sat down and pondered for quite some time and then gazed out the window
while trying to reconcile what he’d read with what he knew to be true. The only logical explanation is that this had been no accident.
_____ Back in May, the family received the official accident report from authorities. Later a verbal report from their father’s friend, who was an airframe mechanic, confirmed the findings. It was determined by both sources that “the right fuel tank had run dry, so the pilot, in an attempt to keep the engine running, didn’t engage the fuel selector valve fully to receive gas from the left wing fuel tank.” This caused the engine to eventually quit and his father wasn’t able to correct the problem quickly enough before he crashed into a nearby mountain. It was raining and snowing lightly at the time, so weather was also believed to be a factor.
When Spencer had first read this report, he was suspicious. His father was an excellent pilot. He never would have ran a tank dry and he wouldn’t have made the mistake when switching tanks to not move the switch completely over. They lived close enough to the small airport in Pinedale that there was no reason to have low gas tanks.
When Spencer started hearing from his sisters that his father had been sick, he knew deep down that his father’s death was no accident. He made the decision without his siblings’ knowledge to hire a man to look deeper into the cause of the crash. He now had the papers in front of him.
What he read confirmed what he suspected. His father had left the ranch that morning around 8:00. The accident happened about two hours later. What did his father do for those two hours? He had plenty of time to fly to Pinedale and refuel, but he didn’t. It seemed that he purposefully flew around to empty one of the tanks. Then, when the right tank was dry, the switch had not been moved over all the way to the left tank, like it was placed in the middle on purpose. The plane crashed almost immediately after his father moved the switch.
The report concluded that although the crash could easily be explained as an accident, the man Spencer had hired indicated that it wasn’t an accident. His father had committed suicide.
Spencer felt tears run down his face. Why would his father do such a thing? Was it so bad living on this ranch that had been in their family for so many years? His father had six children he wasn’t close to, by his own choice, but Spencer knew that all of them, including him, would have done what they could to help him fight the cancer he had. He was their father, after all, and they loved him.
He knew his siblings were not going to like what he had to tell them, but also knew he needed to. Information like this should not be hidden.
He had to admit that one good thing had come from his father’s death. It had brought his siblings’ home to the ranch, as well as himself. Working together for the past five months building the dude ranch and brought them all closer together.
A noise in the hallway had him placing the sheets of paper back into the envelope and laying it on his desk. He would present the report to his siblings, but only when they were all together. They deserved to know what he’d found out, and they would need each other’s support.
Emma tapped on his door and he bade her enter. “Come on in.”
“I’m not disturbing you?” she asked.
“No, not at all. Did you get all of your calls made?”
“I did. What about you?”
Spencer sighed without meaning to, drawing a look from her and another question. “What’s wrong?”
“Why would you think anything was wrong?”
“I don’t really know, but you seem almost sad.”
“Remember I told you about my father’s accident?”
Emma nodded her head. “I remember you told me you didn’t really believe it was an accident. Do you still think that way?”
“Yeah. I had a private firm analyze the accident and the wreckage of the plane.” He picked up the envelope and waved it. “I got the report back today.”
“Was it bad news?” she asked.
“Yes, it was.”
“Are you going to share the findings with your brother and sisters?”
“I have to. They deserve to know what I’ve uncovered.”
Emma was quiet for a moment and then she asked, “So now that you have the report back, are you going to finally open the letter your father left you?”
Spencer glanced at her with narrowed eyes. “How do you know I haven’t already opened it?”
“You told me in an email back in July that you were going to wait to open your letter until you knew the truth about his death. Now that you know, are you going to open the letter?”
Spencer turned around and picked up the letter, showing it to her and then looking at it. He found it interesting that he had been so open to Emma while they wrote. Did that mean something? He’d have to think about that. “I guess there’s no reason not to now.”
Emma gave him a comforting smile and stood up. “Why don’t you do that and then come find me? If you want to talk about it, I’ll listen. If not, we’ll go fishing or do something else.”
