Chapter Two
Sitting in Kelsi’s living room with her and the grandbabies, Bobbi felt as if she was finally in her element. She snuggled baby Willow close, kissing her cheek softly. “Have I told you yet how glad I am you didn’t name this sweet baby Widget?”
Kelsi grinned. “It was just a thought.” She looked down at Tori sleeping in her arms. “I’m always surprised when she finally sleeps, because she wiggles so much, it seems that she never will.”
“I understand. You were the same. Do you ever wish you’d had identical twins like you and Dani?”
Kelsi shook her head. “No way. I’m not sure how you put up with us. We hated looking alike so much, we’d do anything to look different. And I mean anything! There were days when Dani would smudge dirt on her face, just so we wouldn’t look identical.” She kissed the sleeping baby in her arms. “I wouldn’t wish that on my two girlies for anything.”
“I still have a hard time believing my youngest child was not only the first to give me grandbabies, but she doubled up the first time.” As she said it, Bobbi wondered how her mother would have reacted to her own grandchildren, feeling sad that she’d never find out. For some reason, she’d started thinking about her mother more in the past few months.
“I was always ahead of my time! Besides, Ellie and Will are expecting, and so are Belinda and Wyatt. Pretty soon you’re going to be drowning in grandbabies.”
Bobbi smiled. “Nothing would make me happier, you know.” She looked toward the window with a frown.
“Mom, what’s wrong? I’ve never seen you look quite so…morose.”
“Just trying to make some big decisions. Nothing for you to trouble yourself with.”
Kelsi frowned at that. “I’m a pretty good listener.”
“I know you are! You were the only one who listened to my Bigfoot theories and made them your own.” Bobbi refused to let her time with her children and grandchildren be touched by sadness. No, she was going to make the most of every day.
A short while later, she headed back to the ranch. How was she going to be able to leave Riston and River’s End Ranch again? The first time had been a necessity. They’d needed to make sure the kids were up for what they were taking on. An operation as big as the ranch was too much for most people. Their kids had made them proud, though.
She parked at the cabin before taking off into the woods. She needed to walk and think. Again, her mind went back the thirty-five years to 1982 when she was a new employee of the ranch, not a family member.
Bobbi had gone to church her first Sunday on the ranch, and she’d truly enjoyed it. The pastor in Riston had preached as if he knew people were real and not puppets, determined to do what they felt was right. He seemed to understand the struggles of being a teenager in the twentieth century. It was so different than her church in Oklahoma, where everyone was expected to be perfect in every way.
After the service, Wilber had taken her hand and helped her up into his big pick-up truck. There was a picnic basket in the middle of the big front seat. “I brought lunch. Do you ride?”
Bobbi shook her head. “I never had the opportunity to learn, though it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”
“We’ll take the ATVs then.”
“What’s an ATV?”
Wilber turned his head to look at her as he stopped at a stop sign. “Where are you from? Mars?” He shook his head. “An ATV has three wheels, and it’s a small motorized vehicle. It stands for all-terrain vehicle. We can take a couple of ATVs up into the mountains. The view is unimaginable.”
“Are they hard to drive?” she asked.
“Well, you drive a car, don’t you?”
She shook her head. “My foster parents didn’t think it was a skill that I needed.”
“Of course, it is! I’ll teach you myself.” He frowned. “That makes it hard to take two ATVs up into the mountains, though. You’ll have to share mine.”
“Couldn’t we just go for a walk?” She’d never been anywhere alone with a man. The foster parents she’d lived with since she was ten were religious nuts. They didn’t think young people should date at all. She was surprised they hadn’t made her wear a nun’s habit. Over the time she’d been gone, she’d slowly started buying new clothes for herself, and she now dressed like most teens, though her clothes had been purchased in second-hand stores. At least she no longer felt conspicuous.
He frowned. “I guess we can. We won’t be able to go as far up into the mountains, though. The view won’t be quite as special.”
She sighed. “I do like nice views.” Thinking for a moment, she realized she no longer had to obey the strict rules she’d lived by for the past eight years. “I can share an ATV with you.”
He grinned, reaching over to take her hand in his. “You’re pretty special, aren’t you?”
