The Defender

by Lindsay McKenna

  He was ambling up the aisle, casually checking the raptors in their mews to make sure they were all right when Katie called out to him.

  “Joe, you’re invited to Iris and Rudd’s tonight for dinner. Can you come?”

  Halting at Harlequin’s mew, he watched Katie lift the peregrine falcon out of the box and place him on his perch. “Was that the note on your desk?” He enjoyed watching her move. Katie was graceful. Of course, working around raptors, one never made sharp, sudden moves.

  “Yes.” She turned and walked out of the mew, travel case in hand. “Can you make it? Dinner is at 6:00 p.m.” She locked the mew and walked up the aisle at his side.

  “Why would they want me to come to dinner?”

  Katie felt happy. She was sure it was the thrill of educating the third graders about the raptors. Joe had been a stellar partner and their show was a solid hit with the kids. “Iris and Rudd are like that.” She placed the travel box next to the lockers. Straightening, she added, “When I first got here, Iris offered me a beautiful suite in her family’s ranch home. I didn’t have any money because I was spending it on food for the raptors. I took her up on the offer. I eat with the family most nights now.”

  “That’s nice,” Joe said. He saw her eyes go soft.

  “Iris and Rudd treat me like a granddaughter. I love sitting down with the family. Kam, her granddaughter, and her husband, Wes, are usually with us, too. It’s a great family, Joe. You should accept their offer.”

  As Katie pushed some tendrils away from her brow, Joe felt his lower body tighten. Last night he’d had a torrid dream about undressing her, exploring and loving her. Joe had awakened early in a sweat and hadn’t been able to shake the dream all day. “I’ll go. Is there anything I need to bring? Flowers? A bottle of wine? What do you think?”

  “Oh, no, just bring yourself. It’s a warm family environment. I love their dinners because Iris has a woman chef who cooks nothing but organic food. The table talk is fabulous. They’ve traveled the world and I’ve learned so much from all of them.”

  Her excitement was endearing. “Okay, I’ll leave at four today and show up here at six?” He’d have to leave an hour early to get home, shower, change clothes and look presentable.

  “Great. But don’t dress up. We all show up in jeans.” She grinned. “It’s a ranching family, Joe. Not a social event.”

  Smiling a little, Joe nodded. Katie had sat down at her desk to do some paperwork when the phone rang. Instantly, he noticed her tense. It had been nearly a week since she had called her mother. His heart twinged as she paled. Every time the phone rang he knew Katie was hoping it was Janet. She had said she would call back, but he had his doubts.

  “Katie here.”

  “It’s Janet Bergstrom.”

  Instantly, Katie’s heart slammed into her throat. For a moment, she couldn’t respond. The woman’s voice was gravelly, like that of a smoker. Fingers gripping the phone more surely, Katie said, “Yes...thank you for calling back. H-how are you?” She closed her eyes, trying to steel herself against what her mother might say.

  “Listen, I’m coming over to Jackson Hole next Monday. Can you meet me at Mo’s Ice Cream Parlor at 3:00 p.m. for coffee? We need to talk.”

  The guttural voice tore through Katie. Her fingers instantly turned cold and damp. Hopes soared and she gasped a little. “W-why yes. I can meet you over there.”

  “Good, I’ll see you then.”

  Katie tensed as the phone connection went dead. Stunned, she slowly placed the phone on the receiver.

  “Katie? Are you all right?” Joe approached her after seeing how ashen she’d become. Without thinking, he reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.

  “I—uh...” Katie felt the steadying warmth of Joe’s hand on her shoulder. It grounded her and helped clear away her shock. Turning around, she looked up into his darkened eyes and worried features. “It’s okay, Joe.” Her voice wobbled. “Janet is going to be here on Monday. I’m going to meet her at Mo’s at 3:00 p.m.” She pressed her hands to her face, fighting back tears.

  Joe removed his hand. “Hey,” he said, “that’s great news, Katie.”

  Dragging in a ragged breath, Katie allowed her hands to fall to her sides. Tears remained in her eyes. “I don’t know. She sounded so terse and robotic. As if...as if she wasn’t looking forward to meeting me at all.”

