The Hopeful Heart

by Jaclyn Hardy

  Lance jerked the steering wheel and had to quickly correct it to make sure it was on the right path. He grabbed another tissue to wipe his face, chuckling. “Thanks for the extra frosting. Mine didn’t have quite enough.”

  “That’s too bad, you can have my other—” She squealed as Lance shoved his cupcake into her face.

  He licked his fingers and ducked as she swiped at him. “Now see what you made us do? All that delicious frosting is all over the tractor.”

  Brianna doubled over in laughter, her face covered in pink and blue frosting. It took another run down the field before either of them could calm down. “You know, I wasn’t going to tell Angela about you stealing those cupcakes until you attacked. Now I think she deserves to know.”

  “Fair enough, but I’m going to tell her you’re the one who got it on the window.” Lance pointed at a spot to the side of him and laughed again.

  “I think she’ll call it self-defense.” Brianna leaned back against her seat and stared down at the field as they moved along. “It’s peaceful out here. I mean . . . if you ignore the rumble of the tractor and the utter disregard for pastries.”

  Lance shrugged. “I don’t know. I think the rumbling brings its own peace. It’s slow and methodical. And the other part? That was your fault.”

  Brianna held up a hand. “I’m pretty sure you started it.”

  “Depends on who you ask.” Lance grinned at her and turned the tractor another time. They only had a few more rows until they were done, and Lance wished there was a way to stretch the field to give them just a little more time together.

  ***

  Lance added the last thing to Angela’s list, then shoved it in his pocket. He tapped nervously on the counter while he waited for Brianna to come downstairs so he could take her to school.

  “Oh good. You haven’t left.” Angela came from the office and handed Lance an envelope with money in it. “If that’s not enough, I’ll pay you back when you get home.”

  “Perfect.” His breath caught when Brianna came into the room. She was dressed in a button up shirt and pencil skirt—rather formal for school here—and her hair was pulled up into a bun. The heels she wore made her almost the same height as Lance, and he found himself straightening to be just a little taller. “You sure you want to wear that? Most teachers just wear jeans and a nice shirt.”

  Brianna smoothed her skirt. “This is what I wore in New York. I can always wear something more casual tomorrow. Besides, I wanted to make a good impression.”

  “I think she looks lovely.” Angela handed her a small cooler. “Here’s your lunch. And I added a muffin in there in case you get hungry before then.”

  “Thank you.” Brianna took the books from the table. “I think this is everything I need.”

  Lance opened the door for her. “If you need anything else, I’ll be around the area for a bit to get what we need.”

  Brianna nodded and left the house. Her heel promptly sank into the mud as soon as she stepped onto the path, and Lance lunged forward to keep her from falling. She stared up into his eyes for a moment before pulling away. “Oh dear. I’m not sure these shoes are fit for this path.”

  “Not really, no.” Lance kept a hand on her elbow until they made it to his truck.

  It took a few tries for her to lift her leg high enough to climb in, but she finally managed. Lance started the truck and pulled out onto the main road. The playful banter from the night before was absent as they traveled into town. Brianna scanned the notebook in front of her, mumbling to herself here and there.

  “Do you always talk to yourself?”

  Brianna blinked. “Uh, I didn’t realize I was doing that. Sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. I just wondered.” He actually thought it was rather adorable but figured it probably wasn’t something he should admit to her.

  She went back to her notes and moments later she whispered to herself again. Lance smiled and turned onto the road into town. Cars were already arriving at the school as they pulled up. Most of them would be teachers, but some students were there for basketball open gyms. Lance went and played with Thomas and Justin every now and then when they had some free time.

  Brianna sat with her hand on the door, frozen. “They’re all going to hate me, aren’t they?”

  “Just throw cupcakes at them and you’ll be fine.”

  That earned the tiniest of smiles. “I’m serious. This is so out of my league.”

