“It is. I’m a lucky guy.” Aidan smiled but it didn’t quite reach his eyes, and Caleb wondered what his story was. Aidan was friendly, and clearly his ranch was a success, but there was something about him, kind of a lost feeling, that Caleb recognized. Maybe because he’d felt lost for a long time too.
Until Maya showed up and slowly but surely drove that feeling away.
“I’m just going to look over the sheep while we’re here.” Aidan turned and wandered off.
Caleb looked down at Maya, who was sitting totally relaxed in the grass, with a slight smile on her face. “You’re like these dogs. Totally at home living outdoors.”
She eyed him. “Are you trying to say I’m uncivilized?”
“Nah. I’m saying you’re independent. And you seem pretty happy out here in the big wide-open.”
“Well, you’re a rancher. You’re independent and pretty happy out here in the big wide-open too, right?”
His smile turned to a grin. “Yeah, I guess we’re alike that way.” He sat down next to her. “It’s really good to be around you again.”
“It’s good to be around you too.”
Caleb wanted to say more, to ask for more times like this, but it would ruin the moment. And she’d made it clear that moments like this were all they were going to get. So they sat in silence, watching the dogs and the sheep.
“What do you think?” she asked after a while. “Are there Anatolian shepherds in your future?”
“Absolutely. I want to get the name of the breeder Aidan used and call them when we get home.”
“That’s great news. And of course you have to try a flerd,” she teased him.
Flerd. Just the name was nuts. “Well, I’ll try pretty much anything, I guess.”
She looked at him with mock alarm, and then reached up to put a palm to his forehead, as if checking to see if he was ill. “Is this the same Caleb I met a few weeks ago?”
He grinned at her, happy, so damn happy, to be joking around in this field with her. “No. It’s not. You’ve changed me. And I truly appreciate that.” His gaze met hers and he couldn’t resist. He leaned forward and brushed a kiss on the soft skin of her forehead. He heard her breath catch in her throat, and she tipped her head up to look at him, her brown eyes so solemn. And there was that bond, those ties that had never really broken, tugging at him, pulling him down until his lips met hers in the sweetest touch, his mouth on hers for one perfect second.
And then she pulled back, her cheeks flushed, her glance shy, her words barely there. “Glad I could help.” She stood up, as if needing some distance between them. “I’ll just check and see if Aidan is ready to go.” And she was off, walking down the path to find their host.
He got up too and watched her go, pressing his lips together to memorize the feel of her. Wanting so much more of what they’d just had, but knowing he didn’t have the right to push her. He wandered back to the truck, to check on Einstein and give Maya the space she obviously wanted.
The big dog was asleep in the shade when Caleb approached, but he popped his head up and wagged his tail in greeting. Caleb knelt down and rubbed the dog’s ears and the thick ruff around his neck. “Help me out,” he told the mutt. “Help me talk her into staying.”
Einstein watched him carefully, ears up, as if he was truly trying to understand Caleb’s words. “And if she won’t stay, then take care of her for me. Okay, big guy?”
The dog sat up and offered a paw, as if he wanted to shake on it. So Caleb shook. And hoped he and Einstein could find a way to convince Maya to stay in Shelter Creek.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CALEB STEPPED AWAY from the old lambing shed to take it all in. There were people everywhere on his ranch. It wasn’t a barn raising; it was an entire ranch raising, and all morning he’d had to take breaks, take deep breaths, because he was worried that he might just start bawling like a baby.
Annie, Maya’s grandmother Lillian and all of their friends must have worked some kind of magic. Half of Shelter Creek was here—maybe more—all giving up their Saturday to rebuild his ranch.
So many people had shown up that Annie had divided them into crews. Most were here, rebuilding his lambing shed. Supervised by Jed Hurley, a local contractor, they’d already put up a new frame. And it was only ten o’clock in the morning.
