Marissa’s heart leaped. “You mean up in that log house at the top of the hill from my backyard?”
“Yep.”
Marissa recoiled, not liking the idea of him living so close to her that he could see everything that was going on. No wonder he was right down at her house, johnny-on-the-spot, as soon as she walked in the door.
When they arrived at her parked car Riley slid his Stetson back on his head and gave her a hopeful look. “Since you’ve agreed to visit an elderly lady, go to Heidi’s for dinner one night this week, and babysit Katy, there should be no reason for you to turn down an invitation from me. But we’ll see. Would you go out for lunch with me on Tuesday at The Lunch Box?”
“Cindy and Dave take off during lunch and leave me to handle the store,” Marissa answered quickly, trying to come up with a valid excuse to not accept his invitation.
“We don’t have to go at noon. We can go after they get back.”
“I don’t know each day when they will want to go.”
“Marissa, it’s just lunch. I’m not going to bite you or anything.”
“Why do you want to go out for lunch with me? There are plenty of other available women for you to eat with.” Marissa’s heart was beating hard and fast.
“I’d like to get to know you more. I find you attractive and interesting. Is that so bad?” Riley’s eyebrows arched.
Marissa didn’t know what to think of his request, or the fact that he claimed to find her attractive and interesting. Mark had found her attractive and interesting too when she first met him. Would spending time with him really be a wise thing to do?
As she chewed on her lower lip for a few minutes, Riley said, “Look, I’m sorry. It’s obvious you’re trying to come up with an excuse not to go. So, let’s forget it.”
She let out a little sigh. “No. I mean, yes, I’ll go to lunch with you on Tuesday, if you’re sure you want to do this.” Where did that come from? He was right, she was trying to find an excuse not to go. “Dave and Cindy go to lunch from eleven-thirty to twelve-thirty. We can go at one o’clock if that’s not too late for you.” Maybe the time wouldn’t work for him.
“One o’clock on Tuesday is fine with me. I’ll stop by and we’ll walk across the street.” Riley smiled at her. Her heart skipped a beat when she gazed up at him.
“Okay. I’ll see you then.” Marissa tried to hide her nervousness and excitement as she got into her car and backed out of the driveway and onto the street. Girl, what in the hell were you thinking? He just wants to go to bed with you and know your business.
Marissa arrived at home and took her chicken dinner in to put in the refrigerator. So much for a quiet life. Sighing, she grabbed her water jug and filled it with water and her snack bars, climbed back into her car, and drove to the dig site. Glad she could get away, she hoped she had no more interruptions.
* * * *
After Riley walked Marissa to her car, he was on his way back to the chicken feed when he got a call. “Sheriff McCade,” he answered.
“Hey, Riley. This is Deputy Murchison. There’s a disturbance in Potter Town and they’d like an officer to come out.”
“What’s the disturbance?”
“Same as always—the two main ranches outside of town are butting heads again.”
“Okay, I’ll take it.”
“Do you want someone to go with you?”
“I’ll get Jack to go with me. Thanks, Murchison.”
Riley reached the fire department and saw Jack talking to Mitch, one of the firefighters.
“Hey, Jack,” Riley said.
“Yeah.”
“Want to go with me to Potter Town? More trouble at the two ranches again.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
Riley turned to Mitch. “Could you do me a favor, Mitch?”
“Sure.”
Riley handed him five dollars. “Could you grab some chicken and a few of the fixings and put it in a Styrofoam container, then leave it on my desk at the station? I don’t know when I’ll get back.”
Mitch nodded. “Will do.”
Riley and Jack got into the cruiser and headed south, out of town.
“I swear these two ranches are like the Hatfields and McCoys.” Riley shook his head.
“Wonder what they’re fighting about now,” Jack said.
“Probably a damn horse from one ranch crapped on the property of the other ranch.”
Jack looked over at Riley and smiled. He changed the subject. “I saw you with that gal, what’s her name, Marissa?”
