Page 53 of A Rancher's Heart
Chapter Twelve
A week into November the snow lay like a beautiful fresh page over the land, and while it might be out of the norm, Tamara bundled herself up and took her coffee to the porch every morning.
They’d settled into a routine. Every day was a little different, and Tamara found she enjoyed the ebb and flow of daily life at Silver Stone. She rose, got her chores going, dealt with any number of things throughout the day. Spent time with the girls, then every evening she relaxed in the living room, fire burning in the hearth.
Caleb was there most nights. Dustin dropped in on a far more regular basis than she expected from a youth in the final year of his teens. Luke and Walker as well more often than not stopped for in a few moments, as if touching base with their older brother was an important part of finishing their day. Luke would laugh and joke with her. Walker—he tended to eye her as if she were a fish that had been left in the sun a little too long.
She’d thought she’d worked hard at the hospital, but the hours at the ranch seemed to last forever. She wasn’t the only one putting in long hours, though. Caleb was out of the house by four a.m. most days.
She wasn’t even sure why she knew that until she realized after leaving the house through the kitchen door, he’d walk the perimeter of the house on the covered porch. As if checking his territory before heading to the barns.
The solid impact of his boot heels on the wooden platform echoed in a steady rhythm until the moment he’d take the stairs, click, click, click, then nothing.
The first day she’d woke it probably had been the silence that stole her attention. She’d been trained to stay alert for nighttime sounds, and she’d already learned that in nannying, the quiet moments were more dangerous than the noisy ones.
When it sounded as if World War III was taking place in Sasha’s bedroom, Tamara could continue with her tasks. When the house went deadly silent, that’s when she had to worry.
She smiled as she sipped her coffee, bundled up with a throw blanket over her legs as she stared at the water. Thin traces of ice had formed at the edges of the lake, but the river flowing from the far end kept most of the surface from freezing.
It was late enough in the year that, at this time of the morning, a hint of sunlight was barely visible at the edge of the eastern horizon. Crisp, cold. Breathtakingly beautiful.
Staring over the lake had become a vital morning ritual.
Other changes continued, but her connections to family back in Rocky stayed strong. Lisa called on a regular basis, and Karen as well, checking to see how she was. She loved that they were interested, and that they cared.
She wondered at times if she was imagining the touch of jealousy in Lisa’s voice as her sister asked about all the new places and people she was meeting.
“You’re welcome to come visit anytime,” Tamara assured her.
“I know. I don’t want to encroach on your new adventure.”
A snort escaped her. “Please. It’s just a job.”
Her little sister said nothing, but a round of coughs resonated from the phone, sounding an awful lot like the wordbullshitover and over.
Tamara laughed at the memory.
A creaking noise echoed in the quiet stillness, followed by another sharp snap, this one directly overhead.
Strange. There shouldn’t be enough snow yet to affect the gables.
She put down her coffee cup and stepped to the edge of the porch, leaning against the railing to peer toward the sky—
“Oh myGod.”
The words burst out of her as a pair of boots swung off the roof and past her. Walker Coleman did a crazy acrobatic move, letting go of the eaves trough and twisting in mid-air to land with both feet on the porch.
He pulled himself to vertical and offered a calm, expressionless look, as if jumping off roofs at five-fifteen in the morning was perfectly normal behaviour. “Morning.”
She went for nonchalant as well. “Morning. Like a coffee?”
“Love one. Don’t get up, though, I can grab it. Want yours topped up?”
“Sure.”
He was back a moment later, steam curling skyward from the cup he handed back to her before settling in the second chair.
They stared over the land in shared silence for a bit. Peace returning.
