Caleb stilled, as if he’d lost his train of thought for a moment. Then he reached up to scratch Hobo’s ears and cleared his throat. “This person is a scientist, a wildlife biologist, and she taught me that predators like mountain lions don’t kill because they want to mess with ranchers like me. They are simply animals acting on instinct, doing what they’re meant to do.
“She taught me that sometimes people act on instinct too. Just like a mountain lion, we might attack or hide or go looking for new territory. But the thing is, unlike mountain lions, we have the power to think things through, to realize that we’ve made mistakes, to learn how to do things better.”
His voice went a little hoarse. “Maya, if you’re listening, please know that I’m trying to do better. A whole lot better. I just want you to know that.”
Caleb and Hobo approached the camera and the video stopped.
Maya closed her computer and shoved it into her backpack. Then she started throwing things into a duffel bag. She had a week before her project started and her to-do list was done. So she’d catch a flight from Denver. She’d go home to Shelter Creek, to see Grandma and Einstein and Trisha and The Biddies. And Caleb. Because she wanted to try to do better too.
For years she’d craved the solitude of the wilderness, always looking for an excuse to avoid people, to avoid her memories and to avoid ever being hurt again. Like the solitary pumas she studied, hiding out alone was her instinct, her way of staying safe.
But like Caleb, she didn’t want to act on instinct anymore. Maya wanted people, her people—Grandma, Trisha and The Biddies. She wanted to be a part of Shelter Creek and life with all of its unknowns. She wanted love. And she wanted Caleb Dunne.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE PUPPIES HAD arrived and Caleb was new-parent nervous. He checked the small notepad he kept in his pocket, where he’d written down everything the trainer he’d consulted had said about his two brand-new guard dogs, each just a few pounds of Anatolian shepherd fluff and a whole lot of energy.
“Okay, guys.” He knelt down next to them in the stall full of clean wood shavings that he’d converted into a kennel. “For tonight, and the next week or so, you’ll be in here. The sheep will be next door so you can get used to them. You’ll meet them when you’re bigger.”
It was silly to talk to the puppies but the thing was, he’d gotten used to having someone to talk to during the couple of weeks that Maya had worked on the ranch with him. It was hard to go back to silence after that.
“Look at you. The proud puppy-daddy.”
Caleb jumped up, startled. Maya was leaning on the stall door, her eyes bright with emotion. “They’re so cute,” she said. “May I come in?”
“Of course.” His heart thudded hard on his ribs. He couldn’t believe she was here. He wanted to reach out, to hold her, but he folded his arms across his chest instead.
Maya came around the stall door, dressed in her usual faded jeans, a flannel plaid shirt and that old ball cap. She flashed him a shy smile and went down on her knees, giggling as the puppies clambered all over her. “Hi, guys.” She let them sniff her knuckles and reached out to pet the bolder of the two, smiling as his pink tongue popped out and slurped her fingers. “I love their black muzzles.”
Caleb knelt next to her, trying to take in her presence. Was she visiting? Was it possible she’d changed her mind about him? About them?
“Hard to believe they’re going to turn into giant dogs like Aidan’s.” Maya picked one up, gave it a quick kiss on the head and set it back down. Then she looked over at him, her smile wide and wondering. “It’s so good to see you. How have you been?”
Missing you, he wanted to say. But he didn’t know what she was thinking, hadn’t even known she was coming back to Shelter Creek. Hadn’t even let himself hope she would. “I’ve been okay,” he told her.
“I saw the video you posted on the blog. I loved it.”
“I’m glad.” His face felt hot. It had been a geeky thing to do. But he had to try something. And the thought of calling her, or emailing her, when she’d already told him no, made him feel like a stalker. So he’d figured he’d try the blog. Then she could just ignore it if it meant nothing to her.
“You said you were trying to do better.”
He took a breath, bolstering himself, because admitting his troubles was still pretty new to him. “I’ve been doing some counseling and some support groups at the VA in Santa Rosa.” On impulse, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his talisman. “My silver chip for my first twenty-four hours sober. I’ll get a red one soon for thirty days.”
“You’re doing it.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Caleb, I’m so proud of you.”
He shoved the chip back in his pocket. “Well, one day at a time, right? But it hasn’t been too hard. Maybe because I’d already stopped drinking for most of the time you were here in Shelter Creek. I slipped up for one night. The night you left. Then I got some help.”
“I’m glad it hasn’t felt hard. I hope it continues to be easy.”
He knew there was more she could say. Her parents’ legacy loomed. They’d chosen alcohol and drugs over her. He’d never do that; it was something he felt sure of. “I feel like, for me, maybe alcohol was a bandage over some big emotional scars. Now that I’m dealing with those, I don’t feel the need for a drink. But I promise you, Maya, I’ll keep working at my sobriety. Always.”