“Yeah. She used to live here as a child and just came back a few weeks ago.”
“You two hooking up?”
Riley glanced at Jack. “No. She’s carrying too much emotional baggage. She’s not interested in any kind of relationship with anyone.”
“She’s very good-looking.”
“Yes, she is. She’s always been a beauty, but when were in school she was super shy and very quiet. If I hadn’t been involved with Rachel at that time, I might have been interested in seeing her, even though we were two grades apart.”
“For what it’s worth, I think you guys look good together.” Jack had a smug smile.
Riley knew he was thinking about the incident at Rock Creek Inn. Jack never teased Riley like the firefighters did, but every so often, he’d make a vague comment or have a secret smile on his face.
“Yeah. Whatever.” Riley kept his eyes on the road.
After settling the dispute between the two ranchers in Potter Town, Riley dropped Jack off at his house and stopped by his office to retrieve his chicken dinner. He was famished and couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into a chicken leg.
When he drove by Marissa’s place he noticed that she wasn’t home. He got to his house, grabbed the container from the passenger seat, and headed inside. He got some silverware, went into the dining room, and sat down at the table. When he lifted the top part of the container, a rubber chicken popped out. He sat there a few minutes shaking his head. Dammit, those guys were always pulling jokes on him or razzing him about stuff.
There was a knock at his back door, so he went to answer it. Mitch stood there with a silly grin on his face.
“Yeah, what do you want?” Riley’s lips puckered with annoyance.
“Hungry for some chicken?” Mitch held up two containers.
Riley’s sour look turned into a smile and he opened the door wider.
“Had you there, didn’t I?”
“Yeah.” Riley grabbed another set of silverware and they went to the dining room and ate together.
“Didn’t you guys pull stuff on each other in the military?” Mitch asked after he bit into a piece of chicken.
“Yeah, but nothing like what you guys do.” Riley flicked his gaze from Mitch to his chicken.
They ate in silent for a few minutes. “Think we’ll get any trout at Georgetown Lake tomorrow?”
“Don’t know. They should be biting at that time of the morning,” Riley answered. “You will behave yourself tomorrow, right?”
“Why? That wouldn’t be any fun.” Mitch smiled.
* * * *
As Marissa was setting up her sluice near the rapids in the river, a group of teenagers floated down in inner tubes, laughing and splashing as they came by. “Hi!” one of the girls called out.
“Hi,” Marissa said, watching them having fun as they paddled and pushed themselves through the water. This was May; there is no way in hell she’d get in that cold river.
She couldn’t recall her teenage years being carefree and having that much fun. She always had her nose stuck in a book or was looking for sapphires with her dad. Not that she minded being with her dad and doing those things. She loved doing it, but she missed so many other things with people her own age. She noticed the skimpy bikinis the girls wore. She’d never be able to wear anything like that ever again, thanks to the ugly scar her ex-husband imprinted on her with that board and nail.
After digging for rocks
in different areas, she checked the sluice and found two small nuggets. She dumped the dirt in a bucket so she could look through the concentrate later and then set it up again. Taking a seat on a rock, she unscrewed her water bottle and took a long drink. She could still remember the pain she went through at the hospital. The nail ripped a part of her liver on the side, and a surgeon had to operate on her to clean it out.
After that incident, she left the hospital and went into a Volunteers of America Women’s Center. Mark had begged her to come home and he’d promised to stop drinking, but she held firm and refused to go back to him. He had made that promise before, and he never kept it. When he realized she wasn’t coming home, he filed for divorce first and left her with nothing. She went to Legal Aid for help with the divorce papers. An officer accompanied her when she was able to go back into the house she and Mark shared to pick up her personal papers and some clothing.
Riley was popular here, and if he ever abused her, she’d have no choice but to leave because he’d be there every day reminding her of his abusive ways. She had no other place to go. She had to avoid him and not risk getting involved. Once again, she regretted agreeing to have lunch with him.
