Dream Chaser (25 page)

Penny
absent-mindedly strok
ed
Sam, who h
ad lain down next to her. S
he raised up on one elbow. “Can we go into town tomorrow? I need to find a wireless spot.”

Suzanna laughed. “I thought you
told
you
r friends you
were on vacati
on.
Besi
des, I’m not sure we’
ll
make it home
before dark. Tomorrow I want to show you one of the prettiest lakes up here.” She pointed toward the sky. “Look up, you two!” An eagle soared over their heads, then wheeled to the left and joined what Suzanna concluded must be his mate.

“Awesome!” Kevin remarked.

Long after dark, Suzanna
gaz
ed at the stars sprinkled across the sky, and said a
silent prayer of thanks that the
day had gone so well. She thought back to her conversation with Kevin that afternoon after he had shown her pictures stored on his cell phone.

“You’re in love with
Veronica
, aren’t you?”
she had asked.

He nodded.

“She sounds like
she has
a good head on her shoulders. You two have plenty
of time, you know.
” Suzanna smiled at her son.
“No need for her to do what I did.”

“But, Mom, you haven’
t had such a bad life.
”

“Not a bad life, sweetie.” She ruffled his hair. “Just a bit different than it might have been. Had I finished school
and your father was around, I’
m sure we would have married.”
If only I’d met Jonathan instead.
She paused. “Tell me more about
Veronica
,” she urged
, as she scanned the pictures again
.

The girl was nearly as tall as Kevin, with shoulder-length auburn hair. Suzanna remember
ed
her first love, and how excited she had been, imagining what her life
might
be
,
years into the future. Her children had been part of that dream. What she had never expecte
d was Brad’s constant demeaning—
of her ideas and her life plans, his distractions with other w
omen, or how much freedom she’
d lost to
just
be herself.
Dreams deferred
, she thought.
Maybe it was her own fault.
I want to know about Veronica’s dreams.

Suzanna was washing tomatoes from the garden when Caleb and two other cowboys rode up
the day after they returned from camping
.

“Mornin’, Ms. Wallace.” Randy tipped his hat to her.

“
Randy, please call me Suzanna.” She smiled at the cowboy with the shoulder-length black hair.

“Yes, ma’am.” He looked at the other two ranch hands. “We were wonderin’ if Kevin and Penelope might want to go riding with us. We’re headed out to check on some of the horses, and the boss said they might want to come.”

“Just a minute. I’ll get them.”

Kevin came out on the porch and started talking to Grady, who handed him th
e reins of the extra horse he’
d been leading.

Suzanna went into the house. “Penny. Wake up. Want to go riding with some of the boys? They’re outside waiting for you.” She opened the curtains to let in more light.

Penny rolled over and groaned. “Do I ha
ve to? I was up late talking
to
Jim.”

“
D
idn’t you tell Jonathan you would enjoy riding?
Now’s your chance.”

“I haven’t showered or anything.”

“Go do that and I’ll hold
off
the boys with my cinnamon rolls. They’re about ready to come out of the oven.”

Suzanna returned to the kitchen
, opened the oven door at the chiming of her portable timer
and brought
out
a tray of steaming cinnamon rolls.
She leaned out the window.
“Would you guys like one or two of these
rolls
?
Penny
’
s getting ready and she’ll be just a few minutes. In the meantime, I have more of
these than we
can eat.”

The men trooped into the kitchen to stand around the table, where Suzanna dished up the rolls.

Caleb reached for a second one
then pulled his hand back.

“Go ahead, Caleb. You can have a thir
d or even a fourth, if you want.
” Suzanna smiled.

“Don’t worry about that,
M
s. Wallace…
er, Su
zanna,” Randy chuckled. “Caleb w
ould probably eat
the whole tray if we let him.”
He, too, downed another roll.

Kevin was helping Suzanna wrap up
the remaining rolls
when Penny strolled into the room, clad in tight jeans and a fitted Western shirt
, open at the neck to her cleavage
. The men stopped their good-natured chatter and stared at
her
as she
reached for the last
cinnamon roll
before sashaying
out the door, saying, “So, which of these horses is for me?”

“Not that one,” Grady said, grabbing the reins of his horse from
Penny
.
“He bucks something fierce when anyone but me gets on him. Yours is this pretty paint, here. Let me help you.” He held the stirrup for
her
as she climbed
awkwardly
onto the pinto.

“Take this hat with you, Penny.” Suzanna handed her daughter her sun hat. “So you don’t burn.”

With everyone mounted and on their way, Suzanna cleaned up the kitchen, and pulled the rocker onto the porch to read a book. The phone rang.

“Hello?” Static greeted her. She tried again. More static. She hung up the phone. Almost immediately, it rang again. “Hello?”

