Open Arms

by Marysol James

  He grinned down at her, his gray eyes warm and dancing. “You’re welcome, baby.”

  “Wait, you really don’t mind?” Tammy said. “I thought you’d stay here tonight.”

  Jake shrugged. “It’s OK. You two have a sleepover or something, maybe. Talk and catch up and hang out and drink way too much wine. Tomorrow’s Sunday, so you can sleep all day if you want.”

  Tammy stood up, impulsively, and hugged him. He wrapped his huge arms around her, holding her carefully. “Thanks, Jake.”

  He smiled at her; she was tall, much taller than Julie, and it felt weird to have female eyes at almost the same level as his own. “My pleasure, ma’am.”

  “Oh! That reminds me!” Tammy said. “Do you wear a cowboy hat in bed and call Julie ‘ma’am’ when you’re…”

  “Tammy!” Now Julie was bright red.

  Jake and Tammy laughed together.

  He put on his coat and boots and waved goodbye from the door. “’Night, ladies,” he drawled with a twang. “Y’all be good, now.”

  “Goodnight,” they chorused.

  Jake stepped out in to the winter chill and paused on the front porch of the Big House, breathing in the pure, crisp air. God, he loved living here, loved Open Skies Ranch, loved Julie. For the first time in his almost-thirty-six years on this earth, Jake felt like he was exactly where he was meant to be, doing what he should be doing, with the right people. The right person.

  Even through the closed door, he heard their laughter behind him and he smiled again. Julie had her best friend and sister back now, he knew, and her happiness added to his own. He had never wanted to please anyone more than himself before – not this way – and that’s how he knew that Julie was the one for him. Long-term; forever.

  He started to walk down towards the stables, to the small private cabin that was located about twenty paces from the stable doors and which he had called home for the past seven years. He loved his small, snug space; it was all golden wood and big windows and simple, sturdy furniture. Julie liked it down there, too, and stayed over often. She loved the Big House, with its space and airiness, but she said that his cabin was just so much like him, with its unassuming strength and quiet light, and she loved to wake up there, warm and safe.

  As Jake approached the stables, he heard something in the distance, in the open prairie beyond the fence that enclosed the corral area. He paused and squinted in to the darkness. He waited.

  A soft whisper, then cracking; something was brushing and moving the powder and breaking the hard snow hidden beneath. There was no wind at all, the prairie was black and silent, the stars very bright overhead. Jake held his breath and strained to place that sound. Footsteps? Yes. But not human – these were too light, too careful, too hesitant. Some kind of animal.

  In his seven years at Open Skies, Jake had seen many coyotes on the prairie and wandering around the Rockies. They generally stayed away from the ranch and the hotel, and Manny and his staff were careful with the waste from the restaurant kitchens. Coyotes often scavenged through human garbage, looking for food. It was the depths of a hard, freezing winter now, and Jake wondered if coyotes were venturing closer to where they knew people were, hunting for an open garbage bag, left in a moment of carelessness.

  He swung open the fence door, headed in to the massive corral. He heard some of the horses moving around in the stables. They sounded restless and agitated and Jake was suddenly more alert: animals were always more attuned to danger than humans. If the horses were worried and sensed something was wrong, then he’d be willing to bet that they were right. He grabbed a flashlight from the small wooden box that Phil kept outside, and flicked it on. Its powerful beam cut through the darkness like a knife, and he swung it around.

  About a hundred yards away, he saw a glint and trained the light that way. That’s when he saw them: silver eyes. Unmoving, unblinking. His breath stopped for a second as he realized that he was being steadily watched. He stood still and stared right back.

  His eyes adjusted to the darkness now and he saw clearly what was out there: a wolf. A gray wolf, from what he could pick up in the flashlight beam. This was unreal – Jake had heard that some lone wolves had been spotted in the Colorado Rockies, but he’d never seen any himself. And what was this animal doing so close to the ranch?

