The Rancher and the Event Planner

Chapter Thirteen



JC pulled her car up to the curb next to Salvation Park. The week before she’d overseen the gala in Dallas and it had been a huge success. Now she had just a few hours of community service left to serve. Between the local nursery and her suppliers in Dallas, the town had received great deals on the plants for the new flower beds she had planned and other planting supplies. A white haze covered the sky and humidity thickened the air. The trees buzzed with the persistent hum of cicadas and thunderheads bunched in the distance, but so far she didn’t see any lightning or hear the rumble of thunder. Hopefully the clouds would stay on the horizon and not move in this direction.

She was delighted to see the flowers and shrubs she had ordered were here. She had called in a favor from her suppliers to acquire the trees. A large flatbed truck was parked at the curb and several men were busy unloading crates of flowers, buckets of shrubs and trees with their roots covered in burlap.

“Hi, Ron,” JC said to the main man in charge.

He turned and smiled at her. He was medium height, nice looking and around her age. He had kind, light blue eyes, a trimmed mustache and sandy hair. She noted the wide gold band still sparkling on his left hand. Helping him and his fiancée plan their wedding, had been one of the highlights of her career.

“JC, it’s good to see you.” He shook her hand.

“How’s married life?”

His eyes lit up. “We couldn’t be happier. Thanks again for planning such a perfect day. You’re the best.”

Pride swelled inside JC. “Thank you. It’s always great to hear from a satisfied client. Well, I guess we’d better get to work.”

Between Ron and his helpers they dug out the old plantings, shoveled holes for the trees, revitalized the sandy soil with peat moss, fresh garden soil and manure. After a couple of hours, JC’s worn cut off shorts, tank top and work boots were covered with dirt and she reeked of manure and sweat, but she reveled in it. She couldn’t remember enjoying a day more. She’d slowed down since her arrival in Salvation she realized. She’d learned to stop and enjoy the moment, enjoy the planning process instead of keeping her eye on the deadline she had to meet.

She’d almost reached the one hundred mark on her community service hours, but strangely she didn’t care. She should be rejoicing that she could still leave this place and get back to her life in Shreveport, but deep inside she wanted to stay. She would never have believed she’d want to stay but she did. The thought of leaving Rafe, Molly, Linc and Cade not to mention the friends she’d re-connected with, made her feel almost frightened of leaving them behind. Maybe because the idea of not having them in her life, scared the daylights out of her.

When had this change occurred? When had she grown to love this town and its people? She tried to pinpoint the exact moment but she couldn’t. It was a bunch of moments spread out like a sparkling necklace.

A mockingbird warbled, sailing toward its nest in one of the park’s large trees drawing her thoughts back to the present. She dug a bottle of water from the cooler she’d brought, twisted the top and took a long gulp. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, took off her work gloves and splashed her face with cold water from a spigot. JC straightened, wiped her face with the tail of her shirt, turned and bumped into Rafe. “Oh, hi. I didn’t see you. Sorry.”

His jeans and boots were dusty, his t-shirt streaked with dirt. He took off his hat and raked fingers through his sweaty dark hair. His face was handsome even with the blotches of dirt across one cheek and into the stubble on his jaw. It was a crime for a man to look handsome covered in dirt and sweat. “Hi, been herding cattle all day. Thought I’d drop by and it’s a good thing I did. What’s going on here?”

His voice held an edge of annoyance and she couldn’t begin to wonder why. They’d discussed the changes she wanted to make. He had argued with her on some points but she assumed they had come to a mutual understanding. So far everything looked great. She took the time to smooth back the tendrils of damp hair from her face, adjust her pony tail and put her cap back on. “I’m fixing up the park like we talked about.”

He glanced around the park at the newly dug flower beds and trees waiting to be planted. He eyed the stack of stones for the walkways, the boxes containing the solar lights and the fountain standing off to one side waiting to be installed. He looked back at her with irritation in his blue eyes. “Where’s the swing-set and the slide for the kids? Most of these flowers look way too delicate for the hot sun, not to mention the trampling they’re going to receive when the kids are playing. And where are the kids going to play? There won’t be any space after you finish la-de-daing up the place.” He gestured toward the fountain. “And what’s with the fountain? Kids are going to be playing around it, in it and throwing stuff in the water. Have you even considered the safety issue? Did you know a child can drown in an inch of water?”

Barnacles! Now she was a child killer. “You think I’m putting in a fountain so kids can drown?”

A contrite expression blanketed his face. “No, of course not. I just don’t think you’ve checked all the angles.” He gestured with his hand. “This is definitely not what we talked about.”

She propped her hands on her hips. “Okay, let’s take this one at a time. First, the swing set and the slide will be replaced with something a bit sturdier because the old set was half-rotted. Second, the flowers, shrubs and trees I chose might look delicate but they aren’t because they’re zoned for this area and are drought tolerant. Third, as you can see the fountain is made up of two children holding an umbrella. What you can’t see just yet, because it hasn’t been built, is the wall that will surround the fountain and be filled with flowers. The fountain will stand in the middle and part of the water from the fountain will splash down over the plants and help water them, therefore it will make the park more ecologically efficient.”

“Okay, I’m sorry about—”

“I’m not finished. The fountain is also quite tall which will make it difficult for a child to climb into it, stick their head under the water and drown. I invite you to do a search on the Internet concerning park fountains and check to see how many children have scaled these fountains and drowned in them without their parents or guardian being aware of it.”

He threw up a hand. “Okay, you’ve made your point.”

She held up her index finger. “One more thing. Any la-di-daing I might do to this park can only help its appearance because it was beginning to look like a slum around here. And the swing-set and slide will be set up at the east end of the park along with a sand box. So the children will have lots of room to play without trampling the flower beds. Any more comments or questions?”

“No.”

“Good. If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

JC walked away still fuming inside. How could one cowboy be that stubborn and pig headed?

* * *

Rafe watched Jennifer walk away, the shorts she wore hugging her fanny as it shifted from side to side. She had streaks of dirt on her legs, her clothes and her face. Her hair was pulled back in a scraggly, messy pony tail, not one bit of makeup on and she had never looked sexier. The exertion had put color into her cheeks and the light sheen of sweat made her skin glow. She had worked hard, harder than he had ever seen anyone work and yet there had been problems with each of the events she had planned, but she never quit. Pride welled inside him. Between the park and the mansion renovation the town had a solid chance of winning. She was hot no doubt about it. He’d like nothing more than to kiss away her anger, but he couldn’t give in. If he did, he’d be sunk up to his eye balls and once her community service was over, she’d go back to her life.

He plopped his hat on his head and looked up at the sky. Dark ominous clouds that hovered in the distance earlier had moved closer. The weather report called for a series of thunderstorms.

Rafe glanced at Jennifer kneeling beside a flower bed carefully patting the soil around the plants and his heart softened. An emotion something akin to love threatened to engulf him but he pushed it away. No way had he fallen for her. She was a good person and he liked her, end of story.

His conscience nudged him. The other night at the fairgrounds he had seen real tears in her eyes not the fake ones. She hadn’t given him a cute little pout, lowered her chin and batted her eyes. Her skin had been blotchy and her voice broke with trying to hold back her emotions. He had wanted to hug her to his chest and tell her everything was going to be okay, but he didn’t. He couldn’t, because the more time he spent with her the more he was starting to believe she was right. Maybe they did belong together.