by Elena Aitken
He hadn’t even figured out how to make a ranch profitable.
Cole scratched his head, more uncomfortable than he wanted to admit. “Can I think about it?”
“Of course.” But Sunshine sounded sad.
“Give me one day to wrap my head around it.” He leaned forward and snatched a kiss. “I love you. There’s not a lot I wouldn’t at least try.”
“I know.” Her hand caught his and held it. The tension in her body told him how important it was.
He wished he could agree to what she’d asked right now, but it was too big a question to guess at the answer.
And the truth was, he didn’t know if he could be the man Sunshine wanted him to be.
“It’s so good to be back in Chance Creek,” Hannah Matheson said when she took Sunshine for a walk around the Double-Bar-K the next day. She’d driven herself over in the rental truck after Jake had come by and picked up Cole. She’d enjoyed the time alone. While the feeble sunshine left something to be desired this far into December, Sunshine felt like she’d been scrubbed clean. She’d done what she could do. The rest was up to Cole.
Cole hadn’t talked much this morning, but he’d held her for a few minutes before they went downstairs, and kissed her softly. She was so grateful for his touch after their days apart, she’d almost cried. After leaving their things in yet another bedroom, Sunshine found herself with Hannah, whom she’d never met. A happy, confident blonde, Hannah’s frank friendliness instantly charmed her. Spending the day with a stranger could be awkward, but she had the feeling they’d do fine.
“How long were you away at school?” She knew Hannah was attending college in Colorado, working on her veterinary degree. She and her husband had returned to Chance Creek for the holiday break.
“This is my second year into my bachelor’s degree. I’ve got so long to go.” Hannah led the way toward a well-plowed lane where they could walk more easily. The sun was out but a cold wind whipped the ends of her hair around. Sunshine was grateful to be outside, but she figured their walk wouldn’t be a long one.
“You sound energized, though. I’d expect you to be exhausted.”
“All the younger students are.” Hannah laughed. “You should have seen them at the end of exam week; they looked like they’d scaled Mt. Everest.”
“But not you?” Sunshine matched her strides to Hannah’s, her spirits rising the more they walked.
“I know how lucky I am to get to pursue my dream. I never thought I’d get the chance, you know? Now I am, thanks to Bella. Every morning I wake up and have to pinch myself all over again.”
Sunshine had to grin at her exuberance. “And Jake’s going to school, too?”
“Yes. I’m so proud of him. I uprooted him to Colorado, you know. It wasn’t his idea.” She laughed at the memory. “I wasn’t sure how that cowboy was going to do at school, but he’s showing me up.”
“Really?” Hannah was right; Jake had looked like the quintessential cowboy in his rugged jacket, boots, jeans, work shirt and hat this morning. Blond like his brother, Rob, he was handsome and athletic, but he didn’t look like a scholar.
“Uh-huh. Once he made up his mind to go, he didn’t look back.”
They paced along the snowy lane. Around them, the whole world was quiet, as if they were the only ones alive. Not a single bird flew nearby and no one was working outside, either.
“It’s colder today,” Sunshine said.
“I think we’re due for a change in the weather soon. I heard we’re going to get more snow.”
Sunshine squinted up at the blue sky. Apart from a layer of haze, there wasn’t a cloud in it. “Hard to believe.”
“Wait until you wake up tomorrow.”
Sunshine’s phone rang and her heart fell. She knew without looking who it would be: Carl. Again. Didn’t the man have anything else to do but drive her insane with his pestering?
She pulled the phone out of her pocket and answered it. “What now?”
“I need to know your answer,” Carl said.
“And I need more time.”
“How much time?”
Sunshine sighed and looked around her. The landscape held no answers. “One more day. Two at the most.”
“You’re killing me.”
“That’s the best I can do.” She cut the call, pocketed the phone and caught up with Hannah who had gone on ahead. They walked in silence for a few steps until they came to a fence surrounding one of the pastures. Finally Hannah spoke.
