The next day, Tony proudly escorted his three ladies into town. As they drove along he recited everything his mother had told him. “Mama said we can buy candy on our way home. That way we don’t have to worry about it melting and getting yucky, when we show Rachel town. And have lunch. And play on the playground. We are gonna have lots of fun.”

Alyssa who was sitting in the backseat with him said, “Yes we are. What is your favorite place to show Rachel today, Tony?”

“The candy!” he yelled and then clapped his hands in glee. Rachel grinned at the little boy’s enthusiasm.

Alyssa laughed. “Yes of course, but after the candy and the park?”

“The lake is my favorite, Lyssa. After the park and candy store. Have you seen the lake, Lyssa?”

“No, I don’t think I have, Tony. That sounds like fun, we’ll have to go there.”

“They have ice cream,” he said slyly.

“In that case we’ll have to go after lunch.”

“Yeah, mama always says after lunch too. So, I don’t ruin my ap-tite.” He sounded so sad Rachel wanted to laugh out loud, but bit it back, so he wouldn’t get confused.

“So what else should we show Rachel?”

He shrugged. “Dunno, just a bunch of stores.”

Emma spoke up. “You haven’t seen much of the town either, Alyssa. It’s mostly all on one street, so I was thinking we can just start at the end. Go down one side then come back up the other. Once we’ve eaten and bought all the candy orders, we can load back into the car and drive around the back of Main Street, then down to the lake.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Alyssa said.

Rachel thought that sounded like a great suggestion, and since her camera and only one extra lens was in her purse, she wouldn’t hold them up too much taking pictures. At least that’s what she thought, until Emma turned the corner into town. Rachel’s breath caught, and she couldn’t look around fast enough. The town was picturesque. All the buildings sat along a board walk with old-fashioned hitching rails in front of them, gas-looking street lights, and large almost porches. Most of the stores had chairs out front where you could sit and watch the people walk by. Her fingers itched.

She asked, “Emma, can you let me out here? I want to take some pictures, then I’ll walk down and join you.”

Emma pulled off to the side. “Sure, we’ll take Tony to the park, which is pretty close to the start of town. Get some of his energy out and we can start exploring when you join us.”

“Perfect.”

“Alyssa, do you want to go with us to the park or get out with Rachel?” Emma asked.

Alyssa answered quickly. “I’ll go with you to the park. I know Rachel, and I would rather be somewhere with benches.”

Everyone laughed as Rachel got out of the car and waved goodbye to them. “See you in a bit.”

She slid her camera out of the bag, put the wide-angle lens on it and started snapping pictures. Some of the buildings had false fronts on them, almost like they were movie props. She was charmed. She didn’t take nearly as many pictures as she wanted to, because she didn’t want to keep everyone waiting for her. Some other day she could come back with more of her equipment and more time. She took just a couple shots of each thing that enchanted her, so she could plan out her future visit.

Walking toward the park she kept snapping pictures of interesting things, and even a few people. She couldn’t use any of the peopled pictures in her work unless she got waivers from them, but she would enjoy looking at them

The park didn’t have a lot of kids in it, she spotted Tony right away at the top of the climbing structure ready to slide down. She quickly zoomed in on him and held the button down to photograph the entire descent. There may be a couple of them Emma would like or even Travis and Meg.

When he hit the ground he yelled, “There she is!” And took off running toward her.

She put her camera in her bag, so she would have both hands free to catch him if she needed to. Which she did. He launched himself at her and she caught him and squeezed him tight. “Are you happy to see me?”

He grinned at her. “I am. We still have to explore. And get lunch. And candy. And ice cream. The park is fun, but that’s a lot of stuff to do.”

“It is indeed.” She put him back on his feet and they walked hand in hand over to the bench where Alyssa and Emma had been sitting. “Tony is ready to go exploring.”

“Great. Tony let me know if you get chilly and want your jacket,” Emma said.

“Okay, mama. I’m kinda sweaty right now from some hard playing.”

