With her eyes closed, she smiled slightly, shaking her head. "You really shouldn't be allowed to take vacation days. You're a menace."
"I can't disagree with that," I replied honestly. "I get bored easily. Not that you're boring."
She peeked open one eye. "I can be more of a pain if it will entertain you."
I couldn't help but grin. "You're welcome to try, Bee. I think I've got a handle on you, though."
A glint of hard mischief lit up her expression before she closed her eye again and burrowed deeper into the blankets. "Okay, Theodore. Whatever you say."
I hated my name, but when she said it, for some reason, it caused a thrill to race through my body like an electric shock. "Hang tight. I'll be back."
I made sure her water bottle was full, and then I reluctantly pulled my coat back on, stuffing my feet in my damp, cold sneakers and pocketing my phone. This had seemed like a good idea in the store, but now I realized a fake tree would have been the better move. Too late, now.
I met Jay around the back of the house where he'd stacked a good amount of firewood, and he glanced at me quickly before returning his eyes to the four-wheeler. It had a rack on the back for transporting heavier items, but I'd still need to choose something moderately sized. Jay had already loaded a saw, an ax, and twine in the back, and I eyed the four-wheeler with a critical eye. "Are we… both riding that thing?"
Jay glanced at me over his shoulder and shrugged again. "Only got one machine."
Of course. My breath fogged out between us as I swung a leg over the back of the wide, dark green four-wheeler. "Okay, but I'm not lovingly holding your brawny chest, kid. I draw the line there."
He didn't even laugh. He just gave me a weirded-out look over his shoulder, started the machine, and took off through the snow. I was pretty sure he did it faster than necessary, nearly catapulting me off the back. I gripped the bars on the side and toward the back, and Jay slid through the snow, swerving unnecessarily and doing his best to make me regret any thoughts I'd had about Christmas cheer.
As we headed away from the main buildings and into the open sea of white, I took a minute to marvel at the quiet majesty of the ranch's location. The Wasatch Mountains were stunning works of art, towering over pure swaths of snowy landscape, they stood guard like ancient monoliths capped in ice and jagged with eons of history. It made everyday tasks like this feel portentous and starkly serene out of nowhere. One moment I was cursing my choices while a wily ranch hand tried to throw me from a four-wheeler, and the next, I had been cast into a halo of awe under the watchful eye of the Rocky Mountains. I could see why Arabella fought so hard to keep this land, to stay here with the animals she loved and the location that inspired such reverence.I could easily find myself captivated by a life surrounded by such rich beauty.
When we reached the path that climbed up at a gradual slope, the trees thickened, and the sharp scent of pine stung my nose. It was warmer today, but already, my cheeks were going numb, and my fingers weren't far behind. I tapped Jay's shoulder, signaling him to stop, and he did, slowing down and then coming to a stop near a thick patch of pine trees.
They weren't like the pine trees we had in the Pacific Northwest. These were scraggly, desert-hardy things with thick needles and funny bare patches poked into the long-limbed trees. I scratched my head, getting a good look at them for the first time. Well. These weren't exactly the blue spruce magical experience I'd been envisioning.
Jay hopped off the machine and into the ankle-deep snow with a goading expression on his face. Little shit knew exactly what he was doing. I surveyed the slim pickings, and then my eyes fell on a wide, fluffy specimen fifteen feet from us. I grabbed the saw from the four-wheeler and stomped through the snow, cringing as the cold seeped through my socks.Mental note: get some boots.Jay followed me, looping twine through his hands and canting his head to take in the tree I was after. "Bit wide, isn't it?"
I took in the squat, fluffy tree. It wasn't too tall, it was just a few inches above my height, and although it was wide, that gave it a cute, downy appearance that reminded me of Victorian Christmas trees. "Looks fine to me," I muttered. Just as I was about to steel my resolve and plunk myself down in the snow to saw it down, my phone rang.
As I pulled it out, Jay squatted in the snow and held out a hand to me. "I got it."
I glanced at the phone and recognized my lawyer's phone number. "Hang on." I answered it, handing him the saw absently. "Hello?"
"Hi, Theodore Spencer?" a woman's dusky voice asked.
"This is he."
Jay took the saw from me and went at the thin trunk with perfunctory swipes. "This is Azura Brady. You sent me an email about your wife's ranch?"
I winced. Jesus, that sounded strange. "Yeah, Knox said you helped him a lot, and I'm struggling to understand the water rights thing here."
"Of course." Azura's voice was filled to the brim with confidence. I highly doubted this woman second-guessed her coffee order in the morning, let alone if she was good at her job. "I took a look at the documents and information you sent me about water rights in Utah, and I've transferred you to a colleague I think might be a better help to you. He deals with land disputes and water rights in Utah almost exclusively, and he has years of experience in your area."
Jay finished with the tree, standing, dusting snow off his jeans, and then pushing the tree over with one boot. It fell with a funny kind offwump, and I figured I should wrap things up before Jay unmanned me completely and did everything before I could even wave the twine at the tree. That seemed to be this guy's M.O. He did everything faster than I did so I couldn't get around to helping as much, like he was desperate to prove his relevance on the ranch. "Sounds great. Have him send me an email and I'll set up a time to meet with him."
"You got it. If you ever need anything else, a friend of Knox's is a friend of mine." I heard the bustle of a crowd in the background, and I wondered where she was. A courtroom?
"Thank you. Appreciate it." I hung up and slid the phone back into my pocket before holding up the twine. "So, should we bag this?"
"You can't fit a tree this size in a bag," Jay said, deadly serious.
I rolled my lips in, fighting my amusement. "Right."
While we wrapped the tree in twine, tying secure slipknots as we went and binding the branches upward, Jay gave me several searching glances, so fast I might not have seen them if I hadn't already been on edge about him. Finally, as I knelt near the trunk and wrangled the bottom branches, Jay asked, "You hired a lawyer?"
I gave him a quick look before returning to the branches that were making a crosshatch of scratches over my hands. "Arabella said she's having trouble getting water to the ranch. Just trying to help."
