Indian Summer

by Amy Elizabeth

  “How are you feeling this morning, Pop?” he asked when he entered his father’s bedroom.

  “Not too bad. I slept very well last night.”

  Alec readied the wheelchair and peeled back the sheets so he could slide his arms under Walter’s meager frame. His shoulder protested violently as he lifted his father from the bed, but he managed not to flinch.

  His doctor would be furious if he knew that he still moved his father in and out of bed. In fact, his doctor would be furious if he knew most of what Alec still did. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to lift more than twenty pounds, but given his circumstances he didn’t have a choice. Lucy did as much as she could, but she was a valued employee, not his slave. She couldn’t be here twenty-four hours a day, nor did he expect her to be.

  And while Tommy handled most of the heavy lifting around the ranch, there were some tasks that required more than one set of hands. Alec would never dream of asking Rebecca to help Tommy mend fences or stack feed bags. So when push came to shove, Alec stepped up and did whatever needed to be done, regardless of the toll it took on his body.

  On Wednesday, he and Tommy spent half the day trying to rescue a calf that fell through thin ice in the front pasture. They finally managed to get him out, but the long exposure to the wind and the cold took its toll on Alec. He crawled back to the farmhouse and thawed in the shower, but he already knew he was going to get sick.

  Sure enough, he awoke on Thursday with a sore throat and a fever. Every joint in his body ached as he shifted around on the bed, trying and failing to get comfortable. Rebecca brought him a cup of hot tea and frowned when he started to cough.

  “I think we should cancel the trip to Steamboat,” she said, taking a seat beside him. “You’re not going to be over this by tomorrow.”

  He sighed as he leaned back against his pillow. “I was really looking forward to going down there.”

  “I was, too. But summer’s still a ways off. We have plenty of time to look for horses up here.”

  “Not really. May will be here before we know it. And they’ve got a lot of good stock at this auction. Young stock, which is exactly what we need.”

  Rebecca was silent for a minute. “So do you still want me to go?”

  He mentally juggled their options. “You and Tommy should go.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. He knows what I’m looking for.”

  “But can you manage okay without us here?”

  Alec nodded. “We’re only talking two days. A day and a half, really, if you two will take care of morning feed before you leave.”

  “Of course.” She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “I’ll let him know the plan.”

  She was almost out the door when Alec spoke again. “Oh, and Bec?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Don’t forget to check the weather before you go.”

  Chapter 4

  Rebecca awoke early the next morning to make chicken soup for Alec and Walter. While it simmered on the stovetop, she bundled up and headed down to the barn to help Tommy through the morning routine of feed, turnout, and cleaning stalls. Then she pulled the truck around to their stock trailer, which was half-buried under snow. They spent another twenty minutes digging it out before they were finally able to attach the hitch.

  “That should do it,” Tommy said.

  She nodded in agreement. “I’ll be right back.”

  Alec was still bundled under the covers when she entered the bedroom. “We’re ready to go,” she told him. “There’s a pot of chicken soup on the stove and a fresh gallon of juice in the fridge. And Lucy’s going to pick you up some Sudafed when she goes to the pharmacy.”

  He sniffed and gathered her in his embrace. “Thank you. You take such good care of me.”

  Rebecca smiled as she pulled back. “I’m just returning the favor.”

  She grabbed her overnight bag and two Thermoses before she said a quick goodbye to Walter and headed out the door. Tommy was doing a final check on the brake lights when she approached the truck. “Need a hand?” she called.

  “Nah. Go ahead and hop in.”

  She wasn’t about to argue. The temperature gauge inside the truck read a balmy eight degrees as she climbed into the cab and turned the heat to full blast.

  A few minutes later, Tommy jumped into the driver’s seat. “Damn, is it cold out there!”

  Rebecca grinned and held up the second Thermos. “It’s your lucky day.”

  He unscrewed the lid and inhaled the rich aroma of fresh coffee. “Aw, Bec,” he said after he took a grateful sip. “Remind me again why you married Alec instead of me?”

