The Cowboy's Homecoming

Then she looked at the back screen of the camera, adjusted a few settings, took a few more.

The only sounds were from Abby’s camera and the occasional lowing of cows from one of the pastures closer to the ranch. John, his father and Nick had moved the cattle a couple of months ago and had figured on moving them to the next pasture when Burt was here to do the anniversary piece.

Lee glanced over at Abby, wondering if she would be willing and/or able to come along on a cattle drive. His mouth quirked. Somehow he couldn’t imagine her on the back of a horse.

He was about to look away when she glanced over at him. Their eyes met and it took mere seconds to return to that breathless place of a few moments ago when he had steadied her. Then Abby averted her gaze and Lee gave himself a mental smack.

She’s here to do a job and you’re here to help her, he reminded himself, folding his arms over his chest. After that you’re both heading back to whatever it was you have to head back to.

* * *

“And how was your day at the Bannister place?” Abby’s mother asked, setting a plate of spaghetti in front of her.

Ivy Newton had always been slender, but the past few years had not been kind to Abby’s mom. Though her makeup was still impeccable, and her steel-gray hair fashionably styled in a trim pageboy, it wasn’t hard to see how time and the events of the past few years had taken their toll. Her cheeks were gaunt and her eyes dull, and once again Abby felt the guilt that always nagged at her when she thought of all her mother had lost after her father’s accident. Instead of spending her days taking care of the lovely home they had built up on the hill, puttering in their extensive gardens, her mother now held a job as the manager of the produce department of Saddlebank Market Goods.

“It was okay” was all she could say. Truth was, she wasn’t sure herself what to think of the day.

After Lee had brought her down from the original homestead, he showed her the house, yard and barns, giving her background information at each site. It had been a lot to absorb.

And from Lee’s account, it was evident he had shown her only a small portion of the Bannister wealth. Hard not to compare the palatial house she had only seen from the outside with the modest apartment her mother now lived in. Though the table and chairs she and her mother sat at were the same elegant set Ivy had been so proud to purchase, and the leather couch, love seat and hand-hooked rug were remnants of a more prosperous life, they looked out of place crammed in the small and somewhat dingy rooms.

Her mother sat down across from her, unfolding her napkin and setting it on her lap. “Spending the afternoon out there probably gave you enough for your piece?”