Daisies in the Canyon(39)

Cooper could hear every high-pitched word coming through the phone. Shiloh was not a happy woman right then and Abby would have some explaining to do.

“I’m a big girl. I can leave the house without telling either one of you,” she protested. “Don’t wait up for me. And don’t bother to lock the back door. I could open that thing in ten seconds with nothing but a hairpin.”

She hit the “End” button and handed the phone back to Cooper. “Maybe you’d better make it two pints of ice cream.”





Chapter Ten

You think Bonnie and Shiloh will get out a shotgun and make me marry you?” Cooper teased as he parked the truck near the yard gate.

“I haven’t reported to anyone since I was eighteen years old. I’m not starting now. Good night, Cooper, and thank you for the drive and the ice cream. But most of all for talking to me about Ezra.”

He leaned across the console and brushed a soft kiss across her forehead. She would have liked very much for the next one to hit her lips square on, but the living room curtain pulled aside, framing two faces peering out, and she was glad she and Cooper were both sitting upright in the truck cab.

“Please don’t walk me to the door. They’ll think it’s a date,” she groaned.

“And that’s bad?”

“No, but it is personal. And after less than a week, I’m not ready to share any more of my personal life with them,” she said.

“I understand.” He nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Got any idea what’s on the dinner menu?”

“It’s Shiloh’s day to cook and I have no idea what she’s planning. She likes the kitchen better than outside, but I got to hand it to her, she’s pulls her fair share on the ranch as well as in the kitchen,” Abby said.

“And you?” Cooper asked.

“I don’t mind cooking or cleaning, but I’d rather be outside. I’d best get on inside or they’re liable to come out here,” she said.

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Good night, Abby.”

“Good night, Cooper.”

Martha’s old head popped up from Ezra’s chair where she’d been sleeping and she hopped down to the floor with a fluid movement, ambled across the living room, and stuck her cold nose into Abby’s open hand. Her tail wagged and Abby could’ve sworn the dog grinned when she dropped down on her knees to pet her.

Bonnie held out her hand. “Give me your phone.”

Abby shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m thirty years old. That’s too damn old to get my phone taken away because Cooper took me to Silverton for ice cream.”

“I’m not taking it away from you. I’m programming your number into my phone and then I’m putting mine into yours.”

“And”—Shiloh piped up from the sofa—“Rusty went through the roof when I said that about him killing us off to get the ranch. I might have given him an idea, though, so we have to watch out for each other.”

Abby handed the phone to Bonnie. “Y’all are paranoid. Rusty isn’t capable of murder.”

“But Cooper might be, or maybe Jackson. I can see them coveting this place, and what better way than to offer Rusty a big price after we all disappear,” Shiloh said.

“I thought you read romance books,” Abby said.

Bonnie put the phone back in Abby’s hand. “What’s that got to do with anything? I read romance, too.”

“It sounds like you’ve been reading murder mysteries. I’m going to bed now and FYI, ladies, I will not tell you I’m leaving every time I step out the door. We are grown adults, not teenagers, and I do not answer to either of you.”

Martha followed Abby as she started toward her room.

“No attention for Vivien and Polly?” Shiloh asked.

“No,” Abby answered.

“Why?”

“I like Martha better, and those two dogs belong to y’all, not me. Martha is mine. You want them to have attention, then it’s your job to provide it. I’m going to take a long, warm bath. Y’all have permission to use my half bath if you need it while I’m in the big bathroom. Just don’t knock on the bathroom door.”

“The queen gives orders but we can’t,” Bonnie said.

“Oldest child rights,” Abby said.

“And we get permission to enter the holy quarters.” Sarcasm dripped from Shiloh’s tone.

“Don’t get bitchy. Neither of you have invited me into your rooms,” Abby threw over her shoulder on the way down the hallway.




Ranching was never done.

Period.

No one ever said, If we get this fence fixed, it will be done for a week. Not once had she heard someone yell, And we finished plowing half the state of Texas, so we get to sleep until noon tomorrow.

But didn’t exist in ranching, not even for a nice excuse like, but I broke my fingernail and I have blisters on my toes. And no one ever uttered the words when I get the barn cleaned and the cows milked and the eggs gathered, I can read for the rest of the afternoon.

Thursday and Friday were long, exhausting days on Malloy Ranch. Two forty-acre fields were now planted in ryegrass and by spring the cattle would be eating green grass rather than hay. Two more fields were planted in winter wheat and next week the place where they’d burned the brush would be planted in a different kind of rye.