by Liz Isaacson
He lifted his right fist. “Blue. Sit.” He gave the dog a few seconds to settle and listen. “Find Granddad.” He kept his fist up and Blue trembled, waiting in anticipation. “Find Granddad.” He popped his fingers open and Blue took off.
Gavin followed, almost jogging after the Labrador retriever. The other two dogs yipped and wove across the lawn also, and Blue rounded the smokehouse in the back. He barked. Barked again. Finally Gavin got there, and Blue took off across the street toward the Old Main Hill Bed & Breakfast that sat defunct and took up several blocks. The For Sale sign swung in the breeze, and Gavin’s boots hit the asphalt at the same time Blue started barking like he’d been set on fast-forward.
Relief cascaded through Gavin, because the barking meant Blue had found Granddad. Around the broken down well and toward a cabin, he finally spotted his granddad sitting on a ratty-looking bench on the front porch.
Blue shuffled forward and back, left and right, barking his fool head off. Gavin approached and said, “Blue. Got him,” and the dog quieted and settled onto his haunches. Gavin examined his granddad, who wore his usual baggy blue jeans and a collared plaid shirt. This one was red and the sleeves looked well worn near his elbows. “You okay, Granddad?”
“Just fine.” The older man looked up at Gavin, kindness in his blue eyes.
“What are you doin’ out here?”
“I went for a walk.”
Gavin sat on the bench next to his granddad, hoping the structure would support his weight. It creaked and groaned and Gavin prepared himself to hit the dirt. He hoped he could catch Granddad before a hip fracture. When the seat shifted, Gavin shot to his feet.
“Did you get lost, Granddad?” Gavin asked in the gentlest voice he could conjure.
“No, no.” He shook his head and stroked Blue’s head. The panting of three dogs mixed with the shallow breeze. “I just got tired. Decided to rest.”
“What hurts?”
“Nothing.” Granddad stood on somewhat rickety legs, but Gavin didn’t reach for him. He didn’t want his granddad to feel weak, or old, or like he needed help. Still, his muscles tensed, ready to assist if necessary. “I just got tired.”
“How long were you walking?” Gavin stepped when Granddad did, and it took an excruciatingly long time for a few feet to be covered.
“An hour or so.”
“You didn’t tell Grandmother? She was worried about you.”
“She wasn’t awake yet.”
How she’d thought Granddad was still in the bed when she’d gotten up, Gavin wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure who he should be worried about: her or his eighty-five-year-old grandfather. Probably both.
“Well, she has breakfast ready.” They made it across the property and stepped onto the road. Grandmother came out of her matchmaking door, her hand fluttering around her throat. Gavin increased his pace and intercepted her. “He just went for a walk and got tired. He’s fine.” He moved out of the way and let his grandparents have their conversation. Gavin watched them for a moment, watched the way Grandmother’s hands lilted on Granddad’s arms and shoulders, just to be sure he really was fine. Watched as he kissed her cheek and reassured her he was fine. Watched as their love became evident for all to see.
He turned away, his throat thick. He wanted that kind of love in his life. And not with a yellow Labrador retriever, though Blue licked his fingers and a surge of affection for the dog dove through him.
Gavin never made it to breakfast, which was a real shame. But he did deliver his granddad back to the house before his phone rang.
He practically tripped as he tried to walk and answer it at the same time, his heart hammering with anticipation.
“Hey, Squire,” he said.
“Gavin, how are you surviving?”
He glanced over his shoulder, half-expecting someone to be standing there watching. So many people watching since they’d heard about his “heroic” rescue out at the ranch. “Just fine,” he said.
“I’m hopin’ you’re in a position to move out to Three Rivers and join us.”
“I am,” Gavin said, his mind flowing in about a dozen different directions. He hadn’t mentioned the job at the ranch to Grandmother, nor had he arranged for anyone to check on them.
He also had the job at Navy’s to do, and the drive into town and back would take an insane amount of time.
