Second Chance at Sunflower Ranch

by Carolyn Brown

  “Tell me more about this cabin.” Jesse followed him over to the table. It would be so easy to drag his feet and keep putting off the day when Henry could really retire, but that wouldn’t be fair. Maybe if Jesse really buckled down, Henry could at least drop a fishing line in the water before it got too cold. Jesse had gone on missions when he had only a couple of hours to get ready, so hopefully, he could step up to this job by the beginning of fall.

  “Oh, yeah,” Sonny answered from his place at the head of the table. “Like he said, his sister bought a cabin at the base of a mountain right near a river. When she passed away last year, she left it to him. He’s invited me and Pearl to come up there and visit him.”

  Henry sat down at the other end of the table. “And Sonny promised that next summer he and Pearl would fly up and stay a couple of weeks with me.”

  Pearl set a bowl of potatoes and one of carrots on the table. “You just want me to come up there and cook for you two old codgers.”

  “Well, if you’re offering.” Henry flashed her a grin.

  Mia brought the platter of roast to the table. “I went skiing with my Sunday school class in Colorado, and I loved the place. I met this really nice boy, and we texted for a few weeks when I got home. Maybe Mama can go up there sometime and find a husband.”

  “Mia Pearl Hall!” Addy gasped. “Whatever makes you think I’m looking for a husband?”

  Mia shrugged and shot a sly smile in Jesse’s direction. “I’m grown now, and you’re getting a little long in the tooth, as Grandpa says.”

  Addy’s expression was one of total bewilderment. “I am not that old. Haven’t you heard? Forty is the new thirty!”

  “Yeah, right,” Mia said. “I’d hoped you and Grady might get together and be more than friends, but I guess that’s not going to happen.”

  “No, it’s not!” Addy said. “I value his friendship more than a relationship with him.”

  “I was sorry to hear about his wife.” Jesse waited for his mother to take her normal place at his dad’s right hand, and Mia and Addy to take their places on the other side of the table before he pulled out his chair. “I didn’t want to drag up old hurts so I didn’t ask him, but what happened to her?”

  Pearl bowed her head. “Henry, will you say grace for us?”

  Henry said a quick prayer. The moment he said, “Amen,” Jesse picked up his napkin and laid it on his knee. He wasn’t prepared for the shock that went through his body when Addy’s knee made contact with his. He jerked his head up and their eyes locked for just a brief second. From the width of her eyes, he had no doubt that she had felt the same sparks.

  Jesse had forgotten all about asking about Grady’s wife, and was trying to deal with his feelings.

  “Amelia was in a bad car wreck,” Pearl said. “Drunk driver T-boned her. You might remember her, Jesse. She was smart and very shy, a lot like Grady.”

  “Wasn’t she in chemistry class with you, Addy?” Jesse asked.

  “Mama!” Mia nudged her after a long pause.

  “I’m sorry, what did you say?” Addy asked.

  “Jesse asked if you had chemistry class with Amelia,” Mia said.

  Addy took the bowl of beans from her daughter and put a spoonful onto her plate before passing them on to Henry. “Yes, I did. She was a junior and we were seniors.” She glanced over at Jesse. “She always had her nose in books, like Grady.”

  “And she wore wire-rimmed glasses, and her team always won the academic bowl contests,” he said. “I remember her very well. I’m not a bit surprised that she and Grady wound up together, and I’m sorry to hear that he lost her. To have something like that happen so sudden would be devastating.”

  “He’s coping pretty well,” Mia said. “Mama has helped him get over his grief. They talk several times a week. A guy friend is a good thing to have.”

  “Your mama was always a good listener,” Jesse told her. “Would you pass the hot rolls, please, ma’am? And do you have a guy friend, Mia?”

  Mia picked up the basket of rolls and passed them over to him. “Of course I do. A woman needs a guy friend who’ll help her see things like men do.”

  “What’s his name?” Jesse asked.

  Mia blushed. “That’s my business.”

