Chapter 118
"This looks awfully big for a small house Amy."
"I didn't say small house, I said house and it would be the smallest in my modest collection. It's 6 bedrooms Grandpa, that's the size of my family or hopefully will be, after that we're doubling up, I wanted 8."
"Don't the girls always double up ?"
"They do now, I doubt they will as married couples."
"They're 15 Amy."
"I know their ages Grandpa, I'd rather not have to upgrade every few years. I will live with six rooms and a loft apartment or two over the barn."
"A 12 horse barn ?"
Amy sighed and looked across the table at Lou and Lisa. "Look Grandpa, I'd like them to believe and feel that Heartland is theirs."
"So do I."
"Listen please, if we come for a couple weeks and stay at Fairfield my kids will wake up, look out the window at the jumping rings and the cross country course and the horses and not feel anything for this place. If they sleep here and have to go to Fairfield to ride the result will be the same."
"It's so much."
"Please don't make this about money Grandpa, if we're to keep Heartland in the family it has to grow with the family. You were fine with Lou building a house, what's the problem ? Neither of you two want to chime in ?" She added glancing from Lisa to her sister.
"Why, you're doing so well ?" Lou said smiling.
"I'm waiting for the second part."
"What second part Lis ?"
"Just some upgrades to this house Jack."
"What's wrong with this house ?"
Lou chimed in next "Nothing is wrong with this house per se Grandpa, but do you really think it's right that Lisa doesn't have her own bathroom or that you don't have a tub to soak in ?"
"You want to add a bathroom."
"And heat, hot water, insulation, air conditioning and a kitchen revamp." She added quickly.
"There's nothing wrong with the kitchen."
"It's old, it's dated, it's … I don't know Jack, I want a new kitchen and I want a new mattress set."
"Lis, uhm ok but how much is all that gonna cost ?"
Lou jumped back in "Well, first we'd need an architect and engineer to look at the house."
"And you happen to have those handy I guess ?"
"The same team that's working on this house" Amy said holding up the edge of the plans for the second house.
"And this grid thing ?"
"We would definitely look into solar and geothermal as part of the upgrade on this house. The solar powers the heat pumps and the blowers as well as a good portion if not all of the electricity. You might never get a bill for heating oil or electric again."
"We might even get a check back." Lisa added.
"Do I even get a vote ?"
"Nothing's changed Grandpa, this is us asking permission, you get the only vote."
"I don't get the only vote."
"I'm not getting into that part of it," Amy said "as far as I can tell, if you want us to come and stay as a family and at Heartland you have two options, we drastically change the ranch house or we build a second house. As far as I know you are the only name on the deed so anything we do takes your signature."
Jack sighed "How would this work ?"
"In what way Grandpa ?" Lou asked.
"I want Lisa and I to pay for the ranch house for one ?" He said looking over at his wife who nodded smiling.
"You can pay the difference between what the house costs, your bathroom and the final bill." Amy said.
"I don't understand and the bathroom ?"
"I will have him price out the cost of building the house and then to add on the cost of doing the second job at the same time, the , uh Grainger trio insist on Grand Mere's bathroom be a Christmas gift and don't ask me, Jackson apparently talked to the girls, I don't know, and I don't care. Lisa, pick whatever the hell you want."
"He said it right here in this living room." Lisa laughed "Jack was in the bathroom and he asked to use mine and then" she continued laughing "he announced going out to find a tree, which Ty put the brakes on and he said, something like, I know what I'm getting you for Christmas."
Lou laughed. "He has no idea what a bathroom costs I assume ?"
"Nope, but I'm sure the girls looked it up and told him it was fine."
"Maybe your girls know a bit too much."Jack muttered.
Lisa saw Amy react and reached out her hand. Amy saw and took it and then a deep breath. "They're 15 Grandpa, at 15 I was an idiot, I thought that when I took over being the breadwinner on this ranch it would actually mean something, I trusted to you and Lou to take care of business while I worked. It took me 8 years to realize that staying here meant that nothing would ever change. I won't let my girls do that, it's a family business, they work in the family business, they should understand the family business. My job is dangerous, mom died when I was 15."