  She laughed. “What can I say, Tommy? I like ‘em high-maintenance.”

  He chuckled, too, as he set the Thermos in the cup holder. “Well, in that case, you hit the jackpot.”

  Snow crunched under the tires as he maneuvered the truck down the driveway. The Tetons and the Wind River Range gradually faded behind them as they entered the open plains of southern Wyoming and crossed the border into Colorado. Along the roadside, herds of pronghorn antelope meandered through the snow-covered sagebrush, adding a splash of color to the otherwise stark landscape.

  Six hours after their departure, they pulled into the picturesque town of Steamboat Springs. Instantly it reminded Rebecca of Jackson–an authentic old west town turned booming ski resort. Directly in front of them, the mountain soared into the cloudless sky, with bright white ski runs zigzagging through the evergreens.

  Rebecca and Tommy secured two rooms at a hotel on Main Street and set out on foot in search of a late lunch. They weaved through hordes of brightly dressed, ski-toting tourists before they ducked into a quiet Mexican restaurant. Rebecca inhaled the welcome warmth and wasted no time peeling off her heavy outerwear.

  “Table for two?” the hostess asked.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Tommy replied.

  They ordered their meals and two margaritas before Rebecca settled back in her chair. “So how are things with you and Liz?”

  Truthfully, she didn’t understand how a guy as great as Tommy could still be on the market. Rebecca had recognized early on that he was too easygoing for her–she needed someone who challenged her like Alec did–but there was no arguing that he had plenty to offer the right woman. He was without a doubt the most balanced individual she knew; he took his work seriously without taking himself too seriously. He had a heart of gold, old-school southern manners, and enough twang to audition in Nashville. And with his towering stature, blue eyes, and unruly blond curls, he’d been known to turn more than a few female heads.

  Despite his list of stellar qualities, though, Tommy always seemed to be unlucky in love. The running joke amongst their friends was that he was well on his way to becoming the next Roger, as the old wrangler had never been married.

  Everyone was pleasantly surprised, then, when Tommy agreed to a blind date with one of Jeff’s colleagues. Liz Parsons was the new twelfth-grade English teacher at the high school, and Jeff had a hunch that the soft-spoken brunette might be just the girl for Tommy.

  Sure enough, they met at the Fourth of July rodeo last summer and had been inseparable ever since.

  “Things are good,” Tommy replied, sending her a sideways grin. “I think I’ve ruled out karaoke for her birthday, though.”

  Rebecca groaned and dropped her head. Tommy and Liz had only been dating for a month when Rebecca’s twenty-fifth birthday rolled around. Tommy thought that would be the perfect occasion to introduce his conservative new girlfriend to everyone on the ranch, and he and Liz walked into the bar to find a tipsy Rebecca singing terrible karaoke at the top of her lungs. Alec, Jeff, and the rest of their friends had also enjoyed their share of alcohol and–from what she remembered–were acting a little rowdy themselves.

  In fact, the only person who was sober that night was Allison–and only because she was pregnant with Stacey.

  The upside was that Liz and Allison hit it off immediately and had be
come good friends over the past six months. The downside was that Liz still believed that Rebecca was far too wild for her taste.

  “I’m never going to live it down, am I?” she moaned. “Something is cosmically wrong with the universe if she thinks that I’m the bad influence and Alli’s the good girl.”

  Tommy chuckled. “It is pretty funny, actually. Alli would’ve had you two dancing on the bar by the end of the night.”

  “The end of the night? It still would’ve been happy hour.”

  He laughed again and took a sip of his margarita. “She’ll warm up to you, Bec. I promise. She just needs a chance to get to know you better.”

  “Well, maybe we can go out sometime. Just the four of us.”

  “Sounds good. Let’s plan it for next month, after we get back from Texas.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “We?”

  Tommy gave a coy nod. “I’m taking her down to meet my family.”

  “Wow. It’s getting serious.”