  The forlorn sound in her whispering voice cut through him. He crouched down in front of her, his hand resting on her left upper arm. “Listen, Katie, she’s probably scared, too. And when people are scared and defensive, they can sound tough and threatening.”

  Katie reached out and touched his broad shoulder. “Joe, you really know people’s ways.” Her fingers curved against the material on his shoulder and she felt the muscles beneath leap beneath her grazing touch. Looking deep into his eyes, she said, “You’re probably right. I don’t have what it takes to see her side of things.”

  The intimacy, sudden and unexpected, trickled through him. Katie’s hand on his shoulder made him feel good. Like a man. Her touch was butterfly-light and he yearned to lean up and kiss her parted lips. He couldn’t stand to see a woman or child cry. It always tore him up.

  Squeezing her arm, he said, “You’re not expected to, Katie. This is good news. I think Janet wants to meet you.” He tried logic with her because her blue eyes were confused and dark. Joe could literally feel her terror, her joy. She seemed to waffle between the two emotions. Damn, he wished he could guard her from all of this. The more he discovered about Katie, the more Joe wanted to shield her from the brutal life she’d had. But it wasn’t possible.

  His boss would be elated to know that Janet was meeting Katie. And it would put to rest any assumptions Katie had known her mother before this moment. They had not previously met. Inwardly, Joe breathed a sigh of relief. It meant Katie was not a part of the Los Lobos ring, at least not yet.

  Kate removed her hand from Joe’s shoulder and wiped her eyes free of tears. “You’re right. I—I guess I can’t be objective about this at all. I’ve dreamed so long of this happening, Joe. All my life...”

  Joe stood up, releasing her arm. If he didn’t distance himself soon, he was going to kiss Katie. And right now, her mind and heart were focused on meeting Janet, not on him. Taking a couple of steps back, he said, “It’s a good day for you. Enjoy it. You’ll have a lot to tell Iris and Rudd at dinner tonight....”

  * * *

  “WHY, THAT’S WONDERFUL NEWS!” Iris crowed as the chef brought out the main course of buffalo roast. “This is a dream coming true for you, Katie. You must be walking on air.”

  Katie thanked the chef as the plate was placed before her. There was braised buffalo with small red potatoes and sliced early tomatoes from Iris’s greenhouse. “I don’t know if it’s air or not,” she joked, giving the family a warm look. “Emotionally I feel like a shuttlecock hit back and forth between dizzying joy and abject terror.”

  Kam sat to the right of Katie. She placed her hand on her shoulder. “Katie, before I discovered Iris and Rudd, I was lost like you. I didn’t know Rudd was my father. All I had was my mother who had died in the California earthquake. My adoptive mother, Laura Trayhern, helped me find my family of origin.” Beside Kam, her husband, Wes, watched her with adoration. “I was so afraid, I went undercover when I came to the Elk Horn. I was hoping so badly Rudd was my father and yet cringing in terror that he wasn’t.”

  “Or,” Wes added in a gentle voice, giving his wife another tender glance, “if he were your father, that he wouldn’t accept you as his daughter because you were born out of wedlock.”

  Kam nodded. “That’s right.” She looked deep into Katie’s fearful eyes. “And that’s where you are right now. You’ve found your mother. The bigger question is whether she’ll accept you as her daughter.”

  Katie
whispered, “I’m so glad you understand.”

  Rudd was cutting his meat and looked across the table at Katie. “Don’t forget, Iris took me out of a foster home and adopted me. I was too young to really understand what you and Kam have had to go through.” He gave Iris, who sat to his right, a loving look. “Iris seems to pick up strays.” He grinned as he teased his silver-haired mother.

  “Strays are tough and they’re survivors,” Iris said pertly. She added a bit of gravy to the red potatoes on her plate. “Rudd, I loved you the instant I saw you.” Iris gave Katie a reassuring smile. “I’m sure once your mother sees how beautiful and accomplished you’ve become, Katie, she will fall in love with you all over again.” She patted her adopted son’s arm. “Our hearts are much wider and deeper than we can ever know.”

