A Ranch Between Them, page 16
“Noted.” Rescheduling would slow her down. Ambrose Valley Bank was her best bet for a loan, but if it wasn’t going to work out, then she needed to seek financing elsewhere.
“Katie, don’t be stubborn on this.”
She gave him a frowning look. Days of no communication and now he had stuff to say. Stuff she didn’t want to hear, because she intended to make this meeting. “I have four-wheel drive. I drove to school alone come hell or high water for two years. It isn’t like I’ll be out of my element.” She was a Montana native and she didn’t need to be coddled.
“All the same.”
For a moment, she thought he was going to touch her, and truth be told, that was probably the one thing he could do to sway her, but instead he jammed his hands back into his jacket pockets.
“I’ll text when I get there,” she said, her voice sounding unusually stiff. Due to disappointment because he hadn’t touched her? Maybe.
“Thanks.”
Was it her imagination, or was there a sarcastic note in his voice? “I’m not being stubborn. I’m weighing the odds. If I make it to the highway, it should be clear sailing.”
The stretch of highway between the county road and Gavin was especially well-maintained during winter because it was a school bus route. Brady scowled at her, shaking his head and making it obvious that he thought she was being stubborn, then took a step back, silently acquiescing—or so she thought until he broke that silence.
“I don’t like this.”
“I understand.” Snow swirled around them, stirred up by a gust of wind, pelleting Katie’s cheeks with sharp ice crystals. But it wasn’t falling from the sky. That was coming within the hour and she needed to get moving to beat it. “But I’ve got to go.”
Katie got into the truck and turned on the wipers to clear the windshield of the windblown snow before putting it into gear. As she drove toward the cattle guard at the main gate, she glanced in her rearview mirror. Brady was standing exactly where she’d left him, hands pushing into his pockets, watching her leave.
She fixed her eyes back on the road, the better to avoid hitting the upright next to the cattle guard, and tightened her jaw muscles. Her decision would have been the same if she’d been discussing the matter with Nick or her grandmother and that was the end of it. She wasn’t being stubborn. She was taking a calculated risk. Something Montanans did all winter long.
* * *
THE SNOW WAS coming down hard by the time Brady wrapped up his day’s work in the shop and started trudging across the driveway to the house. His phone rang in his pocket and he answered it as he walked.
“Brady. It’s Stan.”
He stopped walking. “Good news, I hope?”
“This isn’t about the land. It’s about a job.”
Brady trudged on. “What kind of job?”
“Nothing certain, but a ranch job. I know the owners of the Bar HM in Wyoming. I assume you’ve heard of the place.”
“Uh, yeah.” Who hadn’t? It was fairly famous.
“Harp Martin might be looking for a guy to manage one of their smaller properties in southwest Montana. I want to put your name in for the job.”
“Why?” Brady had a feeling it was because Stan felt a touch of responsibility for Brady’s current situation, which was off the mark. There was only one guy responsible for that and it wasn’t Stan.
“What do you mean why?”
“It’s not like I have a lot of ranch management experience.” He knew how to run the Callahan place, because he’d practically grown up there. He’d learned a ton from Carl Callahan. But he wasn’t ready to manage a place he didn’t know.
“You have common sense.”
“I need to learn more before I can become a proper manager.” Brady hesitated, then added, “If there’s something else, though, something I’m qualified for, I’m interested.”
“All right. I’ll tell Harp to keep you in mind.”
“Thanks for the call, Stan. I appreciate the thought.” He ended the call, wondering if he’d just shot himself in the foot again by not allowing Stan to put his name in for the job. He checked his phone before opening the door and stepping into his cheery cherry kitchen.
So far there’d been no text from Katie, who’d left an hour ago, but given the conditions, she was probably still on the road.
And regardless of what she’d said, she was stubborn. He’d offered to go with her earlier that day, but she’d turned him down flat. She’d kiss him, but she wouldn’t let him ride shotgun.
After shutting down the shop, he stopped by the barn to check on Lizzie Belle and Wendell, who were snuggled deeply into a bed of straw. Lizzie Belle jumped to her feet and bounded toward him as he closed the door, rubbing her nubby horns on his pant leg, while Wendell snuggled deeper in his goat bed. Brady smiled a little and stroked her head. Lizzie Belle headed back to her bed and flopped down next to Wendell. He was glad she finally had a friend. Nobody liked spending all of their time alone.
You thought that you did.
That had been true after his injury, when he’d felt like shutting out the world as he mourned. It was still true to a degree, but now it had more to do with the need to focus on his future and to try to make something of himself. It had to do with penance over breaking a promise he should have kept. It had to do with the natural consequences to one’s actions and dealing with them.
As he walked back to the house, he stopped to soak in the silence as heavy snowflakes covered his arms and shoulders and melted on his face. Perfect snowman snow.
They’d built a lot of snowmen on the Callahan Ranch as teens and he imagined that one of Nick’s first orders of business upon moving back to the ranch would be to make a snowman with his little girls, who’d never seen snow.
