THANKS TO JANET, KIMBERLY RECEIVED A CALL shortly after eight o’clock on Monday morning with the offer of a temporary position at an insurance agency. The regular receptionist/secretary/girl Friday had taken a bad fall while hiking over the weekend, breaking several bones in her right leg and ankle, and was awaiting surgery in a Boise hospital. Kimberly would be needed to fill in for at least four to six weeks. Perhaps longer.
To Kimberly, four to six weeks’ worth of wages sounded wonderful after such a long stretch without any income. She wasn’t the fastest of typists, but she was accurate and organized, and she had a nice—if slightly dated—wardrobe for work attire.
By ten o’clock that morning, Kimberly was at the office learning the ropes. Her employer, Christopher Russell, was an affable bear of a man. He was at least six feet four and must have tipped the scales at two hundred and seventy-five pounds. He not only dwarfed Kimberly, he made the office space seem too small as well. Nonetheless, she liked him at once.
She returned home shortly after five that evening, tired but surprisingly satisfied. Another surprise awaited her in the kitchen. Tara was helping Janet with dinner preparations—and she seemed happy about it. Hope blossomed in Kimberly’s heart. Maybe they were over the worst of their trials. Maybe this was the beginning of a new era for the two of them. Maybe Kimberly wouldn’t have to disappoint her daughter again. Or at least not on a daily basis.
“How was school?” Kimberly asked when they sat down to eat. It was a question she asked of Tara most weekdays.
Instead of the usual shrug and a grunt, Tara answered, “Pete Leonard’s in my English class. I thought he looked familiar when I saw him yesterday. Anyway, Pete said I can start riding with him and his brother this week if I want. That way you won’t have to drive out there so often.”
Kimberly had a job now, temporary as it was. She could afford to do a little more driving. But that was no reason to refuse Tara’s request.
“Please, Mom. I’ll ride my bike if I have to when you’re working or when I can’t catch a lift with Pete and Sam. But riding with them will give me more time with my horse and to do whatever Ms. McKenna or Mr. Leonard need me to do.”
“All right, honey.” She smiled and nodded. “But you’ll have to confirm with Mr. Leonard that it’s still all right for you to ride with his sons. And you also need to ask what afternoons he wants you to come. Your lessons have to be on his schedule, not yours.”
“I’ll call him right now.” Tara started to rise.
“Sit down and finish eating. He’s probably having dinner, too, and you don’t want to interrupt him.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Wait about an hour.”
Tara picked up her fork even though it was obvious she wasn’t the least bit interested in the food on her plate. Not any longer.
Kimberly envied her daughter, to have something in her life that she was this excited over. It was hard to remember the last time Kimberly had felt the same way. Troubles had piled so high in recent years that they’d obscured more pleasant memories. Would she ever get them back? She hoped so.
DINNER IN THE LEONARD HOME WAS A FAMILY TIME, strictly adhered to. Other meals might be eaten on the fly—the boys grabbing something quick from the microwave or toaster oven before they raced out the door for school, Chet doing much the same before beginning his morning chores—but for the evening meal, everybody sat down together. Chet asked Sam and Pete questions about their day, about their friends, about their schoolwork, and his sons were expected to answer in more than a half-dozen words.
Tonight, Pete didn’t have to wait for any questions.
“Guess what, Dad? Tara Welch is in my English class. I never even noticed her before. She’s been there three or four weeks already, and I never even noticed.” He shook his head. “Must be something wrong with my eyes.”
Sam punched his brother in the shoulder. “You’re an idiot.”
Chet hid his smile. Up to now, his youngest son hadn’t shown interest in girls, preferring to spend his free time with horses and playing video games. Sam, on the other hand, had a date most Friday nights, although the options for “going out” were severely limited in Kings Meadow.
Then again, maybe he shouldn’t have been amused. Tara Welch was going to spend a lot of time on the Leonard ranch. Would Pete’s new awareness of this pretty newcomer to Kings Meadow prove to be a problem? Chet hoped not. He wasn’t keen on that kind of complication. Every boy had to get his heart broken at some point, but there’d been enough heartache for the entire Leonard family in recent years. Chet would just as soon Pete postpone the kind that came with a crush on the wrong girl.
