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SHE’D AVOIDED GOING into town, but today she needed an excuse to get away from the farm for awhile and volunteered for a trip to the feed store. She grabbed the truck keys and dashed out of the house before either of her parents could ask why she needed to leave so early.
“Annabelle! Don’t you want your coffee?” her mother called out to her as the screen door slammed behind her.
“No thanks, Mom. I’ll get some in town!” she yelled back, jiggling the keys. Not until she got halfway to Mercy Ridge did she remember they didn’t have coffee stands. It wasn’t Seattle, after all. If she wanted coffee, she needed to go to the diner.
She parked the truck down the street then walked slowly up the sidewalk to the Memories Diner, paused with her hand on the door, and peered into the large plate glass window. Memories, all right.
“Oh, excuse me,” a man said as he pushed the door open and stood on the threshold. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
“No worries,” she replied as she stepped back. But before she could say more, she heard a burst of laughter inside. She looked around the man at a large table in the middle of the room where several couples sat. She knew that loud laugh. She took a step closer, as the man moved past her and out the door with a tip of his straw cowboy hat. She squinted in the sunlight as she recognized Barb, Chad, Jennifer and...could that be Mike? And Tessa? She stood still, not sure if she was ready to face her old friends yet. Maybe if she just quietly backed out through the door...
Then Barb turned around in her chair. “Well, I’ll be...Belle, is that you?”
Belle grimaced.
So much for a cup of coffee and keeping her return quiet awhile longer.
Half an hour later, chairs scraped back, and The Pancake Club members prepared to depart. Belle asked why they called themselves ‘The Pancake Club’ and Barb explained that she, Dolan, Chad and Jennifer met for breakfast together at the Memories Diner so many times, the four of them decided to name their group. The group doubled in size with the addition of Chad’s girlfriend Kristin, Tessa’s boyfriend police officer Dolan Nash, Jennifer’s husband Mike and Barb’s fiancé, veterinarian Dirk Adams. Belle’d been genuinely glad to see Jennifer and Mike back together after all these years...and married! In fact, she thought Mike might understand her situation best, because he’d had big plans too when he left town.
But even though it had been years since they’d grown up together as best buds, and Belle’s years away, Barb still knew her better than anyone. So Belle wasn’t surprised when her friend put a firm hand on her arm to hold her in place while she gave her fiancé a quick goodbye kiss and a promise to call him later. “Do you have time for another cup of coffee?” Barb asked her.
Belle hesitated, but it was still early and the feed store wouldn’t be open yet. Besides, she never could keep anything from Barb. Might as well get it over with. She nodded.
“Let’s sit at that little table over there.” Barb tipped her head toward a table for two by the kitchen door. “Sami?” she called to the middle-aged waitress and owner who’d worked at the Memories Diner as long as Belle could remember. “Can we get a couple coffees over here?” Once they’d settled with their steaming mugs, Barb looked at her and said, “Okay, spill it.”
“I...uh...” What could she say? She felt so embarrassed to return to town, like a puppy with her tail between her legs bested by a cat. She knew what Barb must be thinking. Oh yes. Belle left Mercy Ridge after they’d graduated high school and went to college at Western Washington University in Bellingham. At first, she’d come back on breaks and told her family and friends―including Barb―that as soon as she got her degree, she was “leaving this little podunk town forever.” She’d move to Seattle, get a teaching job there, meet some fabulous guy, and never move back.
Well, she got part-way there, though not exactly in that order, and not the way she’d envisioned. She fell in love with a fellow student, and when they finished college, they moved to Seattle, shared a rooming house with several other students looking for work, and worked low-paying jobs with crazy shifts, until her boyfriend Jordan―the lucky guy―finally landed a teaching job. Belle continued to work, nights cleaning offices and weekends at a small theater with the occasional catering job, sure it’d be her turn next. Until finally, she heard about a job as a para-educator for special needs children in Tacoma. It wasn’t an actual teaching job―she would be more of a caregiver―but desperate for any kind of job in her field, and with the knowledge it would look good on her resume, she’d accepted.
