We have tiptoed around each other for days, not knowing what to say. Dad tries to be strong for us, but I know it’s hard for him being back on the ranch. Pictures of Nana and Grandpa line the walls of the house. Her coffee cup is still on the counter, untouched. Nobody wants to be the one to put it away. Her favorite tattered cowboy hat hangs on a peg by the back door. She’s gone, but she’s still very much here.
A Border Collie named Beau, one of the farm dogs that I’m told took a liking to Nana, hasn’t left the back porch much. We put out food and water for him, but it’s clear he’s missing her along with the rest of us.
Mom and Dad have spent the past two days at the funeral home, preparing for the service. I’ve been holed up with my sisters in the main house, unable to go outside because of the storms that never seem to end. I guess it’s fitting—someone has died; there shouldn’t be sunshine.
The doorbell rings, which I find funny. Nobody rings doorbells around here. They just walk in.
With no one else around, I hop off the couch. I’m surprised when I see Reece standing on the porch. She tears open the screen door and pulls me into her arms. I cry. I haven’t let any tears fall since the night Dad called, but seeing my best friend opens the floodgates. I let it all go.
“I’m so sorry, Mad,” she says, running her hands down my back in a soothing way. “I know how much you loved her.”
“I was a bad grandson. I should have visited more.”
“There’s nothing you could have done to prevent this. There’s nothing anyone could have done. I met her once, remember? She was definitely a force to be reckoned with. A strong, independent woman, for sure. I mean, look what she did with the ranch. God, Maddox, I had no idea. You’ve told me about it, but this place is like something out of a TV show.”
“I barely recognize it myself.” I pull away and lead her into the house. “It’s twice as big as it was the last time I was here.”
“Maybe you could show me around.”
“If it ever stops raining, I’d like to see it myself. It’s been a long time.” I hug her again. “Hey, thanks for coming. It really means a lot.”
“I was on my way back from L.A., so it was an easy ticket change. I’ll stay as long as you need me.”
“The funeral is tomorrow.”
“What happens after that?”
I look at the couch where Nana read me books about horses. The old farm table in the kitchen Grandpa built from trees on the property. The pictures of her grandchildren on the bookshelves next to ribbons and trophies won by her horses. I sit heavily on a chair, wondering what will become of all of it. “Honestly, I have no idea.”
Jordan appears in the doorway. Her eyes light up when she sees Reece. They have spent time together over the past three years. My sister is a celebrity at high school for knowing the Reece Mancini.
Reece fishes around in her bag and pulls out a CD. “Hi, Jordan. I brought you something.”
She’s excited. “Is that what I think it is?” She beelines across the room.
“An advanced copy of my soon-to-be-released album.”
Jordan takes it from her and squeals. “Oh my god! Juliette will die when I tell her I have this. Wait, am I allowed to let anyone listen?”
Reece laughs. “Sure, but don’t let my bosses at IRL know.”
“Isn’t your husband your boss?” Jordan asks.
“Yeah, so mum’s the word.”
Jordan crosses her heart. “I swear.” She races through the house to find Nana’s CD player.
Reece glances after her. “She doesn’t seem too worse for the wear.”
“She and Caitlyn weren’t as close to Nana as I was.”
Reece looks around. “I can’t imagine growing up in a place like this.”
I point to the doorway leading to the living room. “This is where the original house ended. When Dad grew up here, it was half the size it is now.”
“At half the size, it would still be huge. Has she lived here alone since your grandpa died? What did she do with all this space?”
I shrug, guilty I don’t know the answer to her question since I haven’t been here in so long.
“Where are your folks?”
“Meeting with lawyers and stuff. They said not to wait up.” Reece yawns. “You must be tired after the week you had. I’ll show you to the guest bedroom, but tomorrow I want to hear all about the commercial.”
“Tomorrow is all about Vivian. The rest can wait.” She stops in front of a picture of Nana and me in the hallway. “She really loved you, Mad.”
“I know. I wish I could have done more. Come on, the guest room is back here.”
