He’d been both impatient and empathetic. He’d obviously wanted to get back to the newly arrived horses but he was just as obviously committed to the program for kids. There was humor lurking in him as well, as he talked to and about Leo and the burro.
Patti had said he was one fourth Ute, which may have accounted for his black hair and dark eyes. She wasn’t usually wowed by appearances. She didn’t trust them. But there was something about the intensity in the man’s face as they met that turned her common sense upside down. Electricity had struck her, run down her spine. She knew that intensity had nothing to do with her. It had been the horses. But for some crazy reason, it awakened a part of her she thought numb inside. It reminded her of the excitement she’d felt on her first flight.
She recognized it but didn’t understand.
She gave up trying to do that as they arrived at the private airfield in San Antonio where Bob’s group parked their plane.
* * *
Julie’s big toe finally wriggled two days after Lauren arrived home. The operation had worked.
The simple act of moving one large toe probably meant no more surgeries. There would be more weeks in a brace and with crutches as the fragile muscles and bone grew stronger. The leg would never be as good as it once was, but the threat of losing it had declined substantially. Some of its mobility would be lost but with time, according to the doctors, she would have an almost normal walk.
“You did it! I knew you would,” Lauren said. “We’ll celebrate with a cake. You made it happen!”
“I did, didn’t I?” Julie replied with one of the few smiles Lauren had seen in months.
“So what about taking that trip to Colorado?” Lauren asked. Time was becoming her enemy. Julie had been too concerned with those toes to even consider the program.
“I could hurt the leg.” Julie still resisted.
“I don’t think so,” Patti said. “You’ll be safe. Believe me, I wouldn’t even suggest it if I thought there was a chance it wasn’t.”
“And,” Lauren added, “your doctor thinks it’s a terrific idea. Think of it as a vacation. You certainly deserve one and it’s beautiful up there. You’ll love the horses and Leo the dog.”
The mention of the dog seemed to swing it. Julie had almost smiled when she saw the photo of Leo holding out a paw as if inviting her to come. “I would have to go through airports,” Julie said. “Everyone will be looking at me.”
“Because you’re a very pretty girl,” Patti said.
Julie gave her a disgusted look.
Lauren jumped in. “Bob or Jim Harris will fly us up and I’ll rent a car. Or else we can drive all the way. Take a prolonged road trip.” She looked at her daughter. “You haven’t been out of the house except for doctor visits.”
Julie didn’t reply, but at least she didn’t say no. That was progress. She’d been hiding from everyone. She thought she was ugly because of a narrow line scar on her forehead. It was almost invisible but to Julie it was huge. The good news was the cast was due to come off. The bad news was she would still need braces and crutches for a while. The new braces would have a shoe attached to stabilize the foot. To someone who had loved the freedom of running, it was still a prison sentence. Today’s news about the toes, though, meant she shouldn’t need them too long.
Lauren waited with bated breath. It had to be Julie’s decision. Sally had known that and agreed. After one of the youngsters dropped out of the program, it was too late to find another applicant. If it had not been for Patti, it would have been too late for Julie, as well.
“I can leave after the first three days?” Julie asked, clearly wanting reassurance. “What if I want to come home sooner?”
“It’s not jail, sweetie. They ask that you stay three days but no one’s going to chain you there.” Lauren would promise anything to get a sparkle back in those dark blue eyes. “It’s not a dude ranch or anything like that. It’s a working ranch. It’s authentic and in a beautiful location.”
“Is Patti going? She’s a relative, isn’t she?”
“You’ll have to ask her.”
Julie turned to Patti. “Will you?”
“Afraid not, Julie. I have to do some work before returning to the university. But maybe one weekend I can manage it. I would love to visit the ranch again. I worked there one summer, and I love it. You will, too.”
“Okay,” Julie said dubiously as she scanned photos of the horses and Leo. “If you promise I don’t have to stay after three days if I don’t like it?”
“Promise,” Lauren pledged.
Lauren left the room and went out to the kitchen. She looked at the framed photo of Dane she kept on a counter there. He had a cocky smile that belied the perfectionist inside. “She’s going to be okay,” she told him. “I was worried about her for a while, but now...now maybe she will come out of that shell.”
She cut three thick slices of a cake she’d bought yesterday. Julie was much too thin. Once a good eater because it fueled her running, she now picked at her food. Before the accident, Lauren would have added ice cream, but now the very words still brought tears from Julie.
“When would we go?” Julie asked.
“A week from now.”
“How?”
“We’ll figure that out. And,” she added, “we’ll have to go shopping for clothes. You’ll need some pants.”
Julie’s eyes clouded again. “How can I wear them with the brace?” she said. Because of the bulky cast, she’d been limited to skirts or, at home, loose robes. The brace wouldn’t be much better.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” she said. “What about some gaucho pants? They’re very fashionable.”
Julie’s eyes widened. “Fashionable?”
Lauren would find some if it was the last thing she did. She’d seen gaucho pants in fashion ads. They shouldn’t be too hard to find. Mental note: check the internet.
