"Howdy, Cassie, how's it goin'?" His positive, assertive, friendly voice boomed across the miles. "You about ready to head home?"
She could almost see him—stretched back in his chair; his shiny black boots crossed on top his desk. He was an East-Texas-Farm-Boy-Made-Good and liked to play the part of showy entrepreneur to the hilt. Custom western suits, bolo ties, a snowy white Stetson set atop perfectly styled silver-gray hair, his hands impeccably manicured, his shave barber fresh. He'd intimidated the life out of her when she'd first gone to work for him, until she'd gotten to know him better and let herself relax.
"Well, yes. Only, I have some bad news, Jimmy. It's not looking good out here. In fact, it's not going to happen." She heard a thump as his boots hit the floor, followed instantly by the squeak of his chair as he rocked forward to listen intently. "One of the parties," she continued, "Ray Taylor, refuses to sign. He's dug in his heels and won't do it."
"Why not?"
"It something between the two brothers. Robbie Taylor says he's doing it to spite him. Robbie has agreed to the sale, by the way."
"Good."
"Ray and I talked to a degree last night, then I met with him this morning…and he won't do it."
"You need to find out what the problem is."
"I'm not sure that will help," Cassie replied.
"Is not knowin' helping?" As usual, Jimmy came directly to the point.
"No."
"Then have at it, girl! You're gonna have to dig deeper for this one." She knew that a wide smile had spread across his features. Having never met a challenge he didn't relish, he didn't think other people should let anything stand in their way either.
Cassie drew a silent breath and said, "I doubt that anything will change by Wednesday." Wednesday was her third day at the ranch, her allotted day to be finished.
"Then stay longer." Jimmy's solution was simple.
"But—"
"Stay as long as it takes. I got one of my feelin's about this one, Cassie. And you know what that means!"
"But—" she protested again, knowing it would do no good.
"You can do it. I know you can, you know you can. So, do it! Lemme know how you're gettin' on." With that vote of ultimate confidence, he hung up.
Cassie clicked off as she stared sightlessly ahead. Stay longer. Stay as long as it takes. Words she didn't want to hear. Words that if Jimmy only knew what they would cost her... She hadn't told him anything about her connection to Love. He knew that she'd been raised in a small Central Texas town, but not the name of it, because she hadn't wanted anything from her early life to in any way taint her new one.
Someone approached the driver's side window, bent down, looked inside and said, "Cassie? Is that you?"
Cassie would recognize the voice anywhere. Her mother! Could this day get any worse?
"Hi, Bonnie," she croaked, using her mother's first name as her mother had always insisted.
Bonnie Edwards beamed at her.
Cassie made herself get out of the car and accept the hug that had to be accepted, then she pulled stiffly back.
Bonnie's overabundance of hair was as dark red as ever, compliments of the same henna tint she'd used since Cassie was little. It spilled over her shoulders in a wild array of natural curls that reached the middle of her back. Rings from the Near or Far East decorated each multi-pierced ear and even one of her nostrils. Her long fingers and several of her toes, showing out of her sandals, were decorated with rings as well. A large crystal pendant hung from her neck, nestled among the multicolored, crinkly voile drapery of her blouse, which matched her multicolored, crinkly voile skirt. And, thanks to her strict adherence to her daily dietary regimen, she remained on the verge of being too thin.
"I never expected to see you here, Cassie." Her mother's eyes, several shades lighter than Cassie's dark brown, moved over her, examining her keenly.
Cassie reflexively clasped her arms over her chest. "I'm in town on business."
During their ten years of separation, mother and daughter had shared occasional, strained phone conversations, but the only time they'd met in person was four years earlier when Bonnie had gotten over her aversion to cars enough to come to Houston for some kind of out-there seminar. Afterward, she and Cassie had dinner. The meeting failed, though, and Cassie later castigated herself for having even tried.
"I can see your heart isn't in harmony," Bonnie said, reaching out to cup Cassie's cheek. "If you'd just let me clean your aura and set your body and mind in balance—"
"I don't have time for this," Cassie broke in, avoiding her touch.
