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“I’m always good. Aren’t I, Grandma?” he asserted with confidence.
“Almost always.”
Through the rest of the meal Jake peppered her with questions. How high would they fly? Would they go through any clouds? How does a plane stay in the air? Could he take his gun along—a toy—so he could shoot any coyotes he saw? Why are some clouds gray and some white? Jessy tried to answer his questions truthfully, but she had to be quick to keep Laredo from offering one of his tall tale answers.
Finished with her own meal, Cat stood. “Anyone want dessert? There’s some cake in the kitchen. Or fruit if you like?”
“Not me.” Chase pushed his chair back from the table and reached for his cane. “I’ve got some phone calls to make. I’ll be in the den if anyone wants me.”
Cat watched him leave, then mused aloud, “I wonder who he’s going to call?”
“Ask him,” Laredo told her.
“I did. He wouldn’t tell me, just went all mysterious and said it wasn’t any of my business.” An answer she clearly didn’t like.
“Maybe it isn’t,” Laredo countered.
“More than likely he’s calling some store to buy a Christmas present for one of us,” Cat decided. “After the patrolman left this morning, Dad did talk about this being a special Christmas we’ll be celebrating this year with the whole family getting together.”
“I bet I know what he’s gonna buy,” Jake declared, then smugly pressed his lips tightly together rather than confess the secret he shared with his great-grandfather. He was a bit disappointed when no one took the bait and asked him what it was.
The single-engine Cessna Skylane swept through the wide blue sky while its shadow raced across the rough and broken land below it. Jessy was at the controls, automatically scanning the country before her. Every low mesa and wide coulee had a distinctive characteristic that enabled Jessy to pinpoint her location in this vast emptiness. Laredo occupied the co-pilot’s seat, his glance idly turning to look out the side window.
Buckled into his child’s seat directly behind Jessy, Jake strained forward to tap the back of her seat. “Hey, Grandma. Are we there yet?”
“Almost,” she answered with a slight turn of her head in his direction, then pointed to a spo
t slightly to the left of the airplane’s nose. “Did you see that butte just ahead of us?”
Jake craned his head to the side. “The big one?”
“That’s Antelope Butte.” As always Jessy used any excursion with her grandson to teach him more about the Triple C. “The landing strip is just below it. Won’t be long now.”
Behind her, Jake settled back in his seat, content that his confinement wouldn’t last much longer. Jessy pushed the plane’s nose slightly below the horizon line to begin the descent.
Feeling the movement, Laredo looked back at Jake. “We’re starting down, bud. Make sure your seatbelt’s tight.”
“Right.” Obediently Jake gave it a tightening pull.
“I want to do a flyby to make sure the strip is in good shape,” she said to Laredo. “Keep your eyes peeled for any buckling of the concrete.”
“Will do.”
Jessy made a low pass over the strip. Its lack of use in recent years was evident in the mix of tall grass and weeds that hugged the runway’s edges. Some had taken root wherever there was a crack in the concrete surface. But the visual examination found no potentially hazardous break-up or heaving.
The plane landed without incident and taxied to the padlocked hangar. After nearly forty minutes of forced inactivity, Jake was all raw energy when Laredo swung him to the ground.
“Where are we gonna go first, Grandma?”
Drawing in a bracing breath, Jessy let her glance sweep over the stables and adjacent corrals to the left, the idle blades of windmill eleven, and the half hidden grounds-keepers’ quarters before coming to a halt on the low profile of the sprawling main house. It had been Tara’s summer base, built on land she had purchased from the government, preventing Chase from gaining title to it until after her death. As always, the sight of it evoked memories—some bitter, but most just remembrances of the past.
“That first building,” she told Jake, nodding in its direction.
“Bet I beat cha there,” he challenged.
“I’ll bet you do,” Jessy agreed and watched him take off at a run. She and Laredo followed at their usual striding pace.
“It’s been a good many years since I was here last,” Laredo remarked. “Not that I ever came here all that often. Still, I forgot how well it blends into the butte’s face.”