After finishing the celebratory cake, Patti left for the apartment she now shared with a roommate. The house felt empty without her. Patti would be leaving in the fall and Lauren didn’t know what she would do without her. What Julie would do. She was part of Lauren’s family now. Including Patti, there were three of them. Neither she nor Dane had extended family or at least one that would acknowledge Dane’s existence. Lauren had tried to call Dane’s family before the funeral. They were in Europe. She’d sent a letter to the only address she knew, telling them of Dane’s death and their granddaughter’s injury. It was also ignored.
What kind of father—and mother—would disown a son because he didn’t follow in the family business? Not only a son but a granddaughter.
Julie had asked about them in the past few months. Lauren only replied that she couldn’t reach them.
Dane’s father had disowned him when Dane dropped out of business school to join the air force. Several attempts on Dane’s part to contact them were rebuffed and he finally gave up. She didn’t want her daughter to undergo her father’s disappointments.
Perhaps the prospect of wild mustangs and a dog who liked to say hello would quiet her longing for more family.
* * *
In the end it was the photos of Leo the dog and the mustangs that lured Julie to Eagles’ Roost. Lauren threw in the promise of a permanent dog to clinch the deal. They’d debated different ways of traveling—plane, train or automobile—and finally settled on the last. Lauren had planned to stay in the area for a week or so and would need a car. It seemed simpler to drive up there.
The first day was long and hard. They left at six in the morning with the objective of reaching the Colorado border by nightfall. Julie was obviously apprehensive, but Lauren asked her to pick the place they’d have their overnight stay, and her daughter’s natural curiosity kicked in as they traveled north through cattle country and she started asking more questions about Eagles’ Roost.
When they reached Raton, on the New Mexico–Colorado border, Julie had already decided on a funky historic spot she found online. She’d wanted to stay in a bed-and-breakfast rather than a motel and she chose an old rooming house that had been converted.
The rooms were small, especially the bathroom, but the building overlooked a fast-running river and was surrounded by aspens in their golden glory. Julie had traveled in the mountains in Germany, but the Raton Pass was far different with its cragged peaks and wildflowers and aspens.
Breakfast was excellent: strawberry pancakes and a bowl of fresh fruit with pastries.
“I wish we could stay here,” Julie said longingly as they left the bed-and-breakfast. “It’s so...peaceful. Can’t we stay longer?”
Lauren feared it was more an excuse not to reach the ranch with new people and expectations than love of the wilderness.
“It’s just as scenic there,” Lauren said as she drove onto the road. “Along with horses and dogs and even a burro.”
She hoped the mention would stir her daughter’s curiosity but instead Julie lapsed into silence.
She looked at her clock on the dashboard and realized they were running late. Hopefully, she could make up some time.
Lauren sensed Julie was growing increasingly nervous and uncertain as they approached the ranch. Even fearful, which was totally unlike her. Until the accident, she’d been fearless.
Lauren was just as nervous. Julie had been her life since the accident. She had no idea what she was going to do with herself, not only now or in three days or three weeks but in the months and years ahead once Julie recovered. She’d promised Julie she wouldn’t rejoin the air force although an invitation was there for her to do so.
There was nothing else she wanted to do, nothing else she was qualified for, and she’d never been idle before. Now she faced weeks of idleness. Maybe that was why she’d been unable to shove Reese Howard from her mind since she’d met him.
Just like pilots were intense about flying, he was equally as intense about his mustangs and ranch, probably in that order. But pilots also knew how to relax. She doubted whether Reese Howard did.
She’d pumped Patti. It was obvious she adored her cousin.
According to Patti, he had grown up working on the ranch. He’d learned to ride at five and worked with the ranch hands at fourteen. But when his father was disabled, the ranch had been a lot for a twenty-year-old to manage. “He’d not only managed,” Patti had claimed, “but the ranch flourished under him. Unlike most ranches today, Eagles’ Roost rarely lost an employee. He never asked them to do something he didn’t do, including mucking the stables.”
Stop thinking about him. She shuddered to think Julie might read her mind. The very attraction was disloyal to Dane.
Just then the traffic slowed to a crawl, and it wasn’t until three miles and forty-five minutes later that she learned why. There had been a rockslide and traffic was limited to one lane. Somebody, she thought, was trying to tell her something.
She recalled her reaction to Reese Howard’s tardiness and winced. She was going to have to eat some serious crow.
Chapter 5
Reese was on hand to greet the families as they brought their teens to Eagles’ Roost. He knew the backgrounds and, except for Julie, had met both parents and teens.
Jenny Jacobs, fourteen, and her father were the first to arrive. The second was sixteen-year-old Tony Fields, whose veteran father had committed suicide after years of PTSD. His mother and her fiancé brought him. The third was Heath Hanson, fifteen, who’d lost his father in Afghanistan. His aunt and uncle drove him to the ranch.
There was no sign of the fourth: Lauren MacInnes and her daughter.
