Sassy Cowgirl Kisses by Kathy Fawcett
Chapter 46
The morning of the West Ranch cookout started out with a sprinkle of rain, but winds from the West blew out the clouds, leaving blue skies and sunshine. In the early morning light, teams of vendors descended on West land. They knew it would take all-hands on deck to be ready for the afternoon event—the biggest social event of year.
Under the tent, erected the day before, tables and chairs lined up in proximity to the half-dozen food trucks the Wests hired for the party. Guest could have their choice of BBQ, burgers, tacos, or wood-fired pizzas made to order—or all of the above.
“And y’all save room,” someone would inevitably shout, for cupcakes and ice cream sundaes.
Using the West’s soaring lodge pole pine pavilion as the hub of the wheel, a coordinator with a clipboard and headset directed the assembly of a dance floor adjacent to a portable band shell. Hay bales were dropped in a circle around an iron bonfire pit. And a shaded area under a large tree provided the older guests a spot to sit and gossip, away from the music.
The younger guests weren’t forgotten. There were water games, hay rides and bounce houses, and a few dozen floating toys in the stream, tethered to the shore. A miniature “road” was constructed, complete with traffic signs and accompanied by child-sized ATVs, scooters and bikes.
At Kat’s insistence, the event planner hired a dozen young lifeguards and camp counselors from town to oversee the safety of the children, and a registered nurse to man a first aid station. This was after her own first attendance had been punctuated by bandaging scraped knees, fetching water bottles to cure dehydration, and dispensing antacids.
Where’s that doctor—where’s Kat?
She was beckoned all day long, in between bites of her BBQ sandwich and talking with people from other ranches. One guest even asked her to take a look at a skin tag that had been bothering her for months.
“Now I see why you wanted a doctor in the family,” she deadpanned to Gunnar as she fell into bed at the end of that exhausting day.
Gunnar had called Ash as he was leaving town a few days before, and apologized for not being home when Erik Olsen arrived for a visit. “I can’t say much right now,” he told the boy. “Getting Kat out of town for a few days is important. I’ll explain when I can.”
“Will you be back for the cookout?” Ash asked.
“I’m not sure,” Gunnar said, “that’s up to my wife.”
Their trip was a mystery to Ash, and unsettling—selfishly, he could use his brother’s advice. But judging from the tone in Gunnar’s voice, he had his own problems to sort out. Since arriving back home, Ash had been getting a taste of the power and complexities a beautiful woman could bring into a man’s life.
Just a boy at the time, he’d had a front row seat to Kat and Gunnar’s love story when they were all quarantined at the hospital years before. Now, Gunnar’s devotion to his wife was undeniable. But wasn’t he just as devoted to West Ranch? Would he move away if Kat asked him to?
Pike left the ranch to pursue his art, but remained in West Gorge. Colton left the ranch operation to build a construction company in town. Even Ridge walked away from the day-to-day chores—first in his depression, and then in his happiness and desire to be with Casey.
They were different; their identities were firmly rooted in the land and the people around them, and though nobody made him feel that way, Ash was a latecomer.
“You have a seat at the table,” Ridge told him when the adoption was finalized, “same as the rest of us. A full portion of the good, the bad, and the ugly that is West Ranch.”
Ridge had been modest; there was no bad or ugly that Ash could detect.
An attorney went over the trusts and inheritance set up in his name, and indeed, his portion was staggeringly full—mind-blowing, in fact. More money than he knew a fellow could have at his fingertips. He thought the money his granny left him upon her death was a windfall, but it couldn’t hold a candle to the West money.
“What do I have to do in return?” Ash had asked the attorney, wondering what the catch was; what strings might be attached. But the lawyer had smiled kindly.
“Just be Ash West,” he said.
Ridge and his new brothers gave him the absolution and fresh start he craved. A chance to lay down his anger and his thieving ways. Acting out, the therapist called his behavior; stealing, Officer Jason Scott had called it. They were both right. But as a West, Ash could move forward in life with a safety net of love, forgiveness, and the means to build a bright future.
Ash knew he couldn’t earn what he’d been handed, but that didn’t make him long any less to earn it. He wanted more than anything to be a match for it, at any rate, by pouring himself into the ranch business with a heart of gratitude. And to do that, he needed to be front and center in West Gorge, Wyoming.
In the morning light, the sweetness of his homecoming was nothing but a bitter taste in his mouth. The woman he was falling in love with told him to move along if he wanted a commitment from her. Ash should have backed off. He should have let his frustration with Sassy breathe before taking his next steps.
But he didn’t. He sent a text instead that he deeply regretted, asking Amber to be his date for the big ranch cookout.
“Why, I’d love to,” she’d answered quickly, sealing the deal.
Now he was dreading the event that he’d been talking up to his friend Erik. His heart felt painfully squeezed by some unknown force, and he just wanted to talk with Sassy and work things out. At the same time, he felt guilty for giving Amber the wrong idea about his intentions, which were nothing but friendly.
Why did he have to agonize about Sassy’s long-term plans? Why had he told Amber the cookout was a date?
“Just be Ash West” hadn’t served him well in the past few days, trying to navigate his love life with zero experience.
“Just be Ash West” was a clumsy idiot.