The wrong girl. What made him think that? He didn’t know Tara well enough to make that kind of judgment call. The few hours he’d spent with her on Sunday she’d been polite and pleasant. However, she was a city girl, despite her interest in horses. She knew nothing of their way of life. Ranching was bred into the Leonards as surely as the color of their hair and eyes.
“Dad?”
Yanked to the present by Sam’s voice, Chet blinked. “Sorry. My mind wandered.”
“Pete and I want to go down to Boise for a youth rodeo.”
“When?”
“Saturday after next. We’d need to use the four-horse trailer. Couple of friends want to tag along.”
“Sure. It’s okay with me. Just be sure your chores are done that morning before you take off.”
Sam feigned an innocent expression. “Don’t we always?”
Chet laughed. “No, come to think of it, you don’t always.”
“Nana Anna,” Pete said, turning toward her, “would you like to come along and watch us?”
“Gracious. It’s been ages since I was at a rodeo.” Her eyes sparked with interest. “What events do you enter?”
“Team and calf roping,” Sam answered.
“Tempting. Very tempting. But I’d best say no. A bit too far from home and a bit too long of a day, I imagine. Maybe there’ll be another time I can go?”
“Sure thing. You just say the word. You’re always welcome.”
Chet didn’t try to hide his smile this time. He took great pleasure in hearing Pete invite Anna to one of their activities without any prompting from his dad. Not that Chet was surprised. He’d known the boys would take Anna to heart.
When dinner was finished, Sam and Pete cleared the table and washed the dishes while Chet and Anna went into the living room. As soon as they were both settled, Anna said, “I hope I didn’t hurt Pete’s feelings. I would love to go, but the sound of a long drive there and back and sitting on bleachers for an entire day wasn’t very appealing. Not to my old bones.”
“He understood. Don’t worry about it. You only got here four days ago. You’re entitled to do as you please.”
Anna released a sigh. “That’s good.” She paused a moment, then added, “I believe I’ll make an early night of it, if it’s all the same to you.” She got to her feet.
Chet stood too, but Anna waved him to sit down again.
“Nothing’s wrong, so don’t ask. I’m going to lie down with a good book.” With that, she headed for her bedroom.
Rather than sitting again, Chet returned to the kitchen. “Nana Anna went to bed,” he said to the boys. “I’m going for a short walk.”
Sunset was a good hour away, but the air was a lot cooler now than it had been in the afternoon. Chet shrugged his shoulders, tempted to return to the house for a jacket. But instead, he quickened his stride as he walked to the barn. Once inside, he checked the three horses in the stalls. The first was a gelding who’d tangled with some barbed wire. The horse’s wounds needed doctoring a few times a day. The other two were mares who would drop foals in the next week or two.
Satisfied all was well, Chet moved out the doorway at the opposite end of the barn and went to the nearest paddock where his favorite stud grazed. When Chet leaned his arms on the top rail, the stallion raised his head to stare, looking ready to challenge an intruder. King Billy was a ten-year-old bay who’d already sired many champions, including Sam’s current roping horse.
“Hey, Billy,” Chet said.
The horse tossed his head before trotting over to the fence, no doubt in hopes some sort of treat awaited him. All King Billy got was a friendly pat on the neck. After a few moments, he snorted his disgust and trotted back to the center of the pasture, leaving his backside toward his master.
Chet laughed, and his gaze rose to the smattering of white clouds overhead while words of thanksgiving played in his heart. Thanks for this ranch, this home, this valley. Thanks for his folks and grandparents and Nana Anna, too, who had made it possible for him to live on the same land and raise his sons here. Thanks for all of that and much, much more.
He stood there for a long while, drinking in the mountains and the sky and the grazing land, enjoying the crisp, clean, pine-scented air. Maybe some folks took the beauty of this area for granted. He wasn’t one of them.
“Dad?”
He turned to see Pete exit through the barn door.
“Tara called. I hollered for you but you didn’t answer.”
“Didn’t hear you. Did she say what she needed?”
“She wants to take you up on your offer for her to ride home with us after school a couple times a week. Her mom’ll pick her up after she gets off work. Tara asked what days would be best for her to come. I told her any day but Wednesday since you’ve got your men’s group that night. Hope that was the right thing to say.”
Chet nodded. “Sure. It’s fine.”
And it was fine. Only he’d made the offer for the ridealong before Pete had taken notice of the girl. All Chet could do now was hope his youngest son’s attention wouldn’t become something more serious before these training sessions were over.