by Janet Dailey
'What would change?' She glanced up to his face as they passed beneath a streetlight. The harsh expression in his eyes startled her before he turned his face away.
'Nothing will,' he stated.
'After two years, what then?'
'I'll go back to my ranch in New Mexico.'
'If you own a ranch, then why are you here? Surely you should be there running it?' They were walking past the stables to some parked vehicles.
'I can't afford it,' Lije answered grimly. 'Eleven years ago, when my father was alive, we had a drought that just about wiped us out. It took a couple of years with me riding in rodeos and him working on the ranch to get it together again. I kept riding so we could make improvements to the place. Then three years ago he died and I got hit with all the inheritance taxes. I had to go back on the circuit to make ends meet.'
His steps had ceased and unknowingly Diana had stopped also. His last statement explained a lot of things. Lije Masters was a man with roots, with a heritage and pride that made him stand out from the other rodeo cowboys she had seen who lived blithely for the day with no thought of tomorrow.
'It's not much for transportation,' Lije said, lifting a hand towards a battered pick-up truck parked in front of them. 'But I think it will make it to your hotel. Where are you staying?'
'At the Hilton,' Diana replied, accepting his helping hand into the cab, smiling her thanks as he made sure the door closed fast. After he had started the pick-up and pulled on to the street, she said softly, 'You must miss your ranch very much.'
'I do.'
'Would you tell me about it?' she asked.
The grey eyes swept over her face, studying the extent of her interest.
'It's in the mountains north-west of Socorro, New Mexico. The Continental Divide bisects one corner of the ranch and the lava beds are to the north. It's miles from the nearest neighbour or town. We run mostly sheep right now, although we've started changing to cattle. It will be a while before the herd builds up, which is just as well since it would be hard for one man to handle both. Jim—the two of us were raised together like brothers—is taking care of it now for me. It's beautiful country.' He glanced at her briefly. 'Wild, rugged mountains covered with pines and lush green valleys. Sometimes I get hungry just for the sight of it.'
The warmth in that brief look made Diana swallow. Lije seemed more remote than he had ever been. As he had been describing the ranch to her, she could tell he was picturing it in his mind. She realized that there was no sacrifice too large that he wouldn't make to keep that land. Born and raised in the city, Diana knew nothing about ranches, cattle, horses, or anything that was a part of Lije Masters' life. It was frightening to think of how little they had in common. Thankfully Lije didn't seem to expect her to make a comment about the ranch he had just described, and Diana was able to nod and smile.
Her hotel was directly ahead of them. Lije parked the truck along the curb, and Diana studied his carved profile as he turned off the motor. She admired the strength of purpose that was etched there, because she knew the cost he paid. When he turned towards her, she wanted to reach out and touch him, give him some of the softness that he had been denied, but it was impossible to do.
'How long will you be staying here?' Lije asked, propping his elbow on the top of the steering wheel as he leaned against his door.
'The photographs are supposed to be finished tomorrow,' Diana admitted reluctantly. 'We'll probably go back to Dallas on Saturday. What about you?'
'After Sunday's performance, I'll be heading on to Houston.'
Diana shivered—not from the cool air. The thought that in less than two days they would both be in separate parts of the state and maybe never see each other again made her feel cold inside. Their paths had just crossed momentarily.
'I suppose I'd better go in,' she sighed, not able to think of anything else to say that would prolong their conversation.
'Will you be going to the rodeo tomorrow night?' Lije made no move to follow up her suggestion.
His question had caught Diana off guard. 'Yes, I thought I would.' Actually she hadn't progressed that far in her plans.
'I'll probably see you then.' This time his hand did reach down for the door handle, and he opened the door and stepped out of the truck.
Diana shook her head. She had honestly expected him to make a date to see her, but he had left it to a 'maybe'. With his impassive face, it was impossible to tell whether he even wanted to make that 'maybe' become a fact. There was a constriction in her throat as she took the hand he offered her out of the truck. He didn't walk her to the hotel, but stood on the sidewalk.
