The Ranger's Reunion Threat

by Lara Lacombe

  “I told them I thought the energy company might have something to do with it. The deputy, Diego and Abuelo all looked at me like I was crazy.” She shook her head. “But I know there’s something going on here. I just can’t put my finger on what it is.”

  Her suggestion gave him pause. Wyatt had already concluded the trap had been deliberately set and baited. Someone had walked onto ranch land with the intention of killing Cruz cattle. But he hadn’t thought the energy company was behind this. For Isabel to wonder about that, when she’d previously been interested in talking to the company about selling mineral rights, gave the idea more weight. “What makes you think the company is involved?”

  “The timing of it is awfully strange, don’t you think?”

  “How so?”

  “They made the initial offer almost two weeks ago. They came out to pester Abuelo again yesterday afternoon, offering an extension for more time to consider it. Maybe they’re trying to nudge us into saying yes by targeting our cattle. If we lose our animals, we lose our livelihood. We’d need a new source of income, and here they are, ready to give us a wad of cash in exchange for a few signatures.”

  Wyatt’s first instinct was to dismiss the possibility. What Isabel was suggesting was illegal. Surely a company wouldn’t take that kind of risk?

  But one look at her face made him bite his tongue. He could tell she was frustrated, but there was a hint of vulnerability in her eyes that touched his heart. Her brother, grandfather and the deputy sheriff had all dismissed her suggestion—even despite Diego’s antipathy toward the company—which had likely left her feeling even more alone. Wyatt wasn’t sure if he agreed with her suspicions, but he didn’t want her to feel unheard.

  “It’s possible,” he said slowly.

  “But you don’t think it’s true.” Isabel nodded, as if she’d expected his reaction.

  He leaned forward, wanting to be closer to her. “I’m not sure. It’s a good theory, but it’ll be incredibly difficult to prove.”

  “Yeah.” It was hard to miss the note of discouragement in her voice. Wyatt reached out and covered her hand with his own. When she looked at him, he offered her a smile. “I know I supported the idea of selling mineral rights, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind to how these companies work,” she said.

  “I know. I said it would be difficult to prove. Not impossible.”

  A ghost of a smile flickered across her face. “Does that mean you’ll help me?”

  Wyatt nodded without a second thought. “As best I can.”

  Isabel flipped her hand under his so they were palm to palm. She threaded her fingers through his and squeezed.

  The gesture was surprisingly intimate. Electric tingles shot up Wyatt’s arm as latent nerve endings sparked to life. He stared at their linked hands, wondering if Isabel was trying to tell him something, or if he was merely projecting his own hopes on to a simple gesture.

  There was only one way to find out.

  He took a deep breath and spoke before he lost his nerve. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.”

  “Why did you leave without saying goodbye?”

  He didn’t have to clarify anything. As soon as he’d said the words, Isabel’s face went carefully blank. She didn’t respond right away and the silence stretched between them, growing heavier with each passing second.

  “I suppose we do need to talk about that,” she said finally.

  Tension coiled within his chest. Wyatt felt like he was standing on a precipice, his toes hanging over the edge. This conversation was ten years in the making. And while he’d imagined it many times in his mind, now that the actual moment had arrived, he wasn’t sure he was ready.

  “Look, if you regret what we did that night, or if you feel like I pressured you...” Wyatt had been careful to ask Isabel if she was okay several times during their encounter, and she’d said yes. But perhaps she’d only been telling him what he had wanted to hear?

  Isabel held up her hand. “I don’t think that now, and I didn’t at the time, either. I knew what I was doing, and you didn’t take advantage of me.”

  Wyatt exhaled, relief stealing over him. The thought that Isabel had felt forced or otherwise been uncomfortable had haunted him for some time, gnawing away at his soul and causing him to question his memories of that night. Her reassurances alleviated his worries and gave him permission to look back on that night with pleasure instead of a vague sense of guilt.

  But if she hadn’t been upset about sleeping with him, then what had caused her abrupt change in attitude?

  “I don’t understand,” he began. “Why did you—”

  “Because I saw you the next day,” Isabel said, interrupting him. There was an edge to her voice now that told him they were getting to the heart of the matter. She leveled an accusatory stare at him, practically daring him to say something.

  Wyatt racked his brain, trying to figure out what he’d done the next day that she’d found so offensive. Hell, he hadn’t even seen Isabel then. He’d spent the morning at home, then gone into town in search of a new pair of jeans to take back to school. He’d hoped to take Isabel to dinner that night, but she hadn’t answered his calls.

  Isabel rolled her eyes, apparently frustrated by his lack of response. “I saw you,” she repeated again, speaking slowly. “With Nikki.”

  All at once, the pieces tumbled into place. “Oh,” he said dumbly.

  He’d run into Nikki while in town. She’d asked about his plans for the night and he’d explained he was busy. Sensing something was going on, she’d pressed him for information. Wyatt had confessed he had feelings for someone else and that he didn’t want to see her romantically again. Nikki hadn’t wanted to give up so easily, though. Before he’d known what was happening, Nikki had grabbed him and pressed her body against his, kissing him hard as she’d tried to convince him to change his mind.

