by Kim Redford
“Let’s take the truck,” he said as he caught up to her.
She stopped by the station, lifted the lid to the plastic garbage bin she’d placed near the door, and tossed in the food sack. She quickly walked over to his pickup, opened the door, and sat down in the shotgun seat.
“You in a hurry?” he asked as he sat down beside her and turned on the engine.
“Guess I’ve been running so long I don’t know how to stop.” She sounded stilted and knew it, but she was having trouble turning her mind from the storage hut to what he wanted to show her.
“Yeah.” He huffed before he headed up to the barn, not looking at her, not saying anything else.
If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was feeling the same thing she was feeling about not wanting to break anything that wasn’t broken and wanting to repair anything that was cracked. But she was the one who’d dug into the storage hut like a wild woman, pushing everything and everyone away in her manic quest to save KWCB. He’d been steady as a rock.
When they reached the outbuildings, two saddled horses were waiting for them. Max tipped his hat and then retreated into the barn. Shane parked in the shade, and she quickly jumped out before he had a chance to walk around and open her door. She was afraid if he accidentally touched her, she just might break down for all she thought she’d lost in her zealous quest. Wasn’t there some type of old adage about not knowing what you valued or wanted till you’d lost it? She felt as if she were living too much of that wisdom right now.
She settled into the saddle of a roan, while Shane put a boot in the stirrup and straddled his buckskin. He didn’t know it, of course, but he looked deliciously wanton performing the little mundane chore of getting into a saddle. She turned her eyes away, realizing that her body was coming alive again—at a very inconvenient time.
He led the way out of the double gates and into the pasture. She caught up and rode beside him as she had so many times when they were young. Everything felt the same, except everything was different. She didn’t know how long she could keep up this little game of indifference they were both playing. It wasn’t natural, and it wasn’t their style. But she rode on beside him, still quiet, still not looking at him. And he rode the same way.
Finally, he came to the line of stock tanks he’d installed so the boosters could fill them. He stopped his buckskin and sat there a moment, looking at them, before he glanced back toward Wildcat Spring.
She followed his line of sight, wondering what he was thinking, what he was revealing, what he was imagining. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a clue. But if he wasn’t going to bridge the gap between them, she had to try.
“Nice day for a ride.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized how mundane they sounded after not that many words for a week. “I mean—”
“I know.” He pushed back his cowboy hat as he looked around the pasture. “Reminds me of the old days.”
“Me, too.”
“Eden,” he said, not looking at her, “I’d hate to lose what we’ve always had here.”
She felt hope spring up fast and strong. He meant her, yes!
“The Rocky T and KWCB have always been a team. Ranch and radio.”
She felt the bottom drop out of her hope. Not her.
“I don’t want to put you in a bind about the buildings.”
“I’ve got time.”
“I mean ever.” He settled his hat back into place. “But I need the water.”
“It’s okay. I understand. I want your herds to have the water.”
“Appreciate it.” He adjusted his body in the saddle, as if pulling up strength from deep in the earth. “I want to preserve Wildcat Spring—at least the gazebo.”
“I don’t—”
“Wait a minute.” He drew a line in the air over the ground from the gazebo to the stock tanks. “What if I installed a pipeline from the spring to the tanks and used a pump to get the water here?”
She looked back and forth a moment, seeing it all in her mind’s eye in one blaze of excitement. “I can’t think why it wouldn’t work.”
“Me either.”
“Would there be any water left in the basin and for the weeping willow?”
“If you want,” he said, thoughtfully rubbing his chin, “I don’t see why we couldn’t leave a trickle there.”
She couldn’t hold back a smile. “That’d be perfect.”
“You think?” And he finally gave her a fleeting look before he glanced away again.
But it’d been enough to give her hope because she’d seen uncertainty but also speculation in his hazel eyes. “Oh, yes.”
“That way, everything stays the same. I mean, as much as you want stuff to stay the same.”
And now, finally, she began to understand his cautious steps around her. She could do anything she wanted to do now that she’d found KWCB’s treasures of the past, which could completely change her future. He’d known it from the first moment she’d revealed The Highwaymen tape. But he hadn’t tried to stop or change or alter her drive, even realizing he might lose her in the process.
It was a heady moment, as if they were caught in a wild current that propelled them downstream in a river fraught with rocks and eddies and rapids that might toss them into a raging waterfall or land them on a soft, sandy shore. No way to know. No way to figure out. No way to stay safe. It didn’t matter. Wherever they ended up, she was willing to take a chance with Shane.
“I’ve been thinking about our rocks—your little chip and our big one.” She was almost overcome with a sudden surge of emotion as she relived the memory of their first kiss. It’d been just an innocent peck, but commitment nonetheless. They’d always sort of thought of it as their place.
“Want to go see if our initials are still there?” He hesitated, looking up ahead. “Might be a wasted trip. Sandstone’s soft, so weather could’ve eroded them away by now.”
