“Sorry,” Mandy said, sounding contrite, before she grabbed up a pair of scissors with an overly hearty exclamation of, “Oh, look! Pumpkins!”
“Yeah,” Jolene said archly, “there you go. Decorate your way out of the dog house.”
While the two women worked, Mandy filled Jolene in on the latest developments at the ranch and the impending arrival of Dr. Lowell J. Martin. “Apparently everybody calls him ‘Jake,’” Mandy said.
“What does he look like?” Jolene asked.
“Here, I’ll show you,” Mandy said, taking her iPad out of her bag and calling up the Texas Tech University website. When she had Jake’s department photo on the screen, she passed the tablet to Jolene.
“Wow,” Jolene said. “Dimples and everything.”
Mandy laughed. “Apparently Katie noticed the dimples, too, but he wasn’t wearing a suit and tie when she saw him. According to Jenny he looked like a beach bum.”
“Beach bums are not without their charms,” Jolene grinned, “especially if they also happen to be without their shirts.”
“Oh, he had his shirt on,” Mandy giggled. “Hawaiian and seriously loud.”
“And Katie liked that?” Jolene asked, sounding skeptical. “She’s always been more the George-Strait-meets-the-Marlboro-Man type.”
“Has she ever really gone with anyone?” Mandy asked curiously.
“You don’t know?”
“Not really,” Mandy admitted. “She didn’t have time when we were kids. She was 15 when Mama died and Daddy made her take over everything in the house and work on the ranch like one of the hands. How she graduated valedictorian, I’ll never know. Sometimes I’d get up in the night to go to the bathroom and she’d be studying at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning.”
“She left the ranch right after you went to college, didn’t she?” Jolene asked.
“Yes, I guess she was kinda waiting to get me raised. Daddy was nicer to me than he was to her and Jenny. After she got her own place, I’d see her when I came home, but that wasn’t very often and when we’d talk on the phone, she just wanted to hear about what I was doing,” Mandy said. “I have to admit, I didn’t ask a lot of questions about her life. I was too busy living my own.”
“Most college girls are,” Jolene observed.
“So did Katie ever go with anyone?”
“Not the way you’re thinking of it,” Jolene said, threading pumpkins on a length of cord to create a chain. “She always kinda kept to herself, but she’d still come to things going on in the community, fish fries, the rodeo, that kind of thing. She’s a fantastic dancer, but when the band plays the last song, she goes home alone.”
“But every time I come to town with her, all the men seem to know her and like her,” Mandy said.
“Oh, they do,” Jolene agreed. “She’s the only woman in town Rick and the boys let at the table when they’re drinking coffee. She can out shoot, out drink, and out gamble every one of them. If she’d wanted any of them, she could have had them, but apparently, she didn’t want them.”
“I wonder why?” Mandy said, turning her scissors to a stack of black cats waiting to emerge from their construction paper confines.
“What do you mean, why?” Jolene snorted. “Everything she’s done in her whole life got back to Langston. He would never have said it, but he approved of her telling him to go to hell and starting her own place. But taking up with a man? Your Daddy would have torpedoed that in a heartbeat.”
“He was always so hard on her,” Mandy said, her voice tight. “And there was no reason for it. She did everything he asked her to do and more, and it was never good enough.”
“Nobody was good enough for Langston Lockwood,” Jolene said, “but damned if I could figure that man out. He paid for finishing this library.”
Mandy looked up in shock. “He did what?”
“The fundraising drive had been going on for three years and we were still $50,000 short of starting the renovations on this place. Langston walked in the old library one day and barked at me, ‘You Jolene Watson?’ I said it was Wilson now and he said, ‘Yeah, I heard you married that worthless little runt. Anyway, how much you people need to finish up?’ I told him and he said, ‘It’ll be in the donation account Monday and don’t you tell a goddamn soul where it came from or I’ll take every penny back.’”
“What did you say?” Mandy asked, still stunned.