  “It is. I think I’m about ready to start looking for a ring.”

  Rebecca squealed with delight. “I knew it! I told Jeff last week that I bet you two were going to be engaged before the summer.”

  “Well, I don’t know about that. I still have a lot to figure out.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like everything,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know what type of ring to get her. And I have no idea how I’m going to propose. Just the thought of it scares me to death.”

  “So do something simple. There’s no rule that says it has to be a big production.”

  Tommy gave a thoughtful nod. “Remind me again how Alec proposed to you?”

  Rebecca smiled at the memory. “He took me to Vegas for the weekend before the season started. We had dinner at our favorite restaurant at the Venetian resort, and he ordered the same bottle of champagne that we had on our first date there. I got up to use the restroom, and when I came back, there was the ring sitting in my champagne flute.”

  He mirrored her grin. “That’s pretty good.”

  “Yeah, it was. It wasn’t over-the-top, and that was fine. The surprise is what I remember most. He played it so cool during dinner, like it was just any other night, so I had no idea it was coming. I think that was the best part.”

  “And you were happy with the ring he chose?”

  Happy would have been the understatement of her life. Rebecca proudly held out her hand for him to inspect the dazzling diamond solitaire on her fourth finger. She didn’t often wear it around the barn–it’d be too easy to lose or damage it–so it still took her breath away every time she slid it on.

  “It’s pretty,” Tommy said. “Aren’t wedding rings normally gold, though?”

  “Well, they can be, but this one is platinum.” She leaned her elbows against the table. “Tell you what. After we eat, let’s hit up a couple jewelry stores. We’ll look at different styles so you can start getting some ideas.”

  He raised a brow. “Is that your way of saying I need all the help I can get?”

  “No,” she replied, giving him a little wink. “It’s just me being your friend.”

  *

  Rebecca and Tommy arrived early the next morning at the Lazy K Ranch. It was a modest establishment located west of town, where the mountains tapered off to a panorama of rolling hills. All of the stock was being liquidated, including forty horses.

  Alec was hoping to reward the Flying W’s older trail horses with retirement, since several of them were well into their twenties. To do that, though, he needed to replace them with younger models that could work long hours during the busy summer season.

  “Alright,” Tommy said as they neared the holding pens. “You might be an expert on diamond rings and all, but let’s see how much you know about buying horses.”

  Rebecca laughed and stopped to read the description posted on the first pen. “Abby. Sixteen-year-old Quarter horse mare.”

  The horse pricked her ears and dropped her nose into Rebecca’s hand. “She seems sweet,” she added. “Older than Alec wants, though.”

  “Yeah,” Tommy agreed. “He likes ‘em young.”

  She rolled her eyes before she moved on to the next pen. “Renegade. Seven-year-old Appaloosa gelding. Dreamfinder bloodlines.”

  “You know anything about Dreamfinder?”

  She shook her head.

  “He’s one of the most prominent Appaloosa studs from the nineties. Sired all sorts of National and World champions.”

  “So he’s probably a good bet, then.”

  “Sure. If we were looking for a champion show horse.”

  Rebecca nearly choked when Tommy turned the description card over and she saw the starting bid price. It was more than her annual college tuition.

  “Sorry, Renegade,” she said, giving the horse’s spotted neck a pat. “Maybe when we win the lotto.”

  The next pen housed an eight-year-old Paint gelding named Patches. “What about him?” Tommy asked.

  “Well, he’s the right age.” Rebecca frowned as she studied the horse’s conformation. “And he’s a good size for a trail horse. Fifteen hands, maybe fifteen-one?”

  He nodded. “What else?”

  “Good width between the eyes. Solid hindquarters. Withers are the same height as the top of the hip.”

  “All correct,” Tommy said, motioning to one of the handlers. “Can we take a look at him, please?”

  The handler clipped a lead line to the horse’s halter and led him out of the pen. Patches stood quietly while Tommy stretched each of his legs, testing for any signs of lameness. He examined the gelding’s hooves, as well, before he turned back to the handler.

