“Did ya catch the bear?” Ryan hollered over the din.
“Not this time, Tiger.” Dad ruffled his hair, then turned to Anne. “Let’s eat. I’m starved.”
Kara followed them to the table and grabbed a chair on the other side of Ryan. Colin sat across the table next to Dad.
After grace, Dad poured syrup over a stack of pancakes and turned to Colin. “I know you want to track that bear, but we’ve got guests coming this afternoon, and we need to be sure everything here is under control first.”
He sipped his coffee, then continued, “The Wilson kids are eight and ten. Neither one of them have ridden before.”
Colin nodded and helped himself to six slices of bacon. “I figured that. I thought we’d put the boy on Star and the girl on that older mare. If we line her up in the middle of the string, she’ll pretty much go along with the rest. And Star couldn’t run off if you lit a fire under him.”
Everyone laughed but Ryan. “Hey. Star’s my horse.”
Kara grabbed his juice glass before he could knock it over. “We talked about that, Ry, remember? Star is yours to ride this summer, but you have to share him with the guests.”
Ryan frowned. “Then why don’t you have to share Lily?”
She wanted to yank his ear. “Lily’s too spirited; you know that. None of the guests could handle her.”
“So? They can too. Kara has to share, Dad. Tell her.”
Dad set his coffee cup on the table and looked from Kara to Ryan. “Sorry, Tiger, your sister’s right. Lily needs an experienced rider, and we need Star for the younger kids. You’ll have plenty of time to ride.”
“Not fair!” Ryan howled and tried to push away from the table. The chair stuck, but his fork and plate went flying.
Kara grabbed his arm. “Ryan!”
“That’s enough, young man.” Dad’s voice stayed level, but she could hear the steel in his tone.
Anne leaned over and retrieved Ryan’s plate from the floor. “Kara will share Lily,” she said quietly.
Ryan stopped struggling. Kara loosened her hold on his arm and turned with everyone else at the table to stare at Anne.
“With me,” Anne continued calmly. “If we are to have fresh trout each Sunday night, I will need Lily to carry me to Otter Lake.”
Her eyes questioned Kara over Ryan’s head, but Kara turned her head away. Her temper flared. How could she? Anne hadn’t even asked to borrow Lily. Wasn’t it enough that she had taken Mom’s place at the lodge? She’d taken over Ryan too. She was so good at everything. Now she wanted Lily.
Kara nearly bolted from the table. Everyone was probably staring, and she was sure to be bawling any minute. But when she lifted her head, she saw the others were bent over their plates, shoveling food. And Dad was watching Anne.
The older woman handed the plate and fork to Ryan. “The broom and dustpan are behind the kitchen door,” she said.
To Kara’s surprise, he obeyed without a word.
Dad said something to Colin, who nodded and shoveled in another mouthful of eggs. Anne didn’t look her way, and Kara pretended to be interested in the men’s conversation.
“Anything else we need to solve right now?” Dad was saying.
Greg shrugged. “Not on my end. Hot Shot here has the horses lined up. I’m out of here tomorrow morning.”
Kara winced at her brother’s sullen tone. She wished he wouldn’t talk to Dad like that, or be so rude to Colin. If it had been anyone else Dad wouldn’t stand for it, but after Mom’s death he’d put up with a lot from Greg and his lousy attitude.
What about your own attitude? Kara ignored her conscience and tried to tune back in to her dad’s voice.
“I appreciate your willingness to take care of things at the ranch. Be sure and radio in if you need anything. Bud Davis said he’d be glad to help with the stock.”
“I can handle it, Dad.”
“I know you can, Son.”
The trust in her dad’s eyes made Kara want to be sick. She knew Greg had been drinking lately. Dad had found beer cans in his truck. How could he trust him alone at the house in Lariat? True, he’d never done anything to harm the stock. But what about himself?
Kara shrugged inwardly. There was nothing she could do about it. There was no way Greg would ever listen to her. Things were never this mixed up when Mom was alive. This was not shaping up to be a good day.
Colin pushed back from the table and punched Greg good-naturedly on the arm. “Come on, Ferret Face, we’ve got a bear to track.”
