I did finish readin' Belle's column, and it was good. Especially for a beginner. I made it a point after that to make sure I read the paper every week.
As semester break loomed before us I went to visit Benny one day to see how he was doin.' I was surprised to find him with a whole herd of cattle, and I asked him where he'd gotten them. "I bought 'em," is exactly what he told me. From the tone in his voice, I didn't ask any questions. Not where did he get them, what did they cost, or where'd he got the money. The answers to all those questions were strictly his business. Otherwise, he seemed to be well. Both the chickens and the pigs had multiplied, and one of the horses was with foal. Other than the one answer he was friendly and willing to chat, and I left with an overall good feeling.
Maudie was looking forward to Belle coming home for a week. She'd really missed havin' her twin in the room with her; the only socializing she did was her occasional visit to Benny. The next time I saw her I asked her casually where Benny had gotten the herd of cattle. "Why, he bought 'em, Pa."
"Do you know what he bought 'em with?"
"I think he borrowed the money from the bank."
That was where I dropped it. Belle came home and there was a lot of squealing coming from their bedroom. I guess that meant they were happy to see each other. I expected Belle to spend more time with us than she did. Our girls were growing up and growing away from us, and it made me sad. Now I knew how Pappy felt when Bret and me were so eager to leave home. You have 'em and raise 'em and love 'em, but at some point you gotta let go and let 'em fly. We'd sort of lost Belle when she went off to college; the young woman that came home that spring was our daughter, but not our little girl. If you ever have children, you'll understand.
I saw her with Lee Patterson down by the river; they were holding hands and walkin' along the riverbank. She still insisted they were just friends. When she did sit down and talk to us, she told us that she'd really gotten interested in journalism and writing and that she wanted something more than the column in the Gazette. Doralice encouraged her, and I told her that I supported whatever made her happy.
The week went by too fast and soon she was gone again. I was secretly glad that Maudie had no interest in college, and seemed to want nothin' more than to stay on the ranch. I know that Doralice hoped for more from our oldest, but I was pleased that she was so interested in what I'd been doin' for so many years.
When Beau came to supper that Sunday he brought Connie and Casandra with him. He pulled me aside and asked me, "I hope you don't mind but I'll be bringin' Connie and Cassie with me from now on. They're part of my family, and I feel they should be included."
"You never took Lily Mae with you when you came over to our house for a meal," I reminded him.
"Yes, well, Lily Mae is a sweetheart, but she never looked like that," he emphasized as he cast a glance at Connie. The woman was indeed beautiful, and Beau had always been a ladies man, even more so than Bret. In other words, like it or lump it.
I chose to like it. "They're always welcome here. How does your father feel about it?"
"Pa just rolled his eyes, a move he no doubt learned from your father. Ellie made it clear that anywhere I was invited, they were invited."
"Where's Joseph?" I asked.
"He wasn't feelin' good. And Ellie came over to stay with him."
"Say, I see that Benny's got himself a good lookin' herd out there. You get 'em for him?"
Beau shook his head. "Nope. I had nothin' to do with it."
Once again, the subject was dropped. Connie was a bright and interesting lady, and Beau hung on her every word. Her husband had been killed when the herd he was helping drive to Kansas stampeded. He'd never even gotten to meet his daughter, and Beau was the first man in her life . . . that's why the little girl had taken to him so quickly. And Beau acted like he couldn't be happier about it.
Time was going by too fast in my life. My babies were growin' up, equine and human, and I seemed to have no control over anything anymore. Lucien and me got together and decided we'd have another sale, this one a private sale as opposed to the auction we'd held last year in October. We let those men that had expressed interest in the cross-breed know that some of them were gonna be for sale and they could be seen at the ranch on April first. By the second week in March I'd had a response from every one of the people I'd notified. "Looks like this is gonna be a successful sale, boss," Lucien remarked as we got the last of the confirmations.
"Sure hope so, Lucien. I was countin' on gettin' money from Beau to invest in some improvements around here. Then when he decided to back Benny instead, I had to put those things off. The breedin' barn needs a new roof and the north pasture needs a whole new fence. I need to buy Pauly the materials to do the repairs. Within the next year, we're gonna need a couple more Arabian mares. And they're certainly not cheap. Even if we have a spectacular sale I might not have enough."
"Why don't you just borrow it from the bank and pay it back when the sale's over? That way you could get Pauly started on the repairs."
I mulled it over for a minute. "You know, that's not a bad idea. Maybe I'll go into town tomorrow and talk to Mr. Mulland. "
I checked over the horses we had for sale and decided Lucien's idea was sound. So the next morning I got up early and went in to Little Bend, stopping for breakfast at Sawyers. When Sawyer saw me over in the corner she brought a menu and the coffee pot. "Hey, Bart, haven't seen you for a while. How's things out at the ranch?"
"About the same as always. Not a lot changes out there, Sawyer. How's business?"
"Really good, thanks for asking. So good that I'm thinking of expanding."
"Oh? Which way?"
"South," she told me. "The gun shop closed down and their building is available really cheap."
"So, you think you're gonna do it?"
"Yeah, it looks that way. More and more people are settlin' in town, and they don't wanna cook all their meals anymore."
"Did you see Belle's article in the Gazette some weeks back? She talked about how people 'ate out' in San Antonio. Guess that's gettin' to be a thing in the big city, huh?"
Sawyer nodded enthusiastically. "I did see what she wrote. She's gettin' to be quite a little journalist, ain't she? But about this eatin' out thing . . . it really seems to be catchin' on. I've noticed more people in here in the evening; morning too. Course you know what it's like at lunch. Sawyer's and Mamacita's is all there is for lunch in town. I've had to put on extra help. But I think I'm gonna buy the building next door and give it a try. I don't suppose Pauly Wilcox is available right now, is he?"
I shook my head. "Nope. I'm just gettin' ready to do some much-needed repairs on the ranch. Should take about four to six weeks. After that, he's all yours. Do you want his whole crew?"
"Yeah, all of them. He's worth waitin' for. I'll buy the building and wait. You tell him I got a job for him when he's available, would you Bart?"
That made up my mind if it hadn't been made up before. When I left here I was headed down to The Little Bend Bank and Trust to see if I could float a loan.
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