Seeking Home, page 4
part #1 of Family Bonds Series
“Maybe you were right,” Sabine agreed as she opened the door to their room. Then she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight that greeted her.
“Well, you said the cabin probably leaks, but it looks like our room does too,” Olivia said, peeking past her mother.
“Leaks is putting it mildly,” Sabine said with a shudder of dismay. There was a huge wet spot on her bed and a puddle of water on the floor. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the window had been left open and the rain was being driven in by the wind.
“This is not good,” Sabine groaned as she walked into the room to assess the damage. Thankfully she had taken the time to put their clothes and suitcases away, because the chair she had initially had her suitcases laying on was soaked.
“We’ll have to get another room.” Olivia pushed on the wet spot on the bed, then pulled her hand back, looking up at the ceiling. “Look.”
Sabine glanced up and her heart fell. Water was dripping through a large crack in the ceiling. It looked as if the ceiling might come down.
“We need to leave right now.” Sabine grabbed their suitcases and set them by the door. It took her only minutes to pack up what they had unpacked. Sabine did a quick double-check to make sure they’d gotten everything then hightailed it out of there. On the way down the wide stairwell they met the bridal party women heading up. The women said hello, told Olivia she was adorable, then went to their rooms.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Olivia said.
Sabine followed her to the bathroom off the lobby to make sure she was safe. Sure this was Rockyview, but still...old city habits don’t disappear in twenty-four hours.
Olivia, as usual, took her sweet time. While Sabine waited, the bridal party came storming down again. Jeepers, those girls were jittery.
Sabine went into the bathroom to chivy Olivia along. Thankfully, she was washing her hands, singing a song, which made Sabine smile. It was good to see her happy.
As they left the bathroom, Sabine heard the girls’ raised voices, a chorus of complaints. Larissa was gone and the young woman behind the desk who had taken over looked completely undone. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” she was saying to the girls. “There’s not much I can do to help you.”
“There’s no way we can stay—”
“My clothes are wet—”
“Glad this didn’t happen while we were sleeping—”
“I want my money back. I want to talk to the owner.”
“I’m sorry. She’s in a meeting in town,” the young woman said.
“And who are you?” one of the bridal party friends demanded.
“Charlotte. I’m the usual desk clerk and I can see what I can do for you.” She sounded flustered and Sabine didn’t blame her.
“Don’t bother. I’m looking for other places to stay.” Two of the girls had their phones out. “We can’t stay here.”
Sabine walked to the desk, curious now.
One woman in the bridal party turned to her. “Have you checked your room? Apparently, the roof is leaking.”
“Yes. My bed is soaking wet,” she replied. She turned to the woman named Charlotte. “My name is Sabine Radowski. I’m in room 203. Where is Larissa, the owner?”
From behind the desk, Charlotte turned to her with a look of alarm. “You too?”
“Yes. I’ll need another room.”
Charlotte looked pained. “There are no other rooms. Larissa is gone. The inn was full before this mess.”
“So is the Pines, another inn here and the inn at Cordell Run, the nearest town,” one of the bridal party said.
Then a young woman raised her hand in a gesture of triumph. “Score, ladies. I got us in at the last bed and breakfast in Rockyview.”
The last?
“Are you sure?”
“Yup. All the other places are full up,” the young woman said.
Which meant there would be no place nearby for her and Olivia to stay. The nearest place after Cordell Run was Highlands, a hundred kilometers away.
“Well, I guess we’ll have to stay at that cabin on the ranch after all,” Olivia said. “Phone Mrs. Bond and ask her. She said we could.”
Sabine looked at the girls who were hurriedly making their own accommodation plans, knowing she was too late to find anything nearby.
“Okay. I’ll call, but she might have changed her mind.”
Jennie Bond, however, had not and would gladly have them come and stay.
Sabine turned off her phone and picked up her suitcase. “Well, punkin, guess we’re staying at the ranch.”
Olivia cheered, and as Sabine waited for the bridal party to finish checking out, concern trembled through her.
Though she was annoyed that Tanner wouldn’t be available to show them around, given his reaction to Olivia, she was secretly glad.
There was no way she was putting her daughter through that type of rejection again.
Chapter 3
“I thought you had everything set up with Jennings?” Tanner said, toying with the coffee mug in front of him, stifling a flare of annoyance with his future partner. It was Tuesday morning, and he and Ken were meeting the owner of the company they were buying. But though they were supposed to meet at one-thirty, it was now two-thirty, and Jennings wasn’t here yet.
Ken leaned back in the restaurant booth, folding his arms over his chest. “I guess he got delayed.”
“I thought he wanted to get this deal done quickly.”
“I thought so too,” Ken said. “But just because he’s an hour late doesn’t mean he’s bailing on us.”
Tanner and Ken had been dealing on an oilfield maintenance business based out of Texas. The owner had health issues and was looking for a buyer. Ken, Tanner’s father-in-law, knew the owner. And when Ken approached Tanner about a potential partnership, Tanner had initially been hesitant. He had worked hard the past couple of years and had hoped to take some time off to do some traveling.
Try to keep outrunning the grief that could twist his stomach with a relentless fist.
