“Sorry. I was heading to the lake but fell asleep and Molly took me to cattle rustler’s cave. When I woke up the only place I wanted to be was ... here.”
Henry nodded, relief softening his faded blue eyes. “Well, Ethan’s not. He’s gone after you.”
She frowned. “He did. I was hoping he wouldn’t.”
“You hoped wrong. Where you’re concerned he’ll break every rule in that sensible book of his.”
She stood. “I’ll go and find him.”
Henry shook his head. “Hold your horses. You’re just like your grandmother. She always jumped headfirst into trouble. I told him that if you came back, I’d keep you here. The weather’s going to be bad up there.”
Bridie remained standing and bit the inside of her cheek. She looked through the window at the peaks now shrouded in dark cloud. “What am I going to do while I wait? I’ll go stir-crazy.”
Henry patted the puzzle book. “That’s easy. Crosswords.”
Bridie barely heard him. Her gaze remained fixed on a ridge that rose above the foothills. “Henry ... is that smoke?”
Henry swung around and then was out of his seat and rummaging through a sideboard drawer. Finding a pair of black binoculars, he held them to his eyes. His jaw tightened.
He lowered the binoculars and headed for the phone on the kitchen bench. “Grab a coffee and there’s a bacon bagel in the fridge you can eat while you drive.”
In under seven minutes Henry had called Fire and Rescue and also the Sheriff’s department. Bridie hadn’t bothered with coffee, she grabbed the bagel, her boots and Henry’s truck keys. She was no stranger to wildfires and what to do in an emergency. Her family farm had suffered two summer grassfires but there was something about Henry’s grim mouth that hinted he knew far more about the fire than he let on.
“Where are we heading?” Bridie asked as she drove the truck through the wooden archway of Larkspur Ridge Ranch’s entrance.
“Right, then first left.”
Bridie did as she was instructed and the road soon turned into gravel, pitted with deep washboards. The truck bounced and rattled.
“Henry, this can’t be good for your hip.”
“I’m fine.”
She hadn’t missed the concern in his eyes, concern that now superseded his pain. “So what do you think is on fire? A tree? I haven’t seen any lightning but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any.”
“It’s no tree.”
She shot him a sharp look. “What’s going on?”
He grunted. “See those truck tracks on the road? They’re Ethan’s. He knew you’d head for the lake so loaded Captain into his trailer. He was planning to drive and then ride into the backcountry to save time.”
Bridie swallowed down her fear. “Is the fire ... his ... truck?”
“Nope, an old line cabin.”
She breathed out her deep relief. “Ethan pointed the cabin out to me the other day after we’d seen what I’m still sure was a –” She frowned at Henry. “Poachers would use an old cabin, wouldn’t they? That’s why you called the Sheriff as well, wasn’t it?”
Henry grunted. “Yep.”
She didn’t need to ask any more questions. If it were only poachers responsible for the cabin fire, Henry wouldn’t have risked taking her. He’d known Ethan would have wanted her to stay at the safety of the ranch. Bridie applied more pressure to the gas pedal. It wasn’t only poachers up there in the vicinity of the fire ... Ethan was too.
Henry touched her arm and when he spoke it was in a soft tone she’d never heard before. “He’ll be okay. I left him a message on his phone, he’ll know help is on the way. He can take care of himself.”
“He can. But when he tackled the Taylor boys, he had Cordell with him.”
“You and I both know he doesn’t need Cordell with him to teach those poachers a lesson.”
A tense silence settled in the pickup cabin, broken only by the protest of the truck’s suspension.
“Bridie ...” Again Henry used an unfamiliar tone, a serious and earnest tone. “All my life I’ve lived at Larkspur Ridge and I was happy to die there. Anna and I weren’t lucky to have children so I believed I had no one to pass the ranch on to and now I do. I’m so honored to have Cordell and Ethan as my sons.”
Bridie’s throat ached at the raw emotion rasping in his words.
