by Mia Ross
“That’s all well and good, but what does any of that have to do with the meeting?”
“And then there’s that laser focus of yours,” he added with a chuckle. “The thing is, when your eyes are on the prize, sometimes you miss things that are fanned out to the sides.”
“Such as?”
In answer, he pulled out his phone and scrolled down the contact list to the name he thought might interest her. He handed it over, and when she took in the name, her eyes widened as they met his. “You know Congressman Barlowe?”
“Turns out Craig’s a big rodeo fan. We’ve had dinner a few times, and he strikes me as a good guy who really cares about protecting Montana’s natural treasures. I think the conservancy would be something he’d want to know about.”
“I’ve written a dozen letters to him,” Morgan confided in a dejected tone very unlike the feisty cowgirl he used to know. “I always get a form response that basically says he’s a busy man with a lot to do, so we’ll have to get in line behind everyone else.”
“How many folks are in the group so far?” She hesitated, and he said, “Let me guess. You and JD.”
“And some others.” He gave her a nudging look, and she relented with a sigh. “Okay, there’s six of us so far. This energy company’s only been here a couple times, and most people don’t see any harm in them hand-drilling for soil and core samples. The trouble is, if they find something, the bulldozers and excavators will be here within a few weeks. Once they have permits and geological surveys that tell them where to start prospecting, it might be too late for us to stop them.”
Still the smartest kid in the room, he thought. “Sounds like you’ve done your homework.”
“You have no idea. This kind of thing goes on all the time, and in places where the residents don’t have the will or organization to put up some resistance, the big energy companies get what they want. I know the country needs to find more sources of oil and natural gas, but there must be better ways to do it.”
“I don’t doubt that, but it’ll take some really smart folks working together to make that happen.”
“That’s what the conservancy is all about. We just need more members.” After a pause, she frowned. “A lot more.”
He hated seeing her so dejected. He much preferred the in-your-face attitude she’d had earlier, even if it made him a target every once in a while. Fortunately, he held the key to lifting her spirits this time, and it felt great.
“You also need a bigwig who can help bring the right kind of attention to your cause.” Ty rocked his phone side to side. “Wanna meet your congressman?”
“Yes,” she replied without even a hint of trepidation. “You convince him to visit Mustang Ridge, and I’ll take it from there.”
He almost agreed, then realized there was a golden opportunity for him in this. It might be his only chance to mend fences with her, and he couldn’t let it slip by without at least giving it a shot. “Not so fast. Craig and I are friends, and he’ll be staying at my place while he’s here. I’m not just gonna make introductions and step away. I wanna be involved in the conservancy and what it’s trying to do.”
Those gorgeous blue eyes narrowed into glittering slits. “Why? You never cared about stuff like that before.”
“I do now. I want our daughters to grow up the way we did, in a wild place with plenty of fresh air and open space. Not choking on the pollution from a bunch o’ gas and oil rigs.”
He knew she wouldn’t accept his help on its own merit alone, but reminding her of one of her own reasons for doing this might persuade her to take him on despite their rocky history.
The front doors banged open, and several people flooded out, still arguing about what to do. JD was among them, and he detoured away from the group to join Morgan and Ty.
“Ready to go?” he asked his daughter.
Clearly thinking about what Ty had said, she hesitated and then nodded. “Yeah.” Connecting with Ty again, she gave him a wry grin that told him she wasn’t thrilled with his proposal but recognized that it made sense. “So, call your politician buddy and set up a visit. You and I can take him around and show him how beautiful this area is and let him see for himself why it’s worth saving.”
Thrilled with her approval of his plan—however reluctant it might be—he barely held back a triumphant whoop. Instead, he grinned and nodded. “Will do.”
“And you can stop being all grown-up,” she teased, the grin shifting to a slightly warmer version. “I know you’re dying to go all yee-hah on me.”
“Well, now, that’d be immature. I’ll wait till I’m in my truck.”
That got him a short laugh, and she walked away with JD, shaking her head. Ty watched her go, and for the first time in months, he felt as if things might finally be shifting to go his way.
What she’d given him wasn’t exactly the I forgive you that he was hoping for. But it was a start.
Chapter Four
“That drawing of Teddy looks great, Allie,” Morgan approved, patting her budding nature artist lightly on the shoulder. Her daughter still wasn’t fond of too much physical contact, but with the family exercising a lot of patience and gentle persistence, she was getting better at accepting it from people she knew well. Morgan hated forcing the gestures on her, but the occupational therapist had assured them that tolerating some tactile interaction was an important part of Allie learning how to function in the world outside her own home. And since the goal was to encourage her to be as independent as possible, they all kept doing it.
“Thank you,” her shy girl replied, adding a rare smile. “I think he had fun.”
As rewarding as the smile had been, her two-stage response made Morgan’s heart swell with pride. Bolstered by a fabulous teaching team in her special-needs classroom and plenty of good, old-fashioned prayer, Allie had come so far in the past year. While Morgan knew there was a lifetime of challenges ahead for her beautiful daughter, moments like this one gave her hope for the future.