"You never asked to know anything about the business."
"I think you're missing the point Grandpa, it's my responsibility as a parent to make sure my kids do understand what we do and how we do it. What happened to me was not your fault or anybody's fault unless you want to count my father. You're right, I never asked to know anything but I shouldn't have had to ask that I be included, it should have been a given. It's fine if you want to make the argument that 15 is too young but they're not who I was back then and I didn't leave until I was 23."
"And we can touch up the current bathroom ?"
"That goes without saying Lisa." Lou answered. "That'll be our bathroom so I'll pay for that."
"Wait a second."
"Grandpa it only makes sense." Amy said reaching across the table. "We'll make it as painless as possible."
"I can't see how living in a house under construction will be painless."
"Well you can go away while that happens, come home and it'll be all done."
Jack shook his head at the prospect of being away and sighed. "How do they do this anyway ?"
"The architect will sit with you about the bathrooms and kitchen and he'll deal with the environmental people who'll find the best place for the geothermal well lines and the solar panels. Then a contractor puts together a time frame. Hopefully they'll start as soon as they can drill."
"And the insulation and heat parts ?"
Amy took another deep breath. "I can't say I know for sure but at least the insulation will probably be sprayed top down and the heat and air, bottom up."
"What does that mean ?"
"I'm not a heating engineer Grandpa but with Sally's house they had access to under the house so they ran hot water lines to heat the floors and insulated from the attic where their air conditioner exchange is, down."
Lisa leaned over and took Jack's hand, "Jack, we're jumping the gun and Amy's certainly not a heating engineer, let's talk to the architect and the engineer and have them look at the house and make a proposal."
"Fine, is there a ballpark for all of this ?"
"Here or the whole shebang ?" Amy asked.
"The whole shebang."
"Grandpa."
"I understand your circumstances Amy just give me the number."
"Just the building part including fixtures, maybe $200,000 – 300,000 give or take, that would be mostly the house.. These are all capital improvements Grandpa and there are decent tax benefits for the solar and geothermal. Basically everything we're doing in that number increases the value of the ranch."
"On that note" Lisa started "Where's your crew Amy ?"
"Ash took them to Briar Ridge and then I think they're doing the club for lunch, I think she might also have given them a quick tour of the highlights, rodeo grounds, maybe the track, not sure though, I've been holed up with Lou."
"And your plans ?" Jack asked.
"It hasn't snowed in a couple days, I think I'll borrow a horse and head up to see mom."
"I'll come if you don't mind the company."
"I'd love that Lou." Amy answered smiling. "We won't be that long and then I'll call Ash but they'll probably head back to Lisa's wine cellar. Sorry Grand mere."
"Please, it's a few bottles of wine Amy and it's Erma, she's a dream."
"Well, thanks anyway."
"You're with Haddie tomorrow, want to have lunch at Fairfield ?"
"Girl's want to do Maggie's for lunch tomorrow, come with us."
Lisa nodded and Amy and Lou moved to the mud room . "Horse Grandpa ?"
"Take Siren Amy," Lisa said from the kitchen where she and Jack had moved, "she's great in the snow and on trails."
"Oh, I'd love to ride her, she's beautiful."
Lisa smiled "I'm in love, she's a sweetheart, and thank you for her."
After saddling the horses, Lou took Venus, officially her horse though she'd never admit it, they took off up the trail that would lead to the family plot. Amy followed quietly behind Lou, letting Siren have her head as she followed deftly behind Venus.
"You doing Ok back there ?"
"I'm fine Lou, just taking in the old sites."
"Bringing back memories ?"
"I grew up on these trails, I see them in my dreams."
