Keira’s heart stuttered again.
“So what do we have here?” Monty was saying as he picked up the saddle. “Not this saddle’s first rodeo.”
“I brought it here hoping you could fix it.”
Monty turned the saddle over and smiled. “I made this one,” he said. “For your brother, David.”
“I was just telling Tanner that we don’t have time to work on it,” Keira said, praying again as she caught Tanner’s confused gaze in her peripheral vision.
“Of course we have time,” he said, his frown showing her he didn’t get her unspoken message. “For Tanner, we make time.”
“We’ve got an exhibition to get stuff ready for and that order from that store in Seattle,” Keira replied, wishing she could keep the pleading tone out of her voice. She had no concrete reason not to do the job, nor was she about to get into specifics.
“Get Allison to come in and help you,” Monty said. “Or I can pitch in.”
“The doctor said you had to slow down. I don’t want you working too much.”
Monty waved off her concerns then turned to Tanner. “Just leave it here, son. We’ll get it fixed up for you one way or the other.”
Keira maintained a veneer of tense restraint but she felt it slipping. She wasn’t going to look at Tanner, but as if her eyes had their own will, they turned to him.
It wasn’t hard to see the hurt and puzzlement on his face, and for a moment she prayed for a return to the muted anger he had shown when he’d first come in.
That would be easier to deal with.
God had been her refuge and strength the past few years. Her strong fortress. And from the way events were moving now, she would need His strength more than ever in the next few weeks.
“You better come up to the house,” Monty said as Keira moved the saddle over to the workbench.
Tanner shot another look at Keira, still baffled at her hesitation, but then turned his attention back to Monty. “Yes. I’d like to see how Ellen’s doing,” he said.
“And your mother,” Monty added. “She’s been looking forward to your visit.”
Tanner doubted that. He and his stepmother had never been close and less so since David’s death. She had never come out and said it, but he knew she blamed him for the accident. And why not? Tanner blamed himself, as well. If he had been more insistent, he would have been driving his stepbrother back to the hotel. And both he and David would have made it safely to Cheyenne.
“Are you coming, Keira?” Monty asked as he dropped his worn cowboy hat on his head.
“Maybe later. I’ve got to cut out some wallets before I quit for the day.”
“Can’t that wait?” Monty asked.
“No. Not if we have to work on Tanner’s saddle, too.” Keira’s unexpectedly sharp tone grated on Tanner. But he shook off his frustration.
He’d gotten his first visit with Keira out of the way. Though he’d hoped his heart wouldn’t race at the sight of her, at least that was done. Maybe next time he saw her he would feel more even-keeled.
Help me, Lord, he prayed as he clapped his hat on his head. Help me get through this emotional tangle.
He turned up the collar of his jacket and followed Monty out of the shop and over the snow-covered yard to the house, shivering as he stepped from the warmth of the shop into the chill of the outside air. Help me get through the next couple of days. Help me stay focused on what I set out to do.
He felt guilty praying to God right now. Living the life of a rodeo cowboy wasn’t always conducive to a robust spiritual life. Too many late nights. Too many weekends taken up with riding and work and getting over injuries. Then back to work, only to repeat the same weekend cycle.
But he knew God was real, and right now he needed all the help he could get.
The snow squeaked under their feet, showing him how cold it was outside. Thanksgiving was just around the corner, and there were still months of winter ahead. Tanner looked out over the hills blanketed with snow undulating to mountains sharply etched against a sky so blue it hurt his eyes. Gray clouds were piling up on the horizon, hinting at potential winter storms.
But for now the sun shone on Refuge Ranch, sparkling off the snow-covered hills.
“The house won’t be as noisy as usual,” Monty explained as they walked toward the it. “Ellen usually takes care of John’s little girl, but he’s got her today. He’s doing some bookwork in his house.”
“I heard that he came back here with his daughter after his wife died. That’s a sad story.”
“It is. But Adana’s a little treasure and we’re all pretty crazy about her. Taking care of her is a small price to pay to have John back. His father was the best hand a rancher could ask for, and John has the same cattle smarts his father did.”
“John was always a good, solid guy,” Tanner said. “I always thought he and Heather were a better match than her and Mitch.”
“Didn’t we all,” Monty said, shooting Tanner a look, as if he was thinking the same thing about him and Keira.
Tanner kept his comments to himself. No sense in digging up the past.
They walked up the steps, and Tanner pulled open the door to the porch.
“Got company,” Monty boomed as the porch door fell shut behind them.
Warmth from the adjoining kitchen slowly penetrated the many layers of clothing Tanner had on. He stripped off his coat and hung it and his hat on an empty hanger in the porch. Then he toed off his boots, set them aside and followed Monty into the familiar coziness of the ranch house.
“We fixed up the kitchen since you been here,” Monty said as he led Tanner through the room as familiar to him as the kitchen on his parents’ ranch. “Ellen had a notion she wanted some fancy new stove and fridge and granite countertops. Place looks like a dairy barn with all these shiny appliances far as I’m concerned,” he said, waving a dismissive hand at the stainless-steel stove, refrigerator and dishwasher. “At least she kept the table in the nook.”
A large bay window with French doors opening to a snow-covered deck was home to a small wooden table with mismatched chairs that, Tanner knew, were part of Monty’s father and grandfather’s ranch house that this house had replaced.
“Still looks cozy,” Tanner said, stopping by the table. He remembered drinking many a cup of hot chocolate in the winter or root beer in the summer at this table when he and Keira were dating. Refuge Ranch had truly lived up to its name when his own home had been a place of discord and conflict. Tanner’s father, Cyrus, had married Alice less than a year after his wife’s death, when Tanner was only three. David was born within the first year of that marriage. While David and Tanner always got along, Tanner remembered many fights between Cyrus and Alice, though he never knew the cause.
Yet in spite of their antagonism, Alice had inherited the entire ranch when Cyrus died. Tanner had suspected that his father had neglected to change his will as he had always promised Tanner he would. To be fair, his father hadn’t planned on having a heart attack when he was still in his prime, but still...
Then, shortly