Peace River (Rockland Ranch Series)

by Jaclyn Hawkes

  “I quit taking anything.”

  “You’re taking nothing at all? Not even Ibuprofen?”

  His eyes were closed. “Nothing.”

  “Nothing isn’t working very well, is it?”

  “No, but your hands are.” He paused, seeming to enjoy her touch, then continued, “Do you want to know something funny? One day Rossen and I were joking about how we needed someone to cook for us, organize us, run errands for us, and was a masseuse too. We thought it was a fantasy too good to be true.” He pulled her hand down to his lips and kissed her palm. “Two days later we met you.”

  Smiling, she answered, “And now look what kind of shape you’re in.” She gently turned his head to work on the other side.

  “Only because I didn’t listen to you.” He closed his eyes and continued, “Rossen thought we needed a large Swedish woman with sweet rolls on her head.”

  She leaned around to look at his face. “Sweet rolls on her head?” She laughed.

  “Like Princess Leia. Didn’t you see that Pink Panther movie with Helga, the masseuse, that Clouseau stuck the vacuum on, just before he sucked up the parrot?”

  She laughed again. “I must have missed that one.”

  “You should see it. It’s very funny.” After a moment he qualified that. “You’re not like Helga at all, by the way.” He shifted still trying to get comfortable.

  “What else still hurts?”

  “The tape on my collar bone is driving me nuts and keeps catching on the seam of my shirt. And I feel like I’m in a straightjacket in this brace.”

  “Take your shirt off.” He opened his eyes to look up at her. “Come on, the doctor is going to take the tape off tomorrow anyway. We’ll loosen it where it’s pulling and you can go shirtless. Or at least leave it unbuttoned. Hank and Ruby won’t mind.”

  “I take it you won’t mind either.”

  She laughed softly and shook her head. “No. I definitely won’t mind.”

  He smiled tiredly as she helped him off with his shirt and carefully peeled back the tape where it was pulling.

  “Better?”

  “Much. Thanks.”

  Squeezing the top of his shoulder, she said, “Okay, my beautifully-sculpted friend, what can I do around here to keep busy? Help me find something to do so I don’t get into mischief.”

  He smiled. “Mischief, huh?” He considered for a moment. “Are we talking scrap-booking here, or finding a cure for cancer?”

  “No scrapbooking, but nothing that requires laboratory chemicals either. Something in between. Something close, so I can help you if you need me, but will keep me from driving you crazy.”

  “Do you like to read? You could cook, play chess, swim. You could . . . ”

  “Swim? You’re kidding me! You have a pool here? This high in the mountains? I would have thought it would be way too cold here for a pool.”

  He struggled out of his chair and held out his hand. “Come with me.” He led off through an archway at the back of the great room and around a corner.

  Through double glass doors she could see a large pool cover. It was indoors!

  “It really is too cold here for an outdoor pool. You’d only be able to use it a few months of the year.”

  The pool house was timber framed the same as the house and barn with huge logs spanning the ceiling above. On the stone deck there was an elliptical trainer and a universal gym with a TV and DVD player on the wall. Several lounge chairs lined up on the edge of the pool and there was a basketball hoop on the other side.

  He walked inside a small room to the side, flipped some switches and the pool cover began to retract. “The main computer can be accessed remotely so they can be up to temperature when I arrive.” At the word “they” she looked around and saw a hot tub outside the pool house on the deck.

  “There’s a shower and dressing room through there.” He indicated a door.

  “This will be great! When your doctor recommended pool therapy, I assumed we’d have to drive into town to the high school or something.”

  “It will be nice to be able to do it here. Honestly, Cooper and his friends use it more than I do, but I enjoy it sometimes. It’s great in here in January when there’s about two feet of snow outside.”

  “I can imagine! Two feet! That’s a lot of snow! How do you feed the cattle?”

  “We keep the snow pushed off near the barns, and use an old Snow Cat to load hay.”

  She looked out a window. “How many barns?” She’d only seen one out there.

  “There are three more around in the hills. Rocklands push all their cows up here in the winter. This valley is more sheltered and we feed together.”

  “Do you have to maintain that whole road in that much snow?” That seemed like a daunting task.

  “Actually, there’s an elk wintering station further up the road, so in winter the fish and game people split it with us.”

  They headed out of the pool house and back to his chair.

  As she fixed a late lunch, she asked him again, “I’ll love using the pool, but isn’t there something you need done? I’d like to do something useful too.”

  She brought him a hot beef sandwich and he smiled and said, “I’d say you’re pretty useful.”

  After lunch as he rested, she explored the rest of the house. There was a home theater and game room in the basement, as well as another bedroom suite, a large storage area and what looked like some type of wine cellar or vault with beautiful backlit glass.

  The theater room actually seemed lived in and there was an impressive movie collection. A throw was tossed over a recliner and there was a bowl with a few unpopped kernels of popcorn still in it on a table. Probably Cooper and his friends again. She took the bowl back upstairs.

  There was a gorgeous office off the front entry and a library on the other side, as well as one more bedroom suite at the end of the hall.

  The upstairs held four more bedroom suites, all of which stood empty with plain walls.