  Slowly, he backed away, reached for the stables door handle behind him without taking his gaze off those eyes still observing him from beyond the fence. He knew there was no way a wolf would be able to get in to the stables – Dave, Julie’s father, had built a stable as impregnable as Fort Knox – but still. A desperate, hungry animal may well try.

  When the horses saw Jake come in, they shuffled and swayed. Jake walked over to each and every horse and spent some time with them, murmuring to them, comforting them. They nickered and nipped at his sleeve, nuzzled in to his warm, large hand. They knew they were OK now, and they started to move away from the stall doors, started to settle back down to sleep.

  Jake went out the back door of the stables and walked in to his cabin. He picked up the business landline phone and called Julie.

  “Jake? What’s up? Are you OK?”

  “Listen, baby. I think I just saw a wolf out here.”

  “A what? Where? In the stables?”

  “No. No, outside the fence, out on the prairie.”

  “Are the animals all OK?”

  “Fine. But listen, I saw just one wolf, and there may be more.”

  “Right.”

  “So I think it best for Tammy to stay with you tonight, until Phil and I can go out tomorrow and see what’s what. If she really wants to go back to her place, you call me and I’ll come and get her and take her back to her cabin.”

  “Jake, do you really think this is necessary? I mean, what are the chances that a wolf would come right up the hill to the cabins and main buildings?”

  Jake heard Tammy’s voice in the background, asking a question.

  He sat down. “You’re right, baby. Normally, they’re pretty skittish about being too close to people. But we don’t know much about wolves, me and Phil, and I’m not sure what to expect.”

  “So, it’s not common for wolves to be around here?”

  “Nope, not at all. Coyotes, sure. We see a hundred of them a year. But wolves are unusual for the Colorado Rockies – most of them are much farther north.”

  “I see. But we’re not going to hurt it, right?”

  “Of course not. Not unless it attacks someone, and I really, really doubt it’ll come to that. But just to be safe, OK? Let me take Tammy home if she wants to go.”

  “Hang on a sec.” Julie turned to Tammy. “Do you want to stay here tonight, or go back to your cabin?”

  Tammy snuggled deeper in to the sofa. Her eyes were soft in the firelight. “I was thinking I’d stay here.” She took a sip of wine. “Drink all the wine in the house with you and gossip about Jake.”

  “OK,” Julie laughed and turned back to the phone. “She’ll stay here, Jake. We’re going to get drunk and talk about you.”

  He laughed too. “Sounds good. I’ll call Phil tomorrow morning and he and I will head out to where I saw the wolf, get some sense of how big it is, and where it came from. And we’ll have to inform all the staff about the wolf, OK? Can you call a staff meeting for Monday morning?”

  “Yeah, of course. I’ll send out an e-mail tomorrow.”

  “Thanks, babe.”

  “Are the horses safe in the stables?”

  “Oh, for sure. Don’t worry about that. I’ll keep an eye on things, but I think the wolf is long gone for now.”

  “And you’re safe?”

  “Oh, yeah. I’ve got a rifle, if things get bad, but I honestly don’t see that I’ll have any need to use it. I have no plans to hurt or kill that animal.”

  “OK.”

  “Goodnight, Julie.
I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Tammy jumped to attention from the depths of the sofa cushions. “You what?”

  Jake heard her through the phone and laughed. “Oh, man. And so it begins.”

  “Have you two said the three magic words to each other?” Tammy said, excited. “Really?”

  Julie rolled her eyes. “Goodnight, Jake.”

  “Good luck, babe.”

  Julie hung up the phone and turned back to Tammy. Her friend’s eyes were brighter than she had seen them in a month, and she smiled.

  “OK,” Julie said sitting down again and picking up her wine for fortification. “Ask.”

  “Did he tell you he loves you?”

  “Yes. Today, for the first time.”

  Tammy grinned and Julie grinned back. Both women knew that it was going to be a very long night.

  **

  The next afternoon, at somewhere in the neighborhood of three o’clock, Tammy managed to drag herself to a sitting position. Her head hurt, and she was insanely thirsty. She groaned and gulped the full glass of water she had set on the bedside table; OK, that was a bit better. Oh wait, no it wasn’t. She needed more.

