The Outer Edge of Heaven (8 page)

When they were through bottle feeding, the babies climbed back through the hole to their momma as if they'd been trained, and Charlie wedged a piece of wood into the hole to keep them in until they came back to feed again. Watching the littlest pig eat and grow alongside the three children so happily was very fulfilling actually, and she walked back up to the main house feeling as if things here were truly going well.

Mid afternoon of that day, Charlie was in the kitchen when she heard Tuckett in the great room grumbling about something and then she heard him swear. For a few moments, she debated whether to let it go and then decided that no, swearing wasn’t what a priesthood holder should be doing with a motherly influence around. At least not on her watch.

When she walked into the room with the bottle of dish soap, he knew he was in trouble and made a dash for the door with her right behind him. He had quite a head start, so she wasn’t able to catch him until he’d nearly reached the indoor arena. But she finally ran him down and tackled him, laughing in the grass. Several messy minutes later they were both covered in dish soap, but there was a good chance Tuckett would never swear again in his life.

He got up gagging and spitting and she knew he wanted to cuss her, but he still laughed again anyway when he saw that she was as soapy as he was. He went to the water trough and began to rinse his mouth with the hose, and said, “Okay. I’ll stop swearing. Just don’t ever do that again. That stuff is nasty!” He accidentally blew a bubble and they both laughed some more.

Heading back to the house with her bottle of soap, Charlie looked up and saw Richard and Luke sitting their horses near the door of the indoor arena. They had watched the whole thing. She waved, wondering if they would think she was out of line, and then decided she had done her best and had to be okay with that. Still, at dinner that evening, she was a little bit tentative around Richard and was glad when he pulled her aside and gave her a one armed hug and thanked her for going to the trouble to wash Tuckett’s mouth out with soap.

****

Things
were
going well for her here in Montana. Her folks hadn’t found out she was working on a ranch, but they still weren’t thrilled that she was “fooling around out west”. She tried not to let her parents’ disapproval over her decision to come here bother her and she was having the time of her life.

Angela and Chase were a pain, but she'd learned to deal with them. There were times when Chase would come up behind her and try to hug her that she got feisty and learned to throw an elbow with expert precision, but all in all, he was mostly only a nuisance.

One day in the great room after just having knocked the wind out of him soundly, she tore into him. "Chase, how was it your parents knew to name you that when you were only a newborn baby? Would you please just leave me alone?" She shoved him as she walked past while he was still bent over sucking air. "Keep your hands off me, or I'm going to let you have it every single time!"

She picked up the basket of folded laundry she'd been carrying and was headed for the stairs when Luke poked his head out of the office to see what was going on. His face wasn’t happy and she tried to down play things as she rolled her eyes as she went past him. "He'll grow up and figure it out sometime."

Chase was relatively harmless and was only a nuisance to her. There was another guy there that actually scared her just a little. There was a ranch hand named Tyree something or other who lived in the other bunkhouse and had decided he had a thing for her. The very first time he'd paid extra attention to her, he had made the skin on the back of her neck prickle. There was something about him that flat out gave her the willies.

Fo had picked right up on her discomfort and tried to protect her from having to be around the guy, but it was a pretty small place when it came to that. She had to walk right past both bunkhouses on her way from the main house to her little cabin, and it had begun to feel a bit like running the gauntlet the last few days. She'd finally taken to following a circuitous route clear around the perimeter of the compound where Tyree wouldn't see her, but she felt foolish for letting him intimidate her like that. It wasn't like her to back away from much, but he truly bothered her for some reason.

She was determined not to let this new issue of the ranch hand interfere with her intentions to have a fabulous experience here this summer. Although she tried to stay away from him, she went on about doing what she could to be a mothering influence to the children as planned. Their garden was coming along beautifully, and she and the little ones spent some time every couple of days weeding and watering it with care. The little girls had started their dance lessons, and they had been practically living in their leotards and little dance skirts from the very first day.

