Jubilee
March 10
JUBILEE STOOD IN the dawn darkness of her bedroom and watched Charley moving around down by the barn. He’d worked for her for over two weeks and she still didn’t feel as though she knew him. What she did know was that he worked hard and never wasted time with compliments or lies. She liked that about him. Honesty was rare in her world.
At over six feet and void of fat, there was a grace in his movements, but everything else about Charley Collins’s appearance bothered her. She’d spent six years dressing for success. Dressing her candidate to be polished. Measuring the worth of a man by the cut of his suit.
Charley’s hair was a month or two past needing a cut. None of his clothes looked as if they’d ever seen an iron. He was the total opposite of the men she’d known in DC. She couldn’t even imagine him in a suit.
When they’d first met, she’d thought he’d be hard to get along with, maybe even a little chauvinistic, but he wasn’t. Oh, he was headstrong, but he was also kind. He never pointed out her weaknesses or failures. She’d spent years working with political sharks who, at the first sign of weakness, could smell blood in the water. Maybe that was why she’d always picked easygoing men to date who let her set all the rules.
Charley didn’t fit into either type.
Jubilee remembered the morning she’d felt the need to tell him that wash-and-wear was just a suggestion and he’d promptly told her to mind her own business. Dressing for success evidently wasn’t his thing. They talked over everything about the ranch, though, but her word wasn’t law. Most of the time they argued it out, and he won as often as she did.
And he was a great father to Lillie. This down-on-his-luck drifter who didn’t own a bed to sleep in was the best father she’d ever seen. He was strict, had rules he expected even a five-year-old to follow, but no one could miss the love in his eyes when he looked at his daughter.
Jubilee had to wonder what it would have been like to have grown up with that kind of love.
She moved closer to the window as first light crept across the land behind the barn. “You’re not like any man I’ve ever known,” she whispered to his shadow circling the still dark barn. “If ever there was a man who wasn’t my type, you’re him. Bossy, headstrong, impatient.” All the other men she’d gotten to know well enough to sleep with were calm. Nothing was ever worth fighting over. They’d always simply left. But not Charley; he’d argue his point of view to the end and she had a feeling that if he did leave, he’d have plenty to say on his way out.
The man was exhausting, but she knew without any doubt that she’d never be able to get this place in shape without him. The first few days she’d had to fight to get him to show her how everything was done, but finally they’d begun to work as a team. Their breakfasts were strategy sessions using both their strengths.
As she tugged on yesterday’s jeans and shirt, Jubilee decided he was rubbing off on her. She was becoming a bum. No more silk blouses. No navy or black suits. No heels. The people in the campaign office wouldn’t recognize her now.
She barely recognized herself in the mirror. She’d started braiding her hair to keep it out of the way. Her face and arms were tanned and freckles brushed across her nose. Though she tried to remember to wear a hat, her hair now had streaks of sunshine in the color her sister had always called dirty blond.
After pulling on her boots, Jubilee brushed her teeth and headed down to make breakfast. After a week of cereal, she’d figured out how to make pancakes. It really wasn’t that hard—just shake the plastic bottle, add milk, shake again, and pour. Bacon was even easier. Buy precooked and microwave it for twenty seconds.
Of course she had to buy a microwave first, then mattress covers, rugs, pillows, shower curtains, towels and bedspreads for all the bedrooms no one used. The little touches upstairs made the house seem brighter. At night, when she couldn’t sleep, she’d bring down antiques from the attic and decorate each room in which it looked as though Levy hadn’t stepped foot since she’d left that summer years ago.
She’d found trunks of beautiful quilts and handmade lace that was spider-web fine. She’d discovered a box of dolls with porcelain faces and hands.
Levy had showed them to her that summer and said she could have them if she still played with dolls.
When she shook her head, he’d handed her a hundred-dollar bill and drove her to Walmart. “Buy what you need. If you’re too old for dolls, I have no idea what you want.”
“Can I fix my room up?” she’d asked.
“Anyway you want, missy. You’re the one who has to sleep in it.”
At eleven years old, she’d bought the wrong size sheets, way too many washcloths and enough shampoo to last years. But she’d had great fun decorating her room with old blankets and furniture she’d found scattered around in the house.
Now she could decorate the entire house. She was home.
A noise from the barn pulled her away from being Martha Stewart.
