Lone Heart Pass (14 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jubilee
March 19

J
UBILEE
JOINED
THEM
in the barn a little before dark. Charley, Lillie and Thatcher were having a picnic in the corner of the injured horse's stall.

“How is she?” Jubilee whispered as she sat down between Charley and his daughter.

Charley looked worried. “She's growing restless even with the drugs the doc sent over. I've been talking to the vet every thirty minutes. He says he'll try to make it out soon, but he wants me to cut down on the sedatives. What might help make her comfortable won't be good if she goes into labor.”

“Can't he do more? Don't they have big horse hospitals around here that we could take her to?”

“He's doing all he can, Jubilee, and no, there's nothing near.”

She laced her fingers in her lap trying not to fidget. “I wish there was something I could do.”

With one of his rough hands, Charley covered her fingers, as if he needed to offer warmth. “A long drive isn't something she needs right now. We'll do all we can.”

She could feel Charley watching her closely as he added, “You haven't grown up around horses, or you'd understand. This is a mustang, not a high-priced racehorse. The mare's half wild and probably doesn't belong to anyone. The vet can't find a rancher who claims her or, for that matter, any of the small herd. They probably came down from the north during the winter. He offered to pay the board bills and gave me the supplies free, but that's about all.”

“You're right. I don't understand.”

“You got a big heart, Jubilee.” Charley patted her hands. “Must go with those big eyes.”

She gulped down a sob.

“We'll watch over the mare,” she whispered. “If people were horses, I'm afraid I'd be one of the mustangs.”

“Me, too,” Thatcher, who hadn't even looked as though he'd been listening to the conversation, added. “Ain't nobody watching over me.”

“Me, too,” Lillie said. “If we were horses, we'd be our own herd. Only I'd be the princess of the herd.”

“You got that job, kid.” Thatcher smiled at her. “The crown wouldn't fit me anyway.”

When Jubilee stole a French fry, Charley offered her a bite of his hamburger. “Did you have supper?”

“Not much. Destiny said there was nothing fit to eat in the house. By the time she told me what was wrong with all the food in my kitchen I wasn't very hungry. She claimed I was lucky she had health bars in her bag. We each ate one and she went to bed.”

They shared his burger and fries in silence as Lillie told Thatcher about all the princesses she'd heard of. Jubilee noticed her body relaxing as she realized she'd never felt as comfortable, as at home, as she did right now. Maybe the four of them were a herd. If so, she considered herself lucky to be included.

An hour later the mare grew more restless. Charley sat Lillie on the railing so she'd be out of harm's way to watch as the others took stations around the horse, ready to help, ready to jump out of the way. Somehow they had to get this baby horse born without the mare opening the wound on her side.

Charley smiled at Jubilee. “Ready to step into the game?”

She could see how he loved this work. He didn't care that it was hard and fixing to get messy. “I'm ready, cowboy. Let's get to birthing this foal.”

Ten minutes later they were both cussing and Thatcher was the only one laughing. The mare had stepped on Jubilee's foot twice and slung snot into her hair. Charley was covered in whatever was coming out of the south end of the mare.

In what seemed like forever, the horse delivered a small colt. Everyone moved into action, knowing that the work was just beginning. Charley and Thatcher took care of the mare while Jubilee cleaned the baby's mouth out and Lillie wiped him down with a soft piece of what had once been her baby blanket.

The little girl reminded Jubilee of Charley as she talked to the newborn as if he could understand every word she said.

By the time the vet showed up they were all covered in blood and afterbirth and straw.

The lanky doc appeared as tired as Charley, but he grinned as he looked them all up and down. “Who won the battle?” he asked.

“We did.” Lillie giggled. “We all helped bring this baby horse to life.”

The vet didn't look too happy. “A colt I'm afraid no one but his mother will want.”

“We'll want him,” Jubilee said without thinking. She silently polled the others. Thatcher, Lillie and Charley nodded. “The horses can stay here if they have nowhere else to go.”

The vet smiled. “Best news I've heard today.”

When the doc examined the mare and colt, he told them that both mom and colt were going to be fine. I'm not so sure about you four. I'll stay with the horses while you all clean up.”

Jubilee offered to take Lillie to her place for a bubble bath and the boys headed to Charley's house for showers. Everyone was laughing and slapping each other on the back and marveling at how dirty they were. Somehow, in the hours of hard work, they'd become a tribe.

Thirty minutes later, a clean Charley stepped into her kitchen with a princess gown and tiny socks in one hand and a carton of root beer in the other. “Thatcher is still washing up, but I thought I'd come over and help dress our royalty.” He winked at Lillie, who was wrapped in a huge towel. She held a doll with a porcelain face and was wrapped in a hand towel.

