The Trailblazer

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  “You’re not the first person to think so. The True Love has been welcoming people home for generations.”

  Ry straightened in his chair. “That’s going a bit further than I intended. I’m just talking about a change of pace. Nothing permanent.”

  “Oh, I see.” She sat quietly, gazing out across the sparse crop of grass.

  “What are those earrings supposed to be?” he asked. “They look like a special design.”

  She reached up to finger one of the silver hoops. “They’re called dream catchers. Indian legend has it that the web keeps bad dreams out and lets good ones through.”

  “What’s your take on this curse business?”

  She turned those incredible almond-shaped eyes on him. “When something as terrible as that massacre happens, the land bears the mark of it, whether it was deliberately cursed or not. But I like to think the Singletons have been pumping good vibrations into the area for so many generations that the power of the curse is fading.” She smiled at him. “After all, Thaddeus Singleton did name it the True Love. Think of the energy inherent in that.”

  “Energy in a name?” Come on, Leigh.”

  She gazed at him, her sense of inner calm almost palpable. “I can’t believe you would doubt it...Ry.”

  He gazed at her as a chill ran up his spine. He’d assumed he could buy this ranch, change its name, revamp its purpose and move on, a wealthier man. Why did that assumption seem suddenly naïve?

  Leigh nudged the dog from her feet and stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to drive down to the corrals and saddle a few trail horses. We have a sunset ride scheduled tonight.” She glanced down at him. “Want to come on the ride?”

  “I—ah—”

  She laughed. “Never mind. I was teasing you. Besides, you’d probably better stay here. Last I heard, Freddy had called Eb Whitlock and invited him to have supper in our dining room with her and the other guests, as a gesture of thanks for his coming up to check on you two this morning. You’ll probably want to hang around and protect your interests.”

  He lifted his eyebrows.

  “In the ranch, of course,” she explained. Then, with a low whistle to the dog, she cut across the yard to yet another battered pickup with the ranch’s brand painted on the door panel. This truck boasted an added decoration, however. Over its dark blue fender curved an iridescent rainbow.

  * * *

  FREDDY TOLD HERSELF she’d invited Eb out of courtesy. After all, he had gone out of his way this morning to make sure she was okay. But her pride still smarted from that dunking in the horse trough. She wasn’t above needling Ry a little with Eb’s presence at her dinner table.

  With only eleven guests in residence and five of them out on a sunset trail ride and barbecue, the dining room seemed almost empty. The six remaining guests had all been at the ranch for a week and had become friends, so they commandeered one of the longer pine tables. Freddy ushered Eb to a table set for four with the traditional True Love heart-shaped place mats in red-and-white checks, red napkins and tin plates enameled in red with white flecks.

  “I see you’ve kept the traditions alive,” Eb commented, pulling out a chair for Freddy.

  “With difficulty.” Freddy kept glancing at the door to see if Ry would appear for dinner. “This tinware isn’t easy to find anymore.”

  Eb leaned forward as he pushed her chair closer to the table, and she could feel his breath on her bare shoulders. Her blouse, one Leigh had talked her into buying, had “cold-shoulder” cutouts. The blouse, along with a tiered denim skirt, was her newest outfit, and she’d swept her hair on top of her head and added silver concho earrings. She hadn’t been this dressed up in weeks. But a woman who had last appeared climbing from a horse trough had to think of her image.

  Of course, Ry might skip dinner. At this moment, he could easily be sound asleep in his room. At least he wasn’t in the Jacuzzi—she’d checked.

  “I said, this sure brings back memories,” Eb said, a little too loudly and with a trace of impatience.

  Freddy realized she hadn’t heard him the first time. “Yes, it does.” She smiled at Eb, who had seated himself at right angles to her. “Sorry I haven’t had you over sooner, but...”

  “Never mind. I know you’ve had troubles. Seems like all sorts of things have been going wrong.”

  Although he hadn’t touched her, Freddy felt crowded. She’d never realized how Eb seemed to gobble space. “Just a little bad luck is all, Eb.”

