Chapter 1

Rick’s Flight to DFW

My name is Rick Davidson and I graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA, first in my academic class. Because of my academic excellence I was designated valedictorian of my graduating class.

My high scholastic achievement was rewarded with offers of full academic scholarships to several nationally renowned universities in my home state of Texas and several others of the surrounding states as well.

Since I really wanted to attend a university in the state of Texas I chose the internationally known engineering university in Houston. I enrolled there and chose Mechanical Engineering as my major.

Later I chose to add a double major of Petroleum Engineering along with my Mechanical Engineering major. At the end of the four years I graduated from the university with my Bachelor of Science Degree in both of my major Engineering disciplines. After receiving my BS degrees, I decided to remain at the university to pursue my Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Upon receiving my MS Degree with honors, I was offered a job with a medium sized nationally known oil and gas exploration and production company with main offices located in the nearby city of The Woodlands, Texas, just north of Houston.

Through my hard work, my level of expertise, my level headedness, my attention to detail and my ability to get along well with and supervise others I quickly rose to the level of Director of Engineering and Research.

That position involved a large responsibility principally for the support of exploration and production operations, subordinate employees as well as a very large budget reporting directly to the Vice President of the company.

This responsibility required a large amount of my time including working late into the evenings and on many Saturday mornings as well and even some entire weekends. I was also required to do quite a bit of traveling for my company both domestically and internationally with some international travel requiring travel time durations of up to and once in a while exceeding one month.

This Saturday morning, leaving my Manager of Research in charge of the entire department during my absence, I left my office in The Woodlands and drove to the Houston Intercontinental Airport a short distance away where I caught the late morning flight to DFW where I planned to meet my younger sister, Julie.

She had agreed to meet me at DFW so that we could drive directly to the little town about 30 miles from Fort Worth where we both had gone to elementary school, middle school and high school.

Our parent’s large cattle ranch where we were both born and grew up was located about ten miles west of our hometown. To most people of the cities we were considered to be way out in the sticks also referred to by urban residents as – BFE.

Ordinarily, I would have chosen to drive the nearly 300 miles from The Woodlands to our hometown. Texas is a little bit larger than most states as most people already know. However, that would have been at least a seven hour drive or more to our hometown.

Julie and I were invited to attend a wedding in our hometown and that of my best friend in high school, Sam, and Julie’s best friend in high school, Margarete, at 2 o’clock this afternoon. There just simply was not enough time for me to make the long drive, meet my sister, Julie, and arrive at the church for the wedding on time.

I had been invited to be Sam’s best man but, the 300 mile distance and my work load prevented me from doing that. Sam was my “go to” wide receiver when we played football in high school.

Margarete had been Julie’s best friend since they were in elementary school. Julie was invited to be Margarete’s maid of honor but Julie’s law firm’s work load had prevented her from accepting that honor as well.

My flight arrived at DFW airport right on time and as I got off of the aircraft I walked through the concourse toward the main terminal where Julie was waiting for me. As I neared the main terminal I could see my sister standing there talking to an older lady who looked remarkably like our mother.

I could see Julie’s shining, shoulder length, honey golden blond hair and her pretty face with her cute, engaging dimples on either side of her face, on each side of her mouth. Julie’s beauty was enough to melt the heart of most virile men and raise an intense longing in them for such a gorgeous looking young woman.

Julie was dressed in a meticulously tailored business suit that accentuated her striking and alluring hour glass figure. Julie who is 5 ft.-6 in. tall with a 126 pound frame is a noticeably statuesque, gorgeous looking, young woman.

I even remarked to myself how beautiful she looked and how lucky I was to have such a gorgeous and sophisticated looking young woman for my younger sister. Julie had told the older lady with whom she was visiting, “I’m waiting for my older brother to arrive from Houston who is tall (compared to Julie), trim with broad shoulders, and he has light brown hair somewhat darker than my own hair color.”

