Heart & Hope (Rosewood Ranch #2)

Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

RUBY

L ouisa’s arm is slung over my shoulder. But the nervous energy flinging around my body is making me dizzy. I’m trying to steady the breaths that leave my lungs and am failing miserably. The men and Addy are mounting up for the muster. And for the first time in my life, I wish I was as good on a horse as Adds. What I wouldn’t do to ride along with Reed, the only person in this world to make me feel everything.

But I can’t. And I’m leaving for two weeks.

Going home.

To the city. But the words don’t fit like they used to. With everything for R he will only be gone a week. I will only be away for fourteen days. I’ll be busy. He’ll be with Mack, and he’s done this a million times before. He will be fine.

But when I catch a glimpse of the rifle slung over his back...

My breath stutters out.

Fuck.

When did I become so attached to this man?

The envy I have for Adds riding along surges back to life. Magnet trots in my direction, and I wipe my face and plaster on the biggest smile I can muster.

“You two be alright without me?” Reed quips, a grin lighting up his cheeky face.

“We will be fine. You look after yourself, my boy.” Louisa releases her hold on me, and I step forward. Reed leans down in the saddle and dots a kiss to my forehead. I catch the way Louisa’s eyes light up and the way she purses her lips.

Not even subtle, Mama Rawlins.

“I will miss you, baby.” The words are so soft against the shell of my ear. A tingle shoots up my spine.

But I grab his face and press a kiss to his cheek. “See you in two weeks, Reedsy.”

He winks, sitting back up in the saddle. With a click of his tongue, Magnet is off at a trot toward the huddle of cowboys and horses. I wonder if guests would want this experience? Another tier? I can only imagine the insurance paperwork and waivers a trip like that would entail for a guest. But it would be an extraordinary adventure for them.

Making a mental note to ask Reed when he gets home, I shuffle closer to Lou and listen to Hudson giving out the orders. As he finishes, he beams at Adds with a smile that would melt a thousand suns. Envy has nothing on me today. Ugh.

“Alright, y’all. Let’s go!” Hudson yells.

Yahoos split the air, followed by thundering hooves as the men send their horses toward the mountains. Reed trots in a circle and comes back to where we stand. When he reaches us, he looks to his mother before meeting my gaze. He raises two fingers to his forehead under his hat and salutes me.

Automatically, I salute him back. The movement is slow as my heart thunders. His face scrunches, and I swear he sucks back a lungful before pushing Magnet into a lope and heading off after the others.

“Nothing like a man on a horse to melt a girl’s heart,” Lou says quietly beside me. I almost forgot she was there. Too bad mine is already liquefied.

I huff a laugh and turn to face her. “You need a hand with anything, Lou?”

She has been packing for the men for days, cooking up an absolute storm.

“No, darlin’, all under control. But we should sit and have some coffee before my legs give out. Every year, I wave them off. Every time is harder than the last, I swear.”

“It’s hard watching them ride off, knowing they won’t be back for an entire week. Living in the snow and elements. I don’t know if I could get used to that.”

She stops inside the white gate and turns back. “You don’t, hon, but this life asks things of us that most folks don’t comprehend. And in return, we are blessed with all this.” She waves her arms out, and I stare off at the mountains, the ranch, and all its parts. This family that I have come to love more than my own, oddly.

“I’m starting to understand that.”

She smiles at me and touches my cheek. “Come now. Coffee will do the trick. This old woman needs sustenance.”

I follow as she wanders inside and pours two cups of coffee. When she hands one to me and sinks into her seat at the kitchen table, I do the same, sitting in Reed’s spot.

“How do you get used to this life?” I ask.

Louisa runs my question through her mind, the effects visible on her face as she takes a sip and swallows. “Well, it helps if you want it—this life, that is. It’s not for everyone. The isolation. The long, hard days; long, hard seasons. But...”

I stare at her, holding my breath like the next words she will say may change everything I ever thought I knew.

She leans forward. “This isn’t the life I had planned when I was young. Nowhere near it.”

I’m stunned.

I can’t imagine Louisa anywhere else.

“What—” I shake my head. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, I had big plans. I even left, determined to earn a life in the media—TV chef, that sort of thing—in LA.” She waves a hand, as if California is over to the left of us. “I worked my tail off to earn a spot on a cooking television program. I thought I had made it. It was what I had wanted my entire life. And then, it wasn’t.”

“What happened?”

“I couldn’t do it. I froze up on set. Every time. The pressure, it would...” She dips her attention to her cup, as if the words could be swirling inside the dark brown liquid, waiting to be fished out. “I panicked each time the guy behind the camera gave the signal to start. It was like I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t keep on my feet, or steady. The room felt like it was cavin’ in, you know.”

I stare at her, mouth agape. Anxiety. From everything I have read, it is usually hereditary. Louisa has it. Or had it. Reed has it.