Weeding and dancing and feeding the piglet were a bit of a deadly combination and the dancing clothes would probably never be the same, but the girls didn't seem to comprehend this. Charlie had worried the first time she caught Evie bottle feeding the pig and doing twirls at the same time, but the piglet appeared relatively durable and seemed to be able to handle it without throwing up its breakfast.

In the middle of the night that night Charlie woke up with the terrible thought that maybe piglets couldn't throw up and that it hadn't been able to even show it if it was motion sick. At breakfast the next morning she asked Luke if pigs could be sick if they needed to. He looked at her as if she'd grown an extra head. At that point, she decided she would let the pig be at risk rather than have Luke think she was crazy.

One day as she came in from helping Tuckett with a cow that had kicked the scraper he was using, she met Luke in the great room and had to laugh out loud when he smiled and said, "You stink like a farm girl."

Smiling sweetly in return, she replied, "That would be because I have bottle fed a piglet, taken a riding lesson, weeded a garden and helped Tuckett keep a cow from bleeding to death." Luke had sounded just like Fo for a second.

He raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "That explains it. How did you help Tuckett?"

"I held pressure on the bleeder while he did his darnedest to keep the cow snubbed tight to a post until the vet showed up."

She had to laugh again when he mimicked Fo as he said, "Dang, Chuck! I'm impressed! Your aroma is completely warranted."

She shook her head and grinned. "Well, if it's all the same to you, as soon as I check on the kids I'm going to go shower anyway, although it made Chase keep his distance, for once."

As he went into the office, Luke said, "Maybe you should wear that scent more often, for Chase’s sake.”

“It might even be worth it, but Fo would tease me mercilessly.”

“Tell me if Chase gets over the top and I’ll make him stop. And I promise I won't tell Fo anything about you smelling."

Charlie shrugged cheerfully. "He brought me here, knowing I could handle it."

Much as she tried to ignore the fact that she liked Luke too much, it was nearly impossible. There was a lot to like about Luken Langston. He was involved in everything around the ranch, and was in and out as he oversaw all the different crews and operations. A good portion of his time he spent in the ranch office there in the main house, and he took an active interest in how the kids were doing that was nothing short of admirable. He truly loved them dearly and they all knew it and adored him back.

Charlie tried, but the more she got to know him, the more respect she had for him and the way he lived his life. Every time she rode with Lindie, and especially as they became fast friends, Charlie felt guilty about her feelings for Luke.

The riding lessons were one of her favorite things about the whole summer. She had always loved horses, but had never had much opportunity to ride consistently. She was enjoying the whole experience enough that she felt silly about being paid for the chance to be here. After a week or two of riding in the arena, Lindie took them outside and they began to takes long trail rides. They would all come home tired but happy, and their skill and confidence with the horses were impressive for the short time they'd been at it.

Chapter 5

By the time she'd been at the ranch a month, about the only thing she could recognize from her old life was the ever undependable Taco Rocket. One afternoon it quit on the way home from town again. This time it didn't make the noise and then stall. This time she was only about a half mile from the ranch compound when it made a horrendous boom that nearly gave her a heart attack and shuddered as it belched a white cloud of smoke she couldn't even see through.

She finally got it stopped and hesitantly got out and opened the still smoking hood and looked at it. This stupid car had been the one thing that she'd successfully stymied her parents in in nearly her whole life. They hated it with a passion and she was relatively sure that was the reason that she'd insisted on not selling the car, even during the eighteen months of her mission to Portugal.

The car had been a total pain from the first day she had brought it home, but she cheerfully put up with its incredible lemonness because she knew she was in charge for just this one, petty little issue. It wasn't a money thing, or a college thing, or even a loyalty to the Honda corporation thing. It was that sweet, satisfying little thing called control. Her parents had never been able to get rid of this ugly silver problem, and she had almost learned to love it at the same time she cheerfully wanted to swear at it on a regular basis.