  Manny, one of only two waiters they kept on during the summer months, came by the table with a trayful of salad plates. “Just the two of you at this table, Miss Singleton?”

  Freddy sincerely hoped not. She’d invited Eb as a little dig at Ry, but now she was in danger of spending the meal alone with her silver-haired neighbor. Both Leigh’s and Ry’s assessments of Eb had been weighing on her mind. “I’m not sure, Manny. Why don’t you leave another salad, just in case?”

  Eb glanced at her. “Isn’t Leigh out on a sunset trail ride?”

  “Yes.”

  His expression of goodwill dimmed. “Then I guess you must be expecting your prospective buyer,” he said. “Before he arrives, we need to talk. I was hoping your trail ride would discourage him.”

  “So was I, but he doesn’t discourage easily.”

  Manny put salads in front of both of them. “Where would you like the third one?” he asked.

  Eb patted the place mat beside him at the same moment Freddy pointed to the seat next to her. Manny paused as he looked from Eb to Freddy.

  “Here, I’ll take that from you,” Ry said, sitting down next to Freddy. “You look lovely tonight,” he murmured to her.

  “Thank you.” The compliment filled her with pleasure, far too much pleasure for her own good.

  “So, McGuinnes, you survived,” Eb said.

  “So I did. How are you doing, Whitlock?” He reached across the table to shake Eb’s hand. “How’s Gold Digger?”

  “Gold Strike,” Eb corrected.

  “Oh, yeah.” Ry grinned. “You’ll have to forgive me. I’m new around here.”

  “So I noticed. I was wondering how you found your way to the table without a maître d’.” Eb gave Ry a wide smile that looked totally insincere.

  “We city dwellers learn to be resourceful. I just followed the light flashing off your bolo tie, Eb. May I call you Eb? I’ll bet you need a winch to hoist that hunk of silver over your head every morning.”

  Eb’s smile disappeared. “I’m surprised to see you up and about, McGuinnes, much less cracking jokes.”

  “Yeah, me, too.” Ry hoisted his water glass in Freddy’s direction. “To the power of...youth.”

  Freddy knew she shouldn’t be enjoying this, but Eb was always so darn full of himself that it was fun to watch someone pricking his balloon of self-importance. In the next moment, she felt guilty. During her father’s illness, Eb had almost made a pest of himself with offers to help out. Once, he’d graded the road to the ranch without asking and another time he’d rounded up several of her strays who’d wandered through a break in the fence, returned the cattle and mended the fence. Freddy had been grateful, but Leigh had contended he was building up points toward some future goal.

  “I suppose Freddy’s told you about the curse on this place,” Eb said between bites of salad.

  “She has. Fortunately, I’m not a superstitious man.”

  Freddy glanced at Eb in surprise. “You don’t believe in the True Love curse, do you?”

  “I didn’t used to.” Eb pushed away his empty salad plate. “But consider the run of bad luck you’ve had recently, Freddy. First your father’s cancer. Then you were forced to sell to this big-shot corporation, but the place still hasn’t turned a profit. Maybe there’s something to that curse business. Even a relatively minor thing like Mikey getting cut up, or your stock tank springing a leak. And remember, too, that calf was stillborn, and pack rats chewed the wiring in two of your trucks.”

  “
Pack rats and stock-tank leaks are just part of living out here in the desert, Eb,” Freddy said, irritated by his catalog of mishaps.

  “Don’t happen that much to me.” Eb leaned back in his chair and puffed out his chest.

  Or you keep quiet if they do, Freddy thought, and felt uncharitable for thinking it.

  Manny replaced the salad plates with servings of T-bone, baked potatoes and beans.

  Ry picked up his steak knife. “If I didn’t know better, Whitlock, I’d say you’re trying to scare me off so you can buy this place for a song. Not that I blame you,” he added, cutting into his steak. “Any good businessman would try the same thing.”

  “Oh, I’m no businessman,” Eb said, with a sly nudge of Freddy’s knee under the table. “I’m just a rancher.”

  Freddy felt like a dope. Of course Eb was trying to discourage Ry with all this talk of the ranch’s curse. In his typical heavy-handed way, he was trying to help. And she would prefer that Eb buy the place, wouldn’t she?”

