Love Without End (7 page)

“Sit down and finish eating. He’s probably having dinner, too, and you don’t want to interrupt him.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Wait about an hour.”

Tara picked up her fork even though it was obvious she wasn’t the least bit interested in the food on her plate. Not any longer.

Kimberly envied her daughter, to have something in her life that she was this excited over. It was hard to remember the last time Kimberly had felt the same way. Troubles had piled so high in recent years that they’d obscured more pleasant memories. Would she ever get them back? She hoped so.

D
INNER IN THE
L
EONARD HOME WAS A FAMILY TIME
, strictly adhered to. Other meals might be eaten on the fly—the boys grabbing something quick from the microwave or toaster oven before they raced out the door for school, Chet doing much the same before beginning his morning chores—but for the evening meal, everybody sat down together. Chet asked Sam and Pete questions about their day, about their friends, about their schoolwork, and his sons were expected to answer in more than a half-dozen words.

Tonight, Pete didn’t have to wait for any questions.

“Guess what, Dad? Tara Welch is in my English class. I never even noticed her before. She’s been there three or four weeks already, and I never even noticed.” He shook his head. “Must be something wrong with my eyes.”

Sam punched his brother in the shoulder. “You’re an idiot.”

Chet hid his smile. Up to now, his youngest son hadn’t shown interest in girls, preferring to spend his free time with
horses and playing video games. Sam, on the other hand, had a date most Friday nights, although the options for “going out” were severely limited in Kings Meadow.

Then again, maybe he shouldn’t have been amused. Tara Welch was going to spend a lot of time on the Leonard ranch. Would Pete’s new awareness of this pretty newcomer to Kings Meadow prove to be a problem? Chet hoped not. He wasn’t keen on that kind of complication. Every boy had to get his heart broken at some point, but there’d been enough heartache for the entire Leonard family in recent years. Chet would just as soon Pete postpone the kind that came with a crush on the wrong girl.

The wrong girl
. What made him think that? He didn’t know Tara well enough to make that kind of judgment call. The few hours he’d spent with her on Sunday she’d been polite and pleasant. However, she was a city girl, despite her interest in horses. She knew nothing of their way of life. Ranching was bred into the Leonards as surely as the color of their hair and eyes.

“Dad?”

Yanked to the present by Sam’s voice, Chet blinked. “Sorry. My mind wandered.”

“Pete and I want to go down to Boise for a youth rodeo.”

“When?”

“Saturday after next. We’d need to use the four-horse trailer. Couple of friends want to tag along.”

“Sure. It’s okay with me. Just be sure your chores are done that morning before you take off.”

Sam feigned an innocent expression. “Don’t we always?”

Chet laughed. “No, come to think of it, you
don’t
always.”

“Nana Anna,” Pete said, turning toward her, “would you like to come along and watch us?”

“Gracious. It’s been ages since I was at a rodeo.” Her eyes sparked with interest. “What events do you enter?”

“Team and calf roping,” Sam answered.

“Tempting. Very tempting. But I’d best say no. A bit too far from home and a bit too long of a day, I imagine. Maybe there’ll be another time I can go?”

“Sure thing. You just say the word. You’re always welcome.”

Chet didn’t try to hide his smile this time. He took great pleasure in hearing Pete invite Anna to one of their activities without any prompting from his dad. Not that Chet was surprised. He’d known the boys would take Anna to heart.

When dinner was finished, Sam and Pete cleared the table and washed the dishes while Chet and Anna went into the living room. As soon as they were both settled, Anna said, “I hope I didn’t hurt Pete’s feelings. I would love to go, but the sound of a long drive there and back and sitting on bleachers for an entire day wasn’t very appealing. Not to my old bones.”

“He understood. Don’t worry about it. You only got here four days ago. You’re entitled to do as you please.”

Anna released a sigh. “That’s good.” She paused a moment, then added, “I believe I’ll make an early night of it, if it’s all the same to you.” She got to her feet.

Chet stood too, but Anna waved him to sit down again.

“Nothing’s wrong, so don’t ask. I’m going to lie down with a good book.” With that, she headed for her bedroom.

