Jess found Old Charlie’s room after half an hour. He had his own little cottage on the property, tucked away behind the barn. It was a neat little place with a small patch of garden in front that was bursting with flowers. He seemed less than thrilled to see her but let her in anyway.
He was washing his dishes, a pan and one plate in a small sink. The house smelt of recently cooked bacon and eggs. Jess was ravenous. She hadn’t eaten a thing since her flight yesterday. She had meant to visit a grocery store before driving out to the farm, but the call about the cattle had ended that plan.
“So what can I do for you?” Old Charlie asked his back to her as he continued washing up.
“Um, well I wanted to apologize for my behavior last night. This whole lifestyle is new to me and I’m sorely unprepared for it.” She stood in the middle of his tiny living room floor with its sparse furniture and watched him busy in his kitchenette.
After an age, Old Charlie turned around and smiled. “Well that took guts,” he said. “Apology accepted.”
Jess smiled and nodded nervously.
“Was there something else?” he asked as he scrubbed down his kitchen counter.
“Yes actually, I need to go to town urgently and I was wondering if you would consider coming with me?” There she’d asked.
Old Charlie put down his sponge and looked at her properly for the first time since letting her in. “Yeah I can see why, you can’t run a ranch looking like one of those Playboy Bunnies. You gonna need good boots and jeans and maybe a shirt that fits.”
Jess folded her arms across her chest. This just made her breasts bunch together and seem even more likely to break out of the Tee. So she settled for placing her hands on her hips instead. Well he wasn’t wrong.
It was an hour’s drive to the nearest store. This town, Jess missed the name, was so small she would have called it a Hamlet back home. The general store was nestled between a post office and a diner along with what passed for a main street. Too early for the general store, the sign in the front window indicating that they only opened at eight thirty, Jess took them to the diner.
As she found a seat in a booth, and Old Charlie slipped in opposite her, Jess couldn’t help but smile. She had changed out of the silly Tee and decaying jeans, settling for pale blue slacks and a delicate cream blouse. At least now she felt more like herself.
She ordered coffee for them both, and seeing as how the least fattening thing on the menu was toast with a poached egg, she ordered that. She asked Charlie if he wanted anything but he refused. Then, hearing her order, Old Charlie shook his head. “No reason to watch your figure out here,” he said. “You gonna be working too hard for fat to cling to you.”
“Oh, but I hired Wyatt and his friends for the hard labor,” Jess said meaning it as a bit of a joke.
Charlie obviously didn’t get it and she had to admit it was at the bottom end of the humor barrel. So she sipped her coffee and ate her toast in silence. From their booth, she had an excellent view out of the window. The main street was coming to life. She watched people, mostly in jeans, moving to and fro going about their business. Next door the general store opened. Jess only realizing this as a line of people entered it. And then suddenly her breath caught in her throat. Across the street was a hotel. It was a quaint building with a small turret and a bay window, a flower filled garden and the name, “Grandma’s Inn,” displayed with great pride on the gate.
In front of the gate stood a man. He wasn’t particularly tall, or short but somewhere in between. He was muscular, that was obvious under his jeans and red check shirt. His hair looked greyish in the light.
Jess almost dropped her coffee mug, sloshing liquid over the table.
“Hey! What’s wrong?” Old Charlie exclaimed grabbing a handful of napkins to wipe up the mess.
“He’s here,” Jess said starting to shake. “That lying a-hole is here!”
A waitress appeared with a cloth and in the turmoil of cleaning her mess, Jess lost sight of the man and swore.
Old Charlie grinned. “I knew we’d manage to dislodge that bug up your butt eventually.”
But Jess wasn’t listening. How could he be here? How could he find her?
“So who was that?” Charlie asked. “You look like you seen a ghost.”
