Ward was reminded of the feeling he’d had during the landslide. Fear, accompanied by something that felt otherworldly, coursed through him.
Cheers rose up from the ground below, and Ward joined his voice to everyone else’s despite the fact that without that boulder in the way, Dot didn’t have to stay.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ranger Glover loved his ATVs, he wasn’t going to lie about that. He and Oakley had taken them out into the hills all summer, and it had been the perfect hour-long escape he needed from real life. They could get away from the crowd of family on the ranch. They could leave their baby behind and just be a couple again.
He loved the ATVs, and he loved his wife, and he loved his ranch. He really did. Sometimes, he just needed an escape from some of it, and the ATVs had provided that. Right now, they were also going to provide the way off the ranch for everyone in the family, and he couldn’t help wondering if the Lord had foreseen this landslide and prompted Ranger to buy the ATVs years ago so Shiloh Ridge would have them.
“Your turn,” he said to Preacher, and his cousin climbed on the back of the ATV to go with him down to the debris site. Ward drove the other ATV, and Dot had loaded up every available shovel on the ranch in the back of her big dump truck.
Bear and Bishop had each taken a truck full of men and water and granola bars down, and once Ranger got everyone else down there, he’d get to work alongside everyone else.
They were really just clearing away the debris off the lower road for right now. Huey and his crew had deemed it safe and useable, and they’d taken their excavator and themselves and left thirty minutes ago. Since Shiloh Ridge had plenty of manpower, their help was needed somewhere else for now.
When Ranger and Preacher arrived at the debris site, Ranger wasn’t surprised to find several more trucks had arrived. Squire Ackerman stood at the tailgate of his truck, handing a shovel to his sixteen-year-old son, Finn.
He gave one to Pete Marshall and then Brit Bellamore, who took the tool and then stepped back over to his truck. “I’ve got sandwiches,” he bellowed to the men, and Bear went to talk to him.
Ranger’s heart filled with love for the other ranchers in Three Rivers. It was a solid ninety-minute drive to Three Rivers from Shiloh Ridge, and Squire certainly had plenty of work to do around his own ranch after a storm like they’d had over Christmas.
With a smile on his face and a song in his heart, Ranger went to greet everyone. “You didn’t have to come,” he said to Squire as he took a shovel. “But we sure appreciate it.”
“If it were me, you’d be there,” Squire said with a smile. “Brit’s the one with food. I just raided our toolshed and brought shovels.”
And men, Ranger thought. And friendship. That was needed most of all sometimes.
“Put me to work, Ranger,” Jeremiah Walker said. “I brought Liam, Tripp, Rhett, Skyler, and Micah.”
Ranger gazed at the row of tall, strong Walker brothers.
“Wyatt got out of working because of his back.” Rhett grinned at Ranger and shook his hand. “He’s stopping at the bakery and Wilde and Organic, though. We gave him a shopping list.”
“I bet he loved that,” Ranger said with a chuckle.
All of the Walkers laughed too, and Skyler said, “I think Wyatt does like to shop, actually,” which only set them off again.
“My dad’s here,” Duke said as yet another truck arrived. Wade Rhinehart got out, along with his two younger sons. They all had shovels too, and Duke went to greet them and put them to work.
With that many hands and that many shovels, Ranger seemed to barely move much earth before the job was close to done.
“Let’s make a lot over here,” Bear said from the other side of the lane. “And anyone who can move those rocks, let’s get those lined up along the edge there, just in case more dirt starts to slide down.”
Ranger was happy to be second-in-command during times like this, and he tossed his shovel back into the bed of Squire’s pick-up before going with Mister to help move rocks. He bent, his back telling him to be careful.
“Got it?” Mister asked, and their eyes met.
“Got it,” Ranger confirmed, his fingers getting as far under the rock as he could. They lifted together, both of