“I said, ‘Yes, sir,’” Jolene laughed. “What else was there to say? People still wonder about the anonymous donor, but you’re the only person I’ve ever told. Rick doesn’t even know.”
“Daddy was just such an unhappy man,” Mandy said sadly. “I don’t think he ever got over Alice Browning being killed that night when they were kids.”
“So,” Jolene said, deliberately changing the subject to a happier topic, “when does Professor Dimples arrive?”
Mandy giggled. “This weekend.”
“And where is he staying? Surely he’s not driving back and forth from town.”
“No, he has a camper. Apparently it’s kind of a mobile lab or workshop or something. He told Katie if he could just have access to water and power, he was good, so he’s gonna park out by the windmill.”
Jolene held up her pumpkin chain for inspection, “What do you think?”
“Perfect. Ready to go up on the wall,” Mandy said approvingly. “I’ll get the step ladder.”
When the pumpkins were gaily draped over the entrance to the children’s reading area, Jolene said brightly, “Okay, time to do the ghosts now.”
The irony wasn’t lost on Mandy. Ever since she had come back to this town, she and her sisters had done nothing but deal with ghosts — and the biggest one of all was also the one who just kept surprising her, Langston Lockwood.
No wonder Katie didn’t want a man underfoot when she’d been under that old tyrant’s boot heel her whole life. It was no recommendation for the male species, but then maybe that was up for reassessment, too. After all, Katie had noticed the dimples.
“What are you smiling about?” Jolene asked suspiciously. “You look like the cat that ate the canary.”
“Oh, nothing,” Mandy said happily. “Just thinking.”
29
Ramone scratched the stubble on his cheek and squinted at Kate. "You want me to smooth out a place by the tank for a camper?" he asked for the third time. "This man, he is going to be on the ranch for a long time?"
"I don't know, Ramone," Kate said, trying not to sound either annoyed or embarrassed even though she was both. "He's a guest and I'd just as soon he not break his neck coming out his own front door and stepping on a rock."
"They got lots of rocks in Lubbock," he observed mildly, a grin splitting his tanned face.
Okay. Fine. Now he was just messing with her. "Just do it, Ramone," she ordered. "And when you go into town, get a heavy duty extension cord long enough to run from the house to the windmill. Dr. Martin will need electricity."
Kate hated to admit, even to herself, that she was excited about Jake Martin's arrival on the ranch the next day, but there was no denying the sense of pleasant expectation she felt. She had a stack of books on her bedside table about the lost San Saba mine and the activities of the Spanish in this part of Texas in the 18th century. Nothing she had read convinced her that there was some kind of lost treasure on the Rocking L, but she wouldn't be surprised if Jake was right about a temporary Spanish camp on the land.
Over the last few nights, and after several hundred Google searches, she'd looked at countless images of Spanish relics unearthed in the area. The slightest scrap of surviving metal or even a stray coin could prove there had been a Spanish presence here. Would it be what Jake was looking for? She had no way of knowing, but the idea still thrilled her. She had ridden up that dry creek bed hundreds of times, but to imagine Spanish soldiers there, to think of them around their campfires at night looking at the same stars she'd gazed at all her life -- those thoughts captured her imagination
in a way she hadn't expected.
Kate didn't have the kind of education her sisters enjoyed. There had been no time. She graduated at the head of her class because she drove herself to earn that one coveted prize, knowing full well there would be no more school for her. Langston would never pay for it, and her heart was too wrapped up in life on the ranch to take off the way Jenny had. But that hadn't stopped Kate from reading voraciously through the years, attending workshops and seminars, and more recently signing up for classes online.
She never told anyone about these activities, it was none of their business, but she found herself preparing to talk to Jake Martin as if she were studying for an exam. For reasons she couldn't quite put her finger on, she didn't want to sound ignorant in the company of a PhD -- even if he had looked like a middle-aged surfer the only time she'd ever laid eyes on him.
