Second Chance Ranch

by Jenna Hendricks

  While Jewel was waiting for foal number two, she licked her first baby clean and began the bonding process.

  Once the second one was born, Mr. Picket whooped and hollered his excitement. Several ranch hands came over and looked over the fence of the birthing stall.

  “Alright gentlemen, it looks like little Emerald has a baby brother. What name do you have for the little colt?” Elizabeth looked from Mr. Picket to the two ranch hands smiling brightly over the top of the stall.

  “Jasper,” Becky called out before the men could get the word out. Then they all nodded their agreement.

  The vet chuckled and shook her head. “I guess you all decided together what the names would be?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” one of the men standing outside the stall answered. “We held a contest to see who could come up with the best names. Not too many jewel names that work well for a colt, but everyone agreed on Jasper.”

  “Sounds like a great name. What do you say we leave momma and her babies alone to get acquainted?” As Elizabeth stood back up, little Emerald tried to stand as well. Her legs wobbled and her front hooves crumbled in on themselves, but her second try had her standing.

  “Great job, Miss Elizabeth. Thank you so much for being here and helping Jewel get through this. Everyone here really appreciates you coming by the past few nights to check in on us.” Mr. Picket put his hand out, and Elizabeth took it.

  “My pleasure. I’m glad I was the one here and not Milton.” She walked over to the tack room, where a small sink and faucet stood just waiting for her to clean up. She yelled over her shoulder, “Milton or I will be back tomorrow to check on the foals. Have a great night, Mr. Picket. Oh, and be sure to call me if there are any issues.”

  Mr. Picket raised a hand when she walked out of the tack room. “Thanks again. See you soon.”

  Chapter 2

  The next night after a fun date with Max, Elizabeth pondered their evening together and her feelings for him. It was entertaining, like all their dates, but her friend, Harper, had said something earlier in the day that made her wonder.

  They had met for lunch at their favorite diner, Rosie’s, and she couldn’t get the conversation out of her head.

  “I must say, I think I’m a bit jealous of my sister and her new husband.” Harper looked into her chocolate shake and shook her head. “I know, it’s stupid, right?”

  “Wait, back up a bit. I’m confused. Did you say you were jealous of your sister? The one who never had dates while you went out almost every weekend?” Elizabeth was shocked. Harper was one of her best friends in high school who just happened to be a blonde bombshell. She never needed to worry about dates or even if she would have a date to an important event.

  But Harper’s sister, Mimi, had needed to worry. Mimi suffered from a very severe case of shyness, and her complexion was nothing anyone would want. However, after college she’d changed. Somewhere along the line, Mimi learned how to take good care of her skin and even came out of her shell, if only just a bit.

  Now Mimi was married to a very handsome man. One, if Elizabeth were honest with herself, she might be a tad bit jealous of as well. Said husband was also a successful rancher in Wyoming. Elizabeth had only met Mimi’s new husband once, but he seemed to be in love with his wife, and they made a really cute couple.

  “I know, I know! It’s crazy, right? But Mimi keeps talking about her husband and how he treats her. The sweet things he does for her, the little love notes he leaves her sometimes.” Harper turned to Elizabeth with wide eyes. “Last Sunday morning, his only day to sleep in, he got up early to make Mimi breakfast before church! Can you believe it?” She sighed.

  “I thought you didn’t want to get married, ever.” Elizabeth raised a brow at her friend. For the past few years, when Elizabeth and Mimi discussed men, it was always to say they never wanted anything permanent. Or anyone to get close enough to hurt them.

  While Harper had never been hurt by boyfriends, Elizabeth had. She wanted nothing to do with men who would make promises to her and then break them. She wasn’t even sure she ever wanted to marry. She was happy with the way things were.

  Elizabeth was also working on building her status as a top-notch vet in the area and had no time for men—well, at least that was what she’d always told herself until Max came along.

  Now she was having fun with Max, but love?