“I have a new hip, hard-working and strong sons who’ll continue the Watson legacy and there’s a whole world out there to see. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life doing crosswords. I spoke to Ethan last night. He’s thinking about staying and running the ranch as it’s supposed to be run. Cordell will still run his and Payton’s cattle on the land he now uses.”
Bridie didn’t immediately speak. Henry had just made it possible for the last piece of her new life to slip into place. Her mother was here. Finn, Zane and Trinity were here. Her pioneer ancestors were buried here. And now Ethan could be here too.
“Thank you.”
Henry cleared his throat. “What for? I’ve done nothing and will be back. There’ll be the next generation of Watsons to teach to fish and ride.”
Bridie focused on the grey plume of smoke that had lightened, indicating a lower intensity fire. There would be no next generation if Ethan weren’t okay. She breathed deeply. She wasn’t going to falter now and not tell him that she loved him. She needed to listen to her heart and to blank out all other white noise. Her fears weren’t going to stop her living her life.
The gravel road rounded a corner and two figures came into sight. Bridie slowed the truck. One man limped and the other held his arm as though he were in need of a sling. She slowed further.
“Henry, that’s Nick Ryan. He looks injured. Do we have time to stop and check he’s okay?”
Henry grunted. “Yes, we do and no we’re not stopping.”
“Henry?”
He shrugged. “He and that no-good brother of his will get help soon enough. Check your mirror.”
Bridie glanced in the rear view mirror and saw the distant lights of a Sheriff’s car.
“No way.” She turned to stare at Nick as they passed but heads down, he and his brother didn’t look at the truck. “Nick and his brother are the poachers?”
“Must be. Otherwise Ethan would have left them alone.”
She again glanced in the mirror but this time focused on the two shuffling figures. “No wonder Nick knew all the places where the wildlife hung out. Won’t they run off if they see the Sheriff?”
“Nope. Ethan would have told them to walk and not stop until the Sheriff arrived. And they’d know better than to do anything different.”
The smell of smoke seeped in through the truck air vents. Bridie tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “Do you think Ethan’s really okay?”
“I know he is because if he wasn’t those Ryan boys wouldn’t be out in the open. They’d be skulking in the forest knowing Cordell and I would want a word with them.”
Henry pointed a gnarled finger. “Up here there’ll be a sharp turn right; we’ll follow the ridge a little and then will come to a clearing.”
Bridie followed Henry’s instructions, all the while fighting the cold chill that crept through her. She couldn’t see anything ahead but a pillar of smoke and then she saw Ethan’s pickup and trailer. Her clamped grip on the steering wheel loosened. Captain stood tied to the trailer. Head down, the big bay dozed. If Ethan weren’t okay the horse wouldn’t be so relaxed. While the docile gelding was even-tempered, she’d seen the deep bond between him and Ethan and had no doubt the horse would be agitated if something had happened to Ethan.
Henry must have shared her belief because he relaxed and eased himself back into the passenger side seat.
Bridie parked beside the trailer. She unclipped her seatbelt and expected him to do the same. Instead he pulled out his cell.
“You go. Ethan will be keeping an eye on the fire. I’ll let Fire and Rescue know everything’s under control. Someone from
the Sheriff’s Department will arrive soon, so if you want to ... talk to Ethan, now’s your chance.”
Bridie leaned over and kissed his cheek. Her heart beat steady and fear-free in her chest. “I do.”
She followed the track toward the smoke. The pine trees soon gave way to a small clearing in which sat a smoking pile of rubble and a blackened stone chimney. Bridie looked around. An old red pickup was parked on the clearing edge, but there was no sign of Ethan.
She walked closer and the smell of charred wood increased. Then through the smoke and heat haze she saw him behind the cabin. He held what had once been a saddle blanket and that was now wet and black. He’d been making sure no embers spread.
She squared her shoulders and walked around to him. She knew the moment he saw her. He straightened, the saddle blanket forgotten in his hand, and stood intensely still.
