Eagle's Redemption

by Cindy Spencer Pape

  “Fill up one of those metal bowls with water, would you?” From a stack next to the row of cages, Carmen picked up a half section of a log—it was flat on one side and round with the bark still on the other. When she set it into the cage, bark side up, the bird immediately climbed up on it.

  Obediently, Dash filled a big metal dog dish with water and brought it over to Carmen who put it into the cage. “What will you feed her?”

  “Fish mostly. I expect Grandfather will show up in the morning with some fresh bass or lake trout. Even if he hadn’t sent you, he always seems to know when I have a new patient.” She latched the cage securely then moved back over to her worktable and started putting things away with crisp, economical movements. “Thank you, Dash. I’ll wash your shirt and get it back to you.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” he said. He scooped it up away from her questing fingers. “I go up and use the machines in the bunkhouse a couple times a week.”

  “Grandfather said you were living in one of the line shacks.” Once the table was cleared, she spritzed it down with disinfectant and wiped it off with a paper towel. “I guess it would be uncomfortable sharing the ranch house with the newlyweds.”

  “Yeah. Mac and Leah are trying to talk me into building my own place. There’s plenty of room on the ranch, but…” He shrugged. “For right now, I don’t see the need for anything bigger than what I’ve got.”

  “I know the feeling.” Her voice was filled with understanding, but it was warm and friendly, without the syrupy sympathy he’d grown used to hearing since his injuries eleven months ago. “I like my little cabin too. Not sure what I’d do with anything bigger. Drives my mom crazy.”

  He followed her over to the sink where they both washed up. Only as they were leaving did he remember the enormous dog who’d plopped down by the door and hadn’t moved since they’d walked into the building. Bigger than any German shepherd he’d ever seen, even on the police force, it was mottled in shades of gray and black, with just one white stocking from the knee down on its left front paw. As soon as Carmen turned off the light and stepped out the door, the massive dog was right by her side, occasionally nudging against her when she strayed from the center of the path.

  When they reached her door, she turned, her hand on the doorknob. “I made some chili. Way more than I can eat by myself if you’d like to come in for a bit.”

  He shouldn’t. He should thank her nicely, get in his truck and drive away. He had half a bottle of Johnnie Walker stashed in his cabin. That and his hand would get him through the night. Because, god help him, he’d been wanting to jump Carmen’s bones the entire time she was working on the eagle.

  “Come on,” she murmured softly. “It’s just a meal. You have to eat, don’t you?”

  “I’d love to.” He heard the words come out of his mouth before he knew he was going to say them. Calling himself all kinds of an idiot, he followed Carmen into her house.

  Chapter Two

  Carmen couldn’t believe she’d gotten up the nerve to actually invite him in for dinner. She hadn’t been alone with a man other than her grandfather for ages. Well, maybe Shane, when he’d stopped by to check on a patient. But he was so stupid in love with Leah, Carmen could’ve walked out to the barn naked and he wouldn’t have noticed.

  Dash Hyde though—he’d notice. Carmen hadn’t missed the erection he’d sported when they’d danced at her cousin’s wedding. He’d been as uncomfortable in the crowd as she was, but he’d definitely warmed up once he’d taken her in his arms. He seemed pretty uncomfortable now too, seated across from her at her kitchen table, eating chili and homemade cornbread. She’d had a couple of beers in the fridge, so they sipped at those while they ate, barely talking.

  “So, have you heard from Leah?” she finally asked. “I got a postcard in yesterday’s mail.”

  “Yeah, me too,” he replied. “So did Mac. Sounds like they’re having a good time in Hawaii.”

  Of course they were—it was their honeymoon. She felt her face flame at the thought of what her cousin was probably up to right now. “Do you have family back in Illinois?”

  “Yeah,” he answered slowly. “My mother and her husband have three kids, ranging from twenty to twenty-five. They’re all still in the Chicago area.”

  “You grew up with brothers and sisters?” She wouldn’t have guessed that. He seemed like such a loner.

  “Two brothers, one sister—James, Lauren and Zach, all in college or grad school. I was ten when my oldest brother was born, so we were never exactly close,” he said. “It was just me and my mom until I was eight, when she married my stepdad.”