And then she knew he was thinking what she was thinking about their place—initials gone or not didn’t matter. If there was ever a place to bring them together again, no matter ranch or radio, it’d be the place where, once upon a time, they’d had an idyllic setting where they could retreat to be alone and puzzle out the vagaries of life.
“Think you can find it again?” She was teasing, knowing he knew his acreage like the back of his hand.
“Yeah, with enough incentive.” He gave her a quick glance and a sexy, little smile before he urged his buckskin forward.
She rode by his side, feeling as if they’d settled everything without words—or at least direct words. Maybe there was no need to talk about what had been between them for the past week on a pretty spring day with no work ahead of them for now.
She leaned her head back and felt the sun warm her face. She inhaled the scent of grass, wildflowers, and tree leaves. In the distance, she saw cattle contentedly grazing on new growth. Birds flitted overheard, busy as they searched for food to take back to hungry babies. Only now did she realize how much she’d missed being close to nature. Bright lights and cityscapes were good, but the Rocky T Ranch was better.
“Still like it here?”
She glanced toward the sound of Shane’s deep voice. He’d moved closer. They were riding side by side now, just like the old days. She gave him a tender smile, knowing it was sweet and soft because that’s how she felt looking at him.
He smiled back at her, nodding as if knew just how she felt.
“I guess,” she finally said, “you can take the cowgirl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the cowgirl.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” He reached over and squeezed her hand before he urged his horse forward into a lope.
She followed, feeling a powerful surge beneath her as she again matched her pace with his mount. They pounded across the prairie together, flushing cotto
ntail rabbits from hidey-holes as well as buff-breasted barn swallows with swept-back wings into the air. Monarchs hovered over Indian paintbrush, primrose buttercups, and crimson clover. Mockingbirds wheeled overhead, as if sharing the exciting adventure.
When Shane finally pulled up, she was breathing fast with excitement and exhilaration. She stopped beside him, looking beyond to see if their rock still rose into the sky as if lifted by a giant’s hand.
And there it was, all big and beige and streaked with black stains. It appeared as if hadn’t changed in eons, but would their initials still be carved together on the windswept surface?
Chapter 34
After Eden saw their rock, she didn’t hesitate. She jumped down, hurried over to it, and bent down, running her fingers across the rough surface near the base until she felt the indentations. She pushed aside tall weeds and knelt in the grass. And yes, there were their initials still carved inside a heart. She heard Shane walk up behind her, but he didn’t bend down to look.
She glanced up at his face. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“I figured as much.” He nodded with a slight smile. “They were here the last time I checked, but weather could’ve erased them.”
She rubbed her fingers across the indentations, almost able to feel the urgency, the excitement, the determination of that time when they’d used his pocket knife to cement their feelings for each other into rock. “Did you ever think we’d be back here together?”
“I hoped so, but life—”
“Can get in the way of the best of intentions.”
“Sometimes.”
“But not always.”
“Right.” He motioned with his head toward the top of the rock. “You want to sit up there like we used to do when we looked out over the ranch?”
She nodded, feeling her throat tighten with emotion. How had she let so much slip away from her? Yet, she knew. And he knew. Now, it felt as if they were each other’s destinies. Ranch. Radio. Maybe this moment in time, when they came back together here, at their special rock, had been preplanned as well because it felt so very right.
She walked around to the other side with him behind her. She looked for the old toe- and handholds and was surprised to see them easily. She glanced back at him.
He smiled with a twinkle in his eyes. “Yeah, I enlarged them when I was last here.”
“And when was that?”
“Not so long ago.”
She couldn’t keep from chuckling. “Like yesterday?” She didn’t say how touched she was that he’d been here over the years, thinking about them, checking on their initials. It was one more thing that proved his love.
He joined her laughter. “You’ve had me too busy to get away.”
She easily climbed up the rock and stood on top, looking into the distance as she turned around in a circle. She could see the radio station, the spring, the ranch house, barns, and outbuildings. She could see cattle, buffalo, and horses. She could see birds, trees, and acres of prairie. And she could feel the air, the earth, and, finally, Shane’s arms embracing her, tugging her back to his chest, so there was no longer any distance between them.
“You belong here, you know,” he said in a deep, rough voice, breath stirring up tendrils of her hair.
She relaxed against him, feeling his strength, his endurance, his determination matching the ancient land around them. This earth had been here long before them, nurturing plants, animals, insects, and people. It would be here long after they were gone, nurturing all that came after them just as it had all that came before them. Maybe others sometime in the distant future would carve their initials onto this rock, too. Maybe even their children would leave their marks.
And then she knew—knew it with every beat of her heart that he was right. She did belong here. With him.
“I hope you’ll leave KWCB on the ranch.”
She turned around in his arms, put her hands on either side of his face, lifted up on her toes, and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. “Make love to me.”
