Life After Wife (16 page)

She belted a red silk kimono robe round her middle and padded to the kitchen where Elijah was making pancakes and sausage. He turned when he felt her presence behind him and felt another tug on his heart. Sophie, all sleepy and wearing a bright red robe, was just as beautiful as Sophie in her jeans and boots. Elijah didn’t want to fall for Sophie. He wanted to buy her half of the ranch, run it with the help of
a few hired hands, and enjoy the peace and quiet of ranching. That great big
M word
did not have a place in his plans.

“Good morning. Ready to see how we’ve done in our short time on the ranch?”

She cut her eyes up at him. “You’re the short-time partner, Elijah Jones. I’ve been here almost two years, buddy.”

“Grouchy this morning, are we?”

She air-slapped his arm. “No, I’m not cranky, and you aren’t going to rile me up. This is sale day. Something I’ve worked toward for a year, and I want to show Aunt Maud that she taught me well.”

He flipped two pancakes onto a plate, added a couple of sausage patties, and handed it to her. “She knows you are capable. Even if the sale is a complete bust, believe me, Aunt Maud knows.”

“Thank you. For the breakfast, that is. And how do you know that about her?” Sophie carried the plate to the table, sat down, and slathered the hot pancakes with pats of butter.

“She wrote me a letter once a week, faithfully. It was always dated Sunday afternoon and postmarked Monday. And after you moved to the ranch, she talked a lot about you and how you were ‘catchin’ right on,’ as she put it,” Elijah said.

Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat. So while Sophie was in Albany with her friends, Aunt Maud spent her Sundays writing letters to Elijah and saying nice things about her.

“What else did she write to you about?” she asked.

“Honey, Aunt Maud kept me so well-informed about every cow on the place, and how much hay this pasture produced or wheat that one did, that I could run this place in my sleep. I kept notes in a book because she told me to, and I’m glad I did, because now I’m not running around in the dark. She
even made suggestions about which cattle needed to go to the sale today and told me to invite Theron and Hart to bring their fall culls to our sale, but not to let in anyone else. She said that Theron and Hart let her bring to their spring sales so it was a trade-off, but if we started letting every freeloader in the county into our sale, pretty soon we’d be footin’ the bill for everyone.”

Sophie managed a weak giggle. “That sounds just like her.”

Elijah joined her at the table with a huge stack of steaming hot pancakes and a whole plate of sausage patties that he set between them. “Two little old sausages ain’t goin’ to hold you through the whole sale. Eat up, girl, we got quite a mornin’ ahead of us.”

She forked two more patties to her plate, covered the pancakes with warmed maple syrup, and cut off a bite. “Mmmm, good! You share recipes?”

“No, you want those pancakes, you got to ask me to make them,” he said.

“Meanie!”

He grinned. “Yep, that I am.”

“OK, then while we eat tell me about your brothers. You didn’t even tell me their names,” she said. “Besides, you’ve been getting letters about me ever since I moved here, and I don’t know hardly anything about you.”

Elijah swallowed and sipped hot black coffee. “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”

“I didn’t ask you to recite the books of the Bible,” she said.

“I’m not. Those’re my four older brothers. Matthew is fifty-two, Mark is fifty, Luke is forty-eight, and John is forty-six. Momma gave up on havin’ a girl when John was born. She was twenty when Matthew was born, and the old folks
out in West Texas say it’s not good to have kids when you are past thirty. I kind of snuck up on her and Dad when she was thirty-two. Then they got Jed when I was two and Noah when I was four. By then she said she could live without a daughter and seven boys were enough kids. The older four were all teenagers, and I was eight when she got pregnant at the age of forty. I remember it well, because she was sure she was going to have a sweet little daughter. She got twin boys: Tanner and Hayden, who were thirty-two this past summer.”

“Tanner and Hayden? All the rest of you have Bible names,” Sophie said.

“Guess she gave up on God blessin’ her with a girl when she had two more mean old boys at forty. Matthew got married the year before the twins were born, and Momma got her first granddaughter just a few weeks after she gave birth to the twins. That granddaughter is married now and has three kids of her own. It’s a big family reunion, but like I told you before, there ain’t many girls at it.”

