The Ranchers: Destiny Bay Romances Boxed Set vol. 1 (Destiny Bay Romances - The Ranchers)

by Helen Conrad

The ranger hitched up his pants and glanced from one questioning face to the other. “Howdy, folks. Where’s your vehicle?”

  He looked like the suspicious type. He sounded like the suspicious type. Jessie licked her dry lips and Michael answered, “Over there,” pointing to where he’d parked the car out of sight of the road. From where the ranger was standing, the license plate was clearly visible. Jessie looked at it nervously, then tried to read the ranger’s face. Would he run a check on the car?

  The ranger walked over slowly and examined the car. Jessie’s heart was beating hard, but she tried consciously to relax so that he wouldn’t wonder about the tension. The ranger’s steely eyes glinted as he turned around. She held her breath.

  Finally he spoke. “You planning to stay all night?”

  Jessie shook her head vigorously. “Uh, no. We’re just having a quick picnic. We’re on our way—“

  “To the Grand Canyon,” Michael finished for her quickly.

  The ranger nodded. “We’ve got a camping fee here, you know. If you all want to camp...”

  “No, no, but we’ll pay it for the picnic if you like.” He reached for his wallet. “How much is it?”

  The ranger watched with interest as he pulled out his wallet, but he turned down the money. “Oh, no, that won’t be necessary. Just as long as you all remember to vacate so that someone else can camp here.”

  Jessie hardly dared to hope. He didn’t seem to know who they were or suspect anything.

  “Sure. Certainly, Officer.”

  The man nodded, but he still didn’t leave. Instead he wandered over to Jimmy. Jessie tensed. What if he started asking a lot of questions?

  “Hey, kid, how you doin’?”

  Jimmy looked up but didn’t answer.

  “You belong to these people here?”

  Jimmy’s face was impassive, his gaze going from Jessie to Michael and back again. Jessie stepped forward, holding her hands tightly together and hoping the ranger couldn’t see how they were shaking. “That’s Jimmy. He’s ours. Say hello to the ranger, Jimmy.”

  The ranger turned with a frown. “He’s yours?” he asked skeptically, obviously noting the boy’s Mexican ancestry.

  Jessie glanced apologetically at Jimmy and prayed he wouldn’t mind her lying. “Adopted,” she said breathlessly. “We adopted him.”

  “Oh.”

  The ranger gave her a long look. She waited, trying to smile.

  The silence seemed to last forever. Finally the ranger turned and started back to his car. “You all have a nice vacation,” he called as he opened the door. “Bye now.”

  Jessie held her breath until the car was out of sight, then she turned to Michael and met his laughing eyes. “Let’s get out of here,” they both said in unison, and they did, packing the remnants of their food up quickly and heading back out on the road.

  “Jimmy,” Jessie said, turning to look into his dark eyes. “I’m sorry I had to lie about you. Telling that ranger that we adopted you.”

  He stared into her eyes, his own unreadable. “I don’t mind,” he said softly. “You can tell anybody you want.”

  She smiled her thanks. They didn’t stop for hamburgers until they were well away from the campground, and then Jessie drove for a few hours to give Michael a chance to sleep. They traded off again as the road got lonelier. It seemed like hours since they’d seen another car. It was late and it was dark and the road began to wind up into the mountains in a way that set her on the edge of her seat. She’d forgotten how scary it could be at night. She began to crane her neck and stare into the shadows, wondering if they had taken the right road.

  And finally, they were there. She cried out. “There! I see the gates.”

  Michael frowned. “No lights,” he said.

  “Of course not. No one actually lives here. We’ll be fine.”

  They turned on the driveway after Jessie jumped out and opened the gate and then the ranch house was in their headlights. They piled out and Jessie found the key under the usual rock. Inside smelled musty, but they lit a lantern and found canned food and a working stove.

  “What more could we ask for?” Michael said sardonically.

  But Jessie grinned and waved a can of chili in the air. “I’ll heat some of this up. We need some sleep and then, in the morning, we can take off for my uncle’s.”

