Ryder Men of Clifton, Montana Book 5

by Susan Fisher-Davis

  “It’s pretty, isn’t it?” Lydia asked her with a smug grin.

  “It is. I can’t believe how lovely it is. You’re right it certainly did surprise me. I’m loving it already.”

  “Let me show you the rest of it. It has two bedrooms and one bath. The kitchen appliances are included, and there’s a small laundry room off the kitchen.”

  She followed Lydia through the house. The two bedrooms sat opposite each other down a hallway with the bathroom located closer to the larger room. It was a beautiful little home and she loved it.

  “It’s perfect. I’ll take it,” she told Lydia.

  Lydia smiled at her. “Great. I have an application with me.” They returned to the kitchen and Lydia set her briefcase on the kitchen counter and pulled out some papers. “You just need to put down some references, like your past landlord and some personal references too.”

  “All right.” Kelsey stood at the center island and began filling out the paperwork. She was thrilled to get her own place but what she really wanted was to be with Ryder. So she’d carve out her life in Clifton until he came to his senses and realized that she was the one for him, and that he did want her with him. It was all part of her plan. Yes, she knew the possibility of running into him here was very high and she was counting on that. Just like today, in the diner. She had to admit she’d almost choked on her salad when she saw him walk in because she hadn’t expected to see him again so soon. She was proud of herself for not falling at his feet and begging him to take her back, even though she wanted to, but as long as she can keep her cool, she would do fine. Or was she expecting too much of Ryder? Was she making a huge mistake staying in Clifton?

  “Is everything all right?” Lydia asked her.

  “Yes. I’m just wondering if I’m doing the right thing. I mean, what happens if I decide to go back to Atlanta? I don’t want the landlord to sue me for breaking a lease.”

  “Don’t worry about that. There isn’t a lease. It’s month to month. I told them when they put the house up for rent, it would be better to do it that way. A lot of people that come through here think they love it until they experience their first winter.”

  “I’ve experienced it already.” She motioned to the snow once again falling from the sky to add to the piles of snow already accumulated on the ground. “But that isn’t the reason I’d leave…”

  “It’s Ryder, isn’t it?” Lydia asked her lowering her voice as if someone would hear her.

  “Is it that obvious?”

  Lydia smiled at her. “Only to another woman, in love with a man, who’s not interested in going any further in a relationship either.”

  “Who?”

  “Sam Garrett. I love him more than I thought it possible to love anyone, but he’s not in love with me.”

  “I’m so sorry, Lydia.” Kelsey reached out and patted Lydia’s arm.

  Lydia waved her hand as if pushing away her emotions. “It’s fine. I think I knew going in that Sam wasn’t going to fall in love with me. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew. I’ll take what I can get with him though…for now. One day, I hope I have the strength to walk away before he does.”

  “I’m sorry, Lydia,” Kelsey said again.

  “Don’t be. I’ll never regret having Sam Garrett in my life. He’s an amazing man. He’s kind, sweet, sexy, damn good-looking, and smoking hot in bed.” Lydia laughed. “Why would I regret that? I just regret that I’m not the love of his life and I envy the woman who does finally capture his heart.”

  “I know what you mean. I love Ryder so much it hurts, but he’s got issues. And because of his fears, he sent me away because he thinks I’ll be unhappy and leave him later.”

  “Maybe when he sees you’ve rented a place, he’ll change his mind,” Lydia said.

  “That’s exactly what I’m hoping, but somehow, I doubt it. He’s so stubborn and set in his thinking that I think he truly believes he’s done with me, just as he said.”

  Lydia put her arm around Kelsey’s shoulder. “Don’t give up, sweetie. Sometimes men need to be their own worst enemy before they can see what’s best for them. Men. Can’t love them. Not allowed to shoot them.”

  Kelsey laughed. “So true. And they say we’re difficult.”

  “Oh, please. Compared to them, we gals are a piece of cake.”

