He took her hand in his and grinned. “I get up before the sun comes up, Cecilia. But I do have an evening cocktail out here.” He chuckled.
“Even better,” Grandma Cecilia stated.
Elana stood and walked over to the edge of the porch. “How many cattle do you have?”
“About six thousand.”
Elana felt her eyes go wide. “That’s a lot.”
He shrugged. “It was more, but I sold some back in the spring. I’ll buy more next year.”
Elana nodded. “Sounds like business is good.”
Ronald looked at her. “I can’t complain.”
Jack and Nelson wandered off the porch into the front yard. Elana frowned and watched the dogs walk behind the house.
“Don’t worry. Nelson is probably showing Jack her bone yard.” Ronald grinned.
Elana grimaced. “Bone yard?”
He chuckled. “Nelson digs a hole and puts his bones in the backyard. He saves them for a rainy day, I suppose.”
Elana shrugged. She wasn’t sure Jack wasn’t going to run off, so she bounded down the steps. “I’ll just make sure they’re okay.”
She didn’t wait for Ronald to reassure her but instead hurried around the house.
When she got to the back of the house, she was surprised to find a pretty flower garden.
The summer flowers had grown brown, but there were a few late bloomers still filling some of the raised beds with flowers. She examined it more closely and noticed there was a sign sticking out of the ground.Cecilia’s flowers.
Ronald had planted Grandma Cecilia her own flower garden since he knew her love of flowers.
She laughed to herself. Ronald was certainly a more complicated man than she’d thought.
Elana glanced around for Jack.
She spotted him with Nelson under a tree. He was watching Nelson intently as the dog dug a hole. When he popped his head out of the hole, he was holding a bone.
Elana shoved her hands in her coat pocket and walked past the backyard.
Ronald didn’t have a fence, so the backyard opened up to a large rolling pasture with mountains in the background. It looked like something in a picture.
“Elana, we are going to get a tour of the farm,” Grandma Cecilia called out.
“Coming.” She patted her leg, and Jack ran over to her. Both dogs followed her around the house to the front of the yard.
Ronald was holding the passenger-side door of his large Ram truck open for her grandmother. She walked over and opened the back door.
She started to get in but stopped. “Ronald, do you mind if Jack rides back here?”
He shut her grandmother’s door and let out a laugh. “I would be offended if he didn’t. Why, Nelson rides everywhere with me.”
Elana relaxed and called Jack up into the truck. Nelson waited until Ronald gave the command and jumped in the back seat with them.
Elana watched as Ronald walked around the hood of the truck.
“What do you think of him, Elana?” Grandma Cecilia whispered.
