by Laurie Paige
“Mr. Gilmore is a local. I was the stranger in town,” she reminded him gently. She turned to Hope. “Brandon and his grandfather arranged for Elizabeth Gardener to defend me. She was wonderful.”
“Did I tell you she’s coming to visit us here at the ranch this week?” Garrett asked.
“Oh, it’ll be so nice to see her,” Emma said in delight. She touched Brandon’s hand. “We’re going to name our first child after her. If it’s a girl.”
“First child,” Garrett repeated. His blue eyes—so very like Collin’s, Hope noted—opened wide in pleasure. “Does that mean we’re going to have a new grandbaby soon?”
“Yes, in about five months,” Brandon admitted.
Trent picked up his orange juice glass. “A toast to the newest Kincaid.”
Hope drank to the new baby, too. When she saw Collin watching her over the rim of his glass as he drank, she got flustered and nearly dropped the juice glass in her lap. His eyes crinkled lazily at the corners as he set his empty glass on the table. Her heartbeat quickened.
An hour later she climbed into the pickup and Collin started off across the pasture. At a gate—which he hopped out to open, then closed after they’d passed through—he pointed to a dirt road. “We’ll be on a logging road. Rough, but better than your trying to sit a horse, I think.”
At his knowing grin, she had to laugh. “I think I would have choked you if you’d brought out a horse this morning.”
“Pretty stiff, huh?” He gave her a sideways glance. “You’ll soon toughen up.”
“I don’t intend to.”
“Hey, you can’t live in ranching country and not be able to handle a day in the saddle. During roundup, we stay out in the hills for a week at a time. It’s one of my favorite things—eating around a campfire, bedding the cattle down for the night, sleeping on the ground with nothing but stars between you and eternity.”
“Mosquitoes nibbling at your nose, rocks digging into your back, snakes wanting to share your sleeping bag.”
“Ah, you’ve done it, too,” he said mock seriously.
“My father made me take a summer’s survival course when I was sixteen. He thought I was too tenderhearted.”
“Mmm, so that’s what made you into the hard-nosed legal eagle you’ve become. I had wondered.” He nodded wisely, then cut her a glance full of devilment.
She went all warm and smothery inside at his teasing. “Yes, I realized survival meant men, women and children had to look out for themselves. We were dropped in a wilderness area the last week. We had to eat off the land and make it back to base camp using the stars and local landmarks to guide us.”
“It’s more fun if you have a partner,” he added softly, his gaze now bold as he perused her. “All life is. I realized that when I went to live with my granddad. He and my grandmother shared life in a way that was wonderful, not just for them, but for all of us around them.”
Her heart contracted into a painful ball. “I wouldn’t know about that,” she said coolly. “My mother died shortly after I was born. It was only my father and me at home.”
She held on to the seat belt as they bounced over the uneven road. The land was relatively level, but the road hadn’t been graded that year. If ever, she added at a particularly bad pothole.
“This is the land that belongs to the reservation now,” he pointed out after a full hour’s ride over the vast ranch. “From here to the bluff where the creek runs.”
“This was Baxter land?”
“Yes.”
She opened the door when he stopped on a little rise and stood so she could see across the land. A rolling meadow bumped gently up against a rock wall. A line of cottonwoods indicated the meander of the creek.
“Can we get closer?”
“Yes,” he said. “Get back in.”
He drove across the meadow, startling a couple of deer lying in the tall grass, and parked in a shady spot near the creek. When she alighted from the truck, she could hear the sound of running water. The cool breath of mint mingled with the freshness of the breeze.
“Another beautiful spot. No wonder my father wants it.” She picked her way around pines and firs mixed with the cottonwoods and willows until she stood on a boulder next to the rocky creek. She gazed farther down the stream. A line of rustic cabins made of split logs nestled on the other side of the creek in a tranquil, rather level, spot formed by a bend in the creek and the cliff, which descended to the valley floor and ended in a tumble of boulders that extended into the water.
