Love Inspired August 2014 – Bundle 1 of 2 (16 page)

Liv knew that firsthand. She’d seen the raised brows when she and Jack walked in.
The quickly hidden smiles. Looks of surprise.

But she’d noticed something else, too.

The combined reactions didn’t seem nosy today. They seemed happy to see her and Jack
together. Maybe pleased by the easy look on Jack’s face? The more joyful appearance
he had now? That wasn’t a bad thing, to inspire joy in others.

You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.

Ethan’s gentle preaching had cited joyful texts in the Bible, words of affirmation
in times of hardship.

She’d forgotten how many there were. Silly of her, to dwell on the negatives instead
of embracing the positives in life. Was thirty too old to grasp that change?

Regrasp it, you mean. Because you used to love the joys in life. You grabbed hold
and ran with them until Jack dumped you. So who’s more guilty here? Him for being
stupid? Or you for letting someone else’s choice chart your destiny for eight long
years?

“Ethan, would you like to catch breakfast with us?” Jack asked the question easily
as if sharing a table with Liv was the norm, maybe because it had been normal for
so long.

Ethan refused, regretful. “I’d love to another day, but I’ve got Sunday school in
a few minutes and it’s my turn to preside. Then I’m heading to Bozeman to do a hospital
visit. This stretch of heat is tough on the elderly.”

“And if you’re gone midday on Sunday, it limits the number of people who can invite
you to dinner to meet their eligible daughters.”

Ethan’s lips quirked in acknowledgment. “Timing is everything. Liv, nice to meet you.”
He reached out to shake Liv’s hand as her parents and grandparents came through the
door behind them. “And, Jack, I’m looking forward to next Saturday.” Ethan flexed
his muscles, then cringed when his collar bit into his neck. “Reminder—no collars
on the ball field.”

“Although wearing it might get you preferential treatment from the umpires,” Dave
Franklin noted, grinning. “All’s fair in love and baseball.”

“I’ve ordered shirts for both teams, so the collar won’t be an issue,” Jack promised.
He clapped a hand to Ethan’s shoulder. “Nice service, Ethan. Again.” Jack moved toward
the beam of light. When he reached back for Liv’s hand, the look on his face...

Tender, caring, loving...

Gave her the answer she’d been looking for.

She didn’t want to leave Jasper Gulch, and truth to tell, she didn’t need to leave
right away. Jack’s face, his expression, the affection in his eyes, said everything.

She’d stay right here and figure things out. As Mert said, sometimes things were just
too important to yack about, and whatever this was between her and Jack McGuire needed
time. She’d be wrong to shortchange that and she was tired of making mistake upon
mistake. She had the university-job interview set up for tomorrow morning. If she
took the position, she’d commute for the year. A lot of folks had long commutes in
cities. If bad weather curtailed her on occasion, she’d face that as it came. “You
ready to feed me, cowboy?”

“Ready and willing. And I do like those shoes, Liv. A lot.”

She caught his teasing look and laughed, remembering her angst over the shoes before
church but the favorable look marking Jack’s glance to her legs, her feet?

Made the cute heels worth every moment of finding the proper skirt without too many
wrinkles.

Chapter Thirteen

R
obin closed her laptop, stretched and yawned later that afternoon. “This is a wretched
way to spend a summer Sunday, Liv. What are we thinking?”

“My eyes are bugging out, so I can’t disagree.” Liv stopped entering data, stood and
finished her iced tea. “Do you want to walk to the creek?”

“No. You know what I really want to do? Really, truly?”

Liv didn’t, so she shook her head. “No clue.”

“I want to see a ranch. A real working ranch. With cowboys and cows and horses and
well...did I mention cowboys?”

“You did.” Liv laughed, glanced at the clock and nodded. “Hop in my car. I’ve got
to take care of Dilly and the girls at the Double M. Which reminds me.” She pulled
out her phone and texted Jack that she wouldn’t be around to care for the horses the
following morning, but she’d make it up to them later in the day. “Come on, I’ll give
you a quick tour when we get there, but there probably won’t be many cowboys around.
Not midday on a Sunday.”