  They ate the chili and talked and laughed for another hour. It was eerie working in lamplight, but the beds were clean and there were enough of them to go around. They were so tired, they tumbled into them and fell asleep right away. It must have been about midnight when the trailers began to arrive.

  “What the hell?” Michael jerked up and shook his head. “Hey Jessie. What the hell is going on here?”

  She got up, groggy but willing. “I don’t know. It looks like…”

  She squinted and stared out the window. Three horse trailers had pulled up and a number of men seemed to be letting horses out into the pasture.

  “I’ll go out and see what’s up,” she said, hitching up her jeans and getting herself together—wishing she was back in bed and sound asleep.

  Michael let her go. After all, this was her cousin’s place. She was the one who ought to greet the newcomers. Still, he got up and followed in the shadows, just in case.

  “Hey,” she called out as they neared the trailers. “Who’s here?”

  A man stepped out and stared at her. “It’s Joe Carrington here,” he told her. “Who are you?”

  She got into the lights from the trailers so he could see her. “Jessie. Remember me?”

  “Jessie Carrington?”

  “That’s me.” She smiled at him. “I’m with a couple of friends. We just need a place to sleep for the night. Just passing through.”

  “Hey, it’s my cousin,” he told the other men, then came forward and gave her a hug. “Jessie. How’s your dad?”

  “Great.”

  “Still working that truck stop of his?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Joe shook his head, smiling at her. “It’s really good to see you. It’s been years.”

  “Yeah. Many of them.” She gestured toward the horses that were being let out into the pasture land. “What’s going on?”

  “Uh…” Joe looked at her, then looked away. “We’re bringing in some stock. You know. Just taking advantage of the good grazing up here and all….”

  Jessie looked at him with her usual frank face. “Looks like wild mustangs to me,” she noted. “Do the feds approve of this?”

  Joe grimaced and looked away. “Listen, Jessie….”

  “You setting up a sanctuary?”

  He looked at her sideways. “Maybe I am. Maybe not.” His face hardened. “Listen, Jessie. I want horses to be free. Or at least, safe from harm. You got anything against that?”

  “Of course not.” She looked at the horses. They were beautiful and her heart swelled. Emotionally, she was a hundred percent behind such things. But in the real world, was he allowed to do this? She was afraid she knew the answer to that. “But you’re hiding them from the feds, aren’t you?”

  Joe looked down and kicked at the ground. “Yes, I am. I can’t stand to see horses like these beauties sent to slaughter houses. So I’m doing what I can.” He stared at her. “You going to turn me in, Cousin Jessie?”

  Slowly, she shook her head. “No. I’m not going to turn you in. I don’t know the details. Maybe I would be supporting you, maybe not. But since I don’t have inside info, I’m agnostic on the issue. I trust you’re doing what’s best for horses from your area. Period.”

  He took a deep breath and smiled at her. “Thank you for that.”

  She nodded and reached out to give him another hug. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go back to bed. We’ve got a long drive in the morning. I need some sleep.”

  Joe nodded. “Don’t mind us. We’re heading on back home ourselves. This is just a turnaround for us.” He gestured toward another man who doffed his hat at Jessi
e. “That’s my good friend, Rudy Santiago,” he said as an introduction. “We’re working on setting up an official refuge, but we’re getting so much red tape thrown at us by the feds.” He shook his head, obviously frustrated. “We felt we had to do something.” He pointed at two others. “We’re leaving two wranglers behind to take care of things here, but they won’t bother you. They can stay in the camper for tonight.” He looked at her, his glance warm with affection. “Sleep tight, cousin. And say ‘hi’ to Harley for me.”

  They went back to bed and slept as though they’d been turned to stone, not even waking when the horse trailers started off back down the mountain. Then they got up and had cold cereal for breakfast, piled into the car, and headed for Nevada. All that time they didn’t see the horses or the men who’d been left behind to care for them, but they were sure they were there. Just staying out of sight for now.

  “What do you think about that?” Michael asked Jessie. “Do you think your cousin is doing the right thing? Or does he deserve to be caught and prosecuted?”

  She shook her head. “Joe’s a good guy. I’m going to trust him on this one.”

