His warm breath on the soft part of her neck sent shivers down her spine. “You’re not taking those dogs away from their home,” she said. “They were raised on the ranch, and they’d be miserable anywhere else. I’ll stay right there and never leave before you take them away. I won’t even sell it until they’ve all passed away, and then I’m going to bury them right on top of Ezra. That way he’ll have all three of his wives in the same grave with him.”
“Let’s talk about all of this tomorrow.” Rusty set his plate down on the first table they came to.
“Where and when?” she asked.
“Neutral place,” he answered. “In the barn at six o’clock.”
“I’ll be there.” With a curt nod, she walked on past him and sat down at the second table with Abby Joy, Cooper, and a handful of hired hands.
“What was that all about?” Abby Joy whispered.
“Just setting up a meeting so we can talk,” Bonnie answered.
“You’ve got a job right here anytime you want to move,” Abby Joy said. “Just promise me you won’t get a wild hair and leave the canyon. Sisters should stick together, and besides, this baby”—she laid her hand on her bulging stomach—“needs his aunts. I don’t know a blessed thing about babies, so I’ll need all the help I can get too.”
Bonnie made up her mind right then and there to stick around until the dogs had all died, and so that she could be an aunt to Abby Joy’s baby. Bonnie missed having family in her life, so she couldn’t very well deny her little niece the same. “I promise.”
She glanced over at the other table, where Shiloh and Waylon were sitting with the rest of the hired hands. Her mind went back to that first day when Cooper had told them that they’d need more than one napkin because the chicken was greasy. She had been glad that her two older half-sisters weren’t bashful when it came to food. On first impression, Shiloh had seemed pretty prissy, and the older sister was without a doubt a force to be reckoned with, but when they all three gathered around in the kitchen that cold day, all three of them hadn’t had any qualms about food.
Abby Joy bumped her on the arm. “What are you thinkin’ about? You’ve hardly touched your barbecue, and I know you like it a lot.”
“I’ve been thinkin’ about our first day together a lot lately,” she answered.
“You mean at Ezra’s funeral?” Cooper asked. “I couldn’t believe that all three of you showed up looking like you did at his graveside service.”
“Oh?” Abby Joy raised an eyebrow.
“Think about it,” Cooper chuckled. “You looked like you’d just come out of a war zone in all that camouflage and your combat boots. Shiloh, over there”—he nodded her way—“looked like she’d just left a rodeo, and I wasn’t sure if you were a biker or a punk rocker, Bonnie.”
“I couldn’t believe those two were my sisters, either.” Bonnie giggled. “I figured that Abby Joy was like Ezra, and Shiloh had to take after her mother, and that neither of them would last two days on a ranch. Shiloh would be afraid she’d break a fingernail, and Abby Joy would be…”
“I’d be what?” Abby Joy asked.
“Bored to tears on a ranch after the life you’d led in the military,” Bonnie finished. “I didn’t even know Ezra, but from what Mama told me when she was drinking too much and bitchin’ about him, I figured you were the most like him.”
“Hey, now, I’m the least like Ezra of all of us,” Abby Joy declared.
Suddenly Bonnie had that antsy feeling that she only got when someone was staring at her. She glanced over at the other table and locked eyes with Rusty. She wished that she could fall into those sexy green eyes all the way to the bottom of his soul and find out what his real feelings were. Waylon nudged him with a shoulder, and he looked away just about the same time Abby Joy poked her on the arm with her forefinger.
“You don’t have a smart-ass remark about me being the least like Ezra?” Abby Joy asked.
“Nope, but I’ve got a question for Cooper. You liked Ezra, right?”
Cooper nodded. “He was an eccentric old codger, but he was smart as a whip when it came to ranchin’. All of us around these parts could depend on him for advice—other than when it came to women.”
“Guess that answers my question fairly well,” Bonnie said. “Thanks.”
Cooper’s head bobbed in a quick nod, and then he changed the subject. “These beans are great. What’s your secret?”
“A tablespoon of mustard,” Bonnie answered. “It cuts the sweet of the brown sugar and ketchup.”