“Am I dressed okay?” Robin wondered as Liv turned the car toward the McGuire ranch.

“For?”

Robin indicated her feet. “Aren’t you supposed to wear boots on a ranch?”

“You’re fine. For a city slicker.”

“Grr.”

“When there’s more time, I’ll loan you a pair of my boots and I’ll bring you out to
ride. We can saddle up the mares and get them used to being ridden again. If the heat
breaks this week, we can start then. I bet you’d love it, Robin. Have you ridden before?”

“No, but I’ve always wanted to learn, almost as if it was born in me.” Robin watched
out the window as acres of tough Montana grassland swept by. “There’s so much I want
to know, Liv.”

“About riding?” Liv slanted Robin a glance, curious, as she guided the car down the
rolling lane leading to the McGuire house.

“About everything.” Robin shrugged, but her face looked pensive. “Consider it the
frustrated cowgirl within.”

“Well, you’ve come to the right state to fix that, so let’s start now.” Liv stopped
the car, climbed out and gave Robin a quick ranch overview. “Most of the cattle are
pastured in the uplands on the far side of the McGuire ranch. A buyer purchased a
dozen pregnant cows yesterday, but that leaves Jack and his dad with well over twelve
hundred cattle running. Half are calves who’ll get sold off late November.”

“How big is this place?” Robin turned in a circle, then faced Liv. “It’s huge, right?”

“Not like Shaw Ranch huge, but yeah. It’s big. And worth a pretty penny. But Jack
and his dad don’t care about any of that.”

Robin’s face said that was hard to believe.

“Things are different in ranching families,” Liv told her as she grabbed a lead for
Dilly. She could give Robin a quick tour and offer the buckskin a walk around the
ranch yard. Saying it, she began to realize the truth more deeply herself. “It’s like
you’re part of the land. Born to it.”

“But not everyone stays.”

“No.” Liv hooked her thumb toward the paddock housing Dilly and the mares. Jack had
moved them in together the previous day, ready to acclimate the horses to their new
reality. “It’s not an easy life. Winter’s cold, harsh and lasts way too long. Some
years are real tough. But when you’re a cowboy, well.” She made a face, wishing she
could explain but falling short. “It’s part of you.”

“You love it out here.”

Liv grinned as she led Dilly out of the pen. “Is it that obvious?”

“Ridiculously so.”

She reached out an arm to Dilly and gave him the neck rub he loved before handing
the lead to Robin. “I think I’d do okay on a ranch. Jack’s mother taught me a lot
when I was younger. Hold the lead here while I finish the mares, okay?”

“Um. Sure.” Robin made a face up at the big horse but kept her voice soft. “Did he
look worse than this when you got him? Please say no.”

“Much.”

“Well, that just breaks my heart.” Robin ran a hand along Dilly’s neck and didn’t
cringe when loose hair came off on her fingers. Liv gave her extra points for that,
and when she swiped the hand to the side of her jeans, Liv figured Robin might just
make it in the West, after all. “What about your career?” Robin wondered.

“Maybe it’s time to change things up. Or at least juggle a while. I’m trying to learn
to trust God’s timing. It’s a big step for me.”

Surprise and disbelief marked Robin’s features. She sucked air between her teeth and
cringed slightly. “That’s a huge change, Liv. Don’t you have an interview at the university
tomorrow morning?”

“I do.” Liv finished the mares’ feed, then ran fresh water to the trough before taking
the lead from Robin to exercise Dilly outside the pen. “And we’ll see what happens
with that. With all the changes in my family—”

“And the cute cowboy,” Robin noted, indicating the sprawling Double M with a wave
of her hand.

Liv smiled because the cute cowboy was a given. “I feel like I’m at a crossroads,
with no red lights or stop signs, which means I have to pick a route and follow it.
But no matter what I decide, we can continue to work together on the town history—unless
you’re getting ready to leave?”

