Crossing Nevada

by Jeannie Watt

  The sad thing was that she didn’t have a friend she trusted with the answers to those questions. Tess had never let herself form truly tight relationships because she hated losing them later—which inevitably happened. Everyone she’d loved or cared about had disappeared from her life. Her friends from the halfway house, her grandmother, Mikey, her youngest stepbrother, whom she’d adored, her mother...

  Tess squeezed her eyes shut. She had loved her mother—before drugs and Eddie had taken over her life—and for years had hoped to get her back. It hadn’t happened. Another loss.

  Zach’s kids had also lost their mother. Maybe that was why she felt such a bond with them. Tess knew the pain of not having a mom around to help with the traumas involved in growing up.

  So was it stupid to pursue something with Zach, even if it couldn’t go anywhere? Were they setting themselves up for a whole lot of hurting later? Or indulging in some mutual healing?

  Questions without answers. She hated them.

  * * *

  ZACH SIGNED HIS name on the check, stuck it in the envelope and sealed it. For the second month in a row he hadn’t been able to make the full payment to the hospital, but he sent most of it. He and Jeff had decided to ship cows at the end of the month to give Zach operating capital. Cow prices were down and he hated to sell, hated that Jeff was also taking a loss, but there wasn’t much else he could do.

  Zach dropped the pen on his desk next to the nearly empty checkbook. Two and a half more years and he’d be out from under the medical bills...and it wouldn’t be long after that he’d start paying for Darcy’s college expenses. Then Emma. Then Lizzie.

  The checkbook was going to see a lot of action in the next fifteen years. He just hoped that after this month he’d be able to start making full payments to the hospital again.

  He stood, stretched and then reached for his hat, which was hanging off the antler hat rack his dad had made, and then headed out the door to change the irrigation lines.

  His dad had done okay on the ranch before selling it to Zach and Jeff and moving east to the Denver area, where he’d been raised, but he’d never embraced the life the way Zach did. Zach’s mother had said more than once that the only reason his father ranched was that when he married her, the ranch came along as part of the deal. Well, Zach did love the ranch and his girls loved the ranch. He truly wanted to pass it along to them. They’d never get rich off it, but it provided a decent income and a unique lifestyle—if one didn’t get hit with over a hundred grand in medical bills.

  When he and Karen had bought the ranch, they’d gotten the only medical insurance they could afford, primarily for the girls. It had turned out to be woefully inadequate, as was the policy he had now. All he could do was soldier on.

  The setting sun was just touching the top of Lone Summit as he changed the wheel lines in the north pasture, allowing a new part of the field to get water. After he was done, Zach sat on the tailgate of his truck and watched the sun disappear. Benny worked his way under Zach’s arm and he idly stroked the dog’s silky fur, trying to pretend the only thing on his mind was irrigation and finances.

  It wasn’t.

  It’d been a little over twenty-four hours since he’d kissed Tess. And though it’d just been a kiss, which shouldn’t have been a big deal between two adults, it was. They’d turned some kind of corner and now they had a new, wide-open playing field to explore...with new obstacles, no doubt.

  Tess had wanted to kiss him. Had responded as intensely as he had, and she hadn’t backed off as quickly, or as far as usual.

  But he’d had to promise not to push things, not to expect answers to the questions he might have and he had many.

  Who or what was she afraid of? How did it relate to her injury, if at all? Was she on the run? Had she committed a crime?

  If Tess had come here to hide out, she’d picked a place that would be hard for a stranger to navigate without people noticing. She obviously had money, or she couldn’t have afforded to lease the Anderson place, which he knew sold for cash after being on the market for almost five years. Anderson hadn’t gotten his asking price, but he’d snapped up whatever it was she’d offered.

  So what he knew about Tess boiled down to she’d been injured, possibly been assaulted, possibly hiding out and she had some resources. And he felt comfortable talking to her, really liked kissing her, wanted to make love to her—and not just for sex. There was a connection between them that neither had worked at developing, but had sprung up anyway.

  That was worth exploring, at least as far as he was concerned. So did he make a move? Wait for Tess to make a move?

  Under normal circumstances he would do the honors, but Tess’s circumstances were not normal.

  The sun had barely disappeared behind the mountain when Zach noticed a vehicle slowing at his driveway. Sure enough it pulled in. A large silver SUV that he’d never seen before.

  He slid off the tailgate and walked around to open the truck’s door. Benny shot into the passenger seat.

  Strange to have visitors this time of day. Zach had an uneasy sensation that only grew as he drove close enough to recognize the man standing next to the SUV talking to Beth Ann.

  Bradley James. Husband of hospital administrator Marcela James. Zach’s mouth pressed into a flat line as he stopped the truck in its usual parking place and crossed the distance between it and James’s expensive vehicle.

