Page 109 of A Rancher's Heart
Chapter Twenty-Four
The cold snap was over. A Chinook had blown in and wrapped Heart Falls with the illusion of springtime. Melting puddles were everywhere, dry grass poking up through holes in the snow, and the musty scent of changing seasons shoving memories at Caleb like a toppling haystack.
His parents had passed away in February, nearly eleven years ago now, and yet as he walked to where they were buried, he felt a little as if it were yesterday.
Didn’t matter all that had happened in the ensuing years—his marriage, his children, his brothers and sisters growing from youth to adulthood—it was as if none of that existed and he was still that headstrong yet innocent man who’d been tossed into responsibility so far over his head there’d been moments he’d found it hard to breathe.
Caleb slid off Lacey’s back, stepping to the plain headstones on the hillside, He knelt to clear away the dried remains of the flowers one of his siblings had left the last time they’d been there.
His family teased that he was a man of few words, but in this place it seemed he could speak and speak and never come to the end of it. Hell, sometimes he’d come out to the graveside and shout, torn and ripped up inside when he felt he’d failed in everything that he had to do.
Maybe it was easier because they never spoke back, and yet he knew as surely as if they were alive, his parents were still guiding him.
“I love her,” he admitted. “I think you’d have liked her. Tamara’s smart, and she’s funny, and the way she sees what needs to be done with Sasha and Emma makes me love her even more.”
He laughed, staring over the fields and mountain ranges. Big Sky Lake sparkled in the center where the water was still free-flowing, the wind stirring up the surface and sending darts of light toward him as if there were fireworks shooting into the sky.
“Pretty stupid, though, that I’m up here telling you instead of marching back into the house and telling her. Maybe I just needed a little practice,” he explained. “I remember you used to tell each otherI love youall the time. Luke, Walker and me, we used to make all those rude noises when we caught you, but secretly, we thought it was pretty damn cool. I liked seeing it too. You didn’t just say the words, you showed it—”
And as if his parents had given him a pointed look, Caleb felt chastised as hard as if they’d spoken.
“Ah hell. You’re right. I hate to tell you both, but your oldest son is a bit of an idiot at times.” He got to his feet, slapping his gloves against his leg. “But he’s still learning. Hopefully that will be enough.”
It was time to stop procrastinating. He might be a fool, but he’d been watching closely over the last while, and his girls had to be at least halfway in love with Tamara by now. They’d have time to finish falling in love—
At the end of the road leading around the back of Little Sky Lake, a truck was parked, and a man was walking the hills. It wasn’t an area any of the Silver Stone crew needed to be, and Caleb was distracted enough to need to go and find out more.
It took a while to get down from the hillside. He returned Lacey to the barn then drove the back roads until he finally ended up pulling his truck in beside the stranger.
The man was coming down to meet him, heavy canvas bag looped over his shoulder, a set of binoculars in his hand.
“Can I help you with something?” Caleb asked.
The man held forward a hand. “Finn Marlette. You one of the hands here at Silver Stone?”
“Owner. Caleb Stone.”
The other man lit up. “Nice to meet you. I didn’t expect to see you until later.”
Caleb thought for a moment. Unless Ashton had forgotten to tell him something, there was some kind of mix-up. “Sorry, why are you here?”
“I’m doing some preliminary map work. We wouldn’t be able to get in and do any testing until the spring, but I was in the area, and I thought I may as well take a look.”
Nope. Caleb still didn’t have a clue. “What kind of testing?”
Finn’s tanned face crinkled in amusement. “Funny how often this happens. The owner’s always the last to know. Viability for oil production. It’s likely you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I know your closest neighbours don’t have wells, but you’ve got an intriguing—”
“You want to put an oil well on our land?”
Finn shook his head. “Youwant to lease out your rights so my company can put an oil well on your land, if there’s anything to produce. I’m the man who figures out if the investment is viable.”
While the idea of striking oil somewhere on the Silver Stone land had potential merit—he wasn’t ignorant, he knew what kind of money that might involve—but Caleb needed the conversation to rewind a whole hell of a lot. “I didn’t hire you.”
“No one hired me, at least not yet. I promised I’d do the preliminary checks as a favour to an old friend.”
The only person that Caleb knew even remotely tangled up with oil was Penny Talisman’s dad, but the idea of her coming up with something like this seemed way out of character. “Give me a name.”
“Karen Coleman.”
