Flint slept poorly that night. He kept thinking about the sign hanging above the cattle guard on the way to the ranch: PROMISED LAND RANCH. The name seemed to be an omen. Maybe he had found his own personal promised land west of the Louisiana-Texas border. If he bought the place, he would want it in writing that he was buying the brand as well as the land.
Clark was the first one in the café the next morning. “What did you think of the place?” he asked as he hung up his coat and hat.
Flint carried a cup of coffee to Clark’s regular table. “I’d like to think about it one more day. Mind if I keep the key and go out there again tonight?”
“Not a bit,” Clark answered. “You got any questions?”
“Do the tractor, work truck, and the tools in the tack room stay with the ranch?” Flint asked.
“I can find out, but I reckon they would. The folks that left the ranch are in a nursing home now, and their oldest son is selling the place. I don’t think he’d have a bit of use for what’s in that barn or anywhere else on the place,” Clark said. “The asking price is”—he quoted a price—“but I think you could offer fifty thousand less and they’d jump on the chance to sell.”
Flint couldn’t believe his ears. “Are you serious?”
“It’s been on the market for a long time. Not many people want to settle here, and since it’s right between Amos and Elvis’s land, it doesn’t have a lot of room for expansion,” Clark explained.
Flint’s radar shot up. “Why didn’t one of them pick up the land? Seems like a really good deal.”
“They’re both up in years, just like me, and we haven’t got a single kid interested in ranching. Why buy something that they’ll just sell off?” Clark asked.
“Will the owners let me keep the ranch name and brand?” Flint took out his order pad about the same time that Amos and Elvis pushed through the door.
Clark waved his friends over to the table. “I don’t think keeping the name or the brand will be a problem, and it’s my turn to buy breakfast. Tell Jasmine to put it on my tab.”
“Colder’n a witch’s tit out there,” Amos said and then laughed at his own joke. “I want a big bowl of oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar, biscuits and gravy, and a side order of pancakes.”
“I’ll have the same.” Elvis shivered as he sank down into a chair. “It’s started to drizzle, and the temperature is down around freezing. The weatherman is callin’ for slick roads. Folks will be stickin’ close to home.”
“Make that three orders of the same,” Clark said.
Flint took the order back to the kitchen instead of laying it on the shelf. “I have enough money to buy that ranch without going to the bank for a loan and still have working capital for a year,” he told Jasmine. “I never thought I could just buy one outright. I figured I’d have to put part of it on a mortgage.”
She looked at the order and went right to work. “Does that make up your mind about buying it?”
“Maybe,” he said. “There’s no one else in the dining room. I’ll make the pancakes.”
“Tell me the pros,” she said.
“I like the place. I like the name, and I can probably keep the brand. If what’s in the barn goes with the property, it will save me a bunch of money. I might have to work on the tractor and the truck, but I’ll have the tools to do that. It’s not far from the best chicken-fried steaks in the state, and I already have a friend here,” he said.
“Now tell me the cons.” She dipped up three bowls of oatmeal and added a fistful of raisins and a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar on the top.
“It’s not as far north as I’d hoped,” he said as he poured six pancakes onto the grill. “It needs work…” He paused. “I can’t think of any more. Is this too good to be true, Jasmine? Is there something wrong with that place?”
“Not that I know of,” she answered, “and I’m glad you consider me a friend.”
“I asked if we could go back and look at it one more time tonight,” he said. “Will you go with me?”
“Be glad to,” she said as she put food on a tray. “And if your working capital runs low, you can always pick up extra money right here in the café.”
“That’s good to know.” Flint couldn’t have wiped the grin off his face if he sucked on a lemon.
Friend, my ass! He could hear Sam chuckling as if the old guy was right there in the room with him.
Flint never blushed, but he could feel heat traveling from his neck to his face. He picked up the tray and hurried out of the kitchen so Jasmine didn’t notice his red cheeks. He’d only known her for three days, and he damn sure didn’t believe in love at first sight. He’d known his ex for a year before he asked her to marry him, and look what that got him—a broken heart.