She reached the porch just as Charley ran out of the barn and headed to his house.
“Lillie!” he shouted as if calling an alarm.
Jubilee took off toward him but he reached his front door at a full run. Something was very wrong.
She almost made it to their porch when he rushed back outside, his daughter on one arm and a rifle on the other.
He stormed toward Jubilee, but his voice was surprisingly calm. “Take Lillie inside your place. There’s something in the barn I’m going to have to deal with before I come back to get her.”
Jubilee opened her mouth to ask questions, but the look in his eyes frightened her more than his words. She took the girl and tried to keep panic from spilling into her words. “Sure. We’ll make pancakes.”
Jubilee talked to Lillie all the way back to her kitchen. The little angel had eaten breakfast with them twice before. Usually, when she stayed on the ranch, she was up earlier and Charley fed her before he drove her down to the ranch gate where she caught the bus. Today something had kept Charley in the barn longer than usual.
“Are you really cooking pancakes?” Lillie asked.
“Do you like pancakes?”
“Yes, with blueberries inside and strawberry jam on top.”
“I might need some help.” Jubilee had never tried them with blueberries. After all it wasn’t in the recipe on the box.
A few minutes later, as she poured the pancakes out on the hot grill, Lillie dropped the blueberries in the batter as they cooked.
Jubilee tried to relax and enjoy the fun, but her whole body was tense, waiting to hear a shot. She’d seen Charley carrying his rifle before. Once in the pickup when they were out on the back pasture, and once when he was cleaning it on his porch on a night Lillie had stayed in town. He’d told her it was simply a tool that was around every ranch, but she still didn’t like seeing it.
Now all kinds of possibilities of what might be in the barn ran through her mind. A coyote, maybe, or a mountain lion. They had seen tracks of a lion in the mud near the pass. A snake, maybe. Or the killer of the man someone had found in the canyon might be hiding out in the loft. After all, he hadn’t been caught.
The awareness of how isolated they were out here settled over her like a wet blanket. She’d never even heard the phone ring. Even if someone could find the place, whoever was hurt would be in grave danger. And if a killer was on the property, they’d have to deal with him themselves.
By the time they had breakfast ready, Jubilee wasn’t sure who was keeping whom calm. Lillie made her laugh with her story of the dangers of the playground and how a third grader had told her the janitor was really a zombie.
When Jubilee moved a foot away to reach for milk, Lillie flipped a pancake on the floor and said that it had escaped.
Jubilee saw the mischief in her sparking eyes and decided to play along.
Finally, Charley stepped through the door. Slowly, as if it were simply a routine, he lifted his rifle and slid it onto a shelf above the door’s frame.
“Everything all right?” she said as she tried to meet his eyes, but he was looking only at his daughter.
He nodded to Jubilee. “Breakfast ready?”
She smiled. “I had help this morning. Your daughter is a great cook.”
Lillie was busy spreading jam on her pancakes and rolling them up with one slice of bacon in the middle. “I had to show her how to make pancake rollups, Daddy.”
Jubilee passed him a cup of coffee and they all sat down as if they’d done so for years. Halfway through the meal Jubilee realized something. Charley was a different man around his daughter. Kind, funny, loving. The hardness about him had vanished.
She thought about how her father had been when she was growing up. He considered mealtime as a captive opportunity to lecture and criticize. Jubilee was his favorite target. If all was right with politics on the six o’clock news, her father would turn his attention to what was wrong with his youngest daughter. The meal and the lecture usually ended with him telling her to try and be more like her sister.
But Charley had Lillie laughing when he made a face as he bit into a blueberry. “Who put blueberries in my pancake? Everyone knows I hate blueberries.”
Lillie giggled. “They just fell in there, Daddy. It rains blueberries sometimes.”
Charley kept complaining as he finished his breakfast making up all kinds of stories about how blueberries might kill him. Lillie just laughed.
Finally, he stood and faced Jubilee. “Thanks for the fine breakfast.”
His first compliment ever, she thought.
“I’ll take Lillie to school. I’m afraid we missed the bus this morning.” He met Jubilee’s gaze. “We’ll talk when I get back. Looks like rain coming in from the north. You might want to stay out of the barn until I get back.”
She offered another idea. “How about I ride along with you? I need to stop by the post office and pick up my mail. If it rains we might get more done in town than here. We can talk while we run errands.”
