And Cowboy Makes Three

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This was the last thing she’d imagined would happen—her neighbors, especially anyone from the church, offering their support.

“I know what you’re thinking, dear.” Jo wrapped her in a motherly bear hug. “It’s going to be okay. Let it go, honey.”

Try as she might, Angelica could no longer hold in her grief. This act of charity from people who had every reason to turn their backs on her broke her emotional dam wide. Sorrow for all she had lost, and all the mistakes she had made, flooded out of her. Jo simply patted her back and made quiet, reassuring shushing noises.

At length, she had no tears left to cry. She pulled back and brushed the tears from her eyes with her palms.

“I’m sorry for blubbering all over you,” she said with a hiccup.

“That’s what I’m here for, dear. Anytime you need a hug, or just to talk, I’m your woman.”

“I know.”

“So, it looks like you’re moving in, then.” It wasn’t a question. In fact, Jo sounded as if it had been her idea in the first place.

“I am. I decided I needed to finish what I started here. I need some time to figure out what I’m going to do next.”

“What about your job in Denver? Are you taking a leave of absence?”

Angelica laughed, but it sounded more like a snort.

“My boss at the hotel was none too crazy to hear I needed to be in Serendipity to work out the wrinkles in Granny’s estate. I believe his exact words were, ‘Don’t expect a reference.’”

“Oh, no, dear. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s for the best. I had hoped for better, since I gave him the news face-to-face, but I suppose I can’t blame him. When I asked for extended leave without notice, I put him short one banquet server, and the hotel was hosting a dinner for an enormous Fortune 500 company conference that was arriving for the weekend.”

“He’ll live. Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.”

“Truthfully, I’m relieved to be rid of the high-stress job. Trying to keep the dishes flowing and the diners happy while management constantly looked over my shoulder isn’t my idea of a good time, but I managed to get by on the wages I earned, at least until Toby came into my life.”

“Babies are expensive,” Jo said. “Diapers, clothes, supplement formula. And that’s to say nothing of his crib and car seat.”

“So true.” Angelica had shifted most of her food budget to covering Toby’s needs, and there were many days when she only ate one meal. Not ideal for a nursing mother.

But Granny’s passing had changed everything, and Angelica knew Granny would be happy she had given her granddaughter a way out of the rat race, even if it wasn’t quite what Granny had in mind.

A sheep farmer she was not.

Still—that was that.

Her job in Denver, such that it was, no longer existed. She had severed her last ties to the big city and would be able to make decisions based on what was best for her and Toby, no matter where she decided to live and what she decided to do in the end.

Maybe, with the money Granny had left her along with the sale of the ranch, she could go to school and become—

Well, she didn’t know what she wanted to become, only that an overglorified waitress wasn’t it.

“I’d like to try to figure out my own head and heart in the slower pace of Serendipity while I stay here at Granny’s ranch.”