by Leanne Davis
River's Rescue
by
Leanne Davis
River’s End Series, Book Nine
www.leannedavis.net
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
Thank you
Excerpt from River’s Winter
Other Books by Leanne Davis
About the Author
Copyright
Chapter One
BRIANNA STARR WANDERED AROUND the barn corner holding a wildflower she picked from the edge of the alfalfa field where a dozen or more horses grazed. Some of the handsome beasts glanced up as she passed the fence, their ears pricking forward, their gazes locked on her. Others looked before returning to their methodical munching. She sighed as the hot sun hung heavy above her. It was only the first week of July. How could it be this hot? Sweat trickled unpleasantly down her back and all she was doing was walking.
Twirling the flower she picked, she jerked her head up towards the sky, enjoying the sunlight. She wandered idly around the edge of the barn, after walking most of the perimeter of the property. She didn’t usually come out this far. This barn was a new addition to the Rydell River Ranch, built to accommodate the special needs of the abused and/or neglected horses the owners of the ranch rehabilitated under the name of their charity: River’s Rescues. The barn was off by itself, up high on a bank above the river where it was quiet and the horses were left in peace. She wandered this way now, for no other reason than to clear the kinks out of her muscles after hunching over her computer all morning. She’d been hard at work on her accounts and—thump!
Startled at the sudden collision, she let out a loud, automatic “oomph.” Her head rattled and jarred before her entire body stopped dead. Stunned for a prolonged moment, her gaze crashed downwards from the sky where she’d been staring. She blinked in surprise as she tried to comprehend what happened; she bumped into a human body.
A chest, to be exact. A male, sweaty and very naked chest.
Her head nearly bounced off the guy’s hard clavicle and she rubbed her forehead. The guy had jet-black, curly hair and he stared down at her. His face was completely expressionless. Her eyebrows popped upwards. He wore only low-riding jeans and no shirt. The no-shirt part caught her eye. His skin was darkly tanned and glistening with sweat over the smooth, eye-grabbing muscles. No cowboy hat either, and that was odd. Most of the ranch hands working around there insisted on wearing hats.
Who was this? She thought she knew all the men that lived and worked on the ranch. But she didn’t recognize this guy. He seemed younger than most of the other workers. And way closer to her age. Her eyebrows shot up and her lips easily slid into a seductive, welcoming smile for a greeting. “Well, damn, that’s one way to say hi to each other, huh? I’m so sorry I ran into you.”
His gaze darted down to her mouth and his expression stayed just as serious, unchanged, almost as if he didn’t hear or understand her. It didn’t matter that they were all but touching and their encounter physically jolted both of them. She tilted her head and he kept staring at her. Eventually, his gaze simply left her. Shy? Yes. Must be.
“I’m Brianna… Joey’s stepdaughter?” She kept her voice warm and silky. Flirtatious. Hospitable. Everyone who stepped foot on this land knew who Joey was. Joey Rydell was as close to her age as he was to her mom’s, whom he was married to.
But still… Why wasn’t this guy responding?
Head bowed, his gaze skittered up and down her body before landing right back on her mouth. It stayed on her mouth. Crazily unmoving from her mouth. What? she almost questioned out loud. What did he expect her to say? But he didn’t say anything. Startled and unsure of what to do when he again didn’t react, reply or even acknowledge their little run-in, she watched his gaze drift off towards the river.
“Are you new here? I don’t recognize you,” she tried again.
Nothing. She blinked. Clearly, this guy did not want to talk to her. She cleared her throat, tucked her hands in her jeans shorts pockets and glanced away to hide her embarrassment. It had suddenly become a totally awkward and unexpected interaction.
She took a step back from him. Confused.
Was he a little off in the head or something?
Hot, but yeah… something didn’t seem… typical. She wasn’t sure what, other than he didn’t speak. Maybe he had some kind of cognitive disability. Her heart twisted. That might be it. A soft smile touched her lips as she regarded the stranger with a new appreciation. Maybe he was just challenged in some way, with limited social abilities.
Then, as if to confirm her suspicions, his head dropped, he side-stepped around her and just vanished.
That fast.
She stared after him. Oh, that was weird.
Since most of the work the strange, anti-social guy did involved only the horses or the ranch, she guessed it probably didn’t include too many chances of new situations like this one occurring. She hoped he was all right. She felt bad upsetting him. Sighing, she turned towards her mom’s house only to be distracted by a figure Brianna spotted walking up to her mom’s porch, she broke into a grin and ran before happily descending on her best friend.
And quickly forgot the odd man who stared too hard at her mouth. Without even a word. Or expression. Or a hello.
****
Finn Alexander risked a brief glance backwards. When assured that the blond bombshell was distracted by something near the Rydell houses, he could finally feel safe and unnoticed enough to turn back to stare at her. Who was that? Wow. Just wow. He had only been working there for a few weeks, but had already walked, ran, worked and sweated from one end of the property to the other. Being the newest hire, he was naturally the newest grunt worker. He spent a lot of time on his feet traveling from one side of the ranch to the other but he never once saw a woman like that.
