not lost, if that’s what you’re implying,” Leah said. “They’re home with our sister Nicole, who has a degree in early childhood education.”
Great. He was trying to be polite, and she took it as an insult. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I was asking after them, so I could say hi.”
Erin leaned in to say something to Leah, who nodded. Leah turned her attention back to him. “I’m sorry. I misunderstood. I’m a little sensitive where my kids are concerned.”
A little? Shane was tempted to say something, but Leah already looked like she was hankering for a fight.
“No harm done,” Shane said instead. “What brings you to the sale barn today? I heard you asking about cows. I have a herd of my own. I could help if you want.”
Most people didn’t look like they wanted to bite his head off when he was trying to be neighborly. Maybe his original theory of Leah always looking cranky wasn’t too far off the mark.
“We’re going to turn it back into a working ranch,” Erin said, sounding way more cheerful than her sister. “We’ve decided to call it Three Sisters Ranch, and it’s our fresh start. I’ve been studying brands, and I think I’ve come up with the perfect one. So now, all we need are some cows.”
And a lick of common sense. But at least Erin seemed excited about the plan. Whereas Leah...
Leah just looked weary. Like the last place on earth she wanted to be was at the sale barn, picking out cows for their new ranch adventure. Did they have any idea what they were getting into?
“How many cows are you thinking of getting?”
Maybe the best way to handle the situation was to ask them questions so that they would realize that there was more to ranching than buying cows.
Erin’s face lit up. She was pretty, too, but not in the same way as Leah. Erin naturally seemed like the sort to smile a lot and be happy, which should have made her more attractive. But it was Leah who drew him. Of course he would be attracted to the difficult one. Why make it easy on himself?
“Oh, I don’t know,” Erin said. “I’d like some of those cute black-and-white ones, and Nicole wants us to see if we can find some Highland cows. She fell in love with them when she went to Scotland, and now that we have a ranch, we’re going to get her some.”
How did you explain to someone that their idea was completely crazy when they were so clearly excited?
“You know the cute black-and-white ones are dairy cows, right?”
He hoped he didn’t sound too condescending, because that was sure to set Leah off. But the ranch wasn’t set up for a dairy operation. If they bought dairy cows, they’d be throwing their money away.
“We don’t know anything about cows,” Leah said slowly. Then she muttered, “I knew this was too good to be true.”
Erin nudged her. “Stop being the little black rain cloud. That’s what the internet is for. We’ve also got books in Helen’s library. She must’ve owned every book ever written about ranching.”
He hadn’t expected the lump that formed in his throat at her words. Helen had loved books, and in the early days of his ranch, she’d often lent him the ones she thought he’d find most helpful. Before she’d passed, she’d given him a few of her most treasured books.
“She did love her books,” Shane said, hoping they didn’t hear the catch in his voice. “She gave me a few of her favorites when she got sick, if you’d like to look at them.”
At the mention of Helen, the women exchanged another set of looks, communicating something he couldn’t understand, yet, for some reason, he wanted to.
“I didn’t realize she was sick,” Leah said quietly. “We didn’t know much about her later years, and it feels weird to be given such a gift when we weren’t close. Thank you for being there to take care of her.”
The obvious sympathy in her voice softened his heart. Perhaps he’d been too hasty in dismissing her as cranky. There was a gentleness in her eyes that seemed to peek out from the wariness at unexpected moments.
Erin linked arms with her sister. “Yes, thank you. We have good memories of her, and we hated not being in better touch. But with things being the way they were, it wasn’t possible.”
He’d heard enough stories about the Colonel to know that with the way he ruled the family, even if the girls had tried to stay in touch, he wouldn’t have allowed it. At the sadness in their voices, he couldn’t help wondering if they felt the same deep sense of loss when their father and Helen had divorced.
Maybe there was more to Leah’s attitude than he could see. If it had been any other woman, he’d have declared her as having too much baggage and run the other way. But remembering the sadness on Helen’s face as she talked about her poor girls, he knew he had no choice but to see it through.
“Water under the bridge,” he said. “Helen understood your situation, and I never heard her speak anything but love toward you all. That’s why she asked me to look after you and help out if you needed it.”
Too bad he hadn’t done a good job of it so far. Helen would have boxed his ears for sure if she’d been capable of such things. He’d let Leah’s anger keep him away when he should have been trying harder to help them.
“We do appreciate the advice you’ve given us. I guess we have a little more reading to do before we buy any livestock,” Leah said, starting to turn away.
Erin let out a long sigh as she followed her sister. “We have to start turning a profit soon,” she muttered.
“We’ll figure it out.” He could hear Leah’s words as they walked over to sign up for the auction.
She might be willing to figure it out, but they were going to be in for a world of hurt if they were so ignorant as to walk into a sale barn, hoping to buy cows based on how cute they were.
He jogged to catch up with them. “Let me help you. A lot of the cows they have here today aren’t worth buying, and I’m familiar with all the local ranchers. They don’t mean to cheat anyone, but they would have no problem taking money from someone who doesn’t know any better.”
The sisters exchanged a look, then Leah nodded. “We don’t have a lot of money to waste, so we appreciate the help.”
It seemed a hard-won agreement, but he was glad that she could at least see sense. He recognized that wary expression in her eyes again, and it struck him harder than he’d expected. Though Helen had told him about the girls’ rough childhood, he also hadn’t expected to see how it had impacted them as adults. To have it impact him. He’d grown up in a different but equally unstable situation. That kind of life where you’re afraid to trust or lean on anyone too much, because you know they’ll be gone soon, and you’ll be stuck on your own, trying to figure things out.
No wonder the sisters were so quick to shove him aside and not want his help. They wanted to do it on their own because they figured that, at some point, he’d be gone and they’d have to rely on themselves again.
So how could he show them that he wasn’t going anywhere?
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