Forever Family (River's End Ranch Book 26) Read online

  “No. Not yet anyway. I think we need to try to work through what we’re feeling though. I need to know why my feelings don’t matter to you anymore. Maybe we should go to marriage counseling.”

  He shook his head. “No. We’ll work it out together like we always have.” He balled up his napkin and threw it on the table. “I’m going for a walk.”

  As he left the cabin, she felt a tear slide down her face. She stood and cleared the table, doing the dishes. Even if she was in the depths of despair, she couldn’t leave a mess in the kitchen. Once a dishwasher, always a dishwasher.

  She went through the motions, hand-washing all the pots and pans and putting the dishes into the dishwasher. While she worked, she thought of her first real date with him, which came the Monday after they met.

  Bobbi looked in the mirror in the bathroom at the back of the diner, making sure her hair wasn’t coming out of her ponytail. It was, so she quickly brushed it into submission. The heat from the hot dishwater made her hair flat. She wished there was time to curl it and tease it back up high like it should be, but he was due to be there any moment.

  As she stepped out of the bathroom, she saw him standing in front of the café, Don Juan on the leash he’d bought the day before. Wilber was already working his way into her heart. The boys at school had ignored her, but Wilber was pursuing her in a way that was making her head spin. He thought she was special. He’d even told her.

  “I’m heading out now, Kelsey!” Bobbi called as she removed her apron and headed for the front door. “I may not be home for dinner!” She saw that Wilber had the same picnic basket over his arm. They wouldn’t be able to take ATVs with Don Juan tagging along, but a nice walk sounded good to her.

  As soon as she was outside, Wilber took her hand in his, as if he’d held her hand every day of their lives. Her heart skipped a beat as his skin touched hers, and she said a silent prayer that she would never get used to his touch. That every day for the rest of their lives, she would appreciate everything about him, from his ice blue eyes to his huge feet.

  “Can we look for Bigfoot today?” she asked softly, trying not to let her feelings show.

  He grinned. “I’d love to. Don Juan seems ready.”

  “Thanks for getting him for me. I’d feel guilty going on a walk without him.”

  “Do you want to look for Bigfoot or do you want me to show you around the ranch? It’s a nice place to live and work.”

  She wrinkled her brow. “If I vote for seeing the ranch, can I get a raincheck on Bigfoot hunting?”

  He nodded. “I’ll hunt for Bigfoot anytime you want.”

  “Then show me the ranch.”

  He took her over to the stables, introducing her to the man who was in charge of the horses. “Old Bellamy has worked here forever. I can’t imagine this ranch without him.”

  “How long has it been a guest ranch?” she asked.

  “My grandmother didn’t want to see my grandpa work himself to death, so she turned the ranch hands’ house into a hotel. That’s where most of the guests stay. And then she decided that it would be nice to have an RV park. My parents added a few cabins. My mom decided she wanted the diner.” He pulled her past the stable to an area that she hadn’t seen yet. “This is what we call the Old West Town.”

  “I can see why!” She stared around in surprise. “Do you do anything with these buildings?”

  He shook his head. “No, they’re really just here for the atmosphere.”

  “Wouldn’t it be nice if the saloon was maybe an ice cream parlor? Or the apothecary shop was a first aid station? You could even turn the mercantile into a combination supply store and a grocery store for the people who stay in the RV park.”

  He nodded. “I could see that. We could have a pastor who actually performed weddings in the little church. My ancestors first lived in this area of the ranch. We brought in some of the buildings, but that little cabin there? My great-great-grandmother lived there. Legend says that she brought in a mail-order husband. I’d love to find out the real story.”

  They stopped walking so Don Juan could sniff out just the right place to do his business. “I love that you have stories like that about your family. It sometimes feels like I had no life before the day my dad killed my mother.”

  He stared at her, shock in his eyes. “Your dad shot your mother?”