Sophie finished off the last of her breakfast and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Sounds like it. And the twins, are they married, too?”

“No, just me and the youngest two are still runnin’ from the noose. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Tanner and Hayden are coming to the sale. They’re between jobs, and they’ve got lots of experience on a ranch. Tanner’s been foreman of a big operation for the past five years. Owner sold it last week. Hayden taught agriculture at the high school in Silverton, but he’s not renewing his contract. Says he’s had all he can stand of teaching, and he’d rather ranch. I’d like for us to have a sit-down visit, the four of us, after the sale is finished. I’ve got some ideas,” Elijah said.

Sophie rolled her eyes and carried her plate to the dishwasher. Elijah always had “ideas” and she was running as fast as she could to stay up with him already. Now what did he have up his sleeve?

At ten o’clock the barn was full, the balconies elbow to elbow, the sale floor crowded, and caterers were weaving in among the people with trays of ice-cold soda pop and sweet tea. The refreshment table offered little yeast rolls stuffed with barbecued beef, ham, a delicious cream cheese with a faint pineapple flavor, and pulled pork, as well as three-tiered trays with petit fours and bite-size pieces of cheesecake in a dozen flavors.

At noon Tillman would bring out the ribs and brisket. At three the sale would be over, and they’d have to hustle to get the barn ready for the big party, which started at seven with buffet supper and a live band.

When the auctioneer took his place and the first heifer was brought into the circular sale pen, butterflies began doing a fast line dance in Sophie’s stomach. She and Elijah were sitting on the top bleacher in the south-side balcony. She held a copy of the sale book in her lap; both she and Elijah wore worried expressions. That cow down there would set the precedent for the whole sale. If she went at above fair market price because of her excellent bloodlines, then the rest of the sale had a pretty good chance at doing the same. If she sold for next to nothing, they’d be running in the red next year.

Even if they had a lean year, Sophie had enough money in her personal bank account that she did not intend to go to the bank for a loan. Aunt Maud had never borrowed against
the land, and Sophie wasn’t starting now, no matter what this great plan of Elijah’s was.

The smell of so many bodies (so much perfume from the ladies and aftershave from the gents), blended with the odor of cows, blowing dust, and the faint scent of burned land added to the excitement of the first sale of the day. Conversational chatter slowly died when the microphone emitted a high-pitched squeak as the auctioneer adjusted it.

Sophie wasn’t sure when she and Elijah laced their fingers together until he squeezed her hand. She looked up and their eyes locked, neither of them saying a word, yet reading each other’s thoughts as clearly as if they were written in indelible ink on their faces.

“It’s OK,” he finally said. “Breathe.”

“I can’t until this first cow is sold. Aunt Maud always laughed at me but…”

Elijah leaned down and whispered. “Stop worryin’. It’s taken care of.”

She turned her head at a slant and looked at him. “What?”

“I know what every cow is worth. They are not selling beneath their value.”

“And you can control that how? Are you magic?”

He shook his head. “No, I have a personal buyer on the floor. Couple of them. Tanner and Hayden. They have a notebook, and if that cow doesn’t sell for what’s in the book, they’ll bid on her.”

“Is that legal? You are buying your own cattle.” Sophie frowned.

“Yes, it’s legal. Actually, they’re buying the cattle with my money. I told you I have a plan,” he said.

“That scares me worse than anything.”

The auctioneer made the black cow in the pen sound like her hooves were studded with diamonds and then began his lightning-fast sales pitch. When the final bid was in, Sophie could hardly believe the number that she wrote into her book. It was going to be a fantastic sale if it kept going like that.

“My brothers did not have to raise their cards. That one is going over to Breckenridge to Hart’s neighbor.” Elijah’s voice held as much excitement as Sophie’s heart did.

