Chapter Thirteen
The days grew warmer, and work on the house on the hill drew to a standstill. The new owner must have run out of money. The dry weather was perfect for building. She hacked at the dry earth with her hoe. It was terrible weather for growing things. Even so, she had managed to can thirty pints of green beans and twenty pints of tomatoes so far. Not bad.
She dropped the hoe and mopped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. She glanced around the farm. The goats were staying close to the house today. Were the dogs out there someplace again? Josh, Bill and Alex had gone hunting for them the day after the attack, but they lost the trail in some rocks on her back 40 acres. It was rugged country back there - full of wild plums, too. This year she had been afraid to harvest them because of the dogs. Josh was certain it was a pack, not simply a gathering of neighbor dogs. She was inclined to agree. That put everyone at risk, but her goats were the easiest targets.
A gray truck stopped at the gate and she waved at Josh. Now what? She walked up to the road while he waited in the truck.
She lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the evening sun while she talked to him.
“What’s going on? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
He nodded, obviously perturbed about something.
“I’ve been busy.” He tapped the roof of his truck with his fingernails. “Your stud is back, and the first place he went was to see Lori. They didn’t know I was around and I saw them. Him hugging her like they were old friends.”
She smiled up at him. “Oh, Josh. You’re such a worrier. Alex is affectionate – he probably hugs all the girls. It doesn’t mean anything.”
He shook his head in disgust. “What does it take to open your eyes about him? He’s been globe trotting for the last three weeks. Don’t you wonder what he’s been doing?”
She shrugged. “He’s been on a business trip. I trust him. What good would it do to get suspicious, anyway? It wouldn’t change anything if he wanted to cheat. If you’d make an honest woman out of Lori, you wouldn’t have to worry about all this.”
His face turned red. “You’re beginning to sound like Lori.”
“So what are you waiting for?”
He snorted. “I’m waiting for her to stop making eyes at your stud.”
She gave him a level look. “His name is Alex, and I don’t want to hear you call him stud again. Alex isn’t the problem between you and Lori, and he wasn’t the problem between you and me. You turned me away with your suspicious actions, long before Alex came along. Keep it up and you’ll loose Lori as well.”
She turned and left him at the gate. She was sick of hearing him talk about Alex as though he was a testosterone driven wild man. None of which explained why Alex had stopped to see Lori first. She pushed it from her mind. The only thing jealousy did was make people miserable. Josh was living proof. The fact that Alex stopped to see Lori merely gave Carmen time to get cleaned up.
Behind her, Josh roared his engine as he turn the truck around, and slung gravel on the road as he took off. He’d get glad the same way he got mad. Maybe he’d even think about what she said.
Three goats were on the porch. She glanced around to see if a gate was open. Nothing. There must be a bad spot in the fence. It couldn’t be too far away from the house. They hadn’t wandered that far today. She shooed the goat back into the pasture and grabbed a pair of linesman pliers and some bailing wire from the barn. Ed lifted his head and nickered, but he continued to work on the salt block when she didn’t call him. By the time she could saddle him, she could be in the hills.
Somewhere in the distance a horn honked. Even eighty acres couldn’t hold back the population growth in this area. She wandered along the fence line examining every post for possible weakness. No brush grew within three feet of the fence. Wasn’t it like a goat? Twenty acres and they were always at the fence line, poking their heads through to eat the brush on the other side. Ed whinnied down by the barn, and then nickered in a higher tone. It was getting close to feeding time.
Some of the more friendly goats had followed her up the hill and they were ranging out ahead. Hopefully they wouldn’t find the spot and get out again before she could fix it . . . and then she saw it - a wallowed out place under the fence. Some hunter’s dog had probably dug it out. Dog? At that moment one of the goats darted by her, bleating in terror. She swung around to see what had frightened the goat and the hair lifted on the back of her neck. Four dogs were trotting across the low bluff on the other side of the fence. The lead dog was the Chow she had recognized the night the dogs attacked Brutus. Suddenly Brutus was at her side, snarling and trying to push her away. Her one thought was to plug the hole so the dogs couldn’t get through. She searched around and found a large rock. Grabbing the edge of it, she tugged it toward the hole. It got hung up on a stump and she had to yank from another direction to dislodge it. She glanced up at the dogs. She wasn’t going to make it.
“Come on, Brutus!” she yelled as she headed for the barn.
The proximity of the snarls behind told her she wasn’t going to make it to the barn, either. She visually selected a tree ahead that looked easy to climb. Brutus was on his own. That was when she saw the red dog running through the trees. Obviously he had already been inside the fence when she found the hole. Running from it was probably the worst thing she could do, but panic had set in and her legs were under control of her mind. She screamed, racing for the tree and knowing she didn’t have a chance of outrunning the dog. Suddenly Brutus was at her side again, lunging to meet the red dog.