Shortly thereafter, the older lady said she saw a distinguished looking young gentleman resembling the description Julie had related to her, coming from the concourse who was about to step into the main terminal.

She told Julie, “I think that the gentleman just coming toward us right now might be your brother. He certainly looks like he could be your brother.”

Julie turned and looked in my direction and her eyes and face lit up with her bright, sparkling deep blue eyes and her broad, engaging smile. Looking at her I could see that she was dazzlingly beautiful.

She briefly and politely thanked the lady, told her she was happy to have met her and that she enjoyed their brief conversation. She then said good bye to the lady and hurried over to meet me just as I stepped into the main terminal just beyond the security barrier exit.

I set my luggage and brief case on the floor beside us and lovingly gathered my warm, beautiful sister up in my muscular arms as she stood on her tippy toes to throw her arms around my neck. I gave her a warm embrace while Julie kissed my cheek with a warm sisterly greeting.

Good Lord, it was so pleasing to have her warm, lithe body in my arms. I told her, “Julie, I love the beautiful fragrance of your perfume, Honey.” as I knew it was her favorite fragrance that she often wore.

She quickly said in reply, “I’m very glad that I dabbed a little of it on this morning for you when I was preparing to meet you, Rick.

Then she continued, “Oh, Rick, you’re just saying that because you’re happy to see me again. And I’m happy to see you again, too, after almost a year, Rick.”

“Absolutely, I’m happy to see you, too, Julie. How could anyone not want to see such a beautiful young woman as you are?”

It had been almost a year since I had found the time to travel to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to see and visit with Julie since our mother had passed away. Since both our father and mother had passed away Julie was my one remaining, living relative.

Julie greeted me with the endearing name she had called me since we were toddlers, “Rick Baby”, and I greeted her with the name I had called her during our childhood days of “Baby Sister”. We rarely used those endearing names anymore.

Although we have kept in constant contact, we were very happy to see one another. Julie told me, “I’m so happy to see you after nearly a year’s separation, Rick. I wish we lived closer together so that we could see each other more often. I really miss not having you here to talk with and to go out to eat supper with me.”

In response, I told Julie, “I’ve been very much looking forward to seeing you again, too, Honey, as there is so much for us to talk about and catch up on. But, we’ll have to talk about all that later after the wedding when we are at home on the ranch tonight.”

About Julie Davidson

Julie Davidson is my only sibling and she is two years younger than I am but, we were raised from the time we were toddlers to be very close to one another and to look out for one another.

We were very close to one another all during our childhood and all through our school years. I had always diligently looked after my baby sister and I have always been very protective of her.

Most guys in high school knew all too well not to mistreat her in any way because they knew that they would have to answer to me and they knew that I would not tolerate anyone mistreating her.

Thank God, I never had to take anyone to task for mistreating Julie. Julie had looked up to me and always vigorously stuck up for me at all times if any untrue comments were ever said about me.

Julie was not to be out done by her older brother. She graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA and she, too, was designated valedictorian of her graduating class. She had always wanted to work toward a law degree and was offered several full scholarships at several universities in the State of Texas and some of the surrounding states as well.

She chose to attend the University of Texas at Austin, AKA “The Longhorns” or to many in Texas “Tea Sippers”, and she received her law degree there. Julie wanted to attend a Texas university so that she would not be that far away from our parents and their ranch outside of Fort Worth and not be that far from me, her brother, in the Houston area either.

Julie had worked diligently through pre-law and law school, received her law degree and immediately set about the task of taking the bar exam. After passing the bar exam and being admitted to the Texas Bar she was offered a position with a small law firm in Fort Worth that principally dealt in land lease acquisition for oil and gas exploration.

She had joined the law firm as a junior attorney and was quickly promoted to senior attorney. Julie had rented an apartment in Fort Worth conveniently located not far from the law offices of the law firm where she was employed.