“I thought I saw my ex. But Conrad can’t be here. I mean I left him in New York with his stupid physiotherapist. He can’t have found me can he?” Jess knew she was rambling but she was scared now. Conrad Petersen was a mean piece of work. Oh, at first he’d be charming, suave and you let things slide. Little cruelties, wrapped in a sick sense of humor, and fancy words would be dealt out on a daily basis. Eventually you would take his obsessive narcissism to just be his way of joking with you. But that was before you saw him in the light of day, before you realized that he was mean through and through. Jess had found out about Conrad’s temper, his nastiness and something even more horrible.
“Bad guy,” Charlie said.
Jess hadn’t realized she’d been speaking aloud.
“Well look, it’s probably not him,” Charlie said. “I read somewhere that everyone’s got a double somewhere in the world, so maybe that poor feller has the rotten luck of looking like…what was his name again?”
“Conrad,” Jess said flatly.
“Right, so chin up girl. You’re gonna be fine.” And Charlie placed an old veined hand on hers and patted it.
Jess thanked him.
Then she paid the bill. And they set about doing the shopping. Jess bought a range of jeans, shirts and boots that Old Charlie approved of. “Now you look the part.” She even got herself a wide brimmed hat. Then they bought groceries and a few odds and ends that Charlie said they needed for the farm. Heavily laden with a much lighter bank account, Jess packed them and their shopping into the SUV and drove them back to the ranch.
On the way she and Charlie spoke about light things, joking and getting to know one another better. If they were going to be very close neighbors Jess figured it was a good Idea to get to know each other. She told him about New York and her family. How they had never been close and her little sister now lived in New Zealand, and never even sent a mail.
Charlie was less forthcoming with his life story except to say that the flowers outside his cabin, not cottage thank you, were for his late wife Gloria. He had a son, Chester, who was a chartered accountant in San Diego.
As Jess listened she found her mood improving even though she still couldn’t shake the feeling that Conrad was standing behind her.
Chapter 5
Back at the ranch she found her newly hired hands out in a field mending a fence. Jesse and Wyatt were taking turns to hammer an upright into the ground. It was hard going and they had taken their shirts off. Never before had Jess seen so many rippling, sweat gleaming muscles in real life. For a moment she didn’t know where to look and so settled on the post.
“Well don’t you look the part?” Wyatt said with approval in his voice.
Jess was mystified.
“The duds,” he said. “Your clothes! You went shopping.”
“Oh yes, well the Hello Kitty top was a little…teen I suppose,” she said.
“Oh I don’t know, I kinda liked it,” Jesse piped up wiping the sweat from his brow. Wyatt slapped the back of his head. “What?” Jesse asked. “The lady is pretty and she ought to be told.”
“Well thank you Jesse,” Jess said taking it all in her newly acquired stride. “So how are things. Charlie had me buy some stuff for the farm, but I’m afraid you’ll have to ask him what exactly the things are.” She looked lost for a moment.
Wyatt nodded. “Okay,” he said. “But we need to discuss something. The grazing here isn’t that good, that’s why the cattle broke through. See we’re having a dry spell so I think we’re gonna have to supplement their feed more than usual.”
“Hang on,” Jess said, “The estate agent said something about a hay field on the property. Where’s that?”
“I think that’s it over there,” he indicated the opposite direction. “But it’s full of weeds and there’s almost nothing of use.”
Jess sighed. “But of course. So what does that mean?” she asked.
“It means we have to go buy feed,” Jesse said. Wyatt nodded sagely.
“Oh,” Jess said, “Right. Well. Let’s go then.” She looked pointedly at Wyatt.
“Me?” he asked.
“Well I’m certainly not going on my own. Can you imagine what I’ll come back with?”
“Take Charlie,” Jesse suggested.
Jess laughed, “I think he has had enough of my company for one day.” She smiled at Wyatt. “Oh come on, I don’t bite. You can ask Charlie.” And she smiled as sweetly as possible.
The drive out to the depot was short. Wyatt was driving, not trusting a British female to negotiate rural American roads as he put it. Jess let him. It was a relief to have someone else be in charge for a while.
“So are you from here?” Jess asked.
“Yup,” Wyatt said never taking his eyes off the road. “Born in the house I live in, actually.”