'Goodnight, Diana,' he said, touching his hat, his grey eyes smiling.
'Goodnight, Lije.'
The area was well lit. People were walking along the pavement behind them. A more personal goodnight wasn't possible, and Diana sensed that Lije had arranged it this way. Before she turned to walk towards the hotel, he was already walking back to the driver's side of the car.
Stella was awake when Diana entered their hotel room. She was sitting up watching one of the late shows on television. Upon her friend's entrance, she switched off the set and turned expectantly to Diana.
'How did it go?' Stella asked eagerly.
'Fine.' Diana slipped off her jacket and hung it up before sitting down in front of the little vanity to begin brushing her long, silver-blonde hair.
'Fine? Is that any way to describe an evening? What did you do? Where did you go?'
'We went to a restaurant, had some coffee, talked, and he drove me home,' Diana shrugged, knowing how unbelievably dull that sounded.
'Are you serious?' Stella squeaked, sitting upright in the bed and hooking her dark brown hair behind her ears. 'There had to be more to it than that! He did kiss you, didn't he?'
'No, he didn't,' Diana replied sharply, setting the brush back on the table before she had completed her customary one hundred strokes.
'Oh, Di, I always knew you were slow.' Her friend shook her head sadly at her. "But we're only going to be here for another day. You just don't have time for three dates before a guy kisses you.'
'It does take two, you know!' Diana pushed the blonde hair away from her face and took a deep breath to control her rising temper. 'I'm going to see him tomorrow.'
'Then he did ask you out?'
'Not exactly,' Diana sighed, turning her bewildered gaze on her friend. 'Stella, I just don't understand him. It's infuriating. He makes a point of asking if I'm going to the rodeo tomorrow night. When I say that I am, he says he'll probably see me. And that big cowboy doesn't even sound as if he cares!'
'It's obvious that you do.' Stella leaned back against the pillow and studied Diana thoughtfully.
'I've just met him.' Diana tried to sound offhand and she failed. 'I don't know. I don't understand why he's so important to me.'
'I wouldn't let it bother you,' said Stella, punching her pillow and slipping under the covers. 'That man has a chemistry about him that attracts. If you hadn't seen him first, I would have matched him up for myself tonight.'
Sighing as she undressed and got ready for bed, Diana didn't think the answer was quite as simple as Stella thought. If she was honest with herself, she didn't want it to be that simple.
The following day's photography session seemed to last forever. Diana had never known the hours to drag so badly. Her attention wasn't on her work because her eyes kept searching the crowds for some sign of Lije Masters. More than once Rick spoke sharply to her while Connie tossed daggers with her eyes. She was so depressed by the end of the day because she hadn't seen a trace of Lije that after she had scrubbed her face clean of all its heavy make-up, she didn't even have the energy or desire to apply light touches of mascara and lipstick.
Wearing a blue windbreaker over a pair of scruffy white slacks, she dejectedly followed Stella from the trailer. From habit, her eyes travelled over the distant groups of cowboys along the route to the parking lot. She was so busy try
ing to identify the far-away figures that she wasn't conscious of the horse and rider approaching them, not until the man was abreast of them and Stella poked her sharply in the ribs.
'Hello, Diana.'
She stared in disbelief at the man reining his horse in beside her. The grey eyes looked calmly back. She had to swallow several times to get her voice to work.
'Hello, Lije,' she replied in a small tight voice.
'I'll see you at the car,' Stella said, stepping away quickly to leave them alone.
'Are you through for the day?' he asked.
'Yes.' Her hand went nervously to her hair as Diana realized she probably looked pale and colourless without any make-up, not realizing the sparkle that lit her eyes or the glow of pleasure that shone from her face. 'We … we were just heading back to the hotel.'
'I almost didn't recognize you without the war paint.' His gaze swept over her face with arrogant coolness, the light in his indicating that he saw the spreading pink shade in her cheeks. 'I think you look more attractive this way.'