There’s not a dry eye at the cemetery. Everyone loved Vivian McBride. Well, there are a few dry eyes. I keep looking at the old man standing behind everyone else as they lower Nana into the ground. He and the younger man he’s with are wearing cowboy hats—disrespectful if you ask me. Everyone else has removed their hat. At least the woman with him isn’t wearing one, but she’s not wearing black. A springtime dress is more like it. None of the three were at the service, and they’re hanging back, well away from everyone else. They don’t even look sad. Just impatient.
“What’s she doing here?” Mom whispers to Dad as the pastor says his final words.
He looks over and his whole demeanor changes. His hands ball into fists. His face goes red. He’s downright pissed. He starts to stand, but Mom coaxes him down.
“Don’t,” she says. “Let’s pay our last respects. Don’t let her ruin that.”
“What’s going on?” Reece whispers to me.
I shrug, focused on the trio who look like they belong anywhere but here.
When it’s all over, I ask Dad, “Who are they?”
“Karen Thompson, her brother Jon, and their father, Joel.”
My eyes widen. “Karen Thompson, your ex-wife?”
“That’s the one,” Mom says, kicking the dirt. “Of all the places I thought I’d see her again.”
The three of them approach. Dad turns to Mom. “Darlin’, can you take Jordan and Caitlyn to the car please?”
“Gladly.”
Mom eyes Karen with daggers as she guides my sisters away. Karen doesn’t seem to mind. She has a smug smile on her face. “Gavin,” she says as if greeting Dad at a nightclub and not a burial. “As I live and breathe. I wondered if we’d ever cross paths again.”
“What do you want, Karen?”
“Why, to pay my respects, of course. Vivian was a great woman.”
“She was, and you’ve paid them, so feel free to leave now. Jon. Joel.” He walks away.
Before we take five steps, the old man says, “Gavin, I’d like to set up a meeting.”
Dad looks at my grandmother’s grave. “My mother’s casket isn’t even covered yet, Joel. Can’t this wait?”
“I’ll reach out to you in a day or two then,” Joel says.
“We’ll be gone in a day or two.”
Joel takes a business card out of his back pocket. “Call me before you leave.”
“Bye, Gavin,” Karen says flirtatiously before the three of them turn and walk away.
The third one, Jon, never said a word. He watched, as if his job was not to speak but to learn. He shoots a look over his shoulder at Dad like he wants to kill him.
“Jeez,” Reece says. “They look like trouble.”
“What do they want, Dad?”
“Same thing everyone wants around here. Grandma’s land.”
My jaw drops. “And they thought coming to her gravesite was the way to get it?”
“The Thompsons have never gone about things the conventional way.”
“So what’s going to happen to it? Her land?”
“That’s what your mom and I have been discussing the past few days. It’s not like selling a house. It’s a business. Lots of moving parts. It could take a while to figure out the best way to go.”
We all look up as a pickup barrels through the cemetery, almost h
itting the limousine we came in before stopping. It makes an awful noise shutting off—like a sick cow. Not that I’ve ever heard what a sick cow sounds like. The woman inside takes off her cowboy hat and rips off her shirt, putting on something in its place. Then it looks like she’s trying to shimmy out of her pants. On this somber day it’s kind of comical to watch. She puts her hat back on and opens the door. She runs a few steps in a black dress and cowboy boots, then stops, takes off her hat, and tosses it in the bed of the truck. She runs again, stops, and returns to the truck to retrieve a bouquet of flowers. Finally, she trots over to Nana’s grave, shaking with sobs.
“I’m so sorry I missed it, Viv,” she says, and it’s barely audible.
“Who’s that?” I ask Dad.
“Beats me.”
The only other person near the grave is an old man. Mom said his name is Gerald. Word has it he was there when she died, though none of us know him. He envelops the woman in his arms, and they sob together.
One of the guys I recognize from the ranch walks over and comforts them. She turns and cries into his shirt.
“Should we go back over?” I ask.
Dad shakes his head. “Matteo has it under control.”
“Matteo? You know the names of her employees?”