She blinked a few times at that. No one had ever thought she was special. “I’m not so sure about that…”
“I am. You’re very special. When you smile, it feels like my whole world has lit up.”
“Stop!” The car in front of them on the country highway slowed down a little and pushed a puppy out of the car.
He slammed on his brakes. “Did they just throw a dog out?”
She nodded, opening her door and running toward the animal. “Are you hurt? You poor thing!” She picked up the dog, who couldn’t be more than a few months old, and cradled him in her arms. “How can people be so heartless?”
He shook his head. “I’ll keep him until we can find him a new owner.”
“I want him.” She’d never had a pet. She’d never had anyone who would be hers forever, but this dog…he could be her forever family.
Wilber frowned. “I’m not sure Mom will let you keep him at the house.”
“Where then? I need to keep him. I know this dog is meant to be mine!” She was almost frantic. She had to have him. “I guess I can move on if your mom won’t let me take him into her house.”
He frowned at her. “That dog is more important to you than having a job and a place to live? Really?”
There were tears streaming down her face, and she didn’t bother to wipe them away. “Really. I need him.”
He sighed. “All right. We’ll go ask Mom if you can keep him there. If not, I’ll keep him at my cabin until you find somewhere else to live.”
“You will?”
“Yup. I can see it’s important to you, so I’ll keep him.”
“Don’t you live with your parents?” No one had told her he did, but when he’d been there for dinner the night before, she’d just assumed.
“No. I live in a little cabin on the lake. It was built for guests, but Mom and Dad said I could stay there.”
“So why were you at dinner last night?”
He shrugged. “Mom called me and invited me. She said she had a young guest staying there, and she thought you’d be more at ease if I was there too.”
“She was right.” She stood up from her crouched position, holding the puppy in her arms.
“Let’s go ask Mom. I think our trip into the mountains today is shot regardless.”
“Why?”
“Are you really willing to leave the puppy to go up there with me?”
She bit her lip. “Well…”
“I didn’t think so. We’ll go another time. Diner closes early. I’ll take tomorrow afternoon off and pick you up at four.”
“What about the puppy?”
He sighed. “We’ll get him a collar and a leash and he can come along.” He got back into the truck and started it, making a U-turn in the middle of the road. “Let’s go talk to Mom.”
When they got to the house, Bobbi carried the dog in her arms. They found Kelsey and Jaclyn sitting together in the living room, chattering away. They were obviously very close.
Kelsey looked up and saw Bobbi with the dog in her arms. “Where’d you get him?”
“We were going to go on an ATV up into the mountains, but the car in front of us slowed down and pushed him out. I couldn’t let him get hit by a car!”
Kelsey sighed. “I guess you want to keep him here.”
“I told her I’d keep him at the cabin if you won’t let her.” Wilber put his hand on Bobbi’s shoulder, and she felt a tingle spread through her body. He really made her feel special.
“You can keep him.” Kelsey shook her head, her gaze meeting Jaclyn’s. “Do you see the sacrifices I make for you and your fairies?”
Bobbi wanted to squeal and jump up and down. “Thank you so much. I’ll take good care of him.”
“I know you will.” Kelsey looked at her son. “Find Bandit’s old bowls, would you? I’m sure we kept them somewhere. He’s going to need a leash and a collar too.”
“We’ll go into town and find him something.” He looked at Bobbi. “Do you want me to go alone? Or should we take him?”
“Is there a pet store in Riston? Or a place where we can get him what he needs?”
He shook his head. “We’d have to go further than Riston. Are you up for a Sunday drive?”
“With the dog?”
He nodded. “Sure, we can take him.”
Bobbi smiled at Kelsey. “Thanks for letting me keep him. I promise I’ll take good care of him.” She hurried back out to the truck, ready to get her new baby what he needed. It was only after she was sitting in the truck that she remembered her financial situation. “I can’t buy him anything. I have less than five dollars to my name.” She was embarrassed to admit her financial situation, but he’d know soon enough.
“I’ll get him what he needs.”
“I’ll pay you back when I get my first paycheck.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
She glared at him, feeling a bit stubborn. “I won’t let you pay for my dog.”
He sighed. “I plan to be married to you before the end of the summer. What difference does it make if I start paying for the dog now or later?”
