Windswept Hearts by Robynn Gabel (read novel full .txt) 📕

Steve Johnson’s eyes were closed while his mind shook off the night’s slumber. The floor squeaked as something moved across it. He smiled, waiting for the stalker to pounce, a girlish giggle his only warning. His arms caught the awkward bundle as it landed on his chest.

Affectionately, he growled, “Grr,” rolling to his side. The adoring, blue eyes of his sister stared at him as he kept her caged in his arms.

“Morning, pipsqueak,” he said, chuckling.

Chelsea squealed, “You’re faking it! You weren’t sleeping!”

“You’ll never know!” He started tickling her.

She squinted, laughing, gasping for air, trying to pull away from his grip, kicking wildly. When he released her, she scrambled for the other side of the bed.

“Don’t forget you’re supposed to go watch me at the horse show today. I’m doing Model, Showmanship and Trail. You promised!” Chelsea shook her finger at him.

As his sister scooted back to his side, he felt a pang of guilt. In the past, his drinking had created many broken promises. “Okay, pipsqueak, I wouldn’t miss you falling off for nothing!”

Chelsea giggled. “I’m not going to fall off my horse.”

He smiled.  Corky, his sister’s Appaloosa, reminded him of a fat sausage on four legs. “Go help Mom; I got to get ready for work.” He tousled her static-filled blond hair. She jumped on his chest, sliding to the floor, laughing at the grunt she received for her acrobatics.

A half-hour later Steve walked into the kitchen. “Morning, Mom. You don’t have to send Chelsea to wake me up. I had the alarm set.”

The petite woman at the kitchen sink smiled at him over her shoulder. “It saves us from listening to your alarm trying to wake you up. Chelsea is much more effective.”

Steve grinned, pouring himself a cup of coffee. The clamorous blast of a car horn interrupted his first sip. “Gotta go, see you later.”

Jumping into the truck, he greeted his brother. “Morning, Brad.”

Brad nodded stiffly, putting the truck in reverse to back up.

“So what are you doing here so early?”

Brad jerked the shifter into drive and threw back brusquely, “Just giving you a ride to work. So how long before you get to apply for your license again?”

“About two weeks,” Steve ground out. He stared out the window, hating that he had to depend on others for a ride while waiting to get his driving privileges back. An invisible wall of tense silence sat between them until his brother parked next to the service entrance at the back of their father’s hardware store.  They’d not always been at odds with each other. Walking between the neatly stocked shelves he remembered running Match Box car races with his brother down the shiny aisles.

“Good morning, boys,” a dark-haired beauty called from the register. Her pink lips framed snowy teeth in a beauty queen smile. “Mr. Kagen called. He needs those fence posts as soon as you can get out to him.”

Steve stiffened, turning his back on the girl. It was hard enough working for his brother, but the ex-girlfriend made it almost intolerable. He noticed his coworker and friend, Mike, sauntering out of the employee lounge, a cup of steaming coffee in hand.

Steve turned back to Brad. “I have a potential repair job for a lady Emily Higgins introduced me to this weekend. She inherited the Hanson ranch, and needs help on some projects.”

“Yeah, Dad and I can cover the store and Mike can drive you out there,” he said gruffly, not looking up from the clipboard he held.

Mike headed to a pegboard, which was covered in notes and key rings, on the wall behind the register. “Mary Beth, where are the keys to the Junk Heap?”

“Oh, didn’t Brad tell you? They traded it in yesterday on a new delivery truck.”

Mike groaned. “But I liked the Junk Heap! I didn’t have to worry about scratches and dings!”

Laughing, Brad cut in, “No, you just liked the break you got sitting on the side of the road waiting for someone to rescue you when it broke down! Just take the silver Chevy today. It’s already hooked up to the trailer.”

“I need to give....” Steve searched his back pocket for the paper with the number. “Okay, I need to call Anna, and see if we can go out there this afternoon for an estimate. I think we can do the morning delivery run with no problem. Let me schedule her in for one o’clock. That will give us time for lunch and I’ll have time to get over to Riverton and watch Chelsea.”

“Well, no rest for the wicked. Let’s get loaded up.” Mike took a quick sip of his coffee and headed for the back with Steve right behind him.

With the delivery completed and lunch over, they headed to the Hanson Ranch that was well-known in town, being one of the older homesteads in the Lander area.

“What’s that gal going to do with the ranch? I heard it’s a pretty big spread, and she’s just a kid.”

Steve shook his head. “I met her last Friday night and she’s no kid. Kind of stand-offish. Tim Langer about squashed her at the street dance.”

“Well, folks from the big city are more reserved. She’s from Denver, isn’t she?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Mike smiled wickedly. “You should ask her out! Just think: you could marry into a cattle ranch!”

“I don’t think so, dirtbag.”

As they turned onto the gravel road and rounded the hill, Mike’s eyes grew wide. A sleek, plum-colored sports car sat in front of the ranch house. “There’s something you don’t see at many ranches.”