“Oh, they’re building,” she said.
“The tribe has been busy this summer,” Collin observed, stopping behind her. “They plan to put in several family resorts in order to bring in money and provide jobs. They’re being very careful in using the land. Jackson Hawk has supervised several environmental studies. It’s a reasonable use of the land that can be sustained without damage.”
“Why can’t this be used for cattle?”
“The pasture is too small for more than ten or so cow and calf pairs. Then there’s the problem of transporting them out in the fall. The cows couldn’t survive a winter out here on their own. Not enough forage.”
“Oh.”
He laid his hands on her shoulders. “Talk your father into settling for what the trustees can sell him. It’s a fair offer.”
Troubled, she twisted her head around and met his eyes. “It’s his dream…” She lost the thought.
“Yes,” he murmured. “Hope.”
If he hadn’t said her name, she might have been saved, but his voice, with that edge of tenderness and need… It was more than she could resist.
Tilting his head slightly, he bent toward her. She turned fully toward him and laid her hands against his chest. Heat immediately spread from him to her.
Neither spoke nor blinked for a minute, then he closed his eyes and his mouth touched hers.
It was bliss. It was the deepest pain she’d ever known. It was need and hunger and despair. It was excitement and guilt and all the things she’d ever experienced in this man’s presence.
Tentatively, savoring the feel of his mouth, she explored his lips with hers, then with her tongue. A shuddering breath went through him. His arms wrapped around her, and she knew the meaning of cherished.
He was gentle and ardent at the same time.
It hurt way down deep inside—to know this and know it could never be. She turned her head. “No,” she moaned. “Please…no.”
Every muscle in his body tensed to the hardness of granite. He dropped his arms and stepped back. “Are you ready to go?”
She missed the teasing, the laughter in his eyes, the crinkles at the corners. She lowered her head and nodded. They made the trip back to the ranch headquarters in silence. When he parked, but before she could clamber down from the pickup, he touched her arm lightly then withdrew his hand.
“So, are we in agreement in trying to talk them into a settlement?”
She had thought about it on the agonizingly slow trip back. “Yes. I think it’s a fair offer. I’ll present it to my father and try to convince him to accept.”
“Good.”
“I think it’s time for me to go home. I have contracts I need to go over before tomorrow.”
But when she tried to start her car—a new one still under warranty—it wouldn’t budge. A call to the dealer got her a promise to send out a tow truck the next day and haul it to the garage.
“I’ll take you in the truck,” Collin volunteered.
Having no choice, she followed him into the house to retrieve her overnight case. Inside she told everyone goodbye. She and Emma agreed to meet for lunch one day soon.
Collin drove to her condo at her direction. He carried her case inside, glanced around the living room, told her it was a nice place and left.
Later, having dinner—supper—by herself and gazing at the magnificent view from her window, she felt the silence of the mountains all the way to her soul.
She wish
ed she dared accept the invitation in Collin’s eyes. It would be foolish, yes, she knew that, but it would also be wonderful. She knew that, too.
And nothing could ever come of it.
No man would ever want her for herself. Her father had proven that to her. There was a sexual attraction between her and Collin, but nothing else. Their worlds were as far apart as the beautiful but lifeless moon from the earth. She had to accept that.
Get over it, she admonished herself. Don’t get involved.
“The boy’s in love,” Garrett said to his houseguest.
Elizabeth Gardener, who had handled Emma’s case at Garrett’s request, smiled. “It happens.”
Garrett turned from the scene outside where Trent and Collin were overhauling a tractor. He studied the lovely woman who was sixty-three to his seventy-three years. She was small, only five-four, with short, tousled hair that had once been blond but was now silver. Her eyes were blue and filled with lively intelligence. She flew her own plane to keep up with her busy schedule and was often a guest expert on “Larry King” and other such shows.
He felt a powerful stirring inside. “Even to old geezers sometimes.”
