Never the Twain

by Judith B. Glad

  Never the Twain

  By

  Judith B. Glad

  Uncial Press Aloha, Oregon

  2007

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events described herein are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2007 by Judith B. Glad

  ISBN 13: 978-1-60174-028-1

  ISBN 10: 1-60174-028-X

  Cover art and design by Judith B. Glad

  Originally published in a shorter version by Treble Heart Books, 2002.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author or publisher.

  Published by Uncial Press,

  an imprint of GCT, Inc.

  Visit us at http://www.uncialpress.com

  When I was a little girl, my great-aunt Luella (whom we all called 'Yaya') told me bedtime stories full of adventure and excitement, stories of a Wild West that never was, except in her imagination. Each Saturday afternoon we would go to the double feature movie--cowboy flicks, full of noble heroes in high-heeled boots, who defended the underdogs, ran the bad guys out of town, and always shot straight and true.

  Yaya has been gone for many years, but the lessons she taught me are still part of my life. Even today, I expect my heroes (real and imaginary) to live up to the standards set by those cowboys. So this book is lovingly dedicated to Yaya, who taught me the measure of a good man.

  And to Neil, who is the best one.

  Chapter One

  "When in doubt, walk the road first." Dan's warning echoed in her ears as Genny fought to keep the wheels on high ground between the deep ruts. No matter what the topo map said, this was not a road.

  She could accept cowpath, maybe. Game trail. Even a track cut by a covered wagon's wheels a hundred years ago.

  But not a road.

  For the thousandth time, she wiped her dripping forehead with a dirt-streaked forearm, dipping her head so she wouldn't have to release her death grip on the wheel. As she guided it around still another tight, blind curve, the truck seemed to hang over empty space.

  Her route was cut by a deep gully, fully ten feet wide and half that deep. She slowed still more, shifted the truck into low-low four-wheel-drive, and eased it across. When the back wheels finally climbed out onto comparatively level ground, she stopped, leaving the engine idling.

  Forcing her fingers to unclench from the steering wheel, Genny took a deep, steadying breath and looked at her surroundings. Greenish soil crumbled from the hillside road cut. The morning sun slanted across steep slopes scattered with shrubs--shadscale, sagebrush, and rabbitbrush. Cheatgrass, just turning gold, swayed in the fitful breeze.

  She had done it! Another challenge, and she had met it with her eyes open and her jaw set. Maybe this wasn't the kind of excitement Aunt Sophie had predicted, but it did get her adrenaline flowing.

  "New Hampshire was never like this," she muttered, not regretting for a minute she was in Oregon.

  She was just reaching for the stick shift when the cattle burst into sight ahead of her.

  Big cattle. Range cattle eager to attack a human on foot and gore and stomp her into shreds of flesh and fragments of bone. She knew. She'd read her Zane Grey.

  Stampeding. Right toward her. The one in front was nine feet tall, at least. She wondered if BLM gave posthumous medals to employees killed in the performance of their duties. Her folks should have that, at least.

  Genny popped the clutch, killing the engine. She buried her face in her hands and waited for the rampaging cattle to crowd her truck off the cliff.

  "Hyah!" Swinging his lariat, Rock spurred Brandy after the brindle cow and her bucking calf. He was herding them around the bend when he saw the red pickup blocking the road. Microseconds later, he saw the Bureau of Land Management decal on its door.

  "What the hell?"

  He maneuvered Brandy through the milling cattle. The driver of the pickup seemed to be sleeping, his head resting against the steering wheel. Or sick maybe?

  Usually Rock had a lot of respect for the BLM people who managed the vast empty rangelands of southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. But this was spring, and sometimes the federal agency sent wet-behind-the-ears kids to do seasonal work. He had a hunch this was one of them. He hoped the kid wasn't so sick he'd have to call an ambulance, because his pickup and horse trailer were parked several miles away, back where his cattle belonged. And the radio was in the pickup.

