Sea Of Grass Read Online Free PDF

hearty laugh. “So much like your mother. Just as sarcastic and independent as she was.” He stopped and frowned for a moment. “Come to think of it, you’re just like my mother. It’s in the Rawlins women’s blood, I suppose. God help us all.”
    “Yes, it’s a curse. C’mon, get down from there. You look tired. Take the car home. I’ll ride Daphne.”
    “You remember how?”
    Tess glared as he slid off the mare and stretched his back. She gave him a stern look. “How long were you riding this morning?”
    “Oh, hush. I’m fine. I can’t stay off a horse for too long. You know that,” he said seriously. “I remember the days when I’d ride the range all day and into the night.” Jed looked around and smiled. “I was happiest out here in the open with my brothers and your granddad. Being in the house sometimes makes me feel closed in and restless.”
    Tess said nothing as she took the reins from him. She watched him stretch his back; he looked so tired.
    “I remembered how your mother and I would ride together at sunset and watch the moon as it swept across the grassland. Just as my mother and father did and his before.”
    They stood in silence for a moment almost, Tess thought, out of respect. Finally, Jed reached over and kissed Tess on the cheek.
    “That’s what I want for you, sweetie. Someday to have someone—”
    “To ride into the sunset with?” Tess grinned innocently.
    “Yes. Even if it’s another woman and I don’t get a grandson. I love you.”
    Tears leapt to her eyes. “Thanks, Dad.” She sniffed loudly as she mounted the horse, ignoring the deep groan. “I love you, too. Now get back to the house.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” He mumbled back, “Just as bossy as your mother.”

 

    Chapter 4

    Tess rode Daphne as hard as the old mare would allow or perhaps as much as Tess could stand. She felt her thighs burning and her ass aching after only a few minutes. She enviously watched her father drive down the road leading back to the warm house and immediately thought of Chuck’s idea of her helping out with the cattle.
    “He’s insane,” she said, deciding to take the shortcut across the grassland to the house. Haven’t been on a horse like this in years and he wants me to herd cattle, she thought, trying to ignore her sore ass and how her insides were being jostled around.
    On the way, she slowed as she came near the old family house. It still looked in pristine condition, considering no one had lived in it for years.
    Her great-grandfather Ned Rawlins married Lucy Rogers from nearby Missoula in the late 1880s. That’s where they got the name for the ranch, Double R—Rawlins and Rogers. Together, Ned and Lucy built the six-bedroom mansion in 1887. There were seven children born in that house; five survived. Her great-uncle Jeremiah was the last of five children who, as they grew, helped work this land. Tess’s uncles and aunts each lived in that house even after they married. Jeremiah was the only one who left. Jeremiah wanted to be a teacher, so he left for California, met his wife, and stayed on at the university, the same university—University of California at Berkley.
    Still deep in thought, Tess slowed the old mare and trotted to the road leading to the big house that was now abandoned. The log house was enormous with a wraparound porch that gave it a wide-open look. Tess remembered playing on the front porch with her brother and cousins as her grandparents laughed and rocked on the porch swing. Times were lean in the sixties, and the Rawlins family pooled their resources and their love; they dug in, holding on to the land and the Double R Ranch.
    Tess jumped off Daphne and tied her loosely to the front porch rail. She walked up onto the old wooden porch, amazed that the flooring stood the test of time and the Montana winters. The sound of her cowboy boots against the wooden planking echoed along the lonely porch. As she turned around, she leaned against the railing and