Page 34 of Snowed in with the Rancher

“All I'm saying is, we've both got a lot to deal with, and we don't have to make any more decisions right now. I'll stay in the guest room with the girls. We can take some time to do all the kinds of things that we need to do for normal life. None of us is going anywhere. We have plenty of time to figure out how we want to move forward.”

Tate's look of relief grew, and he gave her a small smile. “You're right,” he said. “Thank you for that. It's been an intense couple of days, and it'll be good to do some normal things for a while.”

She took a sip of her coffee. It would. It would be great to have some normal after the most chaotic few days she'd had in a very long time.

FOURTEEN

“So you moved that herd over to the north acreage?” Tate asked his foreman, John, as they stood outside his father's house.

“Yep, managed to get 'em moved just before the storm hit. I sent a couple of the guys up there this morning to check on 'em, make sure they did okay with the weather.”

Tate swiped the screen of his iPad and nodded absentmindedly. “Sounds good. And where are we with the repairs to the auxiliary barn?”

While listening to John's report, Tate looked out over the snow-covered acreage that sat outside his father's front door. It was good to be back at work. Olivia had been right, he needed some normal. He'd been up and out of the house before Olivia or the girls had woken. And that was for the best, Tate thought. They all needed some time and space to get into a workable routine.

After getting the day's work lined up with John, Tate turned to head to his truck.

“Son?” his father called from the front door of the house. Tate reversed course and met Thomas on the front porch.

“You're up and at things early,” Thomas said as he stood alongside Tate, his eyes scanning the horizon, a cup of his usual coffee in his hand. He wore a sheepskin jacket and his old work Stetson on his head, looking every inch the weathered old rancher.

“Been trapped at the cabin for nearly three days,” Tate answered, adjusting his own Stetson on his head and shoving a hand deep in the pocket of his parka. “Unfortunately, the work didn't take a break.”

Thomas glanced at him for a moment. “I just figured you'd want to spend a little more time getting to know your family. You could have called me to handle things here. I'm happy to check in with John, make sure everything's gettin' done.”

Tate knew his father had run the ranch successfully for several decades, but since taking over, he'd changed a lot of things, instituted new systems, revised priorities. It made him twitchy to think about his father in the middle of all that, struggling and stressing himself out as he tried to keep things under control.

“Thanks, but Olivia and I decided last night that the best thing for all of us right now is a little normal. After all that new information in three days, everyone just needs to get back to regular life, you know?”

Thomas's brow furrowed, and he rocked back on his heels before settling again. “I understand it's been a lot in a very short time. But you do realize that you've got a whole new normal now?”

Tate's midsection tightened, and he took a deep breath. “Sure, we've talked about how I'll spend time with the girls, become a regular part of their lives. Olivia suggested some dinners with them, to start. But that doesn't have anything to do with my job. I have a ranch to run, kids or no kids, and that doesn't change.”

Thomas didn't answer that, and Tate relaxed a touch. Good. His dad obviously understood what he was saying. He loved that the girls were in his life, and he had hopes that maybe he and Olivia could work something out, too, but there was no rush. Everything didn't have to change. Some things could stay the way he was so accustomed to. Satisfied that he'd cleared that up, he said goodbye to his father and set off to tackle his day. It was going to be a long one, no point in wasting any more time chatting.

* * *

A week later, Olivia stood looking at what had been the living room of the house she was supposed to be living in by now. The floors were missing, and the walls were torn down to the studs. Meanwhile, her belongings from Washington were wedged into a very expensive storage unit ten miles up the road in the next town.

“So we'll need to lay new boards, then finish them, replace the drywall, float and tape it, texture coat and paint.” Jake continued his explanation before leaning toward her. “And you didn't hear this from me, but you should insist that Mrs. Anderson get the rewiring done before we start putting up the drywall. This knob-and-tube is about thirty years past when it should have been replaced.” Folding up the piece of paper with the list of tasks, he tucked it in his pocket and gave her an earnest look. “I'm not trying to get more money, I'm really not, but it's not even allowed by code to leave that wiring in—for good reason. I won't turn her in because she owns half the rentals in town and I need the business, but if the town inspector catches wind of it, she'll fine old lady Anderson a lot more than the cost of the replacement.”

Olivia's head throbbed. As always, she'd been trying to put a positive spin on this. And truly, most days she could find the bright side of things, if she looked hard enough. However, this week had been a doozy, even by her standards.

“Is there any chance of another rental in town?” she asked. “I think I'd have better luck getting her to let me out of the lease than getting her to spring for new wiring.”

Jake gave a sharp bark of laughter, then sobered when he saw she was serious. He scratched the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable. “Last time someone tried to break one of Mrs. Anderson's leases, she took 'em to court. They won, but not before she dragged things out so long that they ended up paying ten grand in lawyer fees. Would have been cheaper to just pay her the rent.” He smiled sympathetically. “Besides that, she's the only landlord in town unless you want to go out to the mountains.”

Olivia sighed. “Okay, I'll talk to her about the wiring, but will you do what you can to keep things moving along? It's hard on my girls not to have a real house, and with everything in storage, things are stressful for all of us.”

Jake looked perplexed. “I've been up to Tate's place, it's real nice.”

“It is, but it's notourhouse. You understand, I'm sure.”

He nodded, although she didn't think he really got it.

As she drove back to Thomas and Lucy's, where she'd left the girls while she ran errands for the afternoon, Olivia thought back over the last few days. Since the first night when she'd told Tate they should work at getting back to their normal habits, he'd seemingly done exactly that. But his going back to his normal routine meant that he went to work while it was still dark, came home long after it had gotten dark again, and spent most of his time in the house reading ranching journals and taking Lobster out to snowshoe.

He'd eaten dinner with her and the girls exactly once, had breakfast with them once, and spoken probably fifty words to them in all that time. She was beginning to get the impression that he had no idea what to do with them being in his house…or in his life.

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