Love Inspired June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: The Cowboy's HomecomingThe Amish Widow's SecretSafe in the Fireman's Arms

by Carolyne Aarsen

  “David reaped what he sowed.” Abby pressed her finger on the loose granules of sugar that had fallen from her sugar packet. She didn’t care about Mitch and David’s reputation, but she wanted to clear Lee’s name with Louisa. “You know, Lee never made any bet with Mitch and David about taking me to the prom,” she said quietly. “Lee told me he went out with me because he wanted to. Mitch and David were just being jerks when they told me about a bet.”

  Louisa was the first person Abby had turned to when Mitch and David gleefully shattered her illusions about Lee. No sooner had Louisa heard than she marched over to Lee and gave him a piece of her mind.

  “Again, do you believe it?” Louisa looked and sounded skeptical and, in a way, Abby couldn’t blame her. In spite of Lee’s confession, his overall behavior in high school had been less than stellar.

  “Why would he lie?” Abby held her friend’s steady gaze. “He has nothing to gain by that.”

  “Except to make himself look better to you.”

  “Well, I believe him,” Abby said, trying not to feel like she was slowly getting pushed into a corner. She already knew how her mother felt about Lee; it would have been nice to get some support from her friend.

  “Actually, I believe him too,” Louisa admitted with a wry grin. “I’m kind of glad that he wasn’t the scoundrel I thought he was. I know he liked you in high school.” She winked. “I could see the way he used to look at you.”

  “I never received that impression from you before. I thought you didn’t like him.”

  “Full disclosure? I was probably a bit jealous. He’s one handsome man, all dark-eyed and broody-looking. And now that he’s let that thick, dark hair grow out...” Louisa released an overly dramatic sigh, looking all dreamy-eyed. “Anyhow, I think it’s great that you two are getting together again. I know you always liked him.”

  “I’m not sure about the getting-together part,” Abby said, giving her friend a warning look as Allison set their plates of food in front of them. Louisa took the hint and murmured her thanks, waiting until the waitress was out of earshot.

  “So he’s not attracted to you anymore?”

  Abby thought of the kiss they had shared. The nearly electric moment in church just an hour ago.

  “You’re blushing!” Louisa said, leaning forward with an anticipatory grin. “Spill.”

  Abby swiped a french fry through her ketchup, buying herself some time to gather her composure. “We had...a moment. Or two. Maybe more.”

  “No. Way.” Louisa’s grin widened. “Kissing?”

  Abby couldn’t help smiling at Louisa’s avid interest.

  “Okay, you’re not saying, but you don’t have to. You’re redder than that mound of ketchup on your plate.” Louisa stabbed a forkful of lettuce. “So, what are you going to do about this? You’ll be done with the job at the Bannisters’ after Tuesday. Unless you want to do some follow-up. Which, given what you just told me, is more than likely. But then what?”

  Abby shrugged, her friend’s comment bringing her plummeting back to reality. “I don’t know. Maddie’s a great boss, but to be perfectly honest, I haven’t enjoyed my job for a while now. I’m tired of traveling. And as far as Lee is concerned...”

  “Everything is a maybe,” Louisa finished for her. “A possibility.”

  “Lee has a job he has to go back to, as well. I don’t know what his plans are. Don’t know if I have any right to be involved in them or to have expectations.”

  “But you’d like to,” Louisa surmised, then took another bite of her salad. Abby toyed with her fries, suddenly not as hungry as she thought.

  “I hate uncertainty,” she said suddenly. “And I don’t want my life to be determined by someone else’s decisions.”

  Abby had had enough of that happen in her life. She didn’t know if she could allow it again.

  * * *

  “So, you manage to get some good people shots?” Lee asked, watching as Abby switched her lens on her camera.

  The sun had cooperated for the day of the anniversary and was shining brightly though Abby had grumbled about how a bit of cloud would have been nice for taking pictures.