  Michael nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. I’d actually like to sit down with him and hear his side of things before I pass judgment. Maybe…” He hesitated. “Maybe some day.” He looked around at the beautiful green valley. “I wouldn’t mind having a home in a place like this,” he murmured, not really talking to anyone but himself.

  She glanced at him sideways, knowing he wouldn’t know the first thing about living on a ranch. “Dream on,” she told him softly. “In the meantime, let’s start looking for someplace we can get a real breakfast.”

  They ate in a small town and then went back to driving. Driving, driving—it seemed to go on without mercy. They were coming down out of the mountains. A lightning storm on a distant mesa caught her attention. The desert seemed to stretch forever before them, the distant mountains rising like gaunt islands in a sea of coral sand. Now and then they passed through a lonely, dusty desert town.

  This part of the state was miles away from the luxury condominiums, the high rises and glass buildings of the big cities. Jessie glanced at the town they were passing through now, a typical one, with a few scattered frame houses, a cluster of silver trailers, a horse, a couple of bedraggled yellow dogs, one looking almost wild enough to be a coyote. The little gas station had a big neon sign with the G missing from the word gas.

  Last food or gas for 90 miles, said the sign outside of town. Michael stepped on the accelerator and Jessie looked out at the black shadows the clouds were making on the warm desert floor.

  “The shadows are racing us,” a little voice behind her said.

  She turned to smile at Jimmy. “Do you ever look out at places like that mesa over there, or those black hills, and think about when the cowboys and Indians used to ride this land?” she asked him.

  A small smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. “Sometimes,” he said.

  “I used to dream about the old days all the time when I was your age and we used to drive through here on our way to my uncle’s ranch in Nevada. Even now—“ she grinned at him “—even now I can close my eyes and see cowboys on the ridge, searching for a stray, or Apache warriors on pintos with their black hair flying behind them.”

  He assessed her curiously. “Are you part Indian?” he asked.

  Her eyes widened. “No. What gave you that idea?”

  He shrugged and looked embarrassed.

  “I can see why he asked,” Michael said, breaking his silence, which had lasted for miles. “Those braids, your dark eyes, the jewelry you wear.”

  “What, this?” She held up her arm with the silver-and-turquoise bracelet, and Jimmy nodded. Quickly she slipped it off and handed it to him to study more closely.

  “An old Navaho woman gave it to me years ago when I did her a favor. I’ve worn it every day ever since. It’s part of me now.”

  “It’s neat.”

  She nodded. “I have a lot of respect for the Indians who roamed the Southwest in the old days. They really knew how to cope with the land, how to adapt their lives and use what nature provided them. It’s sad to think it can never be like that again. That way of life is going fast.”

  Jimmy looked at her with dark, limitless eyes. “Everything changes,” he said calmly. “Nothing stays the same. Not for anybody.”

  A chill ran through her at the sound of his voice. So young to be so wise—or was it cynical? Something had hurt this boy, hurt him badly. Jessie had never known she had a mothering instinct. Suddenly she wanted to take the boy in her arms and promise him everything would be all right.

  “Where’s your uncle’s ranch?” Jimmy asked, still examining the bracelet. “Did you have horses there?”

  “I have horses on my own ranch, south of Tucson,” she told him. “My uncle doesn’t have as many horses. He grows things, instead. He owns the Three Bar Cross just outside of Talcum. You know where that is?”

  Jimmy nodded slowly, his eyes bright. “Maybe I’ll come out and visit you someday,” he said.

  The thought touched Jessie’s heart. She laughed. “Oh, honey, we won’t be there but for the night. Then we’ll be gone.” The smile faded from her eyes. Never to see the boy again.

  She shook her head, getting rid of ridiculous notions. So what? She’d only known the kid a few hours. He was just a kid, like any other.

  She glanced at Michael. He looked so right in that business suit he was still wearing. So alien to her world. Turning, he met her gaze, and something flashed between them like a bolt of lightning, making her bite down on her lip..

  She’d always measured masculinity by how hard a man could ride, how tough he was, how well he could work a horse. Michael had probably never been on a horse in his life. He worked with his brain for a living, not his hands. And yet there was something about him that affected her senses. He was the sexiest damn thing she’d ever seen.