He spent the next hour introducing the teens and their families to the rest of the staff and especially to the teens’ buddies for the duration of the program.
As he introduced a buddy to each teen, he explained their role in the program. They would help them choose a horse, teach basic care of their mount, answer questions about riding and ranch life. Most of all, they were to be a friend, someone who had their back.
Experienced riding instructors would take over riding lessons Monday, but the buddy would remain to cheer them on and solve any problem that otherwise might arise between the participants.
Reese was particularly proud that many of those relationships continued after the program ended. Two of the previous kids returned to hire on at the ranch after high school graduation, and both were buddies today. Reese had recently attended the high school graduation of one of the early participants who received a full university scholarship.
Heath’s uncle drew Reese aside. “Heath is...withdrawn. He’s been moved around a lot.”
“I matched him with a buddy who is a former Junior Rancher and had that same problem. He understands and will let Heath go at his own pace. You would be surprised how much a horse will help.”
He looked over at the boy who had wandered over to one of the paddocks. “We’re having a bonfire and variety show tonight,” he added. “It features some of our ranch hands. They all go to extremes to win a vote at the end. There’s nothing like a terrible comic to make you laugh. It always breaks the ice with the kids,” he added.
But even as he reassured the parents, he watched for a redhead with a daughter.
Jenny’s father came over to him. “I thought there was another girl,” he said.
“They’re running late,” he said, hoping it was true. He just didn’t see Lauren MacInnes dropping out without notifying him. Certainly, Patti would have known.
When the last parent left and the kids were escorted to the stables to meet the horses and learn the first elements of horsemanship, he checked his cell. No messages. Disappointment flooded him. Mrs. MacInnes must have changed her mind, or her daughter had changed hers.
He walked over to the mustangs’ stable. Now that the crowd had dispersed, he released them into the paddock and watched them gallop around the perimeter. It was a handsome group now that they were filling out. True to the nature of a burro, Mistake, as Reese had named him, trotted along with them, kicking one, then hiding behind another.
But even the mustangs didn’t lessen the disappointment that went deep. He hadn’t been able to banish Lauren MacInnes from his thoughts since she’d visited Eagles’ Roost three weeks earlier and was looking forward to seeing her again today. Maybe that first attraction was superficial but he hadn’t felt anything close to it in years.
She was a pretty woman. He could ignore that, but there was so much more to her than that: a wry sense of humor, sharp intelligence and an obvious interest in everything around her, including his mustangs.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t erase the image of those vivid green eyes. It hadn’t helped that Patti called several times and updated him on the mother and daughter. Patti could be very critical of people if they didn’t live up to her standards, but she couldn’t say enough about Lauren and her devotion to her daughter. Strong. Smart. Caring. The two had obviously become friends during the summer.
Mrs. MacInnes was usually the type of woman he avoided. He’d discovered, painfully, that a woman needed more than he could give. The ranch came first. It had been that way since the day his father was thrown from a horse. He couldn’t go on a vacation or even plan a dinner without the possibility that a mare would give birth, or a cow was sick or a dozen other emergencies.
Then five years ago he responded to a plea for the loan of horses for a veteran equine therapy program in Covenant Falls some one hundred miles away. He’d donated several horses and loaned them more.
It was there he learned there was also a need for a program that helped kids who’d either lost a military parent or who suffered because of a parent’s mental or physical wounds due to combat. There were a growing number of programs for adult veterans but few for the young victims of war.
He’d studied other programs, talked to experts, gathered the assistance of professionals and plunged ahead. His sister was an equine therapy–trained physical therapist and he enlisted a semiretired psychologist from the valley. Three of his employees took equine therapy training, as well.
Now the participants had become his kids.
Reese was self-aware enough to realize he had wounds of his own that affected his way of molding the program. He’d never had a childhood. His father had raised him to take over the ranch, just as Reese’s grandfather had raised his son. There were no after-school activities or summer vacations. The only trips were to buy horses or cattle or feed or other ranch necessities.
But the horses made up for it. He’d always had a way with them. Even his father had to admit that his system was better than the old way of breaking them. Reese talked to them, let them know him, and slowly introduced them to the bridle and the harness and the saddle.
He knew horses could heal people, and he wanted others to understand it, too. He loved Winston Churchill’s comment about horses: “The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man.” It had been that way for him. He wanted to share it.
From what Patti told him about Lauren’s daughter, he felt it was exactly what Julie MacInnes needed.
He didn’t like being wrong. He would have bet a hefty sum that she’d believed Junior Ranchers would help her daughter. She’d sent all the pertinent information, including medical records and a psychologist’s report.
Damn it, stop wallowing in disappointment. He had his mustangs to feed. Horses were a lot less complicated than women. Feed them. Talk to them. Take care of them. They’re your friends for life.
He headed for the house when he saw his bookkeeper/business manager drive up. He’d forgotten she was dropping by today to finish some work before leaving for Chicago first thing in the morning. Her mother had had a heart attack and she didn’t know how long she would be there.
Home on the Ranch--Colorado Rancher Page 5