Another group of locals had gone off to fix fences. Others were replacing the patched siding on the main barn. The entire crew of Shelter Creek Plumbing had shown up to repair his water pipes, so he could easily get water out to all the pastures. An electrician, Cory Prine, his former high school buddy and owner of Coast Light Electrical, was climbing all over the barn with his assistant, replacing the wiring.
Even Jace was here with his nieces and nephew, painting the new barn doors that he and Caleb had hung the other day.
Caleb couldn’t believe all these people had turned up for him. He hadn’t exactly been a social butterfly around Shelter Creek since he’d moved back to the ranch.
He wished his dad could be here to see all of this. Caleb had tried to call him, but his aunt had said he was out on the golf course. Golf? Since when had his dad played golf? But hey, if Dad had taken an interest in something, Caleb figured that was progress.
He’d tried Mom too. But she was in a meeting with an interior-design client, so after making sure nothing terrible had happened, she’d said she was happy for him and ended their chat.
As she’d hung up, Caleb had heard her say something to her client about chintz. He’d have to look up that word later. It was surreal that his mom lived in a world so different from his, so different from the world that they’d shared together, here on the ranch, that she had an entirely new vocabulary.
He should get back to work. He bent to pick up Hobo, who’d been his shadow today, concerned about all of the commotion around the normally silent ranch. The cat snuggled under his chin. “It’s okay, buddy,” Caleb told him. “Everyone is here to help us today.”
“Talking to your cat again?” Maya was walking toward him through the dry grass, with her jeans and shirt covered in sawdust, and Einstein hopping at her side.
Caleb grinned at the sight of them. The odd couple. Maya was tiny, contained, graceful and efficient. Einstein, propelling his huge body along on three legs, smiling his goofy, flop-eared doggy grin, was her gangly opposite. Yet somehow they fit together, because this was Maya, the champion of predators, the underdogs of the animal world. It made sense that she’d find the most underdog of all dogs and make it hers.
Einstein looked so happy, accompanying his mistress across the ranch. The mutt knew he’d struck gold when he’d met Maya. She was the human angel in his doggy heaven, and no way was the stray going to let her out of his sight.
Caleb knew just how he felt.
Watching Maya approach, with her faded, dusty jeans rolled up to reveal cute tan hiking boots, and her hair in a ponytail beneath her ball cap, the disconnected feeling he’d had after phoning his parents vanished. Because somehow she felt like home now. She felt like family. He was a fool to think it. Clutching on to her was like trying to grab on to the wind or one of the swallows that was circling indignantly above the barn. She was a free spirit, moving on soon. But she felt like his. His other half, that he’d lost for so long.
They were meant to be together. He just needed to find a way for her to see that too.
Hobo jumped down and growled at Einstein, a sharp grating sound. Einstein immediately sat, wagged his tail and whimpered, like he was desperate to make friends.
Maya laughed. “These two remind me a little bit of us six weeks ago. You all huffy and grumpy, and me trying to make it all okay.”
Caleb grimaced, remembering how rude and sullen he’d been. “Thanks for having patience with me. I’m glad you didn’t just give up.”
Maya’s cheeks seemed to flush a little pinker
and she knelt down to give Einstein a hug. “It’s okay, buddy. Hobo will come around. He’s just feeling insecure.”
He smiled at the indirect jab. “I guess you could call it that. Insecure, and a whole bunch of other things.”
She looked up at him, cheek-to-cheek with the old dog. “But we’re doing better now. Right?”
“Seems like.” They were friends, so that was certainly better than how they’d been when Maya first came back to Shelter Creek. But ever since that kiss on Aidan’s ranch two weeks ago, he’d wanted so much more than friendship.
They’d spent a lot of time together over the past two weeks, getting the solar-powered lights set up, making plans to reroute fences and researching changes to his lambing schedule. They’d even started mixing Caleb’s cattle in with his sheep, trying to get them to bond into a flerd, though Caleb still had trouble saying the ridiculous word.
