Peace River (Rockland Ranch Series)

by Jaclyn Hawkes

  She went around behind him and started to massage his head. Moving in small circles she rubbed away the tension. Her smooth, warm hands felt like heaven. He leaned his head forward and she slowly worked her way down his neck and carefully rubbed his shoulders around his collarbone brace, focusing on pressure points.

  After several minutes, she asked, “Do you feel like eating?” He didn’t feel like doing anything but sitting here with her hands on his skin, but he didn’t think he should tell her that.

  Instead, he said, “In a minute. I’m a little busy right now.”

  They ate on the deck with Hank and Ruby as the sun set, and then went downstairs to watch a movie while Hank and Ruby went to visit their daughter. He stretched out on a double recliner and she curled up next to him. The movie was good, but he couldn’t focus on it for anything. She was warm and soft beside him, and her perfume was clouding his brain. He pulled her against him with his good arm and her breath on his bare skin was intoxicating. He finally quit even pretending to watch, and turned on his side to begin kissing her neck in the hollow at the base of her ear. He looked into her eyes and saw the same things he was feeling. Slowly he lowered his head to her mouth. For a moment or two he basked in the sweet passion of her kiss.

  Reluctantly, he pulled back with a groan that had nothing to do with his injuries and said, “Help me up, Is. I should go upstairs. Now.” His voice was almost a little harsh, and he could see the uncertainty in her eyes.

  Standing, he held her to him and kissed her again gently and admitted, “I’m a mere mortal, Isabel. You are far too tempting.” Their eyes held and then he turned and walked up the stairs.

  He was on the deck, looking at the night sky, letting the canyon breeze cool his body and mind, when he heard her go to her room and close the door. He was twenty-seven years old for Pete’s sake. He’d thought he was past this.

  The next morning when he walked into the kitchen from the garage he had a shirt on, buttoned part way up. She turned to him from the orange juice she was stirring. He could see in her eyes she was still a little uncertain of him, and he pulled her to him in a gentle hug and gave her a long kiss good morning, and then said, “We either have to get married like tomorrow, or spend a lot more time with Hank and Ruby.” He stated it absolutely matter-of-factly and she looked up at him with wide eyes.

  At length, she dropped her head to his chest and softly said, “You know I can’t marry you until I get this Judd mess handled.”

  He rubbed across her back once more, then pulled back from her and started to set the table. “I knew that’s what you’d say, so I already asked Hank and Ruby to move into the room at the end of the hall. They’ll be in to eat with us in a few minutes, but said not to wait.”

  She nodded hesitantly. “Oh, good.”

  He smiled. “Oh, good that we don’t have to wait to eat? Or that they’ll be living right here in the house with us?”

  Looking thoroughly self-conscious, she admitted, “That they’ll be living here.”

  He chuckled at her obvious relief, and pulled her chair out to seat her and said calmly, “Waiting until the Judd thing is settled is a stupid argument, by the way. Wouldn’t marriage solve the Judd problem? And aren’t I already in this up to my neck? Or at least my heart?” He put a hand on her shoulder and she reached up to cover it with hers.

  Softly, she asked, “Would it solve the problem, or put a big bull’s eye on your head?”

  He sat across from her and asked her to pray over their breakfast. When she finished he continued, “Couldn’t you do something legally with your holdings to get him off your back? Put everything into a trust or something that has to have both yours and Eli’s okay on every decision and put in a provision about if something happened to incapacitate either one or both of you, another designated trustee would step in. If you had a long enough list of people who would take over to make certain he could never have control, wouldn’t Judd give up this wild goose chase? This is crazy.”

  She poured blackberry syrup over her waffle. “That’s the whole problem. Judd is crazy. He’s totally unstable. He would have to be to have tried to do any of this anyway. If you could reason with insanity, this would have been over at the time of my grandfather’s death.”

  She was quiet for a few minutes and then said, “That is a really good idea. I wonder how it could all be worked out, and how could word be gotten to Judd and Deek about legal changes in my estate? Last week when I got an email from Dante, the police were still trying to find them.” She ate another bite and swallowed.

  “Dante thinks they come back to the house sometimes in the night. Apparently someone is staying there. Said they rented it from Judd, but won’t tell the police where he is, just showed them a rental contract that states he’ll come by and pick up the rent.

  “Dante says they’re every bit as questionable as the others. He thinks they’re there to watch for any sign of me.” They ate in silence for a few minutes.

  At length Slade asked, “Couldn’t you leave a legal letter with the tenants? If you sent something to his last known mailing address and his house and to the private investigator he first hired, I’d think he’d get the message.”

  She put down her orange juice. “How would we know for sure that he’ll leave me and Ebony alone? And how would we know what the others, the bookie and his men, have in mind?”

  They’d finished eating and pushed their plates back. He hesitated, considering. Finally, he said, “I don’t know if you’d really know for sure. Probably just time. I don’t know how you’d see if he would leave you alone without going home and putting yourself at possible risk.” He looked across the table at her.