He turned to Dad. “While we’re at it we’ll check the river trail out past Cedar Ridge. The others are clear. We can even use the one from Pinewood Meadow.”
Dad shook his head. “I know you guys got in all right, but we won’t need the Pine Creek trail until mid-July. I didn’t think we should chance it with clients until then, so I didn’t book any ride-ins.”
Colin grinned. “You’re the boss. Let’s go, Greg.” He turned and caught Kara’s stare.
“You coming, Kara? It might get kinda rough, but from what I hear, Lily can handle it.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him just what Lily could handle, when she caught the glint of laughter in his eyes. Her bad mood suddenly lifted. “I can handle any trail you can, Colin Jones. I’ll be there in a minute.”
She checked to be sure Ryan was helping Anne, then ran to her room and pulled on her boots.
She had Lily almost saddled when Ryan came into the barn. The mare was still fidgety from the night before, and Kara had to stop twice to calm her.
“I’m going too,” Ryan demanded. “Saddle Star for me, Colin. Dad said.”
Kara could tell Ryan was lying by the way he kept his eyes on the ground. She caught Colin’s questioning glance and shook her head. She wanted to swat the little pest but kept her tone casual. “When did Dad tell you that?”
“Just now.”
Colin feigned a sudden interest in the cobweb-choked rafters.
Greg wouldn’t look at her either. They all knew Dad had gone up to check the water purifier. The tanks were two miles away, and he hadn’t been back.
Lily danced sideways and Kara yanked on the lead rope. “HO!” She realized how angry she sounded and lowered her voice.
“Don’t lie to me, Ryan Sheridan. You know Dad didn’t say you could go. It’s too long of a ride and Star wouldn’t be able to keep up. Besides, we might run into that bear, and the slowest one would be lunch!”
She knew it was a mean thing to say, but she felt mean. Ryan had deliberately lied to her.
“Lying erodes trust,” Mom had often said. “When you lose someone’s trust, it’s hard to gain it back.”
She steeled herself against the tears puddling in her little brother’s eyes. “You go back to Anne. Now. We’ll talk about this when I get home.”
Ryan ran sobbing from the barn.
Colin busied himself with his gelding’s saddle, and Kara caught Greg looking at her, a half smile on his face.
“What?” she snapped.
Greg shrugged. “At least you didn’t say, ‘Just wait until your father gets home.’”
Colin laughed, “Oh, yeah. I used to hate that line.”
Kara felt her face turn red. “Well, what was I supposed to do, let him come?”
Greg looked away, but Colin laid a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, lighten up. All kids do that kind of stuff. He’ll get over it.”
If he meant to cheer her up, it wasn’t working. In spite of Lily’s energy and the challenging trail, the episode with Ryan left her feeling guilty, like the whole thing was her fault.
THE TRAIL CROSSED THE WOODEN bridge and wound its way along the far side of the river, dipping into hollows and rising to heights far above the raging water.
They had lost the bear tracks long before they reached the bridge. Kara suspected the ride had just been an excuse for a few hours of freedom before Greg headed back to Lariat and the guests claimed Colin’s time for the summer.
>
She wouldn’t have much free time either. Determined to enjoy what was left of the morning, she urged Lily forward, passing Colin in one of the few open spaces and racing up the trail.
She heard Colin yell, and Dakota thundered along behind her. She almost gave Lily another nudge, but they were already going a little too fast for the terrain.
She had just eased the mare into a slow canter, when Dakota moved in alongside and Colin grabbed Lily’s right rein. Lily threw her head and sidestepped, nearly unseating her.
Kara pulled the horse to a halt and spun around in the saddle to face Colin. “Don’t you ever do that again!” She heard her voice echo across the canyon, but right now she didn’t care. “I can control my own horse. You could have gotten me killed!”
Colin backed off, but his face was red with anger. “You nearly killed yourself. There’s an S-curve in the trail up ahead. At that speed you’d have galloped right into a tree.”
Kara took a deep breath, trying to calm her pounding heart. “Okay. But you could have told me. You never grab another person’s reins unless it’s an emergency.”
