Huckleberry Lake

by Catherine Anderson

  Kennedy shook his head. “Nope. Then they’d both have to be altered, because they’ll grow aggressive with each other as they get older. Think of it this way. In the wild, a black bear’s average life-span is eighteen years. The oldest black bear on record in captivity lived forty-four years. If Four Toes lives even to be thirty, do you really think he’ll be as happy as he should be without a companion?”

  Slade gave Vickie a long look. “I was there once, and no, I don’t think he’ll be truly happy if he has to be alone for the rest of his life.”

  Vickie reached out, took Slade’s hand, and dimpled her cheeks with a mischievous smile. “What he never experiences, he won’t miss. After the surgical procedure, his desire for that will fade, and as Kennedy said, he’ll be mellower. For a bear that lives around humans, that will be a good thing. And I believe with all my heart that it’s the responsible thing to do as well. We don’t want the two of them to make babies. The only goal is to increase the quality of Four Toes’s life and to offer Ginger sanctuary where she’ll be happy as well.”

  * * *

  * * *

  The next morning, Wyatt received a text from Slade asking him to come to the main house. Normally the boss sought Wyatt out when they needed to confab so Wyatt wasn’t called away from his work. When Wyatt knocked, Vickie greeted him and ushered him to the in-home office where Slade sat behind a massive, cherry desk.

  “Have a seat,” Slade said, gesturing at the empty castor chair across from him. “I have a special assignment for you.”

  Wyatt immediately thought of all the things that already topped his list and wondered how he would find time to do anything more. “Okay. What’s up?”

  “I’m sure Kennedy’s told you we’re getting a female bear as a companion for Four Toes.”

  Wyatt nodded. “Yes. We all think it’s great.” Wyatt met his boss’s gaze. “But if you’re in one of your frugal moods and think I’m going to band that bear or do surgery on him with a pocketknife, you have another think coming.”

  Slade threw back his head and laughed. “I’m not quite that frugal. When the time comes, I’ll have it done by a vet.” He rested his arms on the desk blotter. “What I have in mind will actually be a fun assignment for you. Ginger will arrive in a week and a half, and Vickie is very excited about it. She got the idea of turning the first meet between the two bears into an occasion and wants to invite all the people in Mystic Creek who helped feed Four Toes as a cub.”

  “That should be nice.” Wyatt secretly wondered what would be fun about doing a bunch of yardwork to prepare for another party. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Well, Vickie thinks the first meet might go better for Ginger if it doesn’t occur on the ranch. I didn’t stop to think how frightening it might be for a young bear to arrive here and see horses and cows everywhere when she isn’t accustomed to them. But Vickie did, and she feels that a woodland setting will be better. A place where we can leave the cows at home and highline the horses at a distance where Ginger won’t feel intimidated.”

  “That makes sense,” Wyatt told him. “Is she being exposed to any of her natural habitat at the shelter?”

  “Yes. They have large enclosures in wooded areas, so Ginger should feel more at home in a forest. I’m considering Huckleberry Lake. It’s beautiful up there, and as you already know, I’ve often considered that location as a base camp for guided hunts. I even have a permit for that area already. Last year, I got arrested when we were camped on Strawberry Hill, and people from town never got a chance to go up for the usual campout, so that’s a selling point for me as well. If we set up camp at Huckleberry Lake, the guests from town will be invited to stay a couple of nights.”

  “So you want me to ride up and have a whole camp set up by the lake before the little bear comes?” Wyatt’s mind raced. “I’d love to do that, boss. I enjoy setting up camps. Being out in the wilderness is one of my favorite things. But I’m swamped right now. I can’t just walk away from all this work.”

  Slade held up a hand. “Oh, but you can, because I’m going to take over your job for the next week and a half.” At Wyatt’s surprised look, Slade smiled. “Believe it or not, I do know how to run a ranch. At my age, I prefer not to, but it’ll be good for me to get my nose back into the operation for a few days. Since marrying Vickie, I’ve been a slacker. But I still hold to the idea that a boss should work alongside his crew. I think it keeps him tuned in. It’ll be good for me, and I’m looking forward to it.”

