The Rancher's Homecoming

“Raccoons?”

“Annie can explain.”

“Then you’ll have to come back another day. Your daughter, too.”

“I’d like that.”

“I’m gonna ride a pony,” Nessa chimed in, forgetting all about her pressing need. “You said I could.”

Sam patted her head. “I have to buy some horses first.”

“High Country Outfitters are going out of business,” Fiona said, “and selling off their entire stable of trail horses. With no customers, they can’t afford the price of feed. You could probably pick up a few good head for a decent price.”

“Who do I talk to?”

“Will Dessaro’s their livestock manager. Anyone in town can tell you where to find him.”

“I’ll track him down first thing in the morning.”

Annie almost did a double take. How was it her mother knew about High Country Outfitters going out of business and she’d heard nothing?

Because she’d been busy with work and caring for Nessa and holding her family together.

And she hadn’t wanted to know. With each resident that was forced to move from Sweetheart, each business that shut its doors, she lost a small sliver of hope.

“I’d best get going, see to it those raccoons get fed.” Sam touched the brim of his hat and grinned at all of them. Annie the longest.

Her heart might be damaged, but it could still flutter. Which, to her dismay, it did.

If only Sweetheart were bigger than three square miles and one thousand residents—a number dwindling daily. Then maybe she wouldn’t be constantly running into Sam.

As she watched him stride confidently toward his truck, she wondered if that wasn’t what she secretly wanted. She had, after all, made an excuse to see him tomorrow.

She spun on her heels to find her mother, grandmother and daughter all watching him, too.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one susceptible to his charms.

* * *

THE PICKUP AND STOCK TRAILER looked out of place as it rumbled to a stop beside the old corral. So did the modern furniture that had been delivered hours earlier and set up in the ranch’s three bedrooms, kitchen and parlor.

Sam’s memories of the Gold Nugget were of a buggy sitting in front of the house, knotty pine rockers on the porch, blacksmith equipment hanging in the shed beside the barn and rooms filled with antiques and authentic reproductions used in filming The Forty-Niners. There had also been photographs of the stars and crew displayed on every wall in every room, along with articles on the actors’ lives and trivia about the show.

For some unknown reason, those photos alone had survived when everything else in the house was auctioned off.

In the evenings, after the tourists had left, the ranch would become eerily quiet. He and Annie would sit in the rockers or at the long oak table in the kitchen or lie on the squeaky mattress and box spring in the master bedroom and dream about the future.

If old Mrs. Litey, the longtime curator of the Gold Nugget, had caught them, she’d have skinned them alive.

And now, the ranch was Sam’s, thanks to the former owner deciding it was easier to sell the place than make the necessary repairs and upgrades.

A quick glance around revealed the ranch still needed a lot of work—starting with the corrals. The pine rails were broken and rotted in place and wouldn’t contain the horses he’d purchased that morning for very long. Fortunately, the construction contractor and his crew were arriving on Monday.

Sam walked over to greet the young cowboy emerging from the cab of the truck, a large shepherd mix tumbling out after him. Sam and Will Dessaro had spent a good two hours together, during which Sam inspected each horse in the High Country Outfitters’ string and negotiated the price. The deal was closed when he delivered the cashier’s check he’d obtained at the neighboring town fifteen miles away.

“You made good time.” He shook Will’s hand. The man’s grip was firm, his features strong and appealing. “Thought you might have some trouble loading all these horses by yourself.”

“Not likely.”

“Should we back the trailer up to the gate?” he asked.

“Don’t need to.”

This would be interesting, Sam thought as he watched Will open the rear of the trailer and lower the ramp. Only then did Sam realize all the horses stood loose, except for the first one. He alone was haltered and tied.

“Don’t you think you should—”

Before Sam finished his thought, Will was leading the haltered horse down the ramp. The nine others followed out of the trailer, one by one, nose to tail. The dog trotted along beside them. To Sam’s surprise, all ten horses stood quietly as Will opened the corral gate and then pushed inside, eagerly exploring their new home. Will swung the gate shut and latched it.

“I’m impressed,” Sam said.

“Not a contrary one in the bunch.”

Sam was a believer and convinced he’d made a good investment.

Together, he and Will unloaded bags of feed from the trailer’s front compartment and stacked them under the lean-to. Next, they ran a hose and filled the water barrel.

“Be back in an hour with the rest of them.” Will had promised he could deliver all nineteen horses in two trips, and it looked as though he was a man of his word.

“Any chance you can stick around afterward and maybe tomorrow? Help me with the horses?”

“Sure.”

“I’m not interfering with your job?”

“High Country Outfitters is out of business. You just bought what was left of my job.”

“Sorry about that.”

Will shrugged. “I noticed some of the horses have loose shoes.”

“Is there a farrier in town?”

“I did most of the shoeing for High Country.”

“Any experience with cattle?”

“My grandmother raised me. She ran near a hundred head.”