  “Can you walk him for us?”

  Tommy studied the horse as the handler led him away. “I’m looking at how he tracks,” he told Rebecca. “Do his hind legs step directly into the print of his front legs? Is he straight and balanced? Or is he pigeon toed, knock kneed, or toed out?”

  She scrutinized the gelding’s strides as the handler turned and led him back towards them. “He looks pretty straight to me. And his ground manners are excellent.”

  “I agree.” Tommy grinned and turned to Rebecca. “I think we just found our first horse to bid on.”

  Over the next hour, they inspected and agreed upon four other horses. The auction started at ten, and to Rebecca’s delight, they were the highest bidders for four of the five horses.

  “Thank you kindly, Mrs. Westin,” said the seller as she handed him a check. “If you have your husband bring your trailer around, my men will get them loaded up for you.”

  Rebecca didn’t bother correcting him; she and Tommy had been mistaken for a couple more times than she could count. She thanked the seller and headed for the parking lot, signaling for Tommy to pull the trailer around to the pens.

  “We did great,” he said as they watched the handlers load their new horses. “Alec’ll be real happy with these guys.”

  She slid into the passenger’s seat and retrieved her cell phone. “Hi,” she greeted when Alec answered her call. “How are you feeling?”

  “Lousy, but I’ll live. How’d it go?”

  She filled him in on their morning while Tommy readied the trailer for their departure. “It’s good that we came down,” she concluded. “It was well worth the trip.”

  “I’m glad. By the way, that storm’s dropping through quicker than they expected. They’re saying the snow will start here around sunset instead of after midnight. You guys might want to consider staying down there an extra night to let it pass, rather than risking the drive home.”

  Rebecca barely resisted the urge to sigh. “We’ll be fine, Alec. We’ve driven through snow plenty of times before.” She smiled when Tommy hopped into the driver’s seat and gave her a silent thumbs-up. “We just got the horses loaded. We’ll be home around dinnertime, okay?”

  To her relief, he didn’t press the issue. “Please drive safely, Bec. And promise me that if the weather gets bad you
guys will pull over and stop for the night.”

  “I promise.”

  Tommy chuckled when she hung up the phone. “What’s got him all tied up in knots this time?”

  “There’s a front moving through after sunset, but we’ll pretty much be home by then.”

  “Did he want us to stay an extra night?”

  “He suggested it, yeah.” She frowned at his expression. “Do you think we should?”

  “Well, there’s not much between here and Jackson. It’s a desolate stretch if we run into trouble.”

  “I know.” Rebecca was silent for a moment. “I just hate for both of us to be away another day. It’s so much for him to do on his own, especially when he’s already sick.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” Tommy fastened his seatbelt and started the engine. “Let’s start heading back, then. If we hit weather, we’ll just take it nice and slow.”

  The sky filled with low gray clouds as they crossed the border into Wyoming. By the time they pulled into a service station in Rock Springs, tiny flurries were hitting their windshield. Rebecca stepped out and filled the gas tank while Tommy checked on the horses.

  “They’re doing good,” he said when he joined her again. “We’d better get moving, though. I don’t like the looks of those clouds.”

  After downing a quick cup of coffee, Rebecca climbed behind the wheel to begin the last leg of their drive. Half an hour out of Rock Springs, the snow transformed from light flurries into thick, heavy chunks. As the visibility worsened, Rebecca was forced to drop her speed to thirty miles an hour.

  “You want me to drive?” Tommy offered.

  She shook her head and squinted through the windshield. “I’m just trying to figure out where we are.”

  She’d driven this same road to Laramie dozens of times and she knew the route well, but she couldn’t recognize anything through the blinding snow. A sharp gust of wind blasted them sideways, making the trailer rock behind them. Rebecca’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel as she glanced in the rearview mirror and waited for the trailer to stop swaying.

  “This storm’s just gearing up,” Tommy said. “I think we should stop in Pinedale and wait for it to pass.”