She showered and brushed her hair, and despite herself she couldn’t stop wondering about Mase. She could see him in her mind’s eye, those blue eyes, the sensual curve of his mouth under his mustache just before he’d smiled at something her father had said. And the hard line of those same lips. He seemed to have reserved that for her alone. Did he resent the auction? Perhaps he’d felt belittled by her having bid for him. She couldn’t make him out at all. On the other hand, he was gone now, out of her life. And that was just fine with her.
It was a busy day. But then every day was busy, especially in the summer months, when everyone wanted to be outdoors. The Someday Ranch had a big indoor ring that was heated, but the guests responded so much better to the therapy sessions when they were held outside.
Wyoming in the winter could be the cruelest place. Unbearable winds blew down out of the Rockies for months on end, lowering already freezing temperatures by another twenty degrees or so.
But summer was heaven. Incredibly clear blue skies and low humidity. It was warm, but never too hot, not when the air was so dry. The guests, especially those from the humid east, perked up for any challenge.
Before heading out to begin Hal’s therapy session, Callie had a bowl of cereal in the kitchen with Francine and her mother. She just knew someone was going to bring up the subject of Mase LeBow. It wasn’t in this crew to let a sleeping dog lie.
Her mom was the culprit this morning. “Such a nice man, Callie,” Liz said from across the big wooden worktable.
“Who?” Callie asked innocently.
“Mase,” Francine put in. “If you don’t want him, I’ll be happy to make that date.”
“I think the date’s already over,” Callie said. “He visited the ranch, we had dinner and all.” She shrugged.
Liz cocked her head. “You mean that was it? You paid all that money for a couple of hours?”
Callie looked up from her bowl. “I told him he didn’t have to go through with the thing, the silly date. I mean, the guy’s all the way down in Denver and I’m up here. What would be the point?”
“A date,” Francine said. “The whole point is a date with a handsome man. You paid for it. Now, if he was obnoxious or something, sure, I’d have let him off the hook, too. But Mase…”
“Can we drop it, please?” Callie asked, cutting in. “I don’t think we particularly hit it off. The vibes just didn’t flow. Okay?”
Francine made a disapproving noise, and Liz only stared pensively at her daughter.
* * *
HAL HAD BEEN wheelchair-bound since a college football accident eighteen months ago left him with a bruised spinal cord. He was already waiting by the ring, where he would ride Milky Way today. His was the first of the therapy sessions Callie would give that day. Jarod had six scheduled. Between the three morning sessions and then lunch, some ranch work and three more afternoon therapy sessions, her day was booked.
“Morning, Hal,” Callie said as she untied Milky Way from the fence. “You look chipper.”
“I’m okay, I guess,” Hal said.
He’d been a tough nut to crack when he had arrived a month ago. He had seemed sullen and withdrawn, carrying the biggest weight on his shoulders that Callie had ever seen. It had taken a full week to get Hal onto a horse’s back, and he had only done it because his new friend Marianne, another patient, had called him a wimp for not giving the therapy a shot.
After his very first ride Callie had seen improvement in him. For the first time since his spinal injury, Hal had legs again. Okay, so they weren’t his, but he was afforded the simple pleasure of freedom of movement. Even Marianne saw the improvement in him. Marianne was a wonderful patient, never down, always optimistic and a hard worker, to boot. She was recovering from a head injury after a car accident. To tell the truth, Callie depended on her good cheer, especially with Hal. The benefits of the therapy depended as much on encouragement, trust and enthusiasm as they did on physical training. The kids got kisses and hugs, the adults got subtler encouragement, but it was all directed at positive reinforcement, a can-do attitude. And it worked. Once Hal was mounted, Jarod led the brown-and-white-spotted Milky Way. Callie walked on one side, her dad on the other, supporting Hal. His balance was so much better that they were hardly needed. Callie talked him through the routine, directing him to move his arms above his head, bend one way, then the other. Much of the physical benefit came simply from sitting on the horse, feeling the animal’s gait precisely reproduce the movement of the human pelvis when walking.
Hal had been told he might very well regain the use of his legs, but the doctors couldn’t be sure; sometimes the trauma to the spinal cord healed completely, sometimes partially. Patience and time had been their advice. But Hal had been impatient and getting depressed, so his parents found the Someday Ranch, and they were everlastingly thankful.
Hal had begun asking lately if he could go on a trail ride. Not yet, Callie had told him. Not until he could get on a horse unassisted. So he worked at it, and Marianne encouraged him.
There was something developing between the two of them—everyone at the ranch had noticed—and it was a bond that was strengthening every day. Even Hal’s parents, who’d visited a week ago from Kansas City, had been aware of it. And they’d been thrilled.
Callie finished the session with Hal by critiquing his performance. He was used to hard-driving football coaches, so she saved her hugs and kisses for other patients and gave him what he wanted. “All right, that was a good recovery when Milky Way stopped short. I’d like you to try to put more weight in the stirrups. I know, I know, you can’t feel your feet, but imagine it. Imagining, Hal, is very important. You used to imagine how to throw the football, how you’d make a certain play, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Same thing here. It’s coming back, all those little muscles, all the nerves. They need training, like a million little athletes.”