Finn voluntarily spent a lot of time on ranches, period. He’d been working with horses since he was a teen in Idaho. Mostly mucking the stalls, he also managed to gather snippets of horse training and care as well as their history and know-how. During all that time, he was unable to hear anything. But staring after the girl who was running towards the house now, he wished he could have heard even a single word that she said.
His world had always been silent. He never heard anything. Rarely, a high pitched sound managed to get through. He assumed when that happened, whatever created it must have been super loud. He had no context for the sound. He couldn’t identify it or where it came from. He didn’t really understand what sound was. Having no memory of ever having it, he honestly never missed it.
His one desire, however, was to be comfortable about being deaf. He suffered from isolation because he couldn’t communicate easily, not like everyone else. He remained on the outside, almost invisible. Always. Maybe if he’d had any family who could have been supportive, his experience as a deaf person would have been different. But he didn’t have that kind of family. Finn found it hard to fit in and trusted no one. He naturally avoided speaking with hearing people about things he didn’t know about or understand since communication was such a challenge in itself. Despite how much he hated being deaf in a hearing world, he couldn’t picture himself not being deaf.
He would have been fine being d
eaf if the world would just leave him alone.
Finn never saw it as a disability because fuck! What was he missing? Hearing? How would he know what it was since he couldn’t experience it at all? It wasn’t a disability inside his head, just a difference from other people, but he knew others equated it to him as exactly that: disabled.
Did he resent that kind of treatment? That was like asking if the Grand Canyon was very deep. It left a chip on his shoulder the size of Idaho. He knew that about himself when it lodged in his throat and he tried to ignore it. He strove to restrain his anger and resentment, sometimes even his rage. Keeping his head down and his mouth quiet, he dutifully went about his work. Alone. As unnoticed and unseen as he could make himself. A ghost. A shadow. A recluse.
Now at twenty-three years old, the less he was around others the happier he was.
That woman who nearly plowed him over? Definitely not in his caliber, that was for sure. She was way beyond it.
He’d been even more stunned since she was the first person he saw coming around that remote corner of the barn. Usually, he could go all day, or close to it, without seeing, talking or interacting with anyone. As if the shock of a physical run-in didn’t already muddle his senses enough, then he realized she was a female. All the way out there. Not exactly a common occurrence. The only female who Finn witnessed out in the barns and fields or working with the horses before was one of the ranch owners. But she never worked in this barn. This barn was strictly under Finn’s care. He cleaned the stalls, fed the horses and did all the other rigorous, twice daily chores. He was assigned the primary care of each horse in this particular barn. It housed the medically-in-need rescue horses. Erin and Jack Rydell, part owner of the ranch also ran the rehabilitating center as their charity, River’s Rescue. The vet visited this barn the most often and each horse there had a long list of care and ministration. That was Finn’s new job. Something he did all day, mostly alone. And it was almost sheer bliss for him.
But that female. And not just any female, but a young one. Not too young, his age most likely, but holy shit. She was the hottest piece of ass he’d ever seen up close and personal.
Sexist? Sure. But what the hell? Not like anyone could hear him… He smirked to himself as he watched her barely covered ass in the jeans shorts she wore. She disappeared into one of the houses that the family built beside the river.
Her hair was thick and long, ending at the waistband of her shorts. A strawberry blond mass of wavy hair. She had long, slim, tanned legs, with a small, tight ass and narrow shoulders. Smooth, toned arms and a slender, petite body she kept tight with muscles.
Except for her boobs. They were huge. Impressively so, and she showcased the perky, round mounds beneath her tight-fitting, camisole tank top. Owing to his bewilderment at seeing her freaking breasts right there, he forgot to glance up at her mouth so he missed whatever she said. It was probably some kind of startled exclamation at the run-in, or an apology for not expecting him as he never expected to see her either. But he missed whatever she did say and it made him so mad, he nearly bashed his head against the barn. Usually, the first thing he did was glance at people’s mouths to see first, if they were talking; and second, to decipher what they were saying. He hated to miss things especially when people first met him. It often required several more interactions or someone telling them he was deaf, before they fully got it.
But this bombshell literally amazed him and his stupid eyes were too busy drooling over all the eye candy that he missed what she said. The only reason he bolted away from her was his fear of saying something wrong or inappropriate. If she asked him a question and he just kept standing there without answering her, it was very awkward, not only for him but also for her, the listener. He hated to put people in a state of unease.
His weariness from those types of interactions was the main reason he quit school during junior year. There was no reason or anyone to keep him there, neither the teachers nor the other students. Unfortunately, there was also no parental figure. Drifting all over since leaving school, Finn never stayed anywhere longer than a few months.
Until he found the Rydell River Ranch and Resort.
No other ranch that he worked on anywhere, however, included attractive, young blonds walking idly around the outlying field and barn where he worked. None ever included an eye-catching beauty carrying a wildflower and doing nothing except that—walking and smelling her flower.