“It was an emergency.” Colin plucked his hat off his head, wiped his brow with the back of his wrist, and lowered his voice. “I just didn’t want you to get hurt, okay? I won’t grab Lily again. That’s a promise.”
He kept his eyes on hers until she turned her head away. He had backed down quickly enough. Why did she feel she was in the wrong?
Greg rode up behind Colin. “Can you two settle this later? I’d like to finish this ride sometime in the next century.”
Colin snorted and turned his horse up the trail. Kara followed, and Greg fell in behind. A few yards ahead she saw that Colin was right; there was no way to see the upcoming curves. She shivered. If she had kept up the pace, they’d have run right into a tree, or Lily would have reared and sent them both rolling down into the river.
Once past the curves, Colin put Dakota into a trot. Kara squeezed Lily’s sides with her thighs and caught up with him. “Colin. Wait.”
He slowed to a walk, and she rode up alongside him. She took a deep breath. “Look, you were right. I’m sorry, okay? I’ve been in a rotten mood all day.”
He tipped his hat. “Apology accepted.”
Kara expected him to flash his little-boy grin. When he didn’t, she rushed on. “There’s something I wanted to ask you. That bumper sticker on your truck. Let go . . .”
“And get a grip on God.” He finished it for her.
“Yeah. That’s it. What does it mean?”
“I heard that at a camp for troubled youths. It’s what finally got me going in the right direction and held me together when things got rough.”
Troubled youth? Colin? “When? Oh, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
He looked over his shoulder where Greg was riding about ten feet behind them. “It’s no big deal. Greg’s heard it before.” He ignored Greg’s bored expression and went on. “My folks split when I was fourteen. I couldn’t handle it. Dropped out of school, hung around with the wrong crowd. Mom bailed me out three or four times then gave up on me.
“The judge sent me to this camp. The motto was, ‘Let go and get a grip on God.’ It means let go of whatever’s got a grip on you—you know? For me it was anger and grief over my parents’ divorce. I learned to let it go and get a grip on God instead.”
Kara tried not to show her surprise. She’d never have guessed Colin had been a troublemaker. He didn’t go around talking about God all the time, but he didn’t go around cussing and fighting like some guys she knew either. She turned back to what he was saying.
“One of the counselors there showed me how God could make a difference in my life.”
“What did you do after you got out of . . . uh, youth camp?”
He ducked under a low-hanging tree branch and held it back for Kara to pass. “I went to my uncle in Fairbanks for a couple of years. He ran fishing expeditions in the summer. When I wasn’t busy catching up with schoolwork, I went along as guide. Learned a thing or two about the wilderness out there.”
“When did you learn to ride?”
“That’s how we got around most of the time. Pretty rugged country. The rest I picked up mucking stalls. Until my uncle got sick and decided I’d be better off on the mainland. He e-mailed an old friend, who turned out to be your dad. When your dad offered me this job, I jumped at it.”
Kara smiled. Softhearted Dad. “What about high school? Did you ever finish?”
“Almost. Only six credits to go. I plan to finish them in the fall. Greg and I will go to the same junior college, only I’ll work for your dad during the day and go to school at night.”
Colin reached over and tugged at her braid. “Well, Miss Kara, now that you know my life story, are you planning to run me off the ranch?”
Kara laughed. “Maybe.” She smacked his hand away and flipped the braid over her shoulder. “The road’s pretty straight here. Okay if we canter, Mister Trail Expert?”
He nodded and let her go. By the time he and Greg caught up, she had stopped where the trail ended at an abandoned campsite.
Colin’s background surprised her. The part about the youth camp anyway. She needed to think about what he had said. But this wasn’t the time or the place.
“Looks like this is the end of the road.” She dismounted and led Lily to a patch of knee-high grass. The mare munched contentedly while Kara drank water from her canteen and passed around the oatmeal cookies Anne had handed her just as she was walking out the door.
“This is as far as the horses can go.” Colin’s mouth was full, and Kara could hardly understand him.