And a little argument is good for a relationship, like mustard is good for beans. Her mother’s voice popped into her head. It cuts all that sweetness of flirting and sex. Every couple has to endure a few tests to see if the relationship will withstand the long journey.
That just might be the smartest advice you have ever given me, Mama, Bonnie thought. Why don’t you apply it to your own relationships?
Chapter Seven
Bonnie was sitting on a bale of hay in the corner of the barn, ready for their talk, when Rusty arrived. Several strands of blond hair had escaped from her ponytail and were stuck to her sweaty face. Pieces of hay were still stuck to her clothing from hauling bales from the field to the barn all day. With no one else to help, and refusing to work together, they’d each loaded their own truck bed full, driven it to the barn, and then unloaded and stacked it there. They’d gotten in what they’d baled the day before, and tomorrow, they’d move to another field and start cutting what was ready there.
“Why didn’t Ezra ever get the machinery to make those big round bales?” She removed her work gloves and laid them beside her.
“He was old school.” Rusty sat down on the running board of her truck. “He said that ranchers wasted enough hay to make half a dozen small bales with what they lost on every one they left out in the weather. I think that once we were set up the waste would be worth it in the long run because we’d save a ton of money in the summer.” When Ezra was alive, Rusty wouldn’t have doubted anything the old man said.
“How would that be saving money?” she asked.
“We wouldn’t be payin’ the summer help wages,” he answered. “But we’re really not here to talk about hay, are we?”
“No, but after loading and hauling this all day, I’m all for buying the new stuff for the big bales,” she said. “I’ll go first. The argument over the dogs was just so we didn’t have to face the real problem, which is the fact that I really do like you. One minute we’re arguing, and the next we get along pretty good. I don’t know if you’re just pretending to be nice so I’ll sell you the ranch, or if you feel the same sparks I do when you’re in the same room with me.” She pushed a strand of hair from her sweaty face.
He was speechless at her honesty. “I like you too. Always have felt a connection between us, but I’m having second thoughts about this place. I’ve had a love-hate connection to the ranch, though. Seems like it’s tainted when it comes to relationships. I don’t care if I had ten daughters and no sons, I’d never send them away, and they’d all inherit an equal share of whatever I had when my days on this earth came to an end. And Ezra shouldn’t have treated his wives the way he did. Far as I could tell, none of them did a thing wrong, and it wasn’t their fault their first child wasn’t a son. The second one might have been.”
“You won’t get an argument out of me on any of what you just said,” Bonnie agreed, “but a ranch is basically just dirt and grass. Is it really worth losing a friend, or the love of your life, over? Neither of my older sisters thought it was.”
“Sometimes the place is just dirt if we don’t get rain when we need it,” Rusty chuckled. “When y’all first got here, you were sure enough ready to put on the gloves and go to war for the ranch, and now all you can talk about is selling it and gettin’ the hell out of Dodge, or the Palo Duro Canyon, as this case is.”
“Yep, but then we bonded, and now I feel pretty alone. It’s not the first time. Every time Mama
moved us, I had this same feeling of not knowing anyone. I hated walking into a new school three or four times a year,” she said. “But not putting down roots is part of me now, and I don’t know if I can stay in one place and be happy, Rusty. I’m afraid to even give it a try, but my heart has grown roots here and I have sisters who are living close by. Plus, you and I need to make the decisions about what happens on this place. Ezra is gone, and he doesn’t get a say-so anymore.”
Rusty moved over to sit beside her. “No, he doesn’t, but he’s buried right here on the property.”
“He left you his knowledge of ranchin’.” Bonnie nudged him with her shoulder. “I inherited his blue eyes and stubborn will. That’s all he should get credit for.”
“If you stay, and I hope you do,” Rusty said, “what will you tell your kids about him someday? You do realize, he’ll be their grandfather.”
“I’ll tell them the absolute truth, and then I’ll tell them that they have a father who is amazing and loves them, even if their grandfather wasn’t a nice person,” she answered.
“How can you make that kind of statement when you have no idea who the father of your kids will be?” Rusty turned and studied her face.