He set the food on the table, and Clark motioned to the fourth chair. “Ain’t nobody else in here, so you might as well sit down and visit with us.”
“Hey, Jasmine, bring yourself a cup of coffee and join us,” Amos called out.
“Give me two minutes,” she said from the kitchen, “to get this second pan of biscuits out of the oven.”
“Clark was telling us that you like the Promised Land.” Amos stirred milk into his oatmeal. “And that you’re going to keep the name and brand if you buy it.”
“I’m going back to look at it again before I make up my mind,” Flint said.
“We wouldn’t mind havin’ you for a neighbor,” Elvis told him, “and if you need anything we got, we don’t mind sharing.”
“There’s an old tractor and work truck in the barn. Do they run, or were they parked there for parts?” Flint asked.
“Last time Delman fired them up, they were running,” Amos answered, “but that’s been a few years. They might need an oil change or radiator checked. He probably drained the water out of both of them when he put them away. He and Ginger left at the beginning of winter.”
Jasmine brought out a fresh basket of hot biscuits and set them on the table. “What are you boys up to this morning?”
“We was talkin’ about the Promised Land,” Amos said. “I never did understand why Delman and Ginger named the place that.”
“Ginger told me that it was the land of milk and honey, just like in the Bible,” Clark said. “She said that one section of ground had been good for her and Delman for the better part of their married life, but when he got Alzheimer’s, she couldn’t run it by herself.”
“If it was all that good, then why hasn’t it been snatched up?” Flint asked.
“Not big enough for some folks. Too big for others,” Amos said. “Did you drive around?”
“We checked out the fence lines, but it had started getting dark, so we didn’t see much else,” Flint answered.
“Tonight, you follow them ruts from the barn to right smack in the middle of the property. You’ll find a nice spring-fed pond that never goes dry and a little cabin sitting up on a slight rise not far from it. That’s where Delman’s only permanent hired help lived. Thomas died the year before Ginger made the decision to move, but it wouldn’t be a bad place if you was to hire someone to help out,” Amos said.
Flint immediately thought of Sam and the fact that he was bored with nothing to do. “Why is the cabin even there?”
“That’s where Ginger and Delman lived until they got the house built. The old recluse who lived there before them put that cabin up with wood he cut off the ranch when he was clearing land,” Elvis answered.
“Anything else y’all know about the place? Has it got a curse on it or some bad mojo?” Flint asked.
“Not even a witch would dare put anything like that on a place called Promised Land.” Clark chuckled. “I’ll be by for lunch tomorrow. You can either give me the key or keep it at that time. I’m willin’ to go to the bank with you if you decide to buy the place.”
“I won’t need to go to the bank,” Flint said, “but thanks for the offer.”
“Won’t take but a week to close the deal if we’re working in cash,” Clark said. “Taxes and insurance is up to date, but you’ll have to do some transfer work on the brand and then take care of a little paperwork on insurance.”
Flint heard what he was saying, but it was hard to keep it all straight when Jasmine was sitting so close to him that her knee was pressed against his. He found himself stealing glances at her full lips and wondering what it would be like to kiss her.
Thank God the door opened, and several customers came into the café. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. If I was to buy it, how soon could I plan on moving in?”
“Anytime that you want to,” Clark said. “I’ve been left in charge of things. You could put up ten percent in an escrow account and move in tomorrow if you wanted to.”
“You might want to get the utilities turned on first,” Elvis advised. “It’s about to get cold.”
“The cabin has a fireplace, though,” Amos reminded him.
Jasmine went back to the kitchen when Flint went to wait on the new customers. Her mind was all awhirl with an idea of asking him if she could rent the cabin, but until Flint made up his mind about buying the place, she couldn’t say a word.
