Читать книгу Beneath Montana Skies - Mia Ross - Страница 16

“Now, remember, Morgan,” Dad cautioned her as he pulled into the parking lot at the high school. “This is our first meeting with this energy company rep, and it’s bound to be a little nutsy. This is an important issue for everyone around here, not just us. You’re gonna have to be patient with folks when they’re trying to talk.”

Morgan gave him the irritated look she reserved for people who had the gall to tell her how she was supposed to behave. “I know that, Dad. Please don’t speak to me like I’m ten years old.”

“You’re real passionate about this, and I love that about you. But let’s be honest—you’ve got a knack for taking over a situation, convinced you’ve got the answer to the problem. This is bigger than one or two families, and it’s gonna take all of us to hammer out a solution everyone can live with.”

“You know some of our neighbors are on the verge of selling out to that greedy shark, right?” He nodded, and she turned to face him squarely. “If they accept his offer, we might as well do the same thing, because in a couple years the Calico River will be liquid poison and our place will be downstream from an industrial complex that’ll be churning out pollutants and noise twenty-four/seven.”

“We’re not gonna let that happen,” he assured her, patting her shoulder in a calming gesture. “But we won’t get anywhere by pressuring folks into seeing things our way. They’ve gotta come to the right decision on their own.”

“I just can’t believe anyone who’s got half a brain would want to ruin all that,” she grumbled, staring out the dusty windshield of his truck at the expanse of the oddly named Crazy Mountains to the north. “That’s some of God’s best handiwork out there, and it’s up to us to keep it that way.”

“Preaching to the choir.”

“I know. I’m just more frustrated than usual, I guess.” She blew out an exasperated breath to cool her temper. It helped, but not enough. She recognized that was because she now had a new problem to contend with—namely Ty Wilkins—and she didn’t know what she was going to do about it.

Heaving a sigh of his own, Dad got out and circled the old SUV to open her door for her the way he’d done since she was a child. “Stick with comments about God’s handiwork in there, and you’ll get a lot further than if you get into a shouting match with people who’re on the fence about land development.”

“Okay,” she agreed grudgingly. “You make a good point.”

“Flies and honey, sweetheart.”

Diplomacy wasn’t exactly her strong point, Morgan groused silently as they went up the wide front steps into the school. But the Mustang Ridge Conservancy was fighting for the very existence that generations of Whittakers had worked so hard to create. She wanted Allie and Hannah to grow up surrounded by the same view she’d loved from the time she could appreciate it. If the only way to make that happen was muting her characteristic drive, she’d just have to figure out a way to do it.

Inside, the auditorium was packed. Up on the stage that normally hosted student concerts and plays, there was a long table and several chairs. A man she didn’t recognize was talking with Kevin Carmichael, the town’s only dentist and their newly elected mayor. He was the developer everyone had been buzzing about the past few weeks, judging by his tailored suit and polished appearance.

Her father had artfully intercepted the man when he visited their ranch, respectfully hearing him out before sending him on his way. Mostly because he knew perfectly well that if the stranger had found Morgan first, she would have blown a gasket before throwing him off the property. Her beloved mustangs had nowhere else to go, and if the Whittakers lost their right to use the open rangeland where the wild ponies roamed, they’d be rounded up and sent to some random place where she wouldn’t be able to help them. The only way to save them was to get that land legally protected as wilderness forever. It was a tall order, even for a woman who’d never run from a challenge in her life.

“Hey, Morgan.” Hearing her name, she turned to find Dave Farley sitting behind her. “Any of those mustang yearlings ready to go yet?”

“A couple. What are you looking for?”

“An Appaloosa. A friend of mine in Billings just lost her mare after twenty-plus years and is looking for a youngster to take in. I told her about your rescue outfit, and she’s interested in meeting you.”

Finally, some good news, Morgan thought, smiling as she fished a card out of her purse. “Tell her she can call me anytime. I’ve got an App who should be green broke sometime this summer, if that works for her. If she sends me her info, I’ll take some pics and email them to her. He’s gorgeous, and the vet says he should top out around fifteen hands.”

“That’s tall for a wild one.”

“His daddy’s a big, strapping stallion,” she explained, feeling a jolt of pride that her small herd of wild horses and rescues was doing so well. “I’ll send your friend some photos of the sire and dam, too.”

“Thanks. I’ll let her know.”

He sat back, then stood and grinned at someone behind Morgan. “Hey, Ty,” he greeted their prodigal cowboy, offering his hand. “Welcome home.”

“Thanks, Dave. It’s good to see you. How’re Bonnie and the boys?”

“Good, busy. They’re both playing baseball this year, so she’s at their game tonight.” The proud father held up his phone. “She’s keeping me updated by text.”

“Great idea. Tell her I said hi.”

“Will do.”

Dave sat and started typing on his phone while Ty looked down at Morgan. “Mind if I take this seat?”

She shrugged. “It’s a free country.”

The moron actually had the audacity to grin at that, and once he was settled, he leaned in to say, “I’m not the enemy, MJ.”

