As Maria retreated into the kitchen, Hank pushed in the last chair, running his hands through his hair.
He took a deep breath and looked up at Clara, noticeably trying to calm down.
“Hank, are you all right?”
He turned and looked at the front door, then grabbed her hand and pulled her in the opposite direction, to the back patio.
He pulled the glass doors closed behind him, gesturing for her to sit in one of the wicker chairs. He poured a glass of lemonade, handing it to her before he sat on the bench opposite her.
She sipped her lemonade, her hands trembling. She watched as a hummingbird flitted near her, buzzing in the scarlet flower of the potted plant at the edge of the patio.
It hadn’t occurred to her that this might be a temporary situation, but overhearing the girls in the kitchen had thrown her. So much so that she didn’t know what to say, remaining silent and hoping that Hank would clear this all up.
Hank rested his elbows on his knees as his head fell into his hands.
Clara’s mind still reeled with what she’d heard from the girls and Maria, but she set her lemonade down and moved over beside Hank on the bench.
She rested her hand on his shoulder and waited.
Hank looked up as the hummingbird made another visit, this time to the wide open yellow flowers in the pot next to him. The buzzing of its wings snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned to Clara.
“My father has some very definite ideas about my life, and how I’m supposed to live it, I’m afraid.”
“He certainly does seem to have a very set plan for his family. For his ranch.”
Clara leaned back against the wall of the house, her hands folded in her lap to keep them still.
Her voice quiet, she said, “What does he want you to do, Hank? I’ve been wondering what part I play in this.”
She wondered if he knew that Beau felt this was a temporary arrangement. Maybe they’d planned that together?
Hank stood, pacing back and forth across the patio.
“For a few years now, when I’m not on the trail I’ve been taking in and breaking horses as a favor. Breaking’s not even a good word. I just try to get them to understand what their jobs will be.”
Clara leaned forward and picked up her lemonade. She took a sip, her eyes not leaving Hank as he continued to pace.
“Some are going to pull wagons, some will be herding cattle. Heck, some will even be going to California. But somehow, I can get them to understand. And once they do, they become members of a team.”
Clara cleared her throat. “I’ve seen how you do that. You have a way with horses, Hank. Mrs. Beckett said so herself the other day at the arena.”
He stopped mid-stride as he turned to meet her gaze. His brows tugged together as his hands went to his hips.
“What do you mean?”
“Surely, you know. You have a way with horses, and people notice. I notice. You have a calming influence, even with horses you don’t know.”
“Oh, don’t be silly. I just enjoy working with them, and we seem to get along. It’s that way with anybody, isn’t it?”
Clara stood, walking along the edge of the patio. “I don’t believe so. I’ve not been here very long, but it seems to me to be different with you. You yourself know there’s a difference between the horses you’ve trained on one side of the stables to the other horses. They seem much more agitated.”
Hank rubbed the back of his neck before turning his gaze to the horizon.
“Even if that were true—which I’m not sure it is and my father would never accept—it doesn’t really matter.”
“It doesn’t? Don’t you want to spend more time at it? Mrs. Beckett implied that there were a great many people who would love to acquire your services.”
Hank sighed heavily and leaned against the post at the corner of the patio.
“You have no way of knowing this, Clara, but my father hasn’t been the same since my mother passed away.”
He looked down at his feet as his boots shuffled on the brick.
“He wasn’t always this way.”
“What way? Determined to control the decisions and destiny of those around him?”
Clara set her lemonade down on the table a little more firmly than she had intended, the loud clatter making Hank turn quickly.
“Is that what it seems like? Yes, I suppose it would. To my mind, he’s just trying to keep the family business on track. Keep everything the same. Said he needs me on the trail. Nobody else is good enough to do it, he told me. Nobody he trusts, anyway.”
“Is that the truth? Is there no one else who could take over that responsibility?” She sat back down on the bench and shifted in her seat as he sat beside her.
“No, of course not. Truly, I don’t understand what is happening here. Before my mother died and Tripp left the trail to go to chef school, we’d all agreed that I was next. That it was time for me to come off the trail and start a life of my own.”
“That sounds reasonable. Especially if you want to have a family.” Heat crept to her cheeks as she looked away from him, grabbing her lemonade again for something to keep her hands steady.
“I do, Clara. I really do. But he’s insisting that I go out, that it’s critical to the family business. And how can I have a family of my own when I’m gone most of the year?”
The girls’ words rushed through her mind as the word ‘temporary’ flashed before her, big and bold as if it were on the marquee of a theater.
“You know, I’ve had an opportunity to observe many things here in the past few days. Your father’s grief at the property was impossible to miss.”
“I know. Like I said, he hasn’t been the same since Mama died.”
She rested her hand on his arm. “Sometimes it takes people a long time to grieve a loss like that. Sadie had great difficulty in the months after her parents died, and she worked like a demon. I think to avoid thinking about it, for one thing,”
“Yes, it’s not been easy for any of us.”
“And as it was with Sadie, keeping to her normal schedule, keeping everything routine, I believe comforted her. A loss like that is a big change, and it’s natural for people in such pain to want everything else around them to stay the same. Almost as if any more change would be too much to bear.”
Hank turned to her, his head cocked to the side and his voice steady. “Clara, I think you may have hit on something. The more I try to pull away, the more tightly he holds on. Could it be that this is why?”
“That would be my guess,” she said, leaning back again and nodding her head slowly.
“I don’t know how I can change it. This ranch is my life, too, and if he won’t change his mind, I’ll be going out on the trail, no matter what I want. And soon.”
He reached to his side, picking a bright yellow flower. He turned to her as he spun the stem in his fingers.
“Thank you, Clara. I appreciate your understanding with all this. Seems you understand it a far sight better than we do.”
She smiled as Hank handed her the flower, her hand brushing against his as she took it.
Hank pulled his hat further down his forehead and cleared his throat. “I don’t see any way to change things right now, Clara, but believe me when I say I’ll come up with something. Somehow.”
Taking a deep breath, she decided to assume that Hank wasn’t aware of his father’s intention that their marriage be temporary. And if she had anything at all to say about it, it wouldn’t be. She was there to stay.