EVENING A white crew-cab Ford with a logo on the side pulled out of the Lightning Creek driveway just as Jolie pulled in. She hadn’t caught the lettering on the side of the truck, but it was obvious from the orange stakes in the field that the surveyor had finally showed up. Not only that... Gabe was back from his trip and he and Dani now stood near the surveyed plot, deep in conversation. Jolie parked her truck and, gathering her coat around her, headed over to where her sister and future brother-in-law stood.
“Wow,” Jolie said. “Officially surveyed. The first big step toward training in the rain.”
“Yup.” Gabe looped an arm around Dani and Jolie instantly knew something was up. Dani had on her brave face and Gabe’s expression was taut—neither looked as though they were celebrating a milestone.
Oh, great. “Hey, welcome back,” Jolie said to Gabe as if nothing were amiss. “I thought you weren’t due until Tuesday.”
“Change of plans.” He smiled at her, his tense expression relaxing a bit. He was a good-looking guy—dark-haired, blue-eyed—and wildly in love with her sister, which made their strange behavior after his early return all the more disturbing.
“What happens now with the arena?” she asked, playing along.
A gust of wind hit them as she spoke and Dani pulled her sweatshirt hood up over her hair. “As soon as the area is leveled, then the crew comes to put up the walls and stretch the canvas over the ribs.”
Yeah. There definitely wasn’t enough excitement, but after bouncing a quick look between Gabe and Dani, Jolie decided not to ask questions. Instead she smiled. “After I move the cows, maybe we should break open a bottle of wine, warm up some leftover pasta and celebrate in style.”
“Sounds good,” Gabe said.
“All right, Gus. Let’s move the girls.” The big dog had enough Border collie in him to be a decent cow dog and he dearly loved it when he got to help Jolie move the cattle from the area she had them grazing to the next. Dani had always been a strict horsewoman, but Jolie had an affinity with cattle, therefore as soon as she got home, she took over their care. Dani would move to the Staley property, where Gabe lived, once they married, so, all things considered, it made perfect sense for her to handle cattle matters.
Jolie marched out across the pasture. The cows, knowing the routine, fell in behind her, new calves trotting close to their mothers’ sides. It was as if they all knew Jolie was going to open the electric fence that kept them from grazing the new growth. She allowed them into the knee-deep grass, shutting them off from the area they’d just eaten down.
In another day, she would open another gate and continue the process. It had taken her and Dani a couple of days to string the wire, creating what amounted to grazing cells, but the two days’ work would pay off in more efficient grazing and less impact to the pasture through overgrazing.
The cows streamed into the area past her as she held the wire. As soon as the last one was in, she reconnected the wire. Gus gave a mighty bark, as if he’d just taught those bovines a thing or two then fell in beside Jolie as she headed back to the house. Gabe and Dani were on the porch, again in conversation.
Jolie bit her lip.
They’ll tell you whatever it is when they’re ready.
But she hated unfinished business and her stomach was working its way into a knot, so she did what she always did—smiled and pretended nothing in the world bothered her. She should have known better than to try that with the sister who knew her too well.
“It’s nothing,” Dani said as they followed Gabe into the house.
Jolie nodded and trotted upstairs to change into a sweatshirt and jeans. When she got back downstairs, Gabe had the wine open and Dani was reheating the pasta in the microwave.
“That little black heifer calf slipped under the wire again and her mama went nuts,” Dani said conversationally.
“I take it she slipped back in?”
“After wandering around, exploring. I think she was just torturing her mom a little.”
“Like we did,” Jolie replied.
“I can’t believe you two would do that,” Gabe said on a wry note.
“We didn’t mean to,” Dani said. “It was just that Mel and Allie were so—”
“Anal.”
“I was going to say perfect.”
“Have it your way,” Jolie said. She caught her sister’s eye and they laughed. The four Brody sisters were tight, and had become tighter after their father had passed away, but it was no secret that Allie and Mel were the serious older sisters, who’d taken it upon themselves to help shoulder their mother’s burden. Dani and Jolie had done what they could, but they’d been young.
“They were overly responsible,” Dani said to Gabe.
Gabe handed them both a glass of wine. Dani raised her glass in a salute. “To the arena.”
Glasses clinked and once again Dani and Gabe exchanged a glance.
Jolie set down her wine. “I was going to be polite and not pry, but...what’s going on? Is one of you pregnant or something?”
“N-no,” Dani sputtered, looking startled at the question.
Jolie shrugged one shoulder. “I wouldn’t have really minded that.”
“In good time,” Gabe said, settling a possessive hand on Dani’s shoulder. He looked down at her and she nodded.
“It’s no big secret—”
“It’s more like a startling new development,” Gabe said. “I just got offered an eighteen-month position filling in for a friend of mine.”
“Where?” Jolie asked, lowering the wine she’d been about to sip.
“Pennsylvania.”
“That’s a long way from here.”
“Yeah,” Dani said. “But it’s only eighteen months, great contacts for Gabe.”
And no doubt a nice chunk of change. Gabe had invested almost everything he had in the Staley property next door to keep the Lightning Creek Ranch from becoming neighbors with a large resort and water park.
“So what does this mean?”
“We still have to decide.” Dani spoke a little too brightly. And she’d yet to touch her wine.
“You know I’d hold down the fort while you’re gone,” Jolie said.
“I plan to stay here,” Dani said.
“Why?”
“I’m building a business.”
“You could take a hiatus. You started from scratch a year ago and look what you have now. A crammed schedule.”
“We talked about that,” Gabe said. And that was all he said. The microwave bell dinged and they all glanced over at the machine, as if it had some answers.
“I had a startling development myself,” Jolie said, sensing the need to change the topic. Dani and Gabe obviously still had some talking to do and she couldn’t blame them. Eighteen months was a long time. “Dylan agreed to let me set up a commissioned Western gift shop at the store.”
“I didn’t know you wanted to do that.”
“It seems a good way to attract people.” Jolie took the bowl out of the microwave and carried it to the table. “It can’t hurt. I’m working on expanding his stock, too, but he has this thing about not having stuff that doesn’t move well.”
“He has a point,” Gabe said.
“The store is dying. I know a gift store isn’t the big answer, but it might spark