living, breathing entity, and needed her every day, now more than ever. She didn’t see how she could get away. She never did.
The three sisters had dinner together that night, and tried to figure out a weekend they could spend together to go through their father’s papers and personal effects. It was going to be painful, but it had to be done, and Kate didn’t want to do it alone, so she pressed them to join her. They finally settled on a date in early June, and then Caroline went back to the half-empty house she had hardly ever used, and Gemma to the small guesthouse where she always stayed. The three sisters hugged each other before they left, and Kate clung to each of them for a minute, wishing they had more time with each other. There was comfort in being together no matter how differently they viewed their father, and how differently he had treated them when he was alive. Despite their divergent views of him, he had loved them, and Kate thought he had been a good father. The one mystery they wanted to solve now was what had really happened with their mother, and what the truth was. Kate was sure there was an explanation for it. Caroline and Gemma weren’t as sure. It was an enormous lie to have told them.
It had been a strange few days with their father’s death, his funeral, and the discovery they had made about their mother, which gave rise to a thousand questions about the past.
Caroline was leaving early the next morning, and had arranged for a car to pick her up to take her to the airport for the flight to San Francisco. Gemma had to be on the set at seven A.M. in Burbank and had to start the drive at four, so they said goodbye that night.
Gemma and Caroline headed down the path together in the dark, as Kate called after them in the starry moonlit night, “I love you guys!” They turned and waved at her, as she watched them disappear and gently closed the door. There weren’t three more different women on the planet, but they were sisters and they loved each other, and as Kate thought about their father, she was sure that whatever his mistakes, he had loved them too. Now she had the ranch to run, and his legacy to carry on for him. She missed him more than her sisters would, since she saw him every day. She hoped that whatever they discovered about their mother wouldn’t shatter their illusions about him forever, and destroy their ties to each other. She needed them. They were the only family she had. And whether they knew it or not, they needed her. They each brought their own strengths to the table and complemented each other.
Chapter 3
Kate got up the next morning at four, just as Gemma was driving off the ranch. She heard the car drive by as she woke up.
She followed her morning routine, and was in the barn at five-thirty. She saw her father’s hat on a peg on the wall, and it hit her again that he was gone. For a minute, she had forgotten and was expecting to see him. It was a shock to realize that she never would again. She looked pale and stunned a minute later when Thad walked into the barn.
“You okay?” he asked, worried about her. She had a lot on her shoulders now, and it had been a hard few days.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “It just hit me again.”
“It keeps happening to me too. It doesn’t feel real yet,” he said, as he poured coffee into a mug and handed it to her. There would be decisions to make now, and all of them would rest on her, even if he was there to help her. The ultimate responsibility was hers. “I wanted to tell you what it meant that your father left me…” He stumbled over the words. “…what he did. He didn’t need to do that. I never expected it.” She smiled at him. He was a good man, and she was glad to have him there, more than ever now, to run the ranch with her.
“I’m glad he did. Are you going to buy a decent house now? Or a ranch?” The cabin he lived in was so small he hardly had room to move around in it, but always said it was enough for him, until he