  “What do you do for a living?” she asked him abruptly. “Are you a lawyer or something like that?”

  “Not a lawyer,” he told her with a quick smile. “A stockbroker of sorts. I’ve got an MBA from Harvard Business School and I’ve worked as a financial director of various enterprises, mostly in New York, until a few years ago, when my father needed me to come back to San Francisco and help out his firm. He was a stockbroker for years.” He shifted in his seat. “Then I worked for Matthews Aviation. Vice president of financial planning.” He glanced at her. “Boring stuff, isn’t it?”

  She had to agree. “It sure sounds like it. Did you really sit in an office all day?”

  He laughed. “Sometimes. Sometimes all night, too.”

  It sounded like a particularly nasty version of hell to Jessie. She couldn’t help but wonder how a man who spent all his time in a musty office ever learned to kiss the way he had. The memory made her cheeks hot again, so she wiped it from her mind.

  Time was passing all too quickly, and soon they arrived at the outskirts of the town that sat near the entrance to Lake Mead. The sun had disappeared behind the mountains and dusk was falling, filling the land with elongated shadows and making stark patterns on the sand.

  Jessie felt a melancholy twinge. “You’ll have to tell us where to drop you off, where your mother is.”

  “There,” he said right away, pointing out a roadside Mexican cafe.

  “Here?” Jessie was dubious as Michael slowed the car and stopped. She opened the door and looked around. The place appeared deserted, but suddenly a small gang of ragged children came running from behind the shack. One of them spotted Jimmy.

  “Hey, guys!” he cried. “It’s Jimmy!”

  Jimmy was out of the car before Jessie had a chance to pull up the seat, dragging his bag behind him. “Thanks a lot,” he said, avoiding her gaze. She started to reach for him, but he began to edge away. Tears prickled her eyelids and she smiled, but before she had a chance to say goodbye, he was off, running with the boys.
/>
  “Wait,” she called after him.

  “Hey.” Michael put a hand on her shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Don’t you think I ought to talk to his mother or something?”

  “Don’t be crazy. Any mother who would let a kid run around the state on his own isn’t interested in hearing a lecture from you. Come on. We’ve got places to go. People to see.”

  She looked back sadly as the Mustang slid out of town and past the sign that said Welcome to Nevada, the Silver State. Michael stole a glance at her, surprised that the crusty tomboy he’d hooked up with had such a soft spot for a ragged kid from nowhere.

  “Okay,” he said matter-of-factly, hoping to take her mind off Jimmy. “Give me the lowdown on this uncle of yours. I want to be prepared for all possibilities.”

  Jessie turned back to face Michael with a sigh. “I haven’t seen Fred in over ten years. That was when my father and he stopped speaking.”

  “What happened?”

  “I never really knew for sure. Something about money. It was kind of sad, because I really liked my uncle. But I never could stand his daughters. They were girl cousins, if you know what I mean. We had to come up here every Christmas when I was a kid. Sheri and Cerise and Mandy were all the type to wear red velvet dresses and curl their hair and I was the type to wear my jeans underneath my Christmas skirt just in case I got a chance to get outside and ride a horse.”

  His grin was crooked. “I can just imagine you in that scene. The cousins offering strawberries and cream, you asking for grits.”

  She didn’t want him getting too cocky. “I don’t like grits.”

  “Chili, then.”

  She turned back toward the landscape, memories floating into her mind. Funny how those old days were so remote one minute, so much a part of her the next. “Aunt Florence was his wife. She died about twelve years ago. She was always saying things like ‘Now, Jessica, look at the way Cerise is sitting with her ankles neatly crossed. Can’t you at least try to sit that way?’ As we got older they started having a Christmas dance for the ‘young folks.’ Real teenage boys came over. My cousins would wear slinky things, with slippers on their feet and ribbons in their hair, and I’d be stuck in some clunky dress two sizes too big and cowboy boots because that was just about all I had, and they would dance and dance and I would wait until no one was looking and sneak out and feed the horses.”