“Letty’s always been a neat freak. Remember how she used to drive me crazy with the way everything had to be just so?”
Chase nodded.
“She left the dinner dishes in the sink all night. I found her putting them in the dishwasher this morning, claiming she’d been too tired to bother after Mary left. Mary was gone by seven thirty!”
“So she’s a little tired,” Chase muttered. “Let her sleep if it makes her happy.”
“It’s more than that,” Lonny continued. “She doesn’t sing anymore—not a note. For nine years she fought tooth and nail to make it in the entertainment business, and now it’s as if…as if she never had a voice. She hasn’t even touched the piano since she’s been home—at least not when I was there to hear her.” Lonny frowned. “It’s like the song’s gone out of her life.”
Chase didn’t want to talk about Letty and he didn’t want to think about her. In an effort to change the subject, he said, “Old man Wilber was by the other day.”
Lonny shook his head. “I suppose he was after those same acres again.”
“Every year he asks me if I’d be willing to sell that strip of land.” Some people knew it was spring when the flowers started to bloom. Chase could tell when Henry Wilber approached him about a narrow strip of land that bordered their property line. It wasn’t the land that interested Wilber as much as the water. Nothing on this earth would convince Chase to sell that land. Spring Valley Ranch had been in his family for nearly eighty years, and each generation had held on to those acres through good times and bad. Ranching wasn’t exactly making Chase a millionaire, but he would die before he sold off a single inch of his inheritance.
“You’d be a fool to let it go,” Lonny said.
No one needed to tell Chase that. “I wonder when he’ll give up asking.”
“Knowing old man Wilber,” Lonny said with a chuckle, “I’d say never.”
—
“Are you going to plant any avocados?” Cricket asked as Letty spaded the rich soil that had once been her mother’s garden. Lonny had protested, but he’d tilled a large section close to the house for her and Cricket to plant. Now Letty was eager to get her hands in the earth.
“Avocados won’t grow in Wyoming, Cricket. The climate isn’t mild enough.”
“What about oranges?”
“Not those, either.”
“What
does
grow in Wyoming?” she asked indignantly. “Cowboys?”
Letty smiled as she used the sturdy fork to turn the soil.
“Mommy, look! Chase is here…on his horsey.” Cricket took off, running as fast as her stubby legs would carry her. Her reaction was the same whenever Chase appeared.
Letty stuck the spading fork in the soft ground and reluctantly followed her daughter. By the time she got to the yard, Chase had climbed down from the saddle and dropped the reins. Cricket stood awestruck on the steps leading to the back porch, her mouth agape, her eyes wide.
“Hello, Chase,” Letty said softly.
He looked at her and frowned. “Didn’t that old straw hat used to belong to your mother?”
Letty nodded. “She wore it when she worked in the garden. I found it the other day.” Chase made no further comment, although Letty was sure he’d wanted to say something more.
Eagerly, Cricket bounded down the steps to stand beside her mother. Her small hand crept into Letty’s, holding on tightly. “I didn’t know horsies were so big and
pretty,
” she breathed.
“Firepower’s special,” Letty explained. Chase had raised the bay from a yearling, and had worked with him for long, patient hours.
“You said you wanted to see Firepower,” Chase said, a bit gruffly. “I haven’t got all day, so if you want a ride it’s got to be now.”
“I can ride him? Oh, Mommy, can I really?”
Letty’s blood roared in her ears. She opened her mouth to tell Chase she wasn’t about to set her daughter on a horse of that size.
Before she could voice her objection, however, Chase quieted
Suzy Spencer
Christine Whitehead
Kelly Favor
Jane Higgins
Arabella Quinn
Gilbert Adair
Aubrey St. Clair
James Twining
James Patterson
Nikki Roman