When Love's Gone Country (Sequel two of the Embracing Love Trilogy) (13 page)

“Who’d have thought they’d use a golf cart on a ranch?” Jeremy said. “This is awesome!”

“Faster, too,” Jacob said.

The pace was a bit slow, but necessary, as they were looking for signs of wear and tear as well as places where the wood was rotting away or a post had become unsteady.

“You still plannin’ on leavin’?” Jeremy asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You didn’t say it.”

“What?”

“And one for all. You mouthed the words. I don’t think nobody else saw, but I did.”

“I don’t expect you to understand.”

“I get more than you think I do. I grew up in that house, too, you know.”

“It was different for you. You had me to protect you. I didn’t have nobody.”

“If I’d a been older, I would have protected you.”

“I know. I ain’t blamin’ you. I’m glad things weren’t as bad for you.”

“Don’t make it no easier on you, though, does it?”

“I wish it did.”

“I know you got a gun.”

Jacob glared at Jeremy, then nodded his head toward the two ranch hands in the front seat.

“I ain’t gonna tell nobody. I just want you to know that I know. Does it make you feel better, stronger?”

“In a way. No one is ever gonna hurt me again.”

Jeremy nodded his head and chewed on the inside of his cheek.

“You boys look over to the right,” TJ said.

“It’s a bird,” Jeremy said.

“It’s an eagle,” Jacob said. “Look at that wing span!”

“He’s a beauty all right,” Bart said. “There’s a couple of nests here at the ranch. I never get tired of seein’ ‘em fly across the sky.”

“Is that water I hear?” Jeremy asked.

“Yep. Got ourselves a waterfall ‘bout half a mile up ahead.”

“Must be a big one to hear the water from here.”

“It is. Downstream is good for fishin’, too.”

“Do you think we could go fishin’?” Jeremy asked.

“Don’t see why not. Swimmin’, too.”

“You don’t have a swing, do you?”

“Now how could we be country and not have a swimmin’ hole with a swing?”

Jeremy nudged Jacob. “Did ya hear that? We get to go swimmin’ and swingin’ and fishin’. This is the best vacation ever!”

Chapter Sixteen

After a dinner with roast chicken as the star, Bobby declared, “I’ve eaten more in the last two days than I usually eat all month.” He pushed his chair back and stood up. “Oh.” His hand instinctively began unknotting the muscle in his lower back.

“I think we’re all going to be saying that.” Meg stood up and felt a strain in both her thighs.

“You think you’re sore now, wait until tomorrow morning,” Courtney said. “And no hot shower before chores to help unstiffen our muscles.”

Jeremy shrugged. “I don’t hurt nowhere.”

“Anywhere,” Meg corrected.

“That’s what I said. I don’t hurt nowhere.”

“She meant you should use the word anywhere instead of nowhere,” Bobby said.

“That grammar thing, again?”

“Yep, that grammar thing again.”

“I don’t know why it’s so hard to figure out. I learnt a lot last year in Mrs. Crabapple’s class.”

“Learned a lot,” Meg said.

“What’s the difference between learnt and learned?”

“A t and an ed,” Court said.

“You’re not helping,” Meg said, throwing a frown in her friend’s direction.

“But you knew what I meant. Ain’t that what communication is supposed to be all about, sayin’ something so someone else can understand it?” Jeremy asked.

Brad grinned. “He’s got you there. What say you, teacher?”

“You’re right, I did understand what you meant, but I wouldn’t have had to guess or figure it out if you had used the right word to begin with. Good communication shows that you respect the person you’re talking with.”

“You mean talking to,” Jeremy said.

“Actually, I meant talking with. You can’t have a conversation by yourself, you need two people, so I used the word with. And, if communication is a two-way street, no one is actually talking to or at someone, it’s a mutual exchange of information.”

“Court has conversations with herself all the time,” Jacob entered the conversation.

“Why are you singling me out? We all do it. It’s like my internal self talking to my external self.”

“She said talking to, not talking with,” Jeremy pounced on the word usage.

Meg sighed. “It can be very confusing. That’s why there are agreed upon ways to use words correctly, to eliminate confusion and misunderstandings.”

“I learnt today that I have muscles in places I never knew I had ‘em,” Alex said with a laugh.

“You guys are so incredibly not helpful!” Meg limped toward the bathroom. “I’m taking a hot bath. If I learnt anything today, it was that I’m not as young as I used to be.”

“How are you feeling, honey?” Alex asked Purity.

