“Thought I might find you here,” he said as he looked over the ranch that had been in my family for three generations. Sixteen-thousand acres were bought by my great-grandfather when he moved to Grass Range from Bozeman, after he had walked away from a successful career as a lawyer.
“Problem?” I asked, turning my head to focus on my ranch foreman, who was also my best friend.
“Last night’s storm downed a tree in the northwest corner, and it fell on the fence. I’ve already got Howdy and Jimmy heading over to repair it. I just wanted to keep you updated.”
Howdy and Jimmy were two of the four hands who worked full time on the ranch. They were all school buddies of mine. We’d grown up together on this ranch and always had each other’s backs.
I nodded. “Thanks.”
We also knew when something was weighing heavy on our mind.
Billy let out a soft sigh. “You still think about her?”
Closing my eyes, I nodded. “Yeah, sometimes. Especially after a storm.”
Almost six years ago, the woman I thought I was going to marry and have kids with disappeared without a trace during a severe thunderstorm. Emily’s car was found down in a ditch near a swollen river, causing the police to at first suspect she might have drowned…until they found blood in her car.
Every so often Emily’s parents contacted me to say they got a call. A body had been found. And the nightmare would start all over again. So far, though, none of the bodies have turned out to be Emily’s. Her mother, June, still has hope that Emily is alive somewhere. June and her husband, Nick, eventually moved to Florida, saying they couldn’t stand to be around so many things that reminded them of their daughter.
I couldn’t blame them, honestly.
Bubba, another best friend of mine, and also a ranch hand, was Emily’s older brother. I knew it hurt him when his parents moved away. The idea that he, himself, reminded them of their missing daughter weighed heavily on him even to this day.
“Liam, you know you can move on, right?” Billy asked quietly. “It’s been six years. Even Bubba thinks you need to move on.”
I nodded. “I know. It’s hard, though. I’m not sure if I’ll ever feel that way again.”
He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. “Have you heard from Chad at all?”
Laughing, I shook my head. “Nah. He keeps to himself over there in Lewistown.”
“You think he’s ever going to get over you getting the ranch?”
I took my cowboy hat off, ran a hand through my hair, and placed the hat back on my head. “Don’t think so. He never wanted the ranch, though, and made that clear to our father. Idon’t know why he was so pissed off when it was all left to me. He should have known it was coming. The fact that he blames me and thinks I talked our father into leaving it all to me still baffles my mind.”
Billy chuckled. “Chad always did think you got treated better than he did though.”
Turning to look at my best friend, I said, “I never saw it. My parents treated us both the same. The only difference was Chad wasn’t interested in the ranch and I was. That meant I spent more time with my father than he did.”
A loud crack of thunder rolled across the hills. My ranch was situated in the Big Snowy Mountains, and when the late spring storms rolled in, they came through with a bang. May had always been one of my favorite months, and with only a week left in the month, we were getting our fair share of fronts moving through.
“Let’s make sure we get the horses in the barns. Tell Howdy and Jimmy to repair that fence and meet us down to get the cattle moved in closer. Get the stable hands working on getting the horses stalled up.”
“Already heard the weather and have Bubba and Larson working on bringing the cattle in. Figured I can round up the horses.”
Turning my horse, I nodded at Billy. “Perfect. I’ll head down and help bring in the cattle. We’ll have some stragglers, but they’ll be fine.”
He tipped his hat and started to ride off. I took one last look toward the west. The clouds moving in over the mountains looked angry.
“This is going to be a doozy of a storm,” I said as I softly kicked Moonshine. He took off in the direction of the cattle, eager to work.
##
The loud claps of thunder echoed through the old ranch house as I sat at the table with Billy.
“Did you ever get the roof patched up?” I asked as I took another bite of the beef stew Billy’s wife, MaryAnne, had made.
“I did. Instead of using that roofer you wanted me to call, I fixed it myself. He wanted a small fortune to make the repairs, and I know how to roof.”