  She shook her head. “I have no intention of going home. It doesn’t even feel like home anymore.” She got up to clear the table, and he followed her to the dishwasher with his plate.

  After loading it in, he pulled her to him and said, “Good, because I need you in Wyoming.”

  Several minutes later she stepped reluctantly away from him. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair as she went back to clearing the breakfast, and he leaned against the counter to watch her work. Finally she turned to him with a sheepish smile and said, “I’m dying to ask exactly what you told Hank.”

  He grinned. “You don’t even want to know.”

  Hank and Ruby came in just then to eat. Slade knew this was a good idea. He felt strongly about saving intimacy for marriage, and Isabel felt the same, but the physical attraction in this house was a tangible thing. She seemed a little embarrassed as she helped them reheat the waffles, but the older woman just smiled a bashful smile and said, “We were young once too, sis. And it just looks better to have us living right in the house with you. Avoids that darned appearance of evil thing. Your reputations are invaluable, you know. We’re just glad to help.”

  ****

  The next day was Sunday, so they loaded into Naomi’s car and went to pick up some of the Rocklands for church. Isabel had gone to church with them enough now that she was starting to get the hang of how their meetings went. She’d been pleasantly surprised to find that the topic the men studied in their Priesthood meeting correlated with what the women were learning in Relief Society. This made so much sense to her. She believed that men and women had different roles, but it was a wonderful plan to have them learn the same principle at the same time, just from different perspectives. It made for some great discussions afterward that helped to reinforce the principles in her heart.

  She and Slade were taking a class during Sunday School that was more of a gospel basics than the others were studying. She was sure he was in that class to accompany her because he seemed to already know almost everything they discussed. It was the most amazing feeling to finally know that what she was being taught was the correct interpretation of Christ’s word because of His prophet on the earth. The more she learned the more sense it made.

  She sometimes couldn’t understand why Slade had waited so long to become a memb
er of something that felt so good and so right. It was hard to imagine the man she knew to be hesitant about anything, especially not something so important.

  The taking of the sacrament had come to mean a great deal to her. Naomi had first taught her that this was the most sacred part of their meetings, and the idea of taking upon herself the name of Christ was both wonderful and intimidating to her at the same time. She wanted to be numbered among Christ’s true followers and was so looking forward to being baptized, but sometimes she worried she wasn’t good enough.

  She tried to explain that to Slade on the way home from the Rockland’s. She pulled into his garage and shut off the car as he turned to look at her and said, “Isabel, I don’t mean to downplay how you feel, but I have to tell you, I’m not worried that you’re not good enough to become a member. You’re the best person I know. I’m just hoping to be able to keep up with you. Have you ever thought about how you’ve lived most of these principles before you were formally taught them and knew them to be God’s plan?”

  He reached across and took her hand and said honestly, “From the first moment I’ve known you, you’ve always tried to do what you think is best, often with someone else in mind. You’re right up there with Rossen, and you know how I feel about him. C’mon, honey, Jesus doesn’t want perfection yet. He just wants your heart. Well, and your hands too. He’s kind of big on being actively engaged in good works, but mostly He just wants your heart.” Slade smiled. “Same as me.” He hugged her as she climbed out of the truck and she fairly basked in the encouraging things he’d said about her.

  She had found a book on wildflowers on Slade’s book shelf, and set out the next afternoon with buckets and a shovel to find some of the varieties he’d told her grew abundantly around the hills. She had one of the front beds prepared and ready to go.

  By nightfall she'd transplanted fifteen bunches of Columbines, Indian Paintbrush, Wild Geranium, Asters and some other low-growing purple flower she hadn’t found in the book. Maybe she could find some more varieties in a nursery the next time she went into town.

  Ruby and Isabel worked out a deal to take turns cooking and on the other household chores, but Isabel still had far too much time on her hands.

  Slade had Ruger bring her a new horse to ride. It was a young race filly that was broke but needed more riding, so she spent an hour or so with it every morning after breakfast. She had it going well under a western saddle in the arena, so she switched to a jockey saddle and started taking it on an improvised race course around the pasture west of the house.

  While working it the third day on the course, a bird flew up and the filly shied violently. Isabel went out of her stirrups and over the horse’s shoulder in a somersault and landed unceremoniously on her backside in the grass. Catching up the filly, she led her to the nearby fence, and after several attempts to get her to stand still long enough, she climbed back aboard and continued her ride. She had no idea Slade and Hank were watching until Ruby asked her that night at dinner if she’d been hurt in the fall.

  “You saw that?” She was a little embarrassed.

  Ruby waved a hand. “No, I missed the whole thing. It was these two saw it.”

  Then Isabel was really embarrassed. She shook her head and said, “No, I wasn’t hurt. Just my pride, and it wasn’t hurt until now because I thought I was the only one except the horse who knew about it.”

  Hank commented, “No need to be embarrassed. You’re a right good little rider. I can’t imagine how you ride with that crazy little saddle anyhow.”