  They laughed together and being two women in love with impossible men, they hugged. Then Lydia checked her phone for messages while Kelsey fill out the application. When she finished, she handed the forms to Lydia, who glanced over them then put them in her briefcase. After one more look around the little house, they locked up and Lydia drove them back to town. Lydia stopped her car behind Kelsey’s car in the parking lot for the diner.

  “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something. I need to get home and grab a shower. Sam and I are going out to dinner later, if this weather lets up.” Lydia glanced through the windshield at the lightly falling snow.

  Kelsey smiled, reached across, and hugged her new friend. “Thanks for everything, and have fun.”

  She climbed out of the car, waved good-bye, and walked carefully on the rutted ice to the driver’s side door. After unlocking it, she got in, shivered, her breath turning to clouds of steam. She turned over the engine, again thankful it started. It was so cold. Winter here was hard, much harder than anything they got in Georgia but Ryder was worth it. The heat seemed to take forever to flow out from the vents, which didn’t help. She sat there shivering, waiting for the engine to warm enough to produce some heat. Finally, she began to warm. She cleared the windows of condensation and snow before pulling out of the space. Before she pulled onto the main road, she hit the button for four-wheel drive.

  Kelsey was still nervous about driving the roads even though the plows or a truck with a snow shovel on the front came through often. Ice covered the roads, and more snow continued to fall covering it again. She hated driving in this kind of weather, but she had to get used to it if she was going to live here.

  Driving slowly, nearly at a snail’s pace, she kept a watchful eye on the road, and a fair distance from any other vehicles, not that there were many. The further she got out of town, the worse the roads became. The snow was deeper because the plows hadn’t come through, as often and there was a layer of ice on top. She could hear her tires crunching through it making her tense and grip the wheel tighter. No one else was on the road but her.

  Of course, no one else is on the road. They’re smarter than I am and stay home in this stuff.

  When the backend of the SUV suddenly fishtailed, she let out a little scream, and after a couple of overcorrections, she stopped and breathed in heavy pants. She was terrified. She rested a moment, thinking back to all things she’d learned to do when a car skids. Just because she lived in Georgia didn’t mean she had never driven on ice. Ice storms were rare there but they happened.

  Kelsey gave the car a bit of gas, and proceeded slower this time. She knew she only had to go a little further, and the B and B would be just ahead. She came around a bend in the road and suddenly, a deer darted out in front of her. She did the one thing Ryder told her never to do…she hit the brakes. The SUV slid violently on the slick surface of the road. By the time she thought about lifting her foot from the brake, the vehicle had slid over the right side of the road and down the embankment front end first. Kelsey screamed and the airbag exploded at the same time the SUV slammed into the snow, showering the windshield with sheets of ice and snow before coming to an abrupt stop. She sat there with her hands clamped around the steering wheel, her heart pounding as if trying to escape her chest. Her head hurt, her arms and shoulders ached from gripping the steering wheel, which she continued to do even as she tried to calm herself.

  ****

  Ryder sat at his desk in his office. He was supposed to be working on the books but his attention kept straying. He glanced out the window instead, and watched as more snow fell. It looked so soft, but people in this region knew just how deadly it coul
d be. Everyone stayed indoors, unless there was an emergency. It was usually quiet since the people of Clifton picked up what they needed ahead of time when the weather station called for rough weather coming in. The town always seemed to look like a ghost town this time of the year. He knew all the stores closed down when it was this bad out, except the diner. Connie kept it open in case someone needed a hot meal. She lived above the diner so she didn’t have to get out on the roads. If she had to, she’d send everyone else home and do everything herself. Connie never turned anyone away and if she thought, for one minute, that someone couldn’t pay for their meal, she made them eat it anyway. She was a wonderful woman and everyone in town loved her.

  Ryder’s cell phone rang and he groaned when he saw Sam’s name on the call screen. Now what? He really didn’t want to talk about Kelsey again. Damn it, he should just let it go to voicemail but knowing Sam, he’d just keep calling until he answered.

  “Hey, Sam,” he said letting him know he knew who was calling. “What’s up?”