"Cassie—"
Cassie escaped into the car. "I promise I'll stop by before I leave. But right now I have to— I have to go." She turned the key and reversed out of the space. Her mother hadn't changed. She'd never change. Cassie flicked a glance to where Bonnie stood, gave her a tight smile, and pulled out of the parking lot.
She was trembling as she accelerated away. It had been like this between the two of them since she'd grown old enough to rebel. To refuse to any longer be a part of her mother's world, to be dragged from one place to another as she accompanied Bonnie on yet another of her ridiculous missions to better the lives of the people of Love, yet seeing those same people watch them, talk about them, laugh at her mother's strange ways and beliefs.
At school she'd hear other girls talking among themselves, complaining about how their mothers wouldn't let them do this or that, or how they'd taken them to church on Sundays, or to social events. Sometimes they claimed they were so embarrassed by something their mothers had said or done. She'd have given anything to have had one of their mothers as her own. Or for her mother to be normal!
Cassie loved her. It was just…the way her mother lived. In her own universe, doing things her own weird way, without a thought as to how she was being perceived. She also couldn't understand why Cassie wasn't exactly like her.
~~~~
CASSIE HAD STOPPED shaking by the time she reached the turnoff to the ranch. She parked the car where she had before, beside what she now knew to be Will's pickup, and went into the house.
All she wanted was the isolation of her room, but once again that solace was denied her. Sylvia and Robbie were sitting in the living room, tensely awaiting her return.
"What'd he say?" Robbie asked.
"He refused."
"Dagnabbit!" Robbie swore.
Sylvia's disappointment was strong. "It's over then."
"I told ya he was doin' it on purpose!" Robbie burst out. "If I say the sky's blue, he's gonna say it's gray! If I say it's rained an inch, he's gonna say an inch-and-a-quarter! No matter what, he's gonna—"
Sylvia interrupted the tirade. "So that means you'll be leaving us," she said to Cassie. "I guess there's no reason for you to stay tonight even."
"Well, actually, I need to talk to you about that. Would it be possible for me to keep the room a little longer? I know you have other guests scheduled to arrive, and if it's a problem, I can find somewhere else."
Sylvia blinked. "I'm not sure I understand. You mean…you want to stay longer for a vacation?"
"No," Cassie said. "It's not that. It's just— I'm not through trying to convince Ray to sign."
Robbie's head snapped up. "You're not?"
"No."
Hope dawned in Sylvia's eyes. "The only guests we have for the next couple of weeks are the family that's arrivin' today. And they're stayin' in the bunkhouse...just for a few days. You can have the room you're in for as long as you like."
By the time Sylvia finished speaking, she was smiling. The situation suddenly had started to brighten! Her smile was infectious and Cassie managed a smile as well.
The back screen door clapped shut and boots thumped through the house until Will joined Cassie in the living room doorway.
"What's up?" he asked, noting the women's smiles and his grandfather's renewed friskiness. "Did Uncle Ray change his mind?"
"Not yet!" Robbie replied. "But he
's gonna. This little gal's gonna keep after him till he does!"
Cassie's pulse quickened as Will turned to look at her. Why was she continuing to react this way? If pressed, she could understand it happening the first day of her return. She was bound to be supersensitive to everything and everyone who had played a part in her previous life. But not now, or this morning at the front gate. Not when she had more weighty matters to deal with. Also, now was a bad gauge for comparison; it was too soon after she'd seen her mother. Her entire mind and body were, to use Bonnie's term, out of balance. But rather than having her aura cleaned, she needed time alone to regroup.
"I'm going to try," Cassie clarified Robbie's enthusiastic statement.
"So you'll be stayin' longer, then," Will said.
Sylvia spoke up. "I've told her she can stay as long as she likes. In fact…Cassie, you'll be our guest from this point. Our real guest!"
"No. Jimmy...Mr. Michaels...he wouldn't hear of it, and neither would I."
Sylvia dismissed her objection. "We'll talk about that later," she said. Then standing up, proclaimed, "You know, I'm really startin' to feel better about things." Something caught her eye and she hurried over to the window. "Seems the Warrens are here," she announced.
