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Angelica settled cross-legged on the bench next to Rowdy and set her plate in her lap.
“It isn’t just the soda.” He gestured with his fork to incorporate all the food on his plate. “This is my favorite meal—barbecued pork ribs, fried okra and mashed potatoes in a thick brown gravy.”
“The meal was my suggestion, but I can’t take credit for the cooking. I can’t cook a thing. On my own, I subsist on deli chicken and pizza made from spaghetti sauce and cheese toasted on a slice of bread.”
It only now struck her, as she was going on and on about her usual diet—which Rowdy could probably not care less about—that she had unconsciously asked for Rowdy’s favorite meal when Jo had asked her what to pack for the picnic today.
Her breath hitched. All these years, and Rowdy’s favorites had still come to mind.
“This delicious meal is all straight from Cup O’ Jo’s. Chance cooked the food and Jo packed and decorated the picnic basket.”
“A baby theme? Clever.”
“It’s cute,” she agreed. “Will you please say grace for us before we start the meal?”
His fork clattered to his plate as he gaped at her in astonishment.
Angelica wasn’t surprised by his response. She had grown up a PK—a preacher’s kid. Back when she and Rowdy were dating, she was as rebellious as the day was long and wanted nothing to do with church.
Or God.
That had all changed the day she found out she was pregnant with Toby. Suddenly God was very real to her. How else could she explain the tiny human being fearfully and wonderfully formed within her womb?
When she’d told Josh, the father of her child, about their baby, he had scoffed at her, called her horrible names and insisted the child wasn’t his. When he walked out the door, he had walked out of her life. And good riddance to him.
Josh had known he was the only man in her life, the only man she had been with ever, because she had only given in to him after months of pressure. But he hadn’t wanted to accept the responsibility of fatherhood or the effects it would have on his freewheeling lifestyle. He didn’t want to be tied down with a family.
So he’d simply denied the truth and disappeared.
In a way, Angelica felt she deserved that rejection and in the long run God had been looking out for her. It was better for her and her baby not to have been permanently locked into what had never been a healthy relationship to begin with.
God alone had been her constant companion after Josh had left her. She had a few work acquaintances from the high-end hotel in which she was a white-gloved banquet server, but by throwing herself into Denver’s nightlife she’d never made any real connections, and she’d let those few friendships lapse when she’d started dating Josh.
Angelica pulled her thoughts from the past and focused her attention on Rowdy.
“I know what you’re probably thinking. Have I really changed, or am I just trying to unsettle you by asking you to say grace?”
His gaze widened and then his brow furrowed, a frown gathering on his lips. He put his plate aside.
“You said it, not me.”
Toby stirred and Ange set her uneaten food aside to scoop him into her arms. She shuffled through the diaper bag until she found a bottle of formula, giving it a good shake to make sure it was well mixed.
“Discovering I was pregnant with Toby changed my world,” she said, glancing up at Rowdy. “And I mean all of it. I realize I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my past. I’ve hurt people—”
Her gaze dropped to Rowdy’s hands. He was clenching the edge of the bench until his knuckles turned white.
She felt bad for him, but unlike with Josh, she had no fear of him losing his temper. Unless time had completely changed him, he wasn’t a man who would fly off the handle. He was self-controlled and even tempered, even with the woman who had broken his heart.
“Hurt you,” she finished, swallowing hard.
His muscles tightened until his shoulders visibly rippled with tension, and her own stress increased.
“Is this some kind of twelve-step program or something? You’re here because you have to make amends?”
“What? No. I’m here to pay respects to Granny, since I was having Toby on the day she passed away. That, and to settle the estate. I already know there is nothing I can do or say that would change how you think about me and what I did to you.”
Angelica knew her words alone would mean nothing to the man sitting next to her on the bench, the man she’d once loved with all her heart and who had once loved her. He had been prepared to commit his life to her.
He would never know how much she’d sacrificed, and all because she’d loved him.
Toby batted the bottle in her hand, reminding her that she had a hungry boy to feed.
“I’m sorry. There you go, sweetheart,” she murmured, pressing the bottle to Toby’s lips.
“He’s a noisy eater,” Rowdy observed, apparently deciding to keep their conversation at a casual level for the time being.
“He sometimes has trouble latching on and getting his lips where they need to be to get good suction.”
“Because he has Down syndrome?”
Ange nodded, but she wasn’t dismayed by the fact. Toby was just Toby, her son. “Every day is a new adventure with this little guy.”
“And your parents? How do they like their new grandson? They must be proud.”
“They don’t know about him yet,” she admitted, her heart clenching and heat rising to her face. “You probably know that they left the parish here in Serendipity for a small town in Wyoming shortly after I left town.
“My dad pretty much disowned me when I acted so awfully to you in such a public way, because in his mind my actions rubbed off on him. And I guess in a way he is right about that. I was the reason he took a new pastorate far away from Serendipity. I’ve tried reaching out to Mom, but she doesn’t dare cross him, not even for my sake.”
“So, you don’t see them then?”
“No. Not at all.”
He shook his head. “That’s a shame.”
“It is.” She shook her head. “It’s frustrating, but I take full responsibility for my own actions. I don’t like to see my family torn apart, but I can’t blame them for distancing themselves from me.”