She had promised herself a whole month of rest before she even looked for another job after she turned the café over to Diana. If Flint would rent the little cabin to her, she could have some time to finish the two cookbooks she’d been working on for a couple of years.
“First things first,” she told herself as she picked up a biscuit from the pan and stuffed it full of crispy bacon. “Mercy! Life can sure turn around on a dime sometimes.”
“What was that?” Flint asked.
“I said that life sure has its twists and turns,” she answered.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “The ladies just want pancakes, sausage, and coffee. I thought I’d help you get them ready. Sure has been slow today compared to yesterday.”
Depends on whether you’re talkin’ business or the way my pulse jacks up every time you walk into a room, she thought. Pearl has teased me for years about finding a cowboy like she did her husband, Wil. The way you affect me, I’m wondering if I just might be on the right path, but holy smokin’ hell, I’ve only known you two days.
“I like a slow and steady day every now and then.” Her voice sounded a bit breathless in her own ears. She flipped several sausage links onto the grill and turned them slowly so they would brown evenly.
Flint was close enough to her that she could feel his warm breath on her neck. She hadn’t had shivers chasing up and down her spine in ages—had actually forgotten what it was like to be that attracted to a man.
“I’m going to talk to Sam after we see the cabin tonight,” he said.
“Who’s Sam?” Jasmine asked.
“He was our foreman and stayed on after Grandpa died to help me until everything was settled, and he’s stood beside me through all this business of getting the ranch stuff sorted out,” Flint answered. “He’s like an uncle to me, and he tells me he’s bored already with retirement, and it’s only been a few days. If I buy the place, I’m going to offer to let him live in the cabin and help me out on the ranch.”
“Well, dammit!” she said, and then wondered if she’d really put those words out in the air.
“What?” Flint flipped the pancakes over.
Jasmine shrugged. “I’ve been working on a couple of cookbooks for a long time. I promised myself a few weeks of rest where I could work on them once I leave this place. I was thinking I might rent that cabin from you.”
“There’s three bedrooms in the house. You can have one of those rent-free and use the other one for your office if you’ll cook for me and Sam.” He grinned. “Me and Sam will be busy most of the time, so you’ll have all the peace and quiet that you want to work on your cookbooks.”
“You’d do that for me?” she asked.
“Hey, pretty lady, you did something similar for me,” he reminded her with a nudge on her shoulder. “We might both find our promised land.”
I’d be happy to just find a cowboy, she thought, but was very careful not to say it out loud.
Jasmine bit back a groan that evening when they followed the path to the cabin, and then another one when she saw the view from the porch. The place was really too small for her to lay out all her book plans, but it was so cute that she would have made room somehow. The whole place was just one room, with a fireplace on one side and a kitchen area on the other. There would be room for a sofa or a recliner and a bed in between the two.
“It’s perfect for Sam.” Flint took several pictures of the inside and then stepped out onto the porch and took one of the sunset beyond the pond and sent them to Sam.
Within two minutes his phone rang, and to Jasmine’s surprise, he put it on speaker and motioned for her to sit beside him on the porch step.
“What is this? You going to buy that ranch you told me about and live there?” Sam asked.
“Don’t know just yet,” Flint said. “I wanted to talk to you about it. I’ve got you on speaker with me and Jasmine. We came out here to look at the place one more time before I make up my mind. I can buy it with no bank loan, and still have some working capital to last about a year. What do you think?”
“I think that’s about the prettiest little cabin I’ve ever seen. Is it big enough for two?” Sam’s voice sounded downright wistful.
“Nope, but it would be big enough for a ranch foreman. The house is big enough for two guys to live in, but…” Flint let the sentence hang.
“Are you asking me to leave Louisiana and move to Texas? If so, how soon do you need me to get there? I can pack up and be ready to roll tomorrow if I can bring Gator with me.” It didn’t take a psychoanalyst to hear the excitement in his voice.
