A Father's Stake by Mary Anne Wilson Read Free Book Online Page B

that led to the kitchen. The square room was small but held an old refrigerator and stove. Counters ran along the side wall with a large sink under one of the two windows. A table with four chairs sat beneath a third window on the back wall beside a door to the outside.
    She opened the first cupboard and found plates and cups and some well used pots and pans. When she tugged on the back door, her breath caught at the view, a wide swath of bare land between two stands of towering pines. Far in the distance majestic mountains rose, their sheer sides streaked with angular shadows. There were no sounds of traffic, no smell of fumes, and although dusk was close, the sky was overwhelmingly beautiful, without a single cloud in sight. The air had cooled, and she could make out the low hum of insects and the rustle of distant leaves.
    This was incredible, like a dream that had somehow become real. The land, the house, the sky, the air—she felt that peace again, just as she had before Jack showed up, along with a sense of belonging. As she stood there staring at the beauty of the land, a huge weight slipped off her shoulders. She felt as if she could breathe easily for the first time in a very long while. She was sorry for the way her father had obtained this ranch, but she was going to make it something special.
    She went back through the house to the front porch and sank down on the stone step. Taking out her cell phone, she tapped out her mother’s number, got her voice mail, and almost blurted, “Get out here as soon as you can. We’ve got a home and I need you and Lilly here with me!” But she stopped herself.
    No, she’d wait until she could talk to her mother directly. And until then, she’d absorb as much as she could of this place. She looked up and was surprised to see someone by the stables. The man turned, and with a wave, came up the drive toward her. Raw-boned, gray-haired, with narrowed eyes in a deeply tanned face, he stopped a couple of feet away from her. Pale amber eyes remained narrowed on her, but he held out his hand.
    “I’m assuming you’d be Grace Evans. The name’s Parrish. I was hired on as cleaner and caretaker, at least for now, and I apologize for not being here when you arrived.”
    When she shook his hand, she could feel the calluses and the sureness in his grip. “That’s okay,” she said as she drew back.
    She spotted an old pickup truck parked right where Jack’s Jeep had been sitting before. It was oxidized, maybe a green or blue, she couldn’t tell, but it almost blended in with the barn. “You got any luggage you need inside?” he asked.
    “There’s one more bag in the trunk,” she said, and before she finished speaking, he was heading for the car. He popped the trunk and took out her last suitcase while she hurried to collect her purse from the car seat. “So, where are you from?” she asked as they got to the door.
    With the toe of his lug-soled work boots, Parrish pushed the door open and went in before her, setting her luggage inside to the left of the door. “All over, but right now I’m bunking down in the stables,” he said, turning toward her. “If you need anything, come on down and get me.”
    “I thought you might be from the town or close by.”
    “No, Ma’am, just lucky enough to get paying work for a while.”
    “Mr. Vaughn hired you?”
    He looked confused. “No, Ma’am, a property management company over in Santa Fe. I came out yesterday early to check things out and put new locks on the doors, although, from what I’ve heard, around here locks are pretty much optional.”
    She liked hearing that. “It’s safe?”
    “Like I said, from what I heard.” He turned to leave, then stopped and looked back at her. “I’m heading back to town to get the rest of my supplies. Anything you need me to get for you?”
    She had the sandwich from Willie G.s’ till in the car, and she couldn’t even begin to think what she might need beyond that. She’d