“Great,” Squire said. “How soon do you think you can make it?”
“I can start work whenever you say,” he said. “I need a couple of weeks, maybe three, to get things squared away with my grandparents.” That would give him time to finish the job at Navy’s too.
He wanted the job out at Three Rivers Ranch. He did. But the idea of owning and operating his own ranch still swirled within him, and Navy’s declaration that he’d have it one day seemed to grow louder and louder by the moment.
“Take the time you need. I’m doin’ some repairs on the cabin where you’ll live. Or rather, I’m about to ask you to do the repairs on the cabin where you’ll live.” He chuckled. “In addition to that, I want you to work in the office, like we talked about.”
“Ranch management, right.” He had a degree on the topic, after all.
“You can ride too.” Squire wore a smile in his voice. “I know you love your horses.”
Gavin couldn’t deny it and he laughed. “I sure do. But maybe not that wild one from the other day.”
That got Squire to laugh too, and the call ended soon after that, with Gavin agreeing to come out to the ranch and get started the next morning.
He turned his face toward the sky and whispered, “Thank you,” into the open blueness above him. Then he faced his grandparent’s house and tried to find a solution for them.
Nothing came to mind, so he held onto his news, intending to tell them once he had an idea for who come take his place as their gardener, caretaker, and dog-watcher.
An hour later, properly fed and with a gallon of ice water in a cooler at his feet, he raised his hand to knock on Navy’s front door. He hit it twice.
It fell into the cottage with a deafening bang!
Navy screamed and when the dust cleared, Gavin got an eyeful of her standing there with a chimney poker in her hand.
“It’s me,” he said, stepping over the door and into the cottage. “Don’t start stabbing.”
“Gavin.” Her chest heaved as she breathed in and out several times. “What are you doing?”
“I knocked. That door needs to be replaced.” He gave it the evil eye. “Obviously.”
“You don’t know your own strength.” She put the poker back in the basket next to the fireplace and gave him a flirty smile.
Gavin examined the hinges while his face heated. “These are rusted through.” He sighed. “I guess I need to get to the hardware store first. You’ll need a door to hold in the air conditioning.”
“I’ll come with you.”
He scanned her, taking his sweet time as he drank in her cutoffs, strappy sandals, chilled iced tea on the end table, and a shirt the color of poppies. Her blonde hair looked almost white against the red, and her blue eyes completed the patriotic look. He’d always been extremely devoted to his country, and he licked his lips as his eyes traveled back to hers.
She wore a knowing glint in her expression. “What? You think I can’t handle the hardware store?”
“Your shoes are lacking,” he said.
She laughed, a girly little sound he liked. “My shoes are fine. Let’s go.” Navy marched right over the fallen door and onto the patch of grass that grew right up to the house. Gavin didn’t have much choice but to follow. She gathered her waves of golden hair as she neared his truck and wrapped an elastic around her ponytail. She slid all the way over on the bench seat so that by the time Gavin climbed into the cab, her thigh was flush against his.
“So I looked up a few festivals going on around here,” she said. “And I found this one called Women Gone Wild.”
“Oh, boy,” Gavin
said, a chuckle immediately following his words.
“It’s a really great thing. Really.” She shoved his arm when he kept laughing. “Listen to this. ‘Just for women. Just for fun.’” She read from her phone. “Kayaking, archery, fly fishing, team events, arts and crafts, and more.” She looked up at him. “I totally want to do that.”
“You like kayaking and archery?” Gavin would have to rethink everything he’d assumed about her if she said yes.
“I’ve never done either.”
As he’d suspected. “Where is it?”
“Vincentville. Where’s that?”
“Oh, let’s see.” He blew out his breath. “At least a three-hour drive.” He cut her a glance out of the side of his eye. “And you don’t have a car.”
“We could maybe go together.”
“Just for women,” he teased. “Just for fun. I’m not getting anywhere near that.”
“Stop it.” But she joined in his laughter and leaned her head against his arm until they arrived at the hardware store.