  “I didn’t. At least, not until my last visit with my sister. Now I think I want what she has. My longest relationship, if you can even call it that, was two months. And that was back in senior year of high school.” Harper shrugged and let out a long sigh. “I’ve had lots of men give me flowers, and even one who wrote me a poem, but I haven’t connected with anyone the way Mimi and her husband do. They finish each other’s sentences and work so well in the kitchen together. They don’t even have to ask for what they need. When making dinner, they seem to have this silent form of communication. When one needs something, the other just gives it to them.”

  “Huh? I don’t understand.” Elizabeth shook her head.

  “Well, my sister was making pasta one night and her hands were all dirty. I was about to ask if she needed help when Hank just walked in and went to a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of spice and handed it to her without a word. He kissed her cheek and she smiled up at him as though he was her everything.” Harper dipped a fry into her shake before eating it.

  “I felt like I was intruding on a private moment. It happened several times while I was there. Sometimes he just seemed to come from nowhere at the perfect moment, and others it happened while they were both working on the meal together. Whoever brought the missing ingredient always gave the other one a kiss. But they both looked at each other as though they were the world.” Harper’s nose twitched, and she blinked a few times before taking a long drink of her shake.

  “Intimacy—true intimacy. That’s what they have. My parents are the same. Well, not in the kitchen. Momma always shoos Pops away when he goes in there while she’s cooking. But my dad also shoos my mom away when she gets near his BBQ grill.” Elizabeth chuckled.

  “They have their space and respect that space. But the look they give each other when they do it is one of pure love.” Elizabeth’s nose crinkled. “I guess I see what you mean. They always seem to know what the other needs at times. It’s like they’re two parts of one whole.”

  Elizabeth had always wanted what her parents had. She knew when she was a kid that she would only marry someone if they were the perfect match for her. She’d thought she had that once, and knew she’d never have it again with anyone else. When he left her, he took part of her heart that she could never get back.

  Harper bit her lip before whispering, “Do you think you and Max have that, or at least are on your way to getting it?”

  Elizabeth sat back in her booth and thought about Max. He was a very good-looking man, and also successful. She would never have to worry about money once they had kids. She always knew she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom once kids came along. But love, with Max? He was a good man, to be sure. Max was very generous and thoughtful, but there was something holding her back from him. She couldn’t put her finger on it, not yet.

  She shook her head. “No. At least, not yet. It’s only been a couple months since we started dating. I’m not in love with him, and we don’t jive like my parents, or your sister and her husband. However, I think that takes time.”

  “Do you think it’s possible with him?” Harper asked.

  Elizabeth took a bite of her fries drenched with ketchup. Then she shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it’s too early to tell, and I’m not even thinking about love. I’m just enjoying my time with Max.” She frowned.

  “What? I know that look. Something’s bothering you. Did Max do something?” The shake in front of Harper was almost gone, but she still had half a plate of fries to dunk and she’d been about to order another shake before Elizabeth’s frown stopped her.

  “No. Yes. I don’t
know.” Elizabeth blew her bangs out of her eyes and realized it was time for a haircut. “Last week we were in Bozeman for dinner, and when we came out there was a homeless woman on the street begging. Something inside me said to give her my leftovers instead of money. So I did.” She sighed.

  Harper motioned her hand for Elizabeth to continue. “And?”

  Elizabeth moved around on her seat, and the booth made a creaking noise as well as the normal bothersome squeaking of denim rubbing up against the cheap vinyl of the seat. “Max tried to stop me from giving her my leftover steak. He said if she was hungry she could work for her meal, or go to the soup kitchen.” She winced.

  “What did you do?”

  “I gave her my bag and said a silent prayer for her. She’s still on my heart, and I want to go back and find her. Find out if there’s anything I can do to help her.” The food in front of Elizabeth didn’t look very appealing anymore, and she felt guilty for not doing more to help the elderly lady in need.