Kids.
What would it be like to be a dad?
He stomped the snow off his boots before walking into the kitchen, where he immediately checked his phone. Nothing.
His stomach tightened ominously even as he told himself that Katie had probably driven slowly and then forgotten to text. If she’d had issues on the road, he would have heard—unless those issues occurred in the same spot where he’d had his issues—on the far side of the bridge over the Ambrose River.
Not likely.
But he reached for the phone, then gave a jerk as it rang in his hand. The tight feeling in his stomach became a hard knot as he saw the number.
“Hi, Rosalie—”
“I haven’t heard from Katie yet. I called the bank and she’s late for her meeting.”
His first gut reaction was fear. His second was anger, at Katie for being stubborn and at himself for not being more insistent that she stay home. “She left well over an hour ago.”
“Maybe she’s driving slowly because of the snow.”
Rosalie’s voice had an edge to it. She was as worried as he was, but he kept his voice matter-of-fact and reassuring as he said, “Maybe. Tell you what. I’ll head out to take a look and call you.”
“Do that. I’ll call when she gets here.”
“Great. Be in touch.”
He hung up without saying goodbye and headed back to the hooks by the door, where he shoved his feet back into his arctic boots and shrugged into his coat. Seconds later he was in his truck and heading out the driveway.
If Katie’s truck slid off the road, her tracks would be covered in a matter of minutes the way the snow was coming down, so he drove slowly after crossing the river, peering through the windshield as the wipers did their best to beat back the snow.
He went especially slow on the corners, the most likely spot for Katie to leave the road—unless something had happened on the highway going to town. But there was cell service on the highway, and if there’d been an accident, Rosalie would know by now.
Maybe Katie had already made it to town, and Rosalie wasn’t able to contact him because he was in the dead zone. Best possible scenario, and the one he was rooting for as he continued the slow drive down the blanketed road.
He was almost to the turnoff onto the county road and beginning to think that Katie probably had driven slowly, and was quite possibly at Rosalie’s house, when his headlights illuminated a dark form emerging out of the swirl of snow. A dark form that was definitely not a deer.
Brady slowed to a stop, then threw the truck into Neutral, pushed the emergency brake and jumped out. The form started moving toward him a little faster.
“Katie!”
“More like your friendly neighborhood yeti,” she grumbled as she slogged forward.
If she could joke, she was okay, but that didn’t stop Brady from moving more quickly through the snow, and when he reached her, he didn’t hesitate to put his arms around her and pull her close. She leaned into him, then pulled back to look up into his face. Snowflakes clung to her eyelashes and melted as they hit her cheeks. Her hat and shoulders were covered with snow.
“What happened?”
“There was this rabbit.”
“Funny,” Brady muttered, pulling her close again before letting her go.
She wrapped her arms around herself as a visible shiver ran through her. “That tire again. I had a flat. Couldn’t get the lugs off, so I started walking.”
Brady cursed under his breath. A flat. She hadn’t wrecked. She certainly hadn’t swerved to miss a rabbit. She was all right.
“The very last trouble I expected on this trip was tire failure.”
“Let’s get you back to the ranch.”
She shook her head. “We should get the truck.”
He lifted a hank of damp hair that escaped her hat. It was almost frozen. “You’ve got to be freezing.”
“A little, but I’d feel better if we checked on my truck. Maybe you can get the lugs loose.”
Freaking Callahan stubbornness. But even though he wanted to get Katie in out of the weather, he wasn’t going to have a showdown over it.
“How far away?”
“No idea. It was dark and white. I couldn’t get my true bearings. I figured I would be closer to a cell signal if I walked this way, though, rather than toward the county road.”
Brady turned the heater on high after they’d got into the truck and the windows started fogging from the inside, telling him just how wet she was.
“Are you sure about the truck?” Because all he wanted to do was to get her home and into dry clothing.
She nodded instead of saying yes, and he had a feeling it was because she knew her teeth would start chattering if she tried to talk.
“If you get hypothermia, I’m not letting you live it down.”
“Somehow I think being in a Ford sauna is going to keep my core temperature from dropping too much.”
“Fine, but do me a favor and stay in the truck where it’s warm while I deal with the flat.”
She wrapped her arms around herself. “I won’t fight you on that one.”
“Good.” Because Brady would fight back on that one.
Katie’s truck finally appeared out of the wall of white, a hulking shape already covered with a good inch of snow. Brady continued driving for another half mile before coming to a turnaround spot. It was dicey getting his rig pointed in the opposite direction without getting stuck, but he got turned around and pulled to a stop next to Katie’s truck.
Using a cheater bar—a pipe he carried in the back of his truck for just such occasions—to act as an extension of the wrench handle, he was able to loosen the lugs and commence changing the tire. And he had to give Katie credit for staying in the truck. It wasn’t until he began the awkward process of lifting the tire and matching holes to lugs that she broke her promise and joined him. She knelt beside him and, with her shoulder pressed against his, helped maneuver the heavy wheel into position, then stayed beside him until he had all the nuts back on and tightened. He tossed the hub cover into the bed to deal with later.