He blinked, looking surprised and pleased, then not so sure.
“No one can see us.” She popped open the snaps of his shirt, and she rubbed her palms over the hard muscles of his chest before jerking out his shirttail so she could follow the line of hair that led down to the indentation of his navel and the bulge below.
“The rock’s hard,” he said in a strained voice.
“We’ll leave on our clothes.”
“Still hard. And rough.”
“I’ll put you on bottom.”
He grinned as he reached into his back pocket, pulled out a condom, dangled it before her, then slipped it into his front shirt pocket.
She couldn’t keep from laughing at the sight. “Always prepared?”
“Around you, I always live in hope.”
“Hope no longer.”
And then he was kissing her as if there were no tomorrow with arms wrapped like steel bands around her. Soon, she was kissing him back, twining their tongues together, nibbling his lips until he groaned and grabbed her butt, so he could pull her against his hardness.
She caught her breath, looking up at him and feeling so much love in her heart that she was surprised it still had room to beat. “Did you ever think of doing this when we were here that last time?”
“Yes.” He kissed her lips. “Other times.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Teenage angst.” He returned to her lips, licking, sucking, nipping until she moaned and pressed harder against him.
“Let’s make up for all those times right now.”
“No.” He dropped his hands and stepped back, looking her over from her head to her toes and back to her eyes.
“No?” She suddenly felt cold and alone and bereft.
“Once is not enough.” He sucked in a deep breath. “A lifetime is not enough. If you can’t ever love me like I love you…if this is just a lark for you, then—”
She went down on her knees in front of him and clasped both his hands, rough and rugged and hot, just like all of him. “Shane Taggart, will you marry me?”
He appeared shocked for just a moment before he dropped to his knees and put a hand on each of her shoulders and held her still in front of him. “Do you really mean it?”
“I’ve never meant anything more.”
“Do you love me?”
“I’ve always loved you.”
“Yes, I’ll marry you.” And his eyes lit up like sparklers.
She pressed a soft kiss to his lips, feeling happy and thankful and oh so content.
He answered her with a hot, hungry kiss that made her melt down to her very own hot, hungry core.
“Love me. Now.”
And those were her last words before he slid her T-shirt up and over her head, tossing it aside. He quickly sent her bra flying, and then he was feasting on her breasts, teasing and tormenting with his lips, his teeth, his tongue, as he drove her higher and higher. She was flying—light as a feather that had burst into flames from the heat of his mouth, his hands, his body—with only the strength of him to keep her tethered to the earth. She dug her fingers into his thick hair, clasping his shoulders, drawing him closer while she felt as if she were melting from the inside out—so hot, so wet, so needy.
He raised his head, gazing at her through eyes dark with desire. “I can’t wait.”
She quickly unbuckled his belt, pulled it free, tossed it aside, then unbuttoned his jeans to expose the heart of him. Hard. Heavy. Handsome. She stroked his big length up and down, glorying in the feel of him. And then she kissed the tip, made a little swirl with her tongue, grabbed the condom, and slipped it on him.
“I can’t wait,” she said with a growl as she unzipped her jeans, pulled them down, and straddled him.
As she pushed him onto his back, he grabbed her hips, held her for a moment as they l
ocked eyes, and then he slipped inch-by-inch deeper and deeper into her. She moaned in frustration, digging her fingers into his shoulders, until she felt him fill her utterly and completely, and then she kissed him with all her pent-up passion. He thrust hard and fast as she gyrated against him, spiraling higher and higher as they held each other, rocked each other, loved each other until they burst into a kaleidoscope of color that brought them to the height of ecstasy.
She held onto him for a long moment, catching her breath as waves of pure pleasure slowly wound down until she was left with the soft, warm connectedness that nothing could ever destroy. She lay back on the hot rock beside him, feeling the hardness, the roughness, but also the warmth from the sun shining down on them.
He sat up, gently pushed damp hair back from her face, and kissed her. “Do you realize how happy you’ve made me?”
She smiled, suddenly feeling lighthearted and carefree, after trudging so long uphill with the weight of the world on her shoulders. “If that made you happy, wait till you experience what we do next.”
He gave her a longer, hotter, almost savage kiss. “That was good, but you know what I mean. Marriage.”
“I know.” She pushed back memories of her disastrous union with Graham. That was in the past and no longer even felt real.
“I won’t wait long.” He pushed back tendrils of her hair as he lovingly gazed at her face. “I mean, I’ve already waited a lifetime.”
“But there’s so much to do. Music. Water. May Day.”
“I don’t mean tomorrow, although that sounds good.” He chuckled as he stood up, removed the condom, tied it off, and chucked it over the side of the rock. “Now I really feel like a teenager.”
She smiled in contentment as she sat up, thinking every move he made was like the melody of a song just waiting to burst into life. And now she was writing country lyrics in her head, but that was how much he inspired her.