Summer Days (Fool's Gold #7)(41)

She returned the carafe to the stand and looked out the window. “I never forgot the view from this sink. How I could watch the changing of the seasons.” She glanced at Heidi and smiled. “I was raised in the Midwest. When we first moved here, I couldn’t get over how tall the mountains are. How beautiful. After my husband died, I knew I didn’t want to be anywhere else. Money was tough, but we had this house and the town.”

Heidi’s head had cleared enough for her to be able to follow the conversation. “Rafe mentioned the man who owned this land, Mr. Castle, promised you would inherit it.”

May nodded. The toast popped. She set the slice on a plate and lightly buttered it, then carried it over to Heidi.

“He did. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but he was a mean old man. I believed him and trusted him, and in the end, lost it all. When he died and it turned out he’d left the ranch to a relative, I was devastated. I had to move. I probably should have stayed in Fool’s Gold, where I had friends, but I was humiliated.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

May settled across from her. “I know that now, but at the time, I couldn’t get past the fact that Mr. Castle

had taken advantage of me. I’d lost my husband a few years before, and then the ranch. So we moved and started over.”

Heidi nibbled the toast. Her headache was a little better. Unfortunately, without the distraction of the throbbing, she was able to imagine May’s plight more easily. Four little kids, no home, no money. Talk about desperate.

“You must have done something right. Look at your children.”

May laughed. “They are wonderful, and while I want to take all the credit, they did a lot of it themselves. Rafe went to Harvard.”

“I saw the picture.”

“Shane works magic with horses. He breeds them and he’s working on his own herd. Clay…”

Heidi reached across the table. “I know about Clay. He’s very successful.”

May’s eyes danced with humor. “Rafe doesn’t approve, so I try not to talk about Clay around him, but I think it’s funny. My son, the butt model. He does well for himself, though.”

“Which is part of what pisses off Rafe.”

“True.”

The timer went off. May walked to the stove and pulled open the oven. She drew out the cake, then shook her head as she surveyed the uncooked side. “Oops. I forgot to turn it.” May spun the pan and reset the timer. “This old place. It needs a lot of fixing.”

“A new oven.”

“A bigger hot-water heater.”

Heidi really didn’t want to think about why May might need more hot water than the average person, but she knew the answer. Showers for two tended to last a long time. She worked very hard to keep the visual out of her brain, then drank a few swallows of coffee for courage.

“May, you’re a lovely woman.”

May leaned against the counter. “That’s an ominous beginning. If you were my doctor, I would know I was a goner for sure.”

“It’s Glen. I’m worried about you. He won’t listen, but I’m hoping you will.”

“You’re afraid he’s going to break my heart.”

“Yes.”

May nodded. “You’re sweet to worry. Glen told me the same thing himself. That he’s not the kind to settle down, that I’m the kind of woman looking to find something permanent.”

She brushed her hand through her short, dark hair. “My husband died over twenty years ago. I’ve accepted I’ll never care about anyone the way I cared about him. He gave me my boys, and he will always be my first true love. But it’s time for me to have a little fun.” Her mouth curved into a smile. “I don’t want to marry Glen, Heidi. I want to play, and he’s the right man to help me remember how.”

Pure TMI, Heidi thought. Or whatever qualified for more than too much information.

The timer went off. May pulled out the cake. It was still lopsided, although slightly less so.

“Maybe it will be better with frosting?” Heidi offered. “And sprinkles?”

May laughed. “You’re my kind of girl. What crisis can’t be fixed with frosting and sprinkles?”

Heidi knew she was supposed to laugh, too. But in that moment she was too overwhelmed by a sense of loss. She’d always told herself that she couldn’t miss what she’d never had. That when her parents had died, she was so young that she didn’t remember anything about them. But at this moment, with May, she found herself longing for a chance to have grown up with a mother. Someone who baked and offered advice on boys and knew how to pick out a prom dress.

The past couldn’t be changed, which left only the future. Somehow, she would have to get out of the mess of the ranch and the money, without losing everything and without hurting May.

CHAPTER NINE

RAFE WALKED ACROSS THE barn’s roof. From that height, he could see across much of the ranch. The goats had been taken to the north end of the property. He could see them munching their way through fresh spring grass, no doubt as happy as goats could be.

The fence line was finished. He didn’t want to think about how many posts had been dug out and replaced, how many miles of wire fencing were carefully stapled into place. To his mind, it was a whole lot of work for eight goats, but his mother had insisted.