“Once the spring season jobs are done,” he continued, “they’ll have a few days for a honeymoon before the summer haying work starts.”
To mask the discombobulation his touch had stirred in her, Kate chortled a wry laugh, adding, “Squeezing a wedding in between branding and haying. Isn’t that romantic?”
“Maybe not, but it’s life on a working ranch.” Turning ninety degrees, he pointed ahead of them. “The river is just up here. If you listen, you can hear the rapids.”
She’d been seeing glimpses of the river through the trees for the last several minutes, but when she stopped and focused her attention on the noises around her, she picked the sound of rushing water out over the rustling leaves and birdsong. A thrum of nervous tension flowed through her.
Josh pulled out a canteen and took a long drink before offering it to her.
She shook her head and waved it off. “No thanks.”
He extended it closer. “Rule of thumb in hiking and outdoor sports is eat before you’re hungry, drink before you’re thirsty and rest before you’re tired.”
She considered the axiom. Good advice, she figured, so with a nod, she pulled out her own canteen and drank.
When he took another drink, her eyes were drawn to the arch of his throat, the movement of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed, the fine sheen of sweat that made his sun-bronzed skin glisten. The clench in her belly this time had more to do with her sexy guide than her qualms about the impending challenge of white water.
“Your backpack has protein bars, packaged cookies and gorp for snacking,” Josh said as he stashed his canteen. “Try to eat a little every hour or two to keep your energy level up and feed your muscles.”
“Gorp?”
He drew a plastic bag from his pack now and held it up for her to see. “Voilà! Gorp. Granola, oats, raisins and peanuts. G-O-R-P. Plus we add pretzels and M&M’s.”
“So...trail mix.”
He flashed a lopsided grin. “Yeah. Hikers’ nickname for trail mix.” He opened the bag and held it out to her. “Have some.”
She took a small handful and nibbled as they continued hiking. Josh shifted the conversation to explain how the rafting would work. Basically, he’d steer, and she’d provide extra paddling as needed. He told her what equipment she’d receive (one paddle, a helmet and life jacket) and how to handle mishaps (falling out of the boat, overturned raft, hitting an obstruction or getting stuck on a sandbar, to name the most common) should they arise.
A tiny squeak of worry escaped her throat before she could catch it. He slowed his pace and faced her, adding, “I’m not saying any of those things will happen, but you need to know ahead of time that they could. If you are prepared, these things are much less of a big deal. It’s when you panic and react the wrong way—like fighting the current—that problems arise.”
She placed a hand over her belly and took a slow breath, telling herself to calm down. “I’m okay,” she said as much to convince herself as to reassure him.
At the launch spot, a small hut that looked like it had been built many years earlier sat on the rocky bank of the small river. Vines had grown up the sides of the hut, and some of the wood appeared to be newer than other pieces, clearly marking spots where repairs had been made. The front of the hut had a wide door with a hasp and padlock, intended to keep the door closed. Except the hasp had been ripped free of the outer wall and dangled at an angle. The door stood wide open.
“Damn!” Josh muttered as he approached the hut. “What now?”
Chapter 6
Kate’s pulse picked up as she studied the damaged lock and the concern darkening Josh’s face. “This wasn’t an accident. Was it? You’re thinking it was more sabotage.”
“It’s certainly suspicious, but the jury is still out.” He ran a hand over the hut where the hasp had been ripped free. Scarring on the wood around the broken hasp gave evidence of the efforts by someone, or something, to pry the metal closure from the door.
After sliding the straps of his large backpack off, he set the pack on the ground and fished out a flashlight. He shone the light through the opened door of the hut, and together, they took in the disarray of the contents. Plastic storage tubs had been opened and tossed, paddles scattered. Spread throughout were granola bar wrappers and shredded cracker boxes.
“What the hell?” Josh said, picking up one of the torn boxes.
“Y’all were keeping food in here with the equipment?” Kate asked, aghast. “Even I know that’s like asking bears to ransack the place.”
Josh’s mouth tightened as he threw the box aside with more force than necessary. “Hell, no, we didn’t keep food in here. Besides bears, it would attract mice and insects and—”
“Well, clearly somebody...” she allowed her voice to trail off as she caught up to his apparent line of thought “...planted it. Trying to attract bears?”
“As good of a guess as I’ve got.” He examined the scarred door again. “Sure looks like the work of a bear.”
“So we’re back to sabotage. They wanted a bear to get in there and mess up the equipment.” She turned full circle scanning the terrain, wondering where that bear had gone.
“And being on the riverbank where they knew a bear would likely come anyway, they upped the likelihood one of the beasts would smell the snacks and tear into the place.”
“Smart. And completely devious.” She slid her own pack off and rolled her shoulders. “What are you going to do?”
He shook his head as he began digging through the tumbled rafting equipment. “Nothing.”
She frowned. “Nothing?”
“Nothing I can do at the moment. Damage is done.” He heaved a deep breath and gave her a strained smile. “So we move on.”
She hated that whoever was vandalizing the McCall’s ranch was getting away with destroying so much, hurting Josh’s family and threatening their business. Not to mention the lives the saboteur had put in danger. Including her own. Anger swelled in her, bringing a hot flush to her skin and a roil of acid in her gut. She refused to dismiss this destruction as easily as Josh.
