washed clothes, Janette sewed on buttons, stitched up rips, patched holes and sewed pockets back on a variety of clothing.
“The hands are gonna be happier than frogs in a pond,” Rosalie said. “Some of those things have been in that basket so long I don’t remember what belongs to whom.”
“I’m happy to do something useful,” Janette replied.
“You’re useful, all right,” Rosalie said. “So useful, I’ll be carrying down a second basket of mending afore I start making those apple dumplings.”
A familiar and tantalizing smell met Gabe as he entered the house. Apple dumplings. Rosalie hadn’t made them in a while. Regardless of the heavy thoughts that had hung with him all day, a smile touched his lips at how his stomach growled. She’d made them because of their company, but that wouldn’t stop him from eating several. Having already washed up with the others near the bunkhouse, he headed straight for the wide staircase on the far side of the front foyer. In his room, he was surprised to see his favorite tan shirt in his wardrobe. Usually mending of any kind took Rosalie months. It never bothered him, but he had missed this shirt. Most of his others were too tight across the shoulders.
After tucking in the shirt, he combed his hair and left his hat on the dresser. His mother had been a stickler for hats not being worn at the table, and though she’d been gone over ten years, he abided by that rule every evening. Along with several other women, his mother had been in his thoughts today. She’d have been beside herself with happiness to see Ruby. Father, too. They both had talked about generations of Callaways living on the Triple C. Mother had loved the ranch as much as the rest of them and had worked as hard. She’d been the one to teach him how to use a branding iron, along with various other tasks. Back then, Father had been gone a lot. Buying cattle, driving them home. Mother had always stayed home and saw that the work was done just as regularly as Father would have. Anna’s enthusiasm at seeing the ranch had reminded him of his mother. Although she’d been on her way to Denver, Anna had said she didn’t like living in the city, but that her sister did.
Janette was that sister. The one who’d insisted Anna go to Denver. He wasn’t about to let Janette have the chance to insist Ruby do anything. Especially something she wouldn’t want to do. He’d concluded that while sorting out the cattle that would soon be driven to the rail station and shipped west.
Miss Janette Parker was about to see just how stubborn he could be.
A thought had him pausing in his bedroom door, taking a moment to inspect the stitches that secured the pocket to the front of his shirt. He’d accidentally ripped the pocket completely off a while back. The neat and even stitches were not Rosalie’s handiwork. She’d been mending his clothes for years and had never mastered the art of even stitches.
Oh, well. The repair of a shirt, his favorite or not, would not put Miss Janette Parker in a better light. Not in his mind. Or his life.
Gabe made his way through the second floor and down the stairs before he heard the laughter. It made him stop and listen. It had been a long time since the sound of a child’s laugh had echoed off these walls. Some of the walls—actually, most of them—hadn’t been there when he and Max had been small. A lot had changed since those early years, and in the last five years. The building of the railroad had a lot to do with the changes. Ever since that first engine, almost every train that stopped several miles north of the house to take on water also unloaded building materials his father had ordered. For the past six years, he’d been the one ordering the materials and the supplies to keep the Triple C prospering.
Giggles still filtered the air, and once again, he found himself cracking a grin. It was clearly a child’s laughter, a little girl’s. Even small, girls and boys sounded different. A pang shot across his stomach. One that held sorrow. If Max had chosen differently, he’d be here now to hear his daughter’s laugh.
That idea was still mingling in Gabe’s mind when he pushed the kitchen door open. Without thought, he reached down and scooped up the flash of fur trying to escape the room by running between his legs. About the same time he caught the kitten, Ruby skidded to a halt in front of him.
Before, he’d thought she looked like Anna, but at this moment, he saw Max. The streak of freckles across her nose is what did it. He’d teased Max about those spots more than once. Max had gotten back at him with his own teasing. They’d been each other’s greatest opponent as well as best friend.
Kneeling down, he held out the black-and-white kitten. “Is this little rascal trying to escape?”
Ruby nodded.
“Why?”
“Ruby was—”
Gabe let his gaze stop Janette’s explanation. “I think Ruby can answer for herself.” Smiling at the child, he said, “Can’t you, Ruby?”
Nodding, she said, “It ran back in the house.”
“It did?”
“Yes, it did,” Janette said. “Ruby put the others on the porch, but—”
His leveled gaze stopped her again. The child didn’t need her protection, not from him. She, on the other hand, might if she kept interrupting.
“It doesn’t want to stay on the porch with the others?” he asked Ruby.
She shook her head and frowned. “No.”
He could look high and low and never find another little girl as cute as this one. Stroking the kitten’s back, he said, “Maybe because this one likes you.”
Her smile made his heart tumble as it never had before. At that moment she was the spitting image of Max, and the shot of pain that ripped through Gabe told him just how much he missed his brother. Would forever miss him.
His throat grew scratchy and thick as he forced his thoughts to remain on Ruby. “Would you like to keep this one with you?” he asked.
“Yes,” Ruby said, clapping her hands together. “Yes. Yes.”
“Then here you are.” Handing her the kitten, he helped her get a solid grasp on the tiny, furry body before he glanced across the room at Rosalie, who was grinning. “Would you find a basket for Ruby’s kitten?”
“Right away,” Rosalie answered. “I have one in the washroom that will work perfectly.”
“That way it won’t run away while you’re eating,” Gabe said to Ruby. “Afterward, you can take it upstairs to your room.”
Ruby nodded while clutching the kitten beneath her chin.
He’d have had to be dead to not feel the glare Janette was giving him as she stood behind Ruby with both hands on her little shoulders. However, he could choose to ignore it.
“Do I smell apple dumplings?” he asked Ruby.
“Yes,” she said, with almost as much enthusiasm as she’d used a moment ago.
“Do you like apple dumplings?”
She shrugged.
“You’ve
