Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(28)

“OK, OK!” she said. “It’s just different than what Aunt Maud did. I wasn’t prepared to do it any different, and then you come along with all these ideas.”

“I want this to work, Sophie. I want to live here, to make it a going concern. If washing down the barn and the cattle make us more money, then that’s what we’ll do.”

She shut her notebook. “Truce then, until after the sale. When we add up the profits and compare them to last year’s, we’ll see if it was all worthwhile.”

She stuck out her hand.

He reached across and shook.

Neither was prepared for the shocking tingles that glued their boots to the ground.





CHAPTER EIGHT


Sophie put a Sammy Kershaw CD in the player and picked up a romance book she’d checked out the last time she went to the library. She and Elijah had eaten soup from cans: she’d had gumbo, and he’d had some kind of beef stew. She’d sliced some Italian bread and toasted it with pepper jack cheese under the broiler, and opened a jar of peaches that she and Aunt Maud had canned the spring before.

After the jolt that had passed between them when they shook hands, neither had had much to say. They’d eaten, cleaned up their dishes, and Elijah mumbled something about a shower. She’d kicked off her boots, put on the music, and intended to read, but the words all blurred together as Sammy sang “Don’t Go Near the Water.”

“Too late,” she mumbled. “I done went near the water and I can’t swim.”

What are you fussin’ about? Aunt Maud’s voice argued so close to her ear that she turned quickly to make sure the old girl hadn’t resurrected and came to visit. No one was in the bedroom with her, but Aunt Maud continued. You can swim just fine, girl. Now why are you hiding in your room? Ain’t Elijah good company?

“Listen to the song, Aunt Maud. Sammy is singing that he didn’t go near the water, but he got his feet wet. That’s the way I feel. I don’t like Elijah, but I got jealous when he looked at the delivery girl, and when we shook hands, something jarred loose in my heart that I buried so deep it wasn’t ever supposed to surface.”

All she got was a soft chuckle and a soft breeze across her face in answer.

“I’m crazy!” she muttered. “I’m talkin’ to the dead and imaginin’ ghosts. See what a man in my house has done to me? Those boys in the white jackets and the unmarked van are going to appear in the front yard if I don’t get it together.”

The ringtone on her cell phone jerked her back to the present. She rolled to the other side of the bed and fetched it from the nightstand.

“Hello. I’m glad you called. I’m going crazy,” Sophie said.

“You’re about to go more crazy. Has anyone called you?” Kate asked.

Goose bumps as big as a herd of Angus bulls popped up on Sophie’s arms. “What?”

“There’s a wildfire to the southeast of you. I just heard about it. It’s headed right for your ranch, lady. I’m surprised you hadn’t heard already,” Kate said.

Someone started beating on the front door so hard that the glass rattled. “Someone is here. I bet Gus heard and he’s here. Thanks.”

“Call if you need help,” Kate said.

Sophie shoved her feet down in her boots and ran down the hallway toward the door. She slung it open to see Gus and three of the hired hands wearing worried expressions and motioned them inside. Before they were in the house, Elijah was in the room, smelling like soap and Stetson aftershave and wearing cotton pajama bottoms with a black T-shirt stretched across his broad chest.

“We’ll get the cows up in the pens close to the barn,” Gus said.

“What’s happening?” Elijah asked.

“Wildfire. Started down southeast of us. It’s bypassed Baird, but it’s eating up farm land, and this wind is blowing it toward the ranch,” Gus said.

“Firebreaks,” Sophie said.

Elijah had to stop himself from tearing off his pajamas right there in the foyer. He headed down the hall and yelled over his shoulder, “I’ll get dressed, and we’ll plow firebreaks if you all can gather in the stock. Start in the south and herd them north toward the two barns. We’ve got pens ready for the sale. Put as many as you can in the pens.”

“And the yard should hold at least thirty head so fill it up too,” Sophie said. “I’ll take the older tractor. I’m used to it, and I’ll start a firebreak along the south fence line. You come in behind me, and we’ll make it double-wide. Next year we’re putting in metal posts if I have to finance them out of my personal account.”

“I been tellin’ Miz Maud that for years. One of these days the fires are going to burn up every one of them old wood posts,” Gus said on his way out the door. “Frankie, you and Kendall go get on them four-wheelers. I’ll drive my truck, and Randy can take the old work truck. I just hope we don’t run too many pounds off them right here at sale time.”

“Better to be ten pounds skinnier than burned right out there in the field,” Sophie said as she took off in a dead run toward the barn. She quickly backed the tractor up to a wide plow, hooked it up, and took off for the southernmost field as fast as she could make the old girl go. The sun was a big old orange ball off to the west, but the southern wind carried the smell of smoke, and where there was smoke there would be fire right behind it. The breeze was scalding hot, but, in spite of it, cold chills danced down her spine. Was she about to lose the ranch right there at sale time? What would happen to the cattle? What if she lost a barn?