He’d helped Maya install a couple of wildlife cameras around the ranch so he could see who was visiting at night. No mountain lions had shown up so far, but he’d been amazed to see how many coyotes, skunks, foxes and bobcats lived on his property.
But every time he’d tried to talk about that kiss, or how he felt, she’d change the subject and focus them right back on work again. She was always ready to help, but seemed intent on keeping him at a distance.
But then he’d catch her watching him, with this expression in her eyes that seemed like part admiration, part want, and part misery, and then he was sure she felt the same way he did.
Well, if she wanted to just be friends, he could do that, for now. But not for much longer. Just a few weeks ago he’d been numbing himself with drink so he wouldn’t have to feel anything. Now, thanks to Maya, he knew his feelings well. A few weeks ago, he couldn’t find words to share much of anything. Now his words were ready and just waiting to be spoken. That he loved her. That he wanted to be with her. He knew he couldn’t hold them back much longer.
Caleb glanced toward the lambing shed, and saw Jed waving at him. “Hey, since you’re already covered in sawdust, want to help me hang some plywood?”
She glanced down at her dusty clothes. “Sure. Don kicked me off the saw. Apparently Trisha’s cuts are way straighter than mine, so she’s his favorite now.”
Caleb laughed. “Don’s a character, all right.”
“How do you know him?”
“I don’t. He runs a lumber mill outside of Santa Rosa somewhere and he’s part of a veterans’ group there. Someone told him about the barn raising and mentioned that I’m a veteran too. So Don offered to come out with a truckload of wood.”
“Wow. He donated all that wood?”
Caleb nodded, still unable to believe the generosity. “Yeah.”
Maya laughed. “I can see you cringing when you say that. But the guy wants to help. I’m glad you’re letting him.”
“I felt like I didn’t have a choice. He pulled me aside this morning and told me he’d been injured in the first Gulf War. Went home, got better and volunteered to go back to Iraq again after 9/11. No way could I argue with a guy as brave as that. If he wants to donate wood, he can donate it. Hell, if he wanted to move into the barn, I probably wouldn’t say no.”
Maya rubbed Einstein’s ears, suddenly thoughtful. “It’s amazing how many people we see every day have done such incredible things. But you wouldn’t know it, just seeing them around town or driving next to them on the road.”
“You’re one of them. You’ve changed everything for me.” He took a step forward, hoping for the chance to reach for her hand, to tell her what was in his heart.
“We’ve changed things together,” she said briskly. “Come on. Let’s go build some walls.”
She started for the shed, and he didn’t have much choice but to fall in step beside her and keep things light. “Let’s just hope you’re better with a hammer than that saw.”
“Hey, I was decent with the saw! Just not as good as Trisha.”
“I’ve seen you trap and tranquilize a mountain lion. You don’t have to be the best with the saw. If you were, the rest of us would get intimidated.”
She glanced back at him skeptically. “You’re just trying to butter me up so I’ll do a good job on your lambing shed.”
He played along. “Yeah, that’s the reason.”
Maya smiled at him for a brief golden instant and then started running ahead down the sloping trail. “Come on, cowboy,” she called over her shoulder. Einstein broke into a three-legged gallop and raced to her side. Hobo took off like a streak of orange fire and Caleb knew. Tonight at the party to celebrate the barn raising, he’d tell her how he felt. That he was in love with her. That there had to be a way they could be together. Maybe he’d follow her, just like Hobo and Einstein, even if it meant selling this ranch and buying a new one in Colorado.
Maybe he could make her see that she belonged here with him.
Either way, he had to say something. He’d destroyed them once by lashing out and saying way too much. He wouldn’t lose her this time because he was too cowardly to say enough.
* * *
THE SUN WAS setting and the ranch was transformed. The lambing shed was completely rebuilt. All it needed was a coat of paint, and Jed said he knew a painter who owed him a favor. The siding on the barn was patched, and the doors and windows fixed. The driveway had been graded, and the barbed-wire fences along it replaced with fancy-looking wooden rails. There was plumbing and wiring and more generosity than Caleb had realized existed in the world.
