“Thanks, Honey. Night, everyone.”
Val sat there feeling a sudden rush of emotion after her grandmother left the kitchen. What was this all about? Surprised, she felt her way through the unexpected tears. It had to do with Griff, she realized. She saw him looking at her intently from across the table. “Don’t mind me,” she murmured, sniffing.
“Tears are good.
“What touched you just now?”
Giving him a searching look, Val realized Griff cared enough to ask the right question. His rugged, sunburned face, the narrowing of his green eyes all conspired to touch her aching heart. She forced out in a low voice, “I’ve always had a hard time trusting men, Griff.”
“I can see why.”
Knotting the linen napkin in her lap, Val forced herself to hold his tender gaze. “There’s something different about you. I can’t put my finger on it…but you’re not like other guys.”
“You’re a very courageous person in my eyes, Val.”
“I don’t see myself as anything but a survivor, Griff.” She looked around the quiet kitchen and then met his gaze. “Your care is genuine.”
Griff had so much to tell her but he knew now wasn’t the right time to bring those topics to light. “I do care. And so does your grandmother. She’s really glad you’re home.”
Opening her hands, Val sighed. “I didn’t want to be here, Griff. And here I am,” she said, looking out the window behind where Griff sat.
“It’s different now,” he counseled quietly. “Your parents are gone. I know there are bad memories, but doesn’t Gus offset some of them? She’s creating new and positive memories for you every day.”
Mouth quirking, Val said, “I’m just now realizing Gus loves me more than I love myself.”
The raw admission slammed into Griff. For an anguished moment, he wanted to reach out and pull Val into his arms. It would be so easy. There was less than two feet separating them at the table. Val was vulnerable right now and would trust him. But something cautioned him to remain in his chair and instead, he reached for his mug of coffee and wrapped his hands around it. “I think Gus is trying to prove to you that your birthright is worth saving. When you love someone, you want only good things for them.”
“I mean,” Val said unsteadily, “Gus sold her ranch, her home, to come here when I was a teenager. What kind of person does that? She had a lifetime’s worth of memories at their ranch in Cheyenne.”
“What’s really important is family, Val. If you don’t have that, you have no home. My feeling is when Pete died, she had the opportunity to come here and protect you and your mother against your father.”
She held his warm gaze and she found herself wanting to get up, walk into Griff’s arms and be held. Her heart told her he would hold her, keep her safe and love her. Taken aback by the realization, Val felt vague panic. She’d only ever met one man she could say she’d loved. Studying Griff, his hair drying, a lock hanging precociously over his smooth brow, Val wondered if what she saw in his eyes was love for her.
“If you look at us,” Griff told her wryly, his mouth lifting in one corner, “we’re both strays who left the family nest for one reason or another. And like a prodigal son and daughter, we’ve finally come home. And it’s not been easy for either of us.”
“I don’t understand why you gave your half of the ranch back to your brother. You had a home.”
“He deserved my half. He’s the one who’s kept the Teton going all these years, no thanks to me. And anyway, I feel comfortable living anywhere in the Jackson Hole area. I like the Bar H. To me, this place is about dreams coming true.”
Happiness, like a quiet and gentle shadow, stole through Val. Griff lifted the dark depression that usually surrounded her. She said in a teasing tone, “Yes, one fence post in the ground at a time.”
Griff grinned back at her. “And tomorrow, we’re going to get cattle for your ranch. That’s another important step forward.” He saw a new softness to Val’s face. His heart soared with joy because they’d shared a serious and personal discussion with each other. Griff felt she had opened the hidden doors to herself and finally invited him in.
“It is,” Val said, pushing away from the table. “Let’s save dessert for tomorrow’s lunch, clean up and turn in early. We have a very busy, long day ahead of us.”
* * *
VAL WAS ASLEEP WHEN SUDDENLY she felt the entire house shake and shudder. Jerking upright in bed, momentarily disoriented, she felt the shaking stop but heard an airplane fly directly over the ranch house. What the hell? Twisting around, she looked at the clock on her nightstand. It read 3:00 a.m. Pushing strands of hair out of her face, Val quickly got to her feet.