Working in Fort Worth her apartment was close to her office and she could spend many weekends visiting with our parents on the ranch and some of her high school friends that remained in the general area and other friends as well.

Rick And Julie’s Parents Passing Away

About a year after Julie had settled into her new job and her new apartment she received a telephone call from our mother saying that our Dad had been critically injured in an accident on the ranch.

Our Dad had been taken to a major trauma center hospital in Fort Worth. Our Mom asked that she call me and tell me about our Dad and then meet her and our mother at the trauma hospital.

I was able to leave my work and fly to DFW immediately that day and meet Julie and our Mom at the hospital. Along with our Mom we stayed by our Dad’s side during the night but, he passed away the next morning from his injuries. Of course, our Mom, Julie and I were overcome with grief on our Dad’s passing.

I stayed with our Mom and Julie as long as I could after our Dad’s funeral but, I had to return to The Woodlands to my work. Julie continued to stay with our Mom at the ranch at night as our Mom told Julie and me that she needed Julie to remain with her at the ranch.

Our Mom said that she could see the ghost of our Dad in every corner. Since Julie’s work was within driving distance of the ranch she commuted to her office in Fort Worth each day to work. She later gave up her apartment and moved back to the ranch to spend her nights and weekends with our Mom.

Julie and I had thought that life had begun to return somewhere to near normal but, then a couple of years after our Dad had passed away our Mom was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Our Mom was given only six months to live and she was transferred from the hospital to a hospice. When her condition grew so severe Julie called me to let me know her condition had become much worse. I then immediately flew up to be with them before she passed away.

The evening before our Mom passed away she called both Julie and me to her bed side. She told us in her very weak voice how much she loved each one of us and how proud she was of us for what we had accomplished thus far in our lives. She also said that she knew that our Dad had loved us both very much, too, and he was very proud of both of us, as well.

Each of us told our Mom that we loved her and our Dad very much, too. She then made us promise her to continue to stay very close to one another and to look after and take care of one another. Little did she know just how very close we would become.

Our Mom then passed away early the next morning. Julie held up pretty well during the time Mom was sick but, there were a few times that I saw tears begin to form in her eyes. I knew that Julie’s love for our parents especially our Mom was boundless.

However, when she realized that Mom had finally passed away I could see the clouds of grief and sadness slowly spread across her pretty face in the same manner that a midsummer afternoon Texas thunderstorm slowly spreads across the Texas prairie from horizon to horizon refreshing all the land stretching between the horizons and quenching and refreshing the earth with its cooling, drenching rain.

Julie got out of her chair stepped over to me with her eyes full of tears. She put her arms around me and laid her head on my shoulder, her tears flooding my shirt like that Texas thunderstorm.

She said, “Hold me tight, Rick. I loved her so much and I’m going to miss her terribly and now she is gone.” as she sobbed with her head laying on my shoulder expressing her grief.

I knew that I had to maintain my composure for Julie’s sake even though I was on the verge of tears myself. I put my arms around her, held her tightly and held her very close to me kissing her forehead and her cheeks gently holding her head next to my shoulder with my unspoken brother’s love for her. Julie could feel my love for her as I was holding her in my arms and I could feel her love for me as she melted into my arms.

“I loved her very much, too, Honey, and yes she is gone but, you know that she has left us a treasure of her and Dad’s love. But, most of all she has left the pain and suffering of her sickness behind her and she is in a much more peaceful place now.

More importantly she left all of her love here for us like she told us last night. You know that she is now with Dad and they are holding each other just as we are holding each other right now.

She is telling him how much she missed him and how proud she is of us like she told us last night. They are holding and kissing each other as both you and I have seen them do a thousand times all during the time we were home as kids on the ranch. Let our grief for her turn into happiness that she and Dad gave us all that they did and they are now together for the rest of eternity.”