A car horn tooted several times as the family's van rolled to a stop, making Will wince.
His mother gave his cheek a playful tap as she passed him on her way to the front door. "Be nice now. You know this is repeat business. We want them to have a good time."
Robbie struggled out of his recliner and, copying his daughter-in-law's actions, mock-cuffed Will's chin as he, too, headed for the front door. "Be nice now," he teased, his voice falsetto.
"I'm not the only one she was talkin' to!" Will called after him.
"I'm nice. I'm always nice," his grandfather boasted and, chuckling, stepped out onto the front porch with Sylvia.
Cassie had taken a couple of steps toward the stairs under the guise of clearing a pathway for Sylvia and Robbie. She took a couple more. The truth was she didn't want to be so close to Will. And she wasn't in the mood to meet the newly arriving family.
Placing her hand on the banister, she said, "I think I'll go to my room."
But she'd only mounted the first step when Will said again, "So you'll be stayin' longer, then."
The repetition made Cassie pause. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"I could," he said, smiling wryly.
Her body tightened. Something about the way he'd said that— She looked at him, trying to read his intent. "What did you say?" she challenged.
He shifted his long frame. "I'm sayin', it could get interesting." A pause. "You, tryin' to untangle Uncle Ray and Granddad."
The way he looked at her, the way he moved, was having a strange effect on Cassie's knees. "Untangle?" she murmured.
"All this has been goin' on for a long time. You're gonna need somebody to give you a history lesson."
"I come from Love, remember?"
"It's family history I'm talkin' about, not town."
She should just finish going upstairs, but she couldn't make herself move. Something was happening here, something that went well beyond the words he was actually saying.
"Are you volunteering?" she asked.
"Who? Me?"
The excited voices of the newly-arrived family heralded their arrival at the porch. Will glanced their way and then back at her. "You better get goin' if you're still plannin' to."
At that moment Cassie couldn't figure out which way was up, much less what she might have been planning. A childish squeal broke her inaction, though, and she quickly hurried upstairs to her room, where, for the first time since her arrival, she locked the door.
Whether to keep everyone else out, or to keep herself in, she wasn't sure.
~~~~
THE WARRENS TURNED out to be a sturdy middle-aged couple with a ten-year-old daughter and an nine-year-old son who were all cheerfully out to have a good time. David was a dentist in San Antonio and Cindy, his wife, was a stay-at-home mom who home-schooled the children. The parents had been weekend guests at the ranch a month earlier and had enjoyed it so much they'd promised their children the same treat.
Cassie learned all this within the first few minutes of meeting the couple after ultimately venturing down to the kitchen.
"I'm sure you've already found this out for yourself," David said to her, "but the Taylors are wonderful people and excellent hosts. And Sylvia—" he winked at their hostess "—is such a great cook I've had dreams about her fried chicken, and her barbecued brisket, and her chicken fried steak, and—"
"And her biscuits," Cindy supplied.
"Ah! Can't forget her biscuits." He brought his fingertips up to his lips and made a kissing sound as he moved them away. "I mean, the lady can cook!"
"Are we gonna have biscuits for lunch?" Seth asked hopefully.
"Don't be silly," his older sister, Melissa, disapproved. "We've already had lunch."
"We just love the bunkhouse," Cindy enthused. "It's so quaint! What we thought we'd do is take the kids down to the creek. Would that be a problem?"
Sylvia smiled. "Not at all. Just stay in the pasture behind the house. There aren't any cows there. They're in other pastures with their calves. Which is somethin' you'll need to see, but you have to be careful because those mommas are real protective of their babies. Will'll take you out sometime to see them."
"Baby calves, kids," Cindy said as they left the house by way of the back screen door. "See, I told you you were going to have fun!"
Sylvia glanced at Cassie after they moved out of ear shot. "This is goin' to be interesting." She grinned. "Our first kids to visit the ranch. Hope they aren't our last." She motioned Cassie into a chair. "Would you like somethin' to eat? We have some cold fried chicken, or I can make you a nice sandwich."
"Cold chicken sounds wonderful."