  Wyatt didn’t know what they’d looked like to passersby, but if Isabel’s reaction was any indication, his discomfort with Nikki’s actions must not have been obvious.

  “You remember now, don’t you?” Isabel asked softly.

  “Yeah,” he replied. He withdrew his hand, moved it down his face. What he wouldn’t give to go back in time and change things! Instead of talking to Nikki, he’d turn around and walk away. It was mind-boggling that one simple choice had made such a drastic impact on his life.

  He met Isabel’s stare, expecting to find anger or disappointment there. Instead he saw a faint sadness in her brown gaze.

  “It’s okay,” she said simply. “It was silly of me to assume you had feelings for me after one night together.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” he said quietly. Her eyes widened slightly, a question forming on her lips. “I care about you,” he said, deciding to take the plunge and dive in. “I always have. That night meant a lot to me. I had hoped it was the start of something between us.” He leaned back in the chair, tilted his head to the side. “I didn’t run off to Nikki the next day. I bumped into her while I was shopping for clothes to take back to college. I told her I didn’t want to date her any more. What you saw was her attempt at changing my mind.”

  Isabel’s lips parted but no sound came out. A parade of emotions marched across her face: doubt, uncertainty, acceptance, frustration and regret. “My God,” she finally whispered. “I was so wrapped up in my own hurt that I never thought there might be another explanation for what I’d seen.”

  He gave her a lopsided smile. “Can’t say I blame you. If our roles had been reversed, I would have been angry, too.”

  She blinked, her eyes shiny as she looked at him. “You tried to contact me...”

  Wyatt nodded. “Now I know why you never answered.”

  They stared at each other, both trying to process these revelations and decide what they meant for themselves. For his part, Wyatt was rel
ieved to find Isabel didn’t hate him or feel like he’d used her. But he was heartsick over the misunderstanding that had changed the course of their relationship.

  How different would things be between them now if Isabel had seen him a few minutes before he’d encountered Nikki, or a few minutes after he’d extricated himself from her embrace? Would they still be together, perhaps even married with children and a dog? Or would they have eventually parted ways, heading in separate directions to chase their dreams? Either way, he felt certain they would have at least taken a chance on each other.

  Wyatt glanced out the window, so occupied with his thoughts he didn’t really see anything outside. He was glad to finally know why Isabel had suddenly pulled away from him, but now he felt cheated out of the past ten years of his life.

  “I don’t know what to think,” she said. He turned back to find Isabel shaking her head. “I was angry with you for a long time. But I couldn’t stay mad at you forever—there were too many good memories of the three of us growing up together, you know?”

  Wyatt nodded. “I do, yes.” It was the same reason he’d let go of his own hurt after she’d cut him off with no explanation.

  “I made my peace with it,” she continued. “That’s why I was able to move back here, knowing I would see you again. But now I feel like I’m in a bad reality TV show.” She let out a sound that might have been a laugh. “If this is the universe’s idea of a joke, it’s not very funny.”

  “I wish...” Wyatt began. He let the thought trail off. “Well, there’s a lot of things I wish were different. Doesn’t matter, though. It won’t change anything.”

  “Where do we go from here?” she asked softly.

  It was the only question, wasn’t it? They couldn’t go back in time, couldn’t relive those years. The only thing they could do was choose how to move forward.

  “I’m not sure,” he confessed. He was definitely still attracted to Isabel—that hadn’t changed in the time they’d been apart. But while in some ways he felt like he still knew her, in other ways she was a stranger. A decade was a long time to go without talking to one another. They certainly weren’t the same kids they’d once been. Would it be a mistake to assume they could simply pick up where they’d left off?

  But...given the time they’d already lost, would it be a bigger mistake to pass up this opportunity to reconnect?

  “Where do you want to go?” he asked. Hope tingled in his chest. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to find out if they were compatible. He refused to think the encounter in the bed of his pickup truck was the high point of their relationship.

  Isabel didn’t answer right away. She ran her hands over the thin hospital blanket, smoothing out invisible wrinkles. Finally she looked up at him, her eyes twinkling.

  “Why don’t we just drive around for a bit?” she said, echoing what she’d suggested to him ten years ago.

  Chapter 7

  Isabel blinked at the morning sun as the orderly wheeled her out of the hospital. She’d wanted to walk, but the orderly had insisted she ride.

  “It’s hospital policy,” the woman had said with a smile, locking the wheelchair into position so Isabel could sit.

  They came to a stop at the edge of the paved entrance, next to the patient drop-off and pick-up lane. The woman locked the wheels again, apparently prepared to wait with her until Diego arrived.

  “Can I stand up now?” Isabel asked.

  “Yes, of course.”

  She pushed herself out of the chair, happy to be on her feet after spending the day in bed yesterday.

  “Do you need me to wait with you?” the orderly asked.

  Isabel shook her head. “No, thank you. I’ll be all right. I have company.” She slid a glance over to Wyatt, who smiled.

  The woman looked from her to Wyatt and back again. “Very good. You take care.”

  “Thank you.”

