Page 18 of Traces Of You

But she’d already said she’d run once and Oliver came and brought her back.

She’d never lived alone, she’d said. She struggled to survive financially with no education and dead-end jobs.

Maybe she thought Oliver was a lifeline she needed. Ford was going to get as many facts as he could at some point.

There was too much to do now for that conversation.

“I’ll watch out for her,” Clay said. “That’s not an issue. I can see the cabin from my place.”

His brother lived in a smaller ranch house his parents had been in for years. His grandparents had the big house back then.

Once his grandfather passed, they moved in and his grandmother went to the ranch. It gave her privacy and space that she craved, but allowed her to be looked after.

Over the years, others rented the place, but it was empty when Clay came home.

The cabin wasn’t right next door to Clay’s, more like a football field away, but Clay could see it from the back of his ranch.

It was the perfect location for Reenie when few even knew the cabin existed and it was far enough away from the operations of the property that had grown in the past year.

“What’s the security like around here?”

He should know more about it. He had until Clay came home.

“I’ve made changes for obvious reasons,” Clay said. “There is a lot going on. We’re going to have more people on the property in a few months. You know that.”

The old barn was being converted into an events hall for parties and weddings. He thought it was a great idea to go with the hard cider that Clay was producing and had hit the markets last fall.

Their once-dying apple orchard that had heavy income only part of the year was now going to bring in money year round in multiple forms.

But it also meant that things could be tricky with Reenie.

“We’ll figure it out. She doesn’t want to live here for free,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to have her on the books.”

“Breaking the law,” Clay said, laughing.

“She can work where you see fit. Maybe she can wait tables and just take tips. She wants to work off the rent. She told me that. Otherwise she’s heading to Canada.”

Clay shook his head. “This all seems so farfetched. She has a plan and money if she’s going there.”

“Sounds like a half-assed one to me.”

Reenie thought far enough ahead to get out of the US and hoped to find a job and be able to live on her own. She didn’t know if she could or not.

She had no family to contact. No friends.

Whoever helped her in Florida, she was keeping quiet on now.

“Yeah, well, I’m fixing that. I’m going to see Mom and talk to her. She should have finished baking by now.”

“I’ll come with you,” Clay said. “I can at least cover while she’s talking to you.”

“You’re going to wait on people?”

“We’ve all done everything on this farm,” Clay said. “And we’d all do it again if we had to.”

His brother wasn’t wrong.

On the weekends, if his mother was short staffed, or his father had needed help, they were all here pulling their weight.