Kate caught sight of herself in the long mirror that hung in the hallway and paused uncharacteristically to take an appraising look. Smoothing her hand along her waist she was at least grateful for the same lean line that had always been there. Her skin was perpetually tanned from a life lived outdoors, but not leathery or weathered. All her life she'd known men for whom having skin cancers burned away was a matter of course. Kate wore a hat and covered herself in sunblock religiously.
At 37, she was too young for any stray gray hairs to have crept into her dark locks, but she wasn't one for fixing herself up on a day-to-day basis. Suddenly she wondered if she was plain. She and Jenny had the strongest resemblance of the three sisters, inheriting their father's height and angular looks, but Jenny was softer in a tousled and Bohemian kind of way. A faint waft of perfume followed in her sister's wake, and Jenny applied light but well-chosen hints of makeup with her artist's hand.
Beyond simple gold studs in her ears, Kate was largely unadorned, and for the first time in perhaps her entire life, she found the idea bothersome. A surge of irritation shot through her. For God's sake. She was acting like the man was coming to the Rocking L to see her. "Get over yourself," she muttered, taking her coat off the rack and putting on her hat.
Still, she couldn't help herself, she looked again. She could use a new hat, and it wouldn't hurt her to wear something other than a blue shirt. Trying to change herself for a man she'd seen one time over a video camera was just plain ridiculous, but she could still look like the best version of who she was. That wasn't being silly. Was it? She grinned sheepishly at her own reflection, "Keep telling yourself that, Kate Lockwood," she said, "and maybe you'll start believing it."
"Are you picking up Daddy's vices?" Jenny asked, looking appraisingly at her sister.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Kate said, stretching her legs out in front of her in one of the chairs on Jenny's front porch.
"You're wearing a new hat and new boots," Jenny said, "and that shirt actually has a pattern."
Kate shifted uncomfortably and then said, in a small voice, "It looks alright, doesn't it?"
Jenny felt a surge of love for her older sister. "You look nice," she said sincerely. "Real nice, and I like those earrings and that necklace. That inlay work is beautiful. It suits you."
"I saw them in the store when I was trying on the boots. They're Montana Silversmith," Kate said. "I don't normally spend money on myself like that, but . . ."
"Katie," Jenny said, "we have the money to spend now. You should have anything you want, especially pretty things. You can't work like a man all the time."
Kate smiled shyly, looked away, and quickly changed the subject. "I was thinking we should all go into town for dinner tonight, show Jake around a little bit. Can you and Josh come?"
"Sure," Jenny said. "Josh is coming over about five. Let's do Mexican. I've been craving chile rellenos."
"God, I don't know how you eat those things and live," Kate said.
"You just have to wash them down with cold beer," Jenny grinned.
"Now who sounds like Daddy?" Kate said. "Next thing you know you'll be eating whole jalapeños and downing tequila shots."
Jenny shuddered, "No, thank you. That is one of Daddy's skills I have no desire to acquire. Are Mandy and Joe coming?"
"She said they'd see us there. They have a meeting with the people who want to renovate the old picture show," Kate said. "I'll send her a text and tell her where we'll be."
Just then they heard tires on the gravel road and saw a plume of dust headed their way. A Ford F-250 drove in the gate pulling a vintage Airstream. To Kate's considerable approval, the driver jumped out and closed the gate before crossing the distance to the house. Together she and Jenny approached the truck as Jake Martin stepped out.
He was taller than Kate imagined, standing an easy 6'2" without an ounce of fat on his lean frame. The loud Hawaiian shirt was gone, replaced with a pink Oxford open at the throat and tucked in a pair of faded jeans. He was wearing good serviceable Justin ropers and a belt with a ranger style buckle. His blond hair was now trimmed, still long, but off the collar and he sported Wayfarer sunglasses, which he instantly removed as he extended his hand to Kate, "Hi. You're Kate, right?"
"Yes," Kate said, taking his hand. "And this is my sister, Jenny."
"Nice to meet you in person," he said, grinning.
"Did you have any trouble finding us?" Kate asked.
"Nope. Your directions were perfect. I really appreciate you agreeing to have me underfoot for a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to my stay. Where should I park the rig?"