“You can’t just announce you’re going to marry me. It doesn’t work like that!”
“Wanna bet?” He pulled the truck over to the side of the road and turned toward her, cupping her face in his hands. “I want to kiss you.”
The dog chose that moment to stick his head between theirs, making her giggle. “I think Don Juan here wants my kisses more than you do.”
He groaned. “I have a feeling I could prove you wrong about that.”
She giggled some more. “I think he likes me.”
“Of course he does. You’ve been holding him against you for a long time now. Hold me like that, and I’ll like you too.”
“Does that mean you don’t like me now?” She batted her eyes playfully at him.
“Later, I’m going to take you for a walk, and show you just how much I do like you.”
“Oh yeah?”
Wilber nodded. “I’m going to marry you, Bobbi. You might as well just agree now.”
“You can’t just announce you’re going to marry me. You have to woo me. You have to propose on one knee on top of a mountain.”
“On top of a mountain? I can make that happen pretty easily, you know.”
“I do know.” Bobbi scratched the dog’s ears, realizing she liked the name Don Juan for him. She liked it a lot. “I can’t make it too hard for you if I ever want to hear that proposal.” For a moment, she daydreamed about what being married to him would be like. She’d get to keep him and his mother. They’d be her forever family, not just Don Juan. She liked the idea more than she cared to admit.
He grinned, pulling the truck back out onto the road. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You do that.” She couldn’t believe they were talking about marriage proposals when they’d never even kissed, but somehow it felt right. She belonged with this man, and she knew it with everything inside her.
Bobbi kicked at a rock at the edge of the lake, sending it back into the depths. She missed Don Juan, but more than that, she missed the man who had courted her with pretty words and promises of tomorrow. Where had he gone? Six kids later, he seemed so involved with everything and everyone around them. She couldn’t even remember their last real date night. She missed their time together. All the while the kids had been growing up, they’d kept a weekly date night. It hadn’t always happened on a Friday or Saturday night, but she understood that business owners couldn’t always have the days they wanted off.
Now she’d give anything if he would just agree to let her spend more time with the grandbabies. She didn’t know when he’d started seeing his own needs as more important than hers, but it had definitely happened. Maybe it had been gradual. Sometimes it was hard to tell.
As she walked back toward the cabin, she thought about Don Juan. She’d loved that dog with everything inside her. He’d been the first creature she’d given unconditional love to, and she’d received it back one hundred times over. He’d died when the twins were small, but all her boys had memories of playing with Don Juan.
Getting back into the cabin, she found Wilber sleeping on the couch, a book on his chest, snoring uproariously. Thirty-five years ago, she’d love to watch him sleep. He’d meant everything to her. Now every little thing he did annoyed her. The look on his face while he slept. The sound of his snores. Even the way he stretched first thing in the morning.
She sighed. She still loved him, and she knew she always would. The problem was she didn’t like him much at the moment. Did that make her a bad person? She knew Kelsey would have thought so, but Kelsey had told her more than once that he was perfect when she had him. She had no idea what Bobbi had done to ruin him. The words had always made her want to strangle her mother-in-law, even though she’d loved her in a way that she wished she’d been able to love her own mother. Life was confusing.
Later that night while they were eating supper, he asked, “Do you have the plans in place for our vow renewal?”
Bobbi thought carefully about the words she wanted to say. She knew they would seem harsh, and that wasn’t what she wanted at all. She just needed him to understand how she felt. “I’m not sure I want the vow renewal. I don’t feel like we’re in a good place right now.”
He set down his fork. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that we’ve changed. It means that you used to worry about my feelings first, and you’d do anything I needed to make me happy. It means that I’m tired and I’m crabby, and I don’t know if I want to even be married to you anymore, let alone celebrate thirty-five years together as if everything is all hunky dory!”
“Are you telling me you want a divorce?” His face was full of emotions, shock being at the forefront.
“No. Not yet anyway. I think we need to try to work through what we’re feeling though. I need to know why my feelings don’t matter to you anymore. Maybe we should go to marriage counseling.”
He shook his head. “No. We’ll work it out together like we always have.” He balled up his napkin and threw it on the table. “I’m going for a walk.”