  She nodded. “He killed her too. He’s serving a life sentence. He’s eligible for parole in twenty-five years. I hope he rots there.”

  Wilber pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry life has been so hard for you.”

  She shrugged. “The harder life is, the stronger I am. That can’t be bad.”

  “I guess not.” He continued walking with her, a sad look on his face. “I promise that as soon as you marry me, I won’t let anything bad happen to you for the rest of your life.”

  She laughed. “You can’t promise that.”

  “I can do my very best to make sure that your life is nothing but sunshine and roses after our wedding. How about next week?”

  Bobbi laughed, shaking her head. As much as the idea appealed to her, she wanted to make sure she cared for him and not the easy life he could give her. “Let’s just get to know each other first. Okay?”

  “Okay. You don’t know what you’re missing, though!”

  Chapter Three

  When Wilber came back to the cabin that evening, he no longer seemed angry. He was just sad. It took everything Bobbi had in her not to beg him to forgive her for her words.

  She’d finished the dishes and was sitting quietly reading a book Kaya had written about the first Westons who had settled at the ranch. “Are you all right?” she asked softly.

  He walked into the living room and sat in a chair perpendicular to her spot on the couch. “I don’t know what I am. I thought we were about to celebrate thirty-five years of happy marriage, and you’re telling me you’re not happy. I can’t even figure out what to think!”

  She closed her eyes for a moment, wanting to make him feel better, but knowing it was past time for how she’d been feeling to be out in the open. “Wilber, I’m not asking for a divorce. I’m asking you to work with me on our marriage. I feel like we’ve been drifting further and further apart. We’re at cross purposes, and I want to feel like we’re on the same team again.”

  “What’s it going to take to convince you that I still love you? And that I’m willing to do what it takes to make our marriage work?”

  She bit her lip. She wanted to say, “Let me stay with my grandbabies,” but that wasn’t fair. Yes, it was the issue that was upsetting her the most at the moment, but there was so much more involved.

  “I’m not sure. I do know we need to communicate better. Are you willing to try?”

  He nodded, a bit of hope entering his eyes. “I know we can make things work. Don’t cancel the celebration yet.”

  “I won’t. The only person who knows about it is Pastor Kevin. Everything else has been kept on the down low. Everyone knows the chapel and kitchen are booked for the day, but no one knows why yet.”

  “Sounds good.” Wilber stood up and moved to sit beside his wife, putting his arm around her. “Tell me about your day.”

  Bobbi took a deep breath. Asking about her day was a good start. They’d been spending every waking moment in one another’s company until they returned to the ranch. It hadn’t been a question that had been asked often. “I went and talked to Jaclyn for a little while.”

  He grinned. “Crazy as ever, I hope?”

  “Of course. Then I went and saw Kelsi. I got to hold Willow for a while. The girls are smiling and cooing. I just want to bring them home with me and never let them go.”

  “Of course you do. I love them too. They’re beauties.”

  “When I got home, I walked down by the lake. It still calms me the way it always did.”

  “I’m glad.” Wilber leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I’m going to leave you to your book. I’m tired
, and I have some plans to make.”

  “What kind of plans?”

  He shrugged. “You’ll see.”

  As he left the room, she smiled. He really was a good man, even when she wanted to use an epilator on every square inch of hair on his body.

  She thought back to the day he’d walked her around the ranch for the first time, and they’d talked about what they would do with the Old West Town if they’d been running the ranch.

  “We need to have the bakery working, too,” Wilber told her, her hand still held tightly in his. “And maybe a floral shop. Wouldn’t it be nice if a man wanted to propose on the ranch and he could just go get flowers from a shop?”

  “Or he could pick wildflowers. I think that’s more romantic anyway.” Bobbi smiled at the idea of someone picking flowers for her.

  “So you’d rather I took my ATV up into the mountains and picked you a bouquet of flowers than I spent an arm and a leg on a dozen roses?”