Shock, hunger, need all flashed across his face in quick succession and then his expression settled into its usual composed lines.
“Hey,” he said, as he walked to meet her.
Bridie opened her mouth to say “hey” back but no sound emerged. Instead she gave in to the wave of energy and longing that crashed through her. She ran to him, wound her arms around his neck and kissed him like it’d been a thousand forevers since she’d seen him.
The heavy saddle blanket fell onto her foot and then Ethan’s strong arms pulled her so close her boot heels left the ground. He groaned and deepened their kiss until all fear vanished and all that remained was heat, hope and peace.
He lifted his head but his arms didn’t loosen their hold. “You’re not at the lake?” His voice was little more than a hoarse whisper.
She shook her head, her lips tracing the line of his whiskered jaw. “I didn’t get there. You were right. Everything did look different in the morning.”
She lowered her heels to the ground and pulled back a little to check his face. “Are you okay? The Ryans didn’t look too good.”
“I’m fine. I’ll have a sore fist tomorrow and for once I can’t blame that on Cordell.”
“I can’t believe Nick was the poacher.”
“If you’d met his brother, Brad, you mightn’t be so surprised. But they’ve caught their last bobcat.”
“How did you know it was them?”
He dipped his head toward the red truck. “You can’t see from here, but there’re traps in the back. That and Henry would never give them permission to camp here.” Ethan grinned briefly. “I did honestly go inside to talk but it seems hot-headed Nick saw us out on the range and has a problem with how much time we’ve been spending together.”
“Oh.”
“So there soon wasn’t any talking happening and in the process the fire they’d lit inside the cabin spread.” His jaw hardened. “I gave them a choice, stay and help or head down the road to meet the Sheriff. They walked.”
She nodded and smoothed away black ash from his cheek.
His eyes held hers. “Bridie, Henry asked me if I wanted to take on Larkspur Ridge, and I said I would think about it.”
“He told me. Will you? I know you have faith in your foreman to run your Colorado Springs ranch?”
Ethan’s eyes burned blue. “I do. Which means I can go ... anywhere ... not just here but also ... to the outback.”
Bridie took a moment to answer. Ethan was offering to give up everything he knew and loved to be with her.
She spoke past the swell of her emotions. “As much as I love the outback, Paradise Valley is my place of new beginnings.” She paused, suddenly shy. “Larkspur Ridge, or Colorado Springs, it doesn’t matter where you are, it will always be ... home.”
Ethan’s smile contained all the love and warmth she’d ever hoped to see. His head lowered but he didn’t kiss her.
“I’m a forever guy, don’t ever forget that. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I won’t. I promise.” She pulled his head down to hers. “Ethan, I love you.”
His eyes darkened to almost black and when he spoke his voice was quiet. “I love you too.”
His mouth touched hers and he kissed her, a tender, deep kiss that promised her a lifetime full of mountain sunrises. She sighed and melted further against him.
This time when their kiss ended Ethan eased away. “I’m guessing Henry’s waiting in the truck and won’t settle for anything less than us walking back hand in hand?”
She smiled and fell into step beside him as the weight of his arm settled around her waist and kept her close. “Is now a good time to tell you he’s not going to settle for anything less than a ranch full of grandchildren at Larkspur Ridge to teach to fish and ride.”
Ethan groaned. “Have you seen Henry with kids? He’s more mischievous than they are. It won’t only be fishing and riding he’ll teach them.”
Bridie laughed, her heart full.
She’d come to Montana as a lost outback cowgirl to say farewell to her father and to meet her family but she’d found so much more. She’d found friendship, a home and love with a forever cowboy.
If you enjoyed His Outback Cowgirl, you’ll love the other Wildflower Ranch stories!
Wildflower Ranch Series
Book 1: Cherish Me, Cowboy
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Book 2: Her Mistletoe Cowboy
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Book 3: Her Big