“What do you mean?” She looked around. The campsite was surrounded by thick stands of fir and pine. Berry briers tangled in the underbrush on the other side of the trail, and just below them the swollen river ran twenty yards across.
“I mean,” Colin licked his fingers clean of crumbs, “the horses can’t go any farther, but once you get past these trees there’s a deer trail you can follow on foot.”
Kara peered into the brush. “How far does it go?”
Colin shrugged. “Don’t know. Greg and I only walked it a couple of miles. Haven’t had time to really explore.”
She felt a surge of excitement. “Why can’t we follow it now? The horses would be okay . . .”
Greg’s voice interrupted her. “Hey, it’s no skin off my hide, but it’s almost one o’clock, and if you guys aren’t back to greet the guests, Bossman might get ticked.”
Bossman? Kara started to tell Greg off, but settled for a dirty look instead. There had been enough conflict for one day.
“He’s right.” Colin sounded as disappointed as she was.
She watched him swing into the saddle and turn Dakota’s head around in one easy motion. Then he tipped his hat and bowed in her direction. “Next time, ma’am, I’d be happy to escort you down that trail.”
Kara fervently hoped there would be a next time. She stowed her canteen and turned Lily’s nose toward home.
Back at the lodge, she changed into clean jeans and a colorful V-neck blouse, then headed for the kitchen to find Anne.
The cook was bent over the stove, stirring a pot of fire-starter chili. Kara inhaled the smell of fresh-baked corn bread and remembered she’d had only two oatmeal cookies for lunch.
Anne handed her a stack of bowls. “The boys will be hungry too.” She smiled and turned out a whole tin of corn bread into a cloth-lined basket.
Kara felt uneasy as she ladled out the bowls of chili. Anne didn’t act any differently after the fuss at the table this morning. She had to know I was mad. She wondered if Ryan had said anything about what happened at the barn. She didn’t much want to follow through on her talk with him, but she knew she shouldn’t let it go.
“Is Dad back?”
Anne nodded, then added softly, “Ryan is asleep. Last night was long. For all of us.”
Kara felt herself rela
x. Somehow those few words melted the resentment inside her and made everything seem all right again. She knew she should offer to let Anne ride Lily, but before she could say anything, Colin and Greg stomped through the kitchen door, letting it bang closed behind them.
“Whooee, does that smell good! I’m as hungry as a winter-starved bear.” Colin reached for a square of corn bread.
Without thinking, Kara snatched the basket away. “Colin Jones, look at your hands!”
Anne nodded soberly and pointed toward the sink.
Colin grinned and grabbed the bar of Lava soap. “Okay, okay, I guess I know when I’m outnumbered. Boy, you women are bossy!”
Anne laughed, but Kara wanted to crawl under a chair. There I go again, sounding like my mother! Colin would never take her seriously.
They had barely finished lunch when the radio crackled to life. Greg hurried into the storeroom and switched on the receiver.
“Eagle Lodge.”
Static drowned out the first few words, then the pilot’s voice came through. “. . . clouds over here. What’s it like on your side? Over.”
Greg pushed a button on the mike. “We’re clear all the way to the top of the mountain, Mark. Over.”
“Okay. Got some company for you. Be there in thirty. Over and out.”
THE REST OF THE DAY went by in a blur of activity. Kara set up the dining room for dinner and gave tours of the property. When one of the guests needed a flashlight and another wanted extra towels, she trooped out to the cabins with the needed supplies.
On Saturday afternoon she started a letter to Tia.
I almost wish I was back in Lariat cramming for exams. This is hard work. Tonight is the dance. Actually we decided just to play music and let everyone do what they want. I’m going to wear that new outfit Dad bought me. I can’t believe I’m so nervous. There’s no one to dance with but Colin, and what if he doesn’t ask?
At nine o’clock she slipped the silky white blouse over her head and let it settle at her waist. The denim skirt ended just above the knees; short enough to show off the fringed leather boots, but long enough to satisfy Dad.
She leaned backward, shook her head, and combed her fingers through her hair. Anne had fashioned narrow, waist-length braids on each side of her face for her, weaving in thin strands of blue and white leather. She looked more like the first Wakara than ever.
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