John was a little more standoffish and smiled, “Nice to meet you. I’ll take care of Ash for you, Chase.”
I thanked him and left Grant to whatever he was doing, leading Briar up the stairs and across the wide porch. She paused as I opened the front door for her.
“Something wrong?” I asked, taking in her wondrous expression.
She smiled, sweeping her hand in a wide gesture. “It’s like a postcard.”
Rocking chairs and swings lined the porch. An old barrel had a piece of wood nailed to it and was painted to look like a checkerboard. My father had made it for me. I’d never get rid of it.
Briar left me by the door, heading across the porch for Aunt Millie’s cat, Whiskers. I liked cats, but that one was a pain in the ass. He’d scratched me on more than one occasion, sometimes just for walking past him.
He liked Briar though. She picked him up and petted his fur.
“He’s so sweet.” She giggled, scratching his head.
I kept my distance. “He’s an ornery old goat.”
She set him on one of the porch swings and came back to me, stepping in the foyer. “What?”
“I hate that cat. We don’t get a long.”
“Why?”
“Ask him, I’d love to know.” I shut the door behind us. “Millie?”
“Kitchen,” she shouted. “I’ll kill you if you’ve got dirty boots, Grant.”
I grinned. “She isn’t paying attention.”
Briar smiled, following me through the living room. Her jaw dropped at first sight of the chandelier made out of antlers and the bearskin rug. She ran into me when I stopped, staring at the deer head mounted over the doorway.
“I’ve gone from looking at a postcard to being on a western movie set.” She spun in a circle, taking everything in. “Those aren’t fakes, are they?”
I shook my head. “My family likes to hunt. Uncle Jerry made the antler chandelier. The buck over the fireplace was my first. The bear got onto our property and killed a cow. Millie ran outside and took him down with a twelve gauge.”
Briars face was comical. “You’re kidding.”
“No, ask her yourself.”
She shifted and bit her lip, “Will you teach me how to shoot?”
I laughed, honestly caught off guard. “Really?”
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t want to kill anything…”
“No problem.” I took her hand and pulled her along to the kitchen. Millie had her back to us, and was hovering over a pot on the stove. “I smell chili.”
“And cornbread,” she stiffened and whipped around. “Lord have mercy! Get over here!”
I crossed the room and picked up the little, but tough woman in a hug. I set her back down and she wiped her eyes. “Miss me?”
Millie nodded, “I knew you wouldn’t be gone long.”
I stepped aside and smiled. “Millie, this is my friend Briar.”
She sputtered, looking between us. “You never told me your friend was a girl.”
I laughed, “You didn’t ask.”
She grabbed a wooden spoon off the counter and swatted me, “I have half a mind to…goodness. Just like your father.”
Briar hugged Millie and thanked her for letting her come stay. “I didn’t want to intrude.”
“Hush, I am pleased as punch to have you with us for the summer. We don’t get many visitors.” Millie patted her gray hair. It was coming out of the tight bun she always kept it in “Well, we don’t get any visitors outside of extended family. And your parents are alright sparing you for two months?”
Briar nodded. “Oh, they won’t even notice I’m gone.”
Millie frowned. “You must do things differently in Florida. Go say hello to your uncle, take Briar with you, Chase. I’ll make sure her room is ready.”
Briar protested, trying to tell Millie not to worry, but my aunt wouldn’t hear it and shooed us from the kitchen. I took Briar upstairs to the office we ran the ranch from.
“Knock, knock.” I said, leaning in the doorway.
Uncle Jerry was at his desk shuffling through papers. “I thought I told you to get cleaned up for dinner…”
“Nope.”
Jerry looked up and frowned.
“Howdy partner.”
“Chase,” He stood, grabbing his cane and rounding the desk. “Did you just get in?”
“Yeah,” I hugged him and looked back at the door. Briar was hesitant to come in, but she slipped up next to me and shook Jerry’s hand.
His eyebrows went up. “Well, who is this pretty lady?”