  “I’ll go with you, if you want company. We could bring her a gift bag of some basics, like socks and a gift card to one of the local fast-food joints. And then maybe we could even see what she needs and provide it for her.” Harper had always had a huge heart. Whenever someone was in need, she would be there. No one had to ask her—she just showed up.

  Elizabeth nodded and smiled. “Yes! That’s exactly what we’ll do. How about Friday? I’m off that day, and we could spend the entire day there seeing if there are others who need our help. Maybe we could even get a few more girls to come and join us?”

  Both girls were bouncing back from their sour moods and ready to do something nice for someone else. Growing up, they both learned that it was always better to give than to receive. Whenever they helped someone, they always felt right. A peace enveloped their souls, and they knew they were doing what Jesus would have done.

  Sometimes, it was the simple things in life that brought the most joy.

  “Are you going to invite Max?” Harper asked between bites of her fries and stolen dips into Elizabeth’s melting shake.

  “No. I think this is something for us girls to do. Don’t you?” She smiled at Harper and batted the girl’s hand away from her shake. “Hey, that’s mine. Get your own if you want more.”

  “I thought you liked to share? Mine’s all gone.” Harper’s sad, puppy-dog eyes batted a few times, and Elizabeth shook her head.

  “Alright, you can have the rest of those calories. I don’t need them, anyway.” Elizabeth smirked, knowing that would stop her friend from stealing her monthly treat.

  Not that either girl worried too much about their weight. They regularly ate healthy, and their jobs kept them moving most of the day. Both girls always walked at least fifteen thousand steps a day, and that was on a slow day. But they knew that no matter how much work they did, having a chocolate shake more than once a month just wasn’t healthy. Their concern was more about clean, healthy eating than gaining weight.

  Harper was a nurse at the local health clinic and always stressed the importance of clean eating, and not eating a lot of dairy or carbs. Instead, it was important to eat fresh fruits and vegetables grown from your own garden, or that of a neighbor’s. Fresh meat was easy, since just about everyone had their own cattle, or bought their meat from a local ranch. It wasn’t about dieting, but about putting something healthy into your body instead of pre-packaged foods full of chemicals. Or fruits and vegetables covered in pesticides.

  Harper frowned. “Thanks for ruining my one decadent treat this month.” She sat back in her seat and kept frowning.

  “How about we split what’s left of my shake? I know you only come to Rosie’s when we have our monthly treat.” What Elizabeth forgot to share with her friend was that when she’d gone out to dinner with Max the week before, she had shared a chocolate crème brûlée with him. She didn’t normally do desserts, but he was celebrating a large sale he had just completed, and she knew the crème brûlée there was the best in the state.

  “Deal!” Harper’s million-watt smile was back.

  They chatted about nothing important the rest of their time in the diner. But when Elizabeth was walking back to her office after lunch, she thought again about her date last week with Max.

  She knew she could spend a lot of time with Max and never run out of anything to talk about. He wasn’t perfect—no man was—but he was her friend, and that was what mattered. Who said a kiss had to make your knees quake every time?

  She had only experienced kisses from one man—or rather, one boy—who had always made her knees wobble, and he ended up being a louse.

  No, it was better to have a relationship based on friendship and common interests. Max was a good-looking man. He treated her well, and in general was thought to be a nice person. But she couldn’t get a niggling feeling out of her head.

  When they’d met the homeless woman, Elizabeth had felt compassion and wanted to help. But Max seemed more perturbed by the interruption and didn’t seem to care at all about the well-being of an older woman who obviously lived on the streets. Her clothes were dirty, and her hands looked as though they hadn’t been washed in days, not to mention the stringy hair falling down around the poor woman’s face.

  No, Max wasn’t always a nice guy. But maybe he was just having a bad night? Elizabeth didn’t want to think he was a bad man. It was possible that something had happened to cause Max to react in such an un-Christian manner. She just didn’t know what it was.