“Who is this?” Charley asked as knelt to put on her sock.

“Jubilee gave it to me. Her name is Willow. I promised I'd take very good care of her. Right now all she has is a blanket, but I told her my granny will make her a dress.”

“I'm sure she will.” He kissed Lillie's head, then the doll's. “Be sure and thank her. You've got the best granny and papa in the world you know, kid.”

“I know.” She giggled. “They say I got the best daddy.”

Charley looked up at Jubilee and smiled. “Thanks,” he silently mouthed.

“You are welcome,” she answered without a sound.

With his dark hair wet and slicked back he almost looked like a businessman and not a half-wild cowboy, Jubilee decided. A month ago she would have thought this look more handsome, but now she longed to mess the straight combed hair back into lazy curls that had never been styled. Charley Collins was growing on her just as this style of life was.

Jubilee had on clean jeans and a sweatshirt but her feet were bare as she stood over Lillie, trying to get the tangles out of the tiny girl's hair.

Charley handed Jubilee the gown and offered to make pancakes.

By the time Thatcher showed up, the first stack of pancakes was piled a foot high and the sausage was done. Everyone dove into the food as if it were a grand feast.

“Shh.” Charley tried to calm the tribe down. “We'll wake Destiny.”

“No way. After she does her nightly routine to keep wrinkles from crawling on her when she sleeps, my sister takes sleeping pills. She said she had to start it after the twins were born.”

Charley leaned over and kissed Lillie's head. “I remember the late nights. She'd wake up and I'd rock us both to sleep.”

Thatcher's fingers slowly began to walk toward Lillie's plate. “Wrinkles crawling to get you, girl.”

Lillie giggled and bopped the creeping hand with a sticky fork.

As everyone laughed, Jubilee tucked her toes under Charley's leg for warmth. Charley leaned back in his chair and covered her cold feet with his hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do. Neither mentioned it, but she had a feeling he was as aware of touching her as she was of his warm hand moving over her cold feet.

“It's been a hard night,” he started. “I couldn't have done it alone.”

“Yep,” Thatcher said as he licked syrup off the back of his hand. “Best time I've ever had.”

“Me, too,” Jubilee echoed and was surprised at just how much she meant it. When her eyes met Charley's, something passed between them that neither could have put into words. A bond. An understanding. A warmth.

A few minutes later, when he lifted a sleepy Lillie in his arms, he met Jubilee's eyes once more with a hunger that surprised her. “I'll put Lillie to bed. Thatcher and I will take shifts sleeping in the barn tonight.” His gaze moved over her slowly as if memorizing this one moment and the way she looked. “I'll come wake you if there's trouble, but I think we're through the hard time.”

She nodded, trying to read what else he was thinking. Nothing, she decided. He was just tired. Maybe glad the horse made it. Maybe, like her, sorry this magic time between them was ending.

Only when she crawled in her bed she could see the low light in the barn burning and wondered if he was lying in the straw thinking of her. Her mind told her to keep her distance. What they had now was good. The worst thing in the world would be to complicate their relationship. She didn't need that and neither did he.

Only her body didn't seem to be listening. A part of her wondered what Charley Collins would do if she simply went to the barn and curled up beside him.

She didn't need him. She'd never needed anyone.

But tonight, with only the midnight moon to see, she realized that maybe for the first time in her life she wanted someone.

Charley

C
HARLEY
STOOD
IN
the shadow of the barn door. He could hear the colt and the mare a few feet away, but his eyes were on the center window on the second floor of a house a hundred feet away.

Life had been good tonight. His heart had felt settled. If he believed it possible, he'd almost say that for the first time in longer than he could remember, he was happy. Only he'd learned that life never settles down and happiness is a rug that can be ripped out from under a man the minute he lets down his guard.

Charley didn't blame his bad luck on anyone but himself. But a man who doesn't learn from his mistakes is a fool.

He went over the rules in his brain.
Don't step out of line. Don't get involved with any woman. Don't hope for anything more than you got.

He swore and turned back into the barn and said softly, “Don't dream of what might be, just learn to live with what's already been.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Jubilee
March 26

B
Y
THE
END
of
the first week of her visit, Destiny gave up even acting interested in what was going on at the ranch. Her diet consisted of health food bars for the meals and a pound of chocolate a day for snacks. Except for an occasional cup of coffee, her drink of choice was wine. Which she drank from noon until bedtime.