Then he got the phone call from Louise, his mother-in-law, pleading with Tanner to reconsider. Ken hadn’t been the same since Dana and Paulette’s deaths, Louise had said. But since finding out about this business, and Tanner’s potential involvement, he was more his old self.
Which immediately made Tanner feel guilty and annoyed at the same time. As if Tanner had been the same since his wife and daughter’s death. As if Tanner hadn’t suffered a devastating loss.
But the phone call underscored the guilt Tanner had felt ever since Dana’s accident. So Tanner had agreed to meet with Ken. One thing led to another, and now they were dealing on a business.
Tanner had wanted to be done with the ranch ever since Dana and Paulette died, but it was still his grandmother’s home. Then a few months ago she called him, saying that she wanted to move to town, and he saw his opportunity to get rid of the reminder of his deepest sorrow.
Ken’s desire to go into partnership was the final push he needed.
“Last time I talked to him everything was still a go,” Ken said. “And you’ll be getting the money for the ranch soon?”
“Yes,” Tanner said, his mind shifting back to Sabine and Olivia. “The takeover date is in three weeks.”
“I know I’ll be glad when you’re rid of that place,” Ken said, a note of anger in his voice. “Every time I think of the ranch—” His voice broke, and Tanner sat back and crossed his arms, steeling himself for the bitterness that Ken would often unleash.
“If only you had bought her that truck she wanted,” Ken continued, shifting into far too familiar territory. “She might not have had that accident.”
Tanner pressed his lips together against the onslaught of his own emotions, recognizing Ken’s comments for what they were. The anguish of a father who had lost his daughter and granddaughter and who was struggling to make sense of the senseless.
Trouble was, a truck would have changed nothing. Dana had fought with him because he wouldn’t buy her a new truck like she wanted. She had grown up with parents who never said no to her. Who gave her whatever she wanted. Tanner hadn’t realized the extent of her parents giving in until he’d had to deal with her demands. Small at first. Harmless.
A new pair of boots two weeks after she just bought some. Then a trip she wanted them to take together. Slowly she demanded more and more, and Tanner belatedly discovered that her endless demands masked a deep insecurity. His buying things for her meant Tanner loved her.
But it was never enough. Not even the house that had cost him more than the ranch could afford.
“Do you think Jennings is firm on his asking price?” Tanner asked, needing to change the topic. He couldn’t follow where Ken was insisting on going.
The same landscape of guilt that Tanner wandered the first few years after Dana and Paulette’s deaths.
Ken shot him an angry look, as if annoyed at the change in the topic.
“We need to be on the same page if we want to bargain with him,” Tanner continued, determined to stick to the reason they were here.
“I think we can negotiate him down,” Ken said. “And we should try. The market isn’t as red-hot as it was a couple of years ago, so he might be open to bargaining.”
“I hope so. I got good money from the ranch, but I’ll need to set up my grandmother in a house in town.”
He would have had much more to work with, but he’d given half of the insurance policy from Dana’s death to his in-laws. Guilt again. It wasn’t a large policy, but it helped his in-laws pay down some debt they had incurred. Gave Ken some money to buy into this business.
“I was surprised when you told me that Stefan Radowski’s daughter was buying the place. He was such a pathetic rancher.” Ken shook his head as if in sympathy, but Tanner easily heard the condemnation in his father-in-law’s voice. “His dad worked so hard to get it going, and in one generation, nothing.”
“I heard he had a few tough years,” Tanner said, feeling a need to defend Sabine’s father. Especially considering Ken had his own financial problems.
“And now his daughter is back to finish what her grandfather started. Where did she get the money? Win the lottery?”
“A life insurance payout. Her husband also died in a vehicle accident.” He tried to keep his tone noncommittal, but Ken didn’t seem to get the grim irony of the situation.
“I guess it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you can finally move on.” Ken gave Tanner a careful smile. “I’m so glad you’re doing this business deal with me, Tanner. It means so much to me and Louise that we can stay connected. Dana was our only daughter.”
“I think it’s a good business. I like the look of the financials.” Once again Tanner struggled to bring the conversation back to the practical, away from the touchy-feely stuff that Ken always wanted to indulge in. Topics that always made him feel uncomfortable. “So how much should we try to bring him down?”
Ken waggled his hand in an unsure gesture. “We could try for twenty percent. See how he reacts.”
Tanner nodded, opening the folder with the copy of the financial records he had in front of him. They went over a few figures. Made sure they were in agreement about what to negotiate.
While Ken was talking, however, Tanner’s mind slipped back to Sabine, feeling another flash of guilt. He should have stuck around the ranch to show her around.
And face her daughter? Be reminded of what he had lost?
He shook off the thoughts just as Ken’s cell phone rang.
Ken smiled as he picked it up. “It’s Jennings,” he said with a smile of relief. He took the call, leaning against the upholstered back of the restaurant booth. “Hey there. What’s up?”
Tanner heard only a vague chatter coming through Ken’s phone, but the frown on his father-in-law’s face didn’t bode well. When Ken leaned forward, leaning his elbows on the table, his lips thinned, Tanner felt a niggle of unease.