  Groaning again, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and tried to envision getting to her feet. The idea seemed laughable.

  Swaying, tottering, holding on to the wall for support, Tammy carefully opened the door of Julie’s guest room. She stood in the hallway, listening. Julie’s door was partway open, and she heard her friend’s steady breathing. Still sleeping. Lucky duck.

  Tammy snuck down the hall to the bathroom, her bare feet silent against the wooden floor. She poured herself another glass of water and gulped it down on the spot – God, the tap water out here is so fresh and cold – and then poured one more to take back to her room.

  Once back in the guestroom, the door closed tight, Tammy wondered if she would risk looking out the window. She feared the sun would burn her eyes right out of her head. But the draw of the mountains was too much; she had come to love looking at them, much to her surprise, and knowing they were there, just behind the closed drapes, was as enticing as ever.

  She screwed up her eyes as tight as she could while still being able to see, and pulled the drapes aside. The mountains appeared, snowy and cold, but somehow welcoming.

  Tammy’s eyes drifted down, down to the bushes just under her window. The bright green was beautiful against the pure white snow, and she smiled. Then something caught her attention and she looked more closely, her brow furrowed. The snow next to the bushes was all broken up. What was that?

  Tammy leaned forward, her forehead pressed against the cool window. As her eyes focused and her exhausted brain clicked in to gear, she saw what was there and she gasped. Footprints. Large paw prints, to be exact, and a large round spot. Oh, my God. The wolf was right there – sitting outside my window. During the night? It was there for a while, no doubt: that round patch is where it was sitting and not moving.

  In her mind, Tammy imagined a large gray animal sitting under a cold, bright full moon, staring up at her window while she slept. She shivered.

  Chapter Four

  On Monday morning at ten o’clock, the entire staff of Open Skies Ranch and Tammy were sitting in the restaurant, sipping coffee and listening intently to Phil.

  “OK, so. Jake and I went out yesterday and found the tracks down by the stables and up near the Big House, and they’re way bigger than coyote tracks. I’d say that Jake is right, and he saw a wolf.”

  Everyone sighed and stirred in their chairs.

  “Hold on, guys. On the whole, I think it’s fine. I did some research online yesterday, and wolves have been spotted in the Colorado Rockies a bit more over the past few years. Generally, they stay away from people, so I’d guess that Jake just saw an especially curious one.” He shrugged. “I’d be surprised if we saw it again, to be honest.”

  “But don’t wolves attack people if they’re hungry?” Maria’s eyes were wide with fear.

  “Maria, hon,” Phil said gently. “There are over 300,000 elk in this state, and the population is out of control and so any wolf around these parts has plenty to eat out there in the wild. I read how there’s actually a lot of support in Colorado for wolves to be integrated in to the natural order, to keep the elk population within reasonable limits. The majority of people here in Colorado want wolves reintroduced to the Rockies, but seeing as they’re killed in huge numbers up north – in Montana and Idaho and Wyoming – they rarely get this far south.”

  “Why are they killed up there?” Tammy asked. “If they’re so important to the natural order and the animal food chain and all that?”

  Phil shook his head. “Misinformation about them, mostly, and irrational fears about how they kill livestock and attack kids and pets. Predator removal programs, and government-sanctioned permits that allow hunters to legally shoot way more wolves than other animals, like bears or mountain lions. Lots of people hate ‘em, and there isn’t enough being done to really change how they’re seen.”

  “So… this one beat the odds, right?” Julie said. “Survived somehow, and got all the way down here, and is still in one piece. I’d say we have a duty to protect it, if we can.” She looked at the others. “What do you all think?”

  Everyone nodded except Maria.

  “Maria? You still worried?” Rob asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered, shifting under all the eyes turned her way. “But I’m sure you’re right.”

