thrills was when she was the rodeo queen one year. It allowed her to demonstrate her riding skills, but be seen as a girl. Her father thought it was silly, but was proud of her anyway.
Kate had gone to college, because her high school teachers said she should. She’d gone to a state university, and hated it. Her father said it was a waste of time, and he needed her on the ranch. Kate missed her father, the ranch, and her sisters the whole time she was there. Gemma skipped college entirely and left for L.A. during Kate’s sophomore year. Caroline had gone to Berkeley at the start of Kate’s senior year. Kate couldn’t wait to get home when she graduated, and never left again.
* * *
—
As the girls grew up, Jimmy had chosen the right female companion twenty-four years before. He was forty when they met. Juliette had grown up in the Camargue, where the wild horses were in France, in a small seaside town. Juliette Dubré was a young widow, thirty years old, who had lost her husband in a mountain climbing accident, and took a year off to try to recover. She had come to the Santa Ynez Valley on a whim, met Jimmy, and stayed. He was passionate about her, but they were discreet. He let her live in a small guesthouse on the ranch. She was a bright but quiet woman who enchanted him. She never engaged in battle with him, or challenged his sometimes outrageous, very male positions. She was subtle in her influence, and gentle in her ways with him. She was a beautiful young woman with a wild mane of red hair and green eyes. He had fallen in love with her, but never forced her on his children, and she stayed in the background, preferring to be their friend, rather than vying to be their mother. Several local women had been after Jimmy before that, but between the ranch and his daughters, he’d had little time to date, although he was considered a catch, as the ranch grew rapidly in its size and success. Juliette always waited for him quietly in the shadows. They spent hours together, talking, and over time she subtly introduced him to some of the cultural pursuits she enjoyed. She was a good rider too, and knew about horses, which he loved about her.
He didn’t ask her to come and live with him in his house until Caroline, his youngest, left for college. After Kate graduated and returned, none of the girls were surprised to see Juliette living in the main house with him when they came home, and she was so gentle and discreet that none of them objected to her. She didn’t crowd them or force herself on them. Kate was the closest to her because they saw more of each other living on the ranch. All of them were puzzled why he had never married her, but Juliette didn’t seem to care and was satisfied with the arrangement they had.
She was ten years younger than Jimmy, fifty-four now, still beautiful, without artifice or makeup. Even in her mid-fifties there was an undeniably sexy quality to her, and a youthful style. She did the books at the ranch, and helped him run the livestock auctions, with Kate’s help. But he was more inclined to give Juliette credit than his daughter, although Juliette always reminded JT of how hard Kate worked at everything she did for him. He took it for granted since the ranch would be hers one day too, and her sisters’, though Gemma and Caroline wanted no part in the running of the ranch, or even being there. They had their own careers and were happy to be away from it. The ranch was Kate’s career, her passion, her life and great love, to the exclusion of all else, most of the time. She had no opportunity for romance, and didn’t seem to care. There weren’t many options in the Valley and the boys she had gone to school with were all married and had families by now, in their early forties. The girls she had gone to school with had been married for years. Their friendships had fallen by the wayside, as they had less and less in common, once her old classmates had husbands and kids. Her more serious romances in college could never have lasted. She knew they had to end. The men she had dated would have