Dalton let out a laugh. “How was she planning on pulling that off?”
“It wasn’t going to be easy. Her brothers were really protective. She suggested that Granddad might want to start raising horses, and if he did, he would need to learn how to ride horses.”
Dalton moved their clasped hands, so they rested on his thigh and gave her a devilish smile. “Your grandfather must have loved that idea.”
“Oh, he was fine with spending time with her. But according to Grandma Mae, she couldn’t get him to go all the way, no matter what kind of moves she put on him.”
Dalton shouted out a laugh. “I take it she was innocent.”
Aurora tilted her head sideways to look at him. “You mean a virgin?”
“Uhm, yeah.” Aurora smothered a smile as she saw a slight flush creep up Dalton’s cheeks.
“She was, and she wasn’t happy about it. She’d set her sights on Granddad to take care of that little problem and he was having none of it. Now, he never gets into those kinds of details when he tells his side of the story. He talks about how he fell in love with her, and how he had to convince her to stay in Tahoe and marry him.”
“But I take it your Grandmother got into the nitty gritty with you.”
Aurora plucked up a pinecone and tossed it up in the air, easily catching it as it came back down and tossed it again. “It was when she was having the ‘sex talk’ with me when I was sixteen. She was telling me that she had waited to have sex until she’d met the right guy and she was almost twenty-one. But she’d really had to work for it.”
Dalton grabbed the pinecone out of the air. “She didn’t really say that.”
“Oh yes she did.”
“What happened next?”
“When Granddad rejected her at first, she went away for a year at Berkley.”
“I bet she had lots of opportunities there to get things taken care of,” Dalton said delicately.
“I asked her about that. She said, ‘I could never get that damned Viking out of my head,’.”
They both laughed.
This time Aurora didn’t let him stop her when she got up off the ground. She offered Dalton her hand. “Need help getting up, Ironman?” she asked.
“You’re a smartass, you know that don’t you?” He pointed out as he easily eased up, grabbing his backpack.
He gave her an assessing look.
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “Let’s get up that hill so you can call someone.”
Aurora was taller than most women, she had to be five nine. She took long strides up the hill with little effort now that she’d rested. Still, Dalton wanted her to take it easier. Even if she didn’t have a concussion, she had to be a mass of bruises after that fall.
“Slow down, Sunshine. You haven’t finished your story.”
Sparkling brown eyes cut over to look at him. “You just wanted me to talk so I rested longer.”
Smart too. Dalton grinned.
“Maybe. But now I’m hooked. Your grandmother wanted to lose her V-Card and had her sights set on your grandfather, but he was too much of a gentleman. You can’t tell me that her brothers weren’t watching the situation.”
“Oh, they were all right.” Her straight blonde hair sifted around her shoulders, catching the light as she nodded her head. “I’d go out to the Dressler Ranch when I was a girl, and all three of my great uncles would have that stoic hard-ass thing going on when they dealt with Granddad, but they were big ole softies when it came to Grandma, me and Mom.”
“So how did your grandmother get around them?”
“She gave Granddad riding lessons.”
Dalton rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“What, you don’t have anything smart ass to say?”
“I’m not touching that comment,” he agreed.
“Granddad had been busy while she’d been off to college. He’d started planting apple trees, and getting a barn built. Uncle Charles Dressler had convinced him that horse ranching was the way to go, but Granddad really wanted to grow things, that’s the reason we have a ten-acre orchard. I think my favorite time of year is when the trees blossom and the ground is blanketed with blooms.”
Aurora’s face lit up as she talked about the flowering trees. A picture of her as a golden-haired child scooping up white and pink petals flashed through his mind. His step faltered, pain blasted through his chest when he pictured tiny little hands, black curls and big blue eyes fringed by dark lashes looking up at him with so much trust.
“Dalton?”
“Dalton?”
He shook his head and gave Aurora a wan smile. “Apple trees, huh?”
“Are you okay?”
“Sure.” He gave himself a mental shake. He tried to force himself not to think of Reagan, he couldn’t. Dalton jolted when Aurora’s warm fingers touched his hand then she laced her fingers with his. He didn’t look at her, instead he just soaked in the comfort that the soft contact provided.
Dalton appreciated how Aurora allowed him to continue walking in silence. Her presence, along with the beauty of the land finally soothed him to the point that he was able to resume their conversation.
“Did your grandmother ever go back to Berkley, or did they finally become a couple?”
“Oh, they both wanted the same thing. She might have thought she wanted a fling, but really, she wanted the whole nine yards. She came from a big loving family, and she admits now that deep down that was what she really wanted, despite being in the midst of the sexual revolution.”
It should only take ten more minutes to get to the top of the hill, and he realized he wanted to hear how Gunnar convinced Mae to marry him.
“So, there were over-protective brothers, a hormonal young woman, and a man who was intent on marriage, what happened next?”
“All Granddad ever says is that Grandma Mae led him merry chase for six months before he was able to convince her to be his wife. But Grandma spilled the beans when I was sixteen.” Aurora smiled and let out a wistful sigh.
He gave her hand a squeeze.