“I learned them all, Maddox. I’m responsible for what happens to them. I don’t take that job lightly. If I’m going to put anyone out of work, I damn well want to know who they are.”
We stroll to the limo, sidestepping puddles that have accumulated over the past few days. At least there was a break in the rain for her burial.
Mom and Dad seem to be having a conversation about Karen.
“I take it there’s a story there,” Reece says.
“There is, and you can read all about it if you want. Mom wrote a book about their lives together. That Karen bitch played a big part.”
“I’m intrigued. And I’ve been wanting to read some of your mom’s books. I’ll be sure to get it for my flight home.”
I continue to watch the woman at the grave. She takes flowers out of the bouquet and throws them on the casket. The older man kisses her on the temple like a father would, then the three of them go to her truck. She sees us and smiles sadly. Then she stops and stares at me. “Connecticut?”
I study her red, puffy face, but there is no mistaking those blue eyes. “Andie?”
Chapter Two
Andie
“Wow. I haven’t seen you in about—”
“Ten years,” he says.
“I’m real sorry about Viv, uh, your grandma. She was a very special lady.”
“Thanks. And my name is Maddox.”
“I know, but I’ve always thought of you as Connecticut.” The woman beside him raises her brows. Oh, gosh, that was a stupid thing to say. Now they think I think about him, which I have—or I used to anyway. But the way I said it. I look at the woman’s hand. Wedding ring. Great, now she probably thinks I have a thing for him. “Sorry, this is all so much.” I hold out my hand to the woman. “Andie Shaw. You must be Maddox’s wife.”
She chuckles. “You wouldn’t be the first person to think that. No, we’re best friends. Reece Mancini. Nice to meet you.”
Feeling stupid all over again, I shake her hand. Of course he’s not married. Viv would have told me if he was. She tells me everything about her family. Sadness washes over me. Told me everything. I still can’t believe she’s gone.
“I apologize for missing the service. There was an emergency over at Diamond Duce Ranch.”
“Is everyone okay?” Maddox asks.
“Everyone except Diamond Duke. Jumped the fence again and got his leg stuck in a game trap. He’s in the sling now. Still might lose him. Time will tell.”
Maddox looks at me in confusion. “A guy steps in a trap, and you put him in a sling? What are you, some kind of hillbilly medic?”
Matteo steps forward. “Andie is a doctor, a vet. She works for half a dozen ranches. Diamond Duke is a horse.”
Maddox turns red. “Oh, right.”
Reece snickers.
“Andie?” a man by the limo says. “Are you the Andie who tried to revive her? I’m Vivian’s son, Gavin McBride.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. McBride.”
“It’s Gavin. Are you the one?”
I nod, trying not to remember that horrible night. Tears escape my eyes. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t save her. I tried everything I could think of.”
“There wasn’t anything anyone could have done. Her neck was broken. She died instantly.”
“I know, but I hoped—”
Matteo says, “Andie did CPR on her for thirty minutes. She wouldn’t give up even when she knew it was hopeless.”
“You were there too?” Gavin asks.
“One of our boarder horses was showing signs of colic. I was with Andie in one of the stables when we heard Gerald scream from the main house.”
My throat is thick with tears. I can’t speak.
“Come now,” Matteo says. “You’re in no shape to drive. I’ll take you home.”
I nod to Maddox and his family. I know they are even more devastated than I am.
“Bye, Andie!” Reece calls after me jubilantly. “Hope to see you around.”
I look back to see Maddox scolding her.
I drive onto Devil’s Horn Ranch for my weekly rounds, knowing nothing here will ever be the same. My eyes become misty when I pass Viv’s house on the way to the stables. I park my pickup in the usual spot and grab a few things from the back, wondering where everyone is. Usually on a Monday morning, the ranch is bustling with activity.
A semi pulls away from the barn. Some of the ranch hands are dealing with the hay delivery, but other than them and a few random horse owners milling about, it’s a ghost town.