  Katie ate but she didn’t taste the food. It smelled delicious but her stomach was tense and her emotions flip-flopped between fear and joy. “I really appreciate your stories and support. I need to hear them.”

  After witnessing this show of support, Joe felt like an outsider of sorts. The Mason family was a patchwork quilt of outsiders who had been assimilated and were well-loved. Rudd, who ran the dude ranch, clearly loved Iris as the mother she had become to him. And Kam had found heaven by returning home. Rudd had fully embraced his daughter without hesitation.

  Joe wondered darkly if Janet would be as open and loving. He didn’t think so. And what would that do to Katie? He forced himself to eat the delicious food but his heart was focused upon Katie. Joe knew her mother was a tough drug addict and a survivor in a world that destroyed people in a heartbeat. He feared for Katie.

  “Joe,” Iris said, between bites, “your family’s been here in the valley how many generations?”

  Rousing himself, he said, “Three. I’m the fourth.”

  “And you’ve come home,” Rudd said, pleased.

  He hated lying to these wonderful people. “Yes, I have.”

  “Think you’ll stay?” Wes asked.

  Joe looked around Katie to the cowboy, Kam’s husband, who was the ranch manager. “I’m intending to,” he said.

  Kam held Joe’s gaze. “I find it interesting that so many who leave this town come back sooner or later. I wonder what kind of magic it has that calls the wanderers back home?”

  Joe smiled. “I hadn’t thought of it in that way,” he admitted, then turned his attention to Iris, who was so regal in her lavender dress, her hair twisted up on her head. “What do you think, Miss Iris? What draws us back?”

  “I think it’s these mountains,” Iris said, pointing in the direction of the Tetons that were visible through the large plate-glass window. The sun was setting, the eastern flanks on the Jackson Hole side of the range becoming darker and shadowed. Iris speared a potato. “When you look at the geology of this area, we’re really in a huge caldera of a mega volcano, and the center is located in Yellowstone Park. We’re in a pretty powerful place. I think there’s a call to come back to such energy if you were born here.”

  “It’s the everyday magic,” Kam agreed. She blotted her lips with the dark green linen napkin. “I know when I first arrived here, I’d never seen the Tetons. As I drove in and saw them for the first time, I felt my heart burst open with an incredible joy I couldn’t understand.”

  “It was your blood, your memory,” her father said. “You might not have been born here, but the memory of this place is in your genes.”

  She smiled. “I think you’re right, Dad. And what’s wonderful is every morning when I wake up and see the Tetons out our bedroom window, my heart flies open all over again. It’s the magic of the place. It can’t be explained.”

  Katie sighed. “I was born in Cheyenne, but when I was brought over here and Donna became my foster mother, I fell in love with the Tetons. When I first saw them, I cried. They are so beautiful. Donna took me on many hikes on their slopes in the summer. I just loved it. I think she and those mystical mountain beings gave me my life back.”

  “Or maybe you were at an age and maturity to appreciate Jackson Hole,” Joe wondered. He saw the glimmer in Katie’s eyes, a dreamy look mixed with happiness.

  “I was sixteen and I agree I was finally growing up,” Katie said with a short laugh. “But when I saw those mountains, Joe, something happened to my heart.” She touched the purple T-shirt she wore, her hand pressed against it. “I can’t put it into words. When I saw them, my breath was stolen. I felt as if...as if I were standing before sacredness.”

  “All of nature is sacred,” Iris intoned. She finished the last of her meal and set the plate aside. “And it can inspire that kind of a reaction in a human being.”

  “When I was in Afghanistan, the mountain ranges there reminded me a little of the Tetons,” Joe said. “They were just as rugged, jagged and beautiful.”

  “I’ve heard their mountain ranges are very tall and lovely,” Iris agreed. “Do the Tetons hold you in thrall, too?”

  “I’m too logical for the magic,” Joe said with a slight smile. “Although Katie is certainly showing me it’s possible to live in it.”