Steve had to agree, staring with envy at the Corvette with its unusual color and aerodynamic lines. “Yeah, she’s got some seriously good taste in that ride.”

“I’d like to take it for a spin.”

“You and me both, man.”

“What year is it? Do you know?”

“It’s a C5 model with older chrome wheels so it has to be somewhere between a 1997 or 1999.”

As Mike came to a stop, Steve grabbed a clipboard and jumped out for a closer look.  He glanced up as the owner came around the side of the porch where she’d been working. He had to stifle his urge to laugh.

She was quite a sight, not the well-groomed city girl he’d met at the street dance. He remembered her startled, blues eyes staring at him when he had caught her, and then her coolness as she pulled away from him. Right now he was facing a whole different creature.

*****

Listening to the meadow lark’s morning trill, Anna poured her routine cup of coffee. She sat down at the kitchen table and started turning the frail pages of a photo album. A musty old-paper odor rose from cracked and faded pictures reflecting a black-and-white world. Precious few were the photos of her grandfather’s childhood years. One showed him padded in many layers, standing next to a snowdrift that towered above him and the porch. His graduation picture showed a proud, young man leaning against an outdated truck. All moments caught in time but never talked about or shared.

Abruptly, she closed the album, pushing it away and putting her head in her hands.  The only father figure I had in my life and he was a workaholic.  She remembered the disappointment in his eyes when she’d fail at things he tried to teach her on the ranch. Anna craved a grandfather that looked at her with pride, hugged and cuddled with her.  Instead, she got one who hardly ever spoke, except to correct her. 

Pushing away from the table, she decided to take a break from the cleaning and the past.  Fresh air would be good and the lilacs needed trimming. Stepping out onto the porch, a musky odor caused her to catch her breath. Moving over to the large hole in the porch, she peered in, seeing nothing but cobwebs and dark dirt below. Where’s it coming from? I’ll have the handyman check for broken pipes. Though she never saw the stray cat, the food scraps she left out disappeared every day. I’ll have to get the kittens out of there before we do the repairs.

Gathering up gardening tools, she headed for the side of the house. The drone of a motor and crunch of gravel alerted Anna to an approaching vehicle. She backed out from under the lilac bush, aware of how ungainly it must have looked to any onlookers. She felt a blush spread to her cheeks as she walked up to the porch.  The sign on the side of the silver truck door announced the arrival of help. Catching sight of Steve as he admired the car, she called out, “Hello.”

He looked up, a rakish smile crinkling the edges of his hazel eyes. “Uh, hi there. Remember me, Steve, from Johnson’s Hardware?”

“Yes, I do.” Anna nervously rubbed the dirt off her hands and onto her jeans before shaking the hand he held out.

He looked back at the car, still admiring it. “I’ll bet it’s got a three-fifty cubic inch engine, with over three hundred horsepower. What’s the fastest you’ve had it up to?”

It was Anna’s turn to smile, her eyes lighting with excitement. “You’re right. It’s a 1998 Coupe and on the straightaway, would you believe one twenty-five?”

 Steve shot an appreciative glance at her, and then looked quickly down at the clipboard, his voice catching, shoulders shaking a little. “That’s awesome! Well, you need us to look at the porch, kitchen floor…uh.” He avoided eye contact, the smile now a full-blown grin as if he was trying to suppress a laugh as he looked towards the front door.

A slight frown creased Anna’s forehead. He hadn’t been so jovial at the street dance and she couldn’t figure out what he found so amusing about her car. “Why don’t you start with the kitchen first?” she said, heading for the door. Another tall man had joined them from the other side of the truck, and as she glanced at his tanned face, she found him silently laughing too.

Anna didn’t even wait for an introduction, hurriedly leading them into the house. As they walked past an antique mirror on the wall, she felt lean fingers gently grab her shoulders, turning her face to the mirror while Steve, chuckling, said in her ear, “Ma’am, you might want to spruce up.”

She tensed first at his touch, and then at the picture of herself framed there. Cobwebs, leaves and unknown debris was scattered through her mussed, brunette tresses. It was as if she had used her hair to dust under the porch. A quick “OH” escaped as she made a dash for the bathroom down the hall.  Over her shoulder, she called out to them to make themselves at home in the kitchen. Anna heard subdued snorts of laughter behind her.

In the quiet of the bathroom, Anna quickly brushed all traces of the lilac bush adventure out of her thick hair, knowing the bright red blush was going to take some time to leave her face.

 Of all people, why did it have to be him to see me like that? Smoothing and tucking, she took a big breath, gathering what was left of her pride and trying to slow her pounding heart.

“Thank you so much,” she said calmly to the two men, as they eyed the dilapidated floor.

Steve looked up with an impish smile as he introduced his partner. “No problem, ma’am. This is Mike Tanner and he’ll be working with me. We have