And then, Allie surprised her again. Looking across the table at her twin, she said, “Hannah helped me with math. I get it now.”
Glancing up from her workbook, Hannah beamed. “That’s really nice, but you did the hard part. You’re way better at numbers than you think you are.”
Allie didn’t respond to that, but a faint dimple showed in her cheek as she fished around in the multicolored box of artist’s pencils and crayons Jessie had given her last Christmas. Morgan wanted to crush them both in a grateful Mom hug but out of respect for Allie, she settled for dropping a quick kiss on top of each curly ponytail. “When you girls are done, go up and brush your teeth and get into your jammies. Then we’ll cuddle in my room and watch your princess spy show until bedtime. Okay?”
“Awesome!” Hannah exclaimed, adding a bright smile. “There’s two new ones on tonight.”
“Yeah, I seem to remember hearing something about that,” Morgan teased on her way out of the kitchen. “I have to talk to Grandpa about a few things, but I’ll be up soon.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
After a couple of seconds, Allie echoed the response. She didn’t look up from her picture, but getting any reaction at all was a big deal, and Morgan was still smiling about it when she knocked on the half-open door of her father’s den.
“Come in!”
She found him surrounded by a sea of paperwork, a good portion of which was buried under Matilda, the largest cat any of them had ever seen. She looked like a cross between a Persian and a bobcat, and she lolled her head to the side to watch Morgan cross the scarred pine floor. At one time, this space had been the sum total of the Whittaker homestead cabin, a single room that had housed Elijah, his wife, Charlotte, and their four children. And when the wolves were running around unchecked, sometimes even a new calf or two.
How they did it, she really couldn’t imagine. But she was g
rateful to them and determined settlers like them who’d had the guts to stick it out and pass the land along to their descendants. Now it was her responsibility to take good care of the property and hand it down the line, and she took that duty very seriously.
Curling up in an oversize leather chair, she waited for her dad to finish the line he was reading and glance over the top of a pair of bifocals that looked as if they’d been worn by Ben Franklin himself. “Are we sure this stuff is written in English?”
Morgan laughed at the sour look on his weather-beaten face. “Lawyer’s English. That’s why I think we need one, before the conservancy drowns in an avalanche of government forms. Jessie’s gonna talk to her new boss and see if Brooke will help us out.”
That soured his look even more. “She’s a kid fresh out of law school. What does she know?”
“New lawyers are eager to prove themselves,” she reasoned. “Plus, they tend to be idealistic, which means she might work for a lower fee. Or even for nothing, if Jessie bribes her with a few homemade goodies. She has a way with people.”
A quality Morgan envied, she admitted silently. Being the youngest, Jessie had always had the freedom to be lighthearted and sweet. Their brother Ben did his own thing, running the crop section of the ranch, and Ryan was a tough but fair wrangler in charge of the cowboys who came and went with the seasons.
That left JD and Morgan the task of working and overseeing the ranch as a whole. Since she was the oldest, she supposed that it made sense. But there were times when she sensed that their customers would rather deal with Ryan or Ben than a woman. Those were the times when she gritted her teeth, plastered on a beauty queen smile and plowed through what needed to be done as quickly as possible.
“Unlike you, you mean?” Dad commented, echoing her thoughts with unnerving accuracy.
“Well, schmoozing people’s not my thing. I prefer animals.”
He glanced from right to left, as if looking for spies. Then he leaned forward and muttered, “Yeah, me, too.”
Morgan laughed, and as he leaned back in his chair, Matilda padded across the wide desktop and plopped into his lap. Smiling, he stroked her silky fur and went on. “Critters are easier to understand. You feed ’em a couple times a day, keep the water trough full, brush ’em if they need it. Give ’em some attention, and they’re happy.”
His humorous tone had shifted to a melancholy one, and Morgan eyed him in concern. “That doesn’t sound like you. Is something wrong?”
“Nah, just tired.” She kept the look going, and he relented with a sigh. “It’s been tough since we lost your mother last year.”
“We didn’t lose her, Dad,” Morgan reminded him firmly, hoping to nip his misplaced sorrow in the bud. “She’s living in Helena to be near her boyfriend.”
He absorbed that in silence, then sighed again. “You think she’s happy?”
“I haven’t heard from her, so I wouldn’t know.” Didn’t much care, either, but that was another issue. As beautiful as she was narcissistic, Laura Whittaker might have birthed four children, but as a mother she was a huge disappointment. Honestly, it was a blessing that they’d all turned out so well.
“Me, neither.” He grimaced, and Matilda reached a paw up to his cheek as if she sensed that he needed some feline comforting. He snuck a finger under her chin and rubbed the spot that made her rumble like a fine sports car. Chuckling, he looked over at Morgan. “See? Easy to please.”
“Unlike the legal system,” she added, nodding at the stacks of paper he’d printed. “Please tell me that’s research and not the application package we have to file to get our injunction against Cartwright.”
“Some of each. It’s easier to read it this way than on the computer. But I gotta admit, there’s plenty of groups in other states fighting the same thing we are. Jessie showed me how to navigate their websites, and I’m hoping to get some hints from their message boards.”