  Phil smiled at her. “Yeah, well. Jake and I aren’t experts by any stretch of the imagination. So this morning I called a friend of mine to come by and look around a bit, give us her thoughts. She knows a lot about wolves, and has been trying to get them reintroduced here in Colorado. I’ll have her talk to us after, OK? You can ask her anything you want.”

  “OK, good,” Maria said in obvious relief.

  Phil looked at his watch. “Kim will be here in about twenty minutes. I’ll bring her around, introduce you all to her. You can talk to her then. Alright?”

  Everyone nodded and got to their feet.

  Julie, Jake, Tammy, and Phil walked outside together and looked around. Mattie came down the stairs of the main building and joined them.

  “Mattie, do you know anything about wolves?” Julie asked her. “You’re from Montana originally, right?”

  “Yep,” Mattie said. “And what Phil said in there is just about right, about where I come from. Back home, folks are scared to death of wolves killing their livestock, and farmers and ranchers just shoot on sight, most of them.”

  “Have you ever seen a wolf?” Tammy asked her. “Up close?”

  Mattie leaned against the wall, crossed her arms loosely. “I did, once. When I was a small girl – maybe seven or eight years old.”

  “What happened?” Phil said.

  “Oh, I was sneaking around way past my bedtime, wandering around the forest at night and just being a dumb kid, you know. And this gigantic wolf just appeared in front of me. Stood there and stared at me, not moving a muscle.”

  “What did you do?” Tammy asked.

  “Froze up. Stopped breathing. Thought about dropping dead on the spot from fear.”

  “Yeah, understandable,” Jake said. “So what did you actually do?”

  “Waited. And the wolf – it was just so beautiful, I remember that. Its eyes shone in the moonlight and it was so… so… calm, somehow. Just sitting there, almost challenging me to be brave and stare it down. And I did, and after a minute, it just turned around and walked away.”

  “Wow,” Julie said. “It never even moved towards you?”

  “Not one inch. It just waited, and I waited, and then it was all over.” She looked at her spellbound audience. “I never told my Daddy, ‘cause I knew if he knew about the wolf being so close to the house, he’d track it and
shoot it, just on principle, and I didn’t want that. I had looked in to its eyes, you know, seen its soul, almost. After you look at another living creature like that, it takes a damn hard person to kill that creature. You have a bond, and it’s not that easy to treat the other’s life so cheap.”

  Jake flashed back to David Reid, Julie’s father, dying in his arms. Dave’s mint-green eyes – the eyes that stared at him from Julie’s beautiful face every single day – had shown Jake his soul as he lay there. Jake knew what Mattie meant about that bond making the other person’s life more valuable, more personal. When Dave died, Jake thought that he’d die too.

  The sound of a car engine broke the silence and everyone looked down the long, winding dirt road to the main gate. A blue pickup was driving slowly towards them; it passed the corral and climbed the hill from the stables to the main building. The truck pulled up a few feet from the group, and Phil stepped forward to greet his friend.

  The woman who climbed out of the truck was dressed in black jeans and a gorgeous brown leather jacket and black leather boots. She had a red scarf wrapped around her neck, loose and fluttering in the breeze, and she was one of the tiniest people that Julie had ever seen. She was used to being the shortest person in a group, but she had more than a few inches on Kim. She admired the woman’s sleek black hair as it blew around her head, streaked with warmth from the morning winter sun.

  “Kim!” Phil stepped forward and gave her a hug; his strong arms wrapped around her tiny frame and she disappeared in to his broad chest. “How you doing, girl?”

  Kim stepped back and gave Phil a brilliant smile. “Good, as ever. You?”

  “Good.” Phil turned to the others. “Everyone, please meet Kimana Beck. Kimana, this is Julie, Jake, Tammy and Mattie.”

  Nods all around and Kimana smiled. “You can call me ‘Kim’, if you prefer. And thank you, so much. I’m so pleased that you called me. I have a very big personal interest in wolf protection.”

  “Yes, Phil said that you know a lot about them,” Jake said. “He mentioned you’re trying to get them reintroduced to the state?”