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A busy day ahead, for which she was thankful, because every good day meant a better chance at meeting the looming financial bombshell awaiting her on August thirty-first when the balloon payment on the ranch mortgage came due.
She’d do everything in her power to give the kids a stable and loving home, even if she had to sell out and move somewhere else. One way or another, she would succeed.
But still, there was a small, empty corner in her soul.
Back in high school, Zach—the boy she’d loved with all her heart—had ditched her without a backward glance. Her marriage had been...comfortable. Even Tom had wanted just more of the same—a relationship based on mutual friendship.
He’d even implied that she simply wasn’t the kind of woman who inspired romance, and he was right.
What would it be like to have a relationship filled with hunger and passion and the kind of love that lasted for all eternity and beyond? She’d probably never know, because after seeing Zach again, she knew she’d never again settle for less.
Grabbing the last of the supplies, she headed out the back door of the clinic and into the bright Colorado sunshine. Several mares whinnied at her from their pasture next to the barn. From somewhere back in the rolling hills of the Rocking H came the sound of a cow bawling, and the answering call of her calf. Carried on a soft breeze from the southeast came the scent of newly mowed hay.
The sounds and scents of the ranch surrounded her, filled her with a sense of peace. Letting her kids grow up with memories of this place was what mattered most.
* * * *
ALEX HOSED OUT THE last dog run behind the clinic, then sent a fine mist into the air and watched a shimmering rainbow form within the spray. Some of the droplets drifted back on the breeze and settled like cool dew on his face.
He glanced at his watch, then irritably snapped off the spray nozzle and coiled the hose back up on its rack at the rear door of the clinic. Mondays were so boring.
Sammy and Trish from the neighboring ranch should have been here by now. The girls were younger and more timid, but he and Sammy often swam their horses in the creek, and then stopped in belly-deep water to jump off their horses’ broad backs.
Maybe Sammy and Trish had ended up with a big list of chores and weren’t even going to show up. Molly and he could ride to the creek on their own, but swimming wouldn’t be near as much fun without the other two.
Not that he’d wanted them to all end up as one big happy family. The thought of their dad, Tom, and his mom together made him shudder. What did Mom need someone like him for?
Luckily Molly said she’d heard Mom talking to Tom last week, and it sounded like that threat was over.
A good thing, too.
Lost in his thoughts, feeling out of sorts and aimless and wanting nothing more than to head for the creek, he didn’t realize Mom was talking to him until she waved a set of keys in front of his face.
“Hey, there!” Smiling, she still held the back door open with one hand. “Want to come to town with me?”
“To do what?” For a decent-size store you had to go down to Bixby, and even that town didn’t have a fast-food place or a theater.
Her brow furrowed. “A little testy, aren’t you? I thought you might like to stop in at the Cattleman for lunch, and then check Miller’s sale with me. You’ve been needing some new jeans and I’m guessing you might need a different size.”
“No.”
“Just...no?”
“I don’t want to go. Sammy and Trish are coming over and we’re going to the creek to swim and fish.”
“Are you sure? Francie ran into their dad at the post office this morning, and he said something about going to a livestock sale.”
The rest of the day opened up like a yawning chasm. Hot. Boring. Aimless. While untold adventures awaited his friends.
Anger and frustration exploded in his chest. “And we’re stuck here, right? Work all the time, nothing fun to do—this is such a lousy summer! I wish I had a d—”
He caught himself just in time. Choked back the words as he wheeled around and ran for the barn.
Inside the dark, cool depths, he scrambled up the worn wood slats against the far wall and found his usual refuge in the hayloft—the open loft door facing out onto the empty, rolling, endless grassland to the east.
Where nothing—absolutely nothing—broke the utter boredom clear to Nebraska, for all he knew.
Before he’d even plopped down on the soft, loose hay on the floor, a trio of kittens appeared and began rubbing against his ankles. “Go away,” he muttered.