As from a deep cave, she heard
Emma
’s voice. “Suzanna, is that you?”

“Yes. You sound like you’re in a hole.
What can I do for you
?”

“
I just wanted to make sure I had the right number. And, to let you know that
Abigail’s son, Wally, finished those special shelves for the CDs for the Children’s Corner. Next time you’re in, mebbe you could fill them
.”

“I’d love to. How’d you get this number?
”

“
Nate stopped in and said you had a phone, so I decided to try it. Not very clear, is it
?”

Suzanna
laughed. “
I’m not sure if it’s because of the wires or the age of the phone itself.”
Static interrupted their conversation again.

“I can’t hear
you, Suzanna.
I’ll—” Their connection ended.

“Hm
m
. I guess I’ll have to ask Curly about that.”
Suzanna returned to her book.

Late that afternoon,
Suzanna opened the kitchen door and stepped out on the porch when she heard hoof beats.
Grady
was leading
Penelope’s horse as the
three cowhands and Kevin approached the cabin
. Her
daughter’s
hair was bedraggled and her clothes dripped water. Kevin
helped
Penny off the horse
.
She
pushed his hand
s
away and stomped into the house, bursting into noisy tears
when she reached the bedroom door
.

Suzanna handed
Penny
a towel for her hair. “What happened?” Her daughter slammed the door of the bedroom
without answering
.

Kevin started to laugh. “She brought it on herself. We rode up and checked on the horses and were coming back when we got to the river.
The bank was pretty steep, so Randy said we should go to another spot before trying to cross. Penny
said
he was chicken for not wanting to
go
down the ste
eper slope. That’s when he
kicked his horse
and
we all went
down that slope lickety-split. She fell into the river when she lost her balance. The other guys laughed when she came up sputtering and lost
your
hat, and that’s when she got
really
mad.”

It was all Suzanna could do not to laugh,
too. She
imagined how her daughter must have goaded the young man. “Oh, dear. Were they upset with her?”

“More surprised than upset.
Randy
said
he’d never heard such language from a girl.” Kevin shrugged. “I told her to shut up, but that just made her madder. So, we
came home. I apologized to them.
” He straightened the picture near the fireplace. “
She made such a scene, totally
humiliat
ing.”

“I
’ll talk to her
. Why don’t you put the salad together?
It’ll be
time to eat
before long
.”

Suzanna knocked on the bedroom door.
“May I come in?”

“It’s open!” Penny sat on the bed, still in her wet clothes, a towel wrapped around her bedraggled locks.

“Let’s try that again.” Suzanna looked at her daughter.
“May I come in?”

“Yes, please.”
Penny
burst into tears. “Mother
, they laughed at me when I fell off.” She went into her mother’s arms, much as she had when she was a small child with a skinned knee.

Suzanna couldn’t help herself and she started to chuckle. “Honey, they weren’t laughing at you.
I’m sure they
were laughing at the situation. And you brought it on yourself.
Those three young men are
so polite. They weren’
t raised to put a guest down or make you feel bad.” She hugged her daughter, remembering how many times she had had similar conversations with Pen
ny
when her feelings were hurt.

“From what Kevin said,
you owe them an apology.
Why don’t you get out of those wet clothes and dry your hair?
After dinner, we’ll go up to the ranch house so you can do that.”

“No.
I could never—”

“Yes, you will. Kevin
says
your language was inexcusable. Yo
u’
re a guest here.
Remember?
” Suzanna
paus
ed.
“And, if you refuse, I will not ask Jonathan what could possibly be wron
g with the phone…
”

“The phone?
”

“I
t seems to have developed a serious
static
problem.”

The next day, Penny yelled from the kitchen as she was washing the breakfast dishes. “Mother
! Come quick!
Cows are
in your garden!”

“What?” She raced outside in time to see Sam going after the hindquarters of a cow
. It
had cut one of the tomato vines
neatly
in half and was placidly chewing one of its ripe fruits. “Oh my gosh!” She grabbed a kitchen towel and
waved it at
the cow.

“That isn’t going to do any good,” Kevin laughed. “Sic’ em, Sam!” Sam’s barking became more animated as Suzanna waved her arms at the cow whose legs were now tangled in the lines holding the bean stakes upright.

“Get out o
f there!” Suzanna yelled
. “Oh gosh. Here comes the bull.” She backed up when the big animal lowered his head
at Sam
and looked like he was going to charge.
“
Kevin, c
all Curly!
The main house number
’s writte
n on the back of the phone book,
” Suzanna shouted.
She went back to trying to shoo the other animals away.

Before long,
she looked up as
Grady led a charge toward the
cattle
, with Curly and Jonathan not far behind. Grady quickly moved the
animals
out of the garden and away from the cabin. He and Curly headed them back toward better grazing on the other side of the trees that separated the cabin from open pasture.