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Emily was helping bring some boxes into the bed-and-breakfast that the local delivery man had brought out this morning. As she glanced up, she saw Katherine’s truck pull into the driveway. She got out crying, causing Emily to immediately put down the box she was carrying and hurry to her side.
“What is going on?” Emily asked, wrapping an arm around Katherine.
“My father is livid about me working with Stormi on this animal husbandry project. He wants me to promise never to come over here again and is pressuring me to marry Maxwell Higgins.”
Emily wrinkled her nose. Maxwell was at least a decade older than Katherine and had been to church with the family a couple of times. He was a bit overweight and not her idea of handsome in the least.
“I don’t understand. Have you been seeing Maxwell?”
“NO! My father believes I can’t run the farm if something happens to him and wants to ensure it stays in the family. He and Maxwell have built a budding horse breeding program, and he thinks we would get along great.”
“Well, he can’t force you to marry the man,” Emily said, incredulously.
“He sure is trying, and I’m tired of hearing that I’m not good enough. I think I will have to strike out on my own, and I am considering taking a job off the farm to gain experience. I know he will not approve, though,” she said, sniffling slightly.
“Have you spoken to your mom about this?”
“I’ve tried. She always defers to my dad, though,” Katherine said with a loud sigh. “I cannot make a concise decision on the farm without his going on about it day and night. I just need a quiet place to think.”
“Well, we have a couple hundred acres, and lots of empty office spaces, so take your pick,” Emily said, stretching out her arm.
She found her heart thud to a stop in her chest, and the air suspended in her lungs when Ben and Troy came into view.
“What’s up?” Troy asked Katherine gently.
Emily noticed the extra care he gave gently stroking her back. Katherine looked up into Troy’s eyes and found herself repeating the information she had provided Emily. After a moment, she and Troy wandered slightly off in deep conversation, as Emily watched the scene play out in front of her.
“Hmmm, well, they seem to be drawn to each other,” she said to Ben.
“I had noticed a lot of references to Katherine coming up in conversations lately,” Ben agreed but turned to Emily, blocking them from view, “but I only have eyes for one beautiful lady myself, so I ignored the evidence.”
Emily blushed again under his direct gaze. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “I’m glad the feeling is mutual because I missed you since the day we had breakfast.”
“Me too. I came out for my session with Belle, and was seeking you out before heading to work,” he said, returning the small peck with one directly on the corner of her mouth.
Emily laughed nervously. “I’m glad you did. I do hope though Troy isn’t your ride,” she said, peeking around his shoulders at the couple now a good distance away.
“I was his ride, so he might be on his own getting back to town.”
“I bet he can figure something out,” she said in a teasing tone.
“I was wondering if you wanted to join Amy, Troy, Ray, and me for dinner Friday evening. I’m cooking up spaghetti and thought we might all enjoy a movie or game night afterward.”
“Sounds like fun,’ she gushed.
“Great. Seven work for you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you need me to pick you up?”
“No, I have a couple of vehicles I’m allowed to use.”
“Okay, I just didn’t need you walking that distance late at night.”
“I like to walk, but I am not willing to take my life in my hands that late at night.”
He glanced at his watch, “I really have to run. I will see you Friday.”
“See ya,” she gave a small wave.
The tiny gurgle of happiness sprung up inside her even more forcefully. She turned to finish the task of loading boxes into the B&B, noticing how much lighter her step appeared. She hoped that Troy and Katherine would find peace and maybe a bit of this same level of happiness together. She had a funny feeling that the next couple here on the ranch would be them. Of course, their path to happiness might be filled with a few speed bumps. The sweetest victories are those that are hard-fought, though, and as Ben’s vehicle disappeared, she couldn’t help but offer up a tiny note of thanksgiving.
Her path had been difficult, and the way back was extremely challenging. At this moment, though, she was grateful to have been brought here to Living River. She had cast her father’s relationship into the fire, now intended to build new relationships from the ashes of that history. Ben was just one possibility on the horizon. A new apartment, greater freedoms, and overcoming her upbringing, were new victories she would celebrate each day.
As she saw Avery and baby Jayne heading her direction, she remembered a conversation not that long ago. A tiny voice whispered that she was one step closer to a family and maybe even a child of her own somewhere down the path. She shook her head, trying to break the train of thought, to focus on the immediate tasks at hand. Tomorrow would bring its revelations; she was willing to take it one day at a time and simply see what possibilities lie ahead.