  “Zach,” Bradley said, extending a hand and smiling that too-toothy smile of his. Zach only knew him casually from the occasional bull sale or rodeo. The guy oozed money and he fancied himself a gentleman rancher. Few people took him seriously as a rancher, but money tended to give one a lot of sway and Bradley was quite aware of that fact.

  “I was hoping we might have a few minutes to discuss some business,” he said with a dismissive smile aimed at Beth Ann, who frowned deeply at the announcement.

  “Sure,” Zach said.

  “Well,” Bradley said, “I came to see if you were interested in selling that parcel of land.”

  “No.”

  “Hear me out,” Bradley said patiently. “I’d pay you more than it’s probably worth.”

  “Out of the goodness of your heart?” Zach asked politely.

  “Because you’ve had a rough road, son.”

  Don’t call me son. Zach tilted his hat back. “Why now? The long drive out to talk to me in person when a phone call would have been much easier?” Bradley shrugged. “It couldn’t be because your wife is releasing confidential information to you?”

  “What kind of information?”

  “Financial,” Zach said. As in that he hadn’t paid his monthly installment in full.

  “No,” the man blustered as if such an idea was utterly crazy. “Of course not. You know that I’ve been interested in that land for some time now.”

  He had offered Zach a goodly sum for the forty acres last year, too. “Sorry you made the drive for nothing, Mr. James.”

  James’s expression was no longer congenial. “You need to think about this, Zach. With a family to support, the extra money could come in handy.”

  Indeed it could.

  “This is not a time to be selfish,” Bradley said when Zach made no response. Zach’s eyes snapped up to the older man’s face. “You could provide a lot of security for your daughters.”

  And drive by the castlelike second home the Jameses would no doubt build on the acreage and be reminded that he’d sold off part of wha
t was his, and had been in his family since the valley was homesteaded in the 1860s.

  “The land will always sell,” he said, although that may not be totally true considering how long it had taken Anderson to lease his place to Tess. “For now that answer has to be no.”

  Bradley shook his silver head in a way that indicated Zach was being ridiculously foolish and opened his vehicle door. “If you should change your mind, I’d appreciate a call.”

  “You bet,” Zach said, keeping his face as expressionless as possible, trying not to show the depth of his anger. “And if you’d tell your wife to keep my financial information quiet, I’d appreciate that.”

  Bradley climbed into the SUV and started the engine. Zach stood stone still, watching the man drive back the way he came.

  “What’d he want, Dad?” The sound of Darcy’s voice startled him. He turned to see his three girls standing together on the porch.

  He wanted your future. “He was just here to talk some business.”

  “You’re not selling Roscoe to him?” Emma asked in alarm and Zach couldn’t help smiling. He’d threatened to sell the horse often enough.

  “No, kiddo, I’m not selling Roscoe. I’m not selling anything unless I absolutely have to.”

  “That’s too bad,” Lizzie said in a small voice.

  “Why, honey?”

  “Because I want a pair of sparkly shoes and a new bike that’s bigger and Darcy says we don’t have money.”

  Knife to the heart. Zach briefly met Darcy’s eyes, saw the stricken look mixed with an unspoken apology and tried to smile. “We may not have a lot of money, Liz, but we have horses to ride and lots of land that belongs to us instead of someone else.”

  “I guess,” Lizzie said, but she didn’t seem impressed to have a legacy.

  “Dad—” Darcy started after Lizzie and Emma went back inside, but he touched his finger to his lips.

  “You didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.” The relief on her face before she smiled and followed her sisters made him wonder just how stressful their financial situation was to her. He’d thought he’d been hiding things pretty well. Lots of folks in the community were struggling to make ends meet. His family just happened to be struggling a little bit more.

  He’d have to be more careful not to let his stresses affect his kids.

  * * *

  ZACH HAD FULLY expected to say no to Bradley James and have the matter over and done with. Except that it wasn’t. The situation ate at him for the rest of the evening and he lay awake that night, thinking about how much the money from selling the forty-acre parcel would help him ease out from under the medical bills.

  And how he was basically robbing from his daughters if he did sell. He didn’t have much to leave them, but he had the ranch. Even if they decided to sell and split the money after he was gone, the more land there was, the more they would have.

  He got out of bed and quietly walked upstairs to check the girls. Benny slept on Emma’s bed, having resisted the impulse to roll in something nasty after his last bath. The dog raised his head then dropped his chin to rest on Emma’s legs. Zach moved on. Lizzie’s sneakers were lying on the floor next to her bed, well worn and not at all sparkly. And she was right. Her bike was too small for her.

  Darcy’s door was closed and Zach left it that way. As he walked down the stairs, moving slowly to keep them from creaking, he paused at the window on the landing and looked toward Tess’s house. It wasn’t lit up like it’d been after she’d first moved here, but there were lights.

  Three in the morning. Was she awake? Or sleeping with the lights on? The only reason he could think of for her to do that was fear, pure and simple.

  The thought made Zach’s gut twist.