Jubilee reached the point that she swore if her sister commented one more time about the dump of a ranch she'd inherited, Jubilee would drive her back to Dallas even if she had to take the pickup.

Destiny was unhappy with her life for some reason and had decided to come make over Jubilee's as her therapy.

The only thing that made her sister's visit easier was Charley. The first day, he'd started counting the number of times Destiny complained about simple things like the weather, the horses making noise, how dark it was at night and, of course, the one bathroom in a house that should have had at least three.

Charley made Destiny's visit bearable with his whispered humor and laughing winks when he knew only Jubilee could see him. It also helped that Destiny went to bed early most nights, always slept until ten and never came near the barn.

Jubilee spent her time working with Charley. They'd both taken the wounded mare on as a mission. Charley had called the horse Last Chance and she called the tiny colt Baby, which Charley swore she'd have to change. They worked together, making sure they did everything the vet ordered, even though no one had claimed the horse, therefore no one would be paying the bills.

Jubilee had grown used to Charley's low voice talking to the mare, encouraging her to live. Sometimes, late at night, when she tried to stop worrying about the ranch and sleep, she'd hear his voice in her head. Whispering for her to relax.

When she hugged both mare and colt goodbye late one morning, Charley reminded her that the animals were not pets.

“I know,” she said.

“Sure you do,” he added as he held the gate open for her. “You're worse than Lillie. She wants to braid their manes and put a ribbon in one braid like you did to her hair this morning.”

“Do you mind?” she asked as they began the routine of setting out supplies for the next doctoring.

He shook his head. “She looked cute. Sometimes I can be staring at her and I swear I see her grow. The sheriff, who also raised his daughter alone, told me that one day he was tying her laces and the next day she was learning to drive. I don't want to miss any of it.”

“Speaking of children, I'm beginning to think we've adopted Thatcher.” The kid had spent last weekend helping out, caught the bus with Lillie on Monday and returned every afternoon. He might be only fourteen, but he did a man's share of the work.

“I like having him around,” she admitted.

“I told him he could stay over anytime but he said tonight he needed to go home,” Charley said as he passed her with a bucket of grain in each hand. “I don't think anyone is raising him. He may look calm, but down deep he's as wild as that mustang mare. Remember that.”

As they stepped into the sunlight, both seemed to mold back into their roles. He told her what he had planned to get done before dark as he pulled on worn work gloves. She took the list of supplies that needed to be picked up.

“Any chance your sister is going home for the weekend?” he asked.

“No mention of it. Besides resting, she seems on a mission to straighten my life out and I don't think she's leaving until she does what she feels she must.” Jubilee shrugged. “In her way, she loves me. But, like our parents, she wants me to be more like her.”

Charley smiled. “That would be a real shame.”

She blushed when he winked at her. Changing the subject was her only option. “I plan to get the tomato plants today. If I hang them I can always take them inside if it looks like it'll freeze any night.” She looked over at the plowed square of dirt. “I'm planting seeds tomorrow. Carrots, beets, beans, peas, corn and pumpkins for the fall.”

“It's a little early,” he said calmly as if agreeing to set the conversation back on a business level only.

“I can't wait. If they freeze out I'll replant.” She stared at him, determined to stand her ground. She'd waited long enough. In her mind she almost believed that if she made something grow here, she might grow on this place.

“Then go ahead, Jubilee, put down roots.” He smiled as if he understood. “You planning to stay till fall harvest?”

“I'm planning to stay forever.” The charts in her study hinted at another story she feared. Her money was dwindling faster than she thought it would, but she wouldn't worry Charley with it. Not yet. Not until she had to.

Charley tipped his hat and turned toward the barn. She thought she saw a hint of sadness in his eyes. Maybe he didn't believe her, or maybe he wished he could be the same. He'd promised her a year, until she got the place running or went broke. But he hadn't said a word about what would happen in a year and a day.

As she drove to town, she thought about how she didn't want to worry about next year. With the mare needing care, a hundred jobs on the ranch needing doing, and Destiny hanging out upstairs all day eating chocolate and complaining, Jubilee decided she should give up thinking altogether.

By the time she reached the grocery, she had calmed down. She might even cook tonight. Something simple. It was Friday. The butcher always had smoked ribs and brisket on Friday night. She could pick up ribs and bake potatoes. The vegan diet she'd tried to follow all the time she lived with David in DC seemed impossible now. He'd been more committed to it than to her.

For a moment she wondered what he'd think about her becoming a rancher. Then, just as suddenly, she realized she didn't care. David was part of her past now.

So was avoiding sugar, she decided, as she considered baking a cake. After all, the directions were on the back of the box—how hard could it be?