“Oh really? And where is that?” Jess asked.
“Next valley over from your farm,” Wyatt replied. “We’re practically neighbors.” Then he added as an afterthought. “Watch out for your other neighbors though, they can be downright mean and unpleasant.”
“Which neighbors?” she asked now worried.
Wyatt began to explain. It turned out that she was on a farm that bordered two small outlying settlements. The one was called Sun Valley and the other Pritchard’s Corral.
“Stay away from Pritchard’s. Folks that side can be less than friendly,” Wyatt said.
“And people in Sun Valley?” asked Jess.
“Well since I live there, it’s a fabulous place,” he grinned.
“I’ll bet.”
“You can see tonight,” Wyatt said as they pulled up at the depot. “I thought I’d take you to a great little local spot. It’s called Honey’s and the food is really great.”
Jess was stunned for a moment. So he had meant the invitation. But now was this a date or a business dinner? One part of her hoped for the latter, while the other was praying for the former. Damn these cowboys and their muscles, and chiseled jaws. And their tight buns.
The feed depot was rather dull. Wyatt spoke to a man who was mostly overall and cap, with the kind of face you never looked at twice. He was a little short with Wyatt as though he didn’t really like him. But in the end they had secured a delivery of feed for next day. Feeling much poorer, Jess got back into the SUV. For a moment she wondered if drinking out a bottle of Tequila now would make her think that buying this place was a good idea again. It was beginning to look like the costliest idea she’d ever had the misfortune to have.
Getting back to the farm took a little longer. Wyatt decided to show Jess some of the countryside. She had to admit it was lovely. Scrubby grasses, mostly brown, or grey white with little patches of yellow flowers, led to greener grass just before a line of fir trees bordered the lower slopes of snowcapped mountains.
It was a pleasant ride even though they spent parts of it in total silence. Wyatt had the window down on the driver’s side, his arm perched casually on the edge. He sat comfortably behind the steering wheel with an ease that suggested he was totally at home in his skin. Jess watched him and only realized she was staring when he looked at her and said, “What?”
“Oh, nothing…sorry,” she said blushing and turned to look out the window.
They arrived back at the farm not a moment too soon for Jess. As they pulled up she bolted into the house without a backwards look. She waited for the burning sensation to subside and for her embarrassment to die down. Then she looked around and realized that in all the excitement again today, all her stuff was still in boxes.
So Jess spent the afternoon unpacking, and then feeling bad that she’d ignored them all day, took sandwiches and bottles of water out to the guys. Wyatt was suspiciously absent when she arrived in the field, but the others assured her that they would keep at least one sandwich for him when he returned.
When she asked where he’d gone, Kyle, the one with the joker smile, said he’d be back and it was nothing to worry about. Naturally him saying that made her worry. But she left them there and went back to the house.
She was up to her armpits in packing noodles when Wyatt knocked on her back door.
“Hey there,” he said.
Jess jumped and almost dropped the casserole dish she was holding. She swore colorfully and then seeing Wyatt blushed all over again.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to startle you,” he smiled. He really had the most wonderful smile.
“It’s okay, I was just miles away,” she said putting the dish down gently on the counter top. “I have so much junk I think it’ll take forever to unpack it all.”
“I could ask my sister, Donna, to come help you?” Wyatt asked. “She works at Honey’s so she has most mornings free.”
Jess considered this and then nodded. “Of course, that would be great thanks.”
They stood in silence staring at each other.
Then Wyatt cleared his throat. “Oh yeah, I wanted to check if it’s cool that I pick you up around seven tonight?”
“Wouldn’t it be easier for me to meet you there?” Jess asked.
Wyatt chuckled. “Not really. It’s a little hard to find in the dark if you’re not used to this area. I’ll come get you.”
“Okay,” Jess said.
Wyatt nodded and tipping his hat, left through the back door again. Jess reminded herself, as she put the casserole dish away in the cupboard, that tonight was a business dinner, not a date! Most certainly not a date. But then why did it feel like one?