She moved to the window and pulled the drapes aside. The window faced north, toward Long Lake. Val searched the sky but could not see anything. It was a moonless night and only the stars twinkled like pinholes poked in the fabric of the midnight sky. Off in the distance, she could hear the faint sound of a plane’s engine. It seemed to be circling low somewhere nearby but she couldn’t see it. There were no lights flashing on the plane’s tail and wingtips to help her locate it. That was odd too.
Val knew FAA flight regulations forbade any aircraft to fly beneath one thousand feet unless it was landing. And there was no place to land around here! She wondered if it was a new pilot who was trying to find the airport, which was located near Grand Teton National Park, north of Jackson Hole. If that was the case, he was a good twenty-five miles off base. Convincing herself it was a lost pilot, she pulled the drapes closed once again and walked over to her queen-size bed. The flying-geese quilt that Gus had made for her lay across her bed. She grazed the material with her fingertips, taking comfort in its link to her beloved grandmother as she did when she was a child. Wrapping the quilt around her as she lay down was like having her grandmother always holding her, shielding her at night as she slept.
She pulled the quilt up and over her shoulders, and closed her eyes. As she began to drift off, Val heard Griff’s husky words echo through her head: we’re both strays that left the family nest for one reason or another. And now, like the prodigal son and daughter, we’ve come home.
She felt powerfully drawn to him. Every day he was proving himself. And every day, he was much more appealing to Val. She’d had one serious relationship. She knew what love felt like. And the feelings growing within her for Griff were similarly vibrant and filled with promise. For a woman who had never expected to feel happy again, his company seemed to make it a real possibility.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
VAL DIDN’T KNOW who was most excited when the livestock truck drove into their driveway. Griff was standing with her and Gus on the porch as the truck chugged slowly into the wide drive in front the ranch house.
“You look tired, Val,” Griff said.
“Did that plane wake you up last night?” Val wondered, looking up at him. Today, Griff wore a pale green plaid cowboy shirt, the usual red bandanna around his strong neck and a pair of well-worn Levi’s. He’d just shaved and his hair was still damp from a shower beneath his hat. There was nothing tame about the masculine energy that surrounded him like the sun’s rays. He was all male. In a powerful but nonthreatening kind of way.
“I thought I heard something, but I was so tired I just rolled over and went back to sleep.” There were faint shadows beneath Val’s blue eyes but her exhaustion didn’t take anything away from her looks. Griff liked the feminine pink blouse with long sleeves she wore. The color accented her glorious hair now caught up in the usual ponytail. It was impossible to ignore how the Levi’s fit her shapely body and long legs. She was a beautiful woman. And he wanted her. All of her. Griff couldn’t get her kiss, her full lips pressing lightly against his cheek, out of his mind. He didn’t want to.
“I heard it, too,” Gus grumbled, unhappy. “Dange
d thing roared over us like a commercial jet liner ready to land on our roof!”
“At first, when I woke up,” Val told her, “I thought a plane was going to crash into the house. It scared the daylights out of me.”
“Some fool of a pilot probably on his first night-flight was lost and huntin’ for the Jackson Hole airport. We aren’t no darned runway!”
Smiling a little, Val tucked her arm around Gus’s small, proud shoulders. “I’m sure he found the airport.”
“Musta,” Gus said with a grin. “There’s no crash I heard last night and no reports of one on the radio this morning.”
“That’s true.” Val squeezed her grandmother’s shoulders. The truck was now directly in front of them.
Gus moved slowly down the stairs with the aid of her hated cane and called, “Why don’t you two mount up and we’ll get ready to release these girls?”
Griff nodded. “Will do,” he called, starting down the steps with Val at his side.
Val saw Dr. Bennett, a large-animal vet, pull into the driveway in his silver Chevy truck. Val waved hello to him as she took the steps and hurried to catch up with Griff. They already had their horses saddled and ready to go. The gate to the huge, round corral was open and ready for its new additions.