Spencer laughed. “Fishing? I didn’t think city girls knew how to fish.”
Emma winked at him. “I wasn’t always a city girl. Read your letter and then come get me. I’ll go rustle us up some poles and some bait.”
Chapter 11
Spencer watched her leave and shut the door behind her and then he looked down at the letter in his hands. It had been many months since his father’s death, and he thought his other siblings had all opened their letters, but he wasn’t positive about that.
He only knew that he hadn’t been able to open his while there was still a question surrounding his father’s death. Now that question had been answered, and he couldn’t come up with another excuse to keep from opening the letter.
He reached for the letter opener and carefully slid the flap open. He extricated several sheets of paper and smoothed them out on the desk. Taking a deep breath, he began to read –
My Dearest Spencer:
Before you read any further, I want you to know how proud I am of you. I know it was a violation of your privacy, but I couldn’t stand not knowing what was happening to you when you decided to stay in the city. I’ve known for a while now that you were flying and had purchased a plane. Bravo, son for going after your dream and not letting anyone, especially a grouchy old man, keep you from your goals.
By now, you’ve already attended my funeral and I hope that you and your siblings have all moved home. I didn’t make this request of you all lightly, but as my final attempt to rectify the poor example of family, I set for all of you.
I never showed you kids how to love one another, but instead taught you how to stand up for yourselves, tend to your own problems, and never grow to appreciate the value and benefits that come with having a family. Please allow me to help you all change.
I hope you are not grieving for me. I have missed your mother dearly every moment of every day since she left us, and now I am with her once again. I promise you I am smiling.
Now, I know that leaving Sheridan in charge of the ranch, may cause significant problems for you, but I ask that you work with him and try to find some common ground between you.
He was very much my partner these last few years, and I wish there was a way to pay him back for the years of sacrifice, but there just isn’t; except to give him a chance to live out his dream by turning the ranch into something more than a cattle operation. He’s capable of doing what needs to be done, but he will need the support of all of you. Especially you, Spencer.
I did a poor job of teaching you kids what family was and I take full responsibility for the fact that none of you truly share your lives with one another. That is why I have insisted on six months at the ranch. Together.
Find common ground with Sheridan and your sisters. I know it will never be the same bond you share with Stella, but as my last wish, please try.
Spencer, I admit I am a proud man and I valued my independence more than I should have. Don’t make the same mistake. Find something that makes you happy and then go after it.
That goes for your relationships. Out of all of my kids, you’ve never suffered any great heartache and I pray that you never will. I hope you find a woman that you can count as your best friend, and as a helpmate to go through this life with. A treasure of a woman like I had with your mother.
You never had a chance to know her, but she was the warmest, kindest woman, with a backbone of steel, that I ever had the privilege to meet. And she loved me. I don’t know that I deserved her love, but I wouldn’t change the years I had with her for anything in the world.
Find a love like that. Whether you know it or not, you belong at the ranch. The lure of the big city was fine for a time, but the ranch and the Colorado Mountains are in your blood. Don’t turn away from that. It’s your heritage.
Lastly, I’m proud of you son. I said it before at the beginning of this letter, and I wish I could have found the courage to tell you in person while I was still alive. Sheridan is too much like me, so give him a break when he tries to mold you into his idea of what you should be. You are like your mother in being relaxed and letting life happen around you.
Sheridan doesn’t understand that, he’s taken on too much responsibility too young. Bear with him and maybe through your example and your friendship, he’ll find a happy medium in his own life.
And lastly, don’t be too hard on me for the way my life ended. I did what I needed to do. Be there to help your siblings and may God bless you in the years to come. Be happy.
Love, your father
Spencer set the letter down as a myriad of thoughts and emotions rolled through him. His father had been proud of him?
The idea wasn’t completely foreign, but in all of his twenty-four years, he’d never heard his father tell him, or anyone else, that bit of information. Even from the grave, it felt good knowing that he’d pleased his dad.
