Life After Wife (11 page)

She’d picked up a broom when she heard Elijah shout.

“It’s here!” Elijah was as excited as a little boy on Christmas morning.

“What?” Sophie ran to the door and shaded her eyes with both her hands.

“The power washer. They said they’d deliver it right after lunch, and, by golly, they are right on time,” Elijah said.

“Power washer?” Sophie asked.

Elijah nodded. “We could rent it for a hundred dollars or buy one for five hundred. Since we’ll be using it every year, I bought it.”

Both of Sophie’s eyebrows tried to jump to the top of her brow. “You didn’t consult with me.”

“Nope.”

“We are partners, Elijah. That means…”

He set his jaw and his blue eyes narrowed. “If I’d bought the thing with ranch money, I would have talked to you. I paid for it. It’s my power washer. Does that make you feel better, Miz Queen of Sheba?”

“What on earth do you need a power washer for?” She ignored the barb and kept pace with him as he motioned the pickup truck to back up to the garage.

“To really clean this place out before the caterers come with their snow-white tablecloths,” he said.

“Are you Elijah Jones?” A tall, blonde delivery girl crawled out of the truck. Denim shorts looked like they’d been spray-painted on her body; her shirt hugged every curve, leaving little to the imagination; big hoop earrings touched her shoulders and drew the eye away from her short spiky hair. Her eyes were brown, and the way they scanned Elijah from boots to ponytail, evidently she liked what she saw.

“Yes, I am,” Elijah said.

Pure old jealousy shot through Sophie’s heart like cupid’s famous arrow.

“It’s five hundred forty-nine dollars and sixty-nine cents plus twenty dollars for delivery. I was told you’d have a check ready for me,” the woman said.

“Follow me. The business checkbook is in the house. Gus, holler at a couple of the men to come get this off her truck,” Sophie yelled over her shoulder.

Elijah took two steps toward Sophie and looked down into her eyes. “I said I was paying for the thing.”

“And I say the business is paying for it. You leave; it stays. I might want to spray something else with it after you’re gone.” She did not blink.

“I’m not going anywhere, darlin’.” He drew the last word out into five syllables and made it sound downright mean.

“Neither am I, except to the house to write this woman a check,” she said.

Gus brought two men from the barn, and they all three leaned on the truck, staring at the apparatus. Gus removed his straw hat and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Looks like it’ll have some power. Never thought of using one of them things to wash things down. I betcha it’ll do the work in half the time, but I hear they make your arms pretty darn sore.”

Elijah walked away from Sophie without another word and joined the men at the truck. Sophie motioned for the woman to follow her and stomped toward the ranch house, the dirt billowing up behind her cowboy boots.

The woman had to hurry to catch up and was out of breath when they reached the house. Sophie opened the back door and stood to one side to let her enter first.

“Would you like a glass of iced tea or a soda? There’s Pepsi and Dr Pepper,” Sophie asked.

“Dr Pepper, please. It’s too hot to run,” she sputtered.

Sophie grinned as she removed one of Elijah’s sodas and handed it to the girl. “Honey, that wasn’t even jogging. That was just a good old, angry fast-walk.”

“Well, I live in air conditioning, work in it, and even when they talk me into a delivery, I ride in it. And to top it all off, I work out in a gym that is air-conditioned. I do not run in the heat,” she said.

“Oh, I thought you were here to use the power washer. At least give us a demonstration,” Sophie said.

The girl gulped down several drinks of the cold soda pop before answering. “No, ma’am! Not me. I’ve seen the guys at work use one of those things. It’ll wear you plumb out in a hurry. Let your husband do the washin’, honey. You just stand back and tell him what a good job he’s done.”

Sophie almost choked. “He’s not my husband!”

The girl grinned. “Your significant other?”

“No!” Sophie filled a glass with water and drank deeply.

“Then if he’s fair game, I might ask him out. How old is he?”

Sophie set the glass down so hard that the remaining water sloshed out on the cabinet. Why did she care if the woman asked Elijah out for ice cream or to dinner?

You’ve been talking about getting back into the dating game and moving a trailer out on the backside of the property so that Elijah wouldn’t know who you went out with and when, so why the sudden green streak in your heart?
That niggling little voice inside her head wouldn’t hush.