  “Hey.” Lance reached over and placed his hand over hers. He jerked back at the zing of electricity between them. “You’ll be fine. These kids are great. If you can handle the inner-city schools, you can handle this, right?”

  “I guess. But what if I’m teaching the wrong thing? Or they already know this from last year. Or I . . . slip and fall or something?”

  Lance climbed out and went around to help her out. He opened the door and held out a hand. “You just need to take the first step. Come on. And if you don’t have half the senior class crushing on you by the end of first period, I’ll eat my hat. Or something.”

  Brianna drew in a shaky breath and nodded. “Sorry. I’m fine. I think.”

  He was tempted to follow her inside just so he could see everyone’s reactions, but he had a lot to get done at the ranch. Once the front door closed, Lance left and headed for the butcher. All he could think as he picked up the order and moved on to the next errand, was how much he looked forward to hearing about her first day.

  Brianna wanted to hide behind her old Mac computer and pretend like she wasn’t there. Coming here had been the hugest mistake. Not that she’d had much of a choice. This was where she was sent. But instead of a teacher, she should have asked to be something else. Anything else.

  The kids were nice, the classes went okay, but she still felt completely out of her league. Everyone knew each other. They had their people they ate lunch with, talked with, planned their lessons with. She had never felt so alone. So lost.

  “Hey.” Lance stood leaning against the doorway, his thumbs in his pockets in a very cowboyish way. “How’d your first day go?”

  “Good. They didn’t chase me out of the school, so I count that as a win.” Brianna shut down her computer and picked up the books she’d need for that night. “You didn’t need to come. I could have gotten a ride.”

  Lance shrugged. “Tractor broke. Besides, I figured you could use a friendly face after all the teenage angst.”

  Brianna wanted to hug him. And not just metaphorically. She wanted to throw herself into his arms and weep. Instead, she straightened her skirt and forced herself to walk nonchalantly across the classroom.

  “Thank you. The kids are great. But a friendly face is exactly what I need right now.” Brianna sped up as soon as they left the classroom. She wanted out.

  “What do you mean? Were people not nice to you?” His eyebrows lowered into a glare. “Who was rude?”

  Brianna took him by the arm and pulled. All she wanted was to get out of the school before she burst into tears. “Just come on.”

  They made it to his truck before the tears finally came. If it was bad to cry in school, this was worse. She’d only met him the day before, and now she was sobbing in his truck.

  “So . . . did they put tacks on your chair, or what? Shoot spitballs?” Lance put his hand on hers, the warmth and electricity from his touch bringing comfort.

  Brianna wiped her eyes and shook her head. “No, no spitballs or tacks. I’m just missing home.”

  “Well, there’s only a few weeks left of school, and then you can head back there, right?” Lance pulled out of the parking lot.

  “That’s true.” Except she wasn’t sure that was even possible with Dr. Lachele’s magic. “How’d the orchard, um, working go?”

  He shrugged. “I got it done. I was just about to start on disking the north pasture when the tractor broke down again.”

  “So that happens often?”

  “You can expect a few fixes every year. We use
them for a lot of stuff and it wears on them.”

  “Makes sense.” Brianna caught sight of the dark clouds to the south. “Looks like you might not get to the north pasture.”

  Lance frowned. “This wasn’t supposed to hit till tomorrow. Hold on tight.”

  Brianna didn’t have time to ask what was going on before he gunned the engine. They took off and only slowed down for the corners. Rocks from the unpaved road hit against the bottom and sides of the truck as they flew past. She had to catch her breath by the time he pulled into the ranch, but she had to admit that was a lot more fun than sitting in a taxi in New York.

  “You can come with me if you’d like, or you can just head in. I need to get this part back on and go finish before the rain hits.” He jogged off before she could answer.

  Brianna thought of following, but her feet told her there was no way they were going to run in the heels she wore. The house looked much more inviting, so she trudged up the walk, careful to avoid the muddy spots so she wouldn’t sink again.