Emma nodded. “I’m sure you are.”

“Oh, look Rachel, there’s the candy store right across the street.” Tony crowed pointing across the street to a large building that looked like it had living space above it. There were six or eight stairs up to the door level with three staircases, one on each end and one in the middle. It was the only building that had stairs, the rest had doors on the street level. Rachel wondered why it was built so different than all the others.

Rachel smiled down at the little boy. “Well, that makes it just perfect after we’ve explored we can buy all that candy for everyone on the ranch. Then walk across the street and get in the car to go drive down to the lake.”

“And get ice cream,” he yelled.

Emma admonished. “Tony, you need to start using your inside voice now, we are going to be going into the shops.

“Yes, mama,” he said quietly. “Mama?”

“What, Tony?”

“Can we go into the place where the man makes the animals made of glass?” he asked.

Emma nodded. “I don’t know why not.”

“I think that would be great, does he make them while you watch?” Rachel asked as they stepped up onto the board walk.

Tony nodded happily, then looked very serious. “But you can’t buy the ones he makes while we watch. They have to cool, but he always has some other cool ones. Sometimes he makes bowls or Christmas balls. It’s kinda fun to watch.”

The stores were all basically tourist shops with lots of Colorado souvenirs, from fool’s gold to leather goods to plastic license plates with names on them. Interspersed between the tourist shops were candy stores with chocolates, or taffy, or Carmel corn. There was a quilt shop with yard goods, patterns and a work area, where classes were taught. There was a leather store where everything in the store was priced less than thirty dollars. Rachel found a camera bag that would be perfect for carrying a few items, when she didn’t want to lug the big one with all the equipment.

There was an art gallery that had some very unique wooden art, and metal sculptures that were fascinating in their complexity. The art gallery had some photographs, but they weren’t terribly unique, Rachel could probably sell her work in there if she wanted to.

At the end of one side of the street was a miniature golf course that was for sale. They looked through the fence surrounding it. Rachel was amazed at the delightful constructions within. Every hole seemed to have a Colorado theme, one was a Denver broncos helmet and goal posts and a football. The Colorado Rocky Mountains ran down the side of one hole. Another one was the state capital with its gold dome, a lot of the gold paint had worn away. Everything beyond the fence was in need of repair, but it had obviously been a very cute course to play on.

They spent about a half hour in the glass blower’s shop, watching him make a robin. Tony was enthralled with the whole process and clapped his hands in glee when he realized the glass blower was making a bird. All three of them bought Tony a small animal, he was delighted.

Coming up the other side of the street were very similar shops. One was vacant, and Rachel asked what it had been.

Emma said, “I think it was a photography studio and art display.”

“Really? That’s awesome, did it have a portrait studio?”

“Yes, I think so, I seem to recall coming in to have our pictures taken. Mom would know the best. It might have had a dark room, I remember there being funny smells in there. It’s been closed a while now.”

“That’s so cool I would love to have a dark room to experiment with film development, not that it’s necessary these days, but it would still be fun to try it.”

Alyssa grabbed Rachel’s arm and started dragging her. “Come on, camera geek girl. I’m getting hungry, and there’s a wonderful smell coming from this next building.”

Emma laughed, and Rachel rolled her eyes. “Fine. I suppose I’m getting hungry too.”

As they ate, Rachel kept thinking about the abandoned photo studio and how fun it would be to reopen it. Not that she was going to be staying in Colorado, but it was fun to think about. A lot of ideas popped into her head. Fortunately, no one noticed her distraction because Tony was entertaining the entire restaurant and its staff. He was telling the waitress all about the plan to stop by the candy store and then get ice cream by the lake, but first he had to eat all his lunch.

* * *

Adam was paying bills and trying not to think about that kiss. It had only been a peck, not even a real kiss, so why couldn’t he get it out of his mind. It was simply a small token of appreciation for taking care of her after a traumatic event. Not a real kiss, but something had lit inside him and he didn’t know what to think or do. He was profoundly thankful that Rachel had spent the rest of the evening in her room last night, so he didn’t have to hide his feelings from her. What those feelings meant, he had no idea, he wasn’t even sure what they were. So how could he analyze them?