  “So, you’re older than Leah.”

  “Yeah. And Mac a bit.”

  “And you were a cop.” Oh crap, she hadn’t meant to say that. She knew he’d been forced to retire from the Chicago police force after an injury, but nobody had ever told her what. She just knew that whatever had happened he was still carrying around an awful lot of grief from it.

  “That I was.” His spoon clinked on the side of his bowl as he stirred his chili rather than eating it. “After four years in the Army, I went to the police academy and worked my way up from patrolman to sergeant. Twelve years on the force, and now, I guess, I’m a rancher—at least for the time being.”

  “I’m sorry,” she told him. “It’s none of my business.”

  She sensed his shrug. “It’s all right. Everybody else I meet out here dances around it. Truth is, I liked being a cop. I was good at it. Now I can’t do that anymore. Life changes, and if we don’t change with it, we might as well just curl up and die. Took me awhile, but I finally figured out I wasn’t ready for that yet. So here I am, learning to do something else.”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” she said. “My parents would be happy if I still lived at home where they could take care of me and cater to my every whim, keeping me safe every minute of every day. I can’t live like that. So here I am, on my own. It’s difficult sometimes, but it beats sitting around like a useless doll.”

  “I imagine Ken keeps a pretty good eye on you,” he said with a warm trace of humor creeping back into his voice. “Just like he does on Leah.”

  “Yeah, Granddad is great, but he doesn’t smother. That’s one reason I live here, close to him, instead of in Houston near my parents. I love my mom and dad, but they drive me fricking crazy. ‘Are you sure you should be cooking?’ or ‘Do you really think you should go for a walk with just your dog?’ They make me feel like I’m twelve instead of a grown woman.”

  “Well, I can attest to your ability to cook. This chili is fantastic.” Sounds of spoon on bowl and swallowing backed up the fact he was actually eating now. “But yeah, I know what you mean. My mom went overboard too after I was hurt. She’s the greatest, but I needed to get back on my own two feet again.”

  There was a moment filled with nothing but the sounds of eating then he continued. “When it came down to it though, she knew that. I wasn’t going to come when the old man’s lawyer called. I figured he’d blown us off for all those years, why take anything from him now, you know? But my mother talked me into getting on that plane, insisted I needed to at least see the place, find out a little about who he was.”

  “And did you?” Carmen ate slowly, enjoying his company, entranced by the sound of his voice.

  “As much as I’d like to say I came to terms with my father, what I found out about him was really just about what I’d expected. My biological father was a complete and total bastard. He included Mac and me in the will because he didn’t want to hand his entire operation over to a woman, and a part-Comanche one at that, even if she was his own flesh and blood. He didn’t think much of Hispanics or blacks either, even though he had no problem fucking any of our mothers. In the end, Mac and I both believe he split the ranch and the money between the three of us because he couldn’t quite decide which of us was the lesser evil.”

  Carmen listened for bitterness in his voice and was pleased whe
n she heard only a little—the old hurt of the child he’d been, and nothing but resignation from the man. “Sorry to say, but that tallies perfectly with what I knew of my uncle. I’d wondered if your mother was black. Nobody’s crass enough to mention it openly, of course, but there’s been some gossip to that effect. Your skin’s paler than Mac’s—at least I thought so from the few times I’ve seen you close up—but there’s something about the caste of your features that suggests some African blood.” He was muscular and strong, she knew that much—and tall. He shaved his head and Leah had sworn it suited him. She’d also given Carmen a photo to look at under her magnifying lens, just so her cousin would “know” her new neighbor. Carmen had made out the vivid green of Dash’s eyes and the strong jut of his jaw. She’d also seen the scars that created a reddened, lacy pattern across his left cheekbone and jaw.

  “Mom is biracial,” Dash told her easily. “She always said my green eyes came from her father as well as my own. I have to admit, I was a little worried about moving to a rural community. Nobody cares in Chicago, but I wasn’t sure about Texas.”