'Thank you.' Diana lowered her gaze. Here was a compliment that she couldn't brush off as she had so many others from different people. This one came from Lije and it was special.
'Would you like to have dinner with me tonight after the rodeo?' he asked suddenly.
'That would be nice,' she agreed quickly, swallowing back the lump of happiness in her throat to smile up at him.
He nodded and started to turn his horse away to leave, then stopped to look down at her again. 'Meet me at the stables about seven and I'll show you around.'
Diana was too happy to take offence at the way he had put it as an order and not a request.
'I'll be there,' she assured him as he touched his hat and nudged his horse into a canter.
She nearly floated to the parking lot where Stella waited. Her companion didn't need to ask what had caused the bemused expression on her friend's face. It was just as well, because Diana was too wrapped up in her own happiness to talk.
At seven, she was still walking on air as she rushed to meet Lije at the stables. It wasn't the hurrying that had caused her breathlessness. Diana had chosen her outfit with care, a blue denim slack suit that deepened the colour of her eyes and offset the fairness of her pale hair. She had been just as careful applying the light make-up since Lije had made it clear he liked the natural look. Her appearance must have pleased him, became she was rewarded with one of his rare smiles that so completely transformed his remote features.
Lije kept his word, taking her all around the adjoining rodeo grounds, pointing out everything he thought would be of interest to her. Diana was too dazzled by her companion to take more than a cursory interest in most of it, though she did manage to absorb enough to ask intelligent questions when the occasion demanded it.
Much too soon for Diana came the time for the grand entrance. He led his buckskin to the arena gates with Diana walking beside him. There was a thrill of belonging when an official started to stop her and Lije spoke up quickly that she was with him and she was allowed in. Handing the reins of his horse to another cowboy, he took her by the arm and led her to the side towards an older, battered-looking cowboy on crutches.
'I want you to stay here with Lefty.' Lije commanded gently. 'He'll keep you out of trouble and tell you the finer points of rodeoing.'
'All right,' Diana agreed, liking the protective and possessive way those grey eyes were looking at her. Even better she liked the way they sharply turned on the short, lean cowboy.
'Take care of her,' Lije told him.
'You bet. If anybody comes near her, I'll chase 'em away with my crutch,' the cowboy assured him with pseudo-ferocity.
Lije's hand touched her shoulder lightly before he walked back to his horse. In one lithe movement he was astride, his boots automatically finding the stirrups. Diana would have been content to watch him, but the older man was already claiming her attention.
'Lije didn't see fit to introduce us,' he was saying. 'My name's Lefty Robbins.'
Diana shook the calloused brown hand he held out to her, aware that now that Lije was gone she was undergoing a close scrutiny.
'Well, Diana,' said Lefty after she had told him her name. 'Let's wander over to the stands behind the chutes. You can get a good look-see there.'
There was no choice but to follow him, although once they had reached their vantage point, she had to admit he had chosen well. There was an unobstructed view of the chutes and the arena.
'What happened to your leg?' Diana asked as she watched him gingerly lower himself to the seats, making sure his leg was stretched out comfortably.
'Ah, a fool horse kicked me out in the stables and fractured an old break,' he replied gruffly. 'I was doin' pretty good up till then.'
'That's hard luck,' she commented sympathetically.
'Heck! If it weren't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all.' His weathered face twisted into a smile. 'That's how I got my name.'
'Lefty? I don't understand.'
'My left arm has been broken over a dozen times. The boys were going to chip in and buy me a permanent cast,' he chortled, and Diana's blonde head tilted back to join his laughter.
Just as the night before, after the parade and the national anthem, the first event was saddle bronc riding. The winning ride was by the cowboy who had stopped Diana in the stables, Jack Evans. His swagger was even more pronounced than it had been when she met him.
'Why doesn't Lije ride bucking horses?' she asked, turning to Lefty as they cleared the arena for the calf roping.