Pushing away from the desk he decided a ride would clear his mind, he wasn’t going to get anything accomplished with his thoughts whirling around and around. He put a note on his computer that said, “Going for a ride be back in an hour.” with the time and then he walked through the house to the back door and pulled on his boots and a jacket. He was glad he didn’t encounter anyone in the house or the barn, he wasn’t in the mood for idle chatter.

Since he didn’t want to talk to anyone, he headed straight off their land and into the National Forest, it was less likely there would be anyone he would need to talk to in there. There was a trail he could take up to a small plateau that had a pretty view. The forest and mountains were on one side and their ranch on the other. He and his siblings had camped there often growing up, it was within sight of the ranch, but far enough away to feel adventurous.

They’d had quite the drunken party a few years ago. Drew’s best friend Zach had gone off to try his hand at being a rodeo star. He’d succeeded too, Zach was in the money more often than not these days. Adam could admit that he missed Zach, he’d been a good hand at the ranch, and a hard worker. He was sure his brother missed him even more, they’d done everything together. He hadn’t been back much since that night. Adam wasn’t sure why that was, he assumed it was just the demands of the sport, but he didn’t know that for certain. It seemed like he should be able to come home once in a while if he wanted to. Although Zach’s mother had moved away to live with his older sister, so maybe Zach just spent his off season there. Drew told them stories about Zach once in a while, so he knew he kept in touch with him.

When Adam reached the plateau, he saw there was someone camping up there. It was public ground so that was perfectly legal, but it seemed a little odd to him, there wasn’t much to do up there. No fishing, no facilities, not much of anything really. It was ideal for kids wanting to spend the night away from home, but a regular camp ground it was not.

Whoever it was that was camping was not anywhere to be seen. He dismounted and let his horse munch on the grasses up there. Adam turned his back on the tent and looked out over the land his family had owned for generations. He watched the cattle—down below—roam. There were some of the hands and probably some family in the hay fields, the crops were growing well. Some guys were probably riding the fences too looking for any breaches that needed repair. With the birthing season over they didn’t need to work in shifts any longer, but there was still plenty of work to be done.

Speaking of work, he should probably get his butt back to his desk and finish paying the bills. Reluctantly he remounted his horse and started the ride back down the hill. He was feeling much more peaceful, so he should be able to do his job.

When he got back to the office cum library he shared with his parents there was a commotion going on. Both his parents were in the room with Thomas and Beau. They were all looking at the wall map of the ranch. It appeared Thomas had found the cause of the injury to the cow Alyssa had stitched up.

Adam walked up to the rear of the group and heard Thomas say, “It was a very odd place for something like that. I couldn’t figure out why someone would leave that laying around.”

Adam asked, “Sorry I missed the first part, what did you find and where?”

Thomas acknowledged Adam with a nod and said, “I found a sharpened pickax partially imbedded in the ground. It was in the trees by the river right about there.” He pointed to a place on the map. “It was stuck pretty deep in the ground and took a bit of work to pull it out. I don’t know what that one year old was doing in that area but there was a rock next to it making a small opening, so if that animal was determined to go through the gap the pickax would have easily carved into the skin.”

Adam said, “That’s not far from where I was when that drone startled Jake, and I ended up on foot.”

Meg shook her head. “A drone and now a pickax, just what is going on around here?”

“I don’t know sweetheart,” Travis said. “But we’ll get to the bottom of it, don’t you worry.”

Adam said, “Yes we will. Thomas, good job. Let the rest of the hands know what you found, tell them keep their eyes open, and report anything they find that seems odd. We’re going to be busy with Alyssa’s family coming soon and her graduation, so it will be up to you guys to be on the lookout.”

Thomas nodded. “You’ve got it. I’ll spread the word.”