After a time Lou pulled Venus off to the left onto the trail leading to the cemetery ridge and it wasn't long until they left the woods and into the snow covered meadow where Amy could see the plot her ancestors occupied for over 150 years. They tied their horses off and walked arm in arm over to the gate where they stopped for a second before turning towards their mother's headstone. As it hadn't snowed for a couple days, the sun that shown down on the ridge almost all day melted most of the snow that surrounded the graves and they knelt almost together and held hands.
Lou glanced at Amy and then back at the headstone, she was surprised when Amy started to speak.
"Hey mom, guess it's been a while but I'm back. I know you've met the kids, they're great and I love them so much and Betty, you'd love her mom." She paused for a second, she was crying and stopped to get control. Lou squeezed her hand to let her know she wasn't alone.
"I've done my best to keep your work …. your memory… alive….. I teach naturopathy, it's pretty popular among the students, and we do rescue and retraining, I think you'd be proud of me."
"How could she not be proud of you Amy." Lou whispered to her. "Their work is amazing mom."
Amy smiled crookedly at her sister. "Anyway, I'm doing good and I'm happy, oh yeah, I married Ty about 2 months ago so that's nice."
Lou looked at her and giggled.
Amy giggled too "Stop Lou, Ok, maybe I should have led with that."
"You think ?"
"You want to go Lou ?"
"Well, if we're actually saying stuff, er, hi mom, I'm doing good too, Grandpa and Lisa seem fine and we're all happy Amy and her family are back with us. Katie's doing great and Georgie's engaged to Wyatt and living at Amy's ranch. She's in vet school and Wyatt's in law school. They're very happy, we're planning a wedding for the spring. I'm living back here now, Amy and I are opening a Maggie's in Calgary by the stampede grounds. I guess that's about it, no guys but I got a date Friday night with a handsome vet, so that's good."
"You didn't tell me you have a date." Amy whispered.
"I was going to, Ash has one too and one at a date to be named later when she comes back from BC next time."
Amy nodded "I guess that's it mom and it's freezing up here. I'll be back more often I guess so I'll visit again soon. Love you mom, I miss you."
"Love you too mom." Lou agreed as she and Amy got up and hugged before heading out to the horses.
"You want to head straight back to the house ?"
Amy thought for a second "Any idea how the jumping course Ty built looks these days ?"
"We could ride through, Mitch cleaned it up for Georgie a couple years ago and dug a water jump for her to practice on, it shouldn't be that bad if you want to see."
They rode quietly, side by side along the outskirts of Heartland, past the large cow meadows and the boundaries between Heartland and Briar Ridge and Big River. At one point Amy smiled and rode off to her left. Lou looked over and followed though her sister didn't go far, just over to a small copse of trees where she stopped. The small plaque tacked to the tree told her what she already new, Paint lay here, overlooking the grazing meadows where he stood with her Grandfather minding the herd for all those years.
"He was a good horse, Grandpa must have taken it hard."
"As hard as you would expect, like we all would I guess. Ty put him down, Grandpa couldn't. You must see your share."
"We do pretty well and the money thing helps depending on what's wrong, we can't fix everything. For Paint, old age is what it is Lou, we haven't figured that one out yet."
They rode quietly for a time, Amy took in views and the scenery, memories of her rides flooded back to her.
"I've been reading over the year end foundation report and the numbers Amy, you never have to question whether you're doing good work."
Amy smiled and nodded "Between you and me Lou, I haven't had a chance to get all the way through, I've been swamped getting ahead so I could do this."
"From what I can tell Amy, you don't take much time away."
"It's easy when you've got no where to go." Amy muttered almost to herself. Lou didn't comment.
They rode up to the jumping course slowly. There was snow covering a lot of it especially the area most covered by trees and shaded from the sun. The jumps could be seen for the most part. They were broken or some knocked over but overall it didn't look terrible.
Amy rode around the jumps slowly while Lou made her way slowly across to where Amy was ultimately heading. Amy closed her eyes for a second and could clearly see Ty sitting in her grandfather's truck and smiling at her.
"Not too bad from what I can see." Lou said catching her sister's attention.