“Suit yourself.”
A few minutes later with Lillie between them, they flew down the back road while Lillie told them about a boy she met on the bus called That.
“Any chance his name might be Thatcher?” Charley asked as he pulled up at the school.
“It might be.” Lillie climbed over her father with backpack and lunchbox in hand.
Charley ignored all the elbows and knees as he kissed her forehead and said, “Tell Thatcher to drop by after school. I’d like to talk to him.”
“I will, if I see him.” Then she was running toward the door.
Jubilee smiled. “She’s precious.”
“Yeah, she is.”
“Would you mind it if I asked where her mother is?”
Charley didn’t look comfortable, but he answered, “We got married not long out of high school. I thought I could go to college and be a father. Turned out, she was the one who didn’t want to be tied down at nineteen. She lasted almost a year, then she left me for parts unknown.”
“She left Lillie, too?”
He stared out at the schoolyard. “Said she wasn’t the type to be a parent. Claimed she never wanted kids, though she’d never mentioned it before.” He stared at the door where Lillie had disappeared. “Surprisingly, I did, from the moment they put Lillie in my arms. I couldn’t turn away from her even if it meant going to school, working two jobs and staying up with her at night. I seem to do a great job of screwing my life up, but one thing I try to get right. Loving Lillie.”
Jubilee knew that if he’d been taking odd jobs when they met, he must have been struggling. But he worked hard, and now she saw the reason.
Jubilee whispered as if Lillie might still be able to hear, “What was in the barn?”
“A bull snake,” he answered softly. “Until I got a good look, I feared it might be a rattler. Biggest one I’ve seen in years.”
She shivered. “Did it matter what kind it was? I hate snakes. How’d you get rid of it? I didn’t hear a shot.”
“I wouldn’t shoot it. I just trapped it. Bull snakes eat mice. They generally don’t bother cattle or horses except in barns. They’ll make the horses nervous. I thought I’d give it to the kid, Thatcher.”
Jubilee smiled. “I’m sure his mother will be tickled to hear the boy has a new pet.”
Charley, for once, smiled back. “I don’t think she’ll mind. From what I hear she’s dating a man who could pass for a bull snake.”
Jubilee thought of asking him if he dated, but somehow that was far too personal a question. Besides, she knew the answer. From what she’d seen the past few weeks, Charley was either working or with his daughter. The man had no time in his life for anyone else. Maybe he had a midnight lover he visited now and then. Women in town would line up for that job.
“Thanks for taking care of the snake,” she said, meaning every word. “Poisonous or not, it would have scared me to death.”
He grinned as if he thought she was joking. “Just part of the job, boss.”
He started the pickup and didn’t say a word when she got out a few blocks later to check the mail at the tiny post office on Main.
When she returned empty-handed, he didn’t comment, just put the truck in reverse and headed out.
Jubilee flipped the sun visor down as they turned east. Folded envelopes and pieces of paper tumbled down on her. “What’s this?” she said picking up the papers.
“Notes I’ve made on what we need on the ranch. Things I want to talk to you about when we get a little money coming in. I’m trying to get them in order of what we have to have first.” He laughed. “I don’t want to hit you with too many things at once. You might bolt. I’m guessing money is tight with you, Jubilee. Everything I buy, you ask if it was really necessary.”
She had done just that. Always keeping tabs on every expense and trying to guess what came next. It surprised her that he must have been trying to calculate on the other end, only, like her, he was doing it blind. He didn’t know how much he had to spend and she didn’t know how much she needed to buy.
“Pull in at the bank.” She pointed to the small bank across from the town’s only grocery store. “I’m about to prove to you how crazy I am.”
He turned in and parked as if planning to wait for her again. When he cut the engine and she didn’t reach for the door handle, he shifted to face her.
She held her head high as she always did when addressing a campaign board meeting. “If we’re to make this ranch work, we have to use both our strengths and I have to trust you.”
He didn’t move and showed no sign of looking as if he believed her.
“Levy left me over a hundred thousand dollars in his ranch account and I’ve got close to forty of my own money to put in. I want to put your name on the account so you can buy cattle or supplies when needed. If we’re going to make this ranch work, you need to know what we’ve got to work with. I’ve figured your salary for a year. That’s the low-water line. Anything above that we spend as needed.”