“How old are you?” Sophie finally asked.

“Nineteen,” she said with a brilliant smile.

“Then, honey, he’s old enough to be your father,” Sophie answered. “Office is back here. Come on and bring that invoice so I can write your check.”

“Really.” The girl followed Sophie into the dining room and down the long hallway with doors opening on either side.

“He’s forty,” Sophie said.

“Well, dang it! I thought he might be about thirty, and that’s my top limit,” she said.

Sophie took the invoice from her hand and sat down behind the desk. She opened the business checkbook and wrote out the amount on the bill, tore it off, and handed it to the girl.

“What’s your low limit?” she asked.

“Seventeen to thirty. No older. No younger. I might make an example with Elijah. I even like his name. Sounds like an old western. I bet he’d be a good dancer. Oh, well.” She sighed. “Got to stay with my rules.”

“Might be a good idea,” Sophie said as she opened the back door.

Miz Blondie Rules sucked in air when the blast of heat hit her square in the face. “I’m going to the lake tonight. Put on my bikini and stay in the water until dark,” she said.

“Have fun.” Sophie led the way to the barn, remembering back when she was nineteen and had life all figured out. She’d find a wonderful man at college; they’d fall in love and live happily ever after.

Yeah, right! That only happens in the movies and romance books. So enjoy your youth, sweetheart. It will end, and reality will hit you between the eyes so hard it’ll knock your socks off.

Elijah and the hired hands were in the barn, sweeping furiously with more dust blowing around them than was being swept away. The delivery gal waved at them,
her Dr Pepper can high in the air, before she crawled up into the pickup and drove off.

Elijah threw his broom down and met Sophie at the door. “You gave her one of my Dr Peppers?”

“I did.” Sophie smiled.

“Then you can replace it,” he said.

“You would have given her one if you’d gone to the house to write her a check,” Sophie argued.

“Yes, but that would have been different,” he said.

“No, it would not. She would have still rode off with a can of soda pop in her hands,” Sophie countered.

“You are splitting hairs,” he said.

“You are being obstinate. The business paid for the power washer. You can pay for a can of soda pop,” she said.

“It’s not the money,” he growled.

“Get over it.” She brushed past him and picked up a broom to help sweep the barn floor free of hay, dirt, and feed remnants.

He grabbed his broom and kept up with the men on either side of him as they pushed the worst of the debris toward the back door. When that job was finished, he and Gus hooked up the power washer to the water well, and Elijah rolled up his shirtsleeves.

He stretched out enough hose to the washer to reach all the way to the balconies surrounding three sides of the barn and started on the south side. He motioned to Gus to turn it on and held on tightly. Still, the first blast almost knocked him flat on his rear end before he adjusted his hands to a firmer hold and started washing down the walls and seats in that area. Water poured down into the barn like hard rain and ran everyone out into the heat, slapping their straw hats against their pant legs to get the water off.

“Felt pretty good.” Gus laughed. “He said to give him half an hour and send Kendall up there to relieve him. There’s four of them all itchin’ for a turn at the washer. I figure they’ll all be cryin’ the blues with sore muscles come mornin’ time, but the old barn will look spiffy when they get done.”

Sophie nodded. She’d seen the washer come close to whipping Elijah. She didn’t want a thing to do with it. It would prove that she wasn’t as big and strong as King Kong, and Elijah sure didn’t need to know that.

“Well, I expect you all can handle this. I’m going to take a four-wheeler out to the pasture and take one more look at the cattle. It’s my first year without Maud to tell me which ones to sell and which ones to keep,” Sophie said.

Gus nodded but didn’t take his eyes from the wash job going on up in the balcony. The sprayer washed years’ worth of dirt and grime away from the seats, leaving behind wood that looked practically new. New ranch owners, a new way of doing things, a new look. Gus wondered if it was time for him to retire and let a younger man step up to the plate.