  He had his hand on the door handle before he saw the pale blonde braids draped over the kid's shoulders. That nape, with its curling tendrils, was the farthest thing from masculine he'd ever seen. Slim, hunched shoulders were shaking, and he noted bright pink fingernails on the hands covering her face.

  He jerked the door open.

  "If you're gonna be sick, kid, pick a better place than the edge of a cliff."

  He hadn't meant to sound so gruff. It was the fingernails that did it. Nobody wearing fingernail polish had any business being out here in the middle of Succor Creek Canyon. Hadn't he seen what the desert did to women like her?

  "I'm not sick." The soft words were spoken in an accent Rock had heard before, somewhere. But not often and not recently. "I was frightened."

  "You oughta' be. Got no business out here alone." He reached across her lap to unfasten her seat belt. At least she had the sense to wear one! As he did so, full breasts brushed his arm, sending a faint message of desire to his belly and below. He ignored it. "Shove over."

  She lifted a pale, heart-shaped face to him. Beads of sweat glistened on her upper lip and temples. Smears of grime streaked her forehead. She smelled of perspiration and woman.

  Damn!

  "C'mon. Shove over, I said." He nudged her with one hip, pushing her across the bench seat.

  He saw anger spark in her eyes and firm her lips. Delicious lips, full and a little pouty. Kissable. Hell's fire! He firmed his chin and his thoughts, nudging her again.

  "I don't need you!" Smooth, well manicured hands--hands that had probably never cracked from the cold or hardened from heavy work--clutched the steering wheel. He would either have to pry her loose or try to drive the cattle across the steep slope below the trail.

  "Lady, I want to get my cows back on my land before August, and it'll be a lot easier if your truck isn't in the way. Now, are you gonna shove over and let me move this rig, or do I let 'em climb right over the top of it?"

  She released the wheel and slid across the seat. The glare she gave him could have heated half a dozen branding irons.

  Rock eased the pickup past the quickly dispersing cattle. Now he'd have to round them up all over again. It'd be harder this time, with them scattered all over the hillside instead of bunched in the meadow along the creek, where grass and water were sweet.

  Double damn!

  "What the hell did you think you were doing? Any damfool would have seen right up on top this trail wasn't used regularly."

  "I saw what looked like an old homestead," she said, her voice stronger now, but still caressing his ears like soft suede. "The...the cows scared me. I've heard about how dangerous range cattle can be."

  Rock snorted. He could reassure her, but a healthy respect for some of these cows was not unwarranted. She'd be safer if she stayed in her truck. Preferably all the way back to... Where had he heard that accent before? It came from somewhere back East, he was sure.

  "And like any dumb tenderfoot, you had to go down an
d take a picture of it for your scrapbook." Every summer, he and the rest of the volunteer rescue group headed into the backcountry to extricate some tourist from the consequences of his enthusiastic sightseeing. Never found one in Succor Creek Canyon before, though. Down here it was usually snakebite that got the rock-hunting tourists.

  "No!" She sounded insulted. "It's part of my job. I'm doing an archaeological and historical inventory of this District."

  Triple damn! Now he was going to have to worry about this girl all summer, or at least until she moved on west of his grazing preference. Dan Walters had warned him there would be a new archaeologist working on the Vale District this summer, one who'd be assigned to the Shinbone project. Rock had expected an eager youngster, full of book learning and gung-ho, but at least able to take care of himself.

  Instead, he got a pretty little greenhorn who was as out of place in Owyhee Country as teats on a bull. A lovely one who inexplicably made him want to conquer his prejudice against all the little tricks women use to attract willing males.

  Well, she'd find that willing was the last thing on his mind. All he needed from her was a sign-off on his waterhole.

  Genny flung herself across the seat with such force that she banged her shoulder on the opposite door. What a bully!