“We won’t have cattle for a few months, but I guess he could chase rabbits and tree some squirrels.” Flint sounded every bit as excited as Sam. “But what about that ten acres you’ve got rented?”
“It’s just by the month, and to get to put my boots back on a ranch, I’ll lose the rest of this month’s rent. When will you make up your mind, son? Don’t you know it’s not nice to tease an old cowboy?” Sam said. “What can you do to convince him, young lady?”
“That’s something he’ll have to decide for himself, but I…” Jasmine inhaled deeply and locked eyes with Flint. “I would love for him to buy it. He’s offered to let me stay in the house and have the extra bedroom to work on some cookbooks I’ve been writing if I’ll cook for you two.”
“Well, hot damn!” Sam laughed out loud. “We get a ranch and a cook all in one fell swoop. And I have a cabin all to myself with a porch for Gator to sun his old bones on while he waits for the cattle to get there. This sounds like we’ve done gone to the promised land.”
Flint laughed with him. “Jasmine, would you tell him what the name of the ranch and the brand is.”
“It’s called Promised Land Ranch. I don’t know what the brand looks like,” Jasmine said. “Do you think it’s crazy for us to make plans like this when we’ve only known each other three days?”
“Oh, hell no!” Sam said. “I think Fate has worked in both y’all’s favor.”
“Then start packing, Sam,” Flint said. “I’m going to tell the Realtor tomorrow that I’ll take the ranch. And by the way, we’ve got some mighty fine neighbors on both sides of us. You’re going to like them.”
“Son, I feel like I’m floatin’ on clouds right now. Want me to get a mover to bring the stuff from the storage unit out there, or is it too soon? I can throw a sleeping bag on the floor and be happy,” Sam said.
“Go ahead and get a mover lined up. With any luck we can get things out here by the first of the week and get to work on the ranch,” Flint told him.
“But, Sam, I’ve got an extra bedroom you can use if your stuff isn’t here for a couple of days,” Jasmine offered.
“Thank you, Miz Jasmine,” Sam said. “Now, take me off speaker, Flint. I’ve got a couple of things to say just to you.”
Flint hit the button and put the phone to his ear. “What do you need to say?”
“That you best not let some other cowboy come in and steal that woman out from under you. I ain’t even met her and I already like her, so put the past away—cousins, old girlfriend, and all of it—and look forward to a future with that girl. She’s a keeper. I can hear it in her voice,” Sam said.
“Three days,” Flint reminded him.
“Three days. Three months. Three years. Fate has took you to the promised land, but you got to do a little for yourself. Put on your flirtin’ britches and get busy. Now I’m off to start packin’,” Sam said and ended the call.
Flint put the phone back in his pocket. “I guess I’ve made up my mind. I just hope Sam isn’t disappointed when he sees this place.”
“It sure looks beautiful from right here,” Jasmine said. “I guess I’d better be doing some furniture shopping for my two rooms.”
Flint shrugged. “No need to do that unless you just want to. I inherited everything in the house, even if I did lose the ranch, so there’s lots of stuff coming this way. We’ll probably have to store part of it out in the barn anyway.”
“I’m surprised your cousins didn’t fight you for the household goods,” she said.
“It was all too countrified for their tastes,” Flint said. “They’re all city folks with different tastes than Grandpa had.”
“All right, then.” Jasmine stood up. “Do you think we might go through the house one more time? I’d like to see the two rooms I’ll have again.”
“You can use more than two rooms,” Flint said. “If you need to spread out your book work on the kitchen table or the living room floor, then just do it.”
“Really?” Jasmine asked.
“Honey, as pretty as you are, me and Sam just might sit on the sofa and watch you work.” He grinned.
“Is that a pickup line, Flint Walker?” She smiled back at him.
“It could be,” he answered. “It’s the best I’ve got today. Think it might work?”
“Not as a pickup line, but I do like a little flattery,” she answered.
He glanced down at his jeans. Are these good enough to be called flirtin’ britches?