  Carmen shrugged. “I’m a hybrid too—mostly Comanche on my mother’s side, while my dad is half Cherokee and half Irish, which is where I get the freckles. But you are what you are, and there’s no point trying to hide it or change it. We have our bigots here, just like everywhere else. I bet Chicago does too, you just chose to ignore them. I do the same in Morgan’s Creek.”

  “Smart lady, as well as a gorgeous one,” he said with a laugh. “Even with the freckles, which I think are cute. I can definitely see the relationship between you and Leah.” He fiddled with his glass before taking a drink. “I guess that makes us sort-of cousins, doesn’t it?”

  Was that disappointment she’d heard in his voice? God, she hoped so.

  “Everybody knows the story, Dash, and they know you and I aren’t any kind of kin. I’d like it if we could be friends though.” She didn’t know much about seduction, but she did her best to put a husky note of suggestion into her words.

  “Friends.” He paused for a moment. “I’d like that, Carmen. Even if I’m not sure I’m any good at the whole concept anymore. You might be getting yourself a pretty lousy bargain.”

  “I’ll take that chance,” she told him. “Everybody needs friends.”

  “Are friends allowed to help clear the table?” he asked a few minutes later when they’d both finished eating. “You cooked, so it only seems fair.”

  “Definitely,” she confirmed. “If you want to rinse the dishes, I’ll load them in the dishwasher.”

  “You could come back tomorrow night,” she offered softly a few minutes later, after she’d walked him out to her front porch. “Just to check on the eagle. Or maybe to help me eat the lasagna I was thinking about making. I’m sure it will be way too much for just one person.”

  Dash paused halfway to the step. She hoped he could tell she was offering more. If he came back tomorrow night, it would actually be a date. Based on his hesitation, he understood. She heard him swallow hard then she thought she saw his head dip in a nod. “You have a grill?”

  “Of course.” She leaned back against the cool logs fronting the cabin.

  “If you can manage a salad, I could bring a couple of steaks. Seems those are pretty easy to come by when you own part of a cattle ranch.”

  “I think I can handle a salad.”

  He patted the top of Silver’s head. “That okay with you, boy?”

  Silver gave a contented chuff and moved over for a scratch from the departing visitor. Since he usually only did that with Ken, Carmen was astounded as well as secretly delighted.

  Dash reached out to scratch Silver’s ears. “He’s quite a dog—seems devoted to you.”

  “He’s one quarter gray wolf, one quarter malamute and half German Shepherd,” Carmen explained. “Believe it or not, he was the runt of the litter—when he was born, nobody thought he’d survive. I took care of him, and now he takes care of me.”

  “If that’s the runt, I’d hate to see the big guys in a dark alley,” Dash mused. He leaned down and spoke to Silver. “Okay if I kiss her, boy?”

  Carmen figured she wasn’t supposed to hear, but she did, and she felt a big grin break out over her face. “He doesn’t mind a bit,” she whispered.

  “Well, in that case…” Carmen’s nerves sang an overture as he stepped back toward the cabin and leaned in. “Thank you, Carmen, for a lovely dinner.” His hands braced on the wall on either side of her head, he leaned in and laid his lips over hers.

  The kiss was soft—little more than a whisper-light touch of his full lips. That wasn’t what Carmen wanted. Damn the butterflies in her stomach, she wanted him to know that she was interested in this—and a lot more—from him. Clamping her hands on his shoulders, she pulled him closer and opened her mouth.

  He didn’t seem to need much encouragement. Moving his hands from the wall, he slid one into her hair and the other around her waist. Slowly, gently, he deepened the kiss, his tongue at first tracing her lips then carefully slipping inside.

  Carmen swirled hers around it, savoring the taste of chili and beer and man. Then she sucked lightly on the tip, pressing her breasts into the hard plane of his chest.

  Dash groaned, taking charge of the kiss and ravishing her mouth until neither of them could breathe when they finally fell apart.

  “Umm—I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said raggedly as he stepped back and grabbed hold of the post supporting the porch roof.

  “Can’t wait,” she managed. “Drive safe, Dash.”

  “Good night,” he returned as he spun and walked down the steps. “Sleep tight.”

