Christmas at Cade Ranch Page 10

  “I felt so good when I took my pain meds. Soon nothing mattered except feeling that way. Then I lost control. I didn’t care about my family. I shut them out. Stopped seeing my friends. Didn’t even finish the quilt I’d been making for my daughter’s family. It had all my grandkids’ blankets sewn into squares. But that didn’t matter to me anymore. I was one hundred percent selfish. I didn’t care about anything else or anyone else. All I cared about was taking pills or drinking. I hit rock bottom when my daughter found me passed out. Overdosed.”

  Her voice cracked and dried up and Sofia’s heart went right out to her. She would die if Javi ever saw her like that.

  Pam blew her nose, pocketed her tissue and sat a bit straighter. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  Sofia blinked at her. What?

  “Looking back, I realized that I’ve always had a problem with alcohol. I spent most of my time as a mother with a glass of wine in my hand, though I went through plenty of bottles of vodka, too. People can’t smell it on your breath,” she said, almost conspiratorially. A few members nodded along. “Rehab, this program, showed me who I really was. Am. And I’m proud to celebrate one year straight today.”

  She held up a yellow chip with the number one and everyone burst out cheering and applauding. “Thank you for letting me share with you today.”

  Twenty minutes later, after other members spoke, their group leader asked, “Anyone else like to share? New members?”

  The collective weight of everyone’s stares pressed her back in her seat. She peeked at her neighbor, but he still had his eyes closed and looked oblivious. Shoot. She didn’t want to say anything.

  “We’d like to welcome you,” Anthony prompted.

  “Sofia. Sofia Gallardo. I was an addict a long time ago. Six years.”

  “Was?” Anthony questioned.

  “I’ve never used since then.”

  “Never been tempted?”

  She opened her mouth to deny it but nothing came out.

  “Then, darlin’,” Anthony said slowly after a pause, “you’ve come to the right place.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  COLD WAFTED THROUGH the equipment barn that housed the ranch’s boardroom later that week. Outside, the sun began to set; pink light filled the high-set windows and encircled Sofia. With the air soft and gold around her, highlighting her tan skin and dark hair, she couldn’t have looked more beautiful, James thought. Or more nervous.

  Her clasped hands moved restlessly atop the rectangular table in front of her. Her teeth bit down on her bottom lip and her forehead had a slight sheen despite the chill draft curling around their feet. Seeing her so nervous at her first Cade Ranch board meeting bothered him, but she’d insisted on attending even though her trustee status wasn’t official.

  “Here’s the list of our upcoming major purchases for vote,” he heard Jewel say. As her voice droned, James watched Jared nod along, one eye on his iPhone, while Ma took notes with her good hand. Justin watched, silent and motionless, with half-slit eyes that had fooled plenty of his former teachers and pastors into thinking he was awake.

  “Another drive-through gate to replace North D, two heated waterers, calf bottle feeders,” Jewel listed in a scratchy voice. Her freckled skin looked pale and the tip of her nose was red and rough. She’d been battling a cold these past few days, and by that he meant ignoring, since he had yet to convince her to stay out of the saddle and in bed.

  “Manure spreader needs replacing,” Justin added, then dropped his chin to his clavicle and his black hat dipped low over his brow. He had his legs stretched out in front of him and his hands clasped comfortably across his stomach, his head angled back as if he were napping on an invisible pillow.

  “Right. The rest is just routine supplies without any real increases over last month,” Jewel continued and James tuned back out as she ran down the list he’d approved yesterday. His thoughts drifted to Sofia.

  When they held the hearing to appoint the trust’s manager in a couple of weeks, he had no doubt he’d be named trustee. Sofia hadn’t been able to hold down a job or a place to live in the six years following her rehab. As for her sobriety, it still held a question mark given the missing pills.

  Worry about her possibly having taken the drugs consumed him, especially as he watched his mother blossom a little more every day under Sofia’s care.

  Could her renewed happiness fall apart?