It took her a moment to separate the pounding of her heart from the sound of hooves striking earth. Ed was running beside her, and then a strong arm was plucking her from the ground. Ed plunged to a stop and Alex pulled her up into the saddle with him. He jerked a rifle from its scabbard and swung it around with one arm, firing it into the air.
The sound echoed off the bluffs and the dogs retreated. Brutus started after them, snarling and barking his disgust.
“Are you all right?” Alex asked anxiously.
Too breathless to respond, she nodded, and he lowered her to the ground.
“Can you get Brutus to take the goats back to the barn?”
She nodded again. “Then do it. I’ll be down in a few minutes. I want to see if I can track them this time.”
“Be careful,” she finally gasped.
“Go!”
“Brutus,” she yelled. “Bring them in.”
Brutus stopped and eyed the dogs reluctantly. Finally he abandoned the chase and started rounding up the goats. Together they got the goats in the barn and locked the doors. It was in her mind to go back up the hill and check on Alex when she saw Josh pull up at the gate. She ran up the drive toward him.
“Josh, hurry. The dogs are back. Alex went after them on Ed.”
Josh pulled his truck through the gate and leaped out, grabbing his shotgun from the rack behind the seat. “Did he have a gun?”
She nodded, and then stiffened as Ed came out of the hills - riderless. “Alex!” She screamed, and raced toward the field.
“Carmen!” Josh grabbed her arm. “Stay here. I’ll go after him.”
“Hurry!”
Josh vaulted the fence and raced up the hill, only to stop in surprise as Alex emerged from the trees riding a horse colored enough like Ed to be his twin. He shook his head and turned back to Carmen, leaping the fence again in a single bound. Together they watched as Alex put the horse down the hill, his body moving gracefully with the motion of the horse.
“I’ll give him one thing. Your little st . . . Texan is quite a horseman.”
Carmen glanced up at him and smiled. “He’s quite a man, and he just saved my life.” She shrugged. “For what it’s worth.”
He put an arm around her shoulder gazed down at her thoughtfully. “It’s worth a lot to me, little sister.”
She smiled and hugged his waist. “I can’t tell you how wonderful those words sound.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “I took your advice, and I got myself engaged. Now I’ve got me a score to settle.” He strode up to Alex as he joined them.
“Listen you little st . . .” he shot a quick look at Carmen. “Stay away from my girl.”
Alex raised his brows. “Your girl? Have you got a number stamped on every girl in the county? Why don’t you make up your mind and stick to just one?”
Then it was true. Alex was interested in Lori. Why not? They were the perfect couple – and Lori didn’t want children.
Well, at least she had been spared the embarrassment of telling him she still hadn’t figured out what God was trying to tell her. Poor Alex - out of the frying pan and into the fire.
“I’ve got my mind made up,” Josh responded testily. “And you’ve been horning in on the action. Now just to show you what a nice guy I can be, I’m inviting you to an engagement party tonight at Fred’s Hickory Inn. Six O’clock. You be there to show her what a good sport you are.”
Alex shifted his gaze to Carmen. “Is it true?”
She nodded. It didn’t give her much pleasure to win by default. Especially when she wasn’t sure she could hold him.
He grimaced as he jammed the rifle down into its boot. He shook his head. “My loss is your gain, Josh. I only hope you can make her happy. Don’t ask for my blessing, though, because you’re not going to get it.”
He swung the horse around and headed down the hill toward the creek. He’d be back after a while and they could talk. Maybe by then she could make up her mind - if he was still interested.
Alex didn’t come back. Maybe that was what finally opened her eyes. It hit her as she was dressing to go to the party. Neither Alex nor children were the key to happiness - she was. She could go on feeling sorry for herself because she couldn’t have children, or she could accept the cards that had been dealt her and settle for less than perfection. If she searched for the rest of her life, she might never find a better mate than Alex. After twenty or thirty years of marriage, they would still be alone together, whether or not they had any children. What she needed was a little of that stuff she had been pitching at Josh . . . trust. That was why everything was working out for everyone else. Planning ahead was a good thing up to a point. After that it was obsession. Somewhere, somehow, everyone had to release themselves to chance. Alex had learned that. Why was it so hard for her? Probably for the same reason it had been for him so many years. Because he didn’t realize what he was doing.
Was it too late? Could she win back what she had thrown away? Katie was wrong. Alex could make her happy - if she would let him.