“She showed him the land, then he took her out onto the lake. Even though she’d spent her life living near Lake Tahoe, she’d never spent time on the water. She said that seeing that side of her man made her fall deeply in love. All thoughts of a summer dalliance went out the window.”
Dalton chuckled. “She actually said dalliance?”
Aurora flashed dimples at him. “Yep, she used that exact word. Granddad had food and champagne on the sailboat.”
“Good man.”
“They sailed on the water for hours. Grandma said she took a nap, and she had a dream of the future with her Viking. Her mother, my great-grandmother, had told her that when that happened it meant that their souls were destined to be forever linked.”
“Then they had sex and got married?”
“My God, you really aren’t a romantic at all, are you.”
Dalton was relieved to hear amusement in Aurora’s voice, because as soon as the words were out of his mouth he realized how bitter they sounded.
“I am for other people.”
“Well then you will be happy to hear that this couple fell in love.” She swung their arms and laughed up at him. “Plus, according to Grandma Mae, the sex was incredible.”
Dalton shouted with laughter. “Your grandmother didn’t really tell you that.”
“Oh yes she did. That was her way of telling me to wait to find the right guy.”
“And did you?”
Shit, did he really ask that question?
“I’m twenty-four, I kind of got tired of waiting for my Viking, so I ended up kissing a frog.” She swung their arms out. Then she peered at him sideways. “So, did your heart get broken once, or have you always known that the ‘L’ word wasn’t for you?”
When he didn’t answer, she swung their arms again, and she asked another question. “You can always say, “it’s none of my business.”
“How about we say, it’s comp
licated.”
They walked a little further. “In that case, you should stick with dalliances,” she nodded sagely.
He barked out a laugh. “I like you Aurora Chance.”
The sad part was she was right. That’s what his life had turned into, yearly dalliances, with nothing but the same lurking in the future. It seemed grim.
She tugged at his hand. He realized he was holding it too tightly and released it. He braced them both on the incline and pulled out his phone. He had a slight signal. He dialed nine-one-one. It didn’t go through.
“Nothing?”
“Nada,” he agreed. “You still good?”
“Yep.” She didn’t look so good, but she’d plastered a big smile on her face. The girl had game. He put his hand on her lower back and continued to guide her up the incline.
“This is better than a Stairmaster,” she said breathing hard.
“You go to the gym?”
“No, but my friend Crystal does. She’s always complaining about the Stairmaster. I imagine this is what it’s like. I stick to work around the ranch. What about you?” she panted out the question.
“During down time there is a lot of physical training. Then we’ll go on training exercises and maneuvers.”
“Yeah, you look like you could wrestle a stallion to the ground.”
“You should see some of the other guys on my team. I’m a small fry.”
Aurora’s laughter rang out through the forest. “Pull my other leg.”
“Seriously. My friend, Hunter Diaz, makes me look like I ate nothing but gruel growing up,” he grinned down at her.
“I’d like to meet him.”
“He’s engaged.”
Where the hell had that come from? Why did he feel the need to tell her that Hunter was off limits? Ah hell, was he interested in Aurora?
“Let me check my phone again.”
“Sounds good to me.” She stopped and bent forward, putting her hands on her knees.
This time he got a signal and got through. As soon as they answered he explained their situation. He checked his GPS and said how close they were to the road.
“The sheriff should be here in thirty minutes,” he told Aurora when he hung up.
“Let’s keep walking,” she said.
“No, I want you to rest.”
“I’m fine. I want to be up there, so that you can then go down with one of the deputies and show them what you found. That way they can start after the poachers. I am so sick of those bastards,” she said vehemently.
He chuckled.
“Poachers I say. Poachers.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“You’re not going to let me live in my own little world anymore?”
“Not with the sheriff on his way. You need to start thinking about who would want to fire shots at you.”
He watched as her face scrunched up. Then her fingers flew to her forehead to tenderly touch her bruise. “But that’s the thing Dalton. I don’t have any enemies. I don’t mean to toot my own horn or anything, but people really like me around here. I pay my taxes. I donate to charity. I even make jams and jellies and give them out like my grandmother did. People like me.”
God, she looked so forlorn.
Facing her, he brushed back her hair, so he could look at the bandages on her forehead. They were holding, but the swelling around the bruise was even worse. “How bad is your headache?” he asked.
“We were talking about how nice I am.”
“I believe you. I’ve found you to be extremely nice. Now tell me how bad your headache is.”
“It’s killing me when you make me think that someone is taking shots at me. Maybe it was just someone who wanted to scare me or something. I mean they didn’t actually hit me.”
“They hit your horse. You could have died.” He still pictured her flying through the air. She could have hit her head on a rock. “Is your headache killing you?” he asked.
“Not really, it’s fine. It’s manageable.”
“I think you’re really in pain,” he disagreed.
“I’m fine to walk the rest of the way up the hill.” Her brown eyes flashed up at him. God she was stubborn.
“Aurora, you don’t have anything to prove to me. I would tell most of my teammates to sit their asses down and wait.”
“There is quite the dichotomy to your personality, isn’t there?”