She had no doubt her suggestion shocked him, but he did a good job of hiding his feelings. “If we fail, I’ll sell out by the end of the year and go back to DC. If we show a profit, thirty percent is yours for a bonus.”
Now his face looked as stormy as the sky. His fists gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. “What’s the catch, Jubilee? Folks in this part of the country are not long on trust when it comes to me, and this deal sounds too fair to be real.”
His words told her more about Charley Collins than all the others he’d said in the weeks she’d known him. He’d been shot out of the saddle before, had dreams promised that never happened. She guessed that he’d had others not believe in him for so long he had trouble believing in himself.
“All I’m offering is a possibility. I need you to make this place work. I’ve overheard folks in the post office and grocery store whisper about me. They all think I’m a nitwit for even trying to make a go of a ranch. I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know enough but I think I’m a pretty good judge of character. If we fail, then it couldn’t have been done. If we succeed, it’ll take us both working together.”
A corner of his mouth rose slightly in a hint of a grin. “Maybe we’re both nuts, but if you’re serious, I’m in. We play this to the end and we walk away friends or we double the bank account in a year. Either way, I want to say thanks to you for giving me this chance.”
For a few moments they just stared at each other, knowing that this would change things, then she lifted the handful of notes he’d stuffed in the visor. “We go over these today. We each get a vote. Fifty-fifty.”
“What if it’s a tie? You win, right, it’s your money.”
She shook her head. “It’s Levy’s money. If we cross on any issue, big or small, we flip for it. Fair enough.”
“Agreed. I won’t write a check over a hundred without calling you.”
“I’ve already thought about that. We have to work together. We have to trust each other.”
They both stepped out of the pickup and headed into the bank. In ranch terms, a hundred thousand dollars wouldn’t buy much, but it might buy her a chance. She was betting it all on one man whose only reference seemed to be that he loved his daughter.
Ten minutes later they walked out, and the Lone Heart Ranch had two signers on the account. Chance walked a little taller, maybe because they both knew he’d stepped out of being a hired hand and now was a real ranch manager, even if the ranch was small.
All the way home, as thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, they talked as fast as dueling banjoes. Rain started as they turned into the gate. Without any discussion, they ran toward her porch, shaking off the water like wet dogs.
She made coffee as he went over his lists. By the time she handed him a cup, he’d spread a map of the ranch out on the table.
While she studied the map, he disappeared and returned with a towel. Drifting it over her shoulder, he faced her as he tugged her hair free of the towel.
“Thanks.” She’d been so excited she hadn’t realized she was shivering.
“You’re welcome,” his voice softened slightly before he turned back to business. “We’ll need a little tractor. Something to plow your garden and use in the barn. Something small enough to load in the truck if I need it out on the land.”
“But we’ve got a huge old tractor,” she commented as she sat beside him at the table and not across from him.
“It’ll pay for itself in time saved.” He bumped her leg with his and neither acted as if they noticed. “With twelve horses in the barn there’s a great deal of shit to move. And I mean that literally. The horses’ fees will give us a monthly operating budget that’ll cover headquarter bills, but, if we do this right, we’ll need most, if not all, of Levy’s bank account to make it to the fall.”
“Then we use it. I’ll take care of the books for the horses being boarded to save you time, and if you’ll teach me, I’ll help with the care. That will save an hour of your time a day.”
“Fair enough.” He grinned. “You may want to take your shower after we work with the horses every morning.”
“Maybe I’ll just stand in the rain.” She bumped her knee against his leg and they began work.
That was it, she realized. They’d become partners. Two people totally different who both swore they didn’t need any help. She’d given him what he’d needed—trust—and in return she’d earned his respect. He wasn’t arguing points now; he was explaining, and for the first time she was really listening.
As the morning aged they talked about all the possibilities and she found Charley was more conservative with old Levy’s money that she was. Any doubt that she’d done the right thing vanished.
They made sandwiches at noon. He folded his in a paper towel and grabbed a bottle of water as she picked up her sandwich. “I’d better head down to the road so I can be waiting for Lillie when she gets off the bus.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Jubilee asked.
“You’ll get wet.”
She looked down at her wrinkled clothes. “So?” She folded her lunch in a towel and grabbed a root beer. “We’ll have a picnic while we wait.”