"No, we can deal with it in the spring, it shouldn't be too bad, it was a fun course."
"And romantic as hell."
"And romantic as hell" Amy answered smiling. "Let's head back."
They rode through the dude ranch, closed for the worst of winter a season they promoted earlier but it never took off.
"You never expanded Lou."
"I don't know Amy, other things, kids, the divorce, your leaving, it just never happened."
"Honestly Lou, I never liked the idea, especially the part where I had to do trail rides. Maybe had we started doing regular clinics with lodging that would have been better. I guess both our lives held this place back a little."
"You don't do them anymore."
"Clinics ? I teach Lou, I picked my audience, I loved clinics but I just don't have the time. I've thought about having the girls try a liberty clinic, they're very personable and open in groups, but I think they're still a bit young."
"I haven't seen them do liberty, though I have seen those gorgeous paints,"
"Rudolph and Margot, I found them a couple years ago, I fell in love immediately."
"Your girls and Georgie and her brood." Lou muttered.
"Yeah, what can you do Lou, comes with the territory I guess."
"Katie's riding more these days, going out to the herd with Grandpa or along with Lisa on her rides."
"That's great, nothing better than time on a horse."
"I love that she's spending time with them no matter what they're doing actually."
"I'm sure they love it too, they love spending time with the kids."
Lisa stepped out onto the porch as they passed the house "The crew's heading to Fairfield to rest up and maybe take a ride later. Erma says she misses you."
Amy laughed "we'll just get the horses away and head over, you coming ?"
"I'll text Jack, he's out with Caleb."
"There you are, I thought I'd lost you to Alberta forever." Erma said moving aside on the couch and letting Amy slide onto the couch between her and Sally.
"How did it go ? Lisa getting her own tub ?"
Lisa took a sip of the wine Ashley handed her "I think I am Erma, we had an interesting talk after the girls left."
"Care to share ?" Lou asked.
"He asked me if I'm happy and I told him of course I was and that I'd be happier with a master bath and a new kitchen, etc., etc. It's not like we don't have the money or frankly that we have to worry about leaving our money to the kids so to speak. How do you two do this, Erma your house is 75 years older that Heartland." She said naming Erma, though she took in Sally as well whose house was about the same age as the Heartland house.
Erma shrugged "Well obviously Heartland was updated before now, just not much with Jack. You know Lisa, your relationship is different than Sally's and mine, you and Jack have this weird thing going on with Heartland and Fairfield, like somehow you're both not comfortable with the whole partners thing. He stays away from here and you don't feel right speaking up about Heartland. If you ask me it's bullshit, it's a marriage. You live in that house and have as much say in it than he does, probably more because you probably do most of the cleaning and cooking and all those household things."
"Well, Ok, the business part is certainly true for the most part but …."
"I'm sorry Lisa" Sally interrupted, "Tom's a private practice attorney and we sit down once a month where I get caught up on anything and everything I'm allowed to know, certainly the numbers and when we need a change in the house, or his office we discuss it as partners. I understand that you don't have kids together and frankly are a way more mature couple than we all are but I just don't get it."
"Seems to work for us so far."
"Actually Lisa," Meg chimed in, "and there's only love in this, it just took 3 of you to actually get across to him that you're unhappy with your living conditions."
"And we still don't have an actual Ok." Amy added "I'm not even sure he'll let Ty and I build a house."
"It'll happen Amy, let's get the numbers together, anyone have any suggestions for appliances ?" Lisa added turning the conversation away from her relationship.
They headed out to Maggie's a couple hours later for coffee and a late afternoon stroll and shop in Hudson, Lisa came along and they were meeting Cassandra. They ended up at KO's where after a couple of beers the conversation turned to Ashley and Lou and their upcoming dates with 3 eligible local veterinarians.
"Ken Braylove, he's got a twin brother." Ashley answered.
"They're cute those two." Cass agreed, "where are you going ?"
