“Tamsyn Wendover.”
“You can call me Melly, this is Jeff Pearson, that’s Cody over there by the APC and you’ve met Buddy the dog. His boy is my brother Mike. We have a few others with us but you’ll have to meet them later.”
Jeff nodded and the other soldier gave Tamsyn a wave and a grin.
“Escaping the town back there?” Jeff asked.
“Yes.” Despite how pleasant they seemed, Tamsyn was wary. “I’d like to be on my way.”
Jeff did a sweep of the surroundings. “Nothing much out here in walking distance.”
“There’s a ranch off a side road a few miles ahead,” the soldier behind him said.
“The Double Comets.” Tamsyn decided to trust them since they obviously already knew about her ranch. “It’s my place.”
Jeff turned slightly to stare at the huge column of smoke which hung over Rosewater. “Long way to hike.”
“I wasn’t in town by choice,” she said. “It’s a long story. I need to get home to take care of my livestock. Where are you headed? As you said, not much out here.”
“Actually we were going to your ranch,” Jeff told her. “Appeared deserted when Cody flew the drones over it. We need a place to rest and check out the engine on the second APC over there.”
“Yeah I heard it running kind of rough,” Tamsyn said. “What unit are you attached to? We had a squad of Colonial Guard in town for a while when the flu was getting bad but then they left.”
“We’re not from here,” Jeff said. “We’re our own unit you might say. We’ve requisitioned equipment here and there on the way.”
“Ex Sectors military,” the other man supplied. “We came to Randal Four to claim veterans’ acres and ranch.”
Tamsyn couldn’t keep herself from guffawing. The release of mirth felt good. “You people are the farthest thing from ranchers I’ve ever seen. Seriously?”
“I was coming home after completing my medical school and residency out in the mid Sectors,” the woman said. “Listen, now we know the ranch belongs to you, how about we give you a lift in return for letting us stay a day or two? The guys can work on the APC, we can help you with your chores and my brother and Buddy can stretch their legs. APC’s weren’t designed with active kids and dogs in mind.” She touched a hand to her lower back. “Or me for that matter. We have our own food if you’re concerned we’d diminish your supplies.”
Hands on her hips, Tamsyn said, “All right, it’s a fair exchange I guess, a few days’ lodging for saving my aching feet from more walking. Come be my guests.” She had a good feeling about the group, despite their heavy weaponry and it suddenly hit her how lonely the ranch would be with no one there but her.
* * *
Later that evening, Tamsyn stood with one foot on the lower rail of the horse corral, watching Blaze and the other three horses graze. For the most part her animals had been fine, if miffed not to have been fed and watered on schedule. True to their word the guests had pitched in to help and one of them, Zach, had been raised on an agri colony and knew his way around farms.
She and Cody had fixed dinner for the group. She’d been alone in the kitchen mulling over what to feed her guests, given the supplies in her stasis keepers and cabinets when the soldier had walked in and offered to help.
“You cook?” she asked in surprise.
“No reason why I wouldn’t,” he said. “I usually do the cooking for our team, when we’re not eating survival rations.” His smile did something unexpected to her, giving her a little buzz along her nerves and a clenching at her core. “So, what’s do we have to work with?” When he came to stand beside her and assess the ingredients she’d laid out on the counter, Tamsyn caught a whiff of leather and citrus and maybe even a hint of pine, mixed with the underlying male musk. She found the scent heady and further unsettling to her inner core, which had been on a long dry spell.
They agreed on a pasta dish, with garlic bread she had already made and in stasis so it would be easy enough to reheat.
Tamsyn set to work and Cody pitched in, filling the big pot with water and setting it to boil. “You do all the cooking here before?” he asked as he got out the ingredients for a tossed salad and began cleaning the various vegetables in the sink.
Despite herself, her eyes watered a little and she glanced at the assignment board, which she’d neglected to remove. It still showed the names of her late friends and the dishes they’d planned to cook. It was hard for her to accept so much loss had occurred in such a short time. She stepped to the board and traced her finger over the names, each written in a distinctive hand. “Drake, a really good guy, bitten by the damn feral cat. Clemt, bitten by a woman he was dating. Rasty, scratched while we were taking Clemt to the hospital. And then Rasty turned and killed Piers. And I-I shot Rasty.” She broke down into tears, remembering the dreadful moment vividly.
Cody dried his hands hastily and came to her, putting his arms around her and drawing her close. “That’s a lot of loss and tragedy to go through, especially for a civilian, even if you are a tough lady rancher.” He rubbed her back in a slow, comforting circle.
She sniffed and gave him a watery smile but lingered in his embrace for a moment. “I already cried and mourned days ago. I’m trying to move on but--”
“But it’s hard, I know.” He gave her another hug.
The pot boiled over and with a curse Cody rushed to turn down the heat and add the pasta.
Tamsyn felt a little bereft but scolded herself as she returned to her bread dough. The man was a complete stranger she just met a few hours ago. It was comforting he’d been so sympathetic but what was she doing, crying all over him? Get a grip, girl, she admonished herself sternly.