As he left the cabin, she felt a tear slide down her face. She stood and cleared the table, doing the dishes. Even if she was in the depths of despair, she couldn’t leave a mess in the kitchen. Once a dishwasher, always a dishwasher.
She went through the motions, hand-washing all the pots and pans and putting the dishes into the dishwasher. While she worked, she thought of her first real date with him, which came the Monday after they met.
Bobbi looked in the mirror in the bathroom at the back of the diner, making sure her hair wasn’t coming out of her ponytail. It was, so she quickly brushed it into submission. The heat from the hot dishwater made her hair flat. She wished there was time to curl it and tease it back up high like it should be, but he was due to be there any moment.
As she stepped out of the bathroom, she saw him standing in front of the café, Don Juan on the leash he’d bought the day before. Wilber was already working his way into her heart. The boys at school had ignored her, but Wilber was pursuing her in a way that was making her head spin. He thought she was special. He’d even told her.
“I’m heading out now, Kelsey!” Bobbi called as she removed her apron and headed for the front door. “I may not be home for dinner!” She saw that Wilber had the same picnic basket over his arm. They wouldn’t be able to take ATVs with Don Juan tagging along, but a nice walk sounded good to her.
As soon as she was outside, Wilber took her hand in his, as if he’d held her hand every day of their lives. Her heart skipped a beat as his skin touched hers, and she said a silent prayer that she would never get used to his touch. That every day for the rest of their lives, she would appreciate everything about him, from his ice blue eyes to his huge feet.
“Can we look for Bigfoot today?” she asked softly, trying not to let her feelings show.
He grinned. “I’d love to. Don Juan seems ready.”
“Thanks for getting him for me. I’d feel guilty going on a walk without him.”
“Do you want to look for Bigfoot or do you want me to show you around the ranch? It’s a nice place to live and work.”
She wrinkled her brow. “If I vote for seeing the ranch, can I get a raincheck on Bigfoot hunting?”
He nodded. “I’ll hunt for Bigfoot anytime you want.”
“Then show me the ranch.”
He took her over to the stables, introducing her to the man who was in charge of the horses. “Old Bellamy has worked here forever. I can’t imagine this ranch without him.”
“How long has it been a guest ranch?” she asked.
“My grandmother didn’t want to see my grandpa work himself to death, so she turned the ranch hands’ house into a hotel. That’s where most of the guests stay. And then she decided that it would be nice to have an RV park. My parents added a few cabins. My mom decided she wanted the diner.” He pulled her past the stable to an area that she hadn’t seen yet. “This is what we call the Old West Town.”
“I can see why!” She stared around in surprise. “Do you do anything with these buildings?”
He shook his head. “No, they’re really just here for the atmosphere.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if the saloon was maybe an ice cream parlor? Or the apothecary shop was a first aid station? You could even turn the mercantile into a combination supply store and a grocery store for the people who stay in the RV park.”
He nodded. “I could see that. We could have a pastor who actually performed weddings in the little church. My ancestors first lived in this area of the ranch. We brought in some of the buildings, but that little cabin there? My great-great-grandmother lived there. Legend says that she brought in a mail-order husband. I’d love to find out the real story.”
They stopped walking so Don Juan could sniff out just the right place to do his business. “I love that you have stories like that about your family. It sometimes feels like I had no life before the day my dad killed my mother.”
He stared at her, shock in his eyes. “Your dad shot your mother?”
She nodded. “He killed her too. He’s serving a life sentence. He’s eligible for parole in twenty-five years. I hope he rots there.”
Wilber pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry life has been so hard for you.”
She shrugged. “The harder life is, the stronger I am. That can’t be bad.”
“I guess not.” He continued walking with her, a sad look on his face. “I promise that as soon as you marry me, I won’t let anything bad happen to you for the rest of your life.”
She laughed. “You can’t promise that.”
“I can do my very best to make sure that your life is nothing but sunshine and roses after our wedding. How about next week?”
Bobbi laughed, shaking her head. As much as the idea appealed to her, she wanted to make sure she cared for him and not the easy life he could give her. “Let’s just get to know each other first. Okay?”
“Okay. You don’t know what you’re missing, though!”