  Yes. Easily. He needed to know where those pills went.

  The fact that Sofia had attended two NA meetings this week alleviated his concerns, some, and he gave her a lot of credit and respect for following through. Was he naive in hoping the pills were simply misplaced?

  He wanted to believe in Sofia.

  Very much.

  That fact grew more and more undeniable. He caught himself straying from his daily schedule to linger over breakfast, helping her with dishes, inviting her to join him and Javi in finishing the puzzle for probably no better reason than the excuse to talk to her.

  When she met his eye across the table, her cheeks pinked, matching the color of the silky shirt he glimpsed beneath a blue blazer. A beauty mark dotted the satin skin above the left side of her mouth. She’d trapped her normally unruly curls into one long French braid that revealed the perfect oval of her face, and though it was a nice look, he found himself wishing for her usual wild tangle of hair that seemed to defy her efforts to control it.

  “What about my new saddle request?” he heard Jared ask. “We’ve tabled it for a couple of months now.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with your saddle except a little wear and tear,” James said, offhanded. Jared always wanted the latest and greatest.

  “The cinch straps need replacing. Stirrups, too.”

  “Then order them.” James waved his hand. “Topic tabled.”

  “Noted.” Joy’s pen flew across her notepad. A single ray of sunlight bounced off the wire frame of her glasses like the pop of a camera flash.

  Sofia nodded along, as though granting her approval, her body language stiffer than he’d ever seen it. Were they intimidating her? He hoped not. But she was in over her head, and no matter how businesslike she dressed, she couldn’t erase her lack of ranch experience. She’d given him the briefest of nods when he’d hurried to join her this afternoon on their walk to the board meeting, hoping to reassure her.

  This distance from Sofia should suit him, but it didn’t. A part of him, he had to admit, missed their flare-ups, this brittle politeness wearing on him.

  He often found himself watching her from afar as she hustled around the house, anticipating his mother’s needs with tea, ice, magazines, brewing up the best coffee he’d ever had from the Keurig machine, even though their old machine had worked just fine for over a decade. But he had to admit he was partial to some peppermint Christmas blend.

  As for Sofia’s forays into unpronounceable French recipes this week after she’d watched a movie about Julia Child, they’d been hit-or-miss. Inedible when they went wrong but otherworldly good when she succeeded and focused long enough not to burn the house down.

  Yes. Lots of things, little and big, had changed with unconventional Sofia taking over for his mother. He was starting to see that different didn’t always mean bad, at least when it came to coffee and baked scrambled eggs now called quiche.

  “New business,” announced Jared.

  “We got another request to use our ranch for a wedding reception,” Joy said, looking hopeful. She removed her glasses and her eyes shone bright and tender, like emerging leaves in spring. It came back to him in that moment just how much she loved weddings. Little else, except his cousin Beth’s recent nuptials on the property and now Javi and Sofia’s visit, had captured her interest these past two years.

  Jewel made a face. “No, thanks. B
eth’s was enough. All that tulle. I had a rash for weeks.” She shuddered.

  “You’re just allergic to weddings,” Jared teased.

  She coughed into the crook of her arm. “Maybe, but there’s even less of a chance you’ll get married before me.”

  “Be that as it may,” Joy said without looking up. She cleaned her glasses with the hem of her floral shirt. “Since their wedding video got some kind of virus...”

  “Viral, Ma,” Justin said. “It went viral.”

  Sofia looked around the room. “What was on the video?”

  “Google ‘goats battle bridesmaids for bouquet.’ I think we’re the first one to come up.” James felt himself smile at Sofia’s snort of a laugh. It did something funny to him. As if someone had carbonated his blood a bit. Made it fizz.

  “It got almost five hundred thousand views,” Jared bragged.

  “I wouldn’t mind renting out the old barn from time to time.” Joy replaced her glasses. “It’s nice to see young couples in love.”

