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“What is it you want?”
“I’m here to issue an invitation—one that’s much too important to be given over the telephone,” she replied.
“An invitation to what?” Ty asked, then glanced over his shoulder when he heard the front door opening behind him.
“Your timing couldn’t be better, Chase,” Tara declared, quickly drawing him into the circle. “I was about to issue a very special invitation.”
“An invitation to what?” he asked, unwittingly echoing Ty’s previous question.
“An invitation to dinner,” Tara replied, a catlike smile of pure pleasure curving her lips. “A very special dinner in my new home, this Saturday around sevenish. Strictly casual, of course. I want all of you to come—Sally, Jessy, the twins, Cat, Logan, everyone. The interior designer still has a few touches he wants to add, but nearly all of the furnishings have arrived, including a pair of highchairs for the twins to use.” She cocked her head at a provocative angle. “Do you see why this wasn’t an invitation I wanted to make over the phone? It will be my first time to entertain guests in my new home. You can’t possibly know how exciting that is to me. You will come, won’t you?”
“Of course we’ll come,” Chase replied without hesitation, ignoring the slightly elevated eyebrow Ty aimed in his direction. “Around seven on Saturday, right?”
“That’s correct,” Tara acknowledged, then declared, “This is absolutely fabulous. I can hardly wait until Saturday.”
“Neither can I,” Chase agreed with a rare display of charm. “Considering the fortune you spent on this house, I’m curious to see it.”
Tara released one of her melodic laughs. “And a fortune it is, I suspect, but I have refused to listen when my accountant attempts to tell me the total. Most of my friends in Fort Worth think I’m crazy for doing this, but you can tell they are secretly envious that I have a home in Montana accessible only by air. The phrase has a certain cachet about it that secretly appeals to them.”
“It has that ring of exclusivity they tend to like, I imagine,” Ty remarked with a trace of censure. He had never cared much for her circle of friends.
“How true,” Tara admitted. “I wouldn’t be surprised, after they fly in to visit me, if there was a run on property around here.”
“Really?” Chase showed his skepticism. “I thought your friends would have preferred vacation homes with mountain views rather than the flatness of the plains.”
“Perhaps, but where I built, the country is a bit more rugged and interesting.”
Before she could launch into a lengthy description of her location, Ty interrupted, “Sorry, Tara, but your minute is up. We have to get going.”
She waved a hand in a calming gesture. “And I won’t keep you one second longer either. There will be ample time to talk more at dinner on Saturday.”
When Tara turned to leave, Buck stepped out of the Range Rover and onto its running board, his gaze seeking Chase over the vehicle’s roof. “I don’t mean to butt in, Chase, but I thought you’d wanta know you’ve got a cow down in that coulee about a quarter mile east of Flat Bush corner. The way the calf was bawlin’ over her, I’d say she was dead.”
“We’ll check it out,” Chase stated.
“I thought you would. There were a couple buzzards floatin’ in the air. The coyotes won’t be far behind them. No sense in losin’ the calf to ’em.”
“We’ll go there first,” Chase said to Ty. “Better hitch up a stock trailer and throw a couple horses in. After we catch the calf, we can put it in with them.”
“Right away.” With long strides, Ty moved off the
porch and down the steps.
“I couldn’t help noticin’ that the south range didn’t look in too good a shape,” Buck remarked. “It’s none of my business, but you might want to give some thought to gettin’ an early start on the fall roundup. It ’pears to me you won’t gain nothin’ by waitin’.”
“South Branch starts the gather tomorrow,” Chase stated.
Buck’s smile widened to a grin. “I shoulda known you’d be two steps ahead of me.”
“You’re starting fall roundup now?” A puzzled frown claimed Tara’s expression. “But it’s only July.”
“I imagine you have been too busy building your new home to notice, but we happen to be in the middle of a severe drought,” Chase informed her, his voice as dry as the dusty Calder soil.
It was the kind of remark that subtly jabbed at her ignorance of the ranching business, the sort Tara had heard often when she was married to Ty. As always, Tara bridled inwardly at this veiled criticism. She had always prided herself on being highly intelligent and hated being made to feel even slightly nescient.
“Clearly I have much to learn about the importance of such things out here. But I know you’ll teach me.” Tara purred the words like a cat aching to unsheathe its claws, while smiling the whole time. “Now, I promised I wouldn’t keep you, and I won’t. See you on Saturday.”
She tripped lightly down the steps to the Range Rover. Not until she was inside and they were on their way out of the ranchyard did Tara unleash the temper she had held so tightly in control. It was Buck who felt the brunt of it.
