And here she was in Josh’s childhood home—the place he’d refused to come back to—and she was looking down at her own precious little girls. Was she making things more difficult for herself all over again by choosing to stay here for two weeks instead of going back and finding a place to rent?
Father, bless my children...
Jane prayed this prayer often, and she’d felt like this trip to their father’s home ranch had been the right choice. Had she been too impulsive? It was possible. She hadn’t exactly stopped to pray about it for very long. She’d just launched herself out here and trusted that God had been in the details. It had all seemed so providential at the time.
Jane got dressed quickly into a pair of jeans and an embroidered blouse, combed her hair and completely forwent any makeup. At this time of morning, she figured she could look just as exhausted as she wanted. She smothered a yawn and picked up her cell phone off the dresser. Some footsteps creaked down the hallway, and when she opened the door she saw Peg in a white terry cloth bathrobe that was cinched at the waist. She carried a Bible under one arm.
“Good morning,” Peg said quietly.
“Do you always get up this early?” Jane asked as she stepped out of the bedroom.
“I like having the kitchen to myself for morning devotions, and this seemed like a good way,” Peg replied.
“It’ll do the job,” Jane said.
“You’d better hurry. Colt will already be in the kitchen ready to go.”
“Oh...” Jane looked back at her sleeping daughters one last time as she tucked her cell phone into her back pocket. “I’d better get moving then. Thank you for watching the girls for me. They’ll sleep until seven. Maybe longer since yesterday was a big day. They’re pretty easy to please for breakfast, and—”
“I’ll be fine,” Peg interrupted. “I won’t be shy about calling you if I need to. I promise.”
Jane cast the older woman a smile. “Thank you.”
She headed down the hallway toward the kitchen, following the faint scent of brewed coffee. Colt stood by the counter, a mug in one hand and his hat on the counter next to him. He wordlessly slid a mug of coffee down the counter toward a carton of cream and a bowl of sugar.
“Thanks,” she said, stifling another yawn. She put double the sugar into the coffee than she normally did, and a generous portion of cream to cool it down. She’d need more than caffeine this morning. Then she took a sip. It was the perfect temperature.
“How’d you sleep?” Colt asked.
“Surprisingly well,” she said.
“Good, because this morning is going to be busy. Breakfast is always the same—oatmeal, eggs, bacon, toast and sometimes we’ll put some corn bread on the menu, but not this morning. I figured we should keep this as simple as possible.”
Jane gulped back her coffee, then put it down on the counter. “I’m ready.”
“No breakfast?” he asked.
“Too early.” She winced. “I’ll eat later.”
The sooner they fed the ranch hands, the sooner she could get back to her daughters.
“Great.” He grabbed her mug and put them both into the sink. “The men will be eating by five thirty when the sun comes up. They’ll arrive hungry. They’re already doing one round of chores.”
Hard work—wasn’t that what Josh had always told her? A ranch was about blood and sweat, and in Josh’s opinion there was very little payoff. But Jane was seeing a different side to this ranch—when someone invested blood and sweat because they loved it. Colt was definitely a man who was here because there was nowhere else he’d rather be.
Colt opened the side door and waited for her to exit the house before he followed her, closing the door firmly behind him. Outside, the air was warm already and she could hear the soft chirp of crickets from the grass.
Colt led the way to his truck and he opened her door for her, then headed around the driver’s side while she hopped up and slammed it shut. Colt started the truck and backed out.
“So, how long have you worked the ranch?” Jane asked.
“Ever since I was about fourteen,” Colt replied. “My mom was working as the cook here at the ranch. She was Sandra’s sister—I told you that, right? Well, Beau and Sandra gave her a job and she was just glad to have a safe place to raise me after my dad left. The cook normally lives in the bunkhouse with the other ranch hands, but because she had me, it was different. Plus, she was family. When I was a teenager, Mom decided I could use some responsibility. My uncle was willing to pay me a pittance for a whole lot of work. It turned out to be a good combination.”
“Lots of work and low pay?” she asked with a short laugh. “That was a good combination?”
“Yeah, I was a handful. I was getting involved with a rough group of kids at school, and hard work combined with a very small income made me less available for getting into trouble, and meant I couldn’t attract a whole lot of attention, either. It was actually pretty smart.”
The truck bumped over the gravel drive that curved away from the house. She couldn’t see too much—the moon was only a sliver and the headlights from the truck sliced a path in front of them along the road.
“Where is your mom now?” she asked.
“She went south to Wyoming. She took a job at a ranch out there when things got too tense with Beau.”
This family did seem to have a lot of drama in its wake. “What happened? Do you mind if I ask?”
“My mom backed Josh when