“I don’t see any old geezers,” she told him smartly. “Only another of the handsome Kincaid men.”
They looked at each other. She smiled. So did he. So, it happened, just like that, even to older couples, Garrett realized. But their futures would have to come later. There were other problems he needed her advice on.
“He can’t have the girl, not with this suit between them. Maybe not then. Jordan Baxter hates us. It would take a strong woman to overcome that.”
“Love can work miracles.”
“I hate to see the boy get hurt. He once asked me if I thought he would turn out like his daddy. That sort of kicked me in my soul. I’ve often wondered how I failed my son.”
“Sometimes it isn’t our fault, the way our children turn out.” She paused, then sighed. “Although I have to admit I blame Ellis Montgomery for Christina’s sad life. The girl needed a strong, steady influence. Ellis left the home and child-rearing up to his wife. When she died, Christina sought the attention she needed through unwise relationships.”
“Her death, alone in the woods after giving birth, was a sad thing, a waste of a life. I’m not sure I’ve thanked you properly for defending Emma. She’s become such a blessing in our lives.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “She and Brandon are expecting.”
“That’s wonderful. Grandchildren are the reward for being a parent. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could skip right to that part without going through the torture of raising our own children first?” They chuckled companionably.
Garrett’s thoughts returned to Collin. “Since we’ve been here in Whitehorn, Collin has mentioned that his dad and Jeremiah Kincaid were apparently cut from the same cloth. I think he’s worried about himself as a husband and father and that he might be prone to the same reckless nature.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him that good and evil existed in everyone and it’s up to the person to bring out the best parts and to control the lesser facets of human nature. I told him he was a good man.”
“He is. He’s been extraordinarily kind to his newly found brothers. I find that admirable.”
Garrett sighed. “But he’s going to be hurt by that young lawyer gal.”
“We all live through lost loves,” she advised gently.
He nodded. “Your husband. My wife. It takes a while to get over it.”
“Yes.”
He looked at Elizabeth and thought of the years ahead. After a recent checkup, the doctor had joked that he’d likely live to a hundred. Twenty-seven years was a long time for a man to be alone.
“Elizabeth,” he said slowly, “do you think you could see your way clear to living on a ranch? When you retire, of course. I wouldn’t ask you to give up your work. You’re too good at it.”
She laughed. “I could be persuaded. Take me for a ride, Garrett, and fill my head with foolish notions.”
“It would be a pleasure, ma’am, a pleasure indeed.” His heart suddenly felt young.
Five
On Friday morning, after spending the earlier part of the week at the Elk Springs ranch, Collin parked the pickup under the shade of a cedar tree and walked over to the cabin where Wayne Kincaid was replacing a step to the front porch.
“Hey,” Wayne called in greeting. His dog, Freeway, lying on the porch and keeping an eye out for rabbits and other intruders, wagged his tail lazily.
“Morning,” Collin said, and ambled over to sit on the porch and scratch Freeway’s ears.
Wayne’s blond hair had a liberal sprinkling of white that gleamed in the morning sun, he noted. Freeway was getting pretty gray around the muzzle.
Time, thought Collin. He felt it slipping through his fingers at an increasingly rapid pace. Used to dealing with time as seasons on the ranch, he wondered when he had become such an impatient person.
“What brings you over this way?” Wayne asked, giving him a shrewd glance.
“The damn lawsuit,” he said in disgust. Settling it was the main thing on his mind. Baxter had refused their previous offer. The impatience rose in him again. “I’ve got a hard question to ask.”
“Ask away.” Wayne’s expression was sympathetic.
He was another man, along with Trent, that Collin liked more and more as he got to know him better. “How hard would it be for you and Carey to give up this place?”
Wayne finished nailing the board into place, tested it with a tug to make sure it was secure, then sat on the new step before giving him a thoughtful frown. “Would it help get the suit settled if we did?”