“Mom talked to your mom,” Barb said, interrupting Belle’s reminiscences. “She said you were having some trouble finding a teaching job.”
As though the plug in a sink full of dishwater had been pulled, the words gushed out of Belle’s mouth, and she did indeed spill out the entire story, ending with, “The first day should have been a good indication of the job. The twelve-year-old kid I was assigned to, kicked and pinched me. I could handle that. But after several months, when he punched me and broke my glasses, that was it for me. So here I am, no job, no money and no prospects.” She slumped forward in the chair, elbows on the table, shoulders rounded with her head in her hands.
Barb sat back in her chair, quiet for a moment. “Well, did you ever think that maybe you should give up on teaching and try something else?”
“Yes, but what? Teaching is all I’ve wanted to do since we were in first grade.”
“I don’t know. But I’m sure you’ll figure it out...someday,” her friend assured her. “I could ask Kristin.” She must have seen Belle’s perplexed look. “You know, Chad’s fiancée, the teacher. I could ask her about a teaching job this fall, but meanwhile, you need a job.”
“Yeah, isn’t that the truth? Otherwise, Dad will have me driving the combine, threshing wheat and getting that awful chaff and dust all over me. I vowed when I left I’d never go through another summer working in those fields.
“Well I’d give you a job at the Saddle Up―you heard that Ma and Bob and I took over, didn’t you?” When Belle nodded, she continued, “But unfortunately we already hired all the help we need for the summer. I got some of those horse-crazy 4-H teens for trail guides, like you and I used to do every summer. “
Belle smiled. “Yeah, those were the good ‘ol days. Carefree summers before we graduated.”
“Hmm...I know, Dirk could use some help. It wouldn’t pay much, but it’s mostly just holding a horse when the owner’s not there, or when he needs a third hand...things like that. Would you be interested?” Barb asked.
Belle thought for a moment. “I could do that. Anything’s better than working in the fields again.”
“Good. I’ll talk to Dirk about the hours and pay and stuff and get back to you, okay?” Barb stood up.
Belle stood too and reached for her purse, then paused and looked at Barb, suspicious. “Are you sure this is a bona fide job? You didn’t just make this up on the spur of the moment? I know you, Barb.”
“Nah, I wouldn’t do that. The man needs help,” her friend replied, all innocent.
Belle almost looked to see if Barb’s fingers were crossed behind her back. But they were adults now. Surely, her childhood friend no longer did that. “Okay. That would be great. Thanks Barb, you’re a pal,” she said and grabbed her friend in a hug. She moved so fast she caught Barb off guard...and just maybe some fingers uncrossing.
Belle felt a little uncomfortable when she slid into the passenger seat of the mobile veterinary truck early the next morning. When Barb called the night before and told her Dirk would be glad to have help, she couldn’t help but wonder again if it was the truth. She still suspected her friend must’ve talked the poor guy into it. Belle hardly knew the man and felt awkward trying to make idle conversation with him to fill up the silence as the vet sipped what she supposed was coffee out of a thermos with one hand and steered with the other. Other than a nod at her, and a mumbled “morning” he hadn’t said another word.
“So, Barb said you studied at Washington State University,” she finally burst out.
“Yup.”
Great. If all she got was one-word answers, it would be a long day. She sipped from her own insulated mug of coffee and closed her eyes. She still wasn’t used to getting up so early. It was another cloudless-blue-sky-going-to-be-hot day already, something she didn’t miss when she lived in Seattle. When the sun came out there, even if it was still cool outside, everyone brought their shorts and T-shirts out of their drawers and closets and put them on. Here, everyone wore jeans and long-sleeved shirts to keep from burning in the hot sun. And sunglasses were as much to protect your eyes from the flying sand as the sun’s rays.
“Where’d you go to school?”
Her eyes flew open. He talked?
“Oh, I thought Barb would’ve told you.” She figured everyone in town must know her story. “My parents wanted me to go to Washington State University. My brother went there. Makes sense for a wheat farmer, huh? But I didn’t want to be a farmer, or a farmer’s wife―still don’t.”