“Let me drive this one. It’s cold and it needs to be turned around.”
She nodded and headed back to the warmth of his truck. A few seconds later, Brady had her rig started and was driving toward the turnaround area. As he expected, she was waiting for him, and as he passed her to break trail, she pulled in behind him. Brady focused on the road. His tracks were already close to invisible, but the traction was good, and as long as Katie’s headlights were behind him, he was good.
They drove onto the ranch and swung in a wide circle, parking side by side facing the cattle guard that crossed the driveway—the better to get moving again if the snow got too deep.
“I called my grandmother and explained,” Katie said as she came around his truck, arms once again hugged around her body. “So all is well. She said I’m to thank you for rescuing me.”
“Get in the house,” he said gruffly.
“Yeah.” Her teeth clacked on the word.
She started across the drive, but before she made it more than a couple steps, he called her name. She turned back, and words he didn’t expect came out of his mouth. “I’m making you dinner. Your place or mine?”
“What are we having?” She spoke casually, as if they were discussing dinner plans on a sunny afternoon, but he saw the shiver that went through her after she spoke.
“Steak and macaroni and cheese.”
“Sounds amazing.”
“I don’t know about amazing, but it will be warm and edible. We have to share a steak.”
She took a backward step in the direction of her house, hugging herself tightly as she said, “My place.”
“Be over shortly.”
“And, Brady?”
Instead of telling her to go inside, now, he said, “What, Katie?”
“Thank you for not saying, ‘I told you so.’”
“It wouldn’t have accomplished anything.”
She nodded, then turned and started trudging through the snow. Brady did the same, heading into his house to pack up what he needed to make Katie dinner.
* * *
AS SOON AS she got out of her freezing cold clothing, Katie perched on the edge of her bed, fighting shivers as she called the bank, explained the circumstances and set up a new appointment immediately after the loan officer returned from her vacation.
A flat tire. It wasn’t fair.
But she hadn’t gone into the ditch or had a snow-related problem, so she had to believe that she would have been fine if not for a nail in the road, or some such thing.
She and Brady were now even in the rescue department, but they were not even in the cooking department. This was the second meal he’d cooked for her—and wasn’t cooking one of the more intimate things one person could do for another?
Do you really want your thoughts heading in that direction?
She crossed the hall to the bathroom and cranked on the hot water in the shower.
Yes, she did.
Nick was on his way home—he wasn’t answering his phone, so he might well be stopped somewhere, waiting out the storm—and after he got home, she was certain Brady would leave at the first opportunity. He had his house on wheels, and he’d soon have his own property, but the sad truth was, she didn’t want to let him go—again.
After standing under a hot shower spray until the shivers stopped shaking her body, Katie dried off and dressed in loose pants and a short pink sweater. Her hair she left damp, combing it back away from her face to dry naturally. Makeup? She thought about it and nixed the idea. Brady had seen her at her worst—she’d been stunned to see snow-induced raccoon smudges under her eyes when she’d looked in the mirror before getting into the shower—both with and without makeup.
Brady was seasoning a largish slab of meat when she walked into the kitchen, looking very much at home. And why not? He’d spent years in this very kitchen. He glanced over at her, an expression of concern drawing his dark eyebrows together.
“How do you like your steak?”
Katie gave a little shrug. “I’m not fussy. How to do you like yours?”
“Medium.”
“Perfect. Do you want me to do something?”
“Sit back and relax.” He lifted the steak with a pair of tongs and set it in the pan. “Even if it is out of character for a Callahan.”
“I don’t see you doing a lot of relaxing.”
“I’m not in a position where I can relax.” He pushed the steak to the middle of the pan, then checked the mac and cheese. “I’m making up for lost time, missed opportunities and errors in judgment.”
“As well as broken promises?”
She saw his shoulders go tight, but his tone was mild as he said, “I regret some of the decisions I’ve made.”
“Who doesn’t?” It wasn’t like he was the only person in this world who’d broken his word. “I half wish that I’d never set out on my gung-ho career path. I mean, I pretty much left my late teens and twenties by the wayside as I marched toward a goal.”
“But look at you now,” he said to the frying pan. “You have employable skills that can earn you a decent wage. You have work experience.”
“Yes, but the longer I hold off getting a job in my field while I chase a dream, the harder it will be to get a job later.”
He shot her a look over his shoulder, then poked at the steak.
“All right,” she conceded his unspoken point. “I’m in better shape than you are employment-wise. How long are you going to use that excuse to keep your distance from me?”
If she thought his shoulders were stiff before, they were so tight now that she imagined they were starting to ache. Big deal. This was the moment she’d been waiting for—the time to get some answers to direct questions.
In response, Brady did what he did so well—he went silent. Katie forged on.
“I have another question. Why did you keep your distance back in the day? We spent a lot of time in the same places, but you ignored me.”