Rather than sitting again, Chet returned to the kitchen. “Nana Anna went to bed,” he said to the boys. “I’m going for a short walk.”

Sunset was a good hour away, but the air was a lot cooler now than it had been in the afternoon. Chet shrugged his shoulders, tempted to return to the house for a jacket. But instead, he quickened his stride as he walked to the barn. Once inside, he checked the three horses in the stalls. The first was a gelding who’d tangled with some barbed wire. The horse’s wounds needed doctoring a few times a day. The other two were mares who would drop foals in the next week or two.

Satisfied all was well, Chet moved out the doorway at the opposite end of the barn and went to the nearest paddock where his favorite stud grazed. When Chet leaned his arms on the top rail, the stallion raised his head to stare, looking ready to challenge an intruder. King Billy was a ten-year-old bay who’d already sired many champions, including Sam’s current roping horse.

“Hey, Billy,” Chet said.

The horse tossed his head before trotting over to the fence, no doubt in hopes some sort of treat awaited him. All King Billy got was a friendly pat on the neck. After a few moments, he snorted his disgust and trotted back to the center of the pasture, leaving his backside toward his master.

Chet laughed, and his gaze rose to the smattering of white clouds overhead while words of thanksgiving played in his heart. Thanks for this ranch, this home, this valley. Thanks for his folks and grandparents and Nana Anna, too, who had made it possible for him to live on the same land and raise his sons here. Thanks for all of that and much, much more.

He stood there for a long while, drinking in the mountains and the sky and the grazing land, enjoying the crisp,
clean, pine-scented air. Maybe some folks took the beauty of this area for granted. He wasn’t one of them.

“Dad?”

He turned to see Pete exit through the barn door.

“Tara called. I hollered for you but you didn’t answer.”

“Didn’t hear you. Did she say what she needed?”

“She wants to take you up on your offer for her to ride home with us after school a couple times a week. Her mom’ll pick her up after she gets off work. Tara asked what days would be best for her to come. I told her any day but Wednesday since you’ve got your men’s group that night. Hope that was the right thing to say.”

Chet nodded. “Sure. It’s fine.”

And it was fine. Only he’d made the offer for the ridealong before Pete had taken notice of the girl. All Chet could do now was hope his youngest son’s attention wouldn’t become something more serious before these training sessions were over.

Anna

1944

C
HRISTMAS DAWNED TO A BLANKET OF NEW SNOW
on the ground and temperatures that frosted the windows.

When Anna first awoke, she snuggled down beneath the blankets on her bed and tried not to think about her daddy and mama. This would be her first Christmas without both her parents, and she missed them so much it was a physical ache in her chest. Memories of Christmases before Daddy went off to war, before he was killed and Mama took sick, flitted through her mind, and she cried. Silent tears. Guilty tears. After all, she had a new home with good people who cared for her.

A soft rap sounded at her door, followed by Violet’s voice. “Anna, are you awake?”

“Yes.” She swiped away the lingering tears as she sat up. “I’m awake.”

The door opened and Violet stuck her head in. “Merry Christmas, Anna. I’ve made pancakes. Put on your robe and
come down to eat. There are presents to open when we’ve finished breakfast.”

Guilt hit Anna again. She didn’t have anything to give to the Leonards. Why hadn’t she thought of presents before this moment? How could she be selfish and thoughtless when they’d been so kind?

Violet smiled. “Hurry now. I’m a kid in a candy store on Christmas morning.”

Anna reached for her robe. A short while later, slippers on her feet and robe cinched around her waist, she went down the stairs and entered the kitchen. Violet was there ahead of her, turning bacon on the griddle. A stack of pancakes waited on a plate nearby.

“Good morning again.” Violet glanced toward the back entrance. “Abe went to check on something in the barn. Could you call for him to come and eat?”

“Okay.”

She walked to the door and opened it. But she didn’t have to shout anything. Abe was standing in the snow, just beyond the steps, holding the lead rope to a palomino mare.

“So, Anna,” he said, “what do you think of her?”

“She’s beautiful. Did you buy her? Is she yours?”

“Yep. She’s ours. She’s sort of your Christmas gift to me and Vi.”