“I’m good. I think they took it easy on me, being pregnant and all.”

Frank and Emma came through the doorway. “How ya’ll feeling tonight?” Frank asked.

“Sore.”

“Tired.”

“Achy.”

“Sounds about right,” Emma said, a smile softening her words. “We brought you some things you might find useful.”

“What?” Jeremy asked, jumping up from his chair and running over to see what was in the bags they were carrying.

“Epsom salt, Icy Hot, cold and hot patches, flexible wraps for your knees and a bunch of other stuff. If you need anything we didn’t think of, just let us know,” Frank said.

“It gets better,” Emma said. “I know it doesn’t seem like it will, but it does.”

“And tomorrow’s the hoedown, you’re goin’ to love that. It’ll give you a chance to get to know some of the folks ‘round here, listen to great music and dance,” Frank said.

“I’ve never heard of a hoedown,” Jeremy said. “Is there food?”

“You betcha!” Emma said.

“When is it?”

“Tomorrow night at seven. We’ll have it in the big, red barn at the west end of the ranch.”

“I ain’t seen no big, red barn.”

“The ranch is big. You’ve only seen half of it. Wait until you get to see where the cattle roam free. It’s beautiful territory.”

“I thought all the cows were in the paddock.”

“Oh no, we have several areas where we keep the cows. You’ll see them all.”

“We need more time. How are we ever gonna see everything in two weeks?”

“The Peterman’s have it all figured out, I’m sure,” Bobby said. “Thanks for the healing aids. I think Meg would appreciate that Epsom salt right about now.”

“I put some lavender bath oil in there, too. The soul needs tending, too,” Emma said with a wink.

Bobby found Meg running bath water and gathering her pajamas and robe. “How you feeling?”

Meg sighed. “Do you think everyone’s having fun?”

“Yeah, of course they are.”

“I don’t know. Maybe this was a big mistake.”

“Come here.” Bobby wrapped his arms around Meg and she rested her head on his shoulder.

“I hurt everywhere. Even my toes hurt.”

“Emma and Frank brought over some pain relievers and items to help the bumps, strains and bruises.”

“Bless them.”

“They told us there’s a hoedown tomorrow night.”

“A hoedown?” Meg slipped away slightly from Bobby’s arms so she could see his face. “Really?”

“Really.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“I thought that might perk you up.”

Meg smiled. “It did. You do. Thank you for always being here for me when I need you.”

“There’s no place else I’d want to be.”

Meg lifted herself up on her tiptoes so she could give Bobby a kiss. “There’s room for two in the tub.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

While Bob and Meg soaked their aching muscles and flirted like a couple on a first date, Alex caught up with Frank and Emma as they were heading back to the main house.

“Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering how the cows were doing, the ones who were sick earlier?”

“Much better now,” Frank said. “They was poisoned.”

“Poisoned?”

“The water. We was lucky they didn’t damage the well or the spring, that would’ve taken the whole ranch down.”

“Any leads on who did this or why?”

“I’ve got my suspicions, but no proof. The boys are askin’ around. People who do things like this like to brag about it. Word gets around pretty quick.”

“Is that the goal, to put you out of business?”

“Some people don’t like that we offer city folk the chance to come and be a ranch hand for a couple weeks. They say it takes jobs away from the town folk.”

“I suppose it does.”

“But there’s another side to it. It’s a great learning opportunity. And, because we take in more money, we’re able to pay our hands more. That’s one of the reasons we have such a low turnover rate with staff.”

Emma added, “We don’t have anyone at the Double Y who hasn’t worked here at least three years. No other ranch ‘round these parts can say that. I think it rubs ‘em the wrong way that our staff are so loyal.”

“Do you have plans to protect the spring and the well? It seems like it was much too easy for someone to just walk into the ranch and do whatever they wanted.”

“We’ve beefed up our patrols. We do regular testing, too. We’d know if someone had tainted our water supply. We just didn’t think about them targeting one specific water trough.”

“We also don’t want to go around being paranoid all the time,” Emma said. “If someone wants to do somethin’ bad enough, they’ll find a way. I ‘spect it’s always been that way.”

“I suppose so,” Alex said. “I guess I had an image in my head of country folks all banding together when something bad happens.”

“We do, for the most part. A few years back, the O’Grady’s were hit hard when the river flooded. The ground was saturated. Crops destroyed. It was a hell of a mess. Every rancher for a hundred miles gathered their hands and showed up to help redirect the water. That was a mighty task, I’ll tell ya.”