“What other festivals did you see?” he asked as he put his hand on a flatbed cart and pulled it into the hardware store.
“Tons,” she said. “Music stuff, and art shows, and there’s so much to do during summertime in Amarillo, which is only an hour away.”
“It’s a pretty great place.”
“Will you buy a ranch near here?”
Gavin’s breath hitched, and he thought of the job at Three Rivers Ranch, and then his grandparents. “I’d like to, yes.”
“Have you found anything?”
“Nothing I can afford,” he said. “And honestly, I haven’t looked in a while.”
She danced in front of him. “Why not?”
“I’ve been busy.” He focused on the shelves above her head, though he didn’t need anything automotive to fix up Navy’s cottage. “Let’s go look at paint, all right?” Maybe with her absorbed in the trillions of shades of gray, she wouldn’t ask him any more questions about the dreams he had but had neglected.
9
Navy woke on Saturday morning, a feeling of euphoria coursing through her she didn’t recognize. In fact, she hardly recognized her life at all. She’d spent a week’s worth of evenings with Gavin in her house, as he’d gotten a job as a bonafide cowboy out at Three Rivers Ranch. He left early in the morning and came by her place about four-thirty each afternoon.
If he was suffering from all the extra work and lack of sleep, he didn’t say anything. Didn’t look like it either, as he always had a smile for her. Things in the cottage were coming along just fine. He had all the ceilings painted and the walls prepped. He’d fixed that curtain rod the very first day, and the hot water heater had been installed on the second, so Navy’s life had improved dramatically already.
She’d been sleeping better than ever. Waking with a smile on her face. She had read a book a day and soaked up the sun while she waited for Gavin to come over. Then she spent her time perched on a narrow piece of furniture while she watched him work. They’d talked about his childhood and hers. She’d told him about her time in nursing school and about every story she could think of about the newborns she cared for. He’d detailed a little bit more about the kind of ranch he wanted, and he’d spoken about his grandparents in a loving voice.
He’d told her about most of the people in town, but what she really wanted to know—his romantic past—he had remained tight-lipped about. Extremely tight-lipped.
And she didn’t want to ask. She looked at herself in the mirror. “Do not ask him. He’ll tell you when he’s ready.”
She wished there was a myth or a ritual she could do to get a man to spill his secrets, but the only idea she had was to get a fistful of pennies and find the nearest fountain, throwing them all into the water as she made her wish.
She let the idea move back and forth, front to back, as she braided her hair. She put on a flirty sundress in purples and blues and pinks and slipped on her strappy sandals that made Gavin roll his eyes. But she was pretty sure this type of footwear was acceptable at a hodgepodge market. A hodgepodge market that they were attending with two people over the age of eighty.
She slicked on her favorite pink lip gloss and grabbed her purse. She wandered down the dirt tire tracks toward the street, where Gavin would see her when he arrived. Before she could get there, his truck turned onto the lane, and she moved to the grass to wait for him.
He got down out of the truck and for a moment, Navy thought he’d sweep her off her feet and then plant a kiss on her lips. The disappointment when he didn’t was severe and swift, and it was then that Navy realized how deep she’d already fallen.
“Morning,” he said instead. “It’s a tight fit, but I think we’ll make it. It’s only an hour to Pampa.”
She peered past him and into the cab, where Nancy watched her with an extreme look of interest. Navy put on a smile that felt timid and tired, and allowed Gavin to help her into the truck. She glanced at the tiny patch of space behind the steering wheel. No way Gavin would fit there. Maybe one of his legs.
He somehow managed to squish himself onto the remaining seat, and he leaned into her to slam the door. “Oof,” he said before twisting so most of his weight rested on the door instead of her.
An awkwardness filled the cab that Navy didn’t know how to crack. But Nancy said, “Gavin said the work at your cottage is coming along nicely.”
“It is,” Navy said. “Having hot water was such a huge improvement, I’m not sure anything else is needed.”