  Manny returned to the table. “Excuse me, but there’s a call for Mr. McGuinnes.”

  Ry looked up, his expression alight with anticipation. He turned to Freddy. “Where can I take it?”

  “You can go in my office. Just head straight across the main room. The door’s open.”

  After Ry left, Eb heaved a sigh. “I do hate city slickers. I’m surprised he didn’t whip out one of those cellular jobs.”

  “Eb, I thought you just bought one of those things?”

  Eb looked uncomfortable. “Okay, I did, but it’s just to take out on the range. You should get one, too. It used to be safe for women to ride around this country alone, but not anymore...” He peered in the direction Ry had taken. “Any type of idiot could be out there.”

  “He’s turned out to have spunk, Eb,” Freddy said. “I know he’s a greenhorn, but he took that trail ride like a man.”

  Eb gave her a sharp look. “You changing your mind about city guys buying the place?”

  “No, not really. Westridge was bad enough, but at least they left me in charge. I have the distinct impression these men wouldn’t do that.”

  “Bet your bottom dollar on it. This McGuinnes is a real wheeler-dealer. He—” Eb didn’t finish the sentence as Ry came back into the dining room.

  His walk was still a little bowed, and he still grimaced as he sat down, but his blue eyes glowed as he looked at Freddy. “Good news. My third partner is definitely in.”

  The leap of excitement in her chest caught her totally by surprise.

  “And just what does that mean?” Eb asked.

  Ry looked across the table at him. “That it’s a done deal, neighbor.”

  * * *

  FOR THE REST of the meal, Freddy felt like a referee at a sporting event. Eb paraded his knowledge about ranching and Ry parried the rancher’s boasting with thrusts of razor-sharp wit. By the time Eb said his goodbyes and drove away in his king-cab dual-wheel pickup, she would gladly have carried him to his ranch on her back.

  “Lovely evening,” Ry said as he stood next to her on the porch.

  She shot him a sideways glance. “I suppose you enjoyed yourself.”

  “You bet.”

  “Men,” she muttered, lifting her gaze heavenward. “By the way, what are these two partners of yours like?”

  He shoved his hands into his pockets. “You know, this is the craziest deal I’ve ever put together, with the most unlikely characters. A trucker, a New York City cop and me. Can you imagine a stranger combination than that?”

  She was unwillingly intrigued. “How did you ever link up with them?”

  “We were all in the same elevator accident.”

  Her stomach pitched. “Were you hurt?” she asked before she could stop herself, before the betraying note of concern could be banished from her question.

  He gazed at her, a smile of irony making a brief appearance. “A minor concussion, which is nothing compared to the way I’ve been battered since I arrived here.”

  Freddy avoided his gaze. “What about the other two?”

  “My briefcase went flying and gashed open the cop’s chin, and he also broke his arm. The trucker hurt his back, which put his trucking career in jeopardy but gave him a nice settlement. The cop’s quitting the force and sinking his pension into the ranch.”

  She stared at him in disbelief. “You’re using an insurance settlement and someone’s retirement fund to buy the ranch?”

  “Along with every asset of mine I could liquefy.”

  “Doesn’t that worry you, risking people’s nest eggs?”

  “No. People thrive on risk. It’s playing it safe that ruins them. These two men were both stagnating, needing a challenge but not sure what it should be. I provided one.”

  From his assured tone of voice, Freddy easily pictured him in a luxurious office in Manhattan, playing the market with nerves of steel, winning and losing small fortunes as if he were using Monopoly money. “And what about you? Did you need a challenge, too?”

  “Apparently, I did.”

  “I suppose your partners will want to come out to the ranch, too.”

  “Definitely. Chase Lavette, the trucker, plans a trip as soon as the physical therapists have released him, and Joe, the cop, wants to bring his little boy out.”

  “Of course, the deal isn’t finalized,” she said. “It could still fall through somehow, or one of your partners could back out.”

  “They won’t.”