Robin’s profile said leaving was the last thing on her mind, but as she gazed outward
at the ranch, she shrugged. “I’m a restless soul right now. Not sure what to do or
where to go, I just know I want to feel like I belong somewhere. And I don’t ever
want to be lonely again. Pathetic, right?”

“Not at all,” Liv answered, knowing loneliness wasn’t just an issue when you were
alone. Sometimes it happened in a busy office. Or a house built without true love.
“No real roots back home, Robin?”

Robin made a face. “I was a fish out of water there, like my ancestors of old, the
ones who may have traveled through here. So maybe that wanderlust passed on to me.”

“We’ll see how you feel about being here once winter’s wrath keeps us cooped up for
months.” Liv raised her chin toward the endless mountains. “That’s when ranch life
makes you or breaks you. There’s no cozy car heater on a 4X4 while you’re checking
fence. And the wind bites hard when you’re monitoring newborn calves on horseback
in ten degrees and biting wind.”

“They have their babies outside? In the snow?” Robin stared at the mountains, then
Liv, incredulous.

Liv laughed and gave her a friendly shoulder jab. “Welcome to ranching, my friend.
And when it’s calving time? Everyone helps, one way or another.”

“I don’t want to hear another bit about it,” Robin told her. “I’m going to envision
a manger scene, Christmas-friendly, a sweet cow, a bed of straw and a beautiful baby
calf, all doe-eyed and clean.”

“And I’ll let you think that way, but the reality on a ranch is survival of the fittest.
On the other hand, Jack and Mick take it quite personally if they lose a calf or cow.”
Liv remembered the stark look in Jack’s eyes whenever a cow or calf went down, and
that was another reason to love the McGuire men. Big men. Big hearts. “They see it
as a failure, and it breaks their hearts.”

“With twelve hundred cows?” Robin raised a brow in disbelief, as if caring for a huge
number made the loss more understandable.

Liv knew better. She’d worked the ranch over a couple of college spring breaks. She
understood the harsh conditions of early spring in the mountains, the bawling calves,
snow barreling in on the heels of a Canadian clipper. And any time an animal succumbed,
Mick, Jack and Mary Beth took it to heart. “A life’s a life out here.”

Robin reached up a hand to the needy horse clip-clopping alongside Liv. “You’ll do
okay here, Liv.”

The possibility of sharing this life with Jack and Mick made Liv see the possibilities
before her more clearly. “I think I could, even after all that’s gone on these past
years. I’m just sorry it took me so long to realize it.”

* * *

Jack’s phone rang midmorning on Monday. He saw the bank manager’s name and clicked
in, surprised. “Mr. Thompson? What can I do for you?”

“Jack, that check from those folks in Decatur came back marked insufficient funds.”

Jack stopped in his tracks because he’d talked his father into taking the personal
check rather than insisting on a bank draft. And he’d only done that because he was
familiar with the Brower legacy in Decatur, Nebraska. Their reputation, their stake
in farming preceded them.

His heart sank.

Any farmer could run out of money, and many had the past few years. Would the Browers
do that, though? Pass off a bad check and accept cattle without payment?

No.

At least he hoped they wouldn’t. “Did you run it through again, Wilbur? Maybe funds
got tied up between accounts.”

“I called their bank personally because I didn’t want to make this phone call, Jack.
They said there aren’t enough funds in their combined accounts to come close to covering
a nearly twenty-thousand-dollar payment. I’m sorry.”

He
was sorry?

Oh, man. Jack scraped a hand to the nape of his neck to thwart the encroaching tension
headache. “Not your fault, Wilbur. Mine for not insisting on a bank draft.”

“They are the best way to go,” Wilbur agreed, but Jack didn’t want to hear that right
then. He never took personal checks for big-business dealings. He’d learned that as
a young man and had the practice reinforced as an investment adviser in Chicago. And
this time of year, when money was tight on a ranch, waiting for that single big paycheck
on “calves-to-market” day, well...