“Rick, I don’t know what I would have done without you here. You always know how to make me feel better about things and make me happy in times of sadness and grief like this. I can’t tell you how much I love you, too, Rick.” as she kissed my cheek and then she very lovingly kissed me lightly on my lips. I felt that the love she was showing me was much more than our Sister Brother love for one another.”

“I always want to make you happy, Sweetheart, because when I see that you are not happy I’m not happy either. Julie, I think that the love Mom had for us and left with us is that much more than we are sharing with one another right now.

And I want us to continue to share that love with one another the rest of our lives.” As I tried desperately to keep my half stiffie from developing into a full stiffie and hoping that Julie didn’t feel it poking into her lower tummy as she held me so tightly to her.

I knew that I shouldn’t have this kind of a reaction to my beloved sister but, damn, how the hell do I control my emotions when I am holding such a beautiful, soft, warm young woman tightly in my arms who just happens to be my very beautiful and very loving little sister? Julie did not indicate that she felt my half stiffie poking into her tummy; she just looked at me with that knowing look in her eyes.

The expression on Julie’s face slowly changed in the same way the bright sunlight that often comes out right after that Texas thunderstorm has moved on across the Texas prairie.

She dried the tears from her pretty eyes and her eyes became very bright with her love. Then she squeezed me very tightly as if to say, “I guess that is why I love you so much, Rick, and I’m never going to let you go just like Mom wants us to do.”

After our mother’s passing and her funeral Julie remained on at the ranch and managed it with the help of our loyal and trusted Ranch Operations Manager, Carlos, with the insightful help from me over the phone or on Face Time.

Rick And Julie Attend The Wedding

Julie and I walked out of the main terminal of DFW to the parking garage chatting as we walked and I was carrying my luggage and my brief case with Julie’s arm entwined with mine.

Meanwhile, Julie dug into her purse, got out the keys to her car, taking the brief case from my hand she handed the keys to me. She then asked me, “Rick, I want you to drive to the church for Sam and Margarete’s wedding ceremony. Will you drive for me please?” After loading my luggage into the trunk, I opened the passenger door and gentlemanly helped Julie get into the car and carefully closed the door for her.

Once in the car and underway I asked her, “Are you getting tired of the heavy traffic on these freeways already, Julie.”

“Yeah, Rick. I get tired of the people that tail gate me and cut me off when they change lanes and the obscene gestures that they make to me and other women on the freeways especially those truck jockeys in their 4WD monster pickup trucks who feel like other people haven’t any right and shouldn’t be on the road.”

“Well, so far the traffic hasn’t seemed to be as bad as the traffic on the Houston freeways. We should get to the church in plenty of time for the wedding. I guess that is because of the time of the day. The real rush hour hasn’t even started yet.”

During the drive we chatted about the wedding and Sam and Margarete, more about the ranch and Carlos, our respective work and workloads, our friends and what we expected for the future.

Julie said to me, “In all the excitement I almost forgot but, I have some important and exciting news to tell you. However, since we’re so close to the church we’ll not have time to discuss it in detail now but, we’ll have time later after the wedding and we can have a full length discussion about my good news later.”

We arrived at the church about half an hour before the wedding was to begin and we took our places in the church pew with the other guests in plenty of time to see the flower girl, the ring bearer, the bride’s maids, the maid of honor and the bride proceed up the center aisle, take their places before the minister and then the wedding ceremony began.

Julie was so taken by the wedding that she had to borrow my hand-kerchief when her tears began to flow. She thought that Margarete was such a beautiful bride and it was such a beautiful wedding. When she handed it back to me I had to tease her about her makeup running with her tears.

After the wedding ceremony was over, the bride in accordance with an age old wedding tradition stood on the church steps and threw her bridal bouquet backwards over her shoulder to the marriage eligible women and girls in attendance. Julie being somewhat taller than most of the other women and girls there, caught the bouquet.

