A Rancher’s Song

by Vivian Arend

  * * *

  Walker: I’ve seen your house, Snow. Unless you hid it in the graveyard, you don’t have a grill.

  * * *

  Ivy: huh. Now that you mention it, I’ll put that on the list.

  * * *

  Walker: you need to fix the porch before you buy a grill

  * * *

  Ivy: I have plans to fix the porch, but my handyman has been rather occupied dealing with an emergency in the bedroom

  He laughed: is this something that happens often? Emergencies in your bedroom?

  Ivy: I’m not sure. You might need to come over when you’re done with work today to see if it’s a regular occurrence or just a once in a while thing

  * * *

  Walker: honey? Trust me. Regular like clockwork. Daily. Twice a day, or more often if possible

  It was a sweet exchange, almost a flashback to the days before she’d left. And as they made plans to get together when he was done for the day, Walker enjoyed knowing they had parts of this relationship thing down pat.

  He still had to figure out what he was going to do with his future. Was it possible to deal with his panic attacks, or was he going to have to find something else to do to help his family?

  Unfortunately, no matter how hard he racked his brain, he didn’t come up with any other solution. The entire time he was at the bunkhouse to get scrubbed up, he kept mulling over the idea. Something new. That’s what he needed.

  Yet, he’d already been given a golden opportunity, and was it right to just throw it away? How many people longed for a career in music? And he was being handed one on a silver platter—

  Enough.

  He threw some things in a duffel bag because he fully intended on staying with Ivy tonight. Not just because they had a lot to talk about, but because he needed to get her perspective. Being able to spend the night in her arms was going to make all of the confusion and the restlessness that much easier to deal with.

  16

  She didn’t bother to pretend she wasn’t waiting for him.

  Ivy stood on the porch as his truck drove up her long drive. The August heat trailed up from the road and produced shimmering mirages in front of his big tires.

  He parked, and his feet hit the ground with a solid clunk. As he reached into the back and pulled out a duffel bag and his guitar, she admired the lean, muscular lines of him. His T-shirt stretched tight around his biceps as he draped the bag over his shoulder, guitar case in hand, walking toward her with a lazy grin on his face. The one that said he couldn’t wait to be with her, either.

  They stood for a moment and admired each other; her on the porch and him on the bottom step looking up. It was a picture-perfect Alberta day, with blue sky in the background and a mass of spruce trees framing the Rocky Mountains. Even the weathered headstones in the graveyard beside them seemed to fit the moment.

  Something old, and yet beautiful. Memories of lives well lived. That’s what she wanted with him; memories that went from now until forever.

  “You’re looking very ranch girl,” Walker said, checking her out from top to bottom.

  Ivy laughed. “Tansy and Rose bought the outfit. I think my grandma put them up to it. And, yes, I feel as if I stepped back in time just pulling it on.

  She tugged the multilayered prairie skirt and offered him a cheeky curtsy.

  He put his guitar and bag down on the porch, standing close as he ran a finger along the ruffled neckline of the peasant blouse. His finger was hot where it bumped her skin. “Pretty wrappings on a pretty package.”

  Walker tucked his fingers under her chin and lifted her face, kissing her softly. Sweet, until it wasn’t as he took the kiss deeper, a little more intense, and Ivy felt her bones begin to melt.

  He pulled back with a hmmm of satisfaction. “I take it we have a barbecue to attend?”

  “Later. Mom and Dad aren’t closing the store until seven tonight. Some readers are in for a special event at Fallen Books. I can feed you now though, since I hear that’s something cowboys do. Eat two suppers.”

  He followed her through the door, glancing around at the totally empty living room. “You went a little wild with decorating, Snow. Very minimalistic.”

  “I’m getting it ready to do all the repairs to the walls and the floor,” she told him, glancing over her shoulder to see him wandering down the hallway. “I don’t keep a fridge in my room.”

  He stopped. “I should ask. Any objections if I toss my bag in there?”

  Which meant he wanted to stay the night. A shiver of happiness slid through her. “Sounds good to me. I don’t think there’s room for you to toss your guitar as well, though.”

  “I thought I’d bring it to your parents’ tonight. Your grandma likes to hear me play.”

  Ivy paused. “How did you know Grandma Sonora was going to be there?”

  He was back at her side, reaching past her for a glass and helping himself. He filled it with water before turning and raising it in a toast. “She sent me a text, of course.”

  “Grandma?”

  Walker grinned as he reached for his cell and held it out to show her.

  Sonora Fallen: It’s been a long time since you stopped in. Bring that guitar of yours tonight, please.

  * * *

  Walker: anything particular you want me to play?

  * * *

  Sonora Fallen: Something sweet. And young man, sentences begin with capitals.

  * * *

  Walker: Yes, ma’am.

  Ivy laughed. “How long have you been holding secret trysts with my grandmother?”

  “Me and Sonora? Heck, we go way back.” Walker settled in at the kitchen table, turning the chair so he could stretch his long legs in front of him. “She wasn’t doing that well a couple of winters ago with how much snow we got, and I stopped in to check on her. Just kinda hit it off all over again. She asked for help figuring out how to use her phone. Now she texts me off and on whenever the urge strikes.”