The cloud on her dinner party was Destiny. If she came downstairs they'd all have to put up with her. It was hard to argue with someone who started every lecture with,
I'm just here to help you.

Jubilee picked up the supplies Charley had ordered and the sweets and wine Destiny had insisted on, then wandered through the tiny stores of the main street. She wasn't looking for anything; she just wanted to get lost for a few hours.

Deep inside she felt she was changing, molding into someone else. She was changing on the outside, too. Her dull hair was sun-bleached and her slim body now had muscles from hard work and lots of riding. She wasn't sure she liked all the changes, but for the first time ever she felt comfortable in her skin. It occurred to her that maybe a small part of that was the way Charley looked at her. She could see it in his eyes; the man found nothing wrong with her.

She didn't need a man's approval, she thought, but she didn't mind his admiring glance, either.

That afternoon while she put away the groceries, Destiny came into the kitchen to make tea.

Her sister was in the middle of one of her complaints when Jubilee abandoned her task and headed to the barn. “I'll be back,” she yelled over her shoulder. “Hold that thought.”

Charley was unloading the back of the pickup.

“Thanks,” she said, thinking she should have already done the chore.

“No problem. You all right?” He looked at her as if he could tell that she'd been wandering the aisles of every business in town.

She nodded. “When the mare recovers and my sister leaves, I'd like to cook you and Lillie dinner.”

“You don't have to do that. We manage fine on our own.” Lifting the last load he walked away.

Jubilee realized she'd somehow insulted him with her offer. He always seemed a little sad on the nights Lillie stayed in town with her grandparents. Maybe he was missing Lillie and didn't want to talk about her.

No. Something else was bothering him and obviously, he didn't want to talk about it.

This simply wasn't her day. Maybe she should just go to bed and start over tomorrow. She could take one of Destiny's pills and forget about the world for a while.

Her sister was waiting when she walked back into the house. Her day must have not gone well, either, because she had a list of suggestions for Jubilee on the counter and half of the new bottle of wine was gone.

As Jubilee listened to Destiny's carping, slowly, one complaint at a time, the real reasons she'd come to visit began to surface. The twins were far too much work. Mason didn't help her enough. It had taken her a year before she could fit into any of her clothes. No one had any idea how hard live-in staff are to manage. She hated everything about her life.

It wasn't Jubilee who Destiny had come to fix, but herself.

“What do you want me to do?” Jubilee finally asked as she pushed Destiny's untouched sandwich toward her.

Destiny was silent a full minute before she said, “I want half this ranch. I'm not happy. Maybe, if I had the money, I could start over. Mason said our great-grandfather was senile. He probably meant to leave what he had to both of us.”

“You're planning to leave Mason?”

“I have to. I can't take it any longer.” She made a face. “But, don't worry, I'm not coming here. This place is worse than home. So the only solution is we sell the farm and split the money. Don't you see? We'll both be much happier. You can't want to spend the rest of your life working yourself to death in the dirt.”

“Ranch,” Jubilee whispered as if she hadn't heard the rest.

“Whatever.” Destiny moved on. “Don't you see, the money from this place will save us both.”

Jubilee couldn't believe what she was hearing. “Why are you so unhappy?” she finally whispered. “You're married to a rich banker. Our parents always gave you the best of everything. You've got a beautiful home and healthy children. Why would you want or need half of this place?”

“Mason says it might sell for a million in a good market and everyone knows there could be oil. I'll bet old Levy never even had it tested. I think it's only fair that I get half when you sell.” She looked as if she might cry. “I've got to start over. Mason doesn't see how stressed I am.” She smiled suddenly. “Maybe I could go to DC with you. I'd help you find an apartment. Maybe stay with you awhile.”

“I'm not selling this place.” Destiny was a nightmare here; Jubilee didn't want to think about what she'd be like in DC.

Destiny smiled as if she thought she was talking to a child. “Of course you'll sell. You're no more a country girl than I am. It's just a matter of time before you run away from this like you run away from every career and every man who ever got close.”

She patted Jubilee's hand. “Now, little Jub, you have to understand, if I have to take you to court we'll both lose, but I'll do whatever it takes to save you from this kind of life. I'm your big sister. I know what's best for you and this isn't where you need to be.” She nodded slowly as if hoping the words soaked in. “Even Mom and Dad agree with me.”

Jubilee dropped her supper into the sink and bolted out the back door.

She ran all the way to the barn and collapsed in the hay. Anger shook her whole body, but tears didn't come. Not this time. Destiny wouldn't get her way this time.

This one time in her life, Jubilee was where she belonged.