Caleb hadn’t even known that there were so many people living in Shelter Creek, but all day long, as word of the barn raising spread through town and beyond, people kept showing up. They’d had to come up with new projects to accommodate all of the volunteers.
And now it was party time. The Book Biddies had strung lights between Caleb’s rewired barn and the oak trees that stood between the barn and the lane. Somehow they’d found a whole bunch of tables, which they’d decorated with colorful tablecloths and jugs of flowers.
People were arriving with dishes of food, bottles of wine and folding chairs. Several members of a local cooking club had brought gas grills, and the smell of barbecue rose, mouthwatering and smoky, from their makeshift kitchen area.
Caleb had been helping the band set up—and how he’d ended up with a band at his barn raising, he had no idea—and now they started into a classic country hit. People gathered around, turning the trampled grass in front of the musicians into a makeshift dance floor.
Maya’s grandmother, Lillian, came up to Caleb and pressed a cold beer into his hand. “You look like you could use this,” she said quietly.
He hesitated a moment. He hadn’t had a drink since the night before Maya had found him on his porch. But it was kindly meant, so he took it, relishing the icy bottle against his sore palms, blistered from a day of hammering. “I don’t know how to thank you and your friends,” he said. “I don’t know why you did it. After the way I treated Maya. After the way I blamed her. The way I let other people blame her.”
“Caleb!” Lillian looked a little startled by his blunt honesty. “You can’t be held responsible for what you did or said when you were seventeen, right after your sister died.”
She was being too kind. “Don’t they say that the real measure of who you are comes out in the hard times?”
“That seems a little harsh. What about all the stuff you’ve done between now and then? What about the years of service to our country? What about the way you’ve come back here and tried to turn this ranch around?” She reached out and patted his shoulder. “What about the way you’ve made my granddaughter smile again?”
“I’m not sure I can take credit for that.”
She gave him a conspiratorial smile. “Oh I think you can.”
Was she matchmaking? He hoped she was, hoped it was a sign that Maya shared his feelings.
“Thank you. For all of this.” He waved his hand at the party. “You and The Biddies transformed my life today.”
“Well, we can all use a little transformation sometimes.” She pointed to where Maya stood, talking to Trisha and Emily under the oaks. “You should ask her to dance, you know.”
Yep. She was matchmaking. And Caleb’s hopes rose in his chest as Lillian bustled off toward her fellow Biddies.
Caleb took a long, slow breath to steady his heart and studied beautiful Maya. She’d changed from her dusty jeans into a knee-length dress that she wore with tan cowgirl boots. Her hair fell down her back in a waterfall of rich brown, except she had braided the pieces in front so they stayed off her face. When she smiled at something Emily said, she chased away the last of the shadows that lurked in the corners of his heart.
He set his beer on a fence post, wiped the damp from his palms and started across the space between them.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
MAYA LISTENED TO Emily tell Trisha about their night with the mountain lion. It had happened over two weeks ago, but it felt like yesterday, the memories were so vivid.
It was one of the best parts of the job, those brief moments when she got to be close to such an incredible animal.
“Hey.” Caleb stood before her. He’d changed into clean jeans and a pale blue button-up shirt. He’d washed the dust of the day from his hair and it was slicked back from his face, one lock falling over his forehead, and she realized she hadn’t seen him cleaned up, without his beat-up old cowboy hat, since she’d run into him after the town hall meeting. And that night she’d been flustered. Distracted.
She wasn’t prepared for him like this. So handsome, so purposeful, his dark eyes intent on hers, his rolled-up sleeves revealing the tattoos on his forearms, mysterious and compelling, as he held out his hand. “Will you dance with me?”
Maya glanced at her friends and was met with raised eyebrows and big smiles.
Reunited with the Cowboy Page 19
