Pebble nodded. “She was a dear friend to me too. And to Rand. She would always tell me he was a good man.”
All eyes riveted on Pebble. She blushed and her blue eyes shadowed. “He just didn’t ever completely trust that he could live life without a little liquor in him, I don’t think.”
There was a pause and everyone hung on her last words. If Rand had told Pebble he was done trying to woo her into marrying him, then the dynamic of their relationship had changed.
Knowing how Rand felt about the sweet lady, she also knew he must have really made a strong commitment to this. He loved her. And if he wasn’t going to try to win her heart any longer, Cassidy couldn’t help but be curious about what he was thinking. She made a note to drop by and check on him. Because despite all the years she’d been away, she had a soft spot for the man.
“Well,” Clara Lyn said, “you need to relax about Rand. You two can just be friends. He can keep going to his AA meetings and, praise the good Lord, he can stay on the wagon and with the Lord’s help and ours not fall off.”
Reba picked a peach. “Doobie told me Rand got his six-month sober pin at the last meeting. He and Doonie went with him. They are a great support for him. There for the longest time they didn’t take his drinking as seriously as they should have.”
“None of us did.” Clara pulled two peaches from the tree. “Why, it was as if we accepted that he got drunk sometimes and that was part of who he was. I know I was guilty of it. And all along poor Pebble was fighting the battle all by herself. I feel terrible.”
“I’ve told you to stop feeling guilty.” Pebble looked at Clara Lyn and then at Cassidy. “It is true everyone wasn’t as worried as they should have been. But when it all came to the surface, everyone jumped in and gave him strong support. I am very appreciative of that.”
Cassidy had a heaviness in her chest. She’d had friends who had to have known she was struggling with how Jack behaved, but they never mentioned it or reached out to her. Instead, they all pretended there wasn’t a big white elephant in the room—his infidelity. She was certain many of them knew about it. For all she knew, he may have hit on some of them.
She decided to speak up.
“Sometimes it just takes one person to stand up and help others see the error of judgment.” She held Pebble’s gaze and felt her smile all the way to the cold core of her heart.
“I believe so. But in truth I wasn’t doing my part either. I finally told him I would stand by him if he got help, but only as a friend. And now . . . now I do have to admit that I miss him.”
There was a wistfulness to her voice that had all of them looking at each other and trying to figure out what to say or feel about this.
“Well then,” Clara Lyn said finally, “why don’t you tell him that?”
“Because he’s at a vulnerable time in his life. He has made the commitment not to go back to drinking, and if I mess with that delicate balance then I could very possibly cause him to flounder. And I cannot be a part of that. Besides, I’m doing my own thing from here on out. He and I have our separate lives to contend with, and I’m going to be selling—Cassidy, I know Clara Lyn told you a few minutes ago that I’m going through a crisis and selling the motel. It’s true I’m selling, but I’m not going through a crisis.”
“I might not have told her,” Clara Lyn harrumphed.
Pebble chuckled. “Yes, you did, and you know it. And it’s okay. You’re just looking out for me. But you can stop it. Okay? I’m fine.”
Cassidy listened to the friends banter. She also understood that this was something Pebble would have to figure out on her own. No one else should or could shoulder that responsibility. You can’t change someone else, no matter how much you want to. She couldn’t change her mother and father. And she certainly couldn’t change Jack, and sadly, in the end she didn’t care to. She just wanted out. Out and away from the man, no matter that it made her feel like a failure. Looking back, there was no regret there. She would never want anything about that life back.
She was actually glad they’d never had children. And she’d wanted children for so long. But she was twenty-eight now and not looking for a new relationship. She would never know the joy of motherhood.
But God had seen fit to provide friends now, and if she could she’d give the Lord a hug. She realized suddenly that for the first time she’d actually thought something positive about the Lord. And it felt good.
There was a sound of twigs breaking, and she turned to see Jarrod riding toward her on his horse. And he was leading an extra horse.