  Of course, she did. Ivy got herself a drink and joined him at the table. “Hungry?”

  He shook his head. “I figure we need to talk.”

  “We do.” Ivy took a deep breath. “Do you remember when I first came to Heart Falls?”

  His gaze softened, and something in his eyes went dark with memory. “Course I do. The prettiest girl I’d ever seen with the most amazing eyes stepped into the classroom, and I fell in love.”

  My God, her heart pounded nearly as hard as it had that day. “Walker.”

  “What?” He was smiling now. “That’s how I remember it.”

  “Stop turning your inner eye on me and look around at the rest of the class. Most people were not impressed, especially since I arrived right before Christmas, which meant I didn’t have to take any tests.”

  “They got over it.”

  “They didn’t like that I got to sit at the back of the room at a table all by myself. And when I wasn’t interested in sharing my lunch or getting too close to anyone, it was another black mark.”

  He nodded slowly. “You were pretty frail back then. You had to have room so you could avoid a few germs.”

  “They didn’t know that at first. They just saw a new girl who wouldn’t talk to anyone and who got all these special privileges. They called me Icy instead of Ivy.”

  Walker’s gaze drifted over her face. “You had your hair braided, kind of like you had it the day of the auction. Pulled over one shoulder, and the long, white length went down nearly to your waist. And you were all bundled up, lots of layers, and your winter coat was a bright blue. Same colour as the sky on those cold days when we could see our breath when we went outside for lunch.”

  She was torn between kissing him for the poetry of his words and sticking on topic to get to the real reason she was bringing this up.

  “I didn’t go out for lunch, though. I stayed inside and sat alone. At least until you decided you wanted to be my friend.” It was such a bittersweet memory. “You jumped right in that fi
rst afternoon and introduced yourself. I don’t know if you realized how scared I was to talk to you.”

  “I never meant to scare you. Heck, the prettiest girl in the room was willing to talk to me? I was damn scared myself.”

  “But you did talk to me, and I made it through without running and hiding, like I had to after meeting the principal.” Ivy nodded at the look of shock in his eyes. “And you called me your Snow Princess, which made all of the teasing about Icy fade.”

  He tilted his head. “You were really shy. You’re over that now.”

  Ivy shook her head. “It’s not something that completely goes away. I mean, I got smarter as I got older, and I understand some of the things that scared me aren’t valid. Facts help a lot, but I’m never going to be comfortable walking into a room full of strangers. It’s a part of who I am. Some people love getting up in front of a crowd—I don’t. If I’m in a small, tight-knit group where I can focus on individuals, that makes crowds bearable.”

  “Yet you got up in front of everybody at Rough Cut to save me.”

  She nodded. “I can do things when they really matter, but trust me, I wasn’t looking at all the people around us. I was focusing on my sisters and your brother. They were my anchors. And you.”

  Walker shifted forward in his seat. “You’re talking about my panic attacks. You’re trying to come up with ways for me to deal with them.”

  Ivy nodded. “We don’t know what’s setting them off. The best thing would be to eliminate the source, but until we figure that out, the next-best-thing is for you to learn some coping strategies.”

  “Like picturing people in their underwear?”

  She laughed. “If that’s going to work for you, yes.”

  The light in his eyes grew heated. “I might need some visual aids. Maybe you should slip the shoulders on your blouse a little lower.”

  A trace of pleasure mingled with the shock. “Walker.”

  “Snow,” he teased back. “Come on, I’m pretty sure this is a necessary part of my training.”

  She looked him over for a moment before deciding to go with the flow. In fact, she upped the ante, reaching behind her and undoing her bra, slipping the straps off her arms by twisting free. Thankfully, the elastic and the loose sleeves of the blouse made it possible for her to slip the bra away without putting on too much of a show.

  But when she placed the soft cups neatly on the table, folding the straps underneath as if she were tucking the bra into a drawer, it was hard not to smile, especially when she checked the expression on Walker’s face.

  She sat straight in her chair like an obedient school girl, back arched to press her breasts against the front of her blouse. “Does that help?”

  Walker shifted uncomfortably in his chair, rubbing his hands down his thighs as he stretched. The thick length of his erection pressed clearly to the front of his jeans. “Help get my motor going? Hell, I’m always ready to go around you.”

  “So when you feel a sense of panic begin, you need to have a ritual or routine to follow. Something that’s not going to distract you from your task.”

  “Now you tell me. Snow, there ain’t no way you can toss your bra on the table beside me and not have it be distracting.”

  Ivy shimmied the shoulder bands off her shoulders so that the top of her blouse cut straight across an inch above her nipples. “You’re focusing on the wrong part of the situation. Stop looking with your eyes.”

  * * *

  Ivy was right there, only a few feet away from him, slowly removing clothing, and she didn’t want him to look? “Hell, no. Maybe picturing people they don’t like naked works for some, but seeing your soft skin? Knowing I could reach out and touch you? This is probably not what I should be thinking about when I’m on the back of a bull.”

  “Are you scared right now?” she asked.

  “Only that my balls will explode.”