“So you’re renovating a ranch and forming a rock band. Should I be hurt that I wasn’t invited?”
Sunshine’s mouth dropped open. “No one’s supposed to know that!”
“No one does. Rose just told me this morning and she told me not to pass it on to anyone else. She said since I’ve got free time I should help you today at the house. Sounds like everyone else is pretty busy.”
“You don’t have to,” Sunshine rushed to say.
“I want to,” Hannah assured her. “I want to join your band, too. I play bass guitar, you know.” She scanned the horizon like Sunshine had a minute ago. “But I am curious. Is Chance Creek where you want to be?”
“Yes,” Sunshine said. “I mean, I think so. I mean, of course.” She scrambled to make sense. “It’s just—I want to do something big with my career. I have all these ideas. I think I can carry them out here…” She trailed off again.
“Can I give you some advice?” Hannah leaned against a fence post.
“Why not? Everyone else has.” She smiled to show she saw the humor in the situation.
“Don’t be a miserable wife. And don’t be a miserable mother. Be real. Speak up about what you want and need.”
“I’ve done that. I asked Cole to step up and help with the children when we have them. I told him I want both a family and a career and he’s going to have to be part of that equation.” Sunshine shoved her mittened hands in her pockets. The cold was beginning to penetrate her heavy jacket.
“What did Cole say?”
“He asked for time to think about it.”
“Well, that’s something.”
“I guess I wish it didn’t require thought.”
“One plus about Chance Creek is that both of you would have a lot of support here. That’s what I love about this town. Community isn’t a word we give lip service to. It’s real.”
“I’m beginning to understand that,” Sunshine said. “After all, everyone has opened their homes to us. I appreciate that. I guess we could have stayed at the ranch I bought.”
“But that would have ruined the surprise. Besides, there will be paint fumes soon, right?”
“The painters are coming tomorrow to do the interior,” Sunshine confirmed. “I’ll have to stay out of it for a couple of days. The kitchen is still going to need a lot of work, but the rest of the place will be clean and painted.”
“Cole’s a lucky man,” Hannah said, turning back toward the house.
“I hope he realizes that.”
“Everything’s changing,” Jake said to Cole as they drove along the snowy roads into town. Once again Cole was directing someone to the restaurant he’d bought. He hoped Jake approved as much as the others had. If his conversation with Sunshine last night hadn’t been weighing on his mind, the day would be just about perfect. The sky was a hazy blue, a brisk wind had cleared the cobwebs from his brain, and he was looking forward to getting his hands dirty and doing useful work in the company of a friend.
“In what way?”
“People aren’t going to blindly eat what farmers and ranchers produce anymore. They’re asking questions. They want the best they can get.”
Cole nodded. He’d heard talk like that for a while. “People keep telling me not to get into beef.”
“Yeah, the market’s pretty saturated.” Jake kept his eyes on the road. “But you know what we don’t have around here?”
Cole perked up. That was exactly what he needed to figure out. “What?”
That wasn’t what Cole expected to hear. “I don’t know anything about chickens.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, either. Ranches were for beef, not eggs.
“You could learn, easy. I mean it, Cole. Have you seen what people pay for eggs raised without antibiotics? It’s highway robbery.”
Cole rubbed his face. He had noticed some high prices in the supermarkets. In fact, he’d made fun of those eggs. “What’re they made of? Gold?” he’d asked Sunshine.
“At least the chickens who lay them aren’t raised in gulags,” Sunshine had retorted.
The memory made him nod. Free range. Sunshine couldn’t object to that, could she? Well, maybe she would, being vegan and all, but she’d like it better than beef. He had a flash of her knitting tiny sweaters for the birds to wear in winter. Would they end up with thousands of pet chickens?
At least even pet chickens laid eggs.
“You really think there’s a market for them?” he asked Jake.
“Hell, yeah. You’d do fine—if you can find a place. It’s too bad you didn’t get home a couple of weeks earlier. The old Jackson place west of town was for sale, but someone snapped it up right quick.” Jake turned onto Main Street where Cole indicated. “This is a terrific location. You’ve done good, Cole.”
As they got out and stretched their legs, Cole felt lighter than he had in days. Chicken farming. Free-range chicken farming. That was an idea worth looking into along with the wind turbines. If Jake said there was a gap he could fill, he believed him. He was impressed with how entrepreneurial Jake was. He’d do his own due diligence of course, but his gut told him it would check out.
Jake was right, though; he’d have to find a property.
Maybe it was time to start looking.
“If you decide to move forward with the egg idea, it’s all about branding,” Jake went on. “First you name the farm. Then you set up your business. You tell a story about your chickens and your eggs. What makes them so special? Tell the story to your customers and get them hooked so they keep coming back for more.”
“You learn all that at school?”
“Some of it. The rest I know from experience.”
“That is… brilliant,” Cole said. “Chickens. I like it.”
“Do you think Sunshine will like it, too?”
“God, I hope so.”
“Emma Larson!” Hannah suddenly cried, scaring Sunshine so badly she nearly dropped the bucket of cleaning supplies she was carrying into the bedroom. It was one of the rooms to be painted the following day and it needed a good scrubbing first.
“What about her?” Sunshine didn’t recognize the name.
“She’s wanted to open a bakery for years. She was almost ready to do it a while back. I remember she consulted with Regan Hall about how to get a loan, and I think she even bought a place but the deal fell through when she had to leave town to go help a member of her family. She’s back now, though. I bumped into her at the grocery store a week or two ago, and she said she thought she was almost ready to try again.”
Great. More competition, Sunshine thought.
“She might be a possible partner for you,” Hannah went on.
“I’m not really so much into baking.”
“Exactly. But Emma is. And she’s into all that gluten-free kind of stuff. No one else does that in town. What if you worked together? With your vegan cooking and her gluten-free baked goods, you might draw a crowd from the surrounding areas.” Hannah grew thoughtful. “Although now that I think about it, Emma isn’t strictly gluten-free. She does a lot of regular baking too, which might not fit with what you want to do.” She went back to work scrubbing the baseboards of the bedroom while Sunshine got to work on the trim around the windows.
“Actually, one thing I realized while I was traveling is that people are different,” Sunshine said. “I know that sounds stupid, but it became clear that while I can eat a vegan diet and get plenty of variety in my food and be perfectly healthy, that’s not true for everyone. At first I was kind of shocked by how much meat people eat around the world. After a while, I understood it. Different places, different ways of eating.”
Hannah didn’t say anything, but Sunshine sensed her curiosity. She knew the other woman was surprised to hear this take on things from her.
“I don’t want to serve meat in my restaurant. I’m simply not comfortable with that. But if dairy products and eggs are produced in a humane way, well, maybe I can live with that.”
Hannah set down her cleaning supplies, crossed the room and gave Sunshine a big hug.
“What was that for?” Sunshine laughed.
“Because I can tell that’s a really big concession for you. And I know that you’ll make absolutely sure that the eggs and milk used in anything sold in your restaurant will be sourced from farms that give a damn about the animals they keep. Which means people like me, who adore cheese, can eat it to my heart’s content.”
“You can eat it in thoughtful moderation, maybe,” Sunshine corrected her, but as she turned back to cleaning, her heart soared. Hannah was right; lots of people wouldn’t stop eating milk and egg products. She could help support a farmer who was committed to producing them humanely. “I’d love to meet Emma,” she said.
“I’ll set something up.”
When Sunshine’s phone rang, she almost didn’t answer it, fearing yet another call from Carl, but when Kerri Olsen’s name popped up, she clicked to accept it immediately. “Kerri!”
“Sunshine, I can’t believe you’re back!”
“I know. It’s so good to hear from you.”
“Listen, I can’t talk long, but Mia stopped by my store today and she told me—”
“About my ranch and my rock band?” Sunshine said.
“How’d you know?” Kerri laughed. “Anyway, I’d like to help out. Can I come by later? I play bass guitar, by the way.”
“Just like Hannah. We’d love to have you.” She gave Kerri directions to the ranch and only realized when she hung up that she was smiling.
“See, you have to stay here. You have too many good friends to leave,” Hannah said.
Sunshine thought she might be right.
Cole was relieved to find Emma Larson at dinner that evening. Sunshine was too busy quizzing her new acquaintance about gluten-free baking to ask him if he was ready to be a stay-at-home dad. As much as he’d tried to puzzle it out in his mind during the day, he hadn’t made much progress. The thing was, he liked tools and animals and hard work. He wasn’t good at sitting around and he’d never held a baby in his life. Even if he wanted to spend his days like that, he wouldn’t be any good at it. And the prospect struck him as…
Lonely.
After dinner, the women stayed in the kitchen to wash up. Cole wouldn’t have minded cracking open a beer and watching some television, but he and Jake had to return to town.
Time for their stupid line-dancing lesson.
“Cole and I are off to do some Christmas shopping,” Jake told Hannah. “Be back later.”
“Get me something good!” She sent him off with a kiss.
Cole just nodded to Sunshine. She nodded back, immediately returning to her conversation with Emma. Aware he wasn’t scoring any points for taking so damn long to make up his mind, Cole shrugged into his winter jacket. “Let’s get this over with,” he said to Jake.
When they arrived, light shone through the cracks around the windows they had newspapered over earlier. Cole climbed out of Jake’s truck and was about to cross the sidewalk when he bumped into a man so bundled up he could barely see over the collar of his coat.
“Sorry about that.” The man caught sight of Jake. “Hey, Jake. How’s it going?”
“Hey, Carl. Good. You got plans for the holidays?”
Carl nodded. “The Coopers invited me to join them.”
“Do you know Cole?” Jake introduced them. “Carl rents a place on the Cooper ranch.”
“We h
aven’t met, but I’ve heard of you.” Carl chuckled. “You’re a lucky man, I hope you know that.”
“Lucky? How?” Cole asked.
Carl just shook his head. “You’ll figure it out soon enough. Merry Christmas to both of you, if I don’t see you again.” He turned and hurried off down the sidewalk, disappearing into the door of the real estate office down the block.
“What was that all about?” Cole asked Jake.
“Hell if I know. He’s right, though. You are lucky. You’ve got everything a man could want, don’t you?”
Cole pondered that as he followed Jake into the restaurant. Was he making this all too difficult?
He didn’t have time to sort it out during the next hour. Angelica Russell, a local dance instructor, had already arrived. Ethan and Jamie, who now possessed a key to the place, had let her in. She was just setting up the music when Cole and Jake walked in, a country tune with an up-tempo beat he recognized. Ethan, Jamie, Rob, Cab, Evan and Jake all stood around awkwardly, watching the young, beautiful woman prepare, and Cole was surprised to see Ned and Luke Matheson there as well.
“They offered to help. I told them if they help, they have to dance. I was surprised when they agreed, to be honest,” Jake told him.
“Hate it when I screw up. Might as well get some extra practice,” was all Ned would let on when Cole questioned him a few minutes later.
When Angelica told them she needed a bigger space cleared, they all jumped in to help move tools and boxes out of the way.
“You boys ready for this?” Angelica asked. She took a position in front of them. Dressed in jeans, a red plaid shirt layered over a white tank top, and a pair of battered boots, she was like any other young woman in these parts. Except Angelica was pretty enough to be a model. Cole expected the whole exercise to be awkward as hell with a hot young thing flirting with a bunch of married—or almost-married—men, but Angelica surprised him again when she turned out to be a no-nonsense teacher. She didn’t flirt at all. Instead, she executed a series of steps, clapping out the rhythm as she went, then had them repeat it.