“Oh my goodness gracious,” Reba gasped. “My heart is about to beat out of my chest. That man can do for a horse what diamonds do for a woman. He just glitters, he looks so good up there.”
“Oh, he does,” Clara Lyn drawled.
Cassidy’s pulse was careening through the roadblocks she’d set up between what she did and didn’t want. She groaned, having to agree with the excitable beauty operators. He was as amazing today as he’d been the first time she’d laid eyes on him. Better, actually. And that seemed impossible.
She was in trouble.
Jarrod wasn’t expecting to find Cassidy had company. Which was good, because she needed friends. Maggie and Abby loved her. And Clara Lyn and her cohorts would be good for her, too, reminding her of her aunt Roxie.
“Afternoon, ladies,” he drawled, smiling as if they weren’t looking at him like he’d just dropped in from Mars. Cassidy was looking at him as if he’d appeared out of nowhere, too, which got him to thinking maybe he was interrupting something. “Um, you did want me to come take you for a ride, didn’t you?”
He said nothing about the rustlers.
“Yes, I did.” She looked at the ladies and he could tell she wasn’t sure how to handle this.
“No problem. Since you have company, I can check fences on my own and maybe you can come another time.”
“Nonsense,” Clara Lyn gushed. “We showed up out here totally unannounced. We had no idea we would be interrupting a date.”
“Oh, it’s not a date,” Cassidy denied too quickly, then blushed. “I mean, Jarrod just offered to take me riding. I had dinner with the family last night and we talked about it.”
She was cute when she rambled, and he found he was enjoying her digging those holes. All the ladies were looking at her like she’d lost her marbles, and he wasn’t exactly sure what to make of that. But then he knew the ladies from the Cut Up and Roll loved to matchmake. And personally that was fine by him. He had plans to do some matchmaking for himself.
“Would you mind if we stay here and pick some peaches since we’re already here?” Pebble asked. “You’ll have more for the booth this weekend. And, well, it’s such a lovely day that it’s doing my heart good to be out here.”
“Roxie always said picking peaches soothes the soul,” Reba added.
“I’ll stay here and pick peaches with y’all,” Cassidy said.
“You will do no such thing.”
“That’s right,” Clara Lyn added.
Reba waved her toward the horses. “We mean, you go for your ride. We’ve got this picking going good and the fresh air is doing us wonders.”
“Go on now. Get up on that horse.” Clara Lyn shooed her along. “I personally would toss my cookies if I tried to get up there. I’m scared of heights, but you know what you’re doing.”
And so Cassidy found herself sticking her foot into the stirrup, and in the next moment, like remembering how to ride a bike, she automatically swung into the saddle and secured her other boot in the other stirrup. “So, I guess we’re going for a ride.”
Jarrod’s lip hitched and he flashed that Monahan do-her-in smile. Her insides quaked and her knees felt weak. Thankfully she was sitting in the saddle, so as long as she didn’t faint she was okay.
“Let’s get going then.” He tipped his hat at the ladies who were smiling like he’d just proposed.
Cassidy was proud of the fact that it felt quite
normal to be in the saddle, though it had been a good eight years since she’d ridden. She was a little bouncy as she relearned to relax and go with the horse’s movements. Jarrod, on the other hand? He rode like he and the horse were one. It was beautiful.
“I decided using you as a decoy ride was the perfect way to hide that I suspected anything went on out here last night.”
“Oh, so my going along with you turned out to be a good thing.” She felt a little vindicated about the whole thing. In a good way. And excitement bubbled inside of her at being with him . . . No, she corrected sternly. She felt good to be on an adventure. This was unexpected and welcomed.
They rode across the stream and back toward her barn. She remembered Duce and glanced back to see him sitting, uncertain what to do.
“Stay, Duce,” she shouted, hoping he understood commands. To her delight he barked, then turned back to the ladies.
“He’s a good dog. A very good dog,” she said. “I can’t imagine someone just losing him and not wanting him back.” The fear that an owner might still show up nibbled inside her.