She heard the familiar diesel truck pull up behind her. She knew it was Campbell. She turned and faced him.
“Good afternoon,” he said gruffly.
“Hello,” Marissa said.
“I know it’s only been a few days since I last talked to you, but when I was driving by I saw you, so I decided to stop and chat with you more about my proposal. Have you been able to give it much thought?”
It had been on her mind ever since he proposed it. After weighing the negatives of the proposal, she shifted gears. She knew it would be better for her to have him dig, and to help her with the buckets. She could put more rocks in the buckets if he was carrying them for her. As long as they stuck to the agreement, she couldn’t think of any reason she shouldn’t go along with his plan.
“Actually, I have thought about it,” she said.
“Yeah? What do you think?” Campbell asked.
“It’s workable, as long as we have a clear understanding. We could do an hour and a half at my place, and an hour and a half at your place. What we find here is mine, and what we find at your place is yours. We could do this three times a week—Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—and maybe one day on the weekend. You dig, I shake, and you carry the buckets of rocks to my car and your truck. Plus, you stop by my house and help unload the buckets. In exchange for that, I’ll let you use my sluice when we’re at your property and whatever gold you get from it will be yours.”
“Well…damn! I figured I’d have to argue the benefits with you to get you to go along with my idea. Hot dog. I like your thinking, girl. Shall we shake on it?”
Marissa held out her hand, and they shook on the deal.
“Do you want to start today?” she asked.
“Yes. Today would be good. It’s still daylight.”
“Okay then, let’s get started.”
Campbell dug where Marissa told him and loaded the shovelful into the shaker box. She shook the box, disposing of the large stones, clumps of dirt, and sticks, and dumping the rest in the bucket. Occasionally, they walked down to the sluice in the river and checked it out. After an hour and a half there, Campbell took her buckets and placed them in her car. He brought his diesel to the river and loaded the sluice on it. They took their vehicles over to his property. Marissa took the sluice to the river and put it in. She returned and looked where Campbell had been digging.
“I’ve gotten those sapphires you heat-treated from this location here.” He pointed the area out to her.
After studying it for a few minutes, Marissa said, “I think you need to go in the other direction, not this direction.”
“Why?”
“For starters, you won’t get sapphires in sand. You need to follow the alluvial deposits and dig closer to bedrock, because the sapphires are heavier.”
“What’s an alluvial deposit?” Campbell asked.
“It’s clay, silt, or gravel carried by rushing streams and deposited where the stream slows down. At one point, the river flowed over this area and left the alluvial deposits.”
“Oh. Okay, we’ll start here.”
“Another thing to look for—the bigger the rocks, the bigger the sapphires.”
“I see.”
Campbell dug and put the rocks in the shaker box. Marissa shook the box and pulled out the larger rocks and sticks, and then put the small rocks in buckets for him. They did this for an hour and a half.
“Are you new to the area?” Campbell asked.
“No. I grew up here, but I left after I graduated from high school.”
“How come you’re back now?”
“Um, personal reasons. How long have you been here?”
“I got the claim on this property a few years ago, before my wife died. I didn’t do anything with it while she was alive because she was battling cancer. After she died, I sold everything and came here to hunt for gold and sapphires.”
“I’m sorry about your wife.”
Campbell shook his head. “How about you? Were you ever married?”
“Yes. When I left here, I went to Nevada State University, and while I was there I met my ex-husband. We’ve been divorced several months now.”
“What did you study at the university?”
“Gemology.”
“So that’s how you know so much about sapphires.”
Marissa nodded and smiled. “Where do you live?”
“Right now I’m staying in a room at Motel Six. But I plan to buy myself a camper and park it at the state park. The motel is getting expensive.”
“They say they always leave the light on,” Marissa said with a teasing smile.
“Hmmp,” Campbell grunted.
“Why not find a room for rent, or a small house?”