“Y’know,” she shot back, her already unsettled nerves tightening like the overstretched strings of a fiddle. “No one calls me that anymore.”

“Yeah?” The grin widened, and he draped a muscled forearm over the back of his chair. “Then I guess that makes me special.”

Dad chuckled beside her, and she angled a look at him. “You think that’s funny?”

“Yup. You two are as entertaining as ever.”

“I’m so glad you’re amused by your daughter being harassed.”

“How’s Clyde settling into your new place?” he asked, pointedly looking over her head at Ty.

“Fine. He’s used to moving around, so being in a new barn doesn’t bother him a bit. The house, well, that’s a different story.”

Dad chuckled again. “Oily rags and a match might be your best option.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

The two of them carried on that way, talking over the top of her as if she wasn’t even there, until Kevin called the meeting to order.

“Okay, folks, let’s all take our seats.” Once everyone was settled, he gripped the lectern in both hands as if he was preparing for a long, difficult night. “Since we all know why we’re here tonight, I’d like to turn the stage over to Mr. Reynolds, a representative of Cartwright Energy. They’re the outfit from Utah that’s interested in prospecting for oil and natural gas on the wild lands north of town, and he’s here to make a presentation about their proposal. After that, he’ll answer any questions you might have about their operation.”

Morgan had read the prospectus cover to cover—three times—so she knew what it contained. After several hours of discouraging research, she had a pretty good idea what they were up against. While she half listened to the slick performance unfolding up on stage, she kept a roving eye on the assembly to gauge their neighbors’ reactions to what they were hearing. Some looked intrigued, others were obviously fuming, but most seemed to be neutral.

At least for now.

Those who hadn’t yet made up their minds were the ones who gave her hope that their efforts to protect the ridge from development might actually have a chance at succeeding. When the man was finished, several people asked the usual questions about land values and potential for damaging the local environment. All of them were deftly handled by their guest, who clearly had a lot of practice dealing with local residents’ apprehension about his company’s activities.

When the comments dwindled into silence, Kevin stood to take his place at the lectern. “Thank you for coming, Mr. Reynolds. I’m sure we’ll be talking to each other again real soon.”

Their polite handshake was punctuated by equally polite applause, and the executive gathered up his materials and his designer briefcase and strolled out. His confident gait suggested to Morgan that he thought the presentation had gone well.

“He thinks we’re a bunch of uneducated hicks,” Ty muttered in unbridled disgust. “Just ’cause you’ve got graphs and stuff on a fancy laptop don’t mean that what you’re planning to do is okay. Anyone with half a brain can see that what they’re proposing is gonna destroy everything within thirty miles of that installation.”

Stunned by his quick—and very accurate—assessment, she stared at him in disbelief. “You really think that?”

“I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know a song and dance when I see one. The front office executives sent this guy to pull the wool over our eyes, but I got news for him. We ain’t sheep.”

“All right, folks,” the mayor announced, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “What do we think?”

That was a mistake, Morgan thought wryly, as the general hum of comments escalated into a chaotic mess. After waiting a couple of minutes for the hubbub to die down, Kevin apparently decided it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Pleading for cooperation, he managed to regain control of the restless crowd and plucked his microphone from its stand. Handing it off to the town clerk, he said, “Polly, take this around to people who’ve got something to say. That way, we can all hear what’s going on for ourselves.”

“My place isn’t big, but it’s up near the ridge,” one elderly man said, “and they’re offering us triple what it was assessed for last fall. My wife and I are barely scraping by on our fixed income, and we can’t hardly afford the taxes anymore. We’ve got no choice but to sell.”

Unable to sit still any longer, Morgan jumped to her feet. “Anyone who’s got land to sell, the Mustang Ridge Conservancy is interested in buying. We don’t have the kind of money Cartwright does, but we’ll work with you to find an arrangement that suits all of us. We can’t just let them stroll through here and destroy anything that’s in the way of profits that may or may not be buried under our land.”

Her offer got everyone buzzing again, and Kevin had a tough time getting the meeting back under control. Several people voiced their support of the conservancy, while others scoffed at it as a waste of time and effort.

“Standing in the way of progress is pointless,” one woman insisted. “If it doesn’t happen now, sometime in the future it will.”

“Not while I’m around and still breathing,” Dad assured her in his booming, listen-to-me voice as he got to his feet beside Morgan. “My family dug our homestead outta the dirt with their bare hands back in 1882, and we’ve got no intention of letting it go now. Or ever.”

Many sitting around them voiced their agreement, and the public debate got sidetracked into a multitude of conversations between friends and neighbors over what to do and the best way to go about getting it done.

In the middle of it all, Ty leaned in close and said, “Way to go, cowgirl.”

When she looked at him, he grinned and gave her the same wink he’d used when they were kids planning some kind of mischief. And for the first time since he’d so unexpectedly strolled back into her life, she felt herself wanting to smile back. But that would only encourage him, so she stemmed the impulse and returned her attention to the meeting. There was the expected back-and-forth, and at the end the only thing that had changed was that they were all an hour older.