"It's actually lunch, he has to be in Calgary Monday and I'm not leaving until Tuesday, we're meeting at the Palliser actually, it's easy for both of us."
Lisa looked down at her phone, then at Ashley, then answered.
"Hello Val, how's Florida ?"
"Florida's fine thanks, everything good with Jack ?"
"We're all good Val, what's up ?"
"Nothing much, do you have any idea where Ashley is, or Amy, she's probably with her. Ash isn't answering."
"They're right here in front of me Val, hold on."
"Hey mom"
"Hello Ashley, where are you ?"
"KO's with Amy and friends."
"Where's your brother ?"
"How would I know mom, we hardly speak, why ?"
"Because he's a pain in the ass."
"And he just walked into KO's." Ash said looking up.
"Please stop him from doing anything stupid."
"Like ?"
"Amy Ash, like acting like an ass to Amy."
"Amy can take care of herself mom and I'm her attorney so not to worry."
"Let me talk to Lisa please."
"Hold on mom, I'll call later. Lisa she wants you."
"Don't worry Val, she's surrounded by women."
"Lisa, it's bad enough he goes on about Ty, he's like an abusive child."
"We'll deal with it Val, don't worry."
"I can't help it."
"I know the feeling, I'll touch base later."
"I'm glad you're there Lisa. I'll talk to you."
"Since when are you on speaking terms with Val ?" Amy asked looking over.
"We've made our peace, frenemies."
"Nothing's going to happen Lisa."
Jesse came in with two friends and stopped at the bar grabbing stools. A minute later they ordered beers and shots before she saw Jesse look over smile and nod, had he been wearing a hat Amy was sure he would have tipped it.
Ashley glanced back and then at Amy. "Amy, don't."
"Don't what Ash ?"
"Play with your prey. What is it with you and Ty ?"
"I'll play nice Ash, here watch." Amy said raising her hand to the waitress "Buy those three at the bar a round on me."
"Amy….."
"Calm down Lisa, just buying the neighbors a drink."
The bartender filled the three shot glasses and nodded towards Amy. When the three turned to her and raised their glasses, she raised her glass and took a sip.
"See, playing nice." Amy said looking back at the table. "What's up for tomorrow ?"
"Jack promised to try and get us up to see the Heartland herd, hasn't snowed in a couple days." Erma said finishing her beer and reaching for the pitcher.
Lisa started getting up "I have to get back to start dinner."
"Sit, relax, let's eat at Maggie's Lisa, Viv's on tonight and I haven't seen her yet."
"Works for me, I'll call Jack." Lisa said getting up anyway to call her husband.
No one noticed that Jesse had taken this opportunity to slide into her seat.
"Thanks for this" he said raising his fresh beer for a sip.
"No problem, these are some friends from home, Meg, Sally and Erma" Amy answered introducing the three and leaving out Cass and Ashley for obvious reasons.
"Ladies, Jesse Stanton, Ashley's big brother. How have you been Jesse, keeping busy ?"
"Working at Briar Ridge for the summer."
"Sounds nice, what do you do ?"
"Nothing, he does nothing." Ashley murmured.
Jesse looked at Ash, grunted, "you're not here and Mom's not here, sorta the last Stanton standing Ash. And you Amy, having a good visit ?"
"It has been nice to be back, some business, some relaxing. Still have to visit Montana and Arizona before heading home. How about you Jesse, seeing anyone ? Any new Stantons roaming about ?"
"Nope, nothing like that, I hear you and Borden got married."
Amy held up her hand showing the rings on her left hand. "Which brings me to the end of this pleasant reunion. Stay the hell away from my family or I'll have you buried where no one will ever find you, assuming of course someone reports you missing and gives a shit enough to look. We dated for a minute Jesse, you kiss like a drooling fish by the way so it never would have worked out, it's time for you to move on. Dinner ladies ?"
"Excellent !" Erma said draining her beer and standing.
Amy stood, smiled at Jesse and tipped her hat. "Have a good life Jesse, keep the table."