The cows were all sold by noon, and neither Tanner nor Hayden had bought a single one. In between cattle coming into the auction pen and those that had sold leaving it, Sophie had tried to figure out which of the cowboys were Elijah’s brothers, but the crowd was too dense. The auctioneer announced that there would be an hour break for everyone to have lunch and then the bull sale would start at one o’clock.

Sophie let out a whoosh of air. “We’ve done good so far.”

“Yes, we have.” Elijah squeezed her hand one more time then let it go. “Let’s go mingle among the buyers and have some lunch.”

“Where are your brothers?” she asked.

“Right here.” a deep voice said from right behind her. “I’m Tanner, the good-lookin’ twin, and this is Hayden, the smart one.”

She turned to find two cowboys standing against the wall. They weren’t quite as tall as Elijah, but they had the same jet-black hair. Their eyes were brown, and if it hadn’t been for different-colored shirts, she couldn’t have told them apart. Tanner wore a yellow knit shirt, and Hayden had on a pearl-snap blue plaid.

“Don’t let him kid you. I got the good looks
and
the brains. All he got was good looks,” Hayden teased. “Elijah
didn’t tell us that you were beautiful as well as smart. Guess me and you got a lot in common.”

Elijah actually blushed. “Don’t be usin’ that flirtin’ line on Sophie. She’s way too smart to fall for the likes of you.”

He realized in that moment that his two brothers were a whole lot closer to Sophie’s age than he was, and a wicked lightning bolt of pure jealousy shot through his heart.

Hayden grinned and punched his older brother on the arm. “My flirtin’ lines are just fine, brother, and you’d do well to take some lessons from me. Forty years old and still not a filly roped in. I’d stay away from him if I was you, Miz Sophie.”

Elijah stood up and offered a hand to Sophie, who took it, but he didn’t let go when she was on her feet. “Come on, you two old renegades. If Sophie doesn’t mind, we’ll sit with you at dinner. Looks like the line is already formin’ at the buffet table, but Tillman says he can put three hundred or more through in less than twenty minutes. I swear the man works magic.”

Sophie suddenly found herself surrounded by tall, dark cowboys as they made their way down the stairs toward the food tables. And she was hungry. The butterflies had flown away after the first couple of cows had sold so well, and her pancake breakfast was long gone.

“Hey, lookin’ good.” Kate winked.

“I’m pleased with what my cows brought. Hope my two bulls do as well,” Hart said.

“Meet my brothers, Tanner and Hayden. This is Hart and Kate Ducaine, friends and fellow ranchers from over near Breckenridge.” Elijah dropped Sophie’s hand and made introductions.

Kate raised an eyebrow at Sophie and she shrugged. Hand-holding did not mean saying vows in front of a preacher.

“Y’all come on and sit with us,” Elijah said.

“Glad to. So what did you two think of the sale?” Hart asked the twins.

Sophie tuned them out and refused to look at Kate again. She loaded her plate with brisket, added a bowl of pinto beans and a chunk of cornbread, and headed toward the nearest table with room for six people. She set her plate down and started to pull out a chair only to have Hayden do it for her and sit beside her on the right. Elijah claimed the chair on her left, and Hart, Kate, and Tanner sat across the table.

An old friend of Maud’s, Myrle, claimed the end of the table. She wore her dyed red hair ratted up into a tall hairdo that went out of style in the sixties. Her jeans were skintight, and her Western shirt was tucked in behind a belt with a rhinestone double-heart buckle. “Sale is going good. I bought a cow with a calf beside her to beef up my stock a little. Was glad to get it, too. I thought that old man beside me was going to take her home, and I made up my mind if he couldn’t even flirt with me, he darn sure wasn’t getting that cow.”

“What idiot wouldn’t flirt with a gorgeous lady like you?” Hayden asked. “By the way, darlin’, I’m Hayden Jones. Elijah is my older brother—much, much older—and this other kid over here is my twin brother, Tanner. He’s kinda shy, but I know that he’s admirin’ you from afar.”

Myrle giggled. “You are full of cow chips, darlin’, but even a sixty-year-old woman likes a little flirtin’. You, darlin’, might have gotten that cow at a good price if you’d been sittin’ beside me.”