She scoffed. “I thought I was so worldly, leaving Serendipity behind and going off on my own, but in truth, I was way out of my element from the day I got to Denver. A preacher’s kid from a small town? I had no idea what I was getting into and was practically swallowed alive. At first, I didn’t want to stay at all.
“But of course, there were even more reasons I couldn’t come home—er, back to Serendipity—when things in Denver didn’t turn out like I’d planned. Not after...well...”
His eyes snapped to hers. She held his gaze but then had to look away for a moment as guilt flooded through her.
With a deep breath, she returned her gaze to his.
“Obviously, I had no intention of seeing you today. But here we are.”
“Here we are,” he repeated. He narrowed his eyes on her. “So now what?”
* * *
Rowdy’s emotions were run ragged and frankly, he had had enough. It was all he could do not to bolt from the scene like a skittish lamb.
He lifted his bruised and battered heart to the Lord.
God, help me.
A short, concise prayer that said it all.
Ange had returned to Serendipity, no longer the pretty girl with a chip on her shoulder who he’d once known and loved, but a striking, mature woman—and a mother with a newborn baby who had seen her share of rough times.
She hadn’t said anything about Toby’s father, but Rowdy knew better than to make any assumptions.
Right now, he just hurt, a relentless ache that started in his heart and radiated through his limbs.
“The envelope,” Ange said, digging into her back pocket. “Maybe that will give us a clue.”
He raised his brows. “A clue to what?”
“What we’re supposed to be talking about. Jo slipped me an envelope when she handed me the—er—lariat. It’s from Granny and addressed to both of us. The first one only had my name on it.”
“There are more than one?”
Ange sniffed softly. “Believe me, I wouldn’t be wandering around in public if I’d had any choice in the matter.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Yeah, me neither, exactly. I only came to town to pay my respects and get the sale started on Granny’s ranch.”
“So, you are selling, then?”
Her gaze widened. “Of course. What on earth would I do with a sheep farm?”
“I’m an interested buyer, you know.”
She nodded. “I figured. But I also assumed I could take care of the estate and the paperwork without actually having to see you—” Her words skidded. “I mean, any potential buyers. Instead, I’m out and about at a packed town function. Which is exactly where I don’t want to be. Especially not making the kind of scene I ended up making. I absolutely didn’t have any intention of seeing you again.”
“So why are you here, then?”
“The letter in the first envelope had very specific instructions. It was addressed to me from Granny. Jo said that Granny would understand if I wanted to sell the ranch, but that she requested I follow the instructions in the envelope. Kind of like a last wish, I guess.”
“And that said...?”
“Picnic With Jo.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Wow. That’s about as vague as it gets. But Jo knew a lot more about what Granny was asking than you did. And she didn’t even hint about what you were walking into?”
“Not one word. She must have been busting up inside not being able to tell me anything.”
“So you didn’t know anything about the auction being today? Or, most especially, about buying me at auction before the event even got off the ground?”
“No, but Jo certainly did. And so, I think, did Granny. Before she passed on, she requested that I visit her on this particular weekend. I’m wondering if she wanted me to attend this auction all along, even if she’d still been here to come with me.”
“You think we’ve been set up?”
Ange frowned and nodded, looking none too pleased by the thought.
“But why?”
She shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe Granny wanted to make sure the sale of the ranch went smoothly.”
“That doesn’t feel like enough of an explanation. We didn’t have to meet at the auction to work out the details of our real estate transaction. And why go to all the trouble of the cryptic letter? Why not just spell it all out?” he asked.
Ange held up the second envelope, which Rowdy could now clearly see had both of their names scrawled on it.
“I have no idea. Here’s hoping this one will tell us exactly where we’re supposed to go from here.”
Toby worked the bottle from his mouth with a gurgle and Angelica shifted him to her shoulder.
She pushed the envelope in Rowdy’s direction. “I guess we won’t know until we open it. Why don’t you do the honors, since I’ve got my hands full?”
Rowdy plucked the envelope from her grasp and gingerly opened it, unfolding the single tri-folded sheet of typing paper. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to be any part of this, but Granny Frances, as she’d insisted he call her back when he was a teenage boy dating her granddaughter, had been a huge influence in his life. He couldn’t let her down now.
She was a stubborn woman who’d continued to manage her ranch for as long as possible, saying it gave her great joy to be with her animals and her pain wasn’t going to keep her down.
But eventually, it had become too hard even for one as strong and stoic as Granny Frances.
In her final weeks, when she’d gotten too sick to care for herself, much less her flock, on her own, a palliative care nurse had come to look out for Granny Frances and Rowdy had stepped in and done the ranch work for her.
In reality, at this point he was already running Granny Frances’s ranch as if it was his own. As long as another buyer with deep pockets didn’t sweep in, which wasn’t likely in a town as small as Serendipity, it was just a matter of signing the papers to make the land his legally as well as practically.
His gaze quickly took in the words on Granny’s missive and he shook his head.
If they were expecting answers, this letter didn’t contain them.
These words were, in fact, the exact opposite.
“Feed My Sheep.”
Three words in Granny Frances’s handwriting.
Three lousy words.
“Great,” Ange groaned. “Another cryptic note. What do you suppose this one means?”
