Page 30 of Blue Moon Cowboy
“It’s not that funny,” Jason groused as he helped himself to a third piece of banana bread.
“Yeah, it is,” Lainey said, wiping her cheeks on her napkin before she returned to her meal.
Once they finished eating and Jason and Lainey helped Galen clean up the kitchen, Mike suggested Jason take the side-by-side and show Lainey around the ranch.
“Great idea, Pops. We’ll be back in time to help with lunch.” Jason tugged on a pair of dusty boots and settled an old John Deere ball cap on his head.
Lainey followed him outside, where he took her hand in his, raised it to his mouth, and kissed the back of her fingers.
“Hi,” he said, giving her a smile full of charm.
“Hi, yourself. You could have told me last night you planned to get up in the middle of the night and drive all the way here.”
Jason shrugged as they walked toward an equipment shed. “Could have, but where’s the fun in that? Galen promised to keep you busy with breakfast until I got here.”
Lainey looked up at him. “So, Mike and Galen don’t usually have such a big breakfast?”
“Dad’s idea of breakfast is coffee, toast, and a bowl of cereal. If he’s feeling extravagant, he might slice a banana into his cornflakes.”
“That is pretty extravagant,” she said, grinning at Jason.
They got into a side-by-side that was covered in mud, although the seats were clean, and spent the next two hours exploring the ranch.
Jason took her to a house on a hillside with an incredible view of the valley. No flowers grew around it, and the place needed a good spring washing, but the roof looked fairly new,and the paint couldn’t have been more than a year or two old on the siding.
“Who lives here?” Lainey asked.
“Nobody. Not anymore, I mean.” Jason sighed. “Mom and Dad built this house when they got married and lived here until Mom died. Dad moved to the main house then because we all needed to be together and found comfort in keeping each other close. We maintain the house, but no one lives here. Occasionally, if we have too much company to keep them all at the main house, they stay here. Want to see inside?”
“I’d love to, but only if it doesn’t stir up sad memories for you.”
“No. The memories I have here are all good. When Galen and I would come home from school, the house always smelled like cookies and whatever was cooking for dinner. My mom was a housewife first, and a rancher second. She made me and Galen both learn how to cook, and do laundry, and take care of a house, while Pops taught us all about cattle, horses, and ranching. Judy never seemed to mind that I could do a little cooking or cleaning when necessary.”
“I’m sure she appreciated the help,” Lainey said, walking inside when Jason used a key from the keychain he had in his pocket to unlock the door.
The one-story ranch-style home looked small from the front, but she quickly concluded the house stretched back on the hilltop with several rooms. The front door opened into an entry hallway. To the left of it was an office that might have doubled as a library with bookshelves full of books and antique treasures. To the right of the entry was a large living room with a great view of the valley out the bank of windows that faced east. It would be a spectacular place to watch the sun rise.
A doorway in the living room opened into a dining room that held a large table and eight chairs, along with a built-in hutchfull of a matching set of Noritake china which Lainey was sure was from the 1960s. She loved the silver-edged plates with a soft pink rose pattern.
“Were those your mother’s dishes?”
“Yep. Lisa didn’t want them, and Brylee has her grandma’s china. We decided to just leave the things the girls didn’t want here for now. We have a cleaning crew come in and deep clean twice a year, and any necessary repairs are made then. Someone will want to live in the house someday, so it’s important to us to keep it in good shape. Galen and Pops come up here on the first Sunday of each month to check things out.”
“That’s smart,” Lainey said, walking from the dining room through a wide doorway into a large kitchen with a breakfast nook complete with deep bay windows.
She checked out a mudroom with a large utility sink and hooks for hats and coats beneath a wide shelf by the back door.
The rest of the house included three bedrooms that shared one bathroom, and a master suite with a private bath and a large walk-in closet. At the back of the house was a family room that would catch the evening light. Double doors opened to a patio.
Lainey had no idea where it came from, but she could envision sitting there with Jason, watching the last golden light of a sunset fade into the horizon.
“I love the house, Jason, and the views. It seems like there is something wonderful to look at from every window.”
“I always thought so. I loved living here as a kid. Of course, I spent plenty of time at the main house with my grandparents when I was little, but this was always home. By the time Judy and I wed, though, my grandparents were getting older, and we moved into the main house to be there to help take care of them. After they passed, Pops told us to stay there, so we did. There are all kinds of memories, both hard and sweet, tied to the main house.”
Lainey knew about hard memories, but rather than say anything, she gave Jason a hug. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head, as though it was a familiar gesture in which they both took comfort.
Regardless of her head telling her to run for her van, leave, and not look back, it was as though her heart sighed with contentment and once again whispered, “home.”