  “Katie is part fairy,” Iris informed him archly, her silver brows rising to punctuate her statement. “Fairy people exist here on Earth. They are very otherworldly, like our Katie. And we need their dreams to offset the harshness of life down here.”

  “I’ve never thought of myself in that way.” Katie laughed. She felt heat tunnel into her face. “I always thought I was different because I was born under the sign of Pisces. Is that how you see me, Iris?”

  Iris picked up her coffee and sipped it. “Katie, there’s just something ethereal about you. I can’t put my finger on it, but you remind me of the flowers I pick and make healing essences from. You’ve got an invisible connection to the Other World. How do you explain your abilities with all those raptors? They are supersensitive and very psychic. You can’t work with them if you aren’t like them, can you?” Her eyes sparkled as she held Katie’s gaze.

  Laughing a little because she was embarrassed, Katie said, “I don’t really know.”

  “Donna is the same way,” Iris said with assuredness. “Now, some people think she’s strange, but I don’t. I’ve watched her handle raptors of all kinds over decades and Donna has a touch with them most of us earthlings will never have. You have the same touch, Katie.”

  “I guess I’ve never realized this about myself.”

  “You didn’t have anyone to reflect it or point it out to you, is all. When Donna took you in, she clearly saw your abilities. She knew what you needed to get your life in order.”

  Iris’s smile softened as the chef came through the door. Dressed in a large white apron over tasteful brown slacks and an orange top, the woman began to collect the empty plates.

  “Donna did share with me that those drawn to falconry had special gifts.”

  Chuckling, Iris nodded. “Well, Donna is a nuts-and-bolts kind of gal. I’m the woo-woo specialist here in the valley.”

  Everyone laughed. Joe felt the warmth at the table like an invisible embrace from the family. Happiness thrummed through him. Katie’s face lit up with joy. It was good for her to see how others valued her gifts. In a way, he realized, the Mason family took the place of her missing parents. Maybe cosmic parents like them were better than the parents who had abandoned her.

  “Oh, Iris, you aren’t woo-woo,” Katie said.

  The chef returned with chocolate cake drizzled with caramel sauce and raspberries artfully placed on each plate.

  “Oh, I like being known as the woo-woo queen of the valley.” She chuckled.

  “What is woo-woo?” Joe asked, cutting into the dessert.

  Iris shrugged. “I talk to my flowers. I ask them permission to take a blossom to make my flower essences. Isn’t that woo-woo?”

  Shyly, Katie said, “But I thought everyone
talked to trees, flowers and rocks.”

  Iris grinned. “You and I are the same in that respect.”

  “Iris is teaching me to do it, too,” Kam volunteered.

  “I think women in general,” Rudd said to Joe, “have this sixth sense. We men are a dumb box of rocks when it comes to this more refined stuff.”

  “I’m with you there, Rudd,” Joe said with a grin.

  “But Katie’s different,” Iris said, enjoying her dessert. “And Pisces people are supersensitive, vulnerable and wear their hearts on their sleeves. They have to learn how to protect themselves from the hardness of this world around us.”

  “Oh.” Katie laughed. “I do that by hiding with my raptors in the wonderful facility you’ve built for them.”

  “And I was more than happy to do it, Katie. Donna brought up the idea and we thought it was a perfect place for you and the birds.”

  “Donna always said I was sensitive,” Katie agreed, suddenly glum. “I miss her so much but I know she needs to be at home to take care of her mother.”

  “Yes, she does,” Iris agreed. “We all get parent duty sooner or later. It’s part of life.”

  Katie wondered if her mother would want her around when she was older. Would Janet take one look at her and leave the restaurant? Fear ate into her. She fell silent, unsure of what path her life would take in just a few days. Katie sank into a morass of imagining herself being abandoned once more by her hard-talking mother. What would happen at the meeting?

  * * *

  “THAT WAS A NICE DINNER,” Joe told Katie as he walked her to the raptor facility. Before going to bed, Katie always came out to check one last time on her raptors. He walked closely with her. Above them, the night sky was clear, the stars glittering shards of ice strewn across it. The cool temperature made Katie wrap her arms around herself as they walked down the lighted sidewalk between the ranch house and the facility.