  He caught his mother’s speculative stare and forced his gaze from Sofia to the snow-covered pastures outside and the cattle scuffing through it to graze. “Plus, we could use the extra income. We’re getting by, sure, but long-term, we need to look at new revenue sources if the ranch is going to remain viable.”

  “We don’t want strangers all over the place.” His voice felt heavy in his mouth, weighing down his tongue. No other possibilities than their current way of life were worth considering. The extra income would relieve his occasional worry about bills each month, but he’d rather the devil he knew than the one he didn’t. “Besides, who has time to help oversee it?”

  Silence fell and he caught something bright spark in Sofia’s eyes before she shuttered them. What had he glimpsed? If he had to name it, he’d say yearning.

  “I worked as a caterer for a wedding planning business once,” Sofia said. “It’s a lot of work. Details. Organization. It’s not something you can do part-time.”

  “I suppose you’re right. Let’s table that for now.” Joy sighed.

  “Jack and Dani could get married here,” Justin said, referring to their older brother and his new girlfriend. “Bet they’re engaged by Christmas.”

  “You’re on,” Jewel responded. “Fifty says Jack’s too busy to get married now that he’s a deputy sheriff.”

  “But he sure does love Dani,” Jared observed. “We should throw our annual Cade Christmas party again and invite them with all the neighbors—except the Lovelands, of course—like we used to. He could pop the question here.”

  James put up a hand to silence his brother. “We stopped hosting years ago. And you know why.” He shot his siblings a quelling look.

  “But maybe it’s time to move on,” Jared said, defensive. “We’ve got new family members now. The neighbors should meet Javi and Sofia.”

  “Ma? What would you like?” James asked, gentle. He didn’t want to see his mother hurt reliving their generations-long tradition without Jesse. Yet Jared had a point. It would fill him with pride to introduce his nephew to their neighbors. Well. Most of their neighbors, since the Lovelands were never included on the guest list.

  “I’d like to show off my grandson,” Joy said after a brief, stricken silence. “But I can’t do much party planning with my wrist still healing.” She cleared her throat and waved an open envelope. “Next order of business is this letter from Boyd Loveland. He wants to renegotiate access through our property to the Crystal River.”

  James stiffened at their archenemies’ mention. “May I see that?”

  Joy nodded and passed over the letter. As he scanned, Jewel exclaimed, “We shouldn’t let them on our land at all.”

  “We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Justin drawled. “Next.”

  James’s eyes traveled over a paragraph of the usual arguments: the land settlement act that had divided up property in western states like Colorado hadn’t fairly distributed water access. Second, Boyd argued, the river was public property and shouldn’t be blocked by private owners of surrounding land. Third, Boyd concluded, recent increases in temperatures combined with drier summers made it challenging for ranches like the Lovelands’ since they had to travel miles out of their way to access the Crystal River.

  “I heard they’re on the brink of foreclosure,” Jared disclosed.

  “Where’d you hear that?” The paper in James’s hand rustled as he set it on the table.

  “I have my sources.”

  “Yeah, Melody at First National Bank...” Jewel’s tease turned into a long string of coughs.

  “Is that true, Jared?” asked Joy, her tone sharp. Three shallow lines furrowed her forehead, like ripples on the bottom of a brook.

  “Nah.” Jared’s wide shoulders lifted, then fell. “Nothing serious.”

  “She means about the foreclosure, idiot,” Justin said to the ceiling, his exasperated voice gruff with humor.

  “Everyone isn’t obsessed with your dating life, Jared,” Jewel added with an affectionate smirk.

  “Speak for yourselves.” Jared laughed. “As far as the foreclosure, I don’t think Melody would lie. Plus, she revealed it by accident, then made me swear not to repeat it.”

  “Way to keep your promises, dude.” Justin flicked the brim of his hat so it angled back; his glinting eyes caught the last of the fading light.

  “All I’m saying is that it wouldn’t kill us to help a little.” Jared flipped his hands palm-side up to the ceiling. “Giving them some access, like when we’re in higher pastures over the summer. Little chance of their Brahmans breeding with our longhorns then.”