Collin hadn’t the foggiest idea. “It might. Jackson Hawk says the tribal elders aren’t willing to give up the land they bought—they’ve started building cabins on part of it—but I thought I would try to get as much together as I could and see if Jordan Baxter would call off his dogs.”
“Pretty nice-looking dog,” Wayne commented, “that daughter of his.”
Collin felt the heat hit his ears. Wayne grinned, then went serious. “Carey, Sophie and I have already discussed it. We’ll let the whole place go for the same price the land was offered to your grandfather. If possible, see if you can cut out a five-acre site with the house for us. If Baxter won’t accept that, then throw in the house.”
Collin noticed two things while Wayne talked. One was that Wayne and Carey had included Sophie, Carey’s daughter from her first marriage, in the discussion. That seemed fair since this was her home, too. And second, their total generosity as a family toward helping him settle the case.
“That’s damn decent of you and your family.”
Wayne swung the hammer idly. “Well, it was my father who did him wrong.”
“You think Jeremiah pulled strings to get the loans called, as Baxter claims?”
“Given a choice in believing my dad and believing Jordan…yeah, I’d go with Jordan.”
Collin thought of his own father. Larry probably hadn’t been as conniving as Jeremiah, but Collin didn’t think his father had been any more reliable as a parent. “It’s a hard thing not to trust your own father. I hope I do better with my kids, assuming I ever have any.”
Wayne’s blue eyes—the Kincaid eyes—met his for a brief second of mutual understanding.
“I wondered about the same thing,” Wayne admitted, his gaze on the far horizon. “Then I met Carey and Sophie. Amazing what a couple of females can do to a man’s way of thinking. Of course, ol’ Freeway here was determined to stay, too. He fell hard for Sophie the first time they met. She shared her lunch with him and scratched his ears.”
Collin chuckled. Sophie bossed Freeway around just as she did her little brother. “I agree with Freeway. That Sophie is hard to beat.”
“I love her as if she were mine,” Wayne said quietly. “She and her mother gave me a reason to live as well as to stay here in Whitehorn.”
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Collin knew Wayne had been a prisoner of war in ‘Nam and had escaped with injuries so serious it was a miracle he made it back to the American lines. After he’d healed from the physical wounds, instead of returning to Whitehorn he’d drifted for years. The mental scars of hating his father had taken a lot longer to mend.
The companionable silence deepened between the men, then Collin got to his feet. “Thanks for your cooperation. Now to tackle Baxter again.”
Wayne grinned. “Good luck.”
Collin talked to Garrett about strategy later Friday afternoon. He explained his new plan for substituting the same amount of acreage sold to the Laughing Horse Reservation with good pasture from the Kincaid spread that adjoined the old Baxter property. That was as fair as they could get. Garrett agreed to the exchange. They called Ross Garrison, the attorney for Jenny and the trustees. They saw no problem with the idea.
Collin noticed his grandfather seemed restless, his mind on other things during the discussion. This was odd. The older man had been so concerned with the lawsuit and getting his grandsons settled, to the near exclusion of everything else for over a year.
“Anything else on your mind, G.P.?” Collin asked, reverting to his teenage habit of using the initials, which stood for grandpa, when he’d decided he was too grown up to use the kinship title.
“Huh? Oh…uh, no.”
Collin’s worry increased. “You aren’t ill, are you?”
Garrett sighed, then smiled. “I’m fine, son.” He paused, then asked, “What do you think of Elizabeth?”
Enlightenment came to Collin. “I think she’s a fine woman and would be a great addition to the family.”
To his delight, his grandfather blushed. “Well, I thought so myself,” he said.
“Have you asked her?”
“Sort of.”
“What did she ‘sort of’ reply?”
“She liked the idea of living on a ranch.”
Collin let out a whoop and pounded his grandfather on the shoulder. “Wait till I tell the others,” he said with a chortle, knowing his grandfather was in for some wicked kidding by the other grandsons.