“Okay, coach.”
Callie grinned and gave Hal a not-so-light punch in the biceps. “Tomorrow, right?”
Peter came bounding over to the ring, running into the center.
“Slow down there, cowboy,” Callie said to the twelve-year-old, who had attention deficit disorder. “You know the horses don’t like sudden movements around them.”
Peter, who would do anything to please the animals, came to an abrupt halt. “Sorry. I forgot.”
Callie smiled. “It’s okay. Did you have your session with Jarod yet?”
“After lunch,” Peter said, fidgeting while Callie unsaddled Milky Way.
Peter was climbing the rails to the ring, and Callie watched him for a moment. So much energy.
She smiled, shaking her head, and was turning back to the horse when she saw a look, a peculiar blank expression on Peter’s face.
“Peter,” she said softly, “are you okay?”
He seemed to come back into himself and focused on her. “You know that man who was here yesterday? With Joey?”
“Yes,” Callie said, lifting the heavy saddle. “That was Joey’s dad.”
“That man’s in trouble.”
Callie stopped in her tracks. Since Peter’s arrival at the ranch a month ago, everyone had become aware of the special gift he possessed: he was clairvoyant. At first, when he was learning to focus and concentrate, no one had believed Callie about his ability to “see” things. But then Peter started finding misplaced items around the guest bunkhouse and even in the main house. A pocketknife. A pa
ir of reading glasses. And once, when his parents came for an unannounced visit from Casper, Peter had known they were coming.
He had said, “Mommy and Daddy are in the car getting gas in Lightning Creek. They’ll be here for lunch.”
Sure enough, just as everyone was gathering in the main house, Peter’s parents drove up.
Callie studied the boy now. “Why do you think Mr. LeBow is in trouble?”
Peter looked her squarely in the eye. “’Cause he is. Well, Joey is.”
Then Callie thought she understood. Since the death of Joey’s mother, the child had become despondent. Yes. That was trouble of a sort. And it couldn’t be easy on Mase, either.
Callie smiled at Peter and picked the saddle up, accepting his statement as another one of his uncanny insights.
* * *
FOR THE MANY SUCCESS stories at the Someday Ranch, there were always a few failures. Very few. But enough to unsettle everyone. Rebecca Brown, who had recently had her sixth birthday, was not responding to the therapy as well as the staff had hoped.
Rebecca was autistic and hadn’t spoken a word in over a year, not since she had witnessed her baby brother take a fall. Her brother recovered fully from the injuries, but the trauma of the experience had sent Rebecca into a silent place.
Her parents had tried everything, but nothing had worked. So far. In desperation they’d brought her to the Someday Ranch. She’d been here for two months, and Callie was awfully afraid her parents were going to take her home if she didn’t show at least a little improvement soon.
Callie worked very hard with the child until lunchtime, and Rebecca showed the usual bonding with the horse she was riding. But she was oblivious to all but the movement of the horse’s smooth, firm back beneath her. Callie so desperately wanted Rebecca to speak again. She even dreamed about her at night, saw her speaking to Kahlua, running and laughing with Beavis and Butt-Head at her heels. It wasn’t going to happen today. Tomorrow, though, Callie mused, Rebecca would speak tomorrow. At lunch she told everyone that, and they all agreed. Sure, Rebecca would respond any day now. But no one at the ranch believed as wholeheartedly as Callie did. They all thought she was a bit of a dreamer.
The call from Mase came on Wednesday after dinner. Callie could not have been more surprised. She took the cordless phone from Sylvia and found a private spot, sitting on the top step of the staircase in the main house.
“Hello?” she said.
“Callie?”
“Yes, this is Callie. Is that you, Mase?” She couldn’t believe it. What on earth had compelled him to call? Had he left something here?
“Yeah,” he was saying, “it’s me. I just wanted to touch base about our date. I didn’t mean to go rushing off the other evening without setting the time and place.”
“Our…date?” she said stupidly.
“Sure. You didn’t think I’d fink out on it, did you?”
“Well, no, but like I told you, it’s not necessary to go through with it. You’re busy. I’m maxed.” She caught her lower lip with her teeth, then released it. “It’s very nice of you to call, though.”
“I insist,” he said. “And I was hoping we could do it right at your ranch.”
“Do…the date?”
“Yes, Callie, the date. The only trouble is my parents won’t be able to watch Joey next weekend, so I’ll have to bring him along. Is that all right?”
Next weekend?
“Callie? You still there?”
“I, ah, well, of course Joey can come. I mean, if you come, that is. But you don’t have to. Really.”
“I insist,” he said. “I’ll drive up a week from this Friday, as soon as I can get off work. Is that okay?”
“Of course,” Callie said, “a week from Friday. I’ll have Francine hold dinner.”
“Thanks,” he said. “See you then.”
“Oh, sure,” she said, “I’m looking forward to it.”