  Slade only smiled as he passed the creamed peas and said, “Watching you ride with that insane little saddle has become my new favorite spectator sport. I can’t even imagine being able to handle a spunky horse with only that thing.”

  The next day she talked Slade and Hank into letting her halter-break the foals she had been watching with their mothers in the pasture closest to the house. She dug through Slade’s tack room for a foal halter and a long soft cotton lead, then went out with her leather gloves and a bucket of grain. Catching the broodmares two at a time she brought them and their babies into the arena.

  Some of the babies would walk right up to her to be caught, but with some of them she had to crouch down nearby until they were curious enough to come close. Once she caught them around the neck, she slowly talked to them and scratched them before she slipped the halter over their heads and clipped the buckle. The ones that walked right up to her usually stood still as she did this and the others would raise a ruckus.

  In California she’d halter-broken the foals at just a few days old and they were much smaller and easier to control.

  After talking to them some more, and brushing them as they stood in the halter, she slipped the soft cotton rope over the foal’s back and around its hind end and back up under its chin. Then she’d turn and face away and make a clicking sound as she gently pulled its head and rump forward at the same time. After a few pulls most of the babies would figure out what she wanted and start to walk forward when she clicked, before she even had to pull on the lead. A couple of them took a little more work than the others.

  She worked with each baby going forward, and then taught it to back up by standing in front of it and saying, “back” and pushing on its nose and chest at the same time. She spent only ten or fifteen minutes at a time with each foal. After the lead lesson, she would carefully pick up each hoof and handle it for a moment, then gently set it back down and go to the next one, all the while talking to the little horse.

  Some of them had no problem with this, but some of them didn’t want her anywhere near their feet. Either way, she just kept quietly trying, talking and scratching and stroking all the while.

  Before she turned the babies loose she fed them a handful or two of grain and crouched down again with her head close to the foal’s.

  ****.

  Slade had been watching from the deck and presently Hank came to stand beside him and said, “She looks like she knows what she’s doin’, I’d say.

  Slade nodded his head. “She’s gonna be sore though. That stout little bay stud colt just turned and nailed her right in the thigh.”

  “I noticed she had to tie his momma up. That’s the rankest mare on the place. Baby acts just like her.” Hank sounded disgusted, and Slade laughed.

  “I’d sell her, but those muscley colts of hers sell every time.”

  Isabel worked with eight mares and foals before coming in to start dinner. Slade was right. She limped all the way in.

  ****

  That evening she called her attorney about setting up the trust as Slade had suggested.

  She’d been reading her Book of Mormon every evening before bed, and Slade answered questions she had. For not being an actual member yet, he usually knew the answers.

  Everyday but Sundays she swam in the mornings before she made breakfast. It had become her ritual of renewal the way her race with the dawn had been. In the steamy pool room by herself in the quiet, she swam and pondered and prayed and was then ready to face the day.

  In the afternoons she’d begun to take long walks around the ranch in the hills.

  She finished planting the flower beds, and worked with the babies, but within two weeks they were all broke to lead and she was again in need of a project.

  Slade spent time everyday in his office, and she worked with him there, off and on, arranging Rossen’s and Sean’s rodeo schedule, but she was still at a loose end for something else to do. Never much of a TV watcher, she worried she’d drive him crazy just hanging out. She spent three days fixing worn spots in the pasture fence, and then went into town for paint and learned to faux finish in the upstairs bedrooms where the paint had been just a stark white. Slade struggled up the stairs to see what she was doing and laughed at the paint in her hair.

  She brought a flat of raspberries home from the market one day and she and Ruby made freezer jam, something she’d never done before. It was a great feeling when she loaded all those l
ittle red containers into the freezer.

  Slade was up and around more and more. He was able to finally take the brace off. He still couldn’t lift anything heavier than 15 pounds or ride, but he started to work out on the elliptical trainer and swim laps in the afternoon while she lay on the deck with a book. She seldom read when he was there, but watching him exercise was incredible.

  Lately, he’d begun to accompany her on her walk. Sometimes they would even drive to somewhere new to her on the ranch and start walking from there.

  Hiking through these glorious hills holding his hand had become the highlight of her day. She had never spent time in the mountains like this. They seemed worlds away from the hustle and bustle of California and its crowds. Even life on the rural horse farm seemed hectic compared to this.

  This man exactly matched these mountains. He was rugged and tough, sometimes tranquil, always beautiful, always standing strong and immoveable.

  Once they barely made it back to the truck before a wild lightning storm crashed down the canyon. They hurried through the first blown drops of rain, and then sat together in the truck, marveling at the grandeur and later listening to the rain on the roof.

  Another time they took a picnic to the river and sat near a series of short falls that made the water white and emerald green. She was leaning against a tree watching the falls when Slade came to her and kissed her. It was a good day.

  ****

  On Labor Day, during the first week of September, Slade told her in the morning he had a surprise for her. He loaded her in his truck and they set off down the gravel road. It was the first time he had driven off the ranch since his accident, and Isabel was grateful that everyday he was stronger.