“I will. I promise,” she assured him.
Now why didn’t he believe that? Well, maybe it wouldn’t be a problem, only time would tell. For now, he grabbed the thermos and headed to the main barn. It was a lot easier with the grips on, but the first thing he was going to need to do was spread some sand around or it wouldn’t just be animals he had to worry about breaking things.
By the time the ranch hands started to arrive, with Ben in the lead of course, he’d cleared a path to the barn. Everyone scuttled inside to get warm as he passed out assignments for the morning. He was hoping that by the time afternoon rolled around the sun would be out.
Once the ice was melted, he’d be sending most of them off to move the cattle herd into the winter pastures where they could be fed and watered more easily. He wasn’t taking the ice as a fluke event, but assuming it was a sign of an early winter and he had to plan accordingly.
It meant rearranging his plans but that was the way things went when your job was ruled by the weather. As everyone headed off to work, he motioned for Mike to join him in his office, and he closed the door so they wouldn’t be overheard.
“Somethin’ up, Sam?” Mike didn’t look concerned, not the way some of the younger guys would have been. He knew his job and did it well. The chances of Sam calling him in to bitch at him were exactly zero.
“Maybe…” Sam parked his butt on the corner of the desk and sighed. “We’ve got an unexpected guest up at the house.” He stopped there, trying to figure out how to phrase it. “Seems like Charlie’s mom is in town.”
Mike’s bushy white eyebrows went up in surprise. “Vicky? Vicky’s here?”
“Yeah, well, at least that’s what she says. Charlie hasn’t seen her since she was in the single digits so I did wonder how we could even be sure it was her.”
“So, you were thinking maybe I could verify?” Mike asked. He shrugged. “I haven’t seen her since then either but I’m pretty sure I’ll recognize her if you want me to wander over there at some point today.” His tone was neutral; it seemed to Sam that it was kept that way deliberately.
“I’d appreciate that, but I’d also like to pick your brain about … Well, it seems like she’s telling Charlie that Jimmy kept her away deliberately and I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s got her upset. You know she’s not thrilled with the ranch situation but she’s just starting to settle down and I really don’t want her riled up.”
Mike frowned hard, the lines in his forehead deepened into canyons. “The thing is, Sam, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true. Jimmy and Vicky were always fighting over the ranch, over damn near everything, but especially over Charlie.” He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck.
“So, you think Jimmy would have kept her from seeing Charlie because they didn’t get along?” Sam was skeptical. Vicky’s absence had hurt Charlie and her father wouldn’t have wanted that.
“No. Look, Sam, I’m not really one to tell tales but Vicky isn’t someone I’d want raising a kid. Her priorities are Vicky first, Vicky last, and maybe if there’s anything left, she might consider someone else. We never got along, in fact she pushed Jimmy to fire me. And I’m not going to get into why I think she’d do that, but I’m saying … if Jimmy kept her out of the picture then he had good reason.”
Mike wasn’t a big talker, for him that was pretty much a whole speech, and after that Sam couldn’t get anything else out of him. He’d said what he wanted to say and that was that. With the excuse that he had work to do, Mike vanished out the door before Sam could interrogate him any further.
The talk clinched his gut feeling that this was going to go badly. Later that day he found a scrawled note from Mike on his desk. It stated simply:It’s her.He rubbed his temples as a tension headache started to grow.
He would tell Charlie what Mike said. She respected Mike’s opinion, thought of him as family. She’d listen and ask Vicky to leave and they’d get on with their lives. Only that turned out to be wishful thinking on his part.
When he walked in the door just after sundown, he found the house brightly lit, the fire crackling merrily, and Charlie singing in the kitchen as she cooked dinner. He stopped just inside the door to watch her. She was wearing earbuds and didn’t hear him, so he had a moment to enjoy the expression of contentment and happiness on her face as she danced around the small area.
When she turned around and saw him there, she jumped. Her mouth opened in a comical ‘O’ of surprise. “You scared me!” It was almost a shout and he motioned to her ears.
“You look happy tonight. Good news?” he asked when she removed them. Inside he was hoping she’d tell him she was excited because she’d picked a contractor, or had applied for the doctoral program, or anything that didn’t involve her mother.
“Nope. I just had a nice day. Vicky and I talked all morning and then we had lunch together and baked cookies. It was really nice.” She waved a hand at a plate of chocolate chip cookies on the table and he picked one up.
Instead of eating it he examined it, turning it over in his hands like he expected to find the secrets of the universe scrawled on the bottom. She didn’t seem to notice his quiet and continued on, telling him about her day as she stirred the pot on the stove.
“I always wondered what it would be like to have a mom around. I guess this is it. I’m really mad I missed out on all of those years, but we’re going to make up for it. She said—”
“Charlie.”
“—that we could go shopping together and I know that sounds silly, but I remember when I was a teenager, I always wished she was around to help me pick out clothes. I –”
“Charlotte.” He used her full name to make sure he had her attention as he walked over and pulled her around to look at him.
She blinked. “What’s wrong?”
“Remember what we talked about last night? About not getting too invested in this until we found out some facts?”
Her bottom lip trembled, just for a second, and he almost thought he had imagined it. There was no sign of the upset a second later as she laughed. “Oh, yeah, don’t worry about it. I got her to show me her driver’s license. I mean, it was awkward, and I didn’t want her to know I doubted that she was my mom, so I had to come up with a reason to—”
He gave her a gentle shake to cut her off. He’d never seen her like this, so bubbly and excited. It was as though she thought if she talked fast enough it would make all the doubts disappear. “Charlie, I know you’re excited about this, but I need you to calm down and listen to me.”