She nodded, focused on the bigger puppy, holding out her fingers for the little guy to lick, and then pulling them away when he started nipping.
Caleb let a few more moments go by, and then couldn’t wait any longer. He needed to know if this was a quick visit to check on his progress with the grant, or something more. “Do you want to tell me why you’re here? I thought you’d be in Colorado, chasing lions.”
She smiled but her eyes weren’t full of their usual sparkle. “The lion chasing doesn’t start until next week. But here’s the thing. I don’t really want to chase Colorado lions anymore. I think I’d prefer to chase the ones living around Shelter Creek.”
Caleb tried not to move, tried not to scare her by whooping, jumping up into the air, dancing—any of the crazy things her words made him want to do. Instead he kept his gaze on the smaller puppy, tickling it with a piece of straw that the little guy pounced on and wrestled into submission. “What made you change your mind?”
“Well, Eva is actually making her dream of a Shelter Creek Wildlife Center come true. And she’s hiring me to help make it happen. We’re also looking for funding for a more extensive mountain lion study. There’s still very little known about the mountain lions around here. We have a lot to learn.”
Caleb turned to face her then. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes solemn as she studied him for his reaction. “What do you think about that?”
His voice was husky. She was coming home. He had a chance. They had a chance. “I think the Shelter Creek lions are pretty lucky to have you on their side.”
“And I came home because I don’t want to be away from Grandma anymore. Or Trisha or The Book Biddies or...” Her pink cheeks went pinker. “You.”
It was the answer to his prayers. “I’m even luckier than those lions.”
She stood then, held out a hand and hauled him up out of the wood chips. Small but mighty. Then she went on tiptoe, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, her lips soft and warm and perfect against his.
He held her for a long moment, breathing in the sweet scent of her hair, overwhelmed by the risk she was taking, coming back here to start again with him, knowing he had troubles, that he was a work in progress. He might be the former soldier but she was the brave one. “What about your project in Colorado?”
“There’s a professor who is really interested in the idea. He’s taking over the grant and he’s going to work on the project with a couple of his grad students.”
&nbs
p; “Well, I’m grateful to him, whoever he is, for tying up your loose ends.”
Maya looked up at him with warmth and acceptance in her eyes. “I love you,” she said. “I’m sorry I ran away. I think I got used to running, to hiding, when things got hard. But when I got to Colorado, it didn’t seem like home anymore. You’re my home. And I’d like to stay here, with you.”
Relief flooded Caleb’s veins. Warm, sweet relief. He’d been trying so hard to go forward without her, reminding himself that he should be grateful that she’d come back into his life and turned it around. Telling himself that he was greedy to want more.
But he did want more. So much more. He wanted to love her again. To build a new life with her, here in their hometown. “You don’t need to apologize to me. There is plenty about me that you’d be smart to run from. But I’m working really hard to get that stuff under control. To be a man good enough for a woman like you. I promise you, I’ll do it, Maya. I’ll make it my life’s work to be the kind of guy you deserve. I just want a chance to love you. Forever this time.”
Tears welled in her eyes, making the brown glitter. “I’d like to love you forever too. If you don’t mind.”
“I really don’t mind.” He kissed her, savoring her sweet mouth, wrapping his arms around her tiny, mighty frame, breathing her in. She was here. With him.
A small tug on his pant leg had him setting her aside so he could look down. The smaller of the two puppies looked up at him with big black eyes. “Looks like it might be feeding time,” he told Maya.
“Let’s get them their dinner then,” Maya said. “And then we need to go see Grandma. I think she’s planning something to welcome us home.”
Caleb opened his mouth to protest that he didn’t need a homecoming celebration. That he’d been in Shelter Creek a few months now. But then he realized that Grandma Lillian was, as usual, absolutely right. He was finally home, now that Maya was here with him.
* * *
MAYA HELD CALEB’S hand as they crested the ridge and walked out into the open field. A full moon was rising, bathing every leaf, every blade of grass, in silver. They started along the path to where they’d met that first night, when they’d each thought the other was a mountain lion.
“It’s gorgeous,” she said, looking up at the sky.
“A harvest moon.” Caleb came to stand behind her and wrapped his arms around her to hold her close. He kissed her hair. Her cheek. “I am so glad you are finally here for good.”
Maya had spent most of the past month traveling back and forth between Boulder and Shelter Creek, packing up her cottage, cleaning out her office and supporting the professor who’d taken over her research project. As of yesterday she was officially here, living with Grandma for now, while Caleb finished remodeling his house on the ranch. Because no way was he going to let her live there until, as he put it, it was beautiful, like her.