Anna shook her head. “My what? I didn’t—”

“I got to thinkin’ about what you said, a couple months back. About raising Quarter Horses. Goldie here is the start. Golden Girl, her papers say. As long as Shiloh’s Star is willing to do his part, she oughta throw some nice colts.” His eyes
twinkled in the early morning light. “What do you think, Anna? Can we do this?”

There was that stupid lump in her throat again. “I think it’s wonderful. Yes! Yes, we can do this.”

“Abe,” Violet said from close behind Anna, “put the horse back in the barn and come inside. Breakfast’s getting cold, and there are some packages under the tree to be opened.”

“Yes’m. On my way.”

“Anna?”

She turned to face Violet.

“You okay, honey?”

She nodded—lumpy throat, threatening tears, and all. Mama had told her to keep trusting the Lord, even when trouble came. Things would work out. And so it seemed they had.

Seven

A
NNA
SURVEYED THE COLLECTION OF BOXES AND
odd household rejects that filled the living room of the cottage. Beyond a closed door, there was more of the same in the bedroom.

Today, she and Tara would get to work on clearing the clutter, although she was in no hurry to get the job done. She liked being part of the hustle and bustle of the family in the main house. The two teenage boys always on their way somewhere or returning from somewhere. The ranch hands eating lunch in the kitchen. Chet sitting at his desk, reading glasses perched on his nose as he studied the account records or a horse journal or sitting in his easy chair in the evening, visiting with Anna over a cup of decaf.

Still, this small house had been Anna’s home once upon a time, and everyone expected her to want to live in it again. Even she’d expected it. Abe and Violet had built the cottage especially for her. She’d moved into it on her twenty-first
birthday and hadn’t left it until she’d married Walter thirty-three years later. And though she’d never told her husband, a piece of her heart had grieved for this little house, for this ranch, for this place all the years she was away.

A poignant smile curved her mouth as she remembered how hard it had been to say good-bye to the Leonard family all those years ago. If she hadn’t loved and adored her new husband to distraction, she never would have had the courage to venture so far away. Florida had been more than just another state. It had been another world. A flat, flat world. Glory, how she’d missed these mountains.

The creak of the screen door alerted her to Tara’s arrival. Anna turned around to see the girl and her mother in the doorway.

“Good morning,” Kimberly Welch said, stepping in behind her daughter. “I hope we haven’t kept you waiting too long. It’s entirely my fault. I got a late start.”

Anna waved her hand in dismissal. “Didn’t mind waiting. I have nowhere to be.”

Kimberly looked around the room. “There
is
a lot to go through. Isn’t there?”

Quite the understatement.

“Indeed,” Anna answered.

Kimberly lowered her voice, saying to her daughter, “Don’t let Ms. McKenna do any heavy lifting.”

Anna almost announced that her hearing was excellent and she was stronger than she looked. But better not.

“Call me if you need me to come sooner,” Kimberly continued. “Otherwise, I’ll be here at three.”

“It won’t be sooner, Mom. I’m gonna get to ride today, when we’re done here.”

“You’re going to ride your horse?” Tara’s mother sounded alarmed.

“No. He’s not ready for that. I’m gonna ride one of Mr. Leonard’s saddle horses.”

“Isn’t it awfully soon for that? You’ve barely started your—”

“Mom!”

Anna turned away, pretending not to notice the sudden tension between the pair. Through the years, friends had talked about mothers and their teenage daughters, about the push and pull that happened between them. Anna didn’t pretend to understand it much. She’d spent most of her life around men and boys. There never had been much that was girlish about Anna McKenna. Except for her red hair, which she’d worn long in her younger days. She’d been more than a little vain about it—and keenly aware of the effect it had on men when she’d let it flow loose down her back.

Foolish old woman
, she scolded herself.
Those days are long gone.
It had been eons since any man had made note of her. Except perhaps to offer an arm to help her across the street.

“Ms. McKenna?”

She turned again. Tara’s mother had left the guesthouse, and the girl was now standing a short distance away, looking at her questioningly.

“Where do we start?” Tara asked.

“How about with that stack of boxes over there?” Anna pointed. “That should keep us busy until lunchtime.”