by Ashlee Price
Chapter 1
“Kallie, are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?”
She shook her head that she didn’t. “No mom, it will be fine.”
“I just don’t like this. I haven’t heard from him in years and now this?”
This that she referred to was her father’s death. Kallie barely even remembered her father, but now she was being summons across the country for a reading of his will. He was a rich man and had always helped Mary out when she needed it, but it was strange to know that he was gone. Kallie wished that she had gotten to know him better and now the only connection she had was whatever he had left for her. More than money, she wanted photos, something to remember him by or learn more about him.
“I don’t think it was planned.”
“No, of course not. It is just a surprise and I am being insensitive. How are you holding up?”
Kallie shrugged. It was strange that he was gone, but she didn’t have much to miss. “I’m fine. You know I want answers, maybe meet some of his side of the family. Everything happens for a reason, so I should at least see what it is about.”
“I know, but I hate that you are going by yourself.”
Kallie didn’t want her mother going. She was too emotional and would be ready to go the next day. It was something that she had to do by herself, work through it herself in some way. “I am going to be fine. It’s just Texas, not another country.”
“Honey, I’ve been there. They used to say you had to have a passport to go down there. It is a lot different than here in New England.”
That is what Kallie was hoping for, something different. She needed a change and since leaving college with a few classes shy of graduating, she was looking for what direction her life was supposed to go. Kallie had gone to school for business, but she got cold feet and needed some time off. It seemed like once she graduated, her life path was chosen for good. To get the news was a shock, but she was a realist and she instantly saw it as an opportunity to get out of the area for a while.
“I know, that is what I am hoping for. I haven’t been out of this area but once and that was on a vacation. I am going to drive down there and see what the will is about, than maybe visit a few relatives I’ve never met. I hear that I still have a grandmother there, a brother.”
Nothing she said was going to calm her mother’s nerves, so she really didn’t try much harder to do so. She was going to worry, it was in her nature.
“I am going to be fine. I will call you every night so you can get some sleep. I should be there in a couple of day. The reading is Monday so I will have plenty of time to get there.” She didn’t mention much after that, how long she planned to stay. Kallie still wasn’t sure, but she had no intentions of coming back right away. She just didn’t have the backbone to tell Mary.
“Just come home Kallie. Don’t get lost out there.”
It was strange how she said it, prophetic almost, but Kallie ignored her. She didn’t plan to get lost anywhere.
The next morning she had the car packed and she as ready to set off to a new adventure. That was how she was looking at it, not able to look at it as a goodbye. Kallie had missed the funeral, so it was not really a goodbye. He was already gone, so Kallie had to see it as part of her journey instead.
She said goodbye to her mom and stepdad. Kallie ignored the look in Mary’s eyes, the one that made her feel guilty in some way, like going to Texas would somehow negate the relationship they already had.
It wasn’t until she was a hundred miles away that she believed that she was actually going to go. She didn’t have to. She could have just waited for the paperwork from the lawyers, but there was supposed to be a video and it was too much to deny herself.
Taking her time, it took her three days to get to Texas, stopping at several attractions on the way. Kallie knew she was stalling, never one to be early for anything. She made it just on time for the will reading at the lawyers.
***
Moving out of the elevator, she was met with a small conference room full of people that she had never met before. Trying not to look as nervous as she felt, Kallie smiled and pushed her blonde hair back behind her ears.
“Ah, Miss Glenn. Thank you for coming. I know that you had quite a ways to travel.”
Kallie nodded to the short, portly man that she had assumed was the lawyer she had talked to a few days before. They had seemed to be waiting for her and she felt her cheeks reddened as she found a seat open for her. There was no introduction, just her and all the people around her that were family and friends of her father that she hadn’t even met before. There were a couple of people there that looked familiar, having some of the same features as the pictures she had of her father in her mind. She told herself that she would talk to them afterwards, but when the lights went out and the screen came on, Kallie was staring ahead in rapt attention like the rest of them.
He looked much like she remembered, but older and a little more weathered in his appearance. There were a few moments that it was just him sitting in a chair at his desk. Kallie wasn’t expecting to feel the way that she did. There was something about the sadness in his eyes that made her wish that it was a different way they were seeing each other for the last time.
There were individual statements to everyone and that was how Kallie learned some of the names. When she heard her name, her eyes went back to the screen and she held her breath to hear the last words she would ever hear from her father again.
“Kallie. I am sorry that this is how we meet for the last time. I should have been there more, I know that now, but I’m sorry I was not and won’t be able to see you go forth. I know that you have been studying business and I would like to give you some land and a business in Texas. I love you Kallie and I hope that you can find happiness in the west like me and Mary did so long ago. Just know that you are always loved Kallie.”
Tears came to her eyes and it was less, but more than she had thought it would be. The only thing that she could do was take the offered tissue and listen to the rest of what Mel Glenn had to say in his final words. He was a man of regrets, but he had lived and that was what Kallie wanted to hold on to.
