Page 30 of Home Is Where You Are

She put her horse back in her stall with a kiss to her nose. Sparkle nudged her hand and she laughed, grabbing another sugar cube and giving in to her demands.

“We’ve got to get a move on. We’ve got to muck the stalls in all the stables before nine so we can prepare before we have to meet the kids for the scavenger hunt,” I told her, enjoying the fact that I’d get to boss her around for the day.

“Great,” she sarcastically said. I could tell by her tone that she was loving having to shovel horse manure. Oh well, this was ranch life.

We finished the stables by the house quickly and moved on to the stables at the ranch. All the ATVs were in use but one, so she had no choice but to ride on the back of mine. Feeling her arms wrapped around me made me feel things that I shouldn’t. Her touch always did things to me. I needed to get off this damn four-wheeler stat. Quickly, but safely, I got us to our destination. She hopped off the back just as I came to a stop, clearly affected by my closeness just as much as I was. She stalked off without a word and went to go muck the stalls without a complaint.

We worked together in silence for another hour and a half until the stables were mucked and fresh hay was laid.

She wiped the sweat from her brow as she hung the shovel in its rightful place.

“You ready to get this show on the road?” she asked. The look on her face told me everything I needed to know. After sharing our grief last night that she still refused to name, she didn’t know how to be near me. The feeling was mutual. I needed time to work through my thoughts. I just couldn’t in good conscience make her sleep in a room that was a constant reminder of the person we’d both lost.

“More than ready, butterfly,” I said as I marched out of the stables in the direction of the office building. Loretta, her father’s assistant, always had the scavenger hunts printed so the kids could check off items as they found them. Hopefully this went quicker than the last one which took two hours.

She stomped past me as she huffed and beat me to the office building. I couldn’t help but watch her as she marched in front of me. After all the years away, she was still a spitfire.

“Good mornin’, Loretta,” she greeted as she walked up behind the woman and pulled her in for a hug while Loretta still sat in the chair behind her desk.

“Well hello there, sweet child. I’m so happy you’re back. Your daddy hasn’t smiled this much in years now that your home,” Loretta said as she patted Ainsleigh’s arm.

“Let me look at you,” Loretta said as she pulled back to check Ainsleigh over. She had been very close to Ainsleigh, and Ainsleigh often looked to her as a second mother.

Ainsleigh laughed at something Loretta whispered in her ear when she was done and sat back in her chair. I could only imagine what those two were talking about.

“You two ready for the kiddos? I heard this is the biggest group we’ve had for a scavenger hunt in a while seein’ as the kids are outta school for the summer now,” Loretta advised as she handed over the laminated scavenger hunt cards and the note cards for us so we would know the answers, as if we’d never guess. One time Leo got one of the answers wrong, and the kids were none too happy. I chuckled at the memory, causing them both to look over at me with a questioning glance.

“Just remembering that one time Leo got the answer wrong, and the kids weren’t happy; they couldn’t figure out where they went wrong and were off on a wild goose chase for hours trying to figure it out.” I laughed.

They both shook their heads and laughed as well as they recalled what I was referring to.

“Now out you get,” Loretta shooed us away so she could get back to her busy morning. Sawyer had told me she was talking of retiring, but he wouldn’t hear anything of it. She’d worked for him for almost thirty years, and he didn’t want to lose her. But I knew after all the talks I’d had with her, when my grief got the best of me, that she longed to move closer to her kids so she could make memories with her grandbabies. If she followed through with retiring when she planned, she’d be gone before the leaves started changing.

I followed Ainsleigh out of the office and over to the clubhouse so we could meet with the kids. Glancing down at my watch, I noticed we only had about fifteen or so minutes before they’d arrive.

We sat in a set of rocking chairs with a table in the middle on the wraparound porch. Ainsleigh looked down at the scavenger hunt to see what we’d have in store for us today. There were five different ones we rotated through—all of them I was familiar with—but Ainsleigh had been gone a while, so she had to familiarize herself with them.

“Want to make this interesting?” she asked as she finished reading through the ten questions. Each question was related to something found on the ranch. In order to move on to the next question, the kids had to get the answer correct. If correct, they would find a flag at the next location. At the final stop, they’d find the prize.

“Sure. What’s on your mind?” I hesitantly asked. Only God knew what was going through this woman’s mind.

“Let’s split the kids up into two groups. I’ll lead one, you’ll lead the other. Whoever wins gets twenty bucks,” she said as she looked over at me and held out half of the scavenger hunt papers and a note card on top.

“You’re on,” I said as I took the papers from her outstretched hand. I’d love nothing more than to beat her at this game. Just to have the bragging rights because the old Ainsleigh hated to lose, and I’d bet my checking account balance that tidbit hadn’t changed.

“I’ll take the first five, you take the last five, and we’ll meet back here in a few minutes,” she suggested. I nodded in agreement. We both got tape from inside at the gift shop counter and taped the clues for the next question in the rightful places.

While I taped the last envelope to the final stop of the scavenger hunt, I wondered if she'd set this up as a game on purpose so that we wouldn’t be together for the duration of the game for the kids. If so, I was relieved, in a sense, that she was the one putting distance between us. We couldn’t go back to the Ainsleigh and Gentry from before. Even if my soul longed to be near her, I just couldn’t take the risk of my heart getting hurt again.

twelve

AINSLEIGH

My mind was reeling while I taped the last envelope to the mailbox. I set out to make this a game with Gentry so I wouldn’t be near him all day. After last night, when he’d broken down in front of me over seeing my tattoo, and the way my heart felt, I just couldn’t risk being near him today.

I cursed my father in my mind for putting us in this predicament.

It was like my whole family knew something that I didn’t, and I hated it.