A Wife in Wyoming. Lynnette Kent
Читать онлайн книгу.
all work. Most of the time, anyway,” he added.
A few moments of silence allowed the air to clear. “In my opinion, the setup is too ambitious,” Ford said, finally, calmly. “A few hours a day for a week, maybe. But to have the kids living out here, making us responsible for them 24/7, is asking too much of us and them. When are we supposed to get actual ranch work done? What if a kid smuggles drugs onto the ranch? Or raids the liquor cabinet? If one of them runs away, we are responsible. With males and females in the group, it’s even possible a girl might get pregnant. Do we want that culpability?”
All three of his brothers winced. “That seems unlikely,” Garrett said. But he sounded less sure.
After a minute of silence, Wyatt pushed himself out of the rocking chair. “I’m going outside for a while to think. No, I don’t need supervision,” he said, as Ford looked at him in question. “I can manage on my own. I’m gonna walk to the corral, talk to the horses. They make more sense than you three, anyway.”
Ford watched through the window to be sure his brother got down the porch steps. Then he turned back to Garrett. “If you’re supporting this plan because...because you’ve got a thing for Caroline, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to get in your way. But—”
“She’s something special, that’s for sure.” Garrett got to his feet. “But I’m on board because it’s a chance to do something good for kids who need a break. I’m just sorry you don’t agree.” He headed for his bedroom, the signs of his hurt feelings easy to read.
“Touchy, touchy.” Dylan stretched his arms before flopping down full-length on the couch. “I’m gonna snooze till the boss shows up again. Maybe by then it’ll be dinnertime, and somebody will have cooked something.”
Ford eased back in the recliner to nap a little himself. “You ever think maybe you could do the cooking?”
“Nope.”
“Just wondering.”
He did manage to close his eyes for thirty minutes or so. Then, between feeding the horses and Honey and helping Garrett with the spaghetti dinner he’d decided on, supper was on the table before they all got together again. Even so, they had to drag Dylan off the sofa to wake him up.
Fortunately, he was never grumpy when pulled out of sleep. “Looks good,” he commented, sitting down in the dining room. “How come we only eat like this when Ford comes home?”
“Because he does most of the cooking.” Garrett passed the big bowl of pasta to Wyatt. “So what’s the answer, Boss? Did you come to a conclusion about Caroline’s project?”
In his deliberate way, the oldest Marshall served his plate before answering. “Let’s say grace,” he suggested, and they all bowed their heads while Garrett gave thanks.
As they took their first bites, Wyatt said, “Henry MacPherson took me on, a teenager with no ranch experience, and taught me what I needed to know. He paid the wages that, for better or worse, kept us alive those first couple of years.”
The glance he sent Ford recalled his earlier comment about going to bed hungry. “In time, he paid all four of us to work on the Circle M. He brought us here to live with him, and he left us the land for our own. He pretty much saved our lives.”
Looking around the table, Wyatt held each of their gazes with his own. “I say we owe it to Henry to pass the favor on.”
“Yes!” Garrett pumped his fist in the air.
Ford glanced at Dylan, commiserating in silence.
In case anybody had a question, the boss made his decision clear. “We are going to do everything we can to give those teenagers a summer they won’t forget.”
Caroline spent the afternoon and evening riding an emotional roller coaster. One minute she’d remember Ford’s infuriating insistence on walking home, his obstinate refusal to consider the advantages of her plan. The next minute she’d be wondering about the Marshall family meeting and what the verdict would be. She expected Garrett to vote for her. Dylan liked her, so maybe he would, too. Ford, of course, was a no. At least he had his reasons, wrong-headed though they might be.
So the outcome depended on Wyatt’s opinion, and she couldn’t predict what he would think. He’d been two years ahead of her in school, but he’d dropped out when he was sixteen to take the job at the ranch, so she’d never gotten to know him well. Among the people of Bisons Creek, he held a reputation for honesty, fair dealing and reliability. Her dad, of course, dismissed the Marshalls as not good enough to do business with. But then, her dad judged his friends by the sizes of their bank accounts. Caroline chose to use a different standard, though her self-determination had cost her the family and home she loved.
When the phone rang at eight thirty, she was eating her way through a pint of chocolate-chip-mint ice cream. Garrett had called her in the past, so she recognized the number of the Circle M Ranch. “Garrett? Tell me fast. Is it yes? Or no?”
On the other end of the line, someone cleared his throat. “I hate to disappoint you, but this is Ford.”
“Oh.” Damn, she said silently. I’ve probably bruised his ego. “I’m sorry. I was just so anxious. I’m glad to know you got to the house.”
“I had a pleasant stroll, as a matter of fact. And you have the chance you wanted for your teenagers. Wyatt voted in your favor.”
Tears stung her eyes. She swallowed hard, hoping they couldn’t be heard in her voice. “That’s...that’s wonderful. I’m so glad. And I’ll make sure you don’t regret it, Ford. I promise.”
“I already do.” Before she could react, he said, “Garrett wants to talk to you. Have a good night.” When he came on, Garrett was as relieved and excited as she had been. Celebrating with him, though, Caroline didn’t feel as thrilled as she should have.
Ford already regretted the agreement? The kids weren’t even there yet; nothing had changed. Was it just sour grapes, or was there something more to his words? And how would she ever find out?
Lying in bed, the lights out and chocolate-chip-mint replaced in the freezer, she asked herself the really important question.
“Why do I even care what he thinks?”
Luckily, she fell asleep before she had to face the answer.
On Monday morning, she went to the office early and tackled the paperwork, trying to get ahead of the never-ending stream of forms to be filled out for each and every case she handled. Her coworker, Randi Ames, came in at eight, as usual, and they spent a few minutes over coffee celebrating the acceptance of her project.
“It will be so wonderful for the kids,” Randi said. “And you’ll get to spend three months out there with four gorgeous men. Surely you can fall in love with one of them before the summer is over!”
Caroline blinked away a sudden vision of Ford’s solemn face. “I hope not. That would just complicate the situation. I’ll have my hands full keeping the teenagers under control. I won’t have time for romance.”
“There’s always time for romance.” Randi had recently gotten engaged and was now matchmaking for every single woman she knew. “It’ll hit you when you least expect it.”
“Don’t bet on it,” Caroline murmured, as Randi unlocked the outside door to the office. She was too busy to take care of a husband. There was so much she wanted to accomplish in Bisons Creek, so many people who needed a helping hand.
In fact, her first appointment of the morning was with Susannah Bradley, whose son, Nathan, was one of the kids she’d selected for the summer program. Nathan tended to be a loner at school, made grades lower than his test scores predicted and had a history of cutting classes.
The real