“I agree. He seems to have been taught some things. Some dogs are quick to learn on their own or are taught by other dogs. There is no telling what Duce’s story is, but all I know is he’s one lucky dog because you saved him. I’ll take those stitches out when we get back.”
“Thank you.”
They passed the barn and stopped at her house. “I need to run inside real quick.” She decided a bathroom break would save her from having to commune closer to nature than she cared to later on, but she didn’t really want to just come out and say so.
“That’s fine. I’ll wait here.”
“Okay. Back in a sec.” She swung a leg over and hopped to the ground and hurried into the house. Once inside it didn’t take long, and she found herself running her hands through her hair before she left the bathroom. She had been a mess when she got home last night. When she’d turned on the light and saw her reflection in the mirror, she’d almost died. She had picked up all kinds of things on her slide down the bumpy slope.
He was waiting patiently when she returned.
“You don’t seem sore at all,” he observed after she remounted and they started moving again.
“Oh, a little. But surprisingly not too bad. Now, after this ride I might be singing a different tune. Riding does tend to use muscles I forget I own.”
He chuckled. “That’s true. It’s just part of me, so I tend to forget that sometimes.”
They rode down the road and crossed the blacktop. The horse he’d brought her was sandy colored with a beautiful, flaxen blond mane. “What’s her name?”
“Charity.”
“I like it.”
“She’s a gentle horse. We rescued her from starvation a couple of years ago. She was already saddle ready, so I was totally amazed that someone would neglect a good horse like her. But with the drought we had going on, it was happening all the time.”
“It’s terrible. Did you get a lot of horses?”
“A good many. We don’t keep them all. The state finds homes for them, but I get to pick the ones I want in return for all the feed I use and the time spent with them. She was definitely one I wanted.”
Cassidy rubbed the horse’s neck. He must have brushed Charity’s coat, because she was silky and dust-free. “I really like her.”
“You’re welcome to come ride her anytime you want.”
He smiled and her toes curled a little. Okay, a lot.
He stopped at the gate beside the cattle guard and dismounted in one fluid movement. He opened it and led his horse through, then waited on her. Once she was through, he closed the gate again and then settled back into the saddle. Goodness, she could watch the man move for days and never get tired of it. And as a kid she had.
She’d done it from the hay barn at a distance and then later as much as possible when she was invited to go for a ride or on roundups with them, which she had loved.
“So how does it feel?” he asked. “You look like you’re enjoying finding your cowgirl side again.”
She laughed. “It feels good. And it’s beautiful out here. It was kind of dark last night.” She saw rolling hillsides, dotted with large oaks and stands of mesquite trees, just enough to give the cattle shade if they wanted it and other wildlife a place of refuge.
“You can say that again. Is your neck okay?”
“It’s fine. It was just a scrape.” The buzz overhead had them both looking up. The yellow plane flew across the road over her fields.
“Don’t panic. He’s carrying organic weed control.”
“I remember.” Looking about she saw bramble-looking bushes with thorns. They dotted the land in clumps.
“That’s some of the wild rose that will take over if I don’t get it under control soon.”
“I see that. I’m glad I didn’t tangle with one of them last night.”
“I am too. I’d have been picking thorns out of you and you wouldn’t have been too happy with me.”
She laughed and they entered the stand of mesquite trees. “Jarrod, Clara Lyn told me you were the one who found Aunt Roxie. And that you checked on her regularly. I want to thank you for that.”
He slowed the horses and studied the tracks. “No need to thank me. She was my neighbor and a good friend. I was just returning the favor of her friendship. She loved you very much, you know. Worried about you like you were her child.”
Tears sprang to Cassidy’s eyes. “Thank you for everything.”
“You’re welcome.” He gave her a small smile. “It’s okay, Cass. Tears show your love for someone. Don’t be embarrassed.”
She sniffed. “I’m not. I did love her so.”
Jarrod dismounted and bent to look at some tracks. “This was the way the rustlers’ truck came. Here are the tracks.” He took out his phone, clicked to the camera, and shot some quick photos.