She heard the bawling of the brown-and-white Herefords in the long truck. Their hooves on the thin steel floors made a lot of noise. They wanted out of there too and Val didn’t blame them.
Griff untied Socks from the hitching post near the barn and handed Val the leather reins. Their gloved fingers met briefly and he secretly savored the contact. She pulled her hat down a little more tightly on her head and mounted. In no time, Griff was on Freckles and they were moving at a fast walk down the gentle slope toward the truck parked in the driveway.
The morning air was crisp and clean. Griff inhaled it deeply into his lungs. The horses were fresh and eager to work. With Val riding at his side, he decided life didn’t get any better than this. The sun had risen, sending out long golden rays across the grassy pastures and darkly treed mountains surrounding the ranch. These cattle, he decided, would think they’d died and gone to heaven.
At the truck, they waited on their horses while Gus signed for the shipment after the heifers were all accounted for. The vet, Dan Bennett, was standing with Gus, his equipment bag in hand. Excitement rose in the air as the wrangler who’d delivered the cattle gestured for Val and Griff to ride over to the ramp where the heifers would be released. It would be their job to move the animals into the corral.
Val took the left side of the truck and Griff was to the right of the eighteen-wheeler. When the wrangler released the huge metal gate, the first animals bolted out and clattered down the ramp. As Griff urged Freckles forward to catch the leader, the horse instantly went into action. Luckily, these were cutting horses and they knew that if the leader of the drove was bracketed between the two of them, the other cattle, by nature, would follow it. They had herd mentality and rarely left their friends. Val rode with relaxed ease as she kept the first four heifers in line to move into the corral up ahead. The cattle tossed their heads, spittle drooling from their open mouths as they anxiously charged ahead. Griff thought he could see relief in their big, brown eyes as they eagerly headed for the familiarity of the corral. Once inside, they trotted over to a long, rectangular watering trough.
Griff turned his horse around, wanting to make sure the rest of the girls were following the leaders. And indeed, they were a docile brown-and-white line, heads bobbing, following their leaders who were already in the corral. The smell of water was really the magnet as they trotted into the corral. Every one of them dunked their muzzles into the fresh, cool water. They’d been without water for the long trip from Cheyenne to their ranch.
Dismounting, Griff dropped the reins and Freckles stood still. He quickly closed the huge steel gate.
“Thirsty girls, but they all look real healthy,” the vet said as he approached.
Gus stood at the fence, critically assessing the new herd. “They do look fine, Doc, but as soon as they’re done drinking, I want you to examine each of them.” She looked over at Griff and Val. “Get the chute ready. You’ll have to cut one of ’em from their herd and drive her over to it.”
Griff looked up at Val, who was still mounted. “You want to do the cutting?”
“Sure. You get to drop the door behind the heifer after I drive her up into the chute.” She grinned. “I’d rather cut.”
“You got it,” Griff said, sharing her smile. The sense of teamwork made his heart swell in his chest. Everyone was involved. Everyone cared for those heifers who would become the foundation for the new era of the Bar H. Life was returning to this place that was once nightmarish and full of deep suffering.
Gus had opened the gate just enough to allow Val to ride in on Socks. The heifers now stood in a tight group near the water trough, warily watching the horse and rider approach. They grew even tighter as Val loosened the reins on Socks. Gus always enjoyed a good cutting horse in action, and this was one of the best in the county. The gelding lowered his head, snaked it out and cleanly separated one of the heifers away from the group. Instantly, the animal tried to return but Socks anticipated it and blocked her. Frantic, the heifer wheeled and tried to gallop around the cutter. The sorrel quarter horse sat down heavily on his rear haunches, lifted his front legs and swiftly turned.
The heifer was thwarted. She bawled, panicked now. Socks leaped forward, driving her rapidly toward the open chute entrance. All Val had to do was sit quietly in the saddle, keep the reins loose and let the horse do what he was good at. In moments, the heifer was driven up into the wooden structure.
