Chapter 41

41

The snow was melting off. Fletcher was outside, playing Science Cowboy with some of his equally delicious cousins. He had a real nerd side too. And Dylan was fascinated by what Travis Deane had shown them would be implemented on Fletcher’s ranch over the next three years.

And drones. The drones would be there any day, coming by special courier. She couldn’t wait. Fletcher was going to use the drones to monitor Fletcher’s herd and the crops he’d planted for feed. He only had about a thousand acres, he’d told her, and it wasn’t the most profitable land, but it stretched up behind the house and all the way up the side of the mountain. He had herds in various places, and he was going to put different sensors in different places. Well, Travis’s company was going to come install them. Fletcher was going to use the drone system to monitor them—the fields that had patches of forest between them.

He was like a tweenage boy with video games.

She wasn’t much better.

Travis Deane had let them both take turns operating the four different sized drones. It had been a lot of fun.

Dylan had discussed the science behind it with Travis. It thrilled her that Fletcher was getting to be involved. The system wouldn’t even hit the market for another two to four years. They were using small ranches around the country to test how it worked in different environments first. Fletcher wouldn’t become super-rich like Gil was—Gil had inherited Vince Preston’s much larger estate, something that had been built over generations—but Fletcher would make his own impact on the ranching world.

It would grow. For his Fletcherlings and grand-Fletcherlings someday.

And she thought that was what mattered to him most. Leaving something worthwhile behind. For the ones who came after.

He had told her about how the technology was projected to increase return on investment by up to twenty percent. But more importantly, it would allow for more sustainable food production. And the other stuff he and Travis were talking about partnering on, like microorganisms to help with soil health and even eliminate cow emissions. He was helping bring ranching into the future—and would make considerable profit, since he had invested heavily of his own funds.

She felt very proud of that man. He hadn’t told her, but she knew he had been feeling a little bit left out with his brothers and sister. Their lives were moving forward, they were working on what was important to them. Now he was making an impact.

Travis Deane had already nicknamed three of the four drones he was going to have Fletcher use the “Tyler Drones.” She’d gotten a kick out of that.

Fletcher had ordered a stack of tech and ranching magazines. Her seed order was mixed in with those. It was a bit late for starting seedlings, but she was going to try. Fletcher said it was a bit cooler and wetter than it usually was this time of year—she was hoping that would make slightly later seedlings work well. She had some, but she had found more heirlooms that she wanted to try, after speaking with Travis’s agronomists about what she was looking for exactly.

Dylan was most fascinated by the way field management and crop management and soil monitoring could be accomplished with the drones. She was doing more research in that area while Fletcher was focusing on herd management.

She was humming as she flipped through the magazines. The last few days—with Fletcher—had been completely amazing. She wasn’t letting herself think of anything beyond each day, not when it came to him. But being with him was nothing like what being with her ex Brody had been like before. It just wasn’t.

She might just seduce Fletcher Truckboy Tyler again tonight. A pinch in her side had her breath catching.

Tomorrow. She wasn’t feeling so great at the moment, actually.

Dylan’s side twinged again. She’d been feeling a little nauseated for a few hours. Probably Dorie’s fault. Her baby sister had caught a virus from that Hauffman boy she’d been seen kissing around town recently. Dorie always had shared her germs with Dylan and the twins so readily. Or Dylan had eaten something that didn’t agree with her.

Dylan was just going to ignore it. She had things to do today.

She was supposed to cover the eight-p.m.-to-one-a.m. shift for Marin later.

After about an hour, just as she had the thick chili cooking, the twinging hadn’t stopped. It had gotten far more intense, actually.

And she didn’t think she was going to be able to go to the inn. She’d call her sisters, someone else would have to cover. Or maybe her dad would get off his poophead butt and cover for her? Wouldn’t that be funny? He could leave her mom at home alone for that long, right? Or maybe one of the sisterkins could sit with her mom.

Anything.

Dylan just felt tired. Nauseated.

She just sat there at the table, her seeds spread in front of her.

Fletcher would be in soon. He and Hot Guy Martin and Seriously Delicious Twins Kaece and Reese Tyler were out back somewhere. They were talking about Martin and Kaece and Reese helping Fletcher build more paddocks for his science experiment moo-moos as soon as the weather permitted.

She’d made plenty of chili—she had seen those Tyler boys eat at the diner before.

The stove was off. There was a log in the woodstove; she was getting good at checking that thing. She moved the chili to the top of the woodstove, where it would stay warm without scorching. Then she sat back down at the table.

She’d stay right where she was, until Fletcher was back. He’d probably call Dusty for her. Dylan didn’t even know if she had the energy for that. Dylan was just going to rest for a little while.

She just slept right where she was, head on her seed packets and the millions of paint samples for the living room she’d been teasing Fletcher with for weeks.