Chapter 4
Settling into a routine at the cabin was much easier than Jenny had anticipated. Much of this was due to David’s being able to spend a lot of time with Mark. Having a friend, even one older than himself, had been good for David.
Someone else who seemed to be having a big impact on David’s life was Mitch Anderson. It was the beginning of August and in the three weeks they had lived here David had never missed a church service. He not only wanted to go on Sundays, but on Wednesday nights, as well. David had a bad case of what amounted to hero worship.
Jenny couldn’t fault him for it, since she realized that Mitch truly enjoyed kids. Hattie had told her that since Mitch had taken over the junior high boy’s class, the boys had left much of their adolescent behavior behind and were beginning to mature spiritually.
Jenny questioned how spiritually mature Mitch might be, but since that would be akin to the pot calling the kettle black, she refrained from voicing her doubts.
As for Renee, since they’d been attending church a new softness had entered her demeanor. She was more spiritually inclined although she seemed to have an obsession with the afterlife. Her constant questions were beginning to bother Jenny, especially since she knew she was not equipped to deal with the answers.
Something that bothered Jenny more was the fact that she still had no source of income. Her savings was almost exhausted and she had not been able to accomplish as much as she had wanted with cabin repairs and renovations. Jacob had promised her that she should be receiving the money from Cousin Tito’s estate early the next week so she wasn’t as concerned as she might have been, but what was she going to do when that money ran out?
Mitch had been right. She couldn’t find a job in Mayer or in Dewey and she hesitated to look even further in Prescott. She had a little time, but time had a way of getting away from you.
Their few household goods arrived much later than expected so they’d had to make do with what they had brought for nearly two weeks. Still, their shipment finally came and it was good to be surrounded by familiar things.
Sighing gently, she continued kneading the dough for the bread she was making. It had never occurred to her at the time she’d taken home economics courses at the University of North Dakota that they would be so useful to her. She had loved home ec, and had decided that perhaps she might like to teach the course when she graduated. Mother had called her a regular little homebody.
Jenny smiled. At least she could cook and she was aching to decorate the cabin and make it homier. Problems aside, she had thoroughly enjoyed herself the past few weeks. Life was good, she decided.
David came through the door, perspiration dripping from his face. Wiping it away with the front of his shirt, he moaned, “Man, it’s hot out there! Do you know what the temperature is?”
Jenny shook her head. “No, I haven’t had time to turn on the radio.”
He left the kitchen and returned in moments with the radio. Plugging it into the outlet above the counter, he fiddled with the dials until he found a Phoenix radio station.
“There are some dark clouds building up farther north,” he told her. “Looks like we might get some rain.”
Jenny’s first experience with the Arizona monsoon season had been impressive, to say the least. It still boggled her mind that a desert could have a monsoon. Weren’t monsoons supposed to be wet and steamy and limited to tropical countries? Although there had been many dark, billowy clouds, they had yet to receive any rain. Only what the locals called dust storms; blowing dust, black clouds and severe winds.
Wiping the perspiration from her face with a paper towel she wondered for the hundredth time why Cousin Tito hadn’t installed air-conditioning. He must have had the constitution of an ox. Each day temperatures had soared to the high nineties, cooling somewhat at night. It surprised her that an area that could be so hot in the day could turn so cool at night.
Renee walked into the kitchen and plopped down on one of the hefty wooden kitchen chairs. She had folded a piece of paper and was fanning herself with it.
“When do you think we’ll be able to get some real fans?” she asked.
Jenny sat across from her and handed her a glass of iced tea, placing her own on the table in front of her.
“I don’t know. We have to wait to see how much the settlement is after lawyer’s fees and such.” She twirled her glass, sliding a finger over the moist rivulets of condensation dripping down the sides.
David came and sat at the table with them. “I wish I could go to Mark’s,” he complained. “At least he has a pool.”
“Well, for that matter, he has air-conditioning, too,” Renee told him drily. “But what good does that do us? We can’t live with the Ameses, for crying out loud.”
Both David and Jenny stared at her speechless. This was the first time in a long while that Renee had reverted to the irascible kid she’d once been. Jenny smiled to herself but David found nothing to be amused at.
“Who said anything about living with them? Can’t a guy say anything around here without someone jumping on him?”
“If I were jumping on you,” Renee retorted, “you’d know about it.”
“Enough,” Jenny told them.
Renee picked up her tea but David slid down in his chair, a sulky expression on his face.
The announcer on the radio interrupted the regular programming to give a weather report. A flash-flood watch had been issued for Yavapai, Maricopa and Coconino counties.
“Well,” David told them, getting up from his seat and going to the window, “that includes us. Looks like we’re going to get some rain, after all.”
“How do you know that?” Jenny asked.
He threw her an impatient look. “Mitch told us in Bible class.”
Jenny frowned. “In Bible class? What do the Arizona counties have to do with the Bible?” Shouldn’t he be teaching the Bible in Bible class? What was Mitch teaching them, anyway? she wondered.
“Mitch was comparing the Israeli provinces with counties in Arizona. I just happen to remember that he told us we were in Yavapai County.”