“What do you want to do?” Dirk turned to her and asked.
“I want...wanted to be a teacher. That’s why I went all the way to Bellingham―practically to Canada―to Western Washington University.” Pretty soon she’d told him the whole story. It was a relief to talk to someone she hadn’t known her whole life who wondered why in the world she’d ever want to leave the small town. She just shook her head in disbelief when Dirk told her he’d moved from Seattle to Mercy Ridge.
Before she knew it, they’d arrived at their first call. Dirk must have sensed her nervousness at trying something new, for he said, “Barb said you have some experience working around horses.”
That was an understatement. “All my life―well I suppose unless you count the time I was away at school and then lived in Seattle.
“Then you have nothing to worry about. This will be a piece of cake for you.”
Dirk was right, Belle thought as they headed down the long, dusty driveway away from the ranch an hour later. She’d been glad to see that the ranchers, Mr. and Mrs. Danforth, a couple her parents age she’d known forever, weren’t home, so she didn’t have to explain, yet again, why she wasn’t in Seattle anymore. She supposed she could say she was on vacation, but eventually Dirk’s clients would wonder why she never left. Better not to make up stories.
The horses were waiting in a corral by the barn, their halters and ropes draped over the fence, which made them easy to catch. Belle recognized the dun-colored Paint and the small strawberry roan from her years in 4-H. They’d been quite spirited then and a handful for their young owners, but now they were much older, the two mares stood calmly for their exam. She was glad to see that they were in good shape and well-cared for. To most of the ranchers and farmers, animals needed to be useful, and when they weren’t, they were traded in for younger versions. She assumed the couple’s daughters who rode the mares back then, probably married and left long ago, and she felt surprised the parents kept them.
“Does anyone ride these horses anymore? They must be pretty old by now. I used to know the girls who rode them when we were all teenagers.”
“I don’t think so, but I don’t really know. Do you need a horse?” Dirk asked her.
“No, I just wondered.” She gazed out the window. She’d met lots of horse-crazy kids in Seattle, who’d love to have a horse. And here were two who looked pretty bored just standing around in a corral.
“I’m going to try something different on this next call at the Diamond B,” Dirk interrupted her thoughts a few minutes later as he drove along the two-lane backroads.
“What’s so different about it?” Belle asked. When she’d told her father she was going to work for the new vet, he’d grunted, frowned and mumbled something that sounded like, “that quack.” Barb told her not all the ranchers were happy with the “new” vet’s practices. The town’s beloved Doc Nick retired the year before, but Dirk was still “the new guy.” If Dirk knew how some of the townspeople felt, he didn’t seem to let it get to him. Not only did he have the vet practice, he also helped Barb and her mom out at the dude ranch. When he wasn’t talking about animals he was talking about Barb. He was head over heels in love with her friend. Belle wondered if she’d ever find true love like that?
“I’ve read about this procedure, but haven’t tried it yet.”
“You’re planning to experiment with the Diamond B’s new foal?” She felt sure her jaw must have dropped, because he laughed when he saw her. That wouldn’t go over well. Not only were their prize-winning Quarter Horses well-known in the horse world, and their stallions commanded high stud fees, but the Diamond B’s owner was the town’s mayor.
“Don’t worry. It’s harmless, and if it’s successful, it’ll save these folks a lot of work...and possibly the foal’s life. It’s called neonatal maladjustment syndrome, and affects roughly five percent of newborn foals,” he explained. “The foal won’t bond with the mother. I read about it recently in one of my veterinary journals. A UC Davis veterinary specialist tried this treatment he calls, ‘the squeeze.’ “
“But what if it doesn’t?”
Dirk sighed.
Belle knew she sometimes irritated folks with her persistent questions. At times she kept on a topic like a small dog on a mailman’s pant leg. She wouldn’t let go till she got an answer to a question to her satisfaction. Maybe she should have been a TV reporter.