  “Right.” Jewel dabbed at her nose. “Because a Loveland would never try taking advantage of a female on our property...”

  James joined his siblings in a collective groan.

  “What’s the feud about exactly?” asked Sofia.

  “Murder.”

  “Theft.”

  “Kidnapping.”

  He and his siblings spoke at once, and Sofia’s eyes widened.

  “Let me tell it.” Jewel leaned forward so that her elbows rested on the table and her two braids swung forward over her jean jacket. “You see, our great-great-great-great-grandfather came out west from Chicago as a prospector.”

  “There were gold and sapphire mines in the Yugo Valley,” James clarified and his chest got a strange lightness inside it when Sofia nodded, smiling at him with the strip of pink gum showing above her white teeth.

  “Let me tell it,” Jewel ordered. “He left behind his mother, Cora, to make his way in the world.”

  “Then he struck it rich,” interjected Jared. “Hit a hot streak that panned him enough gold to buy this place and a sapphire so big he sent it to Germany to be cut by one of those famous jewelers.”

  “Forty karats.” Justin whistled. “Imagine how much it’d be worth today?”

  “It was fifty karats and it was cut in France, not Germany,” Jewel interrupted, her voice growing hoarse and irritated. “Now let me tell it. Ugh. Why did God invent brothers?”

  “To teach us patience,” Joy ventured.

  Jewel rolled her eyes. “Exactly. Anyway. He had it made into a brooch he named Cora’s Tear for all the crying his mother did while she worried over him alone in the Wild West. After she passed, it went to her granddaughter and so on. A tradition. The oldest Cade daughter always inherited Cora’s Tear.”

  “I’d like to see you wearing it,” Justin said with a smirk.

  “Yeah. Pinned right at the top of none of those dresses you own.” Jared’s laugh broke off when Jewel faked a shoulder jab. When he relaxed and straightened, Jewel walloped him good.

  He had to hand it to his little sister, James thought, full of admiration. Growing up with five brothers, she more than held her own, out
did them, in fact, on a regular basis. He pretty much spoke for all his male siblings in saying he was also just a tiny bit afraid of her.

  “It doesn’t matter anyway.” Jewel blew her nose again.

  “What happened to it?” Sofia asked.

  “The Lovelands stole it,” Justin grumbled, sounding murderous. His dark eyebrows plunged low and his deep-set eyes sank further.

  “There isn’t real proof,” Joy insisted.

  “Sure there is,” James said. “Our great-great-great-aunt, Maggie Cade, was betrothed to marry Clyde Farthington the Third, a wealthy speculator and the best catch in the county. But the day before Maggie’s wedding, she turned up dead at the bottom of a ravine, Cora’s Tear gone, and the only one around, Everett Loveland. He must have tricked her into running off with him like that, then killed her to get the sapphire.”

  “What’d Everett have to say on the matter?” Sofia asked, rapt. Her large brown eyes were wide and round, the glow in them revealing golden flecks he hadn’t noticed before.

  He forced his gaze out the window and caught the last gasp of the sun before it slipped over the Rockies. “Everett couldn’t say anything since Maggie’s brothers strung him up on the spot.”

  “Without a trial? Aren’t we innocent until proven guilty?” Sofia’s face paled.

  Joy reached out and patted her hand. “Of course, dear.”

  “Plus, the doctor said she was pregnant.” Jewel’s tone turned dismissive. She tossed another tissue on her growing pile. “I would have liked the story better if Maggie had just run off with Cora’s Tear so she didn’t have to marry anybody.”

  “No surprise there.” Jared winked at her.

  “I pity the poor guy who tries dragging you down the aisle.” Justin tsked, his eyes gleaming.

  “Not a chance.” Jewel’s vow veered into a cough.

  “Unless it’s Heath Loveland,” added Jared, his lips twitching.

  “Shut it, Jared.”