Then the lights were put back on and most were teary-eyed and squinting to the sudden brightness. As she was leaving, she was given a couple of numbers of relatives that wanted to have lunch when she was feeling up to it. Kallie was also given deeds to her new home and store, though she couldn’t figure out what it was for by the name or the paperwork in her hand. She was exhausted and she told herself that there was no rush.
Going to a hotel, Kallie tried not to think about the video and her father. It was hard though, when all she wanted to do was get some sleep. The next day was a mystery and Kallie finally went to sleep with the possibilities in her mind.
Chapter 2
There was no preparing her for what type of business her father had left her. She had heard that he was in oil and gas, other type of commodities, but never had Kallie heard about his feed stores. It was a small town one no less, but it was a feed store. Kallie didn’t know the first thing about cattle or horses. She knew about crabs and seafood, things that she seen on the coast.
Pulling up in front of the store, her hybrid felt out of place in the row of trucks and trailers. Getting out, she pulled her hair up with a ponytail and looked at the few men watching her from the docking place where they loaded up huge bags of feed. She found herself staring back for a minute, young hard bodies flexing as they threw down the feed to the waiting truck beds. Maybe there were some perks to the business, she thought to herself.
She surveyed the activity and liked the fact that no one seemed to know who she was. Kallie could observe without anyone knowing that she was there to take over. She was enjoying anonymity until an older woman came out of the store. “Well you must be Mel’s daughter Kallie. You look just like him.”
Kallie was surprised to be called out and she noticed the change in the way a few people looked at her.
They must have known that she was taking over. Smiling at the older woman, she put her hand out to shake it. “Yes I am Kallie. Nice to meet you and you are?”
“Edith. I am the accountant and I do some of the management duties like orders, payroll and a few other things.”
“Well nice to meet you Edith. I wasn’t sure what kind of business this was when I got the paperwork.”
“You ever worked in feed before?”
Kallie shook her head that she hadn’t. “No, can’t say that I have ever been in one before.”
Edith grabbed her hand and told her they were going to change that. “Do you want me to introduce you today or when you come in Monday for the staff meeting?”
Kallie hadn’t thought about it and she certainly hadn’t thought about a meeting where she would have to meet them all. What was she supposed to say, Dad died so I am taking over?
“Let’s wait till Monday for all of that. I just want to get a feel for the place if you don’t mind.”
“No problem. We heard that you got the store in the will. I am sorry to hear about Mel Miss, he was loved here.”
She shrugged. “I haven’t seen him in fifteen years and I don’t remember him well, but thank you. I hear good things about him everywhere I go here.”
Edith was not expecting that for an answer and it made her uncomfortable. Mel had always been good to his children and she wondered why he hadn’t been around for his oldest. It wasn’t her place to say anything, especially with her to be their new boss.
As they moved into the store, there was a lot more than then just feed for animals. There were chemicals for gardens, plants, medicines, a little bit of everything.
“So you do the inventory?”
Edith nodded. “It is quite a selection. I was going over the numbers last night and you guys have a great turnover for such a big inventory.”
“We are the only place to go to for feed around here and most customers have been with us since the very beginning.”
“I can see, but why here?”
“It was your father, he was loved by everyone. Always helped anyone who needed it.”
“So he worked here?”
“A couple days a week at least.”
Kallie couldn’t imagine it, from what she had heard, he was a very rich man and working at a feed store seemed out of place. Why would he spend all his time there? It made her wonder if there was a reason, a female there that made him want to be there.
She followed the older woman through the place and she smiled at a few people that looked at her questioningly. Taking her upstairs to the office and then to the loading dock where most of the inventory was there. A few of the men she had seen earlier gave her the eye and she heard a few catcalls. “You got to ignore them. It’s all testosterone here on the loading docks.” Edith gave a few of them a dirty look. She couldn’t say she was the new boss, but she didn’t want them to offend her.
“It’s okay. Is there any other kind of guy?”
Edith kind of chuckled. “Not really.”
Her eyes went to one man with his shirt off and she couldn’t help the assessing look her eyes gave him. He was gorgeous, too young for her, but handsome nonetheless. There were many perks, but being the boss made most of the perks off limits.
“So what do you think? You are very quiet. Your father was quite loud, so you will have to learn to have a voice here. We are used to hollering and fussing.”
Kallie had to laugh. “That I do remember about him, always so loud and jovial. But I take after my mom I suppose, more quiet and reserve. I was always told that you didn’t have to raise your voice to get the point across.”
“No, with a face like that I bet you don’t have to talk very loud. When you get older you have to raise your voice to get a rise out of these guys.”
“Are there any other females that work here?”
“No, it will be just us. Are you going to hire a manager or are you staying here for a while?”