  Wyatt couldn’t argue that point. Since Vickie’s reappearance in Slade’s life, he had backed off on spending time with his hired hands. He relaxed on the chair, feeling as if Slade had just offered him a paid vacation. He could almost smell the campfire smoke and taste the boiled coffee.

  “So who’ll go along to help me?” Wyatt had to resist rubbing his hands together. “Kennedy?”

  “Erin,” Slade replied.

  “What?” Wyatt wanted to say he couldn’t believe his ears, but since he didn’t have a pair that worked, he bit back the words. “She’s probably never set up a tent in her life.”

  “She’s a quick study, though,” Slade countered, “and she’s strong. With good direction, she’ll be a fine helper.”

  Again Wyatt had to bite his tongue. He absolutely could not tell Slade that he had the hots for his niece and would endure living hell if he had to spend over a week alone with her by an isolated lake. “I’d really prefer someone experienced. Can you call one of the guys who goes up with us every year?”

  “I can’t really afford to,” Slade said. “Erin’s already on my payroll, and I’ll be covering for you. It’s not going to cost me anything extra if I send Erin. She’s also our least experienced ranch hand. I need the people who know what to do to stay behind. Her knowledge is still pretty limited.”

  What had sounded like an awesome break from routine suddenly loomed before Wyatt like a brutal test of his restraint. “I’d really like someone besides Erin to go with me,” he said. “She’s not an experienced woodsman, and I’ve been told there are wolves at Huckleberry Lake. What if they come in on the horses?”

  “Take an extra rifle. She’s probably a better marksman than you are.”

  Wyatt knew in that moment that he wouldn’t change Slade’s mind. He made all the right noises during the rest of the meeting and couldn’t wait to get out of the main house so he could throw his hat on the ground, kick dirt, and cuss. This whole idea would be a disaster.

  * * *

  * * *

  After Wyatt left the house, Vickie hurried into the office. “Well? How did it go?”

  Slade winked at her. “He’s not going to be a happy camper up there, but I don’t think he suspects a thing.”

  Vickie hugged her waist. “It was my idea. If it backfires, are you going to be furious with me?”

  Slade rocked back in his chair. “Vickie, my sweet, you prick my temper half a dozen times a day. That’s why I love you so much. I never know what you may say or do next.” He shrugged. “According to you, Erin’s had a thing for him for months, and you think Wyatt has strong feelings for her. What can possibly go wrong?”

  “Everything?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “If Wyatt loves her—and ever since you said something, I’ve been watching him and think you’re right—we’re just forcing him to face it himself and hopefully do something about it. He’s a good man. If I could handpick a husband for my niece, he’d be my first choice.”

  “Yes, but even a good man can fall prey to temptation, Slade. That doesn’t mean he’s making a lifelong commitment.”

  “Erin’s a grown woman. She understands that. I have to trust in her instincts. I don’t think she’ll expect chapel bells to ring just because they get a little cozy up there. And pushing Wyatt into giving up his harebrained plan to go without sex for the rest of his life won’t be a bad thing, eithe
r.”

  Vickie came to sit on his knee. Slade looped an arm around her waist. “Have you ever told Wyatt you know about the rape charge?” she asked.

  Slade hired a professional detective to do his background checks. As the owner of a ranch, he had to know everything possible about a prospective employee. “Nope. I ordered all the court documents after I had the background check done on him. I saw no point in embarrassing him when I knew for sure what had happened and that he’d been found innocent. It’s his secret to keep. If he chooses to tell me about it someday, I’ll act surprised.”

  Vickie rested her head on his shoulder. “And you’re positive he was in no way to blame for what happened?”

  “Yes. Do you think I’d send my niece up that mountain with him if I weren’t?”