  Angela sat at the table putting her boots on when Brianna walked into the kitchen. “There you are. We’ve done what we can to prepare the house for the storm, but Rachel could use a little help over at the hotel.”

  “I have some planning to do for tomorrow, but that can wait if there’s anything that needs to be done around here.”

  “No, I think we’re good. I’ll be back in time to serve dinner.” Angela stopped. “Oh, that’s something you can help with. I have salads in the fridge. If you could cut some tomatoes and cucumbers to put in them, that would be great. Also, the rolls are raising. If I’m not back in an hour, could you put them in the oven for me?”

  Brianna hadn’t done much cooking, but she nodded anyway. “Just tell me what temperature and I can do it.”

  Angela grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled a few notes. “That’s everything you should need. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “Sounds good.” Brianna set her books on the table and stared out at the chaos happening outside. Ranchers ran from the barn to the pastures, carrying wood or buckets with them. Lance wasn’t among them, so she assumed he’d already headed out for the north pasture. Wherever that was.

  The sky darkened by the minute and within the hour, the first few drops hit the windows. Brianna turned on the lights in the kitchen so she could see her books, trying to ignore the rain pelting the windows.

  Lightning flashed, followed almost immediately by a clap of thunder. Brianna’s heart leaped into her throat. That was way too close. She stood and went to the window to see if anything had been struck. There were no fires that she could see, but those who were carrying wood dropped what they were doing and ran. Brianna rushed through the dining room and out onto the back porch. Rain was going almost horizontal, drenching her within minutes.

  Two horses ran nearby, their eyes wide with fear. A fence must have broken. Brianna ran back inside and up the stairs to find her boots and change out of her skirt. She knew nothing about ranching, but she could at least try to help. Dinner could wait for just a little bit.

  She pulled her boots on and searched for someone to ask how to help. One of the ranch hands emerged from the barn with wood and headed back to where others were standing around a fence. Brianna stepped out into the storm and stepped carefully so she wouldn’t slide in the mud.

  Several men stood holding the boards up while others nailed the fence back together. Others stood just inside the fence, most likely trying to keep the horses from breaking through that part of the fence again.

  “Brianna!” Lance’s voice was muted by the rain and wind, but it was enough to get her to turn. He gestured for her to come closer to the barn, but said nothing else until they were inside. “What are you doing out here?”

  “I came to see if I could help. I heard the thunder and worried that something bad happened.”

  “The lightning hit the fence and injured a couple of the horses. I could use your help inside.” Lance handed her an armful of rags off of a shelf and grabbed some ointment. “We need to treat them now or they could lose a leg from infection.”

  Brianna bit her lip as they walked through the stalls. Horrific pictures of mangled horses kept playing through her mind, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to see them. A pained whinny came from a row over.

  The horses were still standing, but their legs were in bad shape. Better than what she’d imagined, though.

  Lance placed his hand on the horse’s neck and made soothing sounds. “Take the other one, please. Just do it slowly so she knows she can trust you.”

  Brianna had read enough westerns to know that horses could smell fear. She took a deep breath and followed everything Lance did. The horse was firm, and her coat was soft to the touch. She shied away from Brianna’s hand at first, but finally allowed Brianna to stroke her nose.

  “Okay, now check her body and then her legs for injuries. Try not to touch them or she’ll flip out. Got it?”

  “Got it.” Brianna did her best to keep her breathing even so she wouldn’t spook the horse. “What’s her name?”

  “Bella. This one is Sammy. Not super original names, but they work.” Lance whistled under his breath. “I’m going to have to call the vet in for one of these. It looks like Sammy has a piece of the fence in his leg.”

  Brianna found nothing on Bella’s torso, but her legs were pretty beat up. “It looks like most of it is burns. Oh, there’s a cut on her front leg.”

  “Okay, see that spray right there? It’s going to help clean it. Do that first, and then wrap it in gauze. Do everything slowly so you don’t spook her.” Lance took the second bottle and did the same thing for Sammy.