“Okay, I understand...nothing you can do about that...okay...we’ll set up another date and time.”
Ken nodded, listening, then thanked Jennings and said good-bye.
He dropped his phone on the table with an expression of disgust. “Well, setting up a meeting this week is a bust.”
“What do you mean?”
“He won’t be coming. Said he had some other obligations he had to meet that had just come up, and so he can’t meet with us.” Ken drummed his fingers on the table, telegraphing his annoyance. “Asked if we could wait a week until his calendar cleared up.”
Which meant Tanner had nothing to do for the next little while.
Which meant he could tell Joe his services weren’t needed to show Sabine around, but Tanner knew he wasn’t ready to spend time at the ranch with Sabine and her daughter. Too close. Too painful.
But he also owed his nana some time.
“I know that leaves you at loose ends,” Ken said. “Why don’t you come and stay with me and Louise? She’d love to have you, and I guess you would probably prefer to be away from the ranch, with that woman and her kid coming around every day.”
The idea of being with his in-laws was almost as hard as the idea of spending time with Sabine. The last couple of times he’d stayed with Ken and Louise, Louise had pulled out photo albums and talked endlessly about Dana and Paulette and how much she missed them.
The house had turned into a shrine to their daughter and granddaughter, with pictures everywhere, some blown up into poster-sized prints.
“I’ll figure something out. I should at minimum go back to see my nana today,” Tanner said, surprised at the tinge of annoyance he felt at how dismissively Ken referred to Sabine and her daughter.
“Of course,” Ken said. “I understand. But please know that our home is always open to you. Louise and I have always seen you as the son we would have liked to have.”
Ken had repeated so many variations of that theme that Tanner had often been tempted to tell him that he already had a mother and father. Even though she had passed away many years ago, and he had never really known who his father was, thanks to his nana and papa he never felt the need for other parents.
“Thanks. I appreciate that.” Tanner grabbed the copies of the financial statements that Ken had given him and held them up. “I can keep these? To go over until we meet with Jennings again?”
“Of course. That’s why I gave them to you.”
When Tanner stood, signaling the end of the meeting, he tried not to let Ken’s disappointed look settle in his soul.
I can’t give you what you need.
He dismissed the unkind thought. When Ken got up to give him a rough hug, Tanner returned it, patting him on the back.
They pulled away and, once again, Tanner saw unshed tears in his father-in-law’s eyes.
He gave him a tight smile, then with another good-bye, wound his way through the tables, headed toward the light spilling through the large floor-to-ceiling windows.
As he stepped outside, a spring breeze scattered a few papers down the sidewalk. Cars swished past and people hurried along, and he felt as if he had been released from a deep, dark vault.
However, as he walked back to his truck, he realized that he had no choice now but to head back to the ranch.
And spend time with Sabine and her daughter.
“I’m so glad you could stay at the cabin last night,” Jennie said, pouring Sabine another cup of tea as they sat on the deck of the house. “It will make looking over the ranch so much easier for you if you’re right on the property.”
Sabine took the mug with a grateful smile. “That it will, but I still feel like I’m imposing.”
Last night, when she and Olivia had come here, she’d gone over and over her reasons, pro and con, for finding another place to stay. She had even made a few phone calls while she drove to the ranch but discovered her only option for accommodation was to go back to Calgary, a three-hour drive away. Staying at the cabin was the most practical solution.
“Imposing on your own place?” Jennie waved off her comments. “The cabin is self-contained, so you can manage on your own. You’re not in the way at all.”
Sabine knew there was a cookstove and a refrigerator in the cabin. So she had stopped at a grocery store in town and purchased enough supplies to last a few days. Thankfully there were also pots and pans and dishes supplied in the cabin.
“And what have you seen on your travels around the ranch today?” Jennie asked as Olivia took another cookie.
“Still haven’t found that cat you told me was having kittens,” Olivia returned, sitting on the deck, her legs crisscrossed as she munched on yet another cookie. “But me and Mom walked through the corrals. This time we wore our rubber boots.”
“A little more prepared this morning,” Sabine said, cradling her steaming mug of tea.
The sun was playing hide-and-seek with the clouds scudding across the sky, remnants of the storm that lasted until late this morning.
She and Olivia had slept in, lulled by the drumming of the rain on the roof, knowing they wouldn’t be able to see much until the rain stopped.
Once it was over they walked around the yard. They hadn’t gone far, however, hampered by the mud, but Sabine had a good enough look around to know what she needed to prioritize.
“And what have you discovered so far?” Jennie asked.
“I can see I might have to do some drainage work on the cattle yard as well as replace some of the fencing in the corrals. The pasture fences that I could see from the yard look solid.” She sounded more optimistic than she felt. The thought of trying to figure out where all the pastures were and how to check them out had overwhelmed her. For a moment, she had given in to the despair. In her pride and need to prove herself, had she taken on too much? Had she put her daughter in a tenuous place by taking her away from the only home she had ever known?
And alongside her second thoughts lay some resentment against Tanner for leaving her stranded when Floyd had initially assured her that Tanner would stick around for the first week to help her out.