  * * *

  * * *

  Slade took over as foreman the next morning so Wyatt could start shopping and packing for the trip. Wyatt was glad he wasn’t preparing for a guided hunt, because that required making huge lists and checking them twice. This trip would easy by comparison. He needed to take up tents, lanterns and fuel, kitchen gear, bedding, an ax, a chainsaw, and the like, but he only had to worry about taking enough food to last him and Erin for a little over a week. Vickie was taking care of all the other campout supplies and would bring them up the day she and Slade arrived with the female bear. Compared to a guided hunt, getting ready for this trip was a piece of cake.

  Erin came to him late in the afternoon, and when he saw tears in her eyes, his heart leaped. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I can’t leave Firecracker. I just can’t. I’m sorry, Wyatt. I know everyone’s counting on me to go with you, and I may lose my job for refusing, but I just can’t abandon her.”

  For what seemed like an endlessly long moment, Wyatt considered taking advantage of her reluctance. It was the perfect out for him. If she refused to go, he wouldn’t be held to blame by Slade. Only that seemed like a really chickenshit thing to do, and when he thought about it, he decided the boss wouldn’t let it slip past him, anyway. In less than a nanosecond, Slade would say the same thing Wyatt was about to say.

  “Firecracker can just go with us.”

  “No!” Erin cried. “She’ll be terrified the whole time. I can’t do that to her.”

  Wyatt finished tying off a pack. “She won’t be afraid. She’s not fearful of other horses. It’s people she doesn’t like. Once we get a halter and lead rope on her, she’ll fall into place with the pack animals and be fine.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “I know so. It may even be good for her. Horses learn by watching other horses. She’ll see we don’t beat our animals or throw explosives under their feet. It’ll also give her a chance to make friends and hear how they feel about being ranch horses.”

  She wiped under eyes and sniffed. “Do you really think they talk?”

  “I know they talk. We just don’t understand their language.” To cheer her up, he smiled at her. “Lighten up, Erin. Firecracker will enjoy going. And once we get tents set up for ourselves, plus a cook shack, you can take some time each evening to work with her, pretty much like you are right now. That way, she won’t be left alone for days on end and forget everything you’ve accomplished so far.”

  * * *

  * * *

  Erin saw her trip up the mountain as a brutal test of her willpower. Wyatt Fitzgerald turned her on in every possible way a man could. Even worse, she both admired and respected him. Every time she thought about his decision to live the rest of his life without having sex, especially with her because she mattered to him, her heart melted. He truly cared about that Medford woman and what he’d accidentally done to her. Erin couldn’t really blame him for not wanting anything like that to ever happen again. It was a noble stance for him to take, and Erin felt obligated to honor their friendship-only agreement. She absolutely could not flirt with him.

  Erin rode a mule named Barbwire. He was a veteran trail mule that Uncle Slade had chosen for her. Uncle Slade said mules were smarter than horses, especially when it came to their own safety. He claimed horses might panic if they got bunched up on a narrow trail, and it wasn’t unheard-of for an entire string to plunge off the side of a mountain. A mule, on the other hand, would back away from the cliff, stand fast, and watch his idiotic cousins kill themselves. According to Uncle Slade, Erin would be as safe as a baby in its mother’s arms on Barbwire’s back.

  Unfortunately, Uncle Slade had forgotten to mention that Barbwire had a stubborn streak, a memory like an elephant, and some set ideas on how he should be handled. Erin, being an inexperienced rider, made mistakes, and when Barbwire got it into his head that she didn’t know what she was doing, he stopped. And then he wouldn’t move until she figured out what she was doing wrong.

  It was frustrating for Erin. She’d chosen to ride behind the pack string, and when Barbwire went on strike, Wyatt had to tie off the lead packhorse and circle back to see what she had done.

  “You’re holding the reins too tight again,” Wyatt told her when Barbwire decided, for about the umpteenth time, to balk. “To a mule, pulling back on the reins means it should stop. You need to hold the reins in a loose grip and let them rest on his neck.”

  “But then I have no control,” she protested.

  “You don’t need to have control. Barbwire loves horses. Some mules have an inborn desire to be a horse and be with horses—except when they panic and do stupid stuff. He’ll follow the string. It’s your job to just go along for the ride. Just loosen your grip, and when I head out again, Barbwire will follow. He won’t want the horses to leave him.”