“That’s a great idea,” Morgan agreed, suddenly feeling more optimistic about their battle than she had been since the incredibly unproductive town meeting. “Maybe we can connect with some of these other organizations and get recommendations from them on what to do or not to do. It could save us a lot of time, which is something we don’t have much of if we want to stop the exploration that shark Reynolds is proposing.”
“What about Ty’s congressman friend? When is he coming?”
“Well...” Morgan suddenly felt the way she used to as a child when her father asked if her chores were done and she had to tell him she hadn’t even started yet. “He gave us a few dates that work for him, but I haven’t followed up on that yet.”
Her father’s silvery-blue eyes squinted in disapproval. “Why not?”
Because it was Ty, and she hated asking him for anything. She still didn’t trust him, and it made her skin crawl to think that the fate of Mustang Ridge hung at least partially on the integrity of the charming cowboy who’d broken her trust and her heart on his way out of her life. While she was trying to come up with a decent explanation, her father shook his head with an understanding smile.
“I know it’s hard to put your past with him aside to work with him on this. But that was years ago, and the problems we have now are gonna need a lot of people to solve them. If he’s willing to help, we have to take him up on his offer.”
“I know.”
After a moment, he cleared his throat in an obvious sign that he was about to get parental with her. But what he said next almost knocked her onto the floor.
“I know he’s Allie and Hannah’s father.”
Morgan’s jaw nearly hit the floor, and she stared at him in disbelief. “How?”
“Honey, I know you’re all grown-up now, but some things about you are the same as they always were. When you told us you were pregnant, I never doubted for a second that Ty was the father.”
Once she’d recovered somewhat, she demanded, “Why didn’t you say something?”
His shrug reminded her distinctly of Ryan. “It wasn’t my place. I figured when you were ready, you’d tell me yourself. In the meantime, I’d just enjoy being the grandpa of the two sweetest girls in Montana.”
“Do Jessie and Ben know?”
“Not from me, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they do.” The mantel clock chimed seven, and right on cue, Matilda jumped from his lap, trotting from the room to the kitchen, where her evening treats were. As he stood, his leathery features cracked into a grin. “You’re many things, Morgan Jo, but deceitful ain’t one of ’em. Some folks just aren’t good at lying.”
“You make that sound like a good thing.”
“In my opinion, it is.”
On his way past, he kissed the top of her head the way she’d done with her own daughters earlier. It made her feel like his little girl again, and she couldn’t help smiling. Alone in the quiet room, she leaned her head back against the old leather and stared at the dusky landscape outside the window.
Enough waffling, she decided, pulling out her phone to find Ty’s number. When he answered, she did her best to sound casual about the reason for her call. “Dad and I were talking, and we decided it’s a good idea to firm things up with Craig. What do you need from me to make that happen?”
“Just your go-ahead,” he assured her in a reliable tone that was very unlike the rakish cowboy she’d once adored. “You want him to visit any time in particular?”
“Yesterday.”
Chuckling, he replied, “Got it. I’ll see what I can do and get back to you.”
“Good. And, Ty?”
“Yeah?”
Swallowing her pride, she decided it was best to finish her response before she could think better of it. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
After she hung up, she was struck by the thought that his final word had a nice, dependable ring to it. Almost as if a girl could count
on him to step up and take care of things when she needed him to.
Of course, she knew better, she reminded herself as she headed upstairs for some cuddle time with her daughters and their favorite new show. She’d learned the hard way that Ty Wilkins wasn’t to be trusted. She only prayed that he could manage to be responsible for long enough to help protect Mustang Ridge from the developers who were so keen on destroying it.
“So, how was the flight in from DC?” Ty asked while he and Craig Barlowe wound their way through the crowd clustered around the baggage carousels.
“Long,” sighed the man who had the distinction of being the youngest member of Congress. “Fortunately for me, I’m new enough that no one outside Montana or Washington knows who I am. Pop in some earbuds, open a book and folks more or less leave me alone. Except for the kid behind me who kicked the back of my seat all the way in from Chicago.”
Ty would rather drive across the entire country than be trapped in a cramped airplane, and he groaned in sympathy. “Man, I hate flying. I know it’s quicker, but I always feel like I’m gonna lose my mind before I get to where I’m going. You’re stacked up like rows of cordwood, and you don’t get to see anything until you land.”
They’d reached the airport’s outer doors, and Craig paused on the sidewalk with a smile. Nodding at the distant mountain range, he said, “But when you do land, the view’s incredible.”
“You should take the train sometime. You’d see mile after mile of the best scenery in the world.”
Craig snorted at the suggestion. “Are you kidding? I’ve got barely enough time to fly in and out of Helena these days. My assistant had to finagle like crazy to get me an overnight at your place. I haven’t been home in six months,” he added with a heavy sigh.
Ty recalled the rigors of keeping up with that kind of schedule only too well. “Yeah, the rodeo circuit was pretty demanding, too. I can relate.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Craig amended as they approached Ty’s pickup. “I love what I do, and I’m grateful to get the opportunity to make life better for people. I just wish all this—” he motioned at the impressive surroundings “—wasn’t so far from DC.”