Second Time Around

Grant Lord stood on the porch of his house on the Double L. It was the only spot for a solitary moment since the construction crew had remained on the promise of work in Montana instead of returning to Arizona where everything was on hold for a month or so.

The Lord heir pondered the state of his world from a purely analytical standpoint. The cattle ranch was expanding according to plan. The occasional construction architectural consult kept his hand in the design business just in case ranching went bust. He was working on a design for a modern day hacienda for José Vargas, which was a challenge since most of his designs were for brick and mortar buildings.

The ranch ledger was flickering around the border line between red and black which meant the profit schedule didn’t allow for any changes in the budget. This was a normal state of affairs for a start-up cattle ranch. But if the breeding plans continued to produce healthy steers, he could sell some of the year old ones in the fall.

Then there was his love life or lack of it. His pursuit of Betsy Edwards was a bit slow. They had not gotten much past the necking and holding hands stage when her car accident last summer had put his plans to marry on hold. Internal injuries made his usual course of action courtship inappropriate. Seducing an invalid would have made him a major cad. But like a true Lord, he proposed anyway and she said yes. Of course, Betsy was in the hospital and under the influence of strong drugs at the time.

I guess two out of three wasn’t a bad batting average.

With that conclusion, Grant went back inside to join the poker game with the motley crew he called friends. Grant retrieved a beer from the fridge and took a seat at the table where Tom Sanders, the three Destchin brothers, and Sonny Lawrence sat. The five men were the best construction crew in Phoenix, Arizona and now Centerville, Montana.

“Deal me in. Maybe my luck will change.”