  Erin loosened her hold on the reins, and when Wyatt got the pack string moving again, Barbwire surged forward with his nose only a few feet from Firecracker’s rump. It amused Erin to note that Barbwire seemed to know about the blind spot behind a horse, because he was careful never to get within kicking distance of the mare. As much as it rankled to admit it, Erin learned a few things from Barbwire.

  By the time they reached Huckleberry Lake, it was late afternoon and Erin was exhausted. Wyatt was in charge of setting up camp, of course, and his first order of business was to get all the packs off the horses, rub the animals down, and then hobble them on a grassy flat near the water so they could eat and drink. Only Barbwire didn’t get a pair of ankle bracelets. If the horses couldn’t wander off, the mule wouldn’t leave them, so Wyatt said hobbling him was unnecessary.

  After doing all that, Erin wanted to crash in the shade for a while to admire the scenery. The lake wasn’t large, but it was beautiful beyond description, a jewel of dark blue at the center of a verdant meadow surrounded by old-growth ponderosa and jack pines. Erin had never visited a high-mountain wilderness lake. It called to her, and she wished she could kick off her riding boots to wade in all that azure coolness.

  Wyatt had different ideas. The very first thing they needed to do was create a highline where they could tie off the horses at night. When they’d done that, they had to get the packs of hay positioned for supplemental feeding. There was a lot of grass for the horses to graze on, but just in case it was nutritionally insufficient, he wanted to toss the animals a little hay. Then they had to set up their pup tents so they would each have shelter for the night. As they worked, he told Erin they would get the cook shack erected the following day, but for tonight, dinner would be a can of beef stew heated on an open fire. He also had wieners and marshmallows they could roast. Erin was starving and voted for the hot dogs.

  They worked until the sun started to go down. Erin wished Wyatt had placed her tent closer to his. Ten feet of distance seemed a little bit much to her. She’d slept alone in a small wall tent at Uncle Slade’s base camp on Strawberry Hill last fall, but she’d been surrounded by other people. Up here, she was afraid her only neighbors would be animals with saber teeth.

  As Erin unrolled her sleeping bag ins
ide her shelter, she congratulated herself for bringing only what she needed. There wasn’t anything electrical in her duffel, only bare necessities. She hadn’t thought to bring any makeup, and she’d look like hell all week. That’s okay, she lectured herself. She hadn’t come up here to seduce Wyatt Fitzgerald. She’d promised not to hit on him, and she tried never to break her word.

  When she emerged from her tent, Domino bounced around her legs like a black-and-white tennis ball. Apparently he shared his master’s love of camping out in wilderness areas and was excited to have her present for the fun. Erin guessed it would be enjoyable during the daytime. The lake was beautiful, and the weather was glorious, sunny but not too hot. She wasn’t looking forward to the nights, however. Sleeping on a mountaintop populated by bears, coyotes, and cougars when she had only nylon walls to protect her didn’t sound fun.

  Wyatt had built a fire ring and gathered wood. He was hunkered down by the circle of rocks to build a fire, and since Erin figured she might have to do that herself before this week and a half was over, she watched everything he did. While growing up, she’d never gone camping.

  Erin crouched across the flickering flames from Wyatt and immediately felt bowled over by how he looked—a quintessential cowboy out on the open range. Broad shoulders, well-muscled chest and arms, a narrow waist, and long legs that stretched the denim of his jeans tightly over his thighs. Even his long, straight hair screamed, Film set. She almost sighed with a rush of longing, but she squelched it, not because Wyatt could hear her feminine emissions of body-pulsing need, but because she’d promised him and herself that she would never allow her feelings to compromise their friendship.

  He glanced up. “Are you hungry? We can eat right away or enjoy this incredible vista over a couple of before-dinner drinks.”

  Erin had seen Wyatt drink at Vickie and Slade’s wedding reception and later over dinner with her at the Cauldron, but otherwise he seemed to be a teetotaler. “I didn’t think you drank very much.”