  She nodded. “You can stop at the store and buy me roses anytime. You have to have forethought to go into the mountains for wildflowers.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. You’re going to be different than any girl I’ve dated, aren’t you?”

  She frowned at the idea of him dating other women. “You tell me. Am I different?”

  He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “You are very different, but in such a good way.” He turned and headed a direction she hadn’t been yet. She was excited to see all the aspects of her new home. She wasn’t sure she’d stay for long, but so far, she couldn’t imagine leaving.

  As they walked, he pointed out different things. “This path leads to the lake. We have rafting and it’s one of the big draws for tourists. Especially in the summer. In the winter, they’re here to play in the snow.”

  She smiled. “I’ve seen snow a few times, but never much. Southern Oklahoma isn’t known for its snowstorms.”

  He grinned. “We’ll go skiing, sledding, and snowmobiling. I promise you’re going to love River’s End Ranch in the winter. And the fall. And the summer. And the spring. You’re just going to love the ranch, because it’s so amazing.”

  “I can’t wait to see it in the winter. I can just picture it with a blanket of snow covering it.”

  “I don’t know if an Oklahoma girl is going to be able to handle an Idaho winter. I guess we’ll see…”

  “Oh, try me. I’m tough.” She stopped walking, staring in surprise at a small house along the path. “Who lives there?” She could see bunnies hopping along through the grass.

  “Jaclyn.”

  Bobbi shook her head. “I’m buying her a gnome. She keeps talking about fairies, but I think gnomes are really the brains behind the operation. As soon as I get my first paycheck, that gnome is happening.”

  “What operation?”

  “How am I supposed to know what operation?” She started walking again, pulling him along behind her. Suddenly she was in a huge hurry to see the lake for the first time. “Do people swim in the lake?”

  He nodded. “Sure. The temperature isn’t exactly warm, so you’ll have to get used to it, but people swim there all summer. We’re in the process of building a pool as well. That’ll be up and running by the beginning of July.”

  “That sounds like fun. Why have a lake and a pool, though?”

  “Different people are looking for different things. Some people don’t like swimming in a lake, because there are fish in there as well. And we’ll have the pool heated, so there will be a draw to that. Some don’t like to swim in pools, because they feel like the chlorine is unnatural. So we try to accommodate as many as we can on the ranch. We’re building cabins for the guests to stay in right up against the lake. They will be started as soon as the pool is completed.”

  “Sounds like you’re changing everything around here fast.”

  He shrugged. “It’s kind of a test my parents are putting me through. Dad and I are running the ranch together for a while, but they are leaving all the major decisions to me. He guides me, and tells me if he thinks I’m making a mistake, but at the end of the day, I make the choices. They’ll retire before too long, and it’ll all be my responsibility.”

  Bobbi frowned. “Is that what you want?”

  “I don’t really know. It’s something I’ve always known I’d do as soon as I was old enough. That’s how the ranch is run…has been for generations. So I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to do and passing the test. At least I hope I’m passing. I don’t get a lot of feedback from my parents.”

  “You know, I thought that it would be great to finish school and know where I was going to go and what I was going to do, but I’m not so sure now. I have my whole life in front of me. I have choices. You don’t.”

  “But I have family. My family loves me, and they will guide me for as long as I need to be guided. I won’t be left alone to try to figure things out.” He stopped on the white sand beach in front of the water. “We had the sand hauled in to make it seem more like an ocean beach.”

  Bobbi looked around her. The mountains were just behind the lake, and she could see the river that fed into the body of water. “This is beautiful. I could spend all day here just soaking up the atmosphere. What is it that’s so calming about water?”

  “I have no idea. I know my mom is the same way, though. Anytime she gets stressed out or upset, Dad brings her down here or tells her to take a hot bath. I think that’s why a lot of the cabins are being designed to have hot tubs on the back deck. Dad is convinced women are calmer around water.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know if I like those generalizations, but it does work for me.” She squatted down to rub her hands over the dog’s head and neck. “How’s it going, Don Juan? Do you love the water too?” Don Juan let out a bark that had her laughing. “I think he understands me!” She glanced up and saw Wilber watching her with a half-grin on his face. “What?”