But as she watched Josh pull one of the bear-battered rafts out of the shed, she came up with little. Frustration tangled with her anger, and she knew Josh had to be feeling the same cocktail of hard-edged emotions.
Kate dug into her pack, took out her camera and snapped shots of the damage, zooming in on the claw marks on the wood door, the scattered food wrappers and the chaos in the shed.
Josh knocked a cobweb off a paddle, then tossed it onto the rocks. “My dad helped Zane and me build this storage shed like fifteen years ago. And we’ve never had the first problem with animals bothering the stuff. We took precautions. We sealed up things that were vulnerable to mice and weather. And we never left food here.”
He seemed to be venting as much as explaining to her. She continued snapping pictures, and he sent her a hooded glance. “I hardly think these are marketing-worthy shots, Kate.”
“Well, like you photographed the zip line yesterday, I thought I should record the damage for any authorities that may need to see this evidence.”
“Right. Of course.” His shoulders drooped, and his expression broke her heart. His family was under attack, and he had no clue how to protect the people, the ranch, the lifestyle he loved. After a moment spent staring at the ground with tension radiating off him in waves, Josh released a sigh. “Good thinking. Thanks.”
He went back to work, dragging out a large rubber raft that had been deflated and rolled up for storage. “There should be an air pump in here somewhere. Give a shout if you see it.”
She stopped him with a hand on his arm. “You okay?”
He pulled a face that reflected his surprise, then gave her another smile that left his eyes blank and flat, the muscles in his cheeks taut. “Sure. I’m okay.”
He tried a
gain to move into the hut, and she tightened her grip.
He avoided her gaze, so she stepped in front of him and raised her head to meet his eyes. “I’m sorry about all this.” She slid her hand down his arm to wrap her fingers around his hand. He’d provided comfort and support to her yesterday, and she couldn’t bear to turn her back on his obvious distress now. “You don’t have to put on a good face in front of me or pretend this isn’t tearing you up inside. If it were my family, my ranch, my startup business under attack, I’d want to rage and cry and kick some vandal butt over this.” She waved a hand behind her to the destruction.
Josh’s hand squeezed hers. “Hell, yeah. But there’s no vandal butt handy to kick at the moment.”
“How about a hug instead?” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. She rubbed his back and felt the shudder that rippled through him. “I can’t imagine how maddening it must be to see someone hurting your family and be unable to stop it.”
“Oh, he’ll be stopped.” His tone was low and cold. “I’ve reached the end of my patience with the sheriff’s pitiful efforts finding this guy. When we get back to the ranch, I will find a way to stop him.”
* * *
An hour later, they finally found an undamaged raft and had it inflated and ready to launch. Josh plucked two useable life jackets, two paddles and two helmets from the tumbled contents of the shed, and because they’d had such rotten luck lately, he put an extra paddle in the raft, just in case they lost one. Next, he secured his pack with the satellite phone in the raft, covered with tarps to protect it from the spray as they traversed the rapids.
Once Kate had loaded her backpack and taken her seat at the front of the raft, paddle in hand, he pushed the inflatable boat into the water. He hopped in the back just as the current caught it.
“Forward left!” he called to Kate, instructing her which side of the raft to paddle on as they set their course downstream. The first rapid of the trip was rather tame, no significant obstructions or drops. A good opportunity to ease Kate into the adventure of white-water rafting. In fact, with the exception of a couple of class 3 rapids near the end of the stretch of river they’d cover, the river never got rougher than class 2. Good enough to give a beginner a thrill but rather boring for him. Maybe one day they’d make the Arkansas River’s class 3 and 4 rapids part of the adventure. Assuming there was a McCall Adventures left after this trip.
Gritting his back teeth, Josh shoved the depressing thought aside. He needed to focus on steering the raft, ensuring that Kate made it home safely from this trip.
He’d no sooner finished that thought than he heard Kate gasp.
“Kate? What—”
“Look!” she said in a stage whisper, pointing to the grassy hillside above the river, where a pair of elk grazed. He smiled and silently thanked the elk for making an appearance. Enjoying encounters with the abundant wildlife and beauty of the Colorado landscape was one of the bonuses they’d hoped to share with clients.
Kate set her paddle across her lap and dug her camera from the top of her pack. She snapped a few shots of the elk as they floated past and sent him a smile full of wonder.
Something deep inside him flipped as he met her bright eyes. She was breathtaking—her skin aglow in the sunshine, her hair windblown and shimmering with golden highlights, her face radiant with the simple pleasure of their encounter with the majestic beasts. Au naturel, Kate was prettier than any model with full makeup and coiffed hair. Seeing a hint of pink on her cheeks, he asked, “Did you remember sunscreen this morning? The air may be cool, but the sun is relentless out here on the river. It reflects off the water, too, for a double whammy.”
She twisted her lips into a frown. “Shoot. I forgot.”