  As crickets chirped in the mesquite branches, Freddy turned this new information over in her mind. She’d been devastated when she’d had to sell the ranch to West ridge, but life around the True Love hadn’t changed as much as she’d expected. This time, however, the owners wouldn’t be a faceless company. Real people were buying the True Love, people looking for a challenge. God knows what havoc that could create. She felt a headache coming on. “Maybe it’s time to call it a day,” she said. “We probably both could use some rest.”

  “Should I check for bugs before I go to bed?”

  “No,” she said with a weary shake of her head. “We’re on a regular schedule with an efficient exterminator. You’re safe here.”

  “I’m almost sorry to hear that.”

  She looked into his eyes. Had he already developed a taste for danger?

  “Good night, Freddy,” he said softly. “Sleep well.”

  Nodding, she retreated inside before the spark of excitement in his gaze could lure her to stay.

  * * *

  TWO HOURS LATER, her headache was worse. Climbing out of bed, she changed into her red tank-style bathing suit, grabbed a towel and headed toward the pool. But once she’d entered the enclosed patio, she paused. Ry was in the Jacuzzi, his head pillowed on a towel, his eyes closed.

  She decided to go back to her room, but for a moment she stood and watched him. His arms were stretched out along the lip of the Jacuzzi and his broad chest moved rhythmically as warm water foamed and splashed against his taut belly. Droplets of water clinging to the pelt of his chest hair winked in the light from a nearby gas lantern. Desire eddied through her, but it wasn’t just the sight of his naked torso that stirred her senses. It wasn’t even the memory of his kiss, although that played a part. But physical beauty and sensuality wouldn’t have captured her imagination if she hadn’t witnessed the courage with which he’d faced whatever trials she’d thrown at him since his arrival yesterday. He’d responded just like...a cowboy.

  Perhaps he’d make a good owner of the ranch, after all. But he would be the owner, and he didn’t believe in compromising his business relationships with personal involvement. She thought it was a wise strategy, herself. She turned to leave the patio.

  “Don’t go.”

  She stopped in midstride.

  “I owe you an apology.”

  She swung back, astonished. “You owe me an apology? How do you figure?”

  He’d lifted his head from the towel and gazed at her. “I lost control at least twic
e today. I shouldn’t have dunked you in the horse trough, for one thing.”

  “I probably had it coming.” Her heart pummeled her ribs. “Nobody likes to be laughed at.”

  He gave her a wry grin. “That doesn’t excuse my assaulting you...in the pond.”

  She wondered if he considered the tackle an assault, or the kiss. Whichever it was, she didn’t think they were wise to discuss the incident. “Never mind. I don’t hold grudges.”

  “Good. Because I have a favor to ask.” He braced his hands on the edge of the Jacuzzi and lifted himself upward, so he sat with only his feet dangling in the water. His trunks were very brief and very wet. “I noticed you have a fax in your office. I’d like to use it in the morning, if you don’t mind. I’ll cover the charges.”

  Freddy gulped and glanced away. “No problem. I have some errands to run in Tucson tomorrow, so I won’t be working in there, anyway.”

  “I see. If my being out here now makes you uncomfortable, I’ll go in and let you have the patio to yourself,” he said.

  She focused on his face and tried to ignore the Chipendale image he presented lounging on the lip of the Jacuzzi. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “I agree. We can’t work together very well if you run every time I show up.”

  “I wasn’t—”

  “You would have left the patio if I hadn’t called you back.” He got to his feet. “Do you want the hot tub? I’m ready for a swim.”

  The last thing she needed was warm, swirling water to stir her senses even more. “I was planning on a swim, myself.”

  “Think we can share the pool?”

  “Of course.” She tossed her towel on a chaise, took the pins from her hair and executed a shallow dive into the illuminated water. The cool shock of the water was like a brisk slap in the face, one she probably needed. She swam under the surface to the deep end and glided up beside the diving board. She glanced around to locate Ry, and her breath caught. He stood in the arch behind the waterfall like some Polynesian god, the golden accent lights caressing his muscles as he braced for the dive, pushed cleanly through the cascading water and jackknifed into the pool.