“Oh.” Jenny felt slightly ashamed that she had once again judged the man unfairly. What on earth was there about him that made her want to see only the worst in him? She had only to hear his name and she immediately jumped to erroneous conclusions.
“It sure is getting dark,” Renee interjected, joining her brother at the window.
Jenny went out onto the front porch, David and Renee following close behind. The sky to the northeast was churning with billowy dark clouds. Huge, white, anvil-shaped clouds swelled upward in the center, thousands of feet into the air. Periodically, flashes of light could be seen illuminating them from within. Such a sight was truly awe-inspiring.
In North Dakota there had been routine tornadoes, but David and Renee were too young to remember them well. Not even the swirling sky, tinted with green that Jenny knew to be tornado weather, was as magnificent as the huge formation of clouds that seemed to surround them now.
“I’m scared, Jen.”
Jenny could see that Renee was truly frightened. She placed an arm around her shoulders and felt her trembling.
“Let’s go back inside and look at that pattern book again to see if we can’t choose something to make for your first day in school.”
Flashes of light were followed by heavy rumbling in the distance. David glanced around him, swallowing hard. “I think I’ll see if I can help.” He looked around at Renee. “After all, I don’t want you to look frumpy and embarrass me.”
Jenny pinched Renee’s shoulder lightly when she would have answered him. David was trying so hard to be a man, but there were times when the little boy in him would come out. It wasn’t easy trying to be the man of the house when you were twelve years old.
“Good idea, David,” Jenny agreed, “and maybe Renee can help you, too.”
“Yeah, right. I already know what I want,” he told them.
Gathering on the sofa, a twin on each side of her, Jenny pulled out the pattern book. Sewing was just another useful thing she had learned in college, she thought wryly. She could cook, clean, sew and a host of other such things, and yet she had no skills that would help her to get a job. How could that be?
David flipped through the book until he came across a page of Western wear. “That,” he said, pointing to a Western shirt and jeans. “Can I get a Stetson, too,” he asked Jenny, “and some cowboy boots?”
Renee groaned. “Who’s going to be embarrassed by whom?”
“What’s wrong with dressing Western,” he snapped. “It’s what everybody wears around here.”
Before Jenny could intervene the air was split by a flash of light so brilliant it was nearly blinding to the eyes. They all flinched and jumped when it was followed by a loud, crackling boom of thunder that literally shook the cabin. A torrent of rain suddenly pounded the roof, cascading off the edges in rivulets. The wind intensified, rattling the panes of glass. Renee’s eyes widened in alarm and not for the first time Jenny wished heartily that there were curtains at the windows so that she could block out the fearsome sight.
David flipped hastily through the pages. “Let’s see, Renee.” His voice trembled slightly. “I think you’d look good in this.”
Reluctantly averting her eyes from the window, Renee glanced at the dress he was pointing to. Forgetting the storm, her eyebrows pulled together in a frown. “Are you crazy? I wouldn’t be caught dead in that!”
For the next hour all three playfully argued over clothes, trying their best to ignore the raging storm outside. Even in North Dakota they had never experienced anything of this magnitude.
Before long the rain stopped and the thunder was once again reduced to a mere rumble in the distance. Jenny pushed the book aside.
“You guys decide what you want and let me know,” she told them. “Right now I have to get my potato rolls in the oven.”
Later that evening when the twins were in bed, Jenny found her favorite spot on the porch and leaned her arms against the rails. The air smelled fresh and clean after the storm. The temperature had cooled dramatically and Jenny was thankful for the relief from the intense heat. She could still see flashes of lightning off to the southwest. The stars were hidden from view by the dark clouds milling across the night sky.
As she thought over the past weeks, a small spark of hope stirred within her. Renee was beginning to return to normal and David no longer seemed to pine for his friends in New York. Looking up at the night sky she prayed for the first time in a very long time. Her prayer was a simple one. Thank You, Lord.
* * *
The next day Jenny was shaking the rug from her bedroom over the porch rails when she spotted a vehicle approaching. She felt a sudden lurch in her stomach until she recognized Hattie’s car and not a blue Jeep. She smiled, laying the rug across the rails and tripping lightly down the steps. When the car stopped she saw that Hattie was a passenger and her husband, Jacob, the driver.
The car had barely ceased its motion before Hattie threw open the passenger door and flung herself out of the car. There wasn’t a slow bone in Hattie’s body. She was like a live wire full of energy.
“Hi!” She was practically chirruping. “Have we got some good news for you!”
Jacob was more dignified in his exit from the car, pulling his briefcase out behind him. Even in the extreme heat, he looked immaculate in his three-piece suit. He smiled ruefully at Jenny and shook his head. “Never let it be said that my Hattie can’t keep a secret.” He grinned fondly at his wife.
“Oh, you.” Hattie punched him lightly on his arm. “I didn’t say a thing.”
Jenny and Jacob exchanged amused glances. Jacob only shook his head again.
“So come in,” Jenny told them, “and tell me the good news.”
When they were seated in the living room, Jacob laid his briefcase on the coffee table. Flipping it open, he extracted some papers, riffling through them briefly.
