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Liam stretched the string of barbed wire to the fence post and hammered it into place. He kept trying to concentrate on his work. It was his last day at the Perry Ranch after all. But his mind kept drifting and his heart ached. And that was a distraction.
But tomorrow, he’d be on his own spread. What he’d worked for. What he had the damn right to enjoy. For years he’d given his life to others. He’d protected the Perry Ranch and had helped it grow. Now it was his turn to focus on what mattered to him. And he couldn’t let Chloe matter. Couldn’t admit it even to himself. She couldn’t be a part of what came next despite how good it felt to have her with him. Beside him.
His hammer hit his thumb, and that pain was enough to take his mind off the ache in his heart. He shook his hand, hard. “Damn it!”
“Problem, boss?”
Scowling, he looked at Tim. “No. No problem.” Nothing he could do anything about, anyway. “And as of tomorrow, I’m not the boss. Mike is. Remember?”
Tim grinned and went back to repairing the fence line. “That’s tomorrow, boss.”
Right. Typical cowhand, Liam thought. No plans beyond the day they were living. Just do the job and let the future take care of itself. Well, Liam wasn’t like that. Never had been.
Now, his future was within reach. Everything he’d ever worked for was laid out in front of him—and the shining potential of it all didn’t look as perfect as it once had.
* * *
Chloe’s business was up and running again, but so many others weren’t. For two days, she volunteered with her neighbors, sweeping out mud, carting away trash and, in general, helping out with everyone.
“Still, could’ve been worse,” Hank Cable said. “I was living in Galveston back in ’69, and what that hurricane left behind makes all of this mess look like a day in Disneyland.”
Hank’s hair salon was right down the street from Chloe’s office, and she was not only a friend, but a customer of Hank’s daughter, Cheryl. The beauticians had all turned out to help with the cleanup, but it was the camaraderie of being together that was really helping.
“Oh, Pop, you’re always talking about living through Camille,” Cheryl teased.
“Was a hell of a storm,” he insisted. “Worth talking about. And we didn’t even get the full force of the damn thing.”
Chloe gathered up another trash bag and tied it closed. Everyone on the street was stacking their garbage on the curb to be ready when the city trucks were out again.
“Has the water completely receded now?” Chloe asked.
“From what I heard,” a woman across the room answered, “most of the city’s good now, but the low-lying areas are still pumping out floodwaters.”
“Not just there,” Cheryl said, “a lot of these older buildings have basements, and they were really flooded. People are scrambling to find sump pumps to clear the water out.”
Taking out the trash, Chloe paused on the curb to look up and down the familiar street. Most of the damage was cleared away, though several offices still had plywood tacked up where windows used to be. A few of the trees were in desperate need of trimming because of broken branches, but that apparently was low on the priority list.
Naturally though, her gaze swung to the Texas Cattleman’s Club building across from her own business. Was it really only about three weeks ago that she and Liam were forced to take refuge there? It felt like a blink of time and also as if she’d known him forever.
A work crew was setting up ladders outside the building, and she knew there were others working on the inside. She knew exactly how flooded that first floor had been and now, thanks to Cheryl, she was wondering about the old building’s basement. It had to be completely underwater.
Her gaze lifted to the third floor and the bedroom where she and Liam had started the craziness. God. She missed him. She always would. But, since meeting him, she’d also learned a lot about herself. She’d worked a ranch. She’d done the job. She’d earned the respect of the other ranch hands, and more, the dreams she’d had as a child were now her reality.
She was going to concentrate on the camp. On showing the girls what it felt like to prove yourself to yourself. She’d build a little bunkhouse, complete with bathrooms and showers, on the land Liam had promised her. She’d be there full-time, and if that meant she had to see Liam and not have him, well, she’d have to find a way to deal with that.