  Content that it was just a one-off event, she walked through the entrance of the vet’s office where she worked and prepared to finish off the paperwork from the previous day’s visits.

  As she readied for bed that night, she thought back to their date that evening and didn’t see any red flags. Again, she decided the incident in Bozeman with the homeless woman had to be a one-off event. Maybe it was even supposed to happen that way. Had it not, she doubted she would be heading back there in a few days with her friends to find that woman and help her, along with other women living on the streets.

  Chapter 3

  With an SUV full of spunky girlfriends ready to lend a helping hand, Elizabeth and Harper took off for Bozeman Friday morning.

  Mia, who was sitting in the back, leaned forward. “So, do you know where to start?”

  Elizabeth smiled at her friend in the rearview mirror. “Yes, I was thinking we should start near the restaurant where I first met the woman last week. I don’t think homeless stray too far from their own turf.”

  Another one of her friends, Sophia, pulled a little brown bag from the rear cargo hold and looked inside. “You’ve been busy.” She pulled out two pairs of white cotton tube socks, a rolled-up dark-blue t-shirt, and two $10 gift cards to a local fast food joint.

  “Yup, I went to the general store and asked them if they had any t-shirts they wanted to donate, and they did,” Harper replied cheerily. “A few years back they ran a special event and there were over a hundred t-shirts left. They tried to sell them, but no one wanted to buy them, especially after half the town got one for free. So Mrs. Hayes donated them to the cause.”

  “And I ordered a case of tube socks online with overnight shipping. Then went yesterday after work to the grocery store and bought up a bunch of gift cards to two different fast food restaurants. Harper came over last night and we put the bags together.” With her eyes on the road, Elizabeth tapped the steering wheel to the beat of the Toby Keith song on the radio.

  She hoped she had enough bags to help all the homeless women they came upon. Last night, while they were putting together the bags, she realized she probably should have also bought some men’s socks. She regretted only planning for homeless women. But Harper told her that if they gave the bags to men, they could always use them to trade with women who needed fresh socks.

  Next time, she would have a selection for both men and women.

  Did that mean she was already planning a next time? Elizabeth considered what her mind was doing and r
ealized she did want to make this a regular event. Even if they only helped one or two people at a time, it was still worth it.

  However, when she met one particular woman on the street—one who had bruises on her face and arms—she wondered if her heart could handle this. “Excuse me, but I have a gift for you.” When Elizabeth extended the bag to the woman, who appeared to be in her thirties, the woman flinched and backed away.

  The woman before her had stringy black hair, with dark eyes that had most likely seen way too much evil in the world. The woman looked at her with something besides fear. Trepidation? Or was it weariness? Either way, the homeless woman didn’t trust her, and Elizabeth guessed she didn’t trust anyone.

  Knowing that the woman before her had at the very least been beaten, and most likely brutalized, she decided to treat her like an injured horse; she spoke softly and decided to give her some space. Elizabeth wanted the woman to know she wasn’t a threat of any sort.

  Taking two steps back, Elizabeth pulled the bag back closer to her own body. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help.” She opened the bag and pulled out the socks, t-shirt, and two gift cards. “This is for you. No strings attached.”

  The other woman looked around her and quickly snatched the bag and the items from Elizabeth’s hands. Then she turned and ran as quickly as she could to the Farmer Basket on the corner with her pushcart rumbling along behind her. Which just happened to be where one of the gift cards was for.

  Harper walked up to her. “I take it she was glad for the gift card?”

  “Hmm? Oh, yes. I think so. But there’s something else going on with that woman.” As Elizabeth tore her gaze from the homeless woman, an idea sparked in her mind when she laid eyes on her friend.

  With large, sparkling eyes focused on her, Harper fidgeted and felt awkward. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “I think you’re hungry. Come with me, I know just the place to go.” She pulled Harper by the hand and headed to the Farmer Basket.