  Abby looked past him at the gathering of people and dignitaries. “I sure hope so. I kind of feel like paparazzi walking around with my camera in front of my face all the time.”

  The mayor of Saddlebank stood just a ways away from them chatting up the mayor of Bozeman. Just past them Lee could see the state’s governor listening to his aunt, her voice carrying over the yard. Lee had been circulating through the gathered crowd, catching up with old relatives and trying to make conversation with people who were part of his youth and whose names he barely remembered.

  He was fairly sure they remembered him. His distant relative Keith McCauley, former sheriff of Saddlebank County, had made a few gruff comments in passing.

  “I just hope I don’t end up with too many shadowed faces.” Abby stowed the other lens in a case and slipped it in her backpack. She had a small notebook that she had scribbled some notes in while the family was lingering over coffee in the house this morning. It had been fun to watch her talk to her parents, to John and Keira and Heather, drawing out their stories of other roundups. How it was done in the past and possibly what could change for the future.

  She had also been working her way through the crowd the past half hour, chitchatting with people. Lee could see she had a way of putting folks at ease. A quiet about her that made others want to confide in her.

  They now stood close to the area set aside for the presentations and the few speeches that would be made by the invited dignitaries.

  “Did you see the camera crew here from a television station in Bozeman? Is that okay with you?”

  “It’s fine.” She smiled but behind that he sensed some misgivings. Ever since she came this morning, he felt as if she had put distance between them. He wasn’t sure what caused it, but he was determined to find out. Because he didn’t want any misunderstandings. Not now.

  Yesterday the whole family had been busy with preparations for today—mowing lawns, weeding flower beds, setting out tables and cleaning up the outbuildings—but in spite of the flurry of activity, he missed Abby. Every vehicle that came on the yard made him look up with a sense of expectation, but she stayed away.

  Thankfully she was here first thing in the morning, right after they were done with breakfast.

  Now his parents stood to one side of the podium Tanner and Lee had made yesterday, going over the speeches they had prepared. The girls were walking around, welcoming the people who had shown up, offering refreshments from the buffet table sitting to one side of the open area designated for the celebration. Two huge decorated cakes rested on the table, flanked by plates of squares and cookies. Bouquets of lilies, wild roses, laveteria and potato vine gathered from his mother’s extensive flower garden filled old metal pails set on each side of the podium. A rustic arbor made of willow branches created a backdrop.

  Meanwhile, John and Tanner were in the corrals getting the horses ready to go. Adana was with her other grandparents who were by the corrals, watching as John worked. It was all coming together. Fifteen more minutes and the festivities would officially begin.

  Which meant Lee didn’t have a second to waste if he wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on with Abby.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked her, taking her arm and gently drawing her aside. “You seem distant.”

  “I have stuff on my mind,” she said softly, fiddling with her camera and lifting it to take a photo of the gathering. “I’ll be done with all the work on this magazine article after today. So I’ll be finished here.”

  “Of course.”

  “And, I imagine, you’ll have to get back to work too.” She lowered her camera, giving him a cautious smile.

  He knew uncertainty marred their relationship. But he felt he had to at least let her know where he was at. Just for information, he reminded himself, no other reason.


  “I’m not sure what to do,” he said.

  Hitching in a breath, she looked up at him. “You shouldn’t turn your back on all this.” She waved her hand around the yard, encompassing the house, the barns, corrals and outbuildings that had been constantly upgraded and updated. He himself had pounded many nails, attached many staples, ridden many miles over this place. “It’s a heritage and you’re blessed to have it.”

  He held her gaze. The passion in her voice matched his feelings about the ranch. He wanted to stay, but he wanted Abby to, as well. However, he couldn’t come right out and say that. Always hovering over their relationship was what he had done to her father.

  But he couldn’t let her walk away.

  Then Monty stepped up to the microphone attached to the dais, and Abby started snapping photos. Back to work for her.

  His dad tapped the mike to check for sound and then he leaned forward. “Well, I think we can get started,” he said, his voice booming over the gathering.