“Briar Thompson,” she said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Charmed,” Jerry laughed. “And glad to have you.”
“She’s a city girl, so go easy on her.” I told him, knowing he’d put any free hand to work around here.
A few minutes later Millie poked her head in and stole Briar away to show her the guestroom.
“So, what have I missed?” I sank into the old green couch under the window and kicked up my feet to rest them on the coffee table. I was beat. Not that I minded driving, but I wasn’t getting behind the wheel of a truck for a couple days if I didn’t have to.
“You’ve been gone six weeks,” Jerry said. I’d asked him not to tell me anything going on at the ranch. Unless it was something really bad, like a fire or a death. I already missed it, and I was trying hard for my mom to think about something else.
I nodded. “A lot can happen in that time.”
He sat on the edge of the desk. “Well, we lost one of our hands, Pat.”
“How?”
“He was hitting the bottle again. I told him to clean up his act or leave. Bunkhouse was minus one person the next morning.”
“Shame, he was a good worker when he stayed sober.” I shook my head. “Then what happened?”
“Well, the new guy, Rick, is nice enough.”
I was sensing a but. We’d hired Rick just before I left for Florida. They’d needed an extra hand with me gone. “You don’t like him.”
Jerry rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know…something about the guy has me on guard the more I’m around him. He’s a little shifty.”
I nodded. “I’ll spend some time with him tomorrow. Anything else?”
“Yeah, we got a mustang.”
This time my eyebrows went up. “How?”
“Won her in a card game against one of the Callahan men.” Jerry said, trying not to laugh. “He seemed glad to be rid of her.”
I snorted. My uncle and his card games. He won more than he lost, and had come home with the strangest things. This wasn’t the first horse either. But a mustang someone wanted rid of? Hopefully he wouldn’t be a nightmare to train. “Jerry…”
“She was free.”
“Famous last words,” I grinned.
“Rick wants to give it shot and break her.”
I hated breaking horses. I liked to approach it more like my father and grandfather. Bond and build trust. The breaking shouldn’t kill the spirit of the animal. Jerry was on the same page, but in this case I figured he’d hit a brick wall. He could be short on patience now with his bad hip.
I had no idea how Rick went about training and breaking, but I wasn’t going to let him at any of the horses until I saw what he could do. I’d seen some nasty animal abuse at fairs and rodeos. Enough to make me vomit. “It’s up to you.”
Jerry shook his head. “Your ranch.”
I rolled my eyes. Jerry was an O’Brian. He married into the family, but after thirty-five years on the ranch, no one gave his last name a second thought. “Don’t say that. Besides, you won the horse.”
“Well, yeah, I just don’t want her.” His eyes twinkled. “Consider her a welcome home and early birthday gift.”
“You’re unloading a horse on me?”
“No, I’m begging you to take her. I’m too old. I can barely ride as it is now.”
I smiled. “Okay, I’m convinced… now what about the buyers?”
&n
bsp; “You’ve got plenty offers, some more crazy than I ever seen.” He reached across the desk and picked up a stack of papers. “They are chomping at the bit.”
“No is no.” I said, wondering if they’d ever let up. This was my ranch and I wasn’t going to sell it for anything. It’s value was immeasurable. Those bastards on my back, thinking I’d break under pressure or give in to greed, had another thing coming to them.
Jerry nodded, pleased, and tossed the stack into our favorite circular file. The one that went right to the shredder. “Have you seen Grant?”
“Yeah,”
“He tell you the big news?”
I sat forward, “Uh, no.”
“Holly is pregnant with number three,” Jerry slapped his knee. “I’m praying this one is a girl.”
Jerry had two grandsons from Holly and Grant. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.”
He pushed off the desk and shoved his hands in his pockets, limping over to the window. His hip wasn’t the same after an accident two years ago when he was trying to fix the roof of the barn. I’d been pissed, and Grant didn’t talk to his father for three days. It was our job to patch the roof, but Jerry liked to do things himself. That time it cost him dearly, and he’d learned his lesson. “So, you want to tell me about you and the city girl?”