Griff swiftly dropped the thick wooden door behind the heifer. She stood there panting and bawling, fearful to be separated from her herd. The vet stood next to Griff. He quickly got to work, sizing up the animal, looking for any injuries, cuts, bumps or anything else that might tell him she wasn’t healthy. He pressed his stethoscope to the heifer’s chest, listening not only to her heart, but her lungs and stomach, too, to make sure she wasn’t impacted and had good digestion.
For the next three hours, the same chain of events occurred. After each of examination, Griff released the animal out the other end of the chute into a smaller corral that had hay and water in it, so she could take comfort in eating, which they loved to do. By lunchtime, they were finished.
Gus consulted with Dr. Bennett. He gave the entire herd a clean bill of health. Gus walked over to the wrangler waiting at the truck and handed him a check. The wrangler tipped his hat to Gus and thanked her before making the eight-hour drive back to his ranch in Cheyenne. Gus then wrote a second check to the vet and he went on his way, as well.
“I’m starving!” Val called as she dismounted and tied Socks to the hitching post in front of the house. She’d already given the horse a hefty drink at the water trough. Patting the quarter horse’s thick, sweaty neck, Val loosened the girth on the saddle. After lunch, they’d need to drive the heifers out to their lush green pasture. For now the horse could at least relax a little under the shade of a maple tree.
Gus moved to the porch and took off her cowboy hat. “Come on in. Chow time!” She opened the screen door and disappeared inside.
Griff trotted up on Freckles and dismounted. After tying his Appaloosa to the post, he loosened the girth on the animal and joined Val. Taking off his hat, he wiped his brow. “It got hot all of a sudden.”
Val looked at the temperature gauge on the porch post. “It’s eighty-five degrees. Hot for us.” She laughed a little, feeling the comradeship of working with Griff like a well-oiled team.
He opened the door for Val. “I’m used hot temperatures from New York, but when you’re working like we were, it’s something else.” He caught a whiff of sweetness that reminded him of honeysuckle in bloom. It was the shampoo Val had used to
wash her hair this morning. He wanted to lean down, press a kiss to the shining mass of red hair, but resisted. As the screen door closed, Griff simply enjoyed the womanly sway of her hips as she walked to the kitchen in front of him.
Gus had already placed a huge bowl of salad on the table. Val went over to help make the tuna sandwiches. Griff retrieved the dishes, bowls and flatware for the table. The kitchen hummed with a happy silence as they all worked together.
“I gotta say,” Gus said proudly, “those are fine-lookin’ heifers! Don’t you think so, Val?”
“I think they’re all queens, Gus. Beautiful, fat, well fed. Their coats shine.”
“Yes, and Doc Bennett said they’re all in estrus, which means we gotta find a bull to cover them. I don’t want a bull on this property. They’re too much trouble.” She glanced over her shoulder toward Griff. “What about Slade’s bull, Diablo, Griff? He’s an ornery son of a gun, but he drops babies with mega beef on them. Do you think Slade would be open to contracting his bull to cover our girls?”
Surprised, Griff straightened. “Why…I don’t know. I could call him after lunch?”
“You do that. There’s no question Diablo’s the best bull in the area.”
Griff agreed. And the breeding fees would help Slade economically. Griff would be happy to help out his brother and the Bar H in one fell swoop.
* * *
GRIFF STOOD ON THE FRONT PORCH after lunch with his cell phone. “Slade, I need to know if Diablo is available to breed twenty heifers in the next week.”
“Whose stock?” his brother asked.
“The Bar H’s. The vet has given them a clean bill of health and they’re all in estrus. They’re ready to be bred. Gus wants Diablo, since he’s the best around.”
“Twenty heifers,” Slade said, impressed. “Does she know Diablo’s breeding fee? It’s a hundred-and-fifty dollars per heifer.”
Griff whistled softly. “That’s a lot of money.”
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