“Because I won’t ever marry until I can find a man that I can truly say is amazing and that will love our children. I grew up without a father, for no other reason than I wasn’t a boy. My kids, boys or girls, are going to have a daddy to love them, protect them, and provide for them, or I won’t have a husband,” Bonnie declared with so much conviction that Rusty could have sworn the temperature in the hot barn raised a few more degrees.
“Now, let’s talk about you,” Rusty said. “Are you staying or leaving?”
“Staying. I can’t let Ezra win, and besides, I kind of like having roots, now that I realize how it feels,” she answered. “Let’s make a deal. We both stay until Christmas and see where this attraction between us goes. No rush. No hurry. But I want to talk to that lawyer who set up Ezra’s will. Think you could arrange a meeting with him?”
“What do you want to talk to him about?” Rusty frowned.
“I want to understand a little more about the way the will is written,” she answered. “Then we’ll be ready for another talk. When can we visit with him?”
“I’ll call him tomorrow morning and set up an appointment,” Rusty answered. “Now we should be ready to talk honestly about us. I’ve missed you the last two days.” He scooted over closer to her.
“I wouldn’t want to run this place without you.” She turned so they were facing each other. “And I like having you around. I missed you too.”
He cupped her face in his hands and their lips met in a fiery kiss that warmed the barn right up to a full ninety-plus degrees. His hands trembled and his pulse raced when the kiss ended.
“So, we’re good then?” He wanted to kiss her again, just to see if the second one stirred his feelings as much as the first one.
“Yes, we’re good.” She laid her head on his shoulder. “Can we go over this one more time, though? We’ve agreed that neither of us will leave the ranch, but we haven’t talked about the dogs.”
“According to the will, they are mine,” he said, “but I’m willing to share them with you as long as you stay on the place.” He leaned back and frowned. “Are you keeping me around just so you don’t have to give up the dogs?”
She reached up and ruffled his dark hair. “You’re smarter than you look.”
He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips to kiss each knuckle. “I’ve got lots of surprises to show you, since you’ve said you’ll stick around for a while.”
Chapter Eight
On the day of Ezra’s funeral, Jackson Bailey had served as executor to Ezra’s estate and handed each of the sisters a copy of his will. Bonnie shoved hers into the bottom dresser drawer in her new bedroom and never gave it another minute’s thought. When she awoke on Thursday morning, the first thing she did was go straight to the dresser and get the blue binder.
She padded barefoot to the kitchen, where she made a pot of coffee and then sat down at the table to try to make heads and tails out of the legalese its pages contained. Most of it was so deep that she couldn’t understand a word of it, but the language that said the sisters had to stay on the ranch for a year to share it was plain enough. If two of them left, it went to the third one—kind of like the last girl standing. Bonnie would have to have the lawyer verify what she thought that meant, but if it did, everything could change in a hurry. Because the way she read it said that if she was the last one on the ranch, then it went to her, even before the year was up.
“Good mornin’.” Rusty came into the kitchen by the back door. “What have you got there? Coffee smells good. Let’s have ham and cinnamon toast for breakfast.”
“Ezra’s will,” she answered. “That sounds fine.”
“I’ll call that lawyer about nine. That’s usually when businesses open up in Claude. Don’t get your hopes up. He’s an old guy, maybe Ezra’s age or older, and he pretty much keeps hours when he wants to.” Rusty poured two mugs of coffee and brought them to the table. “What’s got you worried about it? I thought it was pretty straightforward.”
“I can’t understand anything I’m reading, but I wanted to at least have looked at it before we go into town to see the lawyer.” She pushed it to the middle of the table. “What’s on the agenda for today?” But then she cocked her head to one side and listened intently. “That sounds like a car or maybe a truck.”
“I thought it was a tractor with a bad engine problem coming up the lane,” Rusty said.
“Are we expecting company?” Bonnie asked.
She pushed back her chair and frowned as she started toward the door. When she stepped outside, she could see the dust boiling up as the old blue pickup truck drove down the lane. She heard the door open and close behind her and felt Rusty’s presence even before he laid a hand on her shoulder.
