Chapter 20
Sage sat across from her grandmother at the kitchen table. Essie had claimed a rocking chair in front of the blazing fireplace and was crocheting something pink. Creed had suited up and left to do the chores.
It was time for the argument that Sage had looked forward to and planned for the past three weeks. And she was speechless.
“Well?” Ada asked.
“You first,” Sage answered.
“I was right.”
Sage shrugged.
Dammit, anyway! It wasn’t easy admitting defeat before she’d even spit on her knuckles and drawn a line in the snow.
“I liked that cowboy from the start and you’ve fallen in love with him,” Ada said.
“You were right, and yes, I have.”
“Then why the long face this morning?”
Sage stretched her hands across the table and laid them on Ada’s. “Grand, I don’t want you to leave the Rockin’ C. I can live with the sale now. Got to admit when I dropped down into the canyon on those slick roads all I wanted to do was bust in here and have a big fight with you, but you were right about Creed.”
“You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” Essie said from the living room.
“She’s been spoutin’ off that brand of bullshit for days,” Ada whispered.
“I can hear you,” Essie singsonged.
“She’s probably right but it pains the hell out of me to admit it,” Ada said.
Sage gently squeezed her hands. “Why? You and Aunt Essie can live here. The ranch is plenty big and I can take care of you when you get old.”
“When? Honey, we done passed the time of if and when. We are old,” Essie said.
* * *
Creed fed the cattle and worried.
He scattered chicken scratch in the henhouse and worried.
He opened the chute and poured a mixture of sour milk and cornmeal into the hog’s trough and worried some more.
Sage was in the kitchen with Ada and it didn’t take the intelligence of a rocket scientist to know what they were discussing. His whole future, hell, his whole heart was laid out on that old kitchen table between them.
His boots felt like they’d been filled with concrete as he trudged back to the barn. The brown and white milk cow waited for him as if she understood that he didn’t need any further distractions that morning. He led the way to the milk stall and she followed obediently.
“I’ll hire some help so Sage can have more time for her painting. Lord only knows I don’t want her to give that up.” He pulled up a three-legged milking stool and sat down.
The first milk made pinging noises as it hit the bucket, and whirls of steam arose until the bottom was covered. “Besides, I love to watch her paint. It’s soothing to a cowboy’s soul. Rye mentioned one of his cousins was looking for work. I met several of his family at his and Austin’s wedding reception. I can’t put names with faces, but if he’s an O’Donnell, you can bet that he knows ranchin’ and horses.”
The cow mooed.
“Sounds like a good idea, does it? I can clean up the bunkhouse and start with one hired hand this year and if the calf crop and the hay make good, I can maybe hire a second one next year.”
By the time the bucket was full, he’d envisioned more than one year into the future and every one of them involved Sage and the rings still hidden in his coat pocket.
“Well, shit! If Ada gets to snooping around in the closet, she’s liable to find the rings. That would be a disaster.”
He let the cow back out with the other cattle and carried the milk back to the house, dreading what lay ahead.
His eyes swept the kitchen first looking for Sage, but she wasn’t there. He peeked around the bar but she wasn’t working on the newest painting. Essie was doing something with pink yarn in front of the fireplace. Ada had just pulled a pan of spicy-smelling cookies from the oven.
She tossed oven mitts on the cabinet, poured two cups of coffee, and motioned for him to sit down. “I’ll strain the milk while you get out of those coveralls and we’ll talk.”
He unzipped his coveralls. “Where is Sage?”
“She’s out on the porch playing with her pets. I got to hand it to you, Creed Riley. I knew you was the cowboy I’d been waiting for when you knocked on my door. I could feel it in my bones but I never figured that you’d talk her into animals. That’s a pretty nice momma cat; kinda pretty with all that long fur and I can see Sage falling in love with her. But that ugly dog? God Almighty, that took a pure miracle.”
Creed didn’t want to talk about animals. He wanted to talk about the sale of the Rockin’ C. “Yes, ma’am, but Noel wormed her way into Sage’s heart real quick.”
He kicked his boots off and joined Ada at the table. A plate of fresh cookies sat between them and the coffee was still steaming.
Ada pushed the cookies his way. “Help yourself.”
He bit into the soft gingerbread and nodded. “Very good.”
“Christmas tradition around here. I like that y’all put the tree up and the lights around the barn and that you made sugar cookies and gingerbread. I had to make fresh for today though because this is an important day.”
It took two long gulps of hot coffee to swallow the gingerbread. “Yes, it is.”
“I’m going to sell you this ranch, Creed. I’m not backing out of the agreement. Are you?”
He shook his head. Had he heard her right? Would Sage be able to really live with the decision?
“Good.”
“Well, damn!” Essie said. “Now she’ll lord it over me that her damned old Indian sense is real.”
“Oh, hush. You want me to sell the ranch and you know it. Put that yarn down and tell Sage to come in here. We need to talk amongst the four of us because