They walked to the spot where Caleb had emerged from the bushes and Maya had fallen onto her back like a turtle.
Together they spread their picnic blanket on the ground and sat down. Caleb started unloading the backpack he’d carried. “Champagne, bread, cheese, strawberries and—wait, hang on...”
Maya craned her neck, trying to see. He’d insisted on packing the food for their midnight picnic himself, so she had no idea what he’d brought.
“Would you look at this?” Caleb held up a small square box. “How did this get in here?”
It was a ring box. Maya’s heart leaped and she covered her mouth with her hands, as if she could somehow contain her surprise that way. It was hard to speak, because she was smiling so hard. He’d bought this for her. But with what? He was already putting any extra money he could find into his remodeling project.
“You shouldn’t have done this. Not right now. Not when we’re so low on money.”
He took her hand in his. “You’ll have to complain to Eva. She had it in her gallery and she insisted I take it. She told me I’m not allowed to pay her for at least a year. Not until the tax bill is settled and the house is done and I’m on my feet.”
Maya felt tears rise. “That is so kind.” Love for Eva, for The Biddies and for him had tears rising. “Okay, now I’m going to cry again. And I feel like I cry so much these days. Happy tears.”
“As long as they’re happy.” Caleb rose to his knees in front of her. “I know you love being out in wide-open places like this. So I thought I’d ask you here, in hopes that you’ll be more likely to say yes. You’re everything to me, Maya. My home. My heart. Will you marry me?”
His words, the beauty of them, stole her ability to answer. He opened the ring box, and the band of diamonds glittered in the moonlight. “Will you please say yes?”
“Of course I will.” It wasn’t possible to stop the tears as he slid the sparkling ring onto her finger. Tears of hope and gratitude and so much more. She wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. She’d almost lost him again. Until she’d found the courage to come home for good.
A rustling noise in the bushes behind them stilled her. Caleb must have heard it too, because he put a finger to his lips. Slowly they let go of each other, slid apart and looked toward the sound, somewhere out in the shadows and brush.
Maya reached for the flashlight in her pocket and waited. It took several deep breaths and a whole bunch of pounding heartbeats, but eventually a form, long and low, emerged from the bushes and stepped into the path. “Let’s stand up,” Maya whispered to Caleb. He rose, and so did she, until they stood side by side, sending the message that they were not prey.
Caleb brought his arm around her, instantly protective.
Maya switched on the flashlight and there it was. Rounded ears, low shoulders, high haunches, endless tail. Its eyes fixed on them, glassy green in the light.
“It’s wearing a collar,” Caleb murmured. “Do you think it’s our mountain lion?”
Maya tried to see the ear tag, but the puma was too far away, and the night was too dark. “It easily could be. We can check the tracking app later on.”
“I bet it’s our guy. I just have a feeling.”
“It has stayed fairly close to your ranch since we collared it,” she reminded him.
Caleb kissed her hair. “But it hasn’t come on the ranch. Thanks to you and all your predator tricks.”
She laughed quietly and the mountain lion backed away a few paces.
“See?” Caleb teased. “You’re a lion whisperer.”
“We should scare it away. We don’t want it to get used to people. Or try to steal our picnic.”
“I don’t want it to go.”
Maya tipped her head up to get a better look at him, raising her brows in exaggerated shock. “Caleb Dunne,” she murmured. “That is the last thing I ever thought I’d hear you say about a mountain lion.”
He laughed softly. “I guess things changed for me. Starting with a moonlit night, a whole lot like this one.”
Maya went on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “I’m glad things changed. For both of us.”
Caleb pulled her against him. His arms were the comfort that Maya had longed for, all of those years apart.
In a flicker of shadowy motion, the mountain lion leaped into the bushes and was gone. Maya wasn’t surprised. It was following its instincts, seeking the safety of solitude, out in wild places. It was back where it belonged.
And so was she. It had been a long road. But she’d finally made it home.
* * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Lawman’s Baby by Patricia Johns.
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The Lawman’s Baby
by Patricia Johns
CHAPTER ONE
PAIGE STEDLER WALKED up the front stairs to the Eagle’s Rest Police Department and tugged her coat a little closer. It was a chilly fall morning, and an eddy of wind whipped a pile of leaves against the police station front doors. The police chief had called her in as a special request. Everyone knew that Paige was on stress leave, but this wasn’t exactly related to her job as a Social Services agent. Or so the chief had assured her.
She did feel a lot better than she had three weeks ago when she’d had her fifth panic attack while at work. But Paige wasn’t sure what the chief even wanted from her. Here was hoping it was just a form to sign or something like that. She pulled open the front door and headed into the station’s warmth. The receptionist, Ellen, shot her a smile.
Reunited with the Cowboy Page 22