  She smoldered while he eased the pickup down the last half-mile of poor excuse for a road. The closer they got to the canyon floor, the steeper and rougher the track became, until Genny was grudgingly thankful he had taken over for her. She could have done it, but would she have wanted to?

  "Here you go, little lady. Think you can get it back on top, or shall I drive you up?"

  Arrogant, dumb cowboy!

  "Mister, I can take this pickup anywhere you point me, and do it as well as anyone around." She ignored the twitches at the corners of his mouth. His very sexy mouth.

  Stop it, Genille. You're out here to do a job, not admire the scenery. Grabbing her camera and clipboard, she headed across the meadow.

  His voice, mild and almost friendly, came from behind her. "Sure. And while you're doing it, can you give me a lift back to my horse?"

  "I came down here to investigate the buildings. I'll have to do it before I go back up." Let him wait. Or walk back.

  Genny felt a twinge of shame. He hadn't needed to help her out. He could have simply waited until she got out of his way, driven his cattle off to wherever they were going. It was just that his bossy style was all too familiar--and so was her knee-jerk reaction to it.

  She hesitated. It really wouldn't take long to do a preliminary reconnaissance. Just to see if the site deserved additional investigation. She wondered why it hadn't been marked on her map.

  "Go ahead. My cattle can't get spread out over more than a half section or so while we wait." He swung out of the pickup, his mouth now definitely quirked in a mocking grin. "'Cept I never knew BLM people did the state's work for 'em."

  "What?" Genny was halfway across the meadow when his words caught up with her. "The state? What do you mean?"

  "This here's Oregon land, little lady. Part of the Succor Creek State Park." His expression was infuriatingly, blandly, innocent. "I did hear they already decided this old homestead was a keeper."

  "I'll kill him," Genny muttered, before starting back toward the pickup. "I'll tear him limb from limb."

  "What's that, little lady? Who you gonna kill?"

  "Dan." The name popped out before she could stop it. Her boss had assured her that all the sites on state land were well marked or otherwise easily identifiable. Unfortunately, he had misplaced the map showing their locations. "Never mind. Get in. I'll take you back to your horse."

  "Now that's mighty neighborly of you, little lady."

  The sarcasm in his voice was so blatant she could almost see it dripping. What was his problem? "Don't call me 'little lady'!"

  "Yes, ma'am." He sauntered toward her, a hungry gleam in improbably blue eyes. Genny felt the beginnings of warmth radiating from her middle regions.

  "Get in," she repeated, slamming the driver's door. In her irritation, she nearly broke a fingernail on the seat belt buckle. The sooner she was rid of him, the happier she'd be.

  Going up wasn't nearly as difficult as going down. Or maybe it was because she already knew what the road had in store for her, Genny thought. She wasn't even sure why she had overreacted so much at the gully. She'd been driving farm roads ever since she was a kid, even during mud season. At least this one was dry. Maybe it was just the excitement of being out on her own at last. She resolved never to let go like that again. She was competent, darn it!

  Ignoring the inner question concerning range cattle, Genny eased the pickup across the gully, which looked considerably smaller from the downhill side. How often would she have to contend with a stampede like today's, after all?

  "Here you are." She pulled up just beyond the gully, silently marveling how his horse was standing essentially where he'd left it. Its reins were looped across a sagebrush, but not tied in any way. Good looking horse, too. Broad withers, legs heavier than she was used to seeing, but range horses needed to be sturdier than those used for pleasure riding. Spotted horses always had appealed to her, ever since childhood, when Tonto had been one of her heroes.

  "Thanks, little lady." His grin, still mocking, showed his use of the diminutive adjective was deliberate. Two fingers touched his hat brim in a salute Genny had seen in a thousand western movies. "Next time, walk the road before you tackle it. You'll keep out of a lot of trouble that way."

  He slammed the door and strode to his horse. Genny watched the flex of his buttocks, outlined by the edges of his leather chaps, and her breath grew shallow and quick.

