by Liz Isaacson
“I’ll check them on the other days,” she said. “We watch for sickness. I’ll give you something to read. Is that okay?”
“Sure, I can read.”
She cocked her head at him. “Of course you can. I just wondered if you’d have time with your other job.”
“I’ll have my dad help me.” Jake gave her a friendly smile, and Laney moved on to the chickens.
“These are Bailey’s favorite animals,” she said. “They hardly lay any eggs in the winter, but every once in a while you’ll find one. They should be checked so they don’t get nesting sores.”
Laney finished the tour and the chore list, gave Jake the booklet on cattle diseases and sicknesses that were common in the winter, and headed back to the cabin. Her mother had been there to get Bailey for school, as the girl and her backpack were gone and a loaf of still-warm banana bread sat on the kitchen counter.
Laney touched it with reverence, knowing it was a symbol of her mother’s insomnia that had struck particularly bad since the death of her husband. It would make great French toast tomorrow when Laney would be home with Bailey in the morning. She could make breakfast and drive her own daughter to school, and the thought made Laney smile with true joy, something she hadn’t done in a while.
She cleaned out the fridge, gathered all the dirty laundry, and went into town to get errands done. She visited the Laundromat first, then the grocery store, then the bank.
When she walked through the doors, she realized she should’ve made the bank her first stop, because she wasn’t sure she could keep her emotions in check while she begged for money.
It’s not begging, she thought, glancing around. She hadn’t been inside the bank for a few years, not since she’d had the deed for the ranch redone to have her name only and all the mortgage documents had been reprocessed.
“Do you need help?” A man approached, wearing a dark suit and his hair swept to the side with quite a lot of gel.
“Yes, sir,” she said. “I’m wondering about a loan.”
“I can help you with that.” He extended his hand for her to shake. “My name’s Chris. What do you need a loan for?” He looked over his shoulder as he spoke, walking back toward a big desk that seemed entirely too impressive for a simple loan application.
“I own Echo Ridge Ranch,” she said as he gestured to a chair. “And I need money for a new furnace and for payroll for my only employee.”
“Small business loan,” he said, taking a seat behind the ginormous desk. He bent and opened a drawer, pulling out a few sheets of paper. “We do small business loans for improvements, expenses, all of it.” He pushed the papers toward her, and she could’ve sworn he had a manicure. She’d never seen a man with such clean, crisp hands.
She stretched across the desk and collected the papers. “Should I take these with me, and bring them back?” She could do it in the morning when she brought Bailey to school. Maybe spend an hour with her mom before the bank opened. Laney couldn’t imagine such luxury, and while she still had plenty to do around the ranch, having someone take four hours of work in the morning had relieved a massive burden from her shoulders.
Maybe with Jake’s help, she could get more crops planted, put up more hay, and still be able to sleep and mother.
Hope filled her chest, and she reached for a pen. She was going to fill this application out right now and get things started. She could pick something up for dinner to save time, and enlist Bailey’s help with the evening chores, and maybe she’d be able to get actual rest tonight when she slept.
Forty-five minutes later, Chris had answered all her questions, had her forms, and had promised to call her the moment her application had been processed. “Twenty-four to forty-eight hours,” he said as he shook her hand again.
Laney went home and unpacked everything, folded laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, and promptly went back into town to pick up Bailey.
Every time she drove by the lodge, Laney couldn’t help looking at it. Couldn’t help imagining what Graham might be doing behind the decorative double doors, and what Celia might have cooked up for dinner.
This afternoon, three cars sat in the lot that hadn’t been there earlier. Probably his housekeeper, his chef, and his interior decorator. A flash of jealousy made her throat tight and her foot heavier on the accelerator.
She couldn’t change Graham. He’d always done what he wanted to do, and she couldn’t expect him to change for her.
“Too bad you fell in love with him before you figured that out.” Laney had never admitted it to herself, but it hadn’t taken long for him to nestle into the soft places of her heart, what with socks on Christmas Eve, and incredible hospitality, and a family spirit she longed for in her life.
Mike hadn’t ever provided a strong inclination toward family life, and Laney had changed every diaper and given Bailey every bath. But Graham wanted children, and she could imagine him as a caring, attentive father.
“When he’s not working,” she muttered, putting Whiskey Mountain Lodge in her rear-view mirror. She’d get over Graham. She had once before. But as she waited outside the school for Bailey to come out, she thought she might be in too deep with Graham to ever truly get over him.
She couldn’t stop thinking about him and all the things he’d promised they’d do. Snowshoeing, horseback riding, swimming in the pool at the lodge. For a few days there, maybe a week, perhaps two, she’d thought her life could change. She’d thought she and Graham could have a real shot at a future together, a life of happiness, a family with a mom and a dad.
Sometimes her fantasies could get away from her.
“But not anymore,” she told herself as she saw Bailey skipping toward her. She sat up straighter and put a smile on her face for her daughter. She’d keep grinning until it became genuine. Until she’d caught up and then gotten ahead on her financial obligations. Until her heart stopped hurting.
Chapter 22
Graham made lists for work as easily as breathing. After Laney had used her ex-husband voice on him, he’d taken a few days to wrap his head around what she’d said.