“Not much to tell.”
Jerry glanced back at me, “Spill the beans, and don’t leave anything out. You never bring people home with you.”
Ten minutes later I’d given him the rundown.
“Just like your father.” He smiled.
“Not quite.” I said, also smiling.
“You’re not the first McCree to bring home a girl.” He said. “McCree’s are famous for stealing women.”
I shook my head. “So one of my ancestors ran away with a married woman…so what? The O’Brian men were famous for rustling cattle.”
Jerry sighed. “Just don’t make the same mistake your father did.”
I wasn’t going to start flying planes anytime soon, but I knew that wasn’t what my uncle was talking about. “Jerry, Briar and I are just friends.”
“You like her.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“The hell it don’t,” he grunted.
“She’ll leave, and the chances of me seeing her again are slim.”
“Okay, but just in case, I’m going to warn you now, make sure you know what you’re doing and spell it out plain for the girl. You father was a good man, but he left a lot out by way of explanation to your mother when he married her. She had no clue, poor girl, what she was getting herself into.”
I nodded. “Briar knows who I am.”
“She knows that you’ll never give this place up? That you, at such a young age, have a man’s responsibility?” he limped across the room and sat next to me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “If you wanted to walk away from the ranch, I wouldn’t blame you.”
I shrugged, “I know I’m young, but honestly Jerry, I wouldn’t know how to do anything else or live any other way. This place is my home. It’s in my blood. I can’t live without it.”
“Spoken like a true McCree.”
“Briar needed to get away for a little while, and I guess I just wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her yet. But she will know the ranch more than my mother did. I’ll make sure she sees the good and the bad.” My mom met my dad at a rodeo in one of the neighboring cities. She’d been on vacation with friends, and found herself the wife of a rancher a few months later. He hadn’t even shown her the ranch before they were married.
I saw something in Briar though, something I doubt she saw in herself. She was strong and brave, and a hell of an adventurous spirit. If anything, she’d learn more about herself here than she would anywhere else.
When she left I’d miss her. I’d miss Briar something awful.
In my gut though, I knew that I would see her again.
I’d make sure of it.
Chapter 14
Briar
Dinner was an event I’d never forget. There were eight people in the massive dining room, dogs winding between chairs at the table, and two little boys in highchairs at either end. Millie presided over everyone, keeping peace with her wooden spoon. Jerry threw biscuits to whoever asked for one. I almost got hit in the face, but Chase caught it, glaring at his uncle. Jerry merely laughed and told me to work on my hand eye coordination. Afterwards everyone pitched in cleaning up, and then it was into the massive living room to lounge in front of a roaring fire. Holly, who was a nice, shy woman, went home early with Grant to put the kids to bed, leaving me and Chase with his aunt and uncle.
The living room was so rustic. Richly decorated with earthy tones and deep reds and blues and greens. There were handmade quilts on the backs of chairs and couches. Big skylights dotted the exposed wood ceiling. The antler chandelier was a little strange, but still beautiful. Even the gun rack on the wall was impressive. Ornately carved out of a cherry wood, the guns didn’t look new. They looked like antiques.
I could tell the McCree’s were wealthy, but they didn’t flaunt it. There wasn’t one expensive painting, or fancy art sculpture for viewing. Everything in the house seemed to have a purpose. And it smelled so wonderful. A little like pine, and a hint of cinnamon. There was a basket full of dog toys in the corner next to the fireplace, and a few bones littered the floor. Some had dogs attached to them, others had been abandoned in favor of pats and scratches from the humans in the room.
“My dear, you look a little dazed.” Millie smiled at me, kicking up her feet on an ottoman in front of her chair. “I hope this isn’t too much to take in.”
I shook my head, settling back into the deep plaid sofa. “I’m fine, just tired from the trip. And, well, I’ve never been to a family dinner like this one.”
