Chaps by Jove Belle

Author:Jove Belle [Belle, Jove]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 7507853
Publisher: Bold Stroke Books
Published: 2009-12-15T03:00:00+00:00

♦

Brandi’s boots clunked on the front porch, her steps heavy and slow. Some days she felt so old. The weight of her responsibilities, the potential loss settled on her shoulders and aged her seventy years in moments. She tugged open the door. Jaylynn, still wearing yesterday’s outfit, sat at the kitchen table.

“You’re home.” Brandi set her gloves on the counter and poured two glasses of iced tea. She placed one in front of her mother, then rested her hip against the cabinet and took a careful sip of hers.

Jaylynn sighed and smoothed the wrinkles out of her clothes. “Long night.” She offered an unconvincing smile.

“He’s not going to help us.”

Jaylynn pushed away from the table, iced tea untouched. “No. He’s not.” She looked weary. “I’m going to bed.”

Brandi kissed Jaylynn on the cheek. “I love you, Mama.”

“I love you, too, baby.” Jaylynn paused as she entered the hall. “Rich is looking for you, by the way.”

“Did he say why?”

Jaylynn shook her head and continued down the hall.

Rich had worked at Maple Hearth longer than Brandi had been alive. Her grandfather had hired him when he was a young man trying to find a home for himself. He’d traveled from town to town on the rodeo circuit and, tired of broken bones and the road, he’d offered his services in exchange for a place to sleep, food to eat, and a little bit of money in his pocket.

If Rich was looking for her, it wasn’t to discuss the weather. The news was either really good or really bad. Rich handled everything in between, saving the extremes for Brandi. Her stomach tightened. Eden was playing havoc with her emotional equilibrium. She didn’t need anything else on her plate.

Halfway across the back yard, she saw Rich headed her way. He greeted her with his cap in his hands, sweat and grease covering his face.

“Bad news, I’m afraid.”

He turned back the way he came and Brandi fell in step beside him. Rich’s long stride had Brandi moving double-time. When she was little, she had to run three steps and walk one to stay abreast of him. With age, he’d slowed a bit and her legs had almost caught up with his. Still, she had to work to keep up. Stress did that to him.

“Tell me.”

“The baler stopped working.”

They’d made it through the two cuttings of hay but were still several days shy of the alfalfa being ready to harvest again. “How’d you find that out?”

“It was giving me fits last time. I checked it out to see what was going on.”

The baler took up a large corner of the equipment barn. When it worked properly, it collected the hay into large, rectangular bundles and secured them with baling twine. Just like Rich, it had been on the ranch longer than Brandi. She’d known the time would come when she’d have to replace the outdated machine, but the timing couldn’t have been worse. Still, maybe it could be salvaged.

“How bad is it?”

“I can’t fix it.” Rich tapped a Kool out of the pack and slipped it between his lips.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.