Prologue. Professor Tess Rawlins spent the last twelve years teaching agriculture in California, away from Montana and her heart

Professor Tess Rawlins spent the last twelve years teaching agriculture in California, away from Montana and her heart. When she’s called back to the sprawling Double R cattle ranch and her ailing father, Tess is thrown back into the world she had nearly forgotten since the death of her brother two years earlier. Unsettling memories boil to the surface for Tess, and her only pleasant distraction is the new cook Claire Redman and her son Jack. However, there is more facing Professor Rawlins than dealing with the memory of her brother or her attraction to Claire. Tess must figure a way to save the Rawlins’s five thousand acres of rich grassland. It has thrived for five generations, when her great-grandfather started the dynasty in the 1880s; now she may lose it all to an unscrupulous land developer. Set in the foothills of the Bitterroots, Tess and Claire find themselves in the fight of their lives—for love and the sea of grass.

Prologue

Professor Rawlins stood by the open window and gazed at the blue California sky. Far from Montana, he thought as he chomped on a piece of grass. He turned back into the empty classroom and smiled. There was Lenore standing in the doorway. She brushed the silver hair from her forehead and adjusted the wicker basket she held on her arm.

“What in the world are you doing here?” he asked his wife.

Lenore shook her head, walked into the classroom, and placed the basket on his desk. “I knew you wouldn’t stop to eat.” She plucked the thick blade of grass out of his mouth and kissed him soundly on the lips. “Working day and night on that grass seed.” She shook her head. “Why, I don’t know. Your father’s ranch has a wonderful pasture for the cattle.”

“I know, but it won’t last forever. It’s the twentieth century, Nore, and I’m trying to figure a way for Dad to keep the ranch.”

Lenore pushed him into his chair and placed a napkin in his lap. “It’s 1935 and cattle ranching may soon be a thing of the past, Jeremiah. You Rawlinses will have to face that one day.”

“I know that, you know that, but try telling it to my father. I’m not the rancher, he is.”

“As well we both know. He’s a stubborn one,” Lenore said and opened the thermos. “Hot soup.”

“I didn’t think I was hungry.” He rubbed his hands together when Lenore produced the cold fried chicken. “I don’t have another class for an hour.”

“Good, this will give you time to eat.” She filled his plate, then hers. “I don’t think the agriculture department of Cal will mind if I join you.”

Jeremiah waved her off as he ate his chicken leg. “I’ve got tenure. I’ve been here for nearly twenty years, and my papers have brought enough notoriety to this college. I think they can handle me having lunch with my wife.”

After a few minutes of eating and talking of their children, Lenore asked, “So tell me. How is your research coming?”

Jeremiah wiped his mouth with the napkin and shrugged. “I think I’ve done it. That blade of grass you took was the product of all my work.”

Lenore raised an eyebrow. “How did it taste?”

He laughed. “Like grass. It reminded me of the ranch and my childhood.” He gazed out the window once again, thinking of Montana and the Double R Ranch.

“Sweetie, I know you miss the ranch, but you make a better professor than a rancher.”

He looked back at his wife and grudgingly agreed. “My brothers and even my sister are better at it.”

Lenore stood and walked over to Jeremiah, who looked up and smiled. She cupped his weathered face and kissed him. “Your work here is just as important as working on the ranch. You’ll find a way to save the land and the ranch, Professor Rawlins.” She looked on his desk and saw a thick leather-bound notebook. “What is this?” She picked it up and leafed through it.

“I was working on my memoirs, you know, the family and the ranch. Someday, my son or a grandchild might find it useful.” He kissed his wife and pulled her onto his lap. They both looked out at the sky. “Maybe they’ll love the Bitterroots and the land as we have…”

Lenore looked into his eyes. “And the sea of grass you worked hard to protect for them.”

Дата добавления: 2015-10-16