  The orderly unlocked the wheelchair and pushed it back into the hospital, leaving the two of them alone. Wyatt inclined his head at a bench a few feet from the entrance. “Shall we?”

  Isabel nodded, following him over to sit on the pebbled stone surface. The bench was long, but by mutual unspoken agreement, they sat so close to each other their bodies touched, creating an unbroken line of warmth that ran from her shoulder to her knee. She reached for his hand, linking their fingers in a gesture that felt as natural as breathing.

  Wyatt had stayed with her last night. It wasn’t anything they had planned, but once they’d started talking, they hadn’t wanted to stop. They’d spent the night catching up on each other’s lives. Isabel had told him stories from college and vet school, and described some of her more outrageous cases. He’d told her about becoming a park ranger, and the special medical and rescue training he’d completed. She’d held her breath as he’d told her about some of the rescues he’d been involved with, and her heart had pounded as he’d described encounters with the wildlife in the park.

  She hadn’t ever thought about the details of a park ranger’s job before—part of her had assumed it was like a daily nature walk, a fun way to spend time outside. But Wyatt’s stories made her realize the job was far more interesting—and dangerous—than that.

  The conversation had flowed easily, a connection she didn’t take for granted. Learning the truth about what she’d seen ten years ago had been a shock and part of her still felt guilty for allowing her anger to rule her response. If she’d picked up the phone just once, listened to him explain everything, they might not have lost all that time. But her logical mind knew there was no sense dwelling in the past and torturing herself with the might-have-beens. Better to focus on the here and now. They’d been given a second chance. Now that she knew how he really felt about her, she intended to take it.

  “Are you sure you’re feeling up to going home?”

  Isabel smiled and rested her head on Wyatt’s shoulder. “Yeah. There’s a lot of work to be done. I can’t leave it all for Diego.”

  “Fair enough,” Wyatt said ruefully. “But you can’t blame me for worrying.”

  She gave his hand a squeeze. “At the risk of sounding crazy, I did kind of enjoy my time here.”

  “I did, too,” he said quietly.

  Isabel pulled away slightly and looked up at him, staring into those bright blue eyes that never failed to make her breath catch. Being confined to a hospital bed wasn’t her idea of fun, but the time she and Wyatt had spent together had been wonderful. For a few hours, they had blocked out the world and focused only on each other. The emotional distance between them had melted away, bringing them closer than ever before. There were still a lot of things they had to figure out, but Isabel was confident they were heading in the right direction.

  Together.

  His gaze was warm, making her skin tingle as anticipation and desire thrummed through her. They’d only talked last night. Perhaps it was time to do something more?

  Wyatt leaned forward, closing the distance between them. Isabel’s stomach fluttered as his scent filled her nose—soap, coffee and the faint twinge of horses left over from yesterday’s events. Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips and her eyes drifted shut as he moved closer.

  But a few seconds later she opened them again to find Wyatt staring down at her.

  “Are you teasing me?” she accused.

  “I didn’t mean to,” he said. “But it’s been so long since we were this close. I guess I was waiting for you to change your mind.”

  “You’ll be waiting awhile,” she murmured. She lifted her hand to his cheek, pulling him closer.

  The kiss was hesitant at first, a brush of lips and a whisper of breath. His whiskers scraped across her chin in a soft tickle that set off sparks low in her belly. Wyatt’s arms circled around her, pulling her body against him. Her breasts flattened against the hard planes of his chest, creating a delicio
us pressure that sent a wave of heat though her.

  All at once, she was back in the bed of his pickup, her body begging for more of his touch. How was it that one kiss from this man set her self-control on fire and made her desperate for more? She’d long ago attributed their physical chemistry to the effects of teenage hormones. But as he deepened the kiss, making her head spin, she realized just how wrong she’d been.

  Wyatt was intoxicating, like her own personal drug. Would she ever get enough?

  Let’s find out, her hormones suggested, happy to throw propriety to the wind. Fortunately, Isabel retained enough awareness to remember they were in public and after a brief internal struggle, she pulled back, breaking the contact between them.

  Wyatt’s eyes were wide with a wild gleam that she was certain mirrored her own gaze. He dropped his forehead to hers, their breaths mingling as the intensity of the moment faded.

  “That was...” he began, his voice rough. “Wow.”

  Isabel laughed softly. “Took the words out of my mouth.”

  He grinned suggestively. “I’m happy to carry on that kind of conversation with you any time.”

  Her fingers itched to pull him close again, but she fought the urge. Diego would be here soon and she didn’t want her brother to find them making out like horny teenagers.

  “Maybe later,” she said. “We’ll need some privacy before we talk again.”

  His answering smile was full of promise, lighting a flame of anticipation in her chest. Isabel was tempted to drag Wyatt back into the hospital and find an empty room so they could pick up where they’d left off. But the familiar rumble of a truck engine put a damper on her arousal.

  Diego pulled to a stop and rolled down the passenger-side window. “Hey, man,” he called. “Thought your friend was gonna give you a ride?”

  Isabel and Wyatt headed for the truck. He opened the back door and she slid inside, scooting behind Diego so Wyatt had room next to her.