Best Friends by Samantha Glen Read Free Book Online

ladies. “Still think you should build below. The wind howls like a banshee up here, and the sun’ll give you no mercy come July.”
    Since Michael had spent time exploring the canyon the summer before and found the weather to be perfectly agreeable, he suspected that Kelvert Button had a propensity to exaggerate—especially to people he imagined might not know any better. “We’d rather stay up here.”
    Kelvert leaned on his shovel. He looked from his goat to Michael, as if confirming their similarities. “Well, mad dogs and Englishmen,” he said finally. “Think I’d better give Francis here a hand, then. Looks like he’s going to need it. Follow me.” Kelvert picked up his shovel and stomped away.
    For an old man, Kelvert was all wire and energy. With his nanny goat gamboling ahead, he marched the men like a drill sergeant until they reached a sloping plateau. Here he stopped, crossed his arms over his concave chest, and smiled with righteous satisfaction as they exclaimed over the spectacular view.
    Kelvert let them enjoy the sight for a few minutes before his next pronouncement. “Now about water,” he began. The men gathered closer, an expectant congregation waiting for the words of wisdom from their preacher man. “I know you’ll be thinking you see it all over the place trickling down these cliffs, and you can sink a well anywhere, but up on these mesas it be different. Before you drill you gotta find a good, deep seam—and that ain’t as easy as you might figure.”
    The water expert held forth to his captive audience. “You be needing a dowser, and when you’re ready I have just the man. Cox can find water in a horse’s ass. Let me tell you about the time. . . .” Kelvert rattled happily on about the exploits of Cox, the best dowser in the state. His nanny, meanwhile, no doubt hungry for her supper, butted her master a couple of times in the rear.
    After repeated hints, Kelvert fondly scratched the back of the goat’s neck. “My girl here says we gotta go,” he announced. Without another word, the little man swung around and tromped back the way they had come. The newcomers fell in line and dragged wearily behind.
    But Kelvert Button wasn’t finished with his day’s advice. He paused as they reached his truck. “You’d best tell me when you’re ready to build, too. I’ll steer you right on who to hire.”
    Paul Eckhoff spoke quickly. “We all really appreciate your suggestions, but we plan on doing most of the building ourselves.”
    Kelvert smothered a laugh. “Please yourself.” He opened the passenger door and his goat jumped inside. “Let’s go, girl,” he said, still laughing. “These folks got a lot to do.”
    â€œWas that the official welcoming committee?” Michael asked as the vehicle jolted out of sight.
    â€œKelvert’s good people,” Francis said. “Just curious. Kanab was known as the most isolated town in America before they pushed the highway through in nineteen sixty. I mean, how would you feel about a mess of people descending on your territory?”
    â€œI think we’re going to get along just fine,” Cyrus declared.
    â€œMaybe I should call Clint Eastwood and invite him to visit. Then we’d be in like Flynn!” Michael deadpanned.
    â€œOkay you guys, knock it off,” Francis said. “Let’s make something to eat and turn in early. Tomorrow’s another day.”
    They fell asleep to the music of coyotes howling in the night.

CHAPTER FIVE
Angel Canyon
    D aybreak greeted them with a thin frosting of snow. The men layered on sweaters and jackets against the cold, then took their steaming bowls of oatmeal outside. The winter foliage of a giant sage bush caught Steven’s attention. He rubbed a silvered leaf between thumb and forefinger, cupped the crumbled fragments in his hand, and