After a minute they rode deeper into the back pastures, with Jarrod keeping steady watch for signs. He knew exactly what he was looking for. When they came to the herd, he pulled a small leather notebook from his shirt pocket. He opened it, consulted numbers on a page, then pocketed it again.
“What is that?”
“That’s my personal tally of my cattle.” He nodded toward a tree not too far from her. “Smile for the camera.”
She swung a startled glance toward the tree. She studied it and could see nothing. And then she spotted a small box that was almost the same color of the tree. Once she knew it was there she could see it, but at night it would never be seen. And even in the daylight someone would have to be searching for it to find it.
“Oh wow. Are you going to check it?”
“Sure am. But first let me count heads.”
It didn’t take him long. “We’re missing twelve. Six mamas and six calves. I’ll need to go over the tags to find specific numbers, but they’ve stolen again. That’s a definite.” His voice was gritty and low and she didn’t miss the look in his eyes.
“How much is a heifer selling for right now?”
“Two thousand on the low side. Thirty-four hundred on the high side for premium stock like we raise. The market’s up, which is one reason rustlers are so busy right now.”
She did the calculations and gulped. “That much?”
“Now you see what we’re looking at. That’s not pennies we’re talking about.”
“I had no real idea. Goodness.”
He loped his horse over to the tree, and from the saddle he reached up and opened the camera cover, then removed a small card. He dropped it into his pocket and pulled another card from his jeans pocket. He inserted that, then closed the camera again.
“We’ll check this out on my computer,” he said.
Cassidy felt sick to her stomach. The ranch was his responsibility. Yes, Tru and Bo had contributed to getting the ranch out of debt, but she now understood the ramifications of the cattle thieving. It just hadn’t dawned on her how astronomical
the loss could be.
Not to mention that she knew Jarrod would feel like he was failing his family if he couldn’t keep the ranch healthy.
She wanted so much to help him.
She rode beside him on the short ride toward his place. “I can let you dismount at your place if you’d like. I can lead Charity home.”
“Are you kidding? I want to see the film. I’ve come this far. I can’t stop now.”
He laughed. “Okay, sounds good to me.”
Her stomach dropped looking at him. She tore her gaze away and studied a pair of birds in the distance doing a dance high in the sky. It hit her that she was riding beside the man she’d dreamed of for years. So many times when she’d been back home, trying to deal with the craziness going on around her, she’d thought of Jarrod. Of his calm steadiness. Of his amazing smile and the dream that one day he would be hers when she grew up—pure young girl’s fantasy.
She glanced at him and swallowed the need to reach out and tell him everything was going to be okay, like he’d told her so many times when she’d been a hurting kid.
“Have y’all ever been robbed like this before?” she asked, fighting to find steady ground. She watched the way he moved easily and perfectly with the movement of the horse. The man rode horses like they’d been made just for him. And when he leaned forward, low over the horse’s neck, and they galloped across a pasture, it was as if they were flying . . . She’d always loved to see him do that.
“Yeah, we have through the years. You know, here and there, but nothing like what this is starting to add up to. Then again, this doesn’t hold a candle to the stealing my dad did.”
“The gambling?”
He nodded, anger in the movement. “Stealing is all it can be called. He basically stole from Pops. His own dad. It’s sickening.” The anger reverberated from him, so deep she felt it almost reach out and touch her.
She was speechless. She knew that kind of anger.
“What’s worse,” he continued, “is that he didn’t get it.” He looked about the land surrounding them. “This land is the family legacy. Pops built it to leave behind, but my dad didn’t understand that it’s not only about the land. Pops’s main legacy, the one that really counts, is his life and the way he lived it. The legacy of a life well lived. Yeah, we could have lost all of this and it would have killed us, but in the end it’s Pops’s memory that will live on. That’s what we will pass down generation to generation. Nothing, not even his illness, can rob us of that. My dad couldn’t take that away.”
Kissed by a Cowboy Page 16