She was by nature a decisive person, so the hemming and hawing grated on her nerves. Her father, on the other hand, seemed to take it all in stride, even hanging back to chat with people when the official gathering had been called to a close. Long past the end of her patience already, she opted to scoot out a side door and wait for him outside.

To her annoyance, Ty trailed after her. He didn’t say anything, but just having him next to her was both a distraction and an annoyance. He’d picked up a new cologne, she noticed even though she was supposed to be beyond registering that kind of thing about the man she’d come to think of as the runaway cowboy. The scent had a campfire, leathery quality to it, and she grudgingly admitted that it suited him well.

But there was no way she was telling him that. Instead, she folded her arms and scowled up at him. “What do you want?”

He grinned back, and she braced herself for what was coming next. In a million years, she never could have predicted what she heard.

“Y’know, I always did admire your spunk.” Leaning back against the tree behind him, he went on. “I also admire the way you have with animals. Instinctive, like you know what they’re thinking. Whether it’s training a new horse or herding calves, you’re always a step or two ahead of ’em so you can head ’em off before they get into trouble.”

“That’s all well and good, but what does any of that have to do with the meeting?”

“And then there’s that laser focus of yours,” he added with a chuckle. “The thing is, when your eyes are on the prize, sometimes you miss things that are fanned out to the sides.”

“Such as?”

In answer, he pulled out his phone and scrolled down the contact list to the name he thought might interest her. He handed it over, and when she took in the name, her eyes widened as they met his. “You know Congressman Barlowe?”

“Turns out Craig’s a big rodeo fan. We’ve had dinner a few times, and he strikes me as a good guy who really cares about protecting Montana’s natural treasures. I think the conservancy would be something he’d want to know about.”

“I’ve written a dozen letters to him,” Morgan confided in a dejected tone very unlike the feisty cowgirl he used to know. “I always get a form response that basically says he’s a busy man with a lot to do, so we’ll have to get in line behind everyone else.”

“How many folks are in the group so far?” She hesitated, and he said, “Let me guess. You and JD.”

“And some others.” He gave her a nudging look, and she relented with a sigh. “Okay, there’s six of us so far. This energy company’s only been here a couple times, and most people don’t see any harm in them hand-drilling for soil and core samples. The trouble is, if they find something, the bulldozers and excavators will be here within a few weeks. Once they have permits and geological surveys that tell them where to start prospecting, it might be too late for us to stop them.”

Still the smartest kid in the room, he thought. “Sounds like you’ve done your homework.”

“You have no idea. This kind of thing goes on all the time, and in places where the residents don’t have the will or organization to put up some resistance, the big energy companies get what they want. I know the country needs to find more sources of oil and natural gas, but there must be better ways to do it.”

“I don’t doubt that, but it’ll take some really smart folks working together to make that happen.”

“That’s what the conservancy is all about. We just need more members.” After a pause, she frowned. “A lot more.”

He hated seeing her so dejected. He much preferred the in-your-face attitude she’d had earlier, even if it made him a target every once in a while. Fortunately, he held the key to lifting her spirits this time, and it felt great.

“You also need a bigwig who can help bring the right kind of attention to your cause.” Ty rocked his phone side to side. “Wanna meet your congressman?”

“Yes,” she replied without even a hint of trepidation. “You convince him to visit Mustang Ridge, and I’ll take it from there.”

He almost agreed, then realized there was a golden opportunity for him in this. It might be his only chance to mend fences with her, and he couldn’t let it slip by without at least giving it a shot. “Not so fast. Craig and I are friends, and he’ll be staying at my place while he’s here. I’m not just gonna make introductions and step away. I wanna be involved in the conservancy and what it’s trying to do.”

Those gorgeous blue eyes narrowed into glittering slits. “Why? You never cared about stuff like that before.”

“I do now. I want our daughters to grow up the way we did, in a wild place with plenty of fresh air and open space. Not choking on the pollution from a bunch o’ gas and oil rigs.”

He knew she wouldn’t accept his help on its own merit alone, but reminding her of one of her own reasons for doing this might persuade her to take him on despite their rocky history.

The front doors banged open, and several people flooded out, still arguing about what to do. JD was among them, and he detoured away from the group to join Morgan and Ty.

“Ready to go?” he asked his daughter.

Clearly thinking about what Ty had said, she hesitated and then nodded. “Yeah.” Connecting with Ty again, she gave him a wry grin that told him she wasn’t thrilled with his proposal but recognized that it made sense. “So, call your politician buddy and set up a visit. You and I can take him around and show him how beautiful this area is and let him see for himself why it’s worth saving.”

Thrilled with her approval of his plan—however reluctant it might be—he barely held back a triumphant whoop. Instead, he grinned and nodded. “Will do.”

“And you can stop being all grown-up,” she teased, the grin shifting to a slightly warmer version. “I know you’re dying to go all yee-hah on me.”

“Well, now, that’d be immature. I’ll wait till I’m in my truck.”

That got him a short laugh, and she walked away with JD, shaking her head. Ty watched her go, and for the first time in months, he felt as if things might finally be shifting to go his way.

What she’d given him wasn’t exactly the I forgive you that he was hoping for. But it was a start.