Melanie took a piece of paper out of her pocket. “A friend of yours has been calling all week. Maybe you should call her back. She might be the solution you’re looking for.”
Sarah took the paper and her lip curled slightly in distaste. Lucy? Seriously? She crumpled the paper in her hand.
Melanie said, “She called almost every day.”
She can call until the end of eternity and I won’t call her back.
“I have to go make lunch. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.”
Still feeling badly about the last time she’d seen Melanie, Sarah couldn’t help but ask, “Is your son with you today?”
Melanie shook her head and looked away. “He was tired today, so he stayed back at the house with David.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Is he okay?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Melanie answered shortly and walked away, disappearing into the hallway that led to the kitchen.
That seemed to be a theme around here.
Sarah went to her purse and found the list of places where she’d stayed on the way down—all horse-friendly bed and breakfasts. She called the closest one. No availability for at least a month. Crap. The same answer from the second place she called. Full up.
I could call Charlie. He’d know what to do. No, I need more time before I face him, before I even begin to try to regain what we’ve lost.
And I can’t stay here and pretend last week didn’t happen.
Melanie walked into the living room again, this time with a cordless phone. She handed it to Sarah. “It’s your friend again.”
Shocked into silence, Sarah took the phone and held it to her ear.
Lucy gushed a greeting. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe I finally reached you.”
Before this goes any further it’s time for a bit of honesty. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
In a much more subdued tone, Lucy said, “I deserve that, I know, but please don’t hang up.”
Sarah sighed and didn’t.
Lucy continued, this time sounding a bit desperate. “You don’t know what it has been like here. I had no idea how badly we were doing until right before you arrived. We could lose everything, Sarah. My brother missed five months of mortgage payments. The bank is threatening foreclosure. We’ve been scrambling to sell whatever we can to hold them off.”
Sarah sat down in the chair behind her. She didn’t want to feel anything but anger for her old friend. “You should have told me. I could have helped you figure it out.”
After a quiet moment, Lucy said, “I didn’t want you to see me like this. I was embarrassed.”
Rubbing a pounding temple, Sarah said, “So the better option was to leave me stranded in a part of the country I’ve never been in before?”
“Stranded?” Lucy’s voice sharpened. “You said you were staying with friends.”
I lied, Sarah wanted to scream. Pride makes people say stupid things, apparently. It can even kill what I thought was a solid friendship. Maybe it’s time to just pack up, admit this adventure is a complete disaster, and call Charlie.
“I had no idea you knew Tony Carlton.” Lucy said his name like he was famous or something. “Do you know what most people would do to visit his ranch just once? He’s a big deal around here.” After another awkward pause, Lucy said, “I know you’re still angry with me, but I need your help. My brother and I both do. Maybe the bank wouldn’t care, but could you ask Tony to call and ask them to give us just one more month? I’m working a deal with someone to buy our herd. It would be enough to bring us up to date. I just need one more month.”
Dismay filled Sarah. “I can’t do that.” Because there’s a good chance we’re not talking to each other anymore.
“Please, Sarah. Don’t say no.” Her friend’s voice broke a bit with emotion. “My brother would kill me if he knew I was asking you, but this ranch has been in our family for five generations. Steven gave up everything to keep it going after my parents died. I didn’t know how much it meant to me until I came back to it, and now we’re going to lose it. I can’t tell you how sorry I am about what happened when you first got here, but I was in shock. I had just gotten the news. Please, one phone call. I made a mistake, and it’s one I deeply regret. Haven’t you ever done something you wish you could undo?”
Low blow, Texas.
“How would a call from a horse trainer convince a bank to do anything?”
“I’m only guessing, but a man with as much money as he has must have it spread around. If he has a good portion of it at our bank, sometimes rules can be bent to accommodate the people they don’t want to lose.”