Page 58 of Choosing the Montana Cowboy

Sam groaned. Tyler had warned him that reception out there was spotty, but he didn’t expect more than one emergency to arise in a single morning. He pulled his cell phone out and tapped on his messages. Sure enough, there were a handful from Natalie, which he read through before listening to the voice mail she’d also left. It was great to hear her voice, but he hated that he hadn’t been here to see her off. Or to kiss her and tell her to hurry back soon. Or to say the other one hundred and one things he’d been trying to build up the courage to get out but hadn’t.

“I can’t believe she’s gone.”

“Natalie hated leaving without being able to say goodbye to you, Sam, but she promised she’d come back just as soon as she can.” Gran came to stand behind him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Maybe Neil will have good news for all of us by the time she gets back.”

Neil had ferrets to photograph, and Sam had words he needed to cowboy up and say as soon as she got back. He just prayed it wouldn’t be long for either.

Sam looked to the window and squinted into the fading afternoon sun. “I sure hope so.”

Chapter Twenty

Natalie pried hereyes open at nine Sunday morning, wishing she could sleep the day away. But she still had a mess on her hands, and that basement wasn’t going to clean itself. And oh, what a mess it was.

The house she’d bought and barely had time to enjoy these past five years was a beautiful two story in an older part of her hometown. She’d chosen it for its nearness to several parks and its clean, classic style. Unfortunately, she’d been ignorant to the conditions that came with this neighborhood during heavy rains. The town was older, its pipes that carried sewage and rainwater originally interconnected. When the combination sewers were unable to handle large volumes of rainwater pouring into the system, manhole lids lifted off the streets and basements flooded. In the past, their rains hadn’t been as heavy, so her powered, functioning sump pump was able to keep up.

Between a loss of power and rainfall like the area hadn’t seen in many years, yesterday had quickly evolved into the perfect storm for her poor basement and several of the neighbors around her, too. When her uncle had called midday, he’d measured six inches of water in the basement. By the time he located a portable pump and generator, it was closer to twelve.

If only it’d been just rainwater down there…

She shuddered at the memory of seeing things a person never wanted to see floating in their basement. Sewerthings. The stench had been so bad, she’d nearly thrown up twice.

Thankfully, the power finally came back on around midnight, and the pump ran dry around one. At that point, she turned everything off, took a long, hot shower, and crawled into bed. She fell asleep the minute her head hit the pillow.

She lay in bed now, having hit snooze on her alarm at least twice, struggling to motivate herself to get moving. Today’s continued cleanup was going to suck, and what made it that much worse was that her mind kept wandering westward. She was missing Sam. Missing Madison and Norah and Neil and Eli and Sunnie. Missing… dare she admit it…

Montana.

Natalie reached for her phone and found several texts from Sam, two from Madison, and one from Neil. All had missed her at the ferret photohuntand would let her know as soon as they saw anything. Sam apologized for the dozenth time about not being there to see her off and promised to call midday to check in on her.

A smile tugged at her weary lips. Funny how a simple promise to check in made her heart swell. Sam was a good man; she prayed they could find a way to make things work. Prayed even harder that she’d get her house in order and back on a plane as soon as possible.

“Which means I’ve got no time for moping,” she conceded, rolling to an upright position.

Her uncle had warned that she would need to scrub everything down with a mixture of one part bleach to nine parts water to keep mold and bacteria at bay. At least the bleach smell should help mask the sewer odor. She hoped so, anyway.

“So, how bad is it?” Sam asked when he called as promised.

“Oh, Sam, it’s awful. The water, thesmell.”

Natalie swiped a stray hair from her sweaty face. Today’s scrubbing had made her a hot mess in minutes even with the AC running. Though the day was shaping up to be a warm one, she stepped outside and took a seat on the front steps, breathing in some much-needed fresh air.

“I’m just so thankful my basement doesn’t have any carpet, because it would all need ripped out. As would any drywall.” She’d thought about having the basement finished a few years back. It was a good thing she hadn’t.

Thank God for small miracles.

“Damn. Did the water do much damage to what you had down there, then?”

She leaned back against the nearest banister. “Oh yeah. My furnace is toast. Would have lost the water heater, too, if the water had risen another inch or two. Those are replaceable items, though. It’s the dozen or so boxes I had down there filled with holiday decorations passed down through our family and some of my childhood keepsakes that worries me the most. Now that I’ve got the basement emptied, scrubbed, and drying, I’ve got to go through those boxes and see what might be salvageable. I know they’re just things, but—” Her voice cracked. Natalie drew in a long breath, struggling to keep her emotions in check. “Man, this sucks.”

“I’m so sorry, honey. Wish there was something I could do to help.”

She swiped away a rogue tear from her cheek. “Buy me a house and all new stuff?”

Sam chuckled, the sound warming her heart and giving it a painful squeeze all at the same time. Is this how it would be when she was done in Marietta, their conversations reminding her of how much she missed him?

“We’ve got plenty of homes in Montana. You get your things packed; I’ll send the movers.”

Two weeks ago, she would have laughed at such a radical idea. Today, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to dream, if only for a moment.

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