When they drove under the vast arch that proclaimed the Diamond B Ranch, and then up the long, blacktopped driveway, Belle couldn’t help but gaze in awe at the irrigated lush green pastures, cross-fenced with white vinyl fencing, the huge red barns with turnout corrals, the large indoor riding arena and the sprawling ranch house. She’d attended a 4-H demonstration there once as a teenager, but their leader quickly herded them to the arena and kept a close eye on them, giving them no chance to dawdle―or snoop around. When she stepped out of the truck, she eagerly followed Dirk to the barn, curious to see what it looked like inside.
But before she could get a good look at anything other than the immaculately-kept aisles between the stalls, and a whiff of the sweet pine scent of shavings piled a foot high in each stall, the barn manager hurried them past the pristine stalls to one at the far end. There, a gorgeous liver chestnut mare, whose shiny red-brown coat dappled with good health, seemed to wait for them at the half-door, while her beautiful bright red colt stood in the corner, as far away from her as possible. He seemed totally indifferent to his dam who nickered anxiously at him.
“This here’s the mayor’s daughter’s mare. She has high hopes for this colt.”
Not to put any pressure on Dirk―ha! Belle thought.
She slipped the mare one of the licorice-flavored treats she’d stuffed into her back pocket, in hopes she could make friends with the foal’s mother.”Now mama, it’s okay,” she crooned. “We won’t hurt your baby. We’re here to help.”
When Saturday evening came along, after a extra-long week Belle felt more than ready for a break. She sat out on her family’s covered front porch, a cold glass of ice tea in her hand. Much as she loved animals, she didn’t see the best side of them most of the time when she went out on the farm calls with Dirk. Some of them were downright nasty. Truthfully, the job was almost as bad as working on the farm for her father, though Dirk was a much more patient man―and funny. Barb was a lucky woman.
“Annabelle, for you.” Her mother held the portable phone out to her through the cracked open screen door. “I think its Barb.”
Speak of the devil.
“Hey, Barb. What’s up?”
“Do you have plans for tomorrow?”
“No. Did something come up? Does Dirk need my help?” She hoped not.
Barb laughed. “Not that I know of. Besides, I bet you could use a break. You need some fun. How’d you like to go on a trail ride with me tomorrow?” When she didn’t answer right away, her friend said, “Well I suppose you need to stay home and help your dad with the harvest...”
Drat! Barb really knew how to pull her strings. Anything but that, and of course the opportunity to ride.
“Sure, Barb. What time?”
****
GAVIN LEVINE DROVE up the dusty road to the Saddle Up Dude Ranch. In the rearview mirror, he saw his daughter Gabby asleep in her booster seat. He supposed the long drive tired her. He didn’t know when she’d drifted off. She spoke so little, he hadn’t noticed the quiet. He didn’t try to prompt her to say more, not wanting to push her into further silence.
Since her birth, she’d been a physically fragile child. It wasn’t until the day Gavin, after several phone calls, texts and calls to neighbors to please knock on the door, raced home and found his wife lying dead on the floor from an undiagnosed aneurysm and their daughter sobbing, “Mama” next to her, that she’d become emotionally fragile too.
Fortunately after that, he’d found a job that allowed him to do his architecture work from home. His mother helped as much as possible and when she retired soon, she said she’d help even more. But now, his mother was taking a well-deserved mini-vacation with her friends, and he’d made reservations for a long weekend at the dude ranch suggested by a friend who’d taken his family there earlier that summer.
Gavin felt a little nervous without his mother there to help calm Gabby. Any kind of change seemed to upset her. He’d never know the terror she must have experienced alone with her unresponsive mother that horrible morning. No one could. Nor could they truly understand her nightmares. Everyone told him it took time to heal. He sighed. It had been two years since his wife’s death, and he’d seen very little healing.
But Gabby liked animals; they seemed to give her comfort. She even appeared to enjoy the children’s pony rides he’d taken her on. In fact, she didn’t want to get off them. But what if she wasn’t up for a longer ride on a much bigger “pony”? He’d ridden horses a couple times as a teenager, but that was years ago. How would he handle a horse and Gabby? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Well, they were here. Might as well try it. He sighed again. They could always go back home.