I enter the south stable and check on four pregnant broodmares. Daisy Mae is due any day, and the others should drop within the month. I peek at Henny, who foaled two weeks ago, and her baby, Lips. Lips dances around the pen, weaving between her mother’s legs.
“Oh, my gosh, he’s so cute,” someone says behind me.
Reece and Maddox are walking past. “She, actually. This little one is Lips. She’s a ball of energy.”
“Lips?” Reece asks. “Kind of a funny name for a horse.”
“It’s her barn name. Her papered name is Lipstick Lollipop.”
“What does that mean, papered name?” Reece asks.
She obviously doesn’t know anything about horses. “You know how purebred dogs come with official papers? That’s kind of like horses. The breeder picks their papered name and that is their unique official name which can never be changed. Most horses also have a barn name, like a nickname.”
“Oh, neat.” She walks to the stall across from this one. “What’s her papered name? Are they all that funny?”
“That’s Ingrid. She’s a grade horse. She doesn’t have a papered name.”
“Why not?”
“Think of her as a mutt. No one is sure of her lineage.” I cross the aisle and give Ingrid a pat. “But that doesn’t mean she’s any less special, does it, sweetie?”
“I never knew any of that about papers and grades,” Maddox says.
I give him a sideways look. “But your grandma owned this place.”
He shrugs. “She used to read me books about horses when I was little, and I suppose she tried to teach me things, but we weren’t here much.”
“I was surprised I never saw you come back after that time.”
He runs a finger across his temple. “Yeah, well, I guess we all got busy.”
“I’m sure someone could show you around; give you a tour of the place.” I look around. “Normally there would be. I’m not sure where everyone is.”
“My dad said there was a big meeting this morning in the barn office.”
I nod. “Makes sense. There’s a lot to discuss, I’m sure.”
“Darn,” Reece says. “It would have been fun to have a
tour before I fly out tomorrow.”
“I could do it.”
“You?” Maddox says. “Do you work here?”
“I’m not an employee of DHR, but they contract with me for my veterinary services. I know the place like the back of my hand. I’ve been riding here for fifteen years.”
“We don’t want to impose,” Maddox says, earning him a kick in the shin from Reece.
I laugh. “It’s fine. I’d love to show you around.” I look them over. “Come with me.” I lead them to the tack room at the front of the stable. Along with all of the gear for riding horses, the room is lined with extra muck boots, gloves, hats, and basically anything a visitor to the ranch could need. I point to the boots. “Find a pair that fits. You do not want to walk around here in ballet flats or Nikes.”
Reece explores the room. The DHR brand on the wall catches her eye. “I saw this on Vivian’s front door.”
“You’ll see it all over, on every saddle, barn door, and fence post. It’s the brand for Devil’s Horn Ranch.”
She traces the “horns” above the lettering. “I like it.” She turns to Maddox. “Maybe I should come up with a Reece Mancini brand.”
“Maybe you should,” he says. “You could start a trend.”
I wonder what she does that would have her needing a brand. Before I can ask, she pulls on boots and stands. “Ready,” she says, smiling.
“Not quite.” I reach for a hat and offer it to her. “Vivian had a strict rule. Anyone on the ranch has to wear one.”
Reece takes it and puts it on backward. “How do I look?”
Maddox takes it off, turns it around, and plops it back down. “Your fans would love to see you like this.”
She picks up a stray piece of hay, puts it in her mouth, and poses with one leg on a bench. I suppose she’s trying to look like Annie Oakley or something. “Fans?”
Maddox laughs. “Reece is kind of a big deal.”
“Shut up,” she says. “Take the picture, but nobody sees it but Garrett.”
While Maddox snaps a few shots, I google Reece Mancini. I’m floored to find out she’s a Grammy-winning singer, and she’s married to a guy who plays drums for one of the hottest rock bands in the country. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t have any idea. “Oh, gosh, you’re famous. I mean you know that. I’ve never met anyone famous before, and here I am, making you put on boots in case you step in horseshit.” Oh my god, I said horseshit in front of a celebrity. “I’ll shut up now.”
Texas Orchids (The Devil's Horn Ranch Series) Page 2