'He's too big. A good bronc rider is usually lean and only average height. You gotta be small and wiry like me to stay on those sun-fishin' horses,' Lefty announced proudly. 'Not that Lije couldn't stay on, he just couldn't rack up the points with any consistency. Now bull-ridin' is something different. It's still better to be smaller, but he can use his strength to make the ride. Lije may not make day money in the event, but he'll end up somewhere in the placings.'
'What's day money?'
'A cowboy rides in a particular event every night. The one with the highest score, like in bronc and bull-ridin' or the fastest time for calf-ropin' or steer-wrestlin', wins that day's prize money. But the scores accumulate each day so at the end of the rodeo the cowboy who's consistently done the best in a particular event gets the big prize.'
Diana's questions set off a running commentary from Lefty as he explained the various technicalities of each event. He pointed out the string barrier that allowed the calf a head start before the roper was permitted to go after him. If the roping horse broke the barrier, there was a ten-second penalty added to his roping time. After the catch had been made, the calf had to be on his feet before the cowboy could throw him back on the ground and tie his feet.
It continued on through the bareback riding event, where Lefty told her that the rider had to have his feet above the horse's shoulders as the horse came out of the chute or he was disqualified. The rider's free hand could never touch the horse, which was the reason he waved it in the air above him so the judges could see he didn't touch the horse, as well as to give him a certain amount of balance.
'Why does Lije let other cowboys ride his horse?' Diana asked as the steer wrestling began.
'He don't exactly "let" them ride his horse,' Lefty smiled. 'You see, Lije's got himself a valuable piece of horseflesh there, 'cause it's probably the best dogging horse around. Them boys pay to use his horse, so much for each go-round or a percentage of the purse if they win on him. That red horse of his makes Lije a pretty fair profit. I don't know how many offers he's had to buy that stallion, but the price is going up in the five figure range now. That Lije Masters has a pretty smart head on his shoulders.' He winked confidentially at Diana. 'With that horse and Lije's own natural know-how, those two could take it all this year and end up at the National Finals Rodeo in Denver.'
Lefty fell silent during the bull-riding event, sensing the reason for Diana's clenched hands and p
ale face. After Lije's successful ride, she smiled weakly at the older cowboy, who nodded and patted her hand comfortingly before signalling that it was time for them to leave to meet Lije.
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Chapter Four
LEFTY persuaded Lije that even with his restricted mobility, he was capable of taking care of the horses. Lije agreed to the offer, although he unsaddled them before they left.
'Would you mind waiting a few minutes outside my camper while I change my clothes?' Lije asked as he and Diana walked towards some parked vehicles near the stables. He glanced ruefully at the dirt stains on his white shirt. 'I forgot to tell the bull I was taking you out to dinner.'
'I don't mind waiting,' Diana laughed as they stopped beside a pick-up truck with a camper mounted in the bed and over the cab.
'I won't be long,' he promised, adding with an impish twinkle, 'I would invite you in, but … '
'I'll wait outside.' A rising tide of warmth started up her neck. She had been in those types of campers before and knew very well there wasn't any real privacy when it came to dressing and undressing. A smile crinkled his eyes as he nodded and entered the trailer.
True to his word, Lije was out in a matter of minutes. He hadn't just changed his shirt, though, but his entire dress. Now he was wearing a Western-cut suit of brown corduroy with an open-neck shirt in a cream yellow. The outfit enhanced his rugged good looks, intensifying the colour of his grey eyes while it complemented his dark brown hair and accentuated the width of his shoulders and the slimness of his hips. Lije Masters looked every inch the commanding rancher, and the effect awed Diana.
'Will I do?' he mocked as she continued to stare at him.
'Now I'm the one who feels she should change,' Diana laughed nervously, glancing down at her suddenly plain denim slack suit with its white stitching.
'It's too late. I'm hungry,' he decreed, taking her arm and guiding her to the front of the truck. 'And you would attract attention no matter how you were dressed. I don't think any man would ever look to see what you were wearing.'
