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He set a ladder up along the back of the barn farthest from the house. Winter winds had loosened shingles on a lean-to addition, and heavy rain and winds were predicted. Damp conditions played havoc with newborn lambs. He pulled old shingles and tossed them into the bed of a pickup below, but no matter how hard he worked, he couldn’t unravel the mix of threads running through his head.
Landowners had largely ignored the town, and as online services and shopping improved, they’d gone into Shepherd’s Crossing for little more than church and to pay the taxes. Then the local government had made it possible to pay taxes online, so for the past couple of years now a click of a button took care of that.
He wanted to help.
Not just help.
He wanted to fix things, to make it better. And to do that, he needed help. Or maybe just needed to be a help. Tomorrow’s meeting might be a good place to start.
It felt odd to include others on Pine Ridge business, but it no longer felt wrong, and that was a step forward.
An out-of-place sound grabbed his attention. A dog, he thought, where no dog should be. He stood up, peering left, then right.
The sound came again, fainter this time, moving away from the sheep and the lambs.
He saw nothing, but stray dogs were a rarity here. They posed a danger to sheep. A malicious dog could wreak havoc with a flock. The Maremma sheepdog hadn’t barked, and all seemed well in the nursing pasture. They’d moved the sheep and lambs up one field that morning to avoid soggy ground following the rain, and all seemed calm.
His thumb went to the ring finger on his left hand, the reminder of what he’d had and lost. As it did, Lizzie’s SUV pulled away from the house, with Zeke in the back seat.
He wasn’t sure if his heart ached or stretched just then, but it did something it hadn’t done in a long while. It opened. It opened to the thought of opportunities he’d never expected and didn’t know he’d want until Lizzie had stepped foot on the ranch.
He slipped the ring into his pocket, then pushed the odd feeling away. His hand would grow accustomed to not having a ring in time. And he needed to be open to the changes around him. All the changes, he reminded himself.
“Need help up there?” Jace asked from below.
“I wouldn’t say no.”
Jace climbed the ladder quickly. “Wick’s in the barn, Harve texted me that he’s going stir-crazy already, and we can get this done this afternoon if we double-team it.”
He literally didn’t know what he’d do without Jace when the man left, because there was nothing Jace couldn’t put his hand to on the ranch. “Let’s do it.”
By the time they finished stripping the shingles, the wind had shifted. A rim of dark clouds edged the western horizon, meaning they better move quickly.
“You cut, I’ll shingle,” said Jace, and Heath didn’t argue. They worked in tandem, heads down, as the storm front approached, so when the sound of a tractor came out of nowhere two hours later, Heath stood.
Lizzie and Zeke were rumbling up the farm lane leading south. He was on her lap, holding the steering wheel of the small, older tractor, and she was guiding the rig with her hands over his.
Zeke looked up, saw Heath and tried to stand while the tractor kept moving forward. “Dad! Look at me! I’m driving a tractor!”
He didn’t think. He didn’t pause. He climbed down the ladder. He hit the ground running, and when he raced around the edge of the barn, he doubled his pace to get in front of the tractor up the gentle grade. He squared himself in the path, held up one hand and said “Stop.”
Lizzie stopped.
She stared at him and rolled her eyes, but she stopped. Of course the other option would be to run him over, and the flash in her eyes indicated it might have crossed her mind.
“Come here.” He moved to the tractor’s side and reached for Zeke.
“But I’m riding with my Lizzie.” Zeke looked surprised and pretty indignant. “We are going to see what’s at the top of the hill and then make pictures of what we see from up there.”
“You could have taken a four-by-four with seat belts,” Heath scolded her. “You could have walked. You could have made a choice that put my son’s safety first, Liz. But you didn’t.”
She locked eyes with him.
He’d infuriated her. He saw that.
But then he saw something else, something worse.
Pity.
He didn’t think he could get angrier, but he did.
He didn’t need her pity or her sympathy. He was fine. Just fine. She was the one out of line.
He hauled Zeke into his arms and strode back to the house. Zeke cried all the way. He cried for Lizzie. He cried for his tractor ride, sounding like the tired boy he had to be.
