Sunrise Ranch - Carolyn Brown Page 0,1
months of her life and was willing to give up six more to have the money to reclaim her wings. She’d never planned to stay in this god-forsaken place to begin with, and now that her sisters were gone, she and Rusty were about to lock horns when it came to the ranch.
Abby Joy sank down into a chair and tucked a strand of blond hair back up into her ponytail. Even pregnant, she still had that military posture—back straight as a board, shoulders squared off.
Shiloh, the only dark-haired sister in the trio, headed off to the kitchen. “Got lemonade made?”
“There’s a pitcher in the refrigerator. There’s also cold beers and a bottle of wine. Take your choice,” Bonnie answered.
“Lemonade for me please,” Abby Joy yelled.
Shiloh brought out two tall glasses filled with ice and lemonade. She handed one to Abby Joy and then sat down in a lawn chair on the other side of Bonnie. “Everything sure looks different now than it did last winter when we got here, doesn’t it?”
“Are we talkin’ about Abby Joy’s big old pregnant belly?” Shiloh teased.
“I think she meant the ranch,” Abby Joy shot back. “I thought I’d dropped off the face of the earth into hell when I drove past Silverton that day. This was the most desolate place I’d ever seen, and I’d done tours in Afghanistan. If I hadn’t been so damned hungry, I wouldn’t have even come up here to the house after the funeral, but I heard someone mention food.”
Bonnie laughed out loud. “I was starving too, but I sure didn’t want y’all to know that.”
“Why not?” Shiloh asked.
“I thought you’d look down on me even worse if you thought I was so poor I couldn’t even buy food,” she answered, “but I was.”
Abby Joy took a sip of her drink and nodded. “I looked down the row at y’all at Ezra’s funeral and figured I’d outlast both of you, but I got to admit that I was just a little scared of you, Bonnie. You looked like you could kill us all with that stone-cold stare of yours.”
“I felt the same about y’all, and now you’ve both moved away.” Bonnie drank down part of her beer.
“Yep.” Abby Joy smiled. “I was the smart one. I left when I figured out right quick that love meant more than any money I would get from staying on the ranch.”
“That old bastard Ezra treated all of our mothers like breeding heifers, not wives,” Shiloh chimed in. “I’ve come a long way toward forgiving him, but he’ll never be a father to me.”
Abby Joy shook her head. “He’s more like a sperm donor, isn’t he?”
“That’s kind of the way I feel, so why would I want this ranch?” Bonnie asked. “If he’d done right by us, or any one of us, then the ranch would mean something, but he didn’t, so why shouldn’t I just sell the damned place and get on with my life. I’m not like you two. I didn’t get to settle down and grow up in one place. Mama moved whenever the mood struck her, so I’m used to traveling.”
“You’ve got six months to decide what you want,” Abby Joy said. “Give it some time. Don’t rush into anything, but if you ever do decide you don’t want your name attached to anything that Ezra had, you can come live with me.”
“Are either of you sorry that you left?” Bonnie asked.
“Not me!” Shiloh turned up her glass of lemonade and took several gulps. “I was having second thoughts about staying on the ranch those last few weeks, but Abby Joy can’t have you all the time if you leave. I get you at least half of the year.”
Bonnie smiled. “I’m not stayin’, and I’m probably not moving in with either of you, but I appreciate the offer. I’m going to sell the place and travel. I will come see you real often though. I don’t want us to ever be apart for very long at one time…” Bonnie downed the rest of her beer and stood up. “Getting you two for sisters was definitely the one good thing Ezra did for us.”
Bonnie pulled both her sisters in for a group hug, then stepped back and slapped at a mosquito on her arm. “These damn bugs are horrible this time of year.”
“Everything’s bigger in Texas,” Shiloh joked.
“It’s all that moisture we got in the spring.” Abby Joy pushed up out of her chair and led the way into