Kallie still wasn’t sure, but she was thinking of staying a while. If this is what he had given her, she had to find a way to make it work. That it was a steady running business helped, as it looked like it was already running pretty smooth.
“I will be staying here a while. I still have to go look at a house a few miles from here.”
“The old one on Johnson Road?”
“Yeah, I think that was the name on the address. How old is it?”
“I’m not sure, but it has been in this town for a long time. There have been people trying to buy that house for a decade now, but Mel wouldn’t sell.”
Kallie didn’t want a property that was going to cause problems. It made her wonder why he wouldn’t sell, business man that he was. If the price was right, you always sell. That is business 101.
“Why not?”
“Because they want to drill there. They will pull the house down and turn those acres into a drilling operation.”
“Sounds like he could have made a pretty penny on that deal, why wouldn’t he take it?”
“He was raised here and doesn’t want to destroy the town. Once an oil rig goes in, a place will boom for a while, but eventually it will bust and most towns don’t make it. All across Texas there are ghost towns because oil was found. Same thing like in California with the gold. They come in and take all the resources, strip the ground and leave. Mel didn’t want to see his hometown done that way.”
Kallie nodded. It made sense and she felt that the last thing she should do is turn around and do the very thing he was trying to avoid. She saw it as a way to honor him and his wishes. “I have no desire to sell either then. If he wants to keep this town the same, I won’t do anything to change that.”
It was a good answer if she went with the way Edith looked at her. “I think you are going to like it here Kallie. You already belong.”
Chapter 3
“Charlie, did you get the feed for the horses while I was gone?”
The young man shook his head embarrassed. “I forgot all about it boss. Sorry about that.”
“Well it’s your day off, so I will get it this time.”
“Thanks boss.”
Caspin nodded his head. It was Sunday and he didn’t make anyone work on Sunday, but if something didn’t get done, it was his responsibility to get it done. On a ranch, the animals came first and the people were the slaves to them.
Sighing to himself, he pulled the strap off of the horse he had been brushing. The ranch was his second job, the family business the first. But it was in those moments of quiet in the barn, that he was happiest. If his father hadn’t left him everything, he would only work with horses and spend his days as he wanted.
He watched the young men load up in one of the trucks and head to town. They would go out to eat and then drink most of their night away at a local bar. Caspin sometimes he wished he would go, but at thirty, he was getting too old for the bar scene. It wasn’t to say that he didn’t go sometimes, find him a woman for the night, but it was not near as often as he would like. The woman was never the same in the morning and although they would promise to keep in touch, they never did.
Caspin finished with Thunder and moved on to his own horse, brushing him down before he too, loaded up to go to town. Since the guys had taken both trucks that pulled the trailers, he figured he would just go down there and have it delivered. Mel’s was always open on Sundays, so it was where he headed in his day car. It felt weird to get into the small sports car when he was wearing jeans and a cut off shirt, but it was the way it was. The car had seen more dirt than most and he made a note to have it cleaned when he got back.
Pulling up to small feed store, he pulled over to the dock and waved to a couple that he knew. Everyone knew Caspin, especially when he tipped as well as he did. When they got older, many would come to work with him on the ranch. Caspin was always looking for good ranch hands, but he didn’t think they were ready until early twenties at least. Mel would hire then in high school and train
them up for a few years, sending them his way when he thought they were ready.
Caspin got a faraway look in his eyes for a moment. He was going to miss old Mel and even going to his funeral the week before didn’t seem to make it real. Moving up to the doors, he took in the earthy smells of hay and different feeds. It reminded him of the first time he had been in there as a child. It was Mel that had nurtured his love of horses and now he was gone.
“Hey, Mr. Caspin. How are you today?”
“Hello Edith. I didn’t know you were working on Sundays.”
“I don’t usually, but we have a new owner coming in tomorrow for her first day.”
“Her?”
“Yeah, his daughter from New England got it in the will. Did you go to the reading?”
Caspin shook his head. He hadn’t for many reasons, but mainly because there were going to be people there that he didn’t care for. The fact that the Wheelings were even called there left a bad taste in his mouth.
“No, I skipped it. Had some things to deal with at Comston Corp.”
“Well, it’s always good to see you, but I have some paperwork to get together.”
Caspin watched her walk up the few steps to the few offices. He never knew Mel had a daughter, so his interest was piqued. But he was there for feed and after making an order, he had it planned to be delivered the next day. There wasn’t enough staff on hand then, so after loading a couple bags in his trunk to tide him over, Caspin drove back to the ranch and the many chores that still awaited him. It was days like that, with the sun beating on him that he regretted the work he did the rest of the week in the office. Men weren’t made to work under fake lights.
***
The next morning he was getting ready to go to the office when he heard a truck pulling up by the barns. He noticed a tall blonde get out of the truck and he went outside to see who it was. There was no decal on the side to tell him who it was for, what company, but there was a moment when he met her blue eyes that he knew.