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Read More by Everlee Whitman
Book 8: A Time To Embrace and A Time To Refrain
Book 9: A Time To Search and A Time To Give Up
Book 10: A Time To Keep and A Time To Throw Away
Book 8: A Time To Embrace and A Time To Refrain
Chapter 1
Katherine was frustrated, and despite a long walk and talk with Troy today, was not any closer to knowing how she would address her father. She knew she had to respect and honor him, but that needed to be a two-way street now that she was an adult. In the last two years, he had changed and not in a way that was fostering positive influences on their relationship.
When Noah had gotten engaged to Margaret, Katherine’s dad amped up his attention toward the solo men living in the county looking for that perfect match for his daughter. The fact that he was convinced, she as a woman, would not be able to run the farm was maddening to her. She was grateful to have been raised in a traditional family but discouraged when hearing about the freedoms her friends had when she attended college. Her work ethic and dedication to the family was the epitome of the traditional upbringing, so overall she knew that was a blessing of some sort.
Her dad wanted to have more children but unfortunately had been stuck with one daughter. In farming communities, it was natural to want boys to help run the operations that came with large farms or ranches in the area. Katherine loved going to the Living River Ranch these days, as there was such great energy about the place. Besides, Stormi was willing to share the information she had gained about horse husbandry. Katherine had wanted to move a part of their farm to horse care and develop boarding operations. She had even written a full business plan after she returned from school to present to her father. Her father again was having nothing to do with it; the Grazinski’s were dairy farmers he would tell her, had been for nearly eighty years and would be for eighty more.
Katherine loved dairy farming, but the market for dairy products was becoming a fiercer obstacle for honing out a living. Conglomerates were barging in on this necessary market and making farmers like her father feel the pinch. She wanted to get ahead of the issue and diversify the farm a bit to ensure the multiple streams of income would be forthcoming. She also had some great ideas about crops they could plant to extend a diversified offering in the area. This might help them become a smidge more self-sustaining and maybe again turn a small profit. She was fiercely determined to make her family farm last into the next generation but wasn’t on board with doing so by acquiescing to her father’s demands. Marrying a family friend for anything short of love was not in the cards.
She had loved Noah for as long as she could remember. The not so secret crush had lasted into adulthood but waned and died in the last few years. He and Margaret were the ultimate couple, and she could no longer imagine a scenario where he should have ended up with her. Up until then, Katherine had not found anyone else that measured up to Noah’s status in her mind, well at least until Troy Henson had arrived with Ben Braize a few weeks past. The instant camaraderie and ability to speak freely with him was unsettling at first. She hadn’t wanted to push the friendship further, as he was still healing from an assault that had bruised his ego, mind, and body. Just having someone that would stop what he was doing and listen so intently made her increasingly seek him out in recent days.
As she finished walking from Living River Ranch into her kitchen, she tried to clear her thoughts and focus on the afternoon chores listed in her mind.
“Hey mom,” she said, moving into the kitchen, grabbing a glass and going to the refrigerator to pour some juice.
“Hi, sweetie,” her mom Marcia responded. She was busy putting vegetables into a pot.
“What’cha making,” she said, moving over to take a deep inhalation of the amazing smells.
“Vegetable soup.”
“Smells like heaven,” Katherine responded.
“Are Margaret and Noah back from their honeymoon?”
“I think two more days,” she said with a huge smile. “I just went for a long walk with Troy and chatted with Emily, Ben, and Stormi. It seems like every time I am over there; they have new and interesting people joining the family.”
“I remember Holmer and Grace had this knack for taking in strays, and it would appear that Margaret is cut from the same cloth. Don’t tell your daddy about the Troy part though,” she said, with a sad down-turned face.
“They are growing so much, and the way they find a position for new people is amazing. Their growth is heaven-sent as they absorb and expand to include new people,” Katherine started. “And daddy will have to hear about Troy sometime.”
“Is it getting serious with you two?”
“No, nothing like that,” Katherine said, but she could see it may head down that road, “I just need my father to honor my decisions as an adult. I had thought if I was a good daughter, tried to follow his rules, and didn’t make waves, he might come around, but it appears he is becoming more difficult with each passing day. Any clues on what I should do?”
“I don’t know, my love,” her mother sighed. “He seems to be at a loss right now. I should tell you; he has invited Maxwell to dinner again this evening. They are out in the barn talking refurbishing the milking operation.”
Katherine felt her gut plummet. The fact that he was considering doing that meant that the money she had hoped for her horse boarding program would no longer be available. This meant that another long, uncomfortable dinner was in her future. She kissed her mother on the cheek and headed toward the barn.
In transit, she offered her eyes to heaven; please let us find a path toward understanding each other with grace. I don’t want to be at odds with my father; she mused silently. Squaring her shoulders, she forged into the barn and right into the middle of an engaging conversation between her father and Maxwell on the benefits of modernizing milking operations on farms to compete with other producers.