  “Just thinking that you’re going to be a fabulous mother. The way you are with that puppy tells me everything I need to know.”

  She sighed. “You keep trying to move faster than I can handle.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to forget that I think you’re very special.”

  She stood, turning to face him. “I have bad blood.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “My dad came home from work one day to find my mom talking to a man. He killed her. With that kind of violence in my family, how could you even think that I’d be worthy of marrying? Or having kids with? What if my father’s violent tendencies are passed down to my kids?”

  “Our kids, and I don’t believe that. What kind of family did your dad have?”

  She shrugged. “I never met his parents. I knew my mother’s parents, but they wanted nothing to do with me after my mom died. They said I reminded them of him, and they were done with me.”

  “That’s sad. How could they blame you for what he did?”

  “No idea. But I haven’t seen them since her funeral, and I lived in the same town as them. I caught a glimpse of Grandma in the grocery store once when I was there with my foster mom, but she turned and ran out of the store. She hated me.”

  He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. “I will never hate you. It seems to me that more than anything you want a family—people who will love you forever. Am I right?”

  She nodded. “Don Juan will love me forever.”

  “He will. But so will I. You’ll see.”

  She shrugged, thinking he’d lost his mind, but not having the strength to argue at the moment. “I’m getting hungry. Are you hungry?”

  “Sure. There are picnic tables over this way.” He walked toward the tables, the dog trotting along behind them. “I had Mom pack the picnic, so I don’t even know what we have. I hope you like it.”

  She shrugged. “I’ll eat it whether I like it or not.” She’d had no choices in the foster homes where she’d been raised.
/>   He opened the picnic basket and pulled out two paper plates, napkins, and two cans of root beer. “Root beer is kind of a ranch thing. I have a feeling my ancestors made their own, but I have no proof of this.”

  “Why do you think so then?”

  “Because the whole family has always loved root beer. How could our ancestors have been any different?”

  Bobbi laughed at his reasoning. “You’re silly, you know.”

  He nodded. “I do know. I’m just glad I can make you laugh. You’re too serious most of the time.”

  “How can you say that when you don’t even really know me?”

  “I just know. I feel like I’ve been waiting my entire life for the day you walked onto this ranch. How could I not know little details about you?”

  Bobbi took a step closer to him, leaned forward, and rested her forehead against his shoulder. “No matter what happens tomorrow, I’ll always treasure this moment with you.”

  “Tomorrow, I’ll spend time trying to convince you we’re meant to be together. And you know what I’ll do the day after that?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “What will you do?”

  “The same thing. I will spend the rest of my life proving to you that we can’t be whole when we’re apart. You were meant for me.” He put fried chicken on each of their plates and added a heaping portion of potato salad. “There are brownies for dessert if you eat all your dinner.”

  She laughed. “I’ll do my very best!” Chocolate had always been a weakness of hers, but her foster mother had called it “the “devil’s food,” so she’d rarely had the opportunity to eat it.

  While they ate, Don Juan slept at their feet. She was pleased that he wasn’t one of those dogs who would constantly be begging for people food. She’d give him some, of course, because she wanted to treat him, but she’d do it on her terms.

  After walking her back to his parents’ house that evening, he cupped her face in his hands, leaning down to kiss her goodnight. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told her, leaving her at the door with just a peck on the lips.

  She stood and watched him walk away, a hand against her lips. His kiss—well, she had nothing to compare it to, but she knew it had to be the best kiss in all of Idaho. All the world! Kissing him made her skin tingle and her toes curl. She wasn’t in love, because no sane person would fall in love with someone they’d only known for forty-eight hours, but she sure was in like. She was very, very much in like!