Fo had finally caught on to why she wouldn't part with the car after about six months of struggling with it. Ever since then he'd been totally on board whenever she needed help with it which was ridiculously often. Usually, he simply insisted on driving everywhere and would talk her into taking his or letting him run her if there was ever a safety issue involved.

Here in Montana she'd only ever had to drive it a handful of times, but it had never failed to break down even one of those few times. However, this was the first time it had ever pulled a full scale explosion. It had actually been quite frightening. The whole car had shaken.

She was still standing there looking at the smoke wafting off into the breeze when Luke appeared over the hill beside the road on a big bay horse. He tied the horse to the rail fence and slipped through to come and look into the engine with the same easy going attitude he approached everything else with.

When the car quit smoking and they could see better what was going on, he took out a pocket knife and then reached into the engine and pulled up a thick black hose that had a tattered end and sliced off the ragged part. Then he took a quarter out of his pocket and used it to loosen a hose clamp that he slipped over the end of the black hose, pushed it back onto something in the engine and then tightened it back up. With that done, he finally broke his silence. "Have you got any water in here anywhere?"

She dug into the back and got out the gallon jug she carried in case of emergencies and he used it to pour into the radiator. When he'd emptied it in, he said, "When I get in tonight I'll get you some more coolant, but you should be able to make it home fine with this much."

"You mean it's not finally dead forever?"

He smiled. "No, unfortunately. You only blew a radiator hose. It'll live to strand you many more times I'm afraid." With that, he calmly walked back over, ducked through the fence, got back on his horse and rode away.

Lindie had been right. He could fix anything. He’d just fixed an explosion with a pocketknife and a quarter.

He was as good as his word and that night after dinner when she wended her indirect way back to her cabin, Luke was there pouring engine coolant into her car for her. He looked up as she approached from around a nearby shed and asked, "Where have you been?"

"Up at the house, why?"

He nodded toward the shed she had just skirted. "Why are you taking the long way home lately?"

She felt slightly foolish, but leveled with him anyway. "Uh, well. I don't have to stop and visit with Tyree if I take the long way home."

He tightened the cap on her radiator and shut the hood. "I wondered if you were trying to avoid Chase. Does Tyree bother you?"

"Mmm. He doesn't bother me really. He just creeps me. Know what I mean?"

Shaking his head with that almost smile, he said, "No."

"He hasn't done anything to bother me, but he kind of makes my skin crawl. Sorry, that sounds rude, I know. I can't help it."

"Charlie, you don't need to apologize. Doesn't it occur to you that what you refer to as making your skin crawl could be a prompting to stay away from him?"

She met his eyes. "Yes, actually. I'm sure of it, in fact. That's why the funky route home. It just sounds a bit off the deep end when I voice it that way."

He picked up the empty coolant jugs. "Better off the deep end than sorry. Watch yourself and if I can find a half way plausible reason, I'll send him packing. He's not a great hand anyway." He set out toward the main house and then said over his shoulder, "Good luck with these fancy wheels."

She could hear him chuckling to himself as he went.

****

The half way plausible reason to get rid of Tyree became apparent sooner than later. The very next day when Charlie and the kids were headed to feed the piglet she caught the strangest smell coming from one of the sheds as she went past it. She could swear she was smelling marijuana smoke.

Just then Tuckett walked out of the shed and when he saw her he immediately looked guilty and hurried in the other direction. Charlie was horrified. She told the kids to wait for her right where they were and she opened the door of the shed and went inside. The smell was far stronger inside the closed shed and there was still the haze of smoke hanging in the air.

She wasn't surprised when Tyree stepped out of a stall and greeted her almost lazily. It was no great feat to figure out Tyree had been in here smoking pot with Tuckett. The air in the shed was nearly suffocating and she was instantly furious. She was so mad she decided to calm down and talk to Luke about this before deciding how to handle this situation.