Having caught the bride’s bouquet is traditionally supposed to signify that she would be the next woman to be married. Julie thought to herself that is the best omen that she could think of not really putting much credence in the old custom. But, none-the-less it is a quaint custom for the bride and the eligible women to engage in after the wedding.

The wedding reception was held next door to the church in the church hall and, of course, Julie and I attended the reception to congratulate the newly married couple and visit with them and other friends that we had not seen for quite some time. I was visiting with several of my friends while Julie visited with several of her friends as well.

Refreshments were served along with slices of the wedding cake, soft drinks and coffee but, no alcoholic beverages were served as the church did not allow alcohol on church property.

Julie and I both knew that there was a bottle or two being passed around on the sly but, nothing was ever said about that as long as it wasn’t done blatantly in open view. As it is not unusual for a small town church wedding there were no evening meals to be served to the wedding guests.

While I was visiting with my friends I occasionally looked in Julie’s direction and watched her beautiful honey golden blond hair swish from side to side as she turned her head to visit with several of her friends and I remarked to myself, “She is the prettiest young woman at this wedding reception.” I also thought to myself, “But for the fact that she is my sister Julie would make the most beautiful and ideal wife for me.”

Julie was also occasionally watching me with my 6 Ft.-2 in., 210 pound frame, broad shoulders and my handsome face. Julie in turn thought to herself, ‘Rick is the most distinguished and most handsome looking man at this reception.’ She continued to think to herself, ‘If Rick was not my brother I would love to make that old wedding tradition come true and become his wife and have his babies.’

Finally, Julie and I located one another among the other guests and we mutually agreed, “It is getting late in the evening and nearing meal time as we are both beginning to get very hungry not having had our lunch.” We said our good byes to the wedding couple and to our friends and left the reception.

I asked Julie, “Honey, are you thinking the same thing that I am about a place to eat?” We both said at the same time: “Hanks Texas Barbeque.” which was located there in town.

Hanks had been our favorite place to eat since we were kids living at home on the ranch with our parents. We both thought that Hanks Barbeque was the best mesquite barbeque in Texas. Hanks Barbeque was located along the highway that led toward the ranch and was very convenient for us to get to from the church and the wedding reception.

After we each received our meal of barbeque ribs, ranch beans, cold slaw and iced tea, Julie began to relate to me about her exciting news. She told me, “Rick my law firm is in the first stage of opening up a new law office in the Houston area as Houston is the oil and gas center of the country if not the world.

Their choice of the specific location has been narrowed down to The Woodlands due to the number of oil companies and other support companies that have recently built or relocated their offices there and its close proximity to the Houston Intercontinental Airport, IAH, as you well know.”

“Since management knows that your office is located in The Woodlands and that you live there as well; they have offered me the opportunity to head up their new law office with an eventual promotion to Vice President of the law firm.”

I was quick to ask, “That is great news, Honey. How have you responded to your management’s proposal?”

A broad smile quickly appeared on Julie’s pretty face and, she immediately responded, “Rick, you know that you didn’t have to ask me that question. I’m certainly not going to turn down this great opportunity. You know that our Mom and Dad didn’t raise any dummies. There is no way I could pass up the promotion and the salary increase that goes with it.”

She continued and said, “Rick, I jumped at the opportunity to accept the new assignment and the new promotion. There is no way I could turn it down as that would give us a chance to be closer together since Mom and Dad have both passed away. I was thinking that we could leave the entire ranch management in Carlos’s hands when I relocate to The Woodlands.”

I quickly replied, “I agree with your proposal for Carlos to take over management of the ranch, Julie. How soon are you going to be able to open the office and relocate to The Woodlands?”

“I really don’t know, Rick. That hasn’t been decided yet. Upper management is still looking for an appropriate office building to house the business and settle on the number of people that we think that we will need for the business. I expect that it will be fairly small at first. And then it will likely grow in the number of people needed as the business grows.”

