Read Online Stars Always Shine by Rick Rivera - Free Book Online Page B

lot of work to do around here, but it can get done, as Salvador and Place say, ‘poco a poco,’ which means that little by little things will start looking better. Maybe I can get some horses onto this property. I can probably have them within a month. You’ll have some income from that starting sooner than you thought you would. But really, Jacqueline, this ranch needs to be fixed up first. And your pocketbook can’t afford to lose a hand like Salvador. Just think about it. Come on, I’ll show you what we’ve worked on this week.”
    Mitch showed Jacqueline the inside of the ranch house first. She was tearing down old wallpaper and preparing the walls for painting as Jacqueline had asked. The old doors would be sanded and revarnished next. The enormous job of refurbishing the floors would take time as the old carpet needed to be ripped out and the worn linoleum had to be peeled from the kitchen and bathrooms. Jacqueline and Mitch then walked out toward the pastures and barns. Mitch made pointing motions to the left and right, showing her where they had cleaned, pruned, or moved something.
    From his kitchen window, which was blocked by his outhouse, Salvador leaned over the sink and stretched his neck at an angle. With a sliver of a view, he watched the two women as they walked around the ranch. In the milk barn, Mickey stretched, scratched an armpit, wiggled his toes, wiped his eyes of sleep, and decided to wake up.
    Jacqueline was not satisfied with the slow progress, but she did feel better. Mitch knew of the importance of evidence, and she made it a point to walk Jacqueline all the way to the end of the property and then over to the western portion of the ranch. It was a long walk, and most of the way Jacqueline stopped frequently to catch her breath or rest her legs, pretending to inspect a gate or check to see that a waterer had been cleaned. Mitch emphasized what was occurring with the irrigation and explained to Jacqueline the finer points of what her contract with the water district called for. She showed Jacqueline the cleaner barns and pointed out the neatly shaped shrubs and trees as well as the lawns surrounding the ranch house that were already showing deeper shades of green despite the late season.
    Returning to the milk barn, they met Mickey, who greeted Mitch and expressed a distinct pleasure with the progress in such a short time.
    Jacqueline remained unconcerned as Mickey complimented Mitch. “You guys really did some work around here. I can see a big difference already. It looks great. Well, we better tend to those cows.”
    “What cows?” Mitch asked.
    Behind the barn was a stock trailer with six calves. Mickey had purchased them on the way to the ranch, and they would be the first pasture tenants. Jacqueline’s and Mickey’s horses would come up next week.
    “What do you plan to do with them?” Mitch asked.
    “Raise them for beef,” Mickey answered. “If you want to live like country folks, you do what you can to raise your own food.”
    Mitch did not like the idea of cows on the ranch, but since it was not her property, she was not going to point out to Jacqueline and Mickey that the fencing on this ranch was suited primarily for horses. With their tendency to push and lean and want their sides scratched, cows would do a considerable amount of damage to the wood and hogwire fences of StarRidge Ranch. The fence would be bowed in no time. Perhaps the Kittles thought that since there was an old milk barn on the property, the ranch could accommodate cows. Mitch had wondered too about a milk barn on what was previously a thoroughbred setup. When she went to the title company and county recorder’s office to research the history of StarRidge Ranch, she discovered that decades ago it had been a dairy, and the only remaining artifact to indicate that was the bonnet-roofed milk barn; the rest of the ranch had long since been redesigned for horses. She found out too that the little round house