I might as well leave my luggage in the car, right?”
Corrie laughed. “Let’s get your things inside and we’ll catch up. Did Cottonwood Productions offer you a contract? And are they willing to wait?”
“Yes and no.” Melonie pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes as she trundled a bag up the steps. “When they realized I had to be here, they quietly shredded the whole thing.”
“Oh, Mel.” Lizzie stopped on the top step. “That could have been a huge step forward for you. Wasn’t it worth foregoing Uncle Sean’s bequest to give it a shot?”
Melonie shook her head as she climbed the stairs. “Breaking into cable is high risk. Most pilots go nowhere. Only a few make it, but with nothing to live on, the choice became a no-brainer. Ezra is shopping it around, but I’ve got bills to pay.” Ezra had been a photographer for the magazine. Now he was working freelance photography and videography.
“I hear you,” said Lizzie. “Come on in, let’s get you settled. And I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m hungry. Let’s make some sandwiches and eat them on the porch with the cute kid. We can play with the puppies.”
Cute kid. Puppies. Sandwiches?
Was this her low-carb, former publishing-executive sister talking? The one whose job disappeared along with their swindling father? She reached out a hand to Lizzie’s forehead. “No fever, but possible delirium. Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”
Lizzie laughed as Zeke popped in, grabbed a cookie, then headed right back out again. “I’m a rancher, Mel. Welcome to the Pine Ridge Ranch. It is—” she slipped an arm around Melonie’s shoulders and gave her a half hug as they moved to the stairs “—real nice to have you on board. I’m hoping you’ll be surprised by the reception you get when you meet the locals. I gave all kinds of people the last two copies of your magazine and they loved them. Who knows?” She lifted the suitcase to carry it up the stairs. “You might land some jobs here.”
Melonie had gotten an eyeful of what Shepherd’s Crossing had to offer when she shot past the farm drive on her first pass through. The small town just north of Pine Ridge featured worn-out buildings, paint-peeling facades and a pervading air of desperation. Not exactly a recipe for success.
She could make a difference. She knew that instantly, but she had no stake, no cash and no reserves to draw on. For a design person like her, Shepherd’s Crossing would be a fresh canvas. She’d love to engage her hands in a project like that, to help renovate a run-down community.
But she’d found out the hard way that nothing came from nothing, and without money... Well, there were no options without money.
“Ladies.”
That voice. Jace’s voice, ringing deep and strong and true. She came face-to-face with him as he crossed the broad front porch. She moved to the screen door and pointed. “They’re taking my things upstairs. Can I help?”
“Let Lizzie know we’ll be running hay all day. Have her text if she needs me between loads.”
“I will. And hey—I was short with you when I stopped by your place. I’m sorry.”
“No harm done.”
“There was,” she insisted, opening the screen door. For some reason she wanted him to understand. “Generally I’m a nice person. Except around horses and dirt and manure.”
He didn’t smile at the joke. He looked almost sorry for her, then put up his hands. “Apology accepted. Those of us who work around all three on a daily basis will be sure to steer clear.”
That wasn’t what she meant and only a thin-skinned, stubborn, boneheaded man would take it that way. A man with the greatest set of shoulders she’d ever seen.
He walked away, climbed onto the big machine and started it up. Then he rumbled it past the barns, down a long lane stretching to faraway fields. And he didn’t look back.
Jace parked the baler midafternoon and headed toward the ranch house for lunch. Bob “Cookie” Cook managed the ranch kitchen. He was gone for the day, but he’d texted that he’d left a platter of meat, cheese and sandwich fixings in the kitchen, along with a bowl of potato salad. After five hours of baling the important first cutting of hay, he and the others would get the hay under cover before the predicted overnight rain. Wet hay fostered mold growth, so they’d be running the hay wagons back and forth from the field to the hay barns and lofts until dark...and maybe after. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d hauled hay in the dark.
He climbed the steps and met two of the other hands in the kitchen. Harve Jr. was building a sandwich and Wick was already plowing into a monster-sized plate of potato salad. He saw the women on the front porch, laughing together, but the cool reprieve of the kitchen offered more invitation. He’d taken his first bite when the crunch of tires on gravel drew the men’s attention. From his seat, he spotted Gilda Hardaway, the grumpy eccentric who lived in a sprawling, decaying house on an empty ranch near the Payette National Forest. She approached the porch, looking testier than ever.
But then the front door opened. Lizzie came in. She spotted him and motioned him forward.
Wick and Harve Jr. exchanged grins, glad they weren’t summoned.
He stood, swiped his mouth with a piece of paper towel and walked to the porch. “Ladies.” He tipped his head in their direction. “What can I do for you?”
“Not them. Me, young man.”
He was afraid of that. He faced Gilda. “Well, how can I be of help, Mrs. Hardaway?”
She looked him up and down as if he was a science exhibit. Then she sighed. “Can I come inside or do I have to air dirty laundry out here where any Tom, Dick or Harry might overhear?”
“Of course,” Lizzie answered. She opened the white, wooden screen door and let the old woman precede her. Then she sent Jace a questioning look.
He shrugged, because he didn’t know any more than she did.
“We should sit down,” said the old woman.
Jace didn’t want to sit. He wanted to eat his lunch and get back to work. He was on a tight schedule. One band of sheep was still in the hills, and Heath and two other hands were loading lambs for market on the far side of the mountain. Already he heard noise in the kitchen, meaning the other men had wolfed down their food and were ready to haul. One look at Gilda Hardaway nixed his choices. He sat.
The old woman lifted a magazine from the coffee table. She held it up to Lizzie. “That your sister out there on the porch? This one?” She waggled the magazine.
Lizzie nodded.
“We’ll need her in here.”
Jace watched Lizzie fight whatever she wanted to say, because Lizzie wasn’t the kind of woman anyone bossed around. But she kept her lips pressed tight, then called Melonie and Corrie in. If the old woman didn’t want Corrie on hand, she at least had