After re-stashing her camera, she dug into her pack for the tube of sun protection, and he openly stared as she dabbed it on her chin, cheeks and forehead, then rubbed the cream in. She squirted a dot onto her finger and coated her puckered lips before moving on to her arms. Watching her dab and caress and smooth the lotion was about as erotic as anything he’d seen in recent days.
She was his idea of real beauty. Seeing the purple columbine blossom she still wore tucked in her wheat-blond hair tugged at something deep inside him. A possessiveness? As if the flower marked her as his? He gave his head a little shake and shoved that notion away.
They might have been through some harrowing events together yesterday and shared some personal conversation around the fire last night, but she was a long way from “his.” And what in the world was he doing thinking in terms of any woman being his? While his family was mucking through this financial crisis, searching for the saboteur and fixing the mess this first adventure trip had turned into, he had no room in his life for a romantic relationship.
But his private remonstrations didn’t stop him from wondering what it would be like to kiss Kate. More than once today he’d found his gaze straying to her lips while his thoughts ventured beyond the idea of just a kiss. When he’d held her yesterday, he couldn’t help but notice how good she felt in his arms. No bony, flat-chested runway chic, Kate had curves in just the right proportion, and when the high emotion of their crisis had passed yesterday, he’d noticed the soft crush of her bottom and pillow of her breasts when she’d sat in his lap, trembling. At the time, he’d known his thoughts were inappropriate for the circumstances, but that didn’t stop his libido from rearing its adrenaline-fueled head.
Now, in the light of a new day, with some distance between them and the scene of the disaster with the zip line, he appreciated her shape again. Maybe when they got back to the ranch and some of the pressure was off them both, he’d see if Kate was interested in a vacation fling. And Piper, with her talk about the advisability of mixing business and pleasure, could go jump.
* * *
After a couple of hours of paddling, Kate’s shoulders began to throb. Rafting clearly worked muscles her regular visits to the elliptical machine at the gym didn’t. A fine sheen of sweat had popped out on her brow. No, she mentally corrected herself, in Texas, women didn’t sweat. They glistened. The euphemism brought a smile to her lips as she paused from paddling to wipe her forehead with the back of her hand.
“Are you hot?”
Kate glanced back over her shoulder. “Pardon?”
Josh chuckled. “Okay, I know you’re sexy as hell. What I mean is, do you need a break? There’s a spot just ahead where we can swim if you want to cool down.”
Sexy as hell? Kate goggled at his assessment before reminding herself, He’s a player. Flirtatious talk means little coming from him. She cleared her throat and used the pads of her fingers to catch the moisture beading in front of her ears. “Yeah. I could use a break.”
“All right. The place I mean is just around the next bend.” She heard some rustling and glanced back to see him pull out the satellite phone from his pack. Turning back to search the bend ahead for obstructions in the water, she listened to his end of the conversation.
“Yeah, it’s me. Just wanted to tell you we’re fine, but we’re going to make a stop at the bluff for a swim. Yeah, I know.” He fell quiet for a moment. “Maybe around dark.” She could hear a male voice, one that didn’t sound happy, coming through the line, before Josh replied, “It’s all good, Zane. We’ll talk later. We’ll see you when we see you. If it’s dark or...hell, tomorrow even, don’t have a cow. I know what I’m doing.”
He disconnected and stashed the sat phone in his backpack again.
“Tomorrow? Why would it be tomorrow?” she asked, her stomach flipping.
“I just said that because Zane was being an ass. He’s a control freak and nothing bugs him more than not getting his way.” He sighed. “He knows I know what I’m doing out here. This, the rafting and hiking and adventures, is the part of the business that I’m supposed to be in charge of, but he’s micromanaging from the ranch.”
“Well, the acc
ident yesterday threw everything and everyone into a little chaos. Maybe you could cut him a little slack for being worried about us?”
Josh grunted. “Maybe. But he should trust me more. I know why he’s mad, but...”
He didn’t finish the sentence, and Kate sensed the unspoken words told a whole lot about Josh. She felt a prick of disappointment that he didn’t share the rest with her. She’d thought that after the promises they’d exchanged this morning, he might be more open to confiding in her. And why did confidences with Josh matter so much to her? Because she’d told him about her worst days, the nightmare that still haunted her, and she wanted to balance the scales? Or did it mean she craved a more intimate relationship with her devastatingly handsome guide?
She pushed that notion aside. She would not, could not repeat the mistakes that had burned her before. A long-term, meaningful relationship with Josh was geographically and practically unlikely, and, therefore, had to be off the table.
They paddled on a bit, quietly, and she drank in the beauty of the snowcapped peaks in the distance, the spring wildflowers along the riverbanks and the pale, clear blue of the Colorado sky. Warmth swelled in her chest. The sky was the same blue as Josh’s eyes...
Stop it! She rolled her eyes at how easily her brain had drawn the sappy analogy, and her physical response to the thought of him. She was acting like a besotted school girl. Yes, he had breathtaking blue eyes, an engaging grin and a tempting tush, but she needed to draw the line at simply admiring the man’s striking features. Like one would appreciate a beautiful painting at a museum, she could only look, then she had to move on.
In an effort to refocus her thoughts, she said, “You didn’t tell him about the destruction at the shed.”
Rancher's High-Stakes Rescue Page 10