“I don’t want to lease or buy anything. I’m not sure how long I’ll stay here, and I want the freedom to go to another place to dig and pan for gold.”
Campbell stopped digging and took the buckets over to a makeshift table he used to sort out the gravel and look for sapphires. They went to the river and pulled the sluice out, and they found two tiny gold nuggets.
“Hot damn, girl! This thing’s all right,” Campbell said, a smile dancing on his lips.
Campbell helped Marissa clean up the sluice. They loaded everything up and headed to Marissa’s house. Campbell unloaded the buckets and put them on the porch so she could go through them.
“Thanks for carrying the buckets for me,” Marissa said.
“You’re welcome. I’ll see you Monday. What time will you be out at the dig?”
“It’ll be after work. I get off at four-thirty. I’ll grab something to eat and then be out, I hope, by five-thirty at the latest.”
“Okay, see you later.”
That night, just as the previous nights, she sat and faceted another sapphire. For the week, she had done eleven gems. She found some empty gem jars her father had that had black velvet in them, and she placed the sapphires in them.
* * * *
Riley and Mitch drove over the bridge at Georgetown Lake on Sunday morning. Mitch had a seventeen-foot aluminum fishing boat with an eighteen horsepower engine on the trailer he pulled with his truck. He backed the trailer into the shallow water and released the boat. Riley and the rest of the guys held the boat near the shore until Mitch parked his vehicle off to the side so others could pull in.
Once the boat was launched, Riley took his tackle box and sat in his usual spot in the cross thwart at the front of the boat, while Kyle, a sheriff’s deputy, sat in the cross thwart further down in the boat from him. Toby, another volunteer firefighter, got in the middle of the boat and sat in the high chair. Mitch took the cross thwart at the back of the boat. He started the engine and steered the boat to their favorite fishing spot and dropped anchor.
Riley was eager to try out his
new fishing rod and lure. “Get a load of this, Kyle.” Riley handed him his new five-foot Abu Garcia ultra light stealth combo to look over. “It has a seven inch bearing reel and an IM8 rod.”
“Hey, that looks pretty sharp.” Kyle took the rod and looked it over before handing it back to Riley.
Riley hooked one of his spinning tackle on the end of the fishing line and tossed his line in the water. “I got this new spinning tackle last week. It’s called the Panther Martin.” Riley grabbed one of the Panther Martins and handed it to Kyle.
“I think you must have all the spinning tackles available on the market,” Kyle commented as he drooled over the latest one.
“Yeah. But they say that this is the best of them all. We’ll see how well I do today with it.”
“Wow, you think that will help you to fish better?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t know, but it’s a beauty,” Riley said, smiling slightly.
Riley and Kyle were talking at one end of the boat, and Mitch and Toby were chuckling at the other end. After Riley and Kyle finished their discussion, Riley turned his attention back to his line. He gave it a pull and felt something holding it. He reeled the line in, and when the fish got close to the boat, he used a net to reach in and bring it up. Mitch and Toby were chuckling. When Riley pulled the net into the boat and looked at the fish Toby quipped, “Look, a mounted fish!”
Riley lifted it up by the fishing line and peered more at it. He looked over at Toby and Mitch, who broke out laughing. When he was distracted those damn guys had pulled a fast one.
Kyle turned and looked at Riley, then at the dead fish “What the hell did they do?” he asked.
“Aw, they’re being a bunch of smart-asses,” Riley mumbled under his breath. He unhooked the mounted fish and tossed it at Toby and Mitch. “Here, put this back in your cooler.”
Toby jumped and made a dash for the fish, but he leaned a little too far over and went over the side of the boat, landing in the water. The mounted dead fish also went overboard and sunk to the bottom of the lake. Toby climbed back into the boat, still laughing. “It got a rise out of you, Riley.” He looked over and laughed again.
“Yeah. Barely,” Riley answered with a half-smile.
Blue as Sapphires Page 7
