“A handshake and cash, huh?” she said to Betty. “What about the paperwork?”
Betty shrugged. “Handshake’s all Jake needs. He’s built his business on it.”
Amanda finally turned to her, amazed. “But this isn’t Dodge City, Betty. What about all those lawyers waiting in the wings?”
Betty didn’t seem terribly anxious about it. “Oh, I finally made up a bill of sale with all that stuff on it. I’ll get both of ‘em to sign it when Tommy comes back in May. But the deal was done two years ago when Jake promised Tommy that horse when he started training Impressive Gray. Besides, nobody’d ever think to doubt Jake’s word.”
Amanda caught herself smiling. “Uncle Mick,” she murmured. “He was a farmer, the only man in the family not down in the mines. He never understood anything but cash and a bible promise.”
The two women headed back toward the house together.
“He’s the Uncle Mick you dedicated that book to? The one who was the storyteller back home?”
Amanda looked over, surprised.
Betty’s expression never changed. “Well, it seemed so important to Lee and all, I thought I might just read a little of it, especially since Jake was never gonna get the time to do it. I liked the Jack stories the best, the ones like Jack and the beanstalk, and all. Those from your Uncle Mick?”
Amanda spoke thoughtfully. “He was one of the few people who still told ‘em.”
“You miss him.”
Amanda saw Jake walk back out of the barn, a saddle thrown over his shoulder, another horse waiting by the hitching post. She thought of honesty and trust and the kind of simple values that she’d been looking for ever since her Uncle Mick’s funeral.
“I escaped the Appalachians to discover the rest of the world and ended up making a career of going home. I guess it’s the best way I can keep Uncle Mick’s memory alive. There aren’t many like him anymore.”
Betty came to a halt by the front door, her own attention on Jake, too. “Don’t let that boy put you off. I’d like to see a book about this place, too.”
“What does he have against me, Betty?” Amanda asked, seeing another flash of white as Jake grinned down at José before turning the new horse out into the corral to work. One smile, that was all she wanted.
It wasn’t. She admitted it. But it would do for starters.
But Betty couldn’t do much more than shake her head. “I’ve never seen Jake Kendall deliberately hurtful to anyone in my life. Never seen him this out of sorts, not since the day I first met him and he was handling this entire ranch almost completely on his own at the age of thirteen.”
Amanda turned her head. “Thirteen? But his mother didn’t die until he was seventeen.”
“His daddy died when he was twelve. Just keeled over one day, when it was always his mama who was so frail and all. It was Jake who single-handedly turned this ranch around from a near-bankrupt, scrub-and-clapboard cattle ranch into one of the most successful horse ranches in the state. And he did it all by his twentieth birthday, with those little ones to raise.” Betty turned on Amanda, fierce pride in her eyes, daring Amanda to argue. It was the most emotion Amanda had ever seen on the woman. “He’s a good man,” she repeated definitely.
“I know,” Amanda agreed. “But for some reason, he doesn’t like me. And I just can’t figure out why, Betty.”
But she would. And when she did, she’d figure out what to do about it, because the more time Amanda spent at the Diamond K, the less she wanted to leave. And it wasn’t only the mountains and fresh air that were attracting her.