  His truck door slammed, the engine roared to life, and then he was gone.

  * * * * *

  “Hello, Grandfather.” Carmen didn’t need to see the man standing in the doorway of the barn to know who it was. She could sense her grandfather’s presence as easily as she could sense the sunshine on a summer day. “Did you bring me a fish for the eagle?”

  “Of course.” His boot heels clattered on the tile floor as he crossed to the sink and laid his bounty into it. “Three mid-sized bass should see him through the next couple of days, right?”

  “That should be plenty.” Carmen finished putting a stack of clean towels into a cupboard and turned, moving toward him. “Though she’s a big girl, isn’t she?”

  Ken stepped over to the eagle and wrapped his arm around Carmen’s waist as she moved up next to him. “She is. Dash said it was a bullet wound?”

  “Just a graze. She’ll be fine in a few days.” She kissed his weathered cheek then went over to the sink. The fish had been scaled and gutted, which wasn’t optimal nutrition, but would make for easier storage and serving. She cut one in half then wrapped the remainder in aluminum foil. Then she placed the cut piece on a plastic plate and put it in the eagle’s cage. She loved the fact her grandfather just stood back and let her work without getting in the way by trying to help.

  “What about the other patient? Think he’ll be okay anytime soon?” Ken waited while Carmen finished washing up then walked with her and Silverfoot back up to the house. When he settled down at the table, Carmen knew he was here to grill her, so she poured two mugs of coffee and sat across from him.

  “You mean Dash.”

  “Of course.” He picked up his mug and sipped. “Man’s been through a hell of a time.”

  “So I’ve heard,” she replied wryly. “Though only the basics. Seems to be handling it, but he’s got a lot of scars, inside even more than out. Offhand, I’d say he’s mending.”

  Ken was silent for a while, and Carmen smiled. She knew the old man far too well. He wouldn’t come out and question her, but he must have suspected there was some…spark between the two of them.

  She rolled her eyes and added, “He thinks a lot of you, you know. And he loves Leah and Mac already, even if he doesn’t know it yet. Bringing him here may have been the most decent thing Joe Morgan ever
did, even if he did it for all the wrong reasons.”

  Ken snorted. “Other than marrying my daughter and giving us your cousin, you mean. But yes, I agree. This land has power. It’s a good place for a man to make a new beginning—as long as he doesn’t break any hearts in the process.”

  “I’m not going to let him break my heart, Grandfather. I’m a big girl now. Any relationship I go into is with my eyes open, and it’s strictly between me and the man involved. If there was something going on, it wouldn’t be any of your business, you nosy old coot.” It was so easy to talk to him—she could never tease like that with her own parents, who took everything in life far too seriously.

  His laugh was easy and affectionate, just as it had always been. “I love you too, missy. And I know you’re a woman grown. Just be careful though. The heart you risk might not be your own. He’s a good man, and he could use a little kindness, but don’t get into something just out of compassion. In the long run, that would hurt him more than it would help.”

  “I know.” She suppressed a satisfied grin. Compassion be damned, what she and Dash had was all about plain old passion. After last night’s kiss, she was sure of it. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

  “Figured you would.” He drained his mug, stood and set it in the sink. Stepping back over to the table, he mussed her hair then dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Happen to know the boy has a fondness for oatmeal cookies.” He scratched Silver on the head as he made his way out the door.

  Carmen sipped slowly on her coffee as she stared after him, or at least in the direction of the door—anything beyond the end of her fingers was just a haze of light or shadows.

  “Well, Silver? Think we should make some oatmeal cookies?”

  Chapter Three

  Nobody had questioned Dash when he left the ranch early, claiming he needed to make a run into town. He’d gotten used to the small grocery store in Morgan’s Creek, and he was able to chat comfortably with the owner Ted Miller, who’d wasted no time in showing Dash his own bullet scar, high on his shoulder, which had earned him a Purple Heart in Vietnam. Though Dash wouldn’t say the Millers were exactly friends, at least he was able to relax in their company. Baby steps, his mother would call them. He wasn’t over his discomfort of going out in public, but he was making a few small strides in that direction.