  “Ryder, there’s been an accident…” Sam began.

  “Accident?” Ryder got a sick feeling in his gut. “Who?”

  “Kelsey.”

  Ryder jumped up from his seat so fast he sent the chair against the wall. “Sam, tell me she isn’t…is she hurt?”

  “She’s alive. She has a slight concussion. They’ve transported her to the hospital. I’m on my way there now. I’ll let you know how she is.”

  “Forget that. I’m on my way.”

  “Ryder, it’s too bad out. There’s nothing you can do right now anyway.”

  “I can be there, Sam, that’s what I can do. You’re not going to change my mind. I’m on my way.”

  “Shit. All right, but please drive slowly. I don’t need to have you in the hospital too.”

  Ryder hung up and ran to the kitchen. He put his coat, hat, and gloves on then ran out the back door. The icy snow crunched under his boots as he trudged through it to his truck. He climbed in, pulled out too fast and the wheels slid reminding him to slow down. Calm down too. He drove the truck carefully down his driveway but then groaned when he saw the road in front of his house. It hadn’t been plowed in a while and there were several inches of snow and ice covering it. Sleet pinged off the windshield and the roof of the cab, and he tried to calm down even as frustration over it taking so long to get to the hospital clear on the other side of town tensed him so he was gripping the steering wheel so hard his hands hurt. He had to get there.

  Kelsey was hurt. Dear God, don’t let anything happen to her before I get there. Sam said she was okay, but things can happen after an accident. If he lost her, what would he do…die probably. He needed to call Frank and Grace. Hell, he wouldn’t blame them if they said it was his fault. It was his fault. She shouldn’t be out on these roads. She wasn’t used to driving them. Shit!

  Ryder decided to wait until he got to the hospital. Right now, he needed to concentrate on the road. Besides, he wasn’t in any hurry to have Frank angry with him.

  The usually fifteen minute drive to the hospital took him over an hour. His nerves were firing like pistons in a revved up racecar by the time he parked the truck and made his way into the emergency room. Sam met him at the nurses’ station and patted his shoulder in that manly mode of comfort men used for each other.

  “They just took her upstairs to a room. She never lost consciousness so that’s real good news. She’s just a little sore and a lot scared,” Sam told him with a relieved grin.

  “Take me up there, Sam, please.”

  “Follow me.” Sam led him to the elevators, where they were lucky to catch one before the doors closed. Sam punched the button for the third floor. Once there, Sam led him to the room where Kelsey was.

  Ryder stepped around him at the door, and felt his knees nearly buckle when he saw her. She was sleeping, or appeared to be, her lashes resting on bluish circles beneath each eye and her skin was pasty white. She had a small goose egg bump colored by a large purple bruise on her forehead just above her left eye. He moved closer to the bed, pulled a chair close then sat. He took her hand in his. It was warm. Thank you, God.

  “What happened, Sam?” he whispered over his shoulder.

  “Apparently, she lost control of her vehicle on the slick road and went off into the culvert. She was lucky someone happened along before she was there long enough to die from exposure. The collision had popped out the windshield, the airbag deployed, or it could’ve been worse, but I suspect she was in shock because she didn’t call it in. The driver passing by saw the tracks leading down over the embankment. They called it in and I drove out there with the ambulance.”

  Ryder took a deep breath and blew it out. “Thanks, Sam.”

  “I spoke with the doctor and he’s assured she’ll be fine. She has a concussion from hitting her head on the steering wheel before the airbag deployed but there’s no swelling of the brain, so that’s good. I already called her parents and reassured them she’s in good hands here and there was no sense in them coming out here. I just wanted them to know, but you may want to call Frank and Grace.”

  “I will, but I’m sure her parents called them already. I appreciate you being here but you don’t have to stick around, Sam. I’ve got this so you can go, Sam. I’m staying.”

  “Now, tell me again that you don’t love her,” Sam said with a chuckle as he spun on his heel and left the room.

