Unrepentant Cowboy

Leif had his doubts about that. He figured the only guarantee that truck would be safe was to replace it with a new one. “Did you get a cost estimate?”

“Don’t matter. Abe’s fair. He’s not gonna rip off anybody. I told him to bill the repairs to me. Joni can pay me back whenever she has some spare cash lying around.”

“That’s mighty generous of you.” And presumptuous. The same kind of controlling behavior that made R.J. think he could order his adult children around after ignoring them all their lives.

R.J. might convince Effie this sudden concern for family was genuine. Leif wasn’t buying it.

“Where and when do we pick up the truck?” Leif asked.

“Abe says it won’t be ready until late—maybe not until tomorrow. Just bring Joni back here with you and she can have dinner with us. After that one of us can drive her home if the truck’s not ready.”

There he went again. Making decisions for other people without consulting them. “Did it occur to you that Joni might have other plans for the evening?”

“Do you always go looking for complications, Leif? Sure you do,” he muttered without waiting for a response. “You’re a damned attorney.”

“I suppose you have a problem with that.”

“Don’t go getting riled,” R.J. said. “Didn’t mean it as an insult.”

Of course he had, but Leif didn’t give a damn what R.J. thought of him. “I’ll extend your invitation,” Leif said. “Whether Joni accepts or not is up to her.”

“Tell her Adam is grilling some Dry Gulch steaks. Hadley’s cooking up her twice-baked potatoes and Mattie Mae made a couple of her famous pecan pies. If Joni has plans, she’ll break ’em. Eatin’ don’t git no better than that.”

So Adam and presumably his wife and daughters and a woman named Mattie Mae would all be there. A family dinner; only they weren’t Leif’s family and never would be. Hopefully, Effie had come to that same conclusion after half a day with her illustrious grandfather and was ready to put the whole family togetherness scene behind her.

“Can you put Effie on the phone?”

“I could if she was around.”

“Where is she?”

“She and Hadley are riding the range. They’re liable not to show up back here before dark.”

“I thought Hadley had young children.”

“She does. Lacy and Lila are here with me and Mattie Mae. We got a mean game of Chutes and Ladders going.”

A doting grandfather—now that he was dying. “I’ll give Effie a call on her cell phone.”

“Capital idea. Let her tell you how much fun she’s having. That girl loves horses. Knows a lot about them, too. Bright as a new-mint penny and more spunk than you can hang on a barbwire fence.”

“Effie can do most anything she sets her mind to,” Leif agreed. Her mother had made that claim about her many times over the past fifteen years, not always as a compliment.

“Tell Joni if she has any questions about her truck to call me or Abe,” R.J. said. “Otherwise I’ll catch her up to speed at dinner.”

“I’ll see she gets the message.” Leif ended the call and punched in Effie’s cell number. She didn’t answer until the sixth ring. When she did, she sounded breathless.

“Dad. Guess what I’m doing?”

“You’re out horseback riding with someone named Hadley.”

“How did you know?”

“Your—” He barely caught himself before the word grandfather slid off his tongue. “R.J. told me. Sounds as if you’re having fun.”

“I am. We were galloping like the wind. I didn’t hear the phone until we stopped to let the horses drink from a creek that just appeared like a mirage.”

“I’m sure the horses appreciate that.”

“They do. You should see Aunt Hadley’s horse. She’s a beautiful chestnut filly that Uncle Adam gave her for her birthday.”

“What kind of horse are you riding?” he asked. Finally, Effie was communicating, and he wanted to encourage that—even if it was all about the horses at Dry Gulch Ranch.

“My mount’s a black quarter horse named Dolly and she’s perfect for me. She’s spirited, but she stood real still until I was in the saddle. And she responded to my every pull on the reins as if she had no problem letting me be in control.”

“That sounds like the perfect horse, all right.”

“Aunt Hadley named her horse Kenda. It’s an Indian name that means magical powers. Aunt Hadley says Kenda has the power to fill her heart with joy.”

“Nice name.” Aunts, uncles, a new grandfather. Effie was jumping on the family plan as if she was starving for relatives. Yet she’d all but closed him out since the divorce.

He’d tried everything he knew to get closer to her. It pissed him off royally that R.J. had gotten her to Texas with just a note and a promise of horses.

“We rode all the way to the gulch that the ranch is named after,” Effie continued. “It looks like a plain old gully to me, but it was dry as a bone.”

“I think I missed that on my tour.”

“We can go riding tomorrow and I’ll show you the gully and the pool we’re at now. Grandpa says he has the perfect horse for you.”

Probably one that would buck Leif off the second he settled in the saddle. And now Effie was talking about tomorrow like it was a done deal.

“There’s an old foreman’s cabin nearby,” Effie said. “No one lives inside, but I bet they could if they made a few repairs. I wanted to go inside and look around, but Aunt Hadley says it’s full of spiders and scorpions. We’re steering clear of it.”

“Very smart of you and Hadley.”

He’d like to stay clear of everything on the Dry Gulch Ranch, but if it took riding horses to connect with his daughter, then he’d have a sore butt and thighs by this time tomorrow.

That didn’t make R.J. the winner. Once Effie went back to California, R.J. would hopefully fade back into the woodwork.

By the time Leif finished his conversation, Joni, Ruby and the young rancher—a man named Latham Watson—had stepped outside the barn and Joni was giving them instructions for follow-up care.

He waited until Joni turned his way, smiled and motioned him over.

“Does this mean the patient is on the mend?” he asked.

“Benjy is resting now,” Ruby said. “I was afraid he was going to die, but Dr. Griffin knew exactly what to do.”

“But you need to watch what he eats,” Joni said. “No more leaving a bucket of apples where he can get to them.”