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“That’s just the problem, Sweetie.The next generation of Holidays don’t want to be ranchers.”
She wanted to argue, but she couldn’t.Her mama was right.The six Holiday sisters had left the ranch the first chance they got and had no intentions of returning.Cloe was a speech therapist in College Station.The twins, Liberty and Belle, were event planners in Houston.Hallie worked for a brewery in Austin.And Noelle was going to pastry school in Dallas and working at a bakery.The chances of any of them coming home to live under their father’s ironclad rule were slim to none.
Her mama patted her arm.“I know you think of the ranch as home.But home is where the heart is.Your and your sisters’ hearts aren’t here anymore.”
Sweetie had thought the same thing.But if that was true, then why did her chest feel so full when she stepped inside the house onto the colorful rag rug her grandmother had made out of her and her sisters’ baby blankets?Her heart continued to swell as she looked around.
Pictures of all the family holidays they’d spent together cluttered the top of the standup piano her daddy had bought her mama when they first got married.The same piano Sweetie had learned to play on.The Duncan Fife china cabinet Mimi had inherited from her mama not only held china, but also handprints of all the sisters, along with misshapen bowls and Crayola drawings they’d made over the years.
There were other memories as well.Memories that weren’t as obvious.Like the dark stain on the wood floor that had been put there when Sweetie had tried to sneak a glass of Mimi’s homemade elderberry wine up to her room and spilled it.The burn spot on the end table when Liberty had been in her scented candle-selling stage.The chipped lamp Noelle and Hallie had knocked over when they’d been wrestling over a box of Milk Duds.
All these memories assailed Sweetie as she breathed in the scent of lemon oil furniture polish, baking piecrust, and the dried-out Christmas tree sitting in the corner.
When she saw her daddy napping in his favorite recliner, her heart filled to almost bursting.He looked like the man she remembered, but also different.He was still a big man who would have no trouble wrangling a steer to the ground, but there was much more gray in his wheat-colored hair and more wrinkles around his eyes.
“Daddy,” she whispered in an aching voice.
His eyes fluttered open.In them she saw surprise and love ...quickly followed by anger.“What are you doing here?”When she didn’t answer right away, he flipped up the recliner.“Well, answer the question, Sweetheart Mae.What are you doing here when I told you to never set foot in this house again?”
Sweetie glanced at her mama.“I thought you said he wanted me to come home.”
The guilty look on her mama’s face said it all.“Well, he didn’t say it in so many words.”
“I didn’t say it in any words!”her daddy bellowed as he got up from his chair.“I won’t have Sweetie staying under this roof after the way she spoke to me before she left.”
“What about the way you spoke to me?”Sweetie said.
“I only told the truth.What you did was wrong, Sweetie.You broke your mama’s and grandma’s heart, not to mention Jace’s”—Sweetie noticed that he didn’t mention his heart—“and all over a silly pipe dream of becoming a country singer.”
“You’re just mad because I didn’t give you your silly pipe dream of me marrying Jace and him taking over the ranch.Jace never wanted to run this ranch, Daddy.He wanted to play football.”
Hank snorted.“You could have changed his mind.”
Sweetie had sworn to hold her temper with her father, but she had forgotten how annoying he could be.“I didn’t want to marry Jace!”
Hank’s eyes narrowed.“Because you never have known what’s good for you.Neither have your sisters.I should have had sons like Sam Remington.But instead I had six daughters who don’t know the difference between bullshit and a horse’s ass.”
“Oh, believe me, I know the difference.Right now I’m looking at a horse’s—”
“That’s enough!”Mimi appeared in the doorway of the kitchen.Since Mimi rarely raised her voice, both Sweetie and her daddy shut up and turned to her.“Now I’ve put up with both of y’all’s stubbornness for twelve long years and I’m through putting up with it.”She pointed a finger at Sweetie.“You won’t disrespect your daddy.”She pointed at Hank.“And you won’t make my granddaughters feel unwelcome when they arrive.”
Her daddy’s eyes widened.“Your granddaughters?You mean more are coming?”
“That’s right.And I’d say it’s about darn time.”Mimi’s eyes filled with tears.“You know what scared me the most when you were lying in that hospital bed, Hank?It was the thought of you leaving this world with you and your daughters estranged like you were with your daddy when he passed.And I won’t sit back and watch it happen again.Now you stop letting your stubbornness put stress on your heart.”She turned to Sweetie.“And you help your mama by putting clean sheets on the beds.”
When neither one of them moved, she clapped her hands.“I mean now!”
ChapterThree
Decker Carson was having a bad day and it looked like it wasn’t over yet.
“I mean it, Sheriff.If you don’t nip this in the bud right now, we’re going to become like those big cities where homeless people set up tents on the sidewalks and pee in the streets.”
Decker sighed.“Dan Wheeler isn’t a homeless person, Mrs.Nichols.He lives three doors down from you.He probably just had a few too many at the Hellhole last night and made a bad choice.”
“He peed in my petunias.It’s all right here.”Mrs.Nichols held up her cellphone.Once again, Decker had to watch the Ring video of Dan spraying down Mrs.Nichols’s petunias before he zipped his fly and stumbled down the street.Mrs.Nichols lowered her phone and pointed to the flowers in question.“Just look at how wilted my beautiful babies are.They’ll be dead by morning.I’m sure of it.Petunias don’t do well with overly moist soil.Now are you going to arrest him for being drunk and disorderly or not?”
“How about if he buys you some new petunias and personally apologizes?I’m sure he’s real sorry.”