But when she was off the phone, she had a sudden image of a huge yellow bulldozer, and its treads had just run over her.
* * *
LUNCH IN TOWN with Lindsay was Callie’s idea. She called Lindsay on Saturday morning and said she was dying to hear all about the end results of the auction and, hey, why not meet in Lightning Creek at the Roadkill Grill around noon?
“It’s a date,” Lindsay said.
But when Callie was driving toward town, she realized she hadn’t been entirely honest. Yes, she wanted to hear about the auction, but there was another subject bedeviling her: Mase LeBow.
She thought a lot about that as she drove—keeping her speed under control this time—along the Shoshone Highway. Why was she so darn curious about the man?
She took Poplar Road into Lightning Creek, stopped for gas at Chuck’s Exxon station, then headed down Main Street. The street curved around the town landmark, the statue of a cowboy on a bucking bronco, arm thrown up in the air, then continued on. She found a parking spot in front of Twyla’s Tease ’n’ Tweeze beauty salon. The sign out front was emblazoned with Twyla’s signature logo, a pair of ruby slippers just like those worn by Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Callie got out of the truck and headed for the grill. She had dressed for the occasion. Usually she never got out of her jeans and Stetson. Today, though, she had put on a khaki miniskirt, a sleeveless yellow-flowered cotton top and high-heeled sandals. The sandals were a pain in the butt to drive with, but they were terribly stylish, and Callie loved the clip-clop sound they made on the sidewalk.
Lindsay was already seated at a window booth and waved Callie over. “What a treat,” Lindsay said. “When’s the last time we had lunch together in town?”
Callie ordered an iced tea and shook her head. “Can’t remember. Ages, I guess. So tell me all about the auction. Did you make a bundle for the boys?”
They spent an hour talking about the men, and who had bought whom and for how much.
“What about you?” Callie asked. “You made me buy someone, but you…”
“Oh, you know, I bid on Rex.”
“No fair, Lindsay, you already know him.”
“That was the point,” Lindsay said defensively. “It let us both off the hook.”
Callie rolled her eyes. “Unfair, unfair. How come you two got off easy?”
“Because, Thorne, we organized the whole shebang.” Then Lindsay changed the subject. “So,” she said, “I got all the info for you after you called.”
“Huh?” Callie looked up from her apple pie à la mode.
“You called me about lunch ’cause you wanted to pump me about Mase.”
“I most certainly did not.”
Lindsay shrugged. “Anyway, I talked to Rex and I’ve got the whole scoop. Of course, if you aren’t interested—” Lindsay glanced at her wristwatch “—I do have to get back to Lost Springs.”
Callie sighed. “Tell me.”
“Only if you admit that’s why you really called.”
“God, I hate you. Okay, yes, it’s a part of why I called. Satisfied?”
“Thoroughly.” Lindsay grinned like the Cheshire cat, then her expression softened. “Okay, here goes. Mase originally came to the ranch after he stole a car and proceeded to drive it into Cherry Creek in Denver.”
“Right into the creek?”
“Rex reminded me of it. I think it was a Mercedes. I guess the owner of the car was a lawyer, and he knew the juvenile judge and wanted the book thrown at Mase.”
“But he ended
up here.”
Lindsay nodded. “I remember he was a real hellion at first, but then settled in okay. By the time he left he was actually ready for college. I don’t know how he got into law enforcement, but I do know he was married for some time.”
“I learned that the hard way,” Callie said. “I mean, that he wasn’t divorced, but that his wife died. Last year, I think.”
“Car accident,” Lindsay told her.
Car accident, Callie thought. Oh, Lordy, the speeding ticket Mase got because of her…
“Anyway,” Lindsay was saying, “he’s involved in this big murder case in Denver. Mase is the star witness. Have you ever heard the name Richard Metcalf?”
Callie frowned, thinking. The name was ringing a bell, but she couldn’t remember who he was.
“Metcalf is the guy who’s been bidding to build that new super sports complex in Denver.”
“Oh, right,” Callie said. “Really rich guy.”
“That’s him. Anyway, this city councilman was murdered. And I guess Mase can tie Richard Metcalf to the murder.”
“Wow,” Callie breathed.
“Rex and Sam have been following it, and then said it has something to do with Metcalf trying to bribe the city councilman, but the man wouldn’t go along, so, allegedly, Metcalf hired someone to snuff him.”
Callie sat back in her seat. “That’s…big. I mean, that Mase is involved and all. And he actually saw the murder?”
“I don’t think he saw it. Rex said he was at the scene within minutes and bumped right into the hitman. He can ID the man, and the man’s connected to Metcalf.”
Callie was shaking her head. “And Mase LeBow wants to go out with me? Come on.”
“Why not?”
“It’s ridiculous. Why, he must be a local hero. Every woman in Denver has to be hot for him, Lindsay. Why would he waste his time with me? And at the Someday Ranch? It’s absurd.”
Lindsay frowned. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe he was attracted?”
“Not in a million years,” Callie said staunchly.
Courting Callie Page 4