She wanted to come first. Of course, he’d been able to provide that for her during the holidays. He’d been there, lending a listening ear, giving her a shoulder to lean on, cry on, hold onto when she needed it.
He had to decide what to do with the information, and he’d been making lists of what he wanted his life to be, what he didn’t want it to be, what he liked about Laney, what he could control about his job, his life, the way he treated her.
Someone knocked on his office door late in the afternoon on Friday while he reviewed one such list. Well, he hadn’t exactly started the list yet. A single question sat at the top, reading Do I love Laney?
So it wasn’t a list. Not exactly. But all of his other lists and soul-searching that week had revolved around this one question.
“Come in,” he called, sliding the paper underneath a pile of folders.
Dwight came in, looking like he hadn’t worked all week, or for several hours today already. “Afternoon, Graham.” He could be civil, that was for sure. And he was professional through and through.
“Hey, Dwight.” Graham opened the notebook where his chicken scratch stared back at him, notes about what he wanted to maintain control of and what he hoped Dwight would take on. “Thanks for coming.”
The other man settled across from Graham’s desk and steepled his fingers under his chin. Graham almost rolled his eyes, but he needed Dwight on his side.
“I have a few things to talk about,” Graham said. “And it has to do with the running of the company.”
“The running of the company?”
“I work too much,” Graham said simply, unwilling to go into detail for this man he could barely tolerate. “I don’t need to do everything, be everywhere. I’m hoping you’ll help me put together a task list for both of us that makes my life more manageable and gives you more of the freedom you’ve wanted since I took over last year.”
Dwight blinked at him, his hands falling to the armrests. “You’re serious?”
“Of course I’m serious.” Graham didn’t joke about business. About much, actually. Probably another strike against him if Laney were keeping a list. Wow, he hoped she wasn’t keeping a list.
Dwight leaned forward and glanced at the notebook, though Graham doubted he’d be able to read a single word of it. “All right. Let’s hear what you’ve got.”
“I’d still like to be involved in major things,” Graham said. “But I want to be the big picture guy, while you’re the day-to-day guy.” He glanced at Dwight to see if they were still on the same page.
A light had entered Dwight’s eyes, something Graham hadn’t seen in a long time. “Go on.”
“I want to be involved with legal. My brother’s moving home to take on public relations and some marketing, and I want to work closely with him on that. But I don’t want to do payroll anymore. I don’t want to deal with employees, or schedules, or drill sites.” Graham felt a burden lifting from him as he continued to outline what he hoped were decent plans for Springside Energy moving forward.
“I want to spend more time in the lab,” he said. “Developing the robotics that could really help us make sure we’re being as environmentally friendly as possible. I think that will go a long way with the public as well.”
“So I’ll be the general manager, and you’ll be the CEO.” Dwight grinned at him, and for the first time since Graham had taken over the company, he felt like he and Dwight were on the same page.
“I suppose I deserve that.”
Dwight lifted one shoulder in a shrug and kept smiling. “Your father told me you were stubborn and would want to learn everything.”
The breath whooshed out of him as the weight of Dwight’s statement hit him. “You talked to my father about me?”
“He always knew you’d take over Springside.” Dwight sobered and finally looked like a man Graham could trust with personal things and professional things.
“He died of a heart attack,” Graham whispered. “When did you talk to him about this?”
“He wasn’t well for a few months before his death.” Dwight cleared his throat. “He didn’t tell your mother. No one but me. He told me a lot of things about you and your brothers in that time.”
Graham’s chest pinched and he couldn’t seem to get a proper breath. Dwight had known his father better than Graham had. Probably better than anyone. And Graham hadn’t once thought to talk to the man about his father.
“I’m sorry,” Graham said, true regret lacing through him. “You must miss my dad as much as I do.”
The pain flashed across Dwight’s face, and Graham couldn’t believe he’d never thought of the other man as a human being with feelings before. Maybe he was just too deep into his grief, and he did like to do things his way.
His way.
Wasn’t that exactly what Laney didn’t like about him? Everything had to be his way. He couldn’t even provide an explanation for her when she needed one.
He hadn’t realized that was what he’d done, but it didn’t matter. How she felt about it was what mattered. He sighed, so tired of thinking about what he’d done wrong and how he could fix it.
“I miss your father, yes,” Dwight said, his voice quiet. “He was a good man and a good boss. Tough when he had to be. Kind always. Family-oriented.”
Graham wanted to be just like him, and he knew if he didn’t fix things with Laney fast, their time to have a bigger family than just Bailey would be lost. He compartmentalized her for the time being and continued his meeting with Dwight. After all, if he wanted to win Laney back, he had to show her that he’d made some changes in his life. Changes that would put her first—right where she deserved to be.
The last Saturday in January found him standing behind his barns, looking down the hill and over the snow toward Echo Ridge Ranch. He searched the clear sky for any hint of smoke, anything to show that Laney was still at the cabin.
There was nothing, and he wondered if she’d moved back to the homestead. If she had, that meant the furnace had been fixed. He hated that he hadn’t done it for her. He should’ve called someone from the plane as he flew to New York and replaced the whole thing.