  Or maybe, like him, she was wide-awake because she had a whole lot to think about. Maybe part of what she was thinking about was him.

  * * *

  AS A RULE, Zach was not an impulsive man. If anything he was overly cautious, but after one hell of a long sleepless night, he didn’t think twice about following impulse and saddling both Roscoe and Snippy. He wanted to think about something other than money and Bradley James.

  Benny slunk off to pout in his doghouse after Zach put him in the fenced yard. It couldn’t be helped. Zach was on a mission and he didn’t need a dogfight sidetracking him.

  He rode Roscoe across the county road and down Tess’s driveway, leading Snippy behind him. Tess’s dogs raced around her house as he approached, but Roscoe did little more than snort when the dogs’ heads appeared above the fence and they commenced barking and growling.

  Today, however, the mock canine attack lacked conviction and after a few seconds the barking stopped and the dogs dropped out of sight on the other side of the fence—just as Tess came around the corner of the house, carrying a rake. She stopped when she saw him, appearing...uncertain. Ready to disappear back inside her house at any second.

  “Are you busy this morning?” he asked before she could say anything.

  Tess pushed her hair back from her forehead, frowning as she shaded her eyes from the sun. “Why?”

  “I thought we could go for a ride.”

  Her expression clouded as if this was too much, too soon. “Zach...”

  “Come and ride with me, Tess.”

  She dropped her hand and stared at her feet. For a moment he thought she was coming up with a way to say no—and if she did, he’d turn around and ride home without pressing the matter—but instead she raised her eyes back up to meet his. “Can I ride in these?” she asked, pointing at her athletic shoes.

  “No reason you can’t.” The saddle had tapaderos covering the front of the stirrups, so her foot couldn’t slip through, get caught—the danger of riding with shoes without heels. “Just don’t tell Emma or Darcy.”

  “Why not?”

  “They’re studying for an equestrian safety test they have to take at horse camp and have safety rules coming out their ears.”

  “I wouldn’t want to be unsafe,” Tess said. There was a world of meaning in her words. Zach wondered if she was aware of whether she’d voiced the major issue in her life unconsciously.

  “Grab a sweatshirt,” he said. “And a hat if you have one.”

  “All right. Be back in a sec.” She called the dogs and started for the back of the house, moving quickly, as if she was afraid if she slowed down she’d change her mind.

  * * *

  TESS TOOK THE blue cloche out of the closet, then put it back and instead grabbed the complimentary bright red ball cap that had come with her new lawn mower and slapped it onto her head.

  Zach had brought the horses to her, wanted her to ride with him...she was more touched than she wanted to admit. And nervous as hell.

  She’d spent the night thinking about him and the kiss and how very much she wished her life was different. When she’d rolled out of bed this morning, she’d been no closer to a decision as to how to handle the situation than she’d been the night before. One thing she did know, though, was that pretending she and Zach had no unfinished business between them, staying in her house and avoiding him, wasn’t going to resolve anything.

  Tess sucked in a fortifying breath and headed out the door. She tried to smile as she opened the gate and stepped out onto the driveway.

  “Nice hat,” Zach said with an easy smile. He’d dismounted and was coiling Snippy’s lead rope, and, as always, Tess’s eye was drawn to the long lean lines of his body.

/>   “You think so?” she asked blandly. “Does it give me attitude?”

  “You’re doing okay on the attitude front without the hat,” he said, a smile in his eyes. He tied the coils of rope to the saddle with the leather thongs attached near the front and then handed Tess the reins. This was her third time mounting and her best effort yet. Snippy stood steady as a rock as Tess swung up into the saddle. Zach nodded his approval and then mounted Roscoe with a kind of fluid grace that made her want to ask him to do it again—just so she could watch.

  “I thought we could ride the trail along the base of the mountain, have some lunch...ride back.”

  Tess lifted the reins and Snippy stepped forward. “So, this is kind of like a date?”

  “Kind of like two people having lunch by a stream.”

  “Afraid I’ll back off if you call it a date?”

  “Yes.” Zach smiled at her and again she thought of how much her photographer, Jonas, would have loved to have photographed Zach...and how much Zach probably would have hated it.

  “I’m not afraid of a date,” Tess said. She was afraid of she and Zach wanting, needing, different things from each other. But they were going to communicate. And he wasn’t going to ask for anything she wasn’t able to give. That was the pact.

  “Good to hear,” Zach said. He turned Roscoe onto the county road and Snippy obediently followed his buddy. Tess did little more than hold on, which was fine.

  She had things other than riding on her mind right now.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  TESS AND ZACH rode across Murray’s field and onto a narrow overgrown dirt road on the other side that wound through the sage toward the mountain.

  “Are you doing all right?” he asked.

  “Fine.” And she was, riding along on the placid horse with the sun on her back, lulled by the creak of the leather saddle, trying hard not to think about anything but how much she enjoyed being on horseback.