“I will be there. Thanks, Erin. Come on, Clem.” He snapped his fingers once, and his trusty sidekick fell into step right beside him. He let Clementine lead the way down the stairs. People loved Clementine. Maybe he should bring her with him when he went to sort things out with Lily-Grace.
He rounded the corner and almost walked right into Delfi Hernandez, the ranch’s GM.
“Jesse Pleasant. Just the man I was looking for. Hey, Clem.” She gave the dog a playful scratch behind the ear before she looked back up at Jesse with a deep sigh.
He wasted no time waving her off. He knew exactly what she was going to say. “Tell Naomi it’s okay. Seriously.” The poor girl had burst into tears the second she realized that Lily-Grace wasn’t a part of the group from ANWF. Normally Jesse would have been annoyed. All the employees had been well versed in ranch security and procedure, but this one was all on Lily-Grace. She knew exactly what she was doing. Naomi got a pass on this one.
“Oh, she’s a wreck. I sent her home. I’ve never seen anyone more disappointed in themselves.”
Jesse fought the urge to roll his eyes. “It was an honest mistake. She’s on the schedule tomorrow, right?”
“Yes.”
“Great, I’ll talk to her. I gotta go.”
“Wait, Jesse. I just got a little bug in my ear about Dr. Vasquez.”
“He’s coming by tomorrow at ten. What’s going on?”
“Word on the farm is he’s retiring.”
“Fuck.” Jesse let his head fall forward.
“Yeah.”
Dr. Vasquez had been working with the animals at Big Rock since Jesse was a kid. He had a great rapport with the whole staff, and Jesse had never seen anyone with such a gentle hand when it came to the horses and dozens of other animals they kept on the ranch. The man was punctual and thorough, and most of all Jesse knew he could trust him. Finding someone new was not something Jesse was looking forward to.
“Does Felix know?” he asked. Their ranch foreman would have feelings about this.
“Not sure.”
“Okay.” Jesse squinted, thinking as he looked down at Delfi’s black high heels. Of course they would need to find another vet to work with, but he couldn’t put out feelers until he heard the word from the doctor himself. His gaze snapped back up to Delfi’s patient expression. She’d worked with Jesse long enough, and knew him years before that. She knew how his thought process worked. “Let me talk to him first. And then we’ll talk, with Felix.”
“Just say the word. You know I got you, boss.”
“Thanks. And don’t call me boss.”
“Sure thing, boss.” Delfi shot him a sarcastic wink before she disappeared back around the corner. She made it clear why she and Zach got along so well. Annoying Jesse was a fun hobby for the two of them. Jesse added talking to Naomi and making sure he got all the information he needed from Dr. Vasquez to his mental list of things to do the next day as he strode out to his truck. The sun was lower in the sky, but still bright and hot. He slid his Stetson on, shading his eyes from it. He waited until Clementine was comfortable in the flatbed before he climbed behind the wheel of his pickup truck and backed out of his reserved space in the rear of the lodge.
If he remembered correctly, Lily-Grace’s father lived out on Wildwood Canyon Road. Of course the man could have moved, but Charming was small enough he would have heard at some point if the large farmhouse was on the market. Jesse stopped at the end of the road, just inside the exit to the ranch. Maybe he should change. He’d been wearing the same suit all day, and maybe showing up at her house unannounced, not looking as ... He didn’t finish the thought. Just put on his blinker and waited for an eighteen-wheeler to pass before he took a left and drove back toward his own place on Pleasant Lane.
* * *
Jesse made room for Clementine to squeeze by him before he locked the front door to his home. It had taken a few moments going through his sizable custom wardrobe before he changed into something appropriate for a drop-by and the dinner his family had scheduled in a couple hours. His mother would approve of the dress pants and light sweater he was wearing, and Lily-Grace ... Jesse focused on remembering the way to her father’s house instead of the look on her face when she’d burst into the conference room that morning or what she might think of his current outfit.
He grabbed the bottle of Pleasant Gold Label wine from under his arm and headed out to his truck. Just as he opened the back door to the extended cab for the dog, he spotted his youngest brother, Sam, and Sam’s girlfriend, Amanda, stepping out of Miss Leona’s house, hand in hand.
They were both in between projects which gave them more time to spend in Charming. They were staying together up at the ranch until they left as family for the wedding in Malibu, but Amanda couldn’t get enough of their grandmother, and he was sure Miss Leona felt the same way about the sweet, charming woman. She was a good match for Sam.
“Hey, Jesse,” she said with a bright smile.
“Amanda.”
“Where you going?” Sam asked.
“Just into town for a second. Dropping this off for Mrs. Donatelli.”
“You know we have dinner with Mom and Dad, right?” Jesse didn’t miss the warning in Sam’s voice. Jesse had never been late for anything in his whole life, but he had already fucked up once this week. As a matter of fact, being early had been what led him to seeing things he wished he could forget. Still, he knew being late for their first family get-together in almost a year, a celebration for his brother and Evie, wouldn’t be a good look.
He double-checked his smart watch. “Forty minutes, max. I’ll be back.”
“K. Text if you’re running late. You know we all have to be in formation for Captain von Mom.”
“I will.” This might be Zach and Evie’s special day, but their mother, Regina, had been waiting decades for her sons to get married. With the passing of Evie’s mom, their mother felt it was her time to really shine, as mother of the groom and stand-in mother of the bride. When she made her appearance as Thee Mother of this occasion, he knew what she expected of him and his brothers. He knew better than to be late for dinner.
At Sam’s nod, Jesse got behind the wheel of his truck and drove off to Wildwood Canyon Road. He spotted Mr. LeRoux’s red Buick in the driveway as soon as the house came into view. Almost thirty years and the place looked exactly the same. Jesse wasn’t shocked that he remembered it. He remembered strange things from his childhood, including the day his grandfather, Gerald Senior, had dropped him off at the LeRouxs’ house for Lily-Grace’s birthday party in the fourth grade.
Miss Leona had been away on a film and his parents were off on the rodeo circuit. His grandfather had teased him, asking Jesse if Lily-Grace was someone he thought he could have a crush on. Jesse shut down that line of questioning immediately, making it clear that none of the girls in his class had crushes on him.
“That’s not what I asked you,” his grandfather had said. Jesse remembered the way his grandfather smiled at him and the embarrassment that heated his cheeks in the moment. He’d bought Lily-Grace a pink cowboy hat with glitter all over it. He had no idea if she ever tried it on.
Jesse pulled up behind the red Buick, then cut the engine of his truck. Before he could cross the driveway, the front door opened and Lily-Grace stepped out. She’d changed out of the sleek outfit she’d been wearing that morning. Now she was wearing an oversized adult onesie with little Baby Yodas on it. Jesse pushed the thought of how good she still looked to the back of his mind.