  People stopped what they were doing and conversation drifted into silence. Lee walked over to where his family stood, taking his place by his mother. He dropped his arm over her shoulder and gave her a quick one-armed hug. “Here we go,” he whispered.

  “I’m so thankful you’re here,” his mother whispered back, covering his hand with hers. She looked past him to where Abby stood on the edge of the crowd, taking pictures. “And while I had my reservations about her, I’m very thankful Abby is doing this piece. She’s a wonderful girl. I hope we can see more of her once this whole celebration is over.”

  Lee rolled his eyes. Subtle wasn’t a word in Ellen Bannister’s vocabulary, but he wasn’t getting pulled into his mother’s web.

  “I think Dad wants to start,” he said, nodding toward his father, who stood at the podium. “You better go join him.”

  His mother gave him a wink, then walked over to his father.

  They stood side by side, his father tall and robust, his hair still thick and wavy. He wore a white shirt and a new tie in honor of this occasion, a pair of brand-new blue jeans, but had insisted on wearing his worn, slant-heeled cowboy boots.

  Ellen had on a simple pink dress and was wearing a Montana silver necklace with coral insets that had been passed on through the family. Her gray hair glinted in the sun, framing her face.

  Still so beautiful, Lee thought as his mother took his father’s arm. Monty gazed down on her and gave her that special smile he always reserved for her.

  “This is a momentous day for the Bannister family,” Monty said, turning back to the crowd composed of friends, neighbors and a few dignitaries. “It’s not many businesses that last one hundred and fifty years. But Refuge Ranch has endured because it is so much more than a business. It’s a legacy. A trust that has been passed down through our family through many, many generations. Ranching is not what you do, it’s who you are, and I’ve been thankful to be a rancher from the day I was born on this ranch, as was my father and his father before him.

  “I grew up on this place and have always been taught that no one person owns this place. It has been given to whoever comes after in trust to take care of and pass on. And through all the generations of ranching on Refuge Ranch, God has been faithful, bringing us through storms and drought. Through varying cattle prices. Through catastrophes and wars and depressions and recessions and booming markets and disease. We know that we, as a family, are blessed to have this legacy and, Lord willing, it will continue.”

  Lee felt his heart fill with pride at his father’s words.

  He looked out over the ranch again—the fields green and lush, flowing toward the hills, then the craggy mountains beyond—feeling the land calling to him. This was his home. This was where he was meant to be.

  He stole a glance over at Abby, who had lowered her camera and was watching his father as if also absorbing what he had to say. She took a few more pictures, and then her eyes found his.

  Across the crowd he held her gaze, unable to look away.

  He belonged here, that much he knew.

  He just wished he knew where Abby fit in all this. And would she? Could she completely let go of what he had done? Would she be willing to be a part of his life?

  * * *

  Brown bodies plodded ahead of Abby, heads down, bawling occasionally as they walked along the wide lane, fences on either side. They seemed too spread out, but Tanner, riding in the rear of the herd, assured her that it was better that way. Cattle didn’t like to get crowded. So they only let out a few at a time from the pasture they’d been gathering them from to give them their space.

  She got a few good shots of them off the back of Bonny and on the ground when the crew who had come to help had gathered animals from the various parts of the pasture. It had taken longer than she thought. Animals veered off into hills and draws and local cowboys cantered off to herd them back. Everyone seemed to be having fun, and in the process Abby met a few of Lee’s relatives who had joined in the pasture move.

  But now the cattle seemed to be ambling along so she put her camera away, satisfied with the pictures she had already taken. She would grab more at the end of the move. She just wanted to enjoy being outside, riding a horse.

  But even more enjoyable was watching Lee. He looked happy. Content. At peace.

  He waved his coiled-up rope, nudged his horse and cantered up the side of the herd, prodding a cow who was trying to turn back. He looked so at ease on the horse. So at one with it, his movements so natural and smooth.