Chase was sitting on the floor with a few of the dogs in front of the fireplace. He smiled at me. “Briar comes from a different kind of family. She’s not used to our antics.”
Mille nodded, seeming to understand. “I figured as much when we started throwing rolls. Never heard a “head’s up” at the dinner table.”
“No, my parents are,” I paused, trying to find a way to put it nicely. I couldn’t. “My grandmother calls them stuffed shirts.”
“And they really won’t miss you?” Jerry asked, taking a puff of his pipe. It was wooden, hand carved he’d said, by his great grandfather.
“No,” I wondered what I must look like to them. How many parents didn’t care where their kids were? I didn’t even say goodbye to them. I tried, but all I got was my mom’s voicemail and a pat on the head from my father. He told me to have a good time at camp…cheer camp. I went once two years ago. I didn’t even bother trying to remind him that’d I’d be with Grandma. “We aren’t close. My father is a surgeon. He’s always at the hospital. My mother spends most of her free time getting work done and going to the country club with her friends.”
Mille didn’t seem to understand me. “What does she do?”
“My mother works on herself. Facelifts, injections, going to the gym…its turned into a real job.” One more fancy dinner at the club with waiters in tuxedoes and women trying to one up each other, playing nice face to face, and I would have run screaming.
“But what is it you want to do with yourself?” Millie was fishing. I knew. She wanted to know what kind of girl her nephew had brought home. I couldn’t blame the lady, not after telling her what my family was like. I knew if she met Grandma they would hit it off. Between Millie’s wooden spoon and Grandma’s aim with cookies, no one would escape at close or long range.
“I want to be a veterinarian.” I loved animals. Even though I didn’t have any, I’d always wanted a houseful. Chase was lucky to have grown up on a ranch. I’d have given anything to wake up one morning and find a puppy, or a basket of kittens. “In middle school I snuck a rabbit in the house and raised him in my bathroom. My parents eventually found out and took him away.”
“You n
ever told me that,” Chase’s chocolate eyes filled with surprise.
“You never asked,” I said.
Jerry stood with a loud yawn, “I’m old, and my bones ache. I am going to bed.”
Millie followed him, but at the base of the stairs in the living room she paused and smiled at me. “I’m glad you’re here Briar, really. You are such a welcome ray of sunshine.” She looked between Chase and me. “I’ll say it once now, I’m not ready to be a great aunt. So I’m gonna hurt the both of you if nine months later the stork comes calling. Clear?”
Chase rubbed the back of his neck, “Clear.”
I couldn’t meet her eyes. “Yes, Ma’am.”
She seemed satisfied and headed up the stairs. “Night, ya’ll.”
“That was embarrassing, I’m sorry.” I couldn’t tell because of the light, but I was sure Chase had gone just as pink as me. “Millie doesn’t beat around the bush.”
“I like her.”
“I knew you would. So…you want to be a vet.”
“Yeah, when my father and mother find out they’ll be pissed. If they had it there way I’d marry Alex after high school.”
He cursed. “When did marriage come into this?”
“It isn’t a marriage. It’s a merger. Business.” I grimaced, thinking, not only was I too young to get married after I graduated, I was too smart to actually do what they wanted. I’d be married to a future alcoholic with a roving eye. What a catch. “When Alex danced with me in the gym, he told me it was expected, that I didn’t have a choice. If my parents even hint at me marrying him after high school, then they’ve lost a daughter.”
“He’s the last guy you’ll be dancing with, remember that partner.” He winked.
“Only if you hold up your end of the bargain.” I said. “What about you?”
He lifted a shoulder, “I want to be a good cowboy.”
“There has to be something more than just being a good cowboy.”
He smiled, pushing to his feet and taking the spot next to me on the couch. “Well, I want to run this place as good as the men before me. This is my life.”
“You’ve never wanted to be anything else? Not even when you were a little kid?”
Chasing McCree Page 10