Carlos is a long time and trusted ranch employee who has been with the ranch for many years. He was one of the first ranch hands that our Dad had brought on to the ranch and Carlos had worked well with our family since before Julie and I were old enough to walk.

Both of us had known and liked Carlos very much from the time we were both toddlers as he always liked children and always treated us like we were his own children. Julie and I could not be more pleased to have Carlos available with his expertise and his competence to take over the entire management of the ranch. We both knew that Dad and Mom would both agree.

Carlos along with our Dad sat both of us on our first cutting horse as soon as we were old enough to set a saddle although our legs may have been a little too short to reach the stirrups.

Our Dad and Carlos had taught both of us how to ride and rope cattle. Both Julie and I are expert horsemen and we helped out on the ranch all during the time we lived on the ranch with our parents.

Carlos at one time had told our father that he thought both Julie and I were as good a hand as any of the rest of the wranglers on the ranch. While it was flattering to Julie and me, it was somewhat of an overstatement but, we both thanked Carlos for his very generous compliment.

Carlos and his family live in a separate home on the ranch in close proximity to our family’s ranch house. He and our Dad had taught Carlos’ two boys to ride and rope at an early age just like they had taught Julie and me.

His two boys worked on the ranch during and after high school as wranglers although, they were several years younger than Julie and I. His two boys had later gone off after high school on their own to follow the rodeo circuit and it had been some years since either Julie or I have seen and talked to either one of them.

Julie and I both agreed that Carlos would be the ideal person to take complete charge of the overall management of the ranch since he was already in charge of the day to day operations of the ranch as Ranch Operations Manager. We agreed to have a meeting with Carlos in the next day or two and discuss our plans for him and the management of the ranch.

We planned to tell him that Julie would soon be leaving the ranch to open the new law office in The Woodlands and offer him the position of Ranch Superintendent with a significant increase in pay. We planned to return to the ranch on a regular basis to meet with Carlos and review the ranch and the ranch operations with Carlos.

Rick And Julie Return To The Ranch.

Julie and I left Hanks Barbeque and we stopped at the small liquor store next door to Hanks and bought a couple bottles of White Zinfandel before leaving the parking lot. I bought the two bottles of wine since I knew that both Julie and I enjoyed that wine as an after dinner wine.

Once I had bought the wine and we got back into the car we headed to the ranch about ten miles away. We arrived at the ranch about fifteen minutes later and I told Julie, “We are back home at the ranch, Honey.”

It appeared that Julie had dozed off to sleep during the drive home to the ranch after dark. Out away from town there are no street lights and the only light that could be seen was the yard light over the ranch gate. It was even somewhat difficult to see where the cattle guard was located to enter the ranch property off of the main road.

As I turned off of the highway and crossed the cattle guard I drove the 100 yards up to the ranch gate. When we got to the ranch gate we were met by a man who had a six gun strapped to his hip. No, not an 1800’s single action six shot Colt Peace Maker, most people know from the western movies but, a much more modern S&W 0.357 magnum double action six shot revolver.

Carlos carried the 0.357 as a precaution against people who would like to steel (rustle) livestock from the ranch. As he stepped under the light I immediately recognized the man as Carlos. I rolled down my window and greeted Carlos to let him know who was in the car. “Hola, Carlos. How are you this evening, Amigo?”

Carlos responded, “Hey Rick. It’s good to see you Amigo.” Carlos indicated, “Rick, I thought I recognized Julie’s car and I’m happy to see that it’s you, Rick, and Miss Julie is with you, too.” He greeted Julie with his usual greeting of “Hola, Senorita Julie.”

Julie responded with her usual “Hello Carlos. Buenas Tardes”.

I then asked him, “Carlos, how are Calista and the boys.”

“They are all fine and the boys are going to be riding broncs and bull dogging at the Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo in early March. We are expecting and we are really looking forward to the boys stopping by here to visit with their Mother and me before they travel on to Houston to appear in the rodeo there.”