“Sounds like a plan.” Addy stood up.
“You think you’ll ever go back to nursing full time?” Jesse asked.
She patted his shoulder. “I’ve got the best of worlds right now. I’m a full-time nurse to the folks, and I’m also doing what I can on the ranch. I’m happy, Jesse. Why mess with that?”
“Amen,” he said. “You might as well come on out here where I can see you.”
“I’ll be out in a few minutes,” she said.
The door opened a few minutes later, and Addy and Pearl both came out on the porch. Pearl brought out two glasses of sweet tea and Addy carried a couple of bottles of water. Pearl handed Jesse a glass of tea and sat down on the swing. Addy opened a bottle of water and hiked a hip on the porch railing.
“We could have had one of the hired hands take care of the yard,” Pearl said.
Jesse took a long drink. “She needs to work off her anger before we do a job together.”
“This something you learned in the Air Force?” Pearl asked.
“It is.” Jesse nodded. “I learned it real quick, too. A team is only as good as its members working together, but if there’s a problem between two of them, then it has to be settled before the team can go on a mission.”
“You would have been a good father all these years,” Pearl whispered.
“I’m not so sure of that, but I do know I had some good role models in both you and Dad. We’ll get through all this, Mama, and when the time is right, Addy and I will tell her the whole story.” He turned to focus on Addy. “How’s Dad’s blood pressure?”
Addy took another drink of her water. “Surprisingly enough, it’s not up too much. He hasn’t slept good all week for worrying about that child.”
“And you, Mama?” Jesse turned back to her.
“I was thirty years old when we got you,” Pearl answered. "I haven’t slept good since that day. It’s a mother’s job to worry about her kids, and you boys all chose paths to travel that have been scary to me. I’m glad you are home, and I wish Cody would come on back and start a practice around here. We have sick people here just like they do in the Sudan or in one of those other places where he goes. And Lucas, running all over God’s creation training horses, scares me, too. He’s promised us a visit when he gets done in Argentina after the first of the year. I’m looking seventy right in the eye now, and your dad had his seventieth birthday a couple of years ago. We need you kids to be close by.”
“I didn’t know how much I missed home until I came back for good. When I came in for a visit, there was always a deadline as to how long I could stay. Maybe my brothers will get to the point that they miss it, too,” he said.
“We can hope so,” Pearl said. “She looks pretty hot. You might take her that bottle of water. It’s a shame we have to treat her like this. She’s always been so grounded that we could depend on her for anything.”
“Sometimes the hardest lessons reap the greatest rewards,” Jesse said, “and yes, Mama, I’m speaking from experience.”
“Gentle but firm,” Pearl said as she started into the house. “That’s what she needs most.”
“And a little teamwork to teach her to depend on others and be dependable. Thanks for the tea and the visit,” Jesse said.
Pearl and Addy both went back into the house. Jesse stood up, crammed his old straw hat down on his head, and headed out across the yard with the bottle of water in his hand.
“I’ll take over for a few laps while you hydrate.” He tossed the bottle of water her way. She caught it midair and sat down with her back against a shade tree. “Thanks.”
Jesse mowed three laps, leaving the very last one for her, and then motioned for her to take over. “Get that done, and we’ll get to work.”
“What I’ve been doing isn’t work?” She finished off the water and carried the empty bottle to the trash can on the back porch.
“That was just the warm-up. Now we get to go shovel out stalls that haven’t been touched in years, put down fresh straw, and get the barn ready for the days we might need to keep the alpacas inside. I don’t know much about them, but I’m willing to learn, and I bet they like to be in out of the heat when July gets here.”
She nodded. “We probably should keep them in the barn a couple of days. Then after they get used to the move, we’ll let them roam free in this pasture and use the lean-to at the end of the barn for shelter from the heat. If bad weather comes, we’ll want to keep them in the stalls.”
Mia took a bandanna out of her hip pocket and wiped the sweat from her forehead before she started moving again. When she’d finished the last bit of the backyard, she got out the water hose and cleaned the mower.
Jesse was impressed with her attention to doing a job right. “I bet they’re missing the sheep?”
“Probably, but they’ll be used to not having them by now,” Mia said.
“Dad says they’re going to be his pets and breeding stock. We might make some money on them when folks realize they really are good for keeping the coyotes and bobcats away from the lambs.” Jesse started out for the barn.
She had to run to catch up, but then her stride matched his, step for step. “Do you think we can ever get into the sheep business again?”
“I doubt it,” Jesse said. “Sheep require a lot more care than cattle and don’t have nearly the return on the dollar. The only reason Sunflower Ranch ever had sheep to begin with was for you, and you sold out.”
“My second mistake,” she grumbled. “I was making good money selling lambs to the kids around here for show.”
A blast of hot air hit them both when he opened the barn door. “I can’t judge you, Mia, since I’ve made lots of mistakes. Maybe someday if you are still interested in sheep and willing to do the work yourself with them, you can start the business again.”
Jesse slid the door open as wide as he could and then crossed the barn to the other side to do the same with the one that led out to the corral. “That might give us a breeze of some kind. You can get a shovel and the wheelbarrow and start on the stalls.”
“Are you going to sit on a hay bale and supervise?” she taunted.
“Nope, I’m going out in the corral to string some wire around the fence rails so the babies won’t be able to slip out.” He took a pair of gloves from a shelf beside the back door and shoved his hands down in them.
She pulled a pair of work gloves from her hip pocket and put them on. The shovel made a clanking sound when she tossed it into the wheelbarrow, and with a huff, Mia stormed off down the aisle to the left, where six stalls awaited.
Tomorrow, they would work together bringing the alpacas over, but today she still needed space.
* * *
“Move, dammit!” Addy fussed at the clock that afternoon. She was busy putting data about the cows into the computer, and the hands on the clock seemed to be stuck, moving as slow as a sleepy sloth.
At four, she finally called Jesse and was about to give up when he answered on the fifth ring. “Is everything all right out there?”
“Yep, I’m getting the corral ready for alpacas, and Mia is working on the last stall. We’ll have some panels to get set in place before we come in for supper, but I expect we’ll be there by six,” he answered. “Are Dad and Mama all right?”