"Over there on that cleared-off place by the windmill," Kate said. "One of the hands is picking up an extension cord so you'll have power, but he's not back yet. We were thinking we'd take you into town for Mexican food when you're all set up . . . unless you're too tired."
"Not at all," he said enthusiastically. "That sounds great. Just let me park this thing." And then, to her surprise he said, "May I?" and reached for her necklace, his hand pausing expectantly in mid-air.
"Uh, sure," Kate said, flustered in spite of herself.
"That's a gorgeous piece of malachite," he said, fingering the silver pendant. "Traditionally it's believed to offer strong protection against negative energies and is considered a heart stone. It helps people prepare for changes in their lives . . . and it looks great with your eyes."
The last words left Kate speechless and Jenny grinning. Finally Kate managed a barely audible "thank you." Completely oblivious to the effect he'd just had on her, Martin said, "I won't be long."
As they watched him get in the cab and head off toward the windmill, Jenny said, "Katie? Earth to Katie?"
"Huh? What?" her sister said completely nonplussed.
"Breathe," Jenny advised, barely smothering a laugh.
That snapped Kate out of her state of shock. "Oh for God's sake," she grumbled. "I have to make a couple of phone calls. Make sure that guy doesn't run over anything." And with that, she turned on the heels of her brand new boots and stalked into the house.
30
Before Jake finished leveling his trailer Ramone arrived with the extension cable. He ran the line from the ranch house and out to the makeshift campsite, handing the opposite end to Jake, who plugged it in and threw the switch with the pronouncement, "Let there be light!"
"So what's the story with the trailer?" Jenny asked as a warm glow emanated from the vehicle's windows. After Kate’s reaction to the good professor, it occurred to Jenny that she probably should make sure he didn't back over anything or Kate just might suffer an attack of apoplexy. Seeing her big sister so unnerved by a man pleased Jenny in a loving way. There might just be hope yet.
"Contrary to the dusty archeologist persona," Jake answered, rolling down the awning on the side of the camper, "I actually don't like being miserable in the field. Care to take the tour of the mobile mansion?"
"Sure," she said, stepping through the door he held open with a flourish. The interior was a retro oasis of chrome and wood paneling. She let out a low whistle. "If this is what passes for roughing it these d
ays, I'm in."
"The exterior is all original," Jake explained, "but when I bought it, the inside was totally trashed, so I went with a retro look, but seriously upgraded all the systems. I can be completely off-grid if I need to be, but I do appreciate the electricity. Makes it a lot easier to pull in the satellite TV signal.”
"Are you serious?" Jenny asked.
"Dead serious. Being in the field is no excuse to miss football season. I'm just saying."
"What about your professional equipment?"
Jake drew back two pocket doors across from the small kitchen revealing cabinets filled with tools and instruments Jenny didn't recognize. He pulled out the surface of a worktable, its legs dropping in place as they cleared the edge of the cabinet. "It's bare bones, but it's everything I need for a solo expedition," he said. "When we have an actual dig going, we have fully equipped mobile labs from the University."
"So this really is a one-man show you're running?"
"Until I can get somebody to believe me and shell out some grant money, yes. You see . . ."
She held up her hand. "You're only going to have to answer all these questions again at dinner. I can wait until everybody's together."
"You make it sound like I’m headed into the Spanish Inquisition," he grinned.
"No," she laughed, "but depending on who's working at the Mexican food place tonight, you might have to place your order in Spanish."
Jake laughed. "That I can handle. Are we ready to go?"
"We're just waiting on my . . ." Suddenly Jenny faltered. What the heck was Josh anyway? She tried again. “Uh . . . the guy that I . . ."
“Are you searching for the technical term 'boyfriend?’” Jake asked.
Well, there it was. Right out there. Jenny laughed a little sheepishly. "Yes, that would be the word. I just haven't really come right out and said that to anyone yet."
The Lockwood Legacy - Books 1-6: Plus Bonus Short Stories Page 14