“You’re not the first one to mention that.” Dalton watched as she determinedly strode up the hill, then kicked himself as he noticed the flex of her ass. Yep, here he was supposed to be worried about her wellbeing and instead he was admiring how her jeans molded to her butt.
3
“You scared me girl,” she whispered softly.
Aurora stroked the mare’s neck and fought back tears for the third time.
Siren’s breath wafted out and blew strands of Aurora’s hair into her eyes. She wiped both hair and tears away, then sighed. Siren knickered softly in response.
Slowly, she smoothed her hand along Siren’s coat, until she came to her flank, where Doc Barnes had given her sutures. Aurora winced at the discolored and swollen flesh. The vet had assured them that Siren would be back to a hundred percent in a couple of weeks. Aurora knew deep in her heart that there was no way anybody could have purposefully shot at Siren. Nobody could be that cruel.
Yeah sure. She could see Dalton’s face in her head. He wasn’t letting her get away from living in a fantasy. But seriously, who would want to shoot at her?
“Aurora!”
She grinned. Even at seventy-six, her grandfather could still make himself heard from almost a quarter of a mile away.
She gave Siren one last look, then closed the mare’s stall. Even though Gunnar Olsen was bellowing, she wasn’t going to rush away from her charges, not when some of them were still shaken from Siren’s sudden appearance earlier this evening. She stopped at various stalls, giving pats, rubs and treats where needed as she walked towards the barn door.
“Aurora, you have a visitor!” Gunnar bellowed again.
She reached in her back pocket to pull out her phone to find out what time it was, and then remembered that she’d lost hers, when it had fallen out of Siren’s saddlebag. Still, it had to be around nine o’clock. Who would be dropping by now?
When she realized it could be one of the deputies, she picked up speed.
She stopped short when she saw an old beat-up, rusted, baby-blue pick-up truck in the driveway.
What the hell?
Then she spotted the tall, lean man talking to her grandfather. Even though she’d only spent three hours with him, Aurora was sure that she would be able to recognize Dalton Sullivan out of any crowd, and it wasn’t just his height or his raven black hair. There was something underneath his calm assurance, he was like one her stallions at rest. There was a great deal of deadly power waiting to be unleashed. Dalton’s low-key demeanor would never fool her, she would always see the man that he really was.
Aurora stopped short. What was she thinking? This was a fluke that she was seeing Dalton again, why was she considering that she would see him in the future?
“There you are! It’s about time you left your babies! Get on over here, Darlin’.” Gunnar Olsen waved his arm broadly. Aurora grinned. Even in the dusk she could see his white shirt and suspenders. The big Norwegian fisherman had started wearing suspenders when he turned seventy, he said it was the thing to do, even though there still wasn’t a bit of gray in his blonde hair.
“Hustle up. You’re not even wearing a jacket.”
Aurora rolled her eyes. It didn’t matter if she was twelve, twenty-six or eighty, this man would always be worried about her. As she got closer she could see Dalton’s eyes watching her carefully.
“Shouldn’t you be resting?” he asked as she joined the two men on the porch.
Was he for real? She looked at him closely and saw both concern and frustration on his face. “I took a nap earlier, before Siren came home,�
�� she said soothingly.
“Why aren’t you wearing a jacket?” This time his question came out a little rough. What was his deal? He’d been at the hospital with her when the doctor had checked her out and said that she only had a mild concussion.
“It was beautiful when I left the house, and the barn was warm,” she explained.
It didn’t seem to appease him. He shrugged out of his coat and put it around her shoulders.
She noted her granddad’s twitch of a smile.
“Let’s all go inside. Dalton and I have been discussing his concerns, but I haven’t told him what Brody told me while you were in the barn.”
“Brody stopped by?” She hadn’t heard the sheriff’s patrol car.
Gunnar opened the door to the house, and Dalton put his hand on her back and guided her in. She swore she could feel his heat even through his thick coat.
Down girl.
“Coffee?” Gunnar asked as he walked them through to the kitchen.
“I’d love some,” Dalton pulled out a chair for her. She could get used to this.
“None for you,” her grandfather said over his shoulder. “You get warm milk or hot chocolate, but I think warm milk would be better for you, the chocolate might keep you awake.”
Aurora barely contained her snort of exasperation. “Seriously, I’m not your baby girl anymore. However, with that said, I want hot chocolate.”
“And?” Gunnar looked at her expectantly.
“With those itty-bitty marshmallows please.”
They both started to laugh.
Dalton’s hand trembled as he took the mug from her grandfather, hot coffee spilled on his wrist, but he didn’t react.
Aurora pushed his coat off her shoulders, got up and grabbed a dishtowel.
“Give me your hand.”
“What?”
His hand was still up in the air. She gently pushed it down onto the table and eased the mug away from his grasp. She pushed the sleeve of his Henley shirt up and looked at his reddened skin. Aurora dabbed the liquid off his wrist and looked into his face. He wasn’t there, and wherever he was, it wasn’t good. It was almost as if the term itty bitty marshmallows had set him off, but she wasn’t going to pry.
Her Guarded Hero Page 3