  As if aware of her scrutiny, he looked back over his shoulder and waved his rope at her. She wasn’t sure what he wanted, but her horse seemed to. It broke into a trot, heading directly toward Lee. She bounced in the saddle, trying to get a rhythm going, but it was no use. She couldn’t look as relaxed as he or the others did.

  “How are you doing?” Lee asked as she came up alongside him.

  “Good, except I feel like a complete urbanite.”

  “What do you mean by that?” He tugged his hat farther down on his head, squinting at the lead cows, who seemed to be slowing down.

  “Even your relatives ride better than I do,” Abby grumbled, shifting in the saddle, muscles from her previous ride still tender.

  “You’ll learn,” he said with an encouraging smile.

  His comment—a simple assumption that she would be around to gain enough experience to master horseback riding—gave her a small thrill. But right behind that came the usual questions about what would happen after today.

  Yesterday she had stayed away, working on her article and photos, but every minute, every picture of Lee, made her want to shut her laptop off and come directly here.

  “So, what happens when we get nearer the pasture where the cows are supposed to be?” Abby asked, changing the topic to keep her mind in the moment. To keep questions about tomorrow at bay.

  “Nothing dramatic,” Lee said. “We open the gate and let them in.”

  “Really? That’s all?”

  “Afraid so.”

  “I thought you would be branding or something like that.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you.” The corner of his mouth quirked up. “That was already done this spring before we put the calves out to pasture the first time.”

  “Too bad I missed that,” she said. “That would have been a great addition to the piece.”

  “Maybe next time,” he said.

  And there it was again. A quiet assumption of a progression in the relationship.

  “So, how do your father and John manage to handle all these cows by themselves?”

  “They have Nick hired. But in the spring, during branding season, a few other ranchers have been sending in their hands to come and help. Since John signed on, they’ve been increasing the herd and I know they’re talking about hiring a few more full-time hands. They’re going to need more help if they keep expanding.”

  “Can they? Expand more?”

  Nodding slowly, he replied, “Dad has managed to hang on
to a lot of leased land that he hasn’t utilized since...well, since I left. He has lots of room to increase the herd. And right now cattle prices are good, so the cash flow is healthy.”

  And would he stay? Help his father out?

  The questions stayed where they belonged: in one corner of her mind. It wasn’t her business. She had her own plans.

  Then Lee glanced her way. Though his eyes were shadowed by the brim of his hat, Abby could feel his attention, as if he sensed her questions. As if he had questions of his own. Trouble was, she wasn’t sure herself what she wanted anymore. She felt a curious sense of settling as she looked away from him, comparing these wide-open spaces to the cramped apartment she shared with Louisa. The busy streets of Seattle, the endless traveling she did from place to place.

  She had no home, she realized with a pang. No place where she felt she belonged. Being here, at Refuge Ranch, was the first time she truly felt a sense of home.

  She brushed the maudlin thoughts aside, reminding herself that, for now, she was in a good place, doing something enjoyable with someone she liked being with.

  But will you be able to leave?

  The question twisted her heart as she snuck a look at Lee again. What was she allowed to assume? This man had such an influence on her past. Did she dare put her future in his hands?

  Chapter Ten

  The fire crackled and snapped, illuminating the faces of the people circling it, sending sparks spiraling up as if to touch the complacent full moon, hanging in the sky overhead. Conversation flowed, punctuated by bursts of laughter as stories were exchanged and memories revisited.

  A caterer had followed the cattle drive with a wagon stocked with firewood, hot dogs, buns, condiments, salads and drinks. As soon as the cattle were moved, Lee and Tanner had set up a fire pit and started the fire.

  “Was a good day, Lee,” his second cousin, Keith, said as Lee tossed another log on the fire.

  “I think so,” Lee returned. “Cattle behaved, no major wrecks.” And as he had done most of the day, his eyes sought and found Abby, on the edges of the circle, taking pictures. He wished she would quit and come and sit beside him. He thought she would be done by now.