  "Wipe the drool off the chin, Genille," she whispered. "You'll see lots of Levi's and cowboy boots around here. And most of them will be friendly." Still, his masculine power and grace spoke to primitive needs within her. This man, this rude, crude cowboy, was as sexy as any man she'd had ever seen.

  Genny popped the clutch and killed the engine. Again. She felt flaming color sweep across her face as she sensed his eyes upon her. Grimly she ground the starter until the pickup coughed into life, then carefully eased the clutch pedal out and headed uphill. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing any more of her embarrassment than he already had.

  When would she learn? Some men were simply impossible to get along with. She should have learned that fact long since.

  Rock chuckled to himself at the fiery blush on the woman's face as she restarted her pickup's engine and pulled away. She'd handled the rig just fine while he was in it, relieving him of his worry that she was headed for trouble on the rough trails out hereabouts.

  Not that she had any business out here alone. What had Walters been thinking of, turning her loose without a keeper? There were too many lonely miles out here where a young, pretty woman could get into real trouble.

  Pretty? Hells fire! She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen! His body remembered the softness of her breast as his arm brushed against it. Warmed again to the remembered sweaty-sweet scent of her beside him.

  He turned Brandy to head off an escaping cow, forcing his mind away from melting brown eyes and silken, silvery hair. A woman like her had no place in Owyhee Country. She belonged to cities, with policemen on every corner, theaters and expensive restaurants, and stores full of fancy foofaraw.

  "Hyah!" He spurred Brandy after the bunch, pushing them uphill in the settling dust from a red pickup.

  Hours later, the cattle were back on his land. Mouth still gritty with the dust of a dry day's work, Rock headed Brandy back to the trailer.

  That damn old brindle. If she didn't give him twin calves as often as not, he'd ship her off to the sales yard. At least once each summer she led ten or twenty other cows off somewhere and got lost. He'd been lucky this time; Pat Lehenbauer had seen the brindle cow while she and her followers were still up by the road. Otherwise, his ranch hands would have probably spent half the summer
trying to find her.

  As soon as he thought of the creek bottom meadow where his cattle had been hiding, he remembered the woman.

  Her scent was lodged in his memory. The tangy odor of sagebrush usually dominated the breeze, but not today. Even Brandy's sweaty horse smell, one he'd known all his life, gave way to the remembered aroma of a desirable woman.

  Rock had just given Brandy a slap to move him into the trailer when he heard the thrum of an engine. An expanding tail of dust followed it toward him. Another rockhound, he supposed, not particularly interested.

  Wait a minute. That red pickup looks familiar.

  He caught a glimpse of silver hair and a pink plaid shirt he'd seen earlier. He waved.

  The pickup slowed, stopped. Reversed, and turned into the pulloff behind him.

  "I was hoping I would see you again. I wanted to thank you properly." Kissable lips widened in a two hundred watt smile. "And to apologize for my awful manners this morning."

  "I was a little short myself," he admitted, wondering why he was giving her the time of day. The sooner he discouraged her, the sooner she'd leave him alone.

  "You look like you've put in a long, hard day. I've got some sodas on ice. Can I offer you one?" He was surprised by how much sympathy could show in an ordinary pair of brown eyes.

  Ordinary? Not likely. Her eyes were deep enough and inviting enough for him to dive in and never climb out.

  Hold on! He reined back on his imagination. Self-disgust made his voice hard. "Nope. I've got some water here. That's all I need."

  But his mouth puckered at the thought of icy cold, sweet soda pop instead of warm, flat water that had been locked up in a hot truck cab all day.

  Rock found himself uncharacteristically indecisive. Old memories, old hurts, told him to be as rough on this fair, fragile woman as he could be. Protect himself from potential heartbreaks and save her from the indifferent harshness of the desert.

  This hothouse flower had no business in Owyhee Country, where she'd wither and die for lack of human contact and city shops. He had to get rid of her before she wormed her way into his life--and destroyed him the way his pa had been destroyed.