Shaking his head, Len said, “I don’t want to ruin your fun.” He tried to smile. “I’ll be fine. I just need to sleep it off.”
The others protested a bit more, but in the end they headed off for the dunes, and Len crawled back into the tent to rest.
When they got back four hours later, all three of them were more exhausted than they should have been, and two were already sniffling.
Chuck didn’t even check Len as he climbed into the tent to take a nap. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Len had been dead for nearly an hour. Chuck would follow seven hours later, and Walt thirty minutes after that.
Jimmy was the only one still alive, if barely, when the Ranger service found them.
“I’m going to kill him,” he kept whispering. “I’m going to kill him.”
But, really, it was the other way around.
15
Ash’s new quarters weren’t quite as nice as the room he’d woken up in the day before, but they were more than adequate. All the clothes that had been in the other dresser had been moved to his new room, as had the messenger bag that surprisingly still had the money inside.
He had slept with the watch on, not a habit he used to have, but one he was determined to start. It had still been on California time when Hamilton gave it to him, but Pax had told him when he showed Ash to the room that it was an hour later here. Where “here” was, Ash still didn’t know.
It was becauseof the watch that he skipped dinner. He was in too much of an emotional state, and didn’t want to end up saying something he’d regret later. Pax had brought him a tray of food around eight p.m. and Ash surprised himself by devouring it all.
When morning came, the decision to leave didn’t seem as clear as it had twelve hours before. Yes, the conversation with Hamilton had annoyed him, but there was too much he didn’t know or understand, and it was clear that many of the answers could probably be found right there on the ranch.
Still unsure of what he was going to do, he packed a few extra shirts, some underwear, and socks into the messenger bag. He then left the bag in the room and went in search of breakfast.
The building he was in was a kind of dormitory just down a wide stone pathway from the main building. It was two stories and held maybe twenty rooms, but if anyone else had been staying there, Ash hadn’t heard them. The outside of the building was stone halfway up the first floor, with wooden timbers the rest of the way to the top. It was definitely built to last, but while it had the appearance of having been built decades before, Ash got the sense it was actually recently constructed.
Heading down the path, he could hear birds chirping in the distance, and felt a breeze blowing softly through the tops of the trees. The tranquility of it all was almost overwhelming. It was so at odds with the turmoil going on inside him.
As the trail turned and went up a gentle rise, the main building came into view. It was an impressive structure-old and wooden and huge, with wide, sloped roofs and half a dozen chimneys. It looked like a ski lodge that should have been at the bottom of a hill rather than in a quiet clearing.
There was a workout area off to the left with pull-up bars, sit-up stations, and resistance-training machines. A woman was at one of the machines, using it to work her shoulders. She glanced over at Ash, then quickly looked away as if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t have.
As Ash neared the main building, he spotted Pax on his hands and knees examining a set of stairs that led up to the wide porch surrounding the structure. When Pax saw him, he got to his feet and brushed off his hands.
“Morning,” he said.
“Good morning,” Ash replied. “I was wondering if there was someplace I could get some breakfast.”
“Sure, sure.” Pax turned to the building. “That third door there, that gets you into a short hallway that’ll take you into the kitchen. You’ll find Bobbi in there. She can whip you up something.”
“Thanks.” Ash glanced at the stairs. “Is it safe?”
“What? Oh, sure. Just be careful on that second step. The backboard’s starting to give a little. I’ll have one of the boys replace it this afternoon.”
Again, Ash hesitated before moving on. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“What kind of business is this ranch in? Can’t believe you make a lot of money off of people like me.”
Pax laughed. “No, that would drive us broke, I think. We have cattle, beef mostly, and a small herd of buffalo.”
“Buffalo?”
“You’d be surprised at the size of the buffalo meat market. But Rachel wants us to keep them for historical sake, let them live out their lives here.”
“So you only make money off the cattle then.”
“When we need to.”
It wasn’t really an answer, but Ash decided not to push and headed into the house.
Bobbi was a tall woman with short red hair who turned out to be an excellent cook. In no time, Ash was sitting at one of the tables in the restaurant-sized kitchen, working his way through a large plate of eggs and sausage.
“Morning, Rachel,” Bobbi said several minutes later.
Ash glanced up. Another woman had entered the kitchen-Rachel, presumably. She was shorter and leaner than Bobbi, and had long silver-streaked blonde hair that was pulled back into a ponytail.
“How about a cup of coffee?” Rachel asked.
“You got it.”
While Bobbi filled a mug, Rachel walked over to Ash’s table.
“Mind if I sit with you?” she asked him.
“Not at all.”
She smiled, took the chair opposite his, then held out her hand. “I’m Rachel Hamilton.”
They shook.
“You’re Matt’s wife?”
She laughed. “Hardly. I’m his sister.”
“Sorry. When Pax told me this place was yours and Matt’s, I just assumed…”
“Don’t be sorry. A lot of people make that same mistake.”
Bobbi came over, set the mug in front of Rachel, then glanced at Ash. “And how’s your breakfast?”
“It’s good. Thank you.”
“If either of you need anything, just holler.” With that, she headed back to the prep table where she’d been cutting up vegetables.
Rachel took a sip of her coffee then said, “How’d you sleep?”
“Fine,” he said. “I appreciate you letting me spend another night here.”
“We’ve got the beds. Someone might as well use them.”
“You do have a lot of space, but I’ve only seen a handful of people.”
“It’s an ebb-and-flow kind of thing around here. Sometimes the ranch is packed, and sometimes it feels like just Matt and me.”
“Pax tells me that this is a cattle ranch.”
She took another sip, then shrugged. “Yeah, we have cattle.”
Like Pax, she seemed hesitant to get into the business of the ranch.
“I hear you told Matt you’re intending to leave us this morning,” she said as he put a piece of sausage in his mouth.
He shrugged.