Cassie watched as Sylvia bustled about, preparing a small salad for three, and cutting and buttering thick slices of homemade bread.
"Dad likes his dinner in his room, then he takes his afternoon nap," she explained, making up a tray. "Will's packed his meal. So, when I get back, it'll just be the two of us. Help yourself to some sweet tea, or I made some lemonade this mornin'. Be right back."
Cassie helped herself to lemonade and was sipping it when Sylvia returned. "Why might these kids be your last?" she asked, curious.
Sylvia brought their food to the table and slipped into her chair. "Because Dad and Will were dead set against me doin' this in the beginning. They didn't want any visitors comin' to stay at the ranch. Will complained he didn't have the time to "wrangle dudes." And Dad! He thought it went against everything the Taylor ranch stood for. Of course, neither one of them had any trouble leasin' a part of the ranch out to deer hunters in the fall. We've been doin' that for about four years now. Until—" She stopped, sighed, then continued, "But my idea's worked out pretty good. Up to now, anyway. I just hope these kids won't cause any trouble."
"They look nice enough." Cassie bit into a cold piece of chicken that could have made a certain Colonel green with envy.
Sylvia shrugged. "Well, with kids, it's what you don't see that worries you." The woman grew silent as she picked at her salad with her fork. "I kinda wish they weren't here for another week or two, though. You know, not until after everything's settled with the sale." She looked up, concerned. "You don't think it'll take longer than that, do you, to get a solid answer? I mean, I know Ray's already said no and all, but..."
Her words continued, but Cassie had stopped listening. The idea of remaining in Love for such an extended period appalled her. Also appalling was the fact that in order to find a way to get through to Ray Taylor, she would have to spend more time in town—in town! And, as if that wasn't enough, her mother now knew she was here.
"I certainly hope not!" she replied belatedly, then was unsure whether she'd spoken over something Sylvia was saying.
Sylvia seemed pleased
by her answer. "Was Ray still as determined as he was last night?" she asked.
"Yes, but at least he took time to listen to me." Cassie didn't say for how long.
"Those two men," Sylvia said, "both just as stubborn as a pair of old billy goats."
Cassie seized the opportunity. "Mrs. Taylor…Sylvia. The way Robbie keeps talking about Ray— can you tell me what's caused the hard feelings between them? If I know, I might be able to work around it. Or I might be able to use it to get through to Ray."
Sylvia sat back, shaking her head as she laughed softly. "Ahh— That's a big job you want answerin'. And I'm not laughing because it's funny. It's more sad, really, but it's been goin' on for so long, we're all just used to it. There's some things you come to believe you can't change, so you—"
The telephone rang and Sylvia stepped into the hall to answer it. She spoke for a short time before she returned.
"That was the leader of one of my church committees and she's goin' to be stopping by in a little while for some handiwork I've been doin' for the group, so I'll have to get it together for her. You just make yourself at home here, Cassie. Whatever you want, you get it. Don't stand on ceremony." She started to turn away, but stopped. "Oh! What we were talkin' about. You should talk to Will when he comes in this evenin'. Him and his granddad are close, and he can probably give you a better perspective than I can. He can sure give you the male point of view, and bein' it's two males that are causin' all the trouble…" She let the sentence finish itself.
Cassie smiled faintly, what remained of her appetite failing. Talk to Will, Sylvia had advised. She didn't want to talk to Will. But she couldn't say that to Sylvia.
CHAPTER FIVE
CASSIE STAYED IN her room throughout the afternoon, trying to convince herself that if she tried hard enough, she could pretend she was somewhere else. A place where no one knew her, where one pressure didn't pile onto another until it all seemed to be too much! Her bedroom was at the front of the house, though, so she heard when the church committee leader paid her call to collect Sylvia's handiwork—whatever it was—then, after a friendly exchange, drove off. A little later, she heard the children, back from their time at the creek, laughing and playing energetically in the yard around the house. At times Robbie Taylor's voice mixed with theirs—filling their heads with more of his tall tales? Then Sylvia, David, and Cindy gathered to sit on the porch.
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