They laughed as they ran to his truck. For the first time in longer than she could remember, she felt young. Twenty-six should still be a wild, free time, but somehow Jubilee felt as though she’d been trying to act older all her life. As mature as her big sister, as serious about school as her dad thought she should be, old beyond her years so she’d get respect. She’d even dressed like a woman in her forties: she wore her hair up, bought practical shoes.
She shivered and he cranked up the heater in the truck. He glanced over at her. “Your hair curls when it’s wet.”
“Just wait. As it dries it’ll frizz like I’ve been struck by lightning.”
He drove slowly down the flooded road. “There is something I need to say to you. I’ve been thinking about it since that day we rode out to the pass.”
“All right.”
“You need to know.” He didn’t look at her. “When I helped you on the horse I didn’t mean anything by touching you. I just wanted to get you up fast and when you bumped into me coming out of the saddle, I didn’t plan that, either.”
She kept her gaze on the windshield wipers splashing water back and forth. “I may have overreacted. Could we just forget it and start over like it never happened?”
He shook his head. “We’ll be working together. You’re a beautiful woman. If we happen to bump into each other, I want you to know I’m not flirting.”
She frowned, not knowing whether to be flattered he thought she was beautiful or irritated that he would never flirt with her.
He slowed the truck in the middle of the road a few feet from where the county road connected. “Storm’s getting worse. Once we get back we’d be wise to stay inside till it stops.”
A few minutes later the bus rattled down the road. Charley grabbed his rain slicker from behind the seat and climbed out. He was waiting in the rain when the bus door opened.
Lillie jumped into his arms.
Jubilee saw the kid named Thatcher standing just behind Lillie. He yelled something at Charley. Charley nodded at Thatcher and nodded toward the pickup.
Jubilee opened her door to welcome Lillie and was surprised to have Thatcher rush in, as well. Suddenly, they were all four crammed into the cab of the pickup with Lillie in her lap. Everyone seemed to be talking at once as they bumped toward home.
Thatcher told them that as soon as he heard Charley wanted to see him, he decided to catch the first bus home. No sense wasting his time in school when all he’d be thinking about was how Charley needed him.
“Things seem to happen during storms,” Thatcher shouted over the thunder. “Last time it rained like this I had to help the sheriff investigate a body found in the canyon. Didn’t matter how hard it rained, me and the sheriff were out there working.”
Charley pulled up to his house and jumped out. When he reached for Lillie, he yelled over the rain at Jubilee. “Come on in, if you like. As soon as I take Lillie in I need to show Thatcher something in the barn before we dry off. Thought you might like to keep Lillie company for a few minutes.”
Jubilee nodded and rushed into the house. She hadn’t been inside since the day she’d delivered the bed. Everything was in order. For such a complicated man, Charley lived a very simple life.
The cowboy sat his tiny daughter on the couch. Thatcher waited at the door, obviously not sure if he was invited in.
“Light the fireplace,” Charley said to Thatcher. “The first thing I do when Lillie gets home is to make her a snack. I’m glad you can join her for snacktime today, Jubilee. Thatcher, you and I can take care of a little business while the ladies have a tea party.” He winked at Jubilee and she laughed.
Thatcher struck a match to the waiting fireplace, then followed Charley out before the room had time to warm.
Jubilee stared helplessly at Lillie. “I have no idea how to have a tea party. Can you help me?”
She giggled. “Neither does my daddy. My grandmother says a proper tea party should have tea, but I always have juice and cookies.”
Ten minutes later, Thatcher and Charley joined them. No one seemed to notice the teacups had juice or that half the party guests were dripping wet. They all sat around an old trunk that doubled as a coffee table in front of the fireplace.
“That,” Lillie asked, very politely, “do you have snacks when you get home from school?”
“Never have, but it seems like a good idea. I’ll mention it to my mom when she gets home. She left a few days ago with her new boyfriend. He’s a long-haul trucker.”
“When will she be back?” Jubilee asked.
“A month, maybe more,” he said as he shoved his long hair out of his eyes and reached for his fourth cookie.
Jubilee looked over Lillie’s head at Charley and swore she could read his mind. He was about to take Thatcher under his wing.
Jubilee realized it didn’t matter how he dressed or even if he cut his hair. Charley Collins was a good man and that was all she really needed to know.