  Back downstairs, as she went past him to go explore outside, she commented, “This place is huge. Why did you build so big?”

  He innocently answered without opening his eyes, “I want seven children.” She gave a small scream and he said, “Just kidding.” She heard him chuckling as she let herself into the garage.

  There were stalls for three vehicles, one of which held a large steel blue truck, a workshop/storage area that held a deep freezer, and some ski gear and fishing poles. Above the garage was the self-contained apartment accessed by a set of stone stairs on the south end that she knew Hank and Ruby lived in, and she found a cement storage room underneath.

  Through the other side of the garage was the barnyard. There was a six stall horse barn with a tack room and an open area in the back. The alleyway between the stalls had barn doors at the front and back and there was an open hay loft above.

  Outside the house there was no formal landscaping. The woods and pastures came right up almost to the house. Between the driveway and the walks were beds of bare dirt.

  It was an incredibly beautiful home and setting that was obviously not much lived in. She made a mental note to make the flower beds loved before she left here in a few weeks.

  Slade was gone from his chair when she went back inside. She found him standing on the deck overlooking the river to the west.

  Coming to stand beside him, they watched the sun go down behind the mountains. Its last rays pushed through the lavender clouds to shine silver on the surface of the water in a glorious display and she gazed almost in wonder.

  Beside her, Slade spoke without turning his head. “It’s the Salt.”

  “I beg your pardon?” She turned to look at his profile in the dusk.

  “It’s not really the Peace River. It’s actually the Smith’s Fork of the Salt River.” He nodded toward the shining current below.

  She leaned back against him and he wrapped his good arm around her as she said, “It’ll always be the Peace River to me.”r />
  Chapter 10

  The next morning in the half light of dawn, she was up and about. She didn’t have a horse here to ride yet so she put on her bathing suit and quietly moved through the house to the pool. In the cool of the early morning the windows of the pool house were fogged and the room was steamy and dim. The only sound was the riffling of the water as she stepped in.

  The warm water was like silk against her skin as she slid in. She turned quietly on her back and spent the next while in slow laps, considering her life and the amazing turn of events of the last few months. The massive logs on the ceiling above her seemed a tangible proof of the power of God and His hand in her existence.

  Before, she’d felt set on a course over which she had little control. She felt she was to continue her life the way it had always gone. For years she’d thought she should “Bloom where you’re planted” and had done her best to do so, and hers had been a good life. In retrospect, she had so many blessings that few had been given. She was grateful for her own struggles over someone else’s, but after the experiences of the last months, she knew her life would never be the same. The thought of going home to the farm just because that’s where she had been raised was out of the question. The pace and the priorities there were things of the past.

  The sweet gift of the gospel, knowing what her Father in Heaven wanted for her, and the blessing Slade had been in her life made her old existence just that, existing. She’d never felt this burgeoning hope and excitement to get started on the future like she did now. So much of life seemed pointless when the bigger picture of Slade and forever and all that entailed, as far as marriage, family, and eternity came into view.

  She had always assumed she would someday settle down and be married. But it had always been “out there” somewhere, a long time away, with a faceless being who had no particularly outstanding characteristics. Having now been around Slade, her thoughts of a husband would never again be ordinary.

  She’d never known someone, other than Rossen maybe, who was as rock solid as Slade was as a person. The scripture she’d read in the Book of Mormon last night fit him exactly. It began, “Therefore, I would that ye be steadfast and immoveable, always abounding in good works”.

  That was him, steadfast and immoveable, and abounding in good works. He was so steady and level headed. In all the time she’d known him, even living so closely in the trailer and traveling, she’d never seen him really get upset. The angriest she’d ever seen him was that day with Leland Wilde. To her, with the experiences she’d had in her life with anger, that was the most reassuring feeling she could know.

  It wasn’t just that he was mellow. He was always so in control. His natural competence and confidence was a foundation she’d known she could rely on from their first meeting with Anna. He knew he could handle whatever he needed to, no matter what came along, and the people around him picked right up on that. It was eminently satisfying to work and walk beside him, knowing that together they were capable of whatever they put their minds to.

  Even the day-to-day grind of a life’s work was no big deal to him. The horse farm, though very valuable, had been a huge daily process involving large numbers of people, with a myriad of aspects to be dealt with every day. Here with Slade, even though many of the responsibilities of animal care and business were the same, it had largely been reduced to an hour or two in the office everyday, and minimal management of a few key people who helped. The emphasis had moved from making a living to living a life. She knew that would change again when he felt better and was more up to hard work, but she still knew that what he chose to do would not become a big deal. She was honored and grateful he had included her along for the ride this far.

  As she swam she thought about their friendship and relationship, where they were and where they were headed. He had talked a couple of times in a round about way concerning marriage, and true to his personality it had been a comfortable topic from the start. Their reciprocated trust had been uncanny. She was unsure of exactly where they stood as far as the future, and Judd, the rodeo and commitment and all of it, but the peace that had indeed come to her with this man left her with a complete inner calm that it would all work out.