  A laugh burst from her, like sunbeams dancing on water. “Okay, let’s go with that. No, you don’t want to be thinking about sex while sitting on a bull, unless that kind of thing turns your crank. But you don’t want to be scared, either. Right now—are you angry? Are you sad?”

  She stood and shimmied her skirt over her hips, twisting on the spot as she hummed happily. Dancing in place as the fabric pooled on the floor.

  Walker dropped his gaze to her bare feet and the toes that were painted a pale pink. Then he gaped at her long legs that stretched up to vanish under the thigh-length edge of her billowy top.

  He stared, mesmerized, as she danced up to him and tipped his hat off. “Right now, happy or sad?”

  Somehow he kept his hands off to let the lesson continue. “Happy, and very, very hopeful I’m going to get even happier.”

  She dipped, bending at the waist. The scoop of her neckline gaped open far enough that the perfect rounds of her breasts swayed forward to display tight pink nipples, begging for him to touch.

  Ivy pressed her hands to his thighs and waited until his gaze rose to meet hers. “Hold on to that emotion. That’s what you think about when the fear starts to creep in. You don’t focus on the details of the time and place, but how you’re feeling right now.”

  Like he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth. “This is a good lesson. You’re a really good teacher.”

  Ivy pressed her lips to his briefly, pulling back before he could deepen the kiss. “I am a good teacher. I know that when a student is trying their very best, they should get a reward.”

  Walker’s brain muddled through that for a moment, not quite sure what she intended until she pushed his thighs apart and reached for his belt buckle. “Jeez, Ivy.”

  She got the leather strap undone before fighting with his button. “I need a little help.”

  As if he was going to argue. It was the one thing they’d never played with back in the day. Oh, she’d touched him, and sometimes just the feel of her soft hand brushing his cock had been enough to make him go off.

  But all of their times together had been stolen moments in places where they really didn’t feel comfortable enough to linger. They’d never spent a lot of time naked, not until now.

  Walker couldn’t get enough of it.

  He pushed back, stripping out of his T-shirt and jeans as fast as humanly possible. Ivy had settled back on her shins, like a sexy garden fairy who had snuck into the house, amazement in her eyes as she studied him from top to bottom.

  “How are you feeling right now?” Laughter soaked his voice.

  “Scared. Definitely scared,” Ivy teased as he stepped toward her, his cock so hard it stood vertical. She took him in her hand and stroked gently, and he was going to lose his ever-loving mind.

  “Go to your happy place,” he suggested.

  Ivy went up on her knees, angling his cock so she could lick it thoroughly. The soft heat and delicate flutter of her tongue wrapped him in a million layers of need.

  And when she put her mouth around the head, still twirling her tongue against the most sensitive spot, the only thing Walker regretted was the fact he was in the middle of the room and had no walls to brace himself against.

  She played. Slowly and torturously, throwing pleasure at him with every delicate suck and lap.

  Gazing down at her added another level of torment to the lust racing through his veins. They’d called her Icy, but white blue flames were the hottest there were. Watching her touch him so intimately put his feet to the coals and sent fire racing up his spine. She was a delicate princess giving unselfishly to him, dipping down his length over and over. He held himself rigid, not just to keep from pushing deeper than she wanted, but because it felt so damn good he didn’t need to move.

  Having Ivy give to him was the most miraculous thing in the entire world.

  She tilted her head so she could peek up at him, and their gazes met. He memorized the deliciously filthy image of his cock pushing between her sweet red lips, pink tongue lapping delicately before she pulled him deep and sucked.

&nbs
p; Walker gave up and let the waves explode from deep within, spurting hard as Ivy swallowed him down until he wasn’t sure he could stand a second longer.

  He rubbed a hand gently over her head, the silky softness of her hair like spun glass. “I’m going to fall over.”

  Sunshine echoed in her laughter as she stood. Ivy wrapped an arm around him then pressed her lips to his chest. Walker wavered for a moment, using her strength to keep vertical.

  They ended up lying on her bed, him naked, her still covered with the breezy cotton top, her breasts playing peekaboo as the scooped neckline moved with her breathing.

  He traced a finger over her shoulder in circles. “As soon as my brain comes back online, I promise to return the favour.”

  Ivy’s gaze danced over him, happiness on her face. “I don’t think you realize how much pleasure that gave me, but I’m not about to say no to anything we do together. But later.”

  She wiggled in close and laid her head on his chest, and his arms wrapped around her instinctively. The sun shone in the west-facing window, spotlighting the bed.

  “I missed you so much,” Walker admitted softly, playing with her hair because he could. “I told you I thought of you often, but I had to push aside the part that wanted you back so it wouldn’t ache as much.”

  Ivy went still.

  Damn. “I didn’t say that to hurt you. I know you had to go, and I know you missed me too. It’s kind of like you said, though. Focus on what I’m feeling now and not the memory. When I think about you, I don’t think about the time you were gone. I think about how happy I am to be with you again.”

  “Me too.”

  She pressed a kiss to his chest, curling against him tighter. “You were so brave when you let me go. I remembered that, especially when things got really rough. I didn’t want to fail because you had sacrificed so much by letting me go. It wouldn’t have been fair for me to quit.”