“I need you to sign a few papers,” he told her, handing her the papers and his gold pen. “Take your time and look them over before signing.”
“We couldn’t reach you by phone,” Hattie told her, “since you don’t have one yet. And since Jacob thought it couldn’t wait, I decided to come along and keep him company.”
Jacob grinned. “In other words, she wanted the scoop before anyone else.”
Throwing him a look of reproach, Hattie told Jenny, “If my husband wasn’t so closemouthed about his clients, I wouldn’t have to be so devious.”
Jenny took a moment to read the documents and then scrawled her signature across the bottom of the indicated papers. After taking the documents back, Jacob handed her a slip of paper. Realizing it was a cashier’s check, color suffused her face and a sparkle came to her eyes. The amount was more than she had expected. She smiled broadly at them. “Thank you so much! You don’t know how much this means to me. I wasn’t expecting it until next week.”
Jacob smiled. “I thought you might like to have it now, and since I wasn’t working in Prescott today I decided I’d bring it to you.” He glanced over at his wife. “Or should I say, I thought we’d bring it to you.”
Hattie reached across the table and squeezed Jenny’s hand. “I’m glad you could have the money early,” she said. “I know how much you’ve been counting on it. Now you can do some of the things you wanted to do to the cabin.”
“Not too much,” Jenny told her. “I don’t know how long this money is going to have to last.” Wrinkling her nose, she told them, “But one of the first things I’m going to do is replace that window in the bathroom.”
Hattie gazed around her. “You’ve certainly made a difference in this place. Tito was not the neatest person in the world, but at least he kept the place decent. You, however, have added the feminine touches that make a house a home.”
“Can I get you something to drink?” Jenny asked them, but Jacob was already shaking his head.
“No, thanks. We have to pick Paul up at camp.”
Jenny walked them to the door when something seemed to occur to Hattie. “Where are Renee and David?”
When she told them that Mitch Anderson had picked up the twins and taken them to his place to ride Dynamo, their gelding, Hattie looked surprised. “Why didn’t you go, too?”
“I had work to do,” Jenny told her, refusing to be drawn into a discussion about her conflicting feelings where Mitch was concerned. The sly look on Hattie’s face told Jenny she hadn’t been fooled. The cabin was immaculate and she had no job, so what work could be so pressing that she couldn’t have gone with the twins?
At Hattie’s dubious look Jenny hastily turned toward Jacob. “Thank you again for bringing the check. I guess I’ll go pick up the twins and head for town and deposit it. I think maybe a little shopping might be good for all of us. Maybe we’ll even go to Prescott and have a look around.”
A few minutes later Jenny watched their departing car disappear down the road. Shaking her head, she went back inside, retreating from her thoughts. Maybe she would change clothes before she picked up the twins. She hadn’t dressed up in a long time. It was only because she wanted to celebrate, she assured herself. If there was another reason, she refused to admit it even to herself.
* * *
An hour later Jenny pulled into Mitch’s driveway and stared in wonder around her. Even though she’d seen Mitch’s place before, she was still awed by it. Mitch had created a small oasis in the middle of the desert. How had he done it? A low, sprawling ranch house sat in the middle of a lush green circle of grass surrounded by multicolored rocks formed into a rectangle, which in turn graduall
y blended into the desert terrain around it. Palm trees swayed majestically as a backdrop and large paloverdes offered shade. A veranda surrounded the house on three sides. Deck furniture nestled against the walls. Corral fencing wound its way along the drive and the property line, adding just the right touch of rustic simplicity.
A much smaller version of Mitch’s stables and a similar corral structure sat behind Jenny’s cabin. Jenny assumed the corral at her house was for Dynamo.
Sliding out of the car, she stood, hesitating, trying to decide whether to go to the house or to the stables. Her decision was made for her when she heard a yell from the direction of the stables.
“Jen! Come see!”
David’s head had appeared around the door of the building, a huge grin splitting his face. Waving frantically, he motioned for her to come that way.
Walking across, she noticed other things she had missed before. She could see behind the house now and saw that Mitch had a pool surrounded by a redwood deck. Patio furniture glistened in the sun. A helicopter sitting on a pad took up a large area off to her right. What an awful lot of money it must take to keep this place in such perfect condition. The indications of Mitch’s wealth made her suddenly uneasy.
When she reached David, he grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.
“Mitch thought he heard a car. He told me to check to see who it was.” He stopped suddenly and looked her over slowly. “Gosh, Jen. What have you done to yourself?”
Glancing up she noticed Mitch was coming, his long legs eating up the distance between them. The sudden cartwheels in her stomach brought a frown to her face. She still hadn’t yet decided if she liked him, but he definitely caused a reaction. She fervently hoped he hadn’t heard David’s exclamation because she didn’t want him to think she had dressed up and put on makeup to impress him.
“Welcome to the Double A,” he told her as his eyes drifted slowly over her. If he noticed anything out of the ordinary he gave no sign. “I would have returned the twins. You didn’t have to come all this way.”
The Rancher Next Door Page 5