Finding You

Everyone froze. Including Grace.

“W-what? When did you meet my grandfather?”

Risking a chance to look over at Jeff, I quickly turned back to Grace. “We met a few weeks ago over dinner.”

Mark smiled and said, “You’ve got a good catch here, Grace Hope. This young man called me up and told me he wanted to talk to me about the house. Imagine my surprise when he handed me a check for the cost of the house, plus interest.”

Grace’s mouth dropped open as she looked at me. “Noah. How?”

I didn’t really want to tell Grace I had used my mother’s life insurance policy to pay her grandfather back, so I winked and said, “I’ll tell you later. By the way, your grandfather told me how you used the money they had set aside for you.”

The feel of Jeff’s eyes on me caused me to glance over in his direction again. Taking a sip of his beer, he smiled and gave me a head nod. I was hoping like hell I had gained some respect from him by paying back Grace’s grandfather.

The rest of the afternoon was spent meeting and talking to everyone. I sat and talked to Gramps a lot. We talked mostly about the cattle business that his grandson, Gunner, and Jeff, now ran. It didn’t take long for Gunner, Jeff, Will and Luke to start asking me questions about business plans, marketing tools and other things to make a business run smooth. Surely they didn’t need my opinions, after all, they were running a multi-million dollar cattle business, on top of a breeding business.

Jeff sat back and took all of it in, while Gunner hit me with question after question. Especially when he found out I had a minor in finance. “So you don’t agree with paying off the equipment ahead of time? Explain why you think like that?” Gunner asked.

Shrugging my shoulders, I said, “Well, look at it like this. You hold a very low interest rate on those two loans. Why would you want to take your cash and pay them off, when you could invest it in a CD? Carrying some debt is not bad.”

Jeff nodded and looked at Gunner. Grace walked up to me and smiled as she sat down next to me. “Are you talking numbers and all that shit?”

“Grace Hope,” Jeff said as he furrowed his brows at her.

Laughing, Grace shook head and said, “Daddy, please. Don’t act like you have virgin ears. For goodness’ sake, look at your damn T-shirt.”

Glancing down, it was then I noticed what it said. The bright-yellow arrow pointed down and the shirt read:

You know you’re curious.

Jeff looked at his shirt and said, “What? There is nothing wrong with this shirt.”

Letting out a chuckle, I looked at Grace who made a face at her father. “Really, Dad?”

Jeff smiled and winked at me as he finished off his beer. Standing up, he motioned for me to follow. “Walk with me, son. It’s time to bond and all that shit.”

Twenty minutes later, I was on horseback following Jeff down a trail. I quickly came up with scenarios of how I could escape if he turned a gun on me. Thank God my parents put me on a horse when I was young and I learned to ride.

“So, you’re in love with my daughter?” Jeff asked as we rode side by side in an open field.

Seeing Grace’s face pop into my head, I smiled. “Yes, sir. I think I was in love with her the first time I ever saw her.”

Letting out a gruff laugh, Jeff looked over at me. “She looks like her mother . . . thank God.”

Nodding in agreement, I agreed. “Yes, she very much does.”

Shaking his head, Jeff expelled a quick breath. “Damn, the first time I met Ari I wasn’t sure if I wanted to kiss her or knock her silly.”

Pulling my head back in surprise, I asked, “Really?”

“Oh yeah. She’s hard headed, opinionated like you wouldn’t believe, a mouth that would make a sailor blush, and a smile that made my knees feel like they could no longer hold up my body.”

Laughing, I looked straight ahead. “Sort of sounds like your daughter.”

“Oh hell, son, you don’t need to tell me. Try living with both of them in the same house. Poor Luke and I went on our fair share of fishing and hunting trips. Just to catch a break from the two of them.”

“Sounds brutal,” I said as I looked straight ahead. A memory of my mother and Emily standing in the kitchen bitching at me for drinking from the milk carton flooded my mind.

Jeff and I rode along for a few minutes in silence. I could hear the river in the distance and I knew we were getting closer.

Jeff walked his horse up to a tree and jumped off. Following his lead, I did the same.