“Well, that was it for my big TV cooking career. Guess I’m no Martha Stewart.” Her words are lined with a chuckle, but the ghost of regret covers her face.

“Martha Stewart has nothing on you, Lou. You are a real, living, breathing cooking legend. Everyone who has had your food would take that over some shiny celebrity food any day of the week.” I slide my hand across the table and take hers. She smiles and tilts her head.

“Ruby.” She turns her hand over so it folds around mine. “You are always part of this family. You know that, don’t you?”

I still. The air in my lungs stalls out. I’m barely part of my own family, let alone one as tight-knit as this one. But she isn’t going to take no for an answer, by the look on her face. So I nod, and she squeezes my hand.

“Good. Now, what time is your flight?”

“In four hours.”

“How about you and I do some shopping, and then I will drop you at the airport?”

“That sounds wonderful, Lou.”

She beams, looking so much like her youngest son. My heart almost grinds to a halt.

“Excellent, it’s been an age since I hit the shops.”

I recover and laugh as I rise, taking our mugs to the sink. A moment later, she is changed, and we head to the barn where the Chevy that Harry and Louisa take to town is parked. It’s silver, and the inside is nearly as fancy as Reed’s truck. I toss my bags onto the back seat, and she starts it up, buckling in.

The drive is fun. We chat about the boys and the ranch, and she quizzes me about New York City and my work. She asks questions that I’m excited to answer. My parents are not interested in my “silly little party-planning job.” If it’s not high-end, it doesn’t count. Little do they know the companies and budgets we work with. But it’s okay; it’s better this way. I have my life. They have theirs. No need to mix the two.

The Great Falls shops are quaint, but Lou and I have fun regardless. I buy her a bottle of perfume that she swears Harry would skin her alive for buying, and she folds me into her hug. God, I am going to miss this woman. Almost as much as I’ll miss her son.

We are back in the car when I have an idea.

“Lou?” I settle the bags between us, and she looks up. “Can I help with the base camp for the roundup?”

Her face lights up. “Sure, hon. Always needin’ more hands on deck.”

“Thanks.” I run my bottom lip under my teeth. “Can we not tell Reed? I want it to be a surprise.”

She winks at me. Now I know where her sons get it from. “Mum’s the word, sweetheart.”

I laugh as she shifts the truck into gear, and we head for the airport. I tap out an email to Olive, updating her on my travel plans for the week. Feeling more than a little excited about the prospect of seeing Reed sooner than planned, I all but skip out of the truck when we reach the airport parking lot.

Lou walks me inside, hugging me tight before gripping my shoulders. “I will see you in a week, then?”

“Yup.” Reed’s casual language rolls off my tongue these days. I can’t wipe the smile from my face, and I don’t want to. I readjust my bag strap over my shoulder and turn to go.

“Ruby?”

I spin back on my red heels. Only fitting I leave wearing the spikes I strolled into town on. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

She doesn’t elaborate. She doesn’t need to. The silent exchange between her and me is like some unspoken truth that we two have always known. Incredibly, Louisa Rawlins and Ruby Robbins are unlikely, but very well suited friends.

And if I’m honest, really deep down in the depths of my soul honest, she is more like a mother to me than anyone I have ever had in my life before. And I have needed her for so, so long.

The office is cold. And not in the first-snowfall-of-the-season way.

Not today.

Olive’s hard stare drills into me over her glass desk. The same one I used to occupy. The top floor has been commandeered by Olive and her latest mentee. In other words, my replacement.

“I’m gone for a few months on assignment, and you hand over my entire portfolio to some random rookie?”

I can’t keep the venom out of my voice.

She folds her hands over the file in front of her on the desk. My employee file.

“When I told you to find some perspective, Ruby, I didn’t expect you to lose it altogether.”

I grip the arms of the chair and set my shoulders back.

“I haven’t dropped the ball on any of my accounts, Olive. In fact, being in Montana has only opened up more opportunities, more business.”

“We do not need redneck clients with tiny budgets, Robbins. We are a prestigious firm with a high-class reputation.”

The word redneck raises my hackles like it never would have before. But I hold my composure and focus on turning this sinking ship around.

“My work on my other events hasn’t slowed down, Olive. I have been working remotely.”

“This isn’t a job you can phone in, Ruby.”

Liar, it most definitely is.

We do it all the time. Something else is going on here.

She pushes to a stand and plucks up her tablet. “If I can’t trust you, Ruby, then there is no future for you here.”

“What the fuck, Olive?”

Her face turns to stone. She has never had a problem with my language, but today something is off, and I fear I’ve overstepped. What in hell’s quarter happened here while I was gone?

Olive stalks through my door and slips past the PA who no longer takes direct orders from me, apparently.

The ship is going down, no matter how fast I bail out the water. It could well be the Titanic.

And I’m Jack fucking Dawson.