  “I can’t, because I do,” Ryder whispered to an empty room as he looked at Kelsey tracing over every inch of her face with his eyes. He sat there, not moving just watching her.

  Dear God, don’t take her from me, please. I promise I’ll love her for the rest of my life. I’ll make her happy. We’ll have children and raise them up right. Please.

  ****

  Kelsey was positive she’d heard Ryder’s voice. Was it just a dream? Why would he be in her house? Oh, wait. As the fog began to clear, she remembered. She was in the hospital. She’d wrecked her rental. Shit!

  She slowly opened her eyes and blinked them against the bright overhead lights. Turning her head, her eyes cleared and focused to find Ryder sitting in the chair beside the bed. His head was back, and his eyes were closed.

  “Ryder,” she said in a rough voice. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Ryder.”

  His eyes flew open, and he sat up. “Kelsey, how are you feeling?”

  “My head hurts a little but other than that, I’m okay, I think.”

  “You scared the hell out of me,” Ryder said grabbing her hand. She let him hold it. It was nice.

  “Ryder, I’m sorry, I did exactly what you told me not to do. I hit the brakes when a deer ran out in front of me and lost control. I slid right off the road.” A tear rolled down her cheek as the realization of how close she came to really getting hurt or worse sunk in.

  He squeezed her hand in his rubbing his thumb along the back of it. “It’s okay, baby. You’ll be fine. I’m sure you’ll be mighty sore tomorrow though.”

  She stared at him, wondering why he was there when he’d claimed he’d wanted nothing to do with her. She frowned. “Why are you here?”

  Ryder opened his mouth to answer her but the doctor chose just that moment to walk in the door. “I don’t like seeing my nurses in the hospital other than for work, Nurse Sullivan.”

  “I’m sorry, Doctor Newman.” She smiled up at the man, catching the frown that marred Ryder’s face at her attention to the young doctor.

  “I’ll let it slide this time.” The doctor smiled back. “Well, you have a slight concussion and although it’s not serious, you know the drill. You’ve been under observation long enough that we’re sure you’re fine to sleep tonight but I don’t want you alone so unless you’ve got someone who can stay with you, you’ll be our guest here in the hospital.” He glanced at Ryder.

  “She’s got me. I can watch over her. I’ll take her to my ranch. I can take care of her,” Ryder told him, rising to his feet like he was taking charge.
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  “No. I’ll be fine. I’m already settled in here, or I can go home and set my alarm,” Kelsey protested.

  “Well, with the cost of staying the night here, and taking up space you don’t need to, perhaps you should think about going to his ranch. I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable and sleep better than here. Rest is the best thing for you now, and if you have any subsequent symptoms, he can assess them and bring you back. An alarm won’t do that for you and…well, you know the consequences.”

  Kelsey sighed, half elated, and half annoyed. Bruised up, with a bump on her head, and the possibility of vomiting in her future was not how she wanted to spend time with Ryder. “All right.” She glanced at Ryder. “Thank you, I appreciate the offer.”

  “Christ, I bet that hurt,” he said to her with a smirk.

  “You have no idea,” she muttered.

  The doctor’s eyes traveled back and forth between them, and then he cleared his throat. “Well then, I’ll release you but you call me in the morning, and be careful going home. Those bad roads are what got you in here in the first place, and believe it or not, we’re expecting another foot of snow tonight.”

  He left the room leaving silence behind him. Ryder shuffled his feet, and Kelsey pulled at a thread on the blanket refusing to look at him.

  “Can you leave now?” he suddenly asked her.

  “I can leave as soon as the nurse brings in the release papers. If you want, you can go get your truck and bring it around to the front. Someone will bring me out in a wheelchair.”

  “Trying to get rid of me?”

  She looked up at him. “Maybe. I’m still trying to figure out why you’re here.”

  “Sam called me.”

  So he was here because Sam didn’t know who else to call. She sighed.

  “You don’t have to do this, Ryder. I’m probably better off staying right here,” she said pulling the cover up closer to her chin.