  The only thing that troubled her from time to time was the unbelievable physical attraction she felt toward him. Never in her life had a man affected her this way, and there had been times it almost scared her. Although, even in that, he had always handled those feelings in such a way that they’d been able to enjoy their attraction, and look forward to the future with respect for each other. She smiled as she floated. His kiss had become her new best thing.

  Thinking of him now, here in the silky, warm water had her keyed up. She turned over and swam laps to get his lips off her mind before she had to face him at breakfast.

  When he walked into the kitchen a short while later, wearing only jeans and his brace, with his hair still damp from the shower, she wondered how in the world she had imagined she could control her thoughts about him when she’d been thinking in the pool. Even injured he was incredible, and she had a hard time not staring. He came to her and his soft spoken, “Good morning,” and long kiss made her completely forget what she was doing. He looked into her eyes, laughed that low, warm laugh and took her pancake turner to rescue the hot cakes and said, "I invited Hank and Ruby to eat with us, but they ate early."

  It took all of her concentration to focus on breakfast and what he was asking as he said, “So what are you going to do today?”

  She pulled her thoughts away from the muscles of his shoulders and tried to remember what she’d planned. “I’m going to load you in the car and take you to the doctor, where he’s going to rip off your surgical tape and take your stitches out. Then I am going to explore the booming metropolis of Evanston, Wyoming, where I'll buy a new dress and matching shoes for church Sunday. And then, if you’re up to all this, you’re going to take me to lunch at some folksy little place. When we come home, I’m going to dig in the dirt of your front flower bed.” She smiled up at him. “Any more questions?”

  He considered this for a moment. “Do we have to drive the car?”

  For a second she was confused. “You want to walk all the way to Evanston? I thought it was like sixty miles.” She looked at him incredulously. “Wait, you’re not telling me you have a helicopter?” After this house, she wouldn’t be surprised.

  He laughed and groaned. “No, but that’s a great idea. I just want to take the truck. I feel like such a sissy in the car.” Isabel looked him over. Sissy? Not in a million years.

  He was watching her eyes, gave a hint of a smile and she was sure he knew exactly what she was thinking.

  Trying to focus on the conversation, she said, “We can drive whatever you want, but the car might be a smoother ride.”

  Still with that smile, he said, “I’d rather take the truck. Why do you want to dig in the dirt?” Him sitting across from her at the breakfast table had slowed her brain and it took her a moment to change subjects.

  “That flower bed in front just seems a little forlorn. Even if it’s only for a couple of weeks, I’m going to give it some attention. Do you have any favorite flowers?”

  At that, he looked away for a second and she wondered if she’d offended him. After a moment, he said, “I’ve thought about someday putting wildflowers in there. I’ve had a sprinkling system installed, but I’ve never been here much to maintain a yard.” He looked sad as he continued, “Chante loved to garden. She would have loved those beds.”

  She placed her hand over his on the table. “Did she have any favorites?”

  He shook his head, still looking out the window. “No. Just wildflowers.”

  He stood and straightened up carefully, taking his plate to the sink. She could almost see him try to shake off the memories as he changed the subject again. “It may be a trick to find matching shoes in Evanston. Maybe if you went with black or something."

  She drove the truck. It appeared as little used as t
he house, but he did seem more at home in it than the car.

  She shouldn’t have joked about ripping the tape off. It had been hyper industrial strength to keep his shoulder in place and his collarbone aligned, so it was terrible to remove, even with the solvent they used. When they were finished his skin was red and irritated. He wore his shirt, but only buttoned it when they were in public.

  When they left the doctor’s office, he really didn’t look up to much, so they ate Subway in the truck on the way home and skipped the shopping and sightseeing.

  As they drove down the gravel road to his house he sighed and said, “We should have driven the car.”

  ****

  Back home he laid on the couch and fell asleep while she sat on the floor next to him scrolling through the music on his MP3 player. When he awoke, she was sleeping on the floor beside him with her arm under her cheek, and soft country music playing on the sound system around them.

  She was so not what he would have expected from her background, and she was so unlike any other woman he’d known. Every day he thanked God that they had had to have truck repairs that day in California. Hanging his arm over the side of the couch so he could softly touch her silvery-gold hair, he whispered, “I love you, Isabel.” and then went back to sleep.

  When he awoke again, she was nowhere to be seen, but the smell of whatever she was baking filled his home. He was still lying there thinking about her when she came back in wearing an old pair of cut offs. She opened the front door and paused, brushing dirt off her knees, then came on into the kitchen where she washed her hands at the sink and bent to take their dinner out of the oven. Seeing his eyes on her, she came around and watched him struggle to sit upright.

  She put a throw between his bare back and the leather couch and said honestly, “You don’t look so good.”

  That’s not what he’d been thinking about her. Trying to shrug his one shoulder, he said, “I look better than I feel.” He sighed. “I can’t believe it’s taking me this long to get back on my feet. The shoulder and collarbone are okay, but whatever I did inside is still a mess.” He glanced down at his stomach and then laid his head back against the top of the couch. The bandage on his abdomen had been removed and there was just a strip of clear tape over the long red scar that lay neatly between rows of muscles on his belly.