He saw that now.
He saw a lot of things now that he’d been blind to before.
But he still didn’t know how to get her back into his life. Before, when he’d needed her, he’d text her. She always came, and he wondered if she would again.
But he wasn’t going to ask that of her.
He turned and went back to the lodge to get ready for his brother’s arrival. Eli and Stockton and Meg were set to arrive at the airport tomorrow, and Graham wanted to have everything perfect for them when they arrived. Sure, the lodge was fun for a five-year-old who was only staying for a couple of weeks over Christmas. But it would be his nephew’s home, and Graham had plans to make the boy’s room exactly what it should be.
After he’d worked in the basement room, putting up a wall of Lego sheets so Stockton could create right on the walls of his room, he went outside, this time to the front of the lodge. Eli would do a full analysis on the lodge when he arrived, everything from parking to permits, but Graham felt like he should know as much as his brother. The lodge had a water feature in the front, but he’d done nothing with it in the year he’d lived there.
A truck came up the lane from the ranch, drawing his attention from the fountain, but it wasn’t Laney’s. A man sat behind the wheel, and he drove so slowly that Graham had several long seconds to look at his face.
Jake Langford. What in the world was he doing down at Echo Ridge Ranch?
He waved to Graham like they were old pals, and Graham lifted his hand in return. Jake was Beau’s age and a little bit mentally handicapped. Graham had heard he’d been blamed for a theft a few years ago, and Beau was sure the man hadn’t done it. But Jake had been confused, in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people, and he’d gone to jail for thirteen months.
And now he was…doing what exactly down at Laney’s?
“She’s a grown woman,” Graham muttered to himself. “You’re not her husband, and it’s none of your business.”
Problem was, he wanted it to be his business. He was in love with Laney, after all.
He froze, his jaw muscle twitching. Had he just thought he was in love with Laney?
“Of course you are,” he muttered, his bad mood growing though he’d come outside to get relief from the melancholy atmosphere inside the lodge. He wouldn’t be this miserable if he wasn’t in love with her. He wouldn’t upend his entire life just to prove to her that she was the most important thing he had. Heck, she wouldn’t be the most important thing he had if he didn’t love her.
And with that, he decided he didn’t need a big show to impress Laney. No pomp or circumstance. He just needed for her to see that he’d put her first.
Just the fact that he was wandering around the grounds, looking at defunct fountains, proved that his life had already changed. He never would’ve had time to do that before he’d split responsibilities with Dwight.
He gazed up into the sky, the brightness of the blue and the glinting sun making his eyes hurt to the point of watering. “Do I just go talk to her?”
The sky didn’t answer. Neither did God, for that matter. But Graham felt something way down deep in his soul that whispered, Yes, just go talk to her.
Instead of jumping behind the wheel of his SUV, he opted to walk the mile down the road to her house. The truck sat in the garage, which was also open, and he made his way to the front door and knocked.
“Momma!” he heard Bailey shout. “It’s Graham.”
He winced, wishing his identity could’ve been a secret until Laney opened the door. But Bailey whipped it open in the next second, and she threw herself into his arms. “Graham! Did you come for my birthday?”
He hadn’t even known it was the girl’s birthday, b
ut he couldn’t say that. Laney appeared down the hall, an apron around her waist and the scent of freshly baked cake hanging in the air. Their eyes met, and Graham thought it would be okay to tell a lie, just this once.
“I sure did, Bay. Happy birthday.”
The little girl squealed and wiggled out of his arms. He let her run ahead while he approached much slower. Bailey put on her coat and said, “Momma, I’m gonna go out with the cats for a minute, okay?”
“Okay, bug. Have fun.” Laney just watched him with those green eyes, clear as glass. She looked better than he’d ever seen her, and he waited until her daughter had pulled the back door closed behind her before he spoke.
“I just saw Jake Langford leaving from down this way.” Graham hooked his thumb over his shoulder, wondering why he’d started with Jake. There were so many more important things to talk about.
“I hired him,” Laney said. “He does my morning chores, so I can do this kind of stuff.” She walked back into the kitchen and washed her hands. “You don’t have to stay for her birthday party. It’s not for hours.”
“I don’t even have a gift for her. I can run and grab something and come back.”
“That’s not necessary.” At least she was talking to him, and not in that ultra-cold voice.
“Laney,” he said, exhaling a moment later. “I’ve made a few changes in my life this week, and I’d love to tell you all about them.”
She barely flicked her gaze in his direction as she measured out butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar. “Oh?”
He stuffed his hands in his pockets, no speech prepared. “I don’t want to be friends.”
That got her to stop and stare at him, the teaspoon of vanilla hovering above the bowl. “What?”
“I can’t just be friends with you anymore.” He shrugged, realizing how warm it was in the homestead. Or maybe that was just him sweating because of this conversation. “I’m in love with you, and I want to be more than friends. I want to be your partner. Your best friend. Your husband. Your daughter’s father. Your lover. Your biggest supporter.” He took a big breath. “I want to know how you got your furnace fixed, and why you had to hire Jake. I want to know everything about your ranch, and I want to help you with it.”