  Bella shifted and whinnied in pain from the spray, but thankfully she allowed Brianna to put the gauze on over it.

  “Seems like you’ve done this before.” Lance smiled over at her.

  “Not to a horse, no. But I’ve been trained in first aid for years.” Brianna secured the bandage and moved on to another one. She cringed as more thunder rumbled above them. “Are the storms always this bad here?”

  Lance shook his head. “We have some bad ones, but they don’t stick around for long. They dump a bunch of rain and then move on. I’m guessing this one will clear in the next half hour or so.”

  “We get rain in New York, but I’m usually tucked inside my apartment or the school. This is crazy.” Brianna stood and stretched her back. “I think that’s all of them.”

  “Can you get Sammy’s last leg? Then I should be done as well.” Lance handed her more bandages.

  By the time they were all finished, the pounding of the rain on the roof seemed to be dying down. Brianna followed Lance to a nearby sink and washed her hands.

  “So, do we just leave them in the stall together?” Brianna asked.

  “Yep. The vet should be here soon. He needed to check up on Bessie’s baby anyway.” Lance dried his hands.

  Brianna raised her eyebrows. “What’s a Bessie?”

  Lance grinned. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

  They moved to the other side of the barn and Lance opened the gate to one of the stalls. A large milking cow stood eating while a tiny black and white calf stood next to it, nursing. Brianna squealed and moved closer.

  “When was it born?”

  “Really early this morning.” Lance checked the food troughs before closing the gate. “I’d better get back out there and see what else needs to be done.”

  Brianna gasped and checked her wrist for the watch that wasn’t there. “I need to go too. I told Angela I’d get the salad and rolls done.”

  Lance opened the door for her, and Brianna took a breath before running back out into the rain. It was definitely much lighter than before, but she was already soaked, so the chill just went right through her. Angela wasn’t in the kitchen when Brianna got inside, so she pulled off her boots and set the oven on preheat.

  Brianna took a quick hot shower and pulled her hair up into a bun before goi
ng back down to the kitchen. Angela looked up from the roast beef she was slicing and smiled.

  “Oh, hey. I just put the rolls in the oven. Thanks for getting that started.” Angela pulled out two bowls and set them on the table. “If you can work on the salad, I’ll finish this up.”

  “Of course.” Brianna took out a knife and cutting board. “How’s the hotel?”

  Angela sighed. “They have a few issues with the roof leaking, and there’s still another week before they can get a roofer out here. We cleaned up what we could, but a few of the guests needed to be moved out of their rooms.”

  Brianna cringed. “That doesn’t sound good. Why are the roofers taking so long?”

  “They’re loaded with work, I guess.” Angela set a fork on the tray of roast beef and started on another.

  “Are they local?” Brianna chopped a tomato, careful to avoid her fingers.

  Angela shook her head. “There aren’t many local roofers, so we had to go into Twin Falls. Which means they tend to be busier.”

  “Want me to try talking to them?” Brianna slid the sliced tomatoes off the cutting board into the salad.

  Angela shook her head. “I don’t know that it’ll help. Patrick and Rachel have even tried throwing extra money at them, but they don’t care.”

  Brianna stopped chopping. “I don’t have the money, and I don’t have a business degree of any kind, but I have had to deal with landlords and repair companies that don’t want to do the work we called them to do. I’d be willing to try if you want.”

  “I wouldn’t want to impose. You’ve already helped with dinner, driven in a tractor, and helped bandage horses.” Angela chuckled. “Yes, I heard about that. Lance and Carl told me you were impressive.”

  Warmth crept up Brianna’s face. “I just did what Lance told me to do. Besides I’m living here, so I should help out, right?”

  “Only if you want to.” Angela patted her shoulder as she walked past with a tray. “We’re happy to have you here. I’m around these ranch hands all day so having another woman around is really nice.”