  “I’d be interested in knowing who this guy friend is, too,” Addy said. “You never mentioned him before.”

  “He’s a secret,” Mia whispered. “We’ll talk about this later.”

  “All right.” Addy shrugged. “Used to be that you told me everything.”

  “I’m a grown woman now,” Mia said.

  Henry chuckled and steered the conversation back to the ranch business. “I drove past the fence that was down and saw you got it fixed, Jesse. Fine job. The whole section needs some work done next week, but at least now if one of the Hereford bulls from the pasture across the road gets loose, it won’t be flirting with our Angus cows.”

  The tension was still so thick that Jesse couldn’t have cut through it with a machete when he looked across the table at Mia. “I took care of that before I organized the tack room this afternoon. Thought I might fix my old dirt bike and four-wheeler on Monday if that’s all right.”

  “What are you looking at me for?” Mia asked. “You’re going to be the boss soon enough. I guess you can do whatever you want.”

  “Just wondering if you can handle that bunch of wild boys all on your own,” Jesse teased.

  “I’m good at what I do,” Mia shot back.

  Jesse shifted his gaze to his father. “But before I do get all greasy and dirty working on a bike, I’d like for you to walk me through the computer program, Dad.”

  “I’ll be glad to,” Sonny said, “and more than glad to turn the whole thing over to you. I’ve hated all this technology stuff.”

  “I’ll do it,” Addy said. “Computers stress you out, Sonny.”

  Sonny looked down the table at Addy. “That’s a great idea, and takes a load off my mind. I didn’t like doing the paperwork when it was in ledger books, but I just hate it now that everything has gone technical.”

  “Thank you both for helping Dad with the computer work,” Jesse said, “and Addy, I’m a pretty quick study on computers, so maybe I’ll catch on pretty quick.”

  “Don’t pass plumb out when you see how much feed and fuel costs these days,” Henry chuckled. “It’s probably doubled in the past twenty years.”

  “Just like everything else,” Jesse agreed, “but if you hear me groaning and trying to catch my breath, come rescue me.”

  “Addy can give you some mouth-to-mouth if that happens,” Henry teased.

  “No, she will not!” Mia said.

  Addy cut her eyes around at her daughter. “Honey, I’m sure that Jesse was teasing.”

  “I just want you to meet a nice man that makes you happy before…”

  “Before what?” Addy asked.

  “Nothing,” Mia answered. “Great pot roast Nana, and I’m sorry to eat and run, but some of my friends are waiting for me uptown.”

  “Go have fun,” Pearl said.

  “Remember that you’ve got a full day ahead of you tomorrow,” Sonny cautioned her. “Better not stay out too late.”

  “I won’t, Poppa.” She kissed him on the top of his head on her way out of the room.

  Jesse wished he knew how to fix Mia’s problem with him. His folks and her mother sure didn’t need this kind of tension every time they sat down at the table. If it didn’t get better, he would beg off having supper with them as often as possible and take a plate out to the bunkhouse.

  * * *

  After supper and cleanup, Addy checked Sonny’s vital signs, wrote them in the notebook for Grady, and went to her room. She tried to read a book, but finally tossed it over on the bed when she realized she hadn’t gotten past page one. The television didn’t have anything she wanted to watch, and she was still in turmoil over Mia’s behavior all day.

  Mia had been a happy baby, a great little girl, a
nd had become Addy’s best friend when they moved to Sunflower Ranch—right up until last Christmas. She was supposed to come home for spring break in March but had said she needed to stay at the college and study for midterms. Addy wasn’t used to her acting so surly and didn’t like the snarky little witch that had taken over Mia’s body. She finally marched across the hall and knocked on her daughter’s bedroom door.

  “Come in,” Mia yelled.

  Addy found her lying on her bed, both thumbs doing double time as she sent texts to someone. “I thought you were going into town.”

  “Changed my mind. I might go later this evening for a while. Are you here to yell at me some more about supper?” Mia laid the phone on the bed beside her.

