“She’s short,” I said. “Easily overlooked.”
“Sweet as pie, though.” After giving Honey one more scratch on the head, Delilah straightened. “You’re allowed to bring your dog into the cafeteria?”
“As long as she’s not being a nuisance, I’m allowed to bring her anywhere on the ranch. A few girls have phobias. Rhiannon encourages exposure therapy, but if anyone’s having too hard a time, I just take her somewhere else.”
“Wow,” Delilah murmured, gazing down at Honey.
There was a certain kindness in her eyes, an affection for animals. But some distance as well. Like it was hard for her to be around one, not because she was afraid, but because she was sad.
“Do you have any pets?” I asked.
“I did, yeah. When I left, I couldn’t—” A deep breath. “I don’t have them anymore.”
Maybe her ex wouldn’t let her take them. “If you ever wanted to get one again, just let Rhiannon know. They all have to be up to date on vaccinations, but as long as you clean up after them, you’re allowed one.”
“Maybe I will.” She glanced out over the street. “Where do we begin?”
“How about we start at the farthest end and work our way down?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
There werea total of five streets on Rhiannon’s Ranch. First, Second, Third, Main, and Hilltop.
We started on the intersection of Second and Main at the gate and ended at First Street. First was still nearly a mile walk from the café, separated only by two fields.
“Most of the other stuff in town is close together,” I explained, watching Honey hop through the snow on the left of the gravel road. “This area through here is spread out because of the types of buildings. If you’re in the apartments, you probably won’t hang out around this area too much.”
Delilah squinted around, eyeing the road toward the mountain peak on our right, the building at the hill beneath it,then the stone building on the far left corner. “What are these places?”
I pointed to the stone building. “That right there, with the green metal roof, is the meat-packing plant. That’s where Rhiannon processes cattle, venison, and chickens.”
“Processes?” Delilah’s nose scrunched up in disgust. “She kills them back there?”
“Oh, no.” I shook my head. “That happens at the farm in the back. This is just where they get butchered.”
Her eyes bulged.
I laughed. “Are you a vegan?”
“No, but it’s still gross.”
“If it helps, the animals we eat around here are well taken care of before they die. But yeah, I couldn’t kill one either.”
The irony of that statement was not lost on me.
“That”—I pointed to the glass building on the far right of First—“is the greenhouse. That’s how we get a chunk of our produce through the winter. Some of the girls like to hang out in there and take care of plants.”
Delilah eyed me as we walked. “No green thumb?”
“Dirt and bugs just aren’t my thing,” I said. “You?”
“I like to grow a garden in the summer.” Squinting at the greenhouse, she pointed past it to the gravel path that snaked up the mountain. “Is that an access road to the farm?”
“That’s Hilltop Road,” I said. “There’s a trailer park up there. On the other side of it is one of Rhiannon’s farm areas. I think that’s where she keeps the horses. It’s part of the ranch, but I don’t go back there much.”
“The trailer park is part of the ranch too?” she asked, still squinting at the mountaintop.
“It is. It’s one of the earliest parts of the ranch, actually.” I spun around to head back down Main. Delilah followed. “Rhiannon started this place, like, fifteen years ago? She just hadthe campground then. So Main Street, the cabins, the cafeteria, and the rec center. All the other buildings came later. But then she bought more of the land, including the trailer park. Now, some of the women with children stay up there. Gives them a bit more space than the apartments.”