“Oh yeah?” Gavin asked. “You think not having a front door is okay?”
“Well, someone knocked it down.” She grinned at him and glanced at Nancy. Her smile faded at the placid look on the elderly woman’s face. “He knocked it down.”
“It was an accident, Grandmother,” Gavin said over Navy’s head. “The hinges were rusted through.”
The conversation flowed easily to Aunt Izzie and Uncle Marvin, and Navy was just beginning to enjoy herself, cramped as she was, when Nancy asked, “So how have things been going on the match-front?”
Navy froze, and next to her, Gavin stiffened. She didn’t dare look at him. Her voice cracked when she said, “Oh, I’m not looking, Nancy. Remember? I’m on my escape from reality right now.”
Nancy patted her knee. “Oh, that’s right. Must’ve been the other girl who said she was staying right here in Three Rivers until she found her match.”
Navy swallowed, but her mouth tasted sour. Her stomach squirmed. “How many women do you help each week?” she asked.
Gavin cleared his throat, but Navy still didn’t look at him. It was an innocent question. The matchmaker could choose to answer or not.
“It depends,” she said. “But heading into summer, we’ll get a lot more. I had four last week.”
“Sometimes she has two or three each day,” Matthew, Gavin’s granddad, said, his first contribution to the conversation at all.
“Wow. Two or three a day.” Navy let the topic drop, and Gavin picked it up with, “Granddad, how’s Aunt Ally doing?”
Navy let the conversation about Gavin’s aunt continue without her. Her mind marinated over what she’d said, and how Gavin would perceive it, and what she could do to fix the damage before their relationship was deemed terminal.
As soon as they arrived at the hodgepodge market, she excused herself. “I just need to make a quick phone call.” She flashed what she hoped was a winning smile and scampered away.
“Please don’t be working today,” she muttered as she pulled up Lynn’s phone number and hit call. “Please don’t be working today.”
The phone rang once, twice, three times. Navy’s hopes crashed, then soared when Lynn said, “Girl! You finally called.”
“Hey, Lynn.” The relief swept through her so quickly she couldn’t keep it from infusing her voice.
“What’s going on? Did you meet a man already? You’ve been up there what? A week?”
Navy bit her bott
om lip, her emotions spiraling all over the place. She pictured her best friend with her dark hair and light eyes. She had soft hands and quick wit and had taught Navy to always watch for the tiniest of details when it came to babies. Lynn was married, with two teenagers, and by all accounts, she and Navy shouldn’t be so close. But they were.
“You better start talking,” Lynn said. “Or I’ll send Roy up there to find out what’s going on. Or he’ll just put out a call. I’m sure the Sheriff in Three Rivers knows you’re in town and can go check on you.”
“Don’t send your cop husband here,” Navy said with a light laugh. Lynn was forever threatening to sic Roy on Navy. “But I did meet someone.”
A squeal nearly deafened Navy. “Shh,” she said. “It’s not what you think.”
“What I think is you got on a bus and went five hundred miles north to find your match. And you met a man.”
She hadn’t figured out a way to ask about his birthday yet. And though Nancy had said a few other things, none of them really defined Gavin as her match. “He’s a great guy. Handy with a hammer. Tall. Handsome. A cowboy.”
“Sounds dreadful.”
Navy giggled again, glancing over her shoulder to see where Gavin and his grandparents had gone. They were moving down the row of parked cars at a snail’s pace. She followed at a distance so that she wouldn’t be overheard.
“But I wasn’t—I mean, what if there’s a guy in Dallas I’m supposed to meet? I was only here for vacation.”
“Just trust the process,” Lynn said.
But Navy didn’t know what that meant, or how to trust something she didn’t understand. Her own process of trying to find a boyfriend had never worked, and as far as she could tell, she wasn’t doing anything different with Gavin.
“I don’t know the process.”
“You know,” Lynn said. “Dating, going out, spending time together. See if you like him.”