Elijah saw Sophie mount up on one of the four-wheelers and go roaring off in a cloud of dust toward the east. She’d be going out to check on the cattle they’d agreed to sell to make sure that there wasn’t a single cow that she wanted to keep another year. He’d done the same thing early that morning and, after a close check, had decided that he’d leave the list alone. There was one Angus bull, a two-year-old that had a lot of promise, that he really had misgivings about selling. His bloodline was pure, and his father was the pride and joy of the ranch, but they didn’t need another breeding bull right then. The young bull’s father was still in good health and young enough to use for another five to six years. There
would be more calves to come along in that time that would be replacement-breeding stock.

His thoughts left the bull and went straight to Sophie. She’d grown up from a gangly girl to a fine woman. He’d never been drawn to red-haired girls before, but there was something about that kinky red hair of hers that made him want to tangle his fingers in it to see if it was as soft as it looked.

“Whoa, boy!” he muttered. “She’s your partner, and you’d ruin everything if you ever let your crazy heart go there.”

But telling his heart to stay away and making it do so were two very different things. The forceful spray of water became a screen for pictures of Sophie. At the breakfast table with that gorgeous red hair all tied up in a ponytail, with strands wiggling their way out of the rubber band like disobedient children; cleaned up and smelling like springtime flowers as she picked up her purse and went off to one of her Sunday things with the girls; the love in her foggy gray eyes when she looked at Fancy Lynn and Theron’s new baby daughter; the fire in those eyes when they argued.

He was deep into the visions when Kendall tapped him on the shoulder and turned off the machinery. Elijah jumped and went into defensive military mode, catching himself just before he shot a fist out and decked Kendall.

“Sorry, man, you startled me,” Elijah said softly, the silence in the barn even more deafening than the loud power washer.

“I should’ve turned off the machine first,” Kendall said. “Didn’t think of it until I saw the look in your eyes. Scared me.”

“Sorry,” Elijah said again.

“No problem. Sure looks good where you’ve been.” Kendall nodded toward the seats and walls that were already drying in the hot wind blowing through the barn.

“I thought it would. We’ll finish up here and then work our way down the walls inside, ending with the floor. Then we’ll shut the doors. It’ll be hot but it’ll keep the tumbleweeds and dirt from blowing right back inside,” Elijah explained.

He flexed his arms and rolled his shoulders. “I’ll be back in an hour or so for another turn. Hang on tight. It’ll give you a workout.”

Kendall was a tall, lanky boy with a crop of blond hair that needed cutting and dark green eyes. He nodded and grabbed the hose with both hands. “I ride bulls on the weekends so I’m used to a workout. Let ’er rip, partner!”

Elijah grinned and flipped the switch.

Kendall laughed and yelled, “Whoa, hoss! You are a mean one, ain’t you?”

Elijah made his way down the steps and out into the yard where Gus was directing the hired hands toward the two riding lawn mowers. “I told them to mow the yard and the lawn, then at least a hundred yards around the barn. They’ll be parking their trucks over on the north side, so get a good wide swath cut over there, too. That about right, Elijah?”

“Sounds like you got it under control. Miz Sophie go to check on the cattle one more time?” Elijah asked.

Gus nodded.

“Think I’ll join her. Tomorrow things will be going pretty fast, and this might be our last time to make absolute sure what we want to sell off. Oh, and I offered for Theron and Hart to bring over a few of theirs to make our sale bigger. They do their sales in the spring, and we can take a few of ours to theirs. So they’ll be bringing theirs to the pens sometime in the morning.”

“Miz Maud did that some in the past, especially when her sale wasn’t going to be a big one. Y’all bein’ cautious this year?” Gus asked.

“Not really. We’re culling out pretty good, and then we plan to restock with some new blood,” Elijah told him.

“I think that’s a good thing. Maud, she got attached to the cows and didn’t want to sell off what she should. Sophie will do the same if you don’t keep on your toes. She’s like Maud. Hard as nails on the outside but softhearted,” Gus said.

Elijah chuckled. “I ain’t seen none of that soft part yet.”

“Nope, you ain’t, but you might. We’ll be right here mowin’ and then rakin’. That’ll take most of today, and then tomorrow the folks with the tables and all will come, right?”

“That’s about it. Tell Randy that he’s up next on the washing business, and Taylor can have the next turn after him. I’ll be back by that time and take over. It should be pretty well done by then.” Elijah mounted the second four-wheeler and rode off in the direction that Sophie had gone.