“Friend of yours?” he asked.
“Holy crap on a cracker!” Bonnie sighed. “That would be my mother, arriving without notice. I guess she sold her car and got a truck.” Could the morning get any worse? she thought as she took a step back. “Mama?”
“I’ve come to rescue you,” Vivien yelled as she got out of the truck and jogged across the yard. A tall blond woman, she was so thin that Bonnie used to tell her to put rocks in her pockets to keep a strong wind from blowing her away. She looked every one of her fifty-three years, but then she lived on cigarettes, coffee, booze, and an occasional joint or two.
Vivien opened up her arms, and Bonnie walked into them.
“I don’t need or want to be rescued,” she said. “Mama meet Rusty. Rusty, this is my mother, Vivien Malloy.”
“I’ll stick around until tomorrow and maybe you’ll change your mind.” Vivien took in the house and surrounding area in one sweeping glance. “This place ain’t changed since you was a baby.”
Vivien released her daughter from the hug. “You don’t have to live like this another day, darlin’. I’ve changed my mind about you staying here to get his worthless piece of dirt. I want you to take whatever the money is offered in the will and go with me to California. If this old truck won’t make it, we’ll stop and get another one or finish the trip on the bus.”
Bonnie folded her arms over her chest and stepped in front of the door. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Vivien looked rougher than usual. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair hung in limp strings. She reeked of whiskey and marijuana and smelled like she hadn’t had a bath in a week.
“Have you been drinking and driving again?”
“Yep, but I didn’t get caught, so it’s all right,” Vivien giggled. “And yes, I had a joint or two to relax me on the long drive, and now I’m coming down off it. You know what that means—munchies. What’s in the kitchen?”
“We haven’t had breakfast yet, and we’ll be glad to have you join us. We were about to make cinnamon toast and fry up s
ome ham to go with it. The coffee is ready. You ladies can have a cup and visit while I get the food ready. Come on in and make yourself at home.” Rusty held the door open.
“So, you’re Rusty,” Vivien said as she pushed her way inside. “I need to clean up a bit. Don’t worry about me. I still remember where everything is located in this godforsaken place.”
“In my wildest imagination I can’t see Ezra married to her,” Rusty whispered as he got down a loaf of bread and began to slather butter on each piece.
Bonnie got a slice of ham out of the refrigerator. “Her favorite men have been bikers who stick around for a few weeks or maybe even a couple of months and then they get into a big fight and we usually wind up moving somewhere else.”
“And even after you got out of school, you moved with her?” Rusty asked.
Bonnie nodded. “I hold down a job better than she does, so she needed me.”
“That’s called an enabler.” Rusty shook a mixture of cinnamon and sugar over the buttered bread and slid it into the oven.
“Well, well, ain’t this cozy?” Vivien arrived back in the kitchen. “I don’t remember Ezra ever helping me cook a damn thing. You sure ain’t related to him in anyway, Rusty.”
She wore a pair of Bonnie’s newest jeans, one of her shirts, and she’d changed out her ratty sneakers for Bonnie’s cowboy boots.
“You are welcome to take my things without asking,” Bonnie said in a saccharine tone.
“Thank you.” Vivien poured herself a mug of coffee and added three heaping spoonfuls of sugar. “I knew you wouldn’t mind. We’ll be traveling together anyway and sharing hotel rooms, so it’s not like you won’t get them back.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Bonnie reaffirmed. “Why are you going to California? You’ve always stuck around Kentucky and east Texas.”
“About two months ago, Big Ben came into the bar where I’ve been working since you left Kentucky. We hit it off.” Vivien shrugged. “And then he cheated on me. I’ve always wanted to see the ocean, and you talked about it when you was a kid, so I sold everything I had and headed this way. With what you’ll get, surely, we can get out there and rent us a trailer. We can always find a job as bartenders. Come on, Bonnie, have some sense. This damned ranch ruined my life. Don’t let it tear yours up too.”
Sunrise Ranch--A Daisies in the Canyon Novella Page 6