Who prepared for someone like that? Who did that?
He shook off the odd meeting and swooped back into the dark, gloomy interior of the dusty barn. He was about to redress an old abscess on one of the mares. Her hind end hadn’t been properly cared for and Jack wanted to remedy that. So what about that woman? He’d never see her again, or talk to her or deal with her. She was most likely just a guest who wandered off the Rydell River Resort. That was something Finn had nothing to do with. All the rescue operations and horses were housed the furthest away, on the opposite end of the ranch and resort, as far away as they could be without dipping into the river.
Finn thanked his lucky stars for that daily. He was glad all those hearing vacationers stayed out of his world so he could enjoy the quiet solitude that framed his life.
That was enough. All he wanted. Quiet. It was the only thing he was used to and he relished it.
Chapter Two
BRIANNA SEETHED INSIDE AS she screeched at her best friend. “You’re what?”
“I’m going to live in Germany with Charlie and probably travel the world a little bit before we decide to come back this way.”
Brianna sputtered and glared, but her tiny best friend simply smiled in a serene stare and didn’t react to any of Brianna’s screeches or protestations. Cami announced she was changing everything between them forever. “Cami. You can’t be serious? Germany? Across the ocean? But why? You… you love River’s End.”
“I love Charlie more,” Cami answered, her tone placid. “But being in Germany made me crazy excited to travel, tour, and explore. I honestly loved it and I think I can be happy doing that. Besides, we’ve been apart so long; and this way, we can both fulfill Charlie’s destiny together.”
Brianna crossed her arms under her breasts. “Oh, great. This is all Charlie’s fault. Why can’t he just settle down and be a cowboy or farmer or rancher or… or anything that resembles stuff from around here? Oh, no. He has to be all… all different and shit. I can’t believe you’re going away like this. Where does that leave me?”
Cami sucked on her lower lip. Brianna was sure it was only her effort to avoid laughing at Brianna. The thought made her scowl harder at Cami. “Still you. Still Brianna Starr… and kind of the same, Bri.” Cami kept her tone soft and calm while sounding so annoyingly rational. When Brianna was upset, like right now, she hated when anyone spoke rationally to her. The calming tone and soft whispers made it seem as if Brianna were crazy and being talked off the ledge of a building. No. No way could Cami Reed, of all people, talk to her that way.
“But… but Cami, it’s going to be different forever. That means you and Charlie won’t be home for the summers at the ranch anymore. It means…”
Cami gripped Brianna’s hands. “It means we’re no longer teens or kids enjoying our summer vacation together. We’re really not anymore, Bri. I will miss you, but it’s time I left. We’re old enough. I want to do this. It’s not just for Charlie, like I always believed it would be if I ever chose to leave River’s End. I want this now too. I’m excited… I want you to be excited for me. You know, it’s amazing to me that I have the chance to do this, considering who I was and where I came from.”
Brianna’s conscience tripped. She blew out a breath that caught her long hair and lifted it off her face. “I hate it when you play the crappy-childhood card, but I know… I know how big this is. And I am happy for you two. It’s just I never dreamed you’d go international or that I’d lose you. You… I just adore you. You’re my best and only friend.”
Cami patted
her back after she squeezed her hard in a hug. Then Cami leaned back and rolled her eyes. “You are so full of shit. I’m one of a couple dozen friends. You’re never alone, always the center of every group or party. I think you’ll be just fine.”
She shook her head and bit her lip, gripping Cami’s hand tightly in hers. “No. No, you’re wrong. I might appear popular and have a ton of so-called ‘friends’ but they don’t know me. They’re just casual fun. They aren’t real relationships. They don’t care about me… not the real me. They could never become my best friend. It’s only you that I confide in and only you, Charlie and Jacob, who have ever been allowed to see all of me. Not just the popular or charming me. Or the one that fits in with the rest of the crowd.”
Cami hugged her again. “Oh, Brianna. I sometimes forget that. How easily you can charm and interact with anyone, even me, but how rarely anyone gets to know the real you.”
She flopped down on the step. “That is why I don’t want to lose you.”
Cami sat next to her. “You can’t lose me. I’ll always be stuck on you as your best friend. But I dated a guy for five years long distance… so you can love and care for me long distance. It’s hard, but it’s definitely worth it.”
Brianna nodded. “It’s worth it. But I’ll miss the hell out of you.”
“And that’s why you’re going to take over the camp for me.”
“The camp? What are you talking about? You mean, your camp?” Last June, Cami and Jack planned and carried out a charity event that brought Seattle-area foster kids and at-risk youth over to the ranch for two weeks. The kids stayed in the resort and enjoyed all the facilities and vast grounds. They got to swim, ride horses, play sports, run all over and play to their hearts’ content. The Rydells provided them with a true knowledge of rural life that few had ever experienced. Brianna was still busy finishing up school so she missed most of it.