He bit down hard on a wad of gum, missed the gum and bit the inside of his cheek instead.
Instant pain added to the financial blow. He’d been riding high these past few weeks,
enjoying life for the first time in a long while. And now—

Now, what? So the Browers passed a bad check. You’re runnin’ off the deep end and
you don’t even know if it was intentional or inadvertent. Henry Brower’s been in the
business for decades, and his father before him. You really think he’d slip you a
bad check and then waltz away with a trailerload of pricey, pregnant cows?

It wouldn’t be the first time a farmer employed desperate means to get back on his
feet. And it wasn’t like the Browers lived next door. Going after the money would
entail time, effort and distance, none of which Jack had right now. But whether or
not he had the time, he had little choice because he’d made the decision to accept
Henry’s check. Now he’d have to man up and fix it. After admitting it to his father.

He shoved his hat aside, swept a wide hankie to his brow and continued checking fence.
It was an all-day job in the middle of a heat wave, but making sure the Plow Creek
pasture was tight and secure was his task of the day, and he wasn’t about to mess
that up after already messing up. He stopped to eat the sack of peanut-butter-and-jelly
sandwiches he’d brought along and hit Liv’s number on his speed dial.

The call went straight to voice mail, which was unusual. She rarely turned off her
phone and frequently checked the battery to make sure it was charged. He dialed her
parents’ home instead. If she wasn’t working with Robin, maybe she was back home,
helping with Grandma and Grandpa. She’d texted him that she was busy this morning,
but he didn’t expect her to be unreachable. And with the financial smackdown he’d
taken, hearing Liv’s voice, her laugh, would ease the sting of handing over twenty
thousand of his savings to the McGuire ranch fund.

“Trudy Mason here. Hello.”

“Mrs. Mason, this is Jack McGuire. Liv’s friend.”

“Of course I know who you are, Jack. Liv’s special friend.” She put teasing emphasis
on ‟special” as if to make a point. “What can I do for you?”

“Is Liv there? I tried her cell phone but it wasn’t turned on.”

“Oh, the interview, of course!” Grandma Mason exclaimed and then tsk-tsked modern
technology. “She must have turned it off while she was interviewing for that job at
the university in Bozeman.”

Jack’s heart sank again, only deeper this time. Much deeper.

Liv was interviewing for a job in Bozeman? And didn’t tell him? “You’re sure that’s
where she is, ma’am?”

“One hundred percent certain.” The staunch note in the elderly woman’s voice said
she shouldn’t be doubted. “She told me this morning she’d be at the interview and
then shopping. Might as well get stuff bought and taken care of when you’re in the
city, right?”

Jack’s heart deflated further.

He’d messed up his father’s financials with misplaced trust, and that seemed to be
the theme of the day because he never expected Liv to go off and get a job in the
city—a city an hour’s drive away in good weather—without making mention of it to him.

Doubts assailed him when he disconnected the call.

He thought they’d bridged a huge gap these past few weeks. When they were together,
the last thing he wanted to do was leave her and head home, alone. When they were
apart, he thought about her, nonstop. Right now his plans, hopes and dreams disappeared
in a puff of reality smoke.

Liv might be leaving. Heading back to her life, her career. And he knew this would
come, he’d expected as much initially, but that was before they’d had a chance to
talk, laugh, kiss.

And oh, that kiss. A once-in-a-lifetime event, a moment of pure, ever-after sweetness,
the kind of kiss that puts a man in mind of roots. Playgrounds. Porch swings.

He stared at the phone, hating how easy it was to find things out these days. In the
old days he’d have been left to learn bad stuff in a much slower time frame. He’d
have preferred that, because now he had the rest of the day working fence, alone,
thinking of all he’d lost.

Money he could replace. It would be a stretch, but he’d banked a good deal in Chicago
and his personal investments had paid off. It hurt, but the twenty-thousand loss wasn’t
a death knell for the ranch because he had the funds to cover it. But the thought
of Liv leaving, when every part of his being longed for her to stay?