  “Who are you texting, and do you feel like I should yell at you?” Addy sat down on the edge of the bed. “You might tell me why you’re being so rude and hateful. This isn’t my Mia. This is some woman that I don’t know, and she’s not been the same since she came home from college this semester.”

  “I’ve got my reasons, and I don’t want to talk about it,” Mia answered.

  “We’ve known for weeks that Jesse was coming home and taking over the ownership of the ranch. Sonny’s problems are stabilizing with the new drug, but if it stops working, he could go downhill pretty fast,” Addy reminded her.

  “I don’t like Jesse,” Mia sighed, “and I’m not having this conversation right now.” Her phone pinged and she picked it up again. “Ricky can get away quicker than he thought he could, so he is going to be at the bonfire down on the creek tonight. He’s picking me up and bringing me back home.”

  “You do know how I feel about Ricky, and you know how he treats girls, don’t you?” Addy asked. “His reputation for using them and then throwing them away has been with him since y’all were in middle school. Why on earth would you even want to be around him?”

  “I’m an adult now, Mama, and folks have accused him of mean things when they don’t even know him. Don’t worry about me.” Mia hopped up off her bed, grabbed her phone and purse, and headed out of the room. “You don’t like Ricky. I don’t like Jesse. At least I’m honest about stuff. You and Jesse have been flirting with your eyes all day. What is it with y’all? Were you more than best friends?”

  “Like you just said, I’m not having this conversation tonight, and I don’t appreciate the way you’re talking to me,” Addy said through clenched teeth.

  “I’m an adult, and I will speak my mind,” Mia smarted off.

  Addy stood up, crossed the room, and closed the bedroom door behind her. Then she opened it and said, “You might tell Ricky if he honks for you to come outside, I’ll be the one who goes out the door first. If he can’t respect you enough to come inside for you, then he can stay away from this place.”

  Mia rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and started texting again. “You are so old-fashioned, Mama. Guys don’t do that anymore, and I won’t ask Ricky to, so forget it, and if you go out there, I’ll just leave the ranch and get a job in town for the summer.”

  Addy pointed a finger at her daughter. “Respect doesn’t change with age, my child. If you want to get a job elsewhere, just get after it, but remember, you’ll have to pay rent, utilities, and if you move away from here, you can damn well expect to pay your own phone bills and car insurance.”

  “Whatever…” Mia did a world-class head wiggle.

  Addy closed the door again and headed across the hallway to her bedroom with a full head of steam and anger. She was almost to her bedroom when Jesse called out to her, “Hey, got a minute?”

  “Sure, but I promise I don’t know what’s gotten into Mia. She’s not at all the snippy little witch she’s been all day. She’s had a dose of smart aleck since she came home from college this semester, but not as bad as today. I think it has to do with Ricky O’Malley, the boy that she keeps saying is just her friend,” Addy said.

  He stopped so close to her that she got a whiff of his shaving lotion—something woodsy with a hint of musk—the same scent he had used in high school. She inhaled deeply and forced a smile. Whatever was going on with Mia wasn’t his fault.

  “Must be having a rough day. Maybe she’s more serious about Ricky than she’s letting you believe, or maybe it’s the heat,” Jesse said. “I was wondering if you’d seen a red toothbrush in the bathroom. I looked and it’s not there. If you threw it out, that’s fine, but I forgot to pack that and my hairbrush, both. I never worried about it before because I knew I had those things here.”

  Mia swung her door open in time to catch what he’d said about his toiletry items. “How are you ever going to run a ranch if you can’t even keep up with your hairbrush and toothbrush?” She stomped down the hallway toward the kitchen.

  “I’m sorry,” Addy said. “I may send her to summer classes just to get rid of her if she doesn’t straighten up. I assure you she wasn’t like this before she went to college.”

  “She’ll grow up,” Jesse reassured her. “Remember when we thought we were old enough and smart enough to set the world on fire?”

  “Oh, yeah. We were full of spit and vinegar back then, but it didn’t take us long to figure out that we had to have matches to set the world on fire, and to get those we had to find jobs that paid money.” Addy smiled back at him. “But I haven’t seen your toothbrush. I do keep a couple of extra ones. Be glad to share one with you, but you’re on your own when it comes to your hair.”

  “Thank you,” Jesse said.

  “Be right back out.” The door to Addy’s room was open so she went in, opened a drawer, and picked up a blue toothbrush. “It’s not red, but it’ll work until you can get a red one.”

  Her fingertips brushed against his as she handed it to him. She could have sworn that sparks flew at his touch, but she quickly forgot all about it when she heard the blast of a car horn and the front door slam. She took off in a dead run and made it to the porch in time to see the taillights of an older model pickup truck driving away. Mia was waving out the passenger window as the vehicle disappeared into the night.

  “You okay?” Jesse asked right behind her.

  “I guess she’s decided to go through the rebellious stage later than most kids,” Addy said. “That Ricky kid was supposed to come to the door, not honk for her.”

  “I’m not very smart when it comes to teenage girls, but if you ever need to talk, I’m out in the bunkhouse,” Jesse offered.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “See you in the morning.” He held up the toothbrush. “And thanks for this.”

  “Sure thing.” She tried to keep calm, but what she wanted to do was stomp a hole in the wooden porch.

  She waited a few minutes and then went back into the house. She could hear Sonny, Henry, and Pearl all visiting in the living room and overheard something about a cabin in Colorado. She couldn’t blame them if they wanted to get away before next summer. Who knew what condition Sonny might be in by that time if this new treatment plan took a wrong turn and he got worse? Now that Jesse was home, they should go as often as they possibly could.

  She went back into her room—Jesse’s old bedroom. Packing up all his trophies, ribbons, and even some of his clothing and toting them out to the bunkhouse to store them had not been easy for her. Learning back in the spring that he was coming home to stay had almost sent her right back out to the Texas Panhandle to her parents’ ranch. She knew she could live with them until she got a job in a nearby hospital or nursing home, but she sucked it up and decided to stay in Honey Grove. Mia had gone to high school here, and some of her classmates, including Ricky, had even attended college with her. Mia loved Sunflower Ranch, and Pearl and Sonny loved her like she was their own granddaughter.

  Addy went to the window overlooking the backyard and pulled open the lace curtains. Out there in the distance, a light came on in the bunkhouse. She saw a movement and wondered if Jesse had a girlfriend, someone just waiting for him to ask her to be with him here in Texas. The thought caused jeal
ousy to shoot through her body.

  “You have no rights to him,” she said, but she couldn’t keep her mind from going back to that night they had spent in the bunkhouse. They hadn’t turned on the lights, but had only a small candle, and they had promised to be honest with each other from that time on, and never keep secrets about how they felt.

  “Yeah, right,” she muttered as she dropped the curtain, got her things together, and headed for the bathroom at the end of the hall. “Like that last part could ever happen, given the results of that night.”

  Chapter Six

  The congregation was singing the first song on Sunday morning when Grady slipped in beside Addy on the third pew from the front. The lyrics of the hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” talked about being safe and secure from all alarms. Addy was a strong, independent woman who had proven that she didn’t need a man to complete her, but it would be nice to cuddle up next to a guy at night. Sure, she could talk to Grady about anything, and he had turned out to be a good friend, but a boyfriend would be nice. For some reason Mia seemed to be pushing her in that direction now that she was grown. All through her childhood she didn’t want Addy to date anyone. Addy glanced over her shoulder at her belligerent daughter, who was sitting on the back pew with Ricky O’Malley—just another of her many acts of defiance.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Grady said. “My relief doctor had a flat tire on the way to work.”

  “We just started the first hymn.” She handed him her song book, and Jesse immediately moved his hymnal over to share with her.

  His shoulder had pressed into hers when they all had to scrunch down a little to make room for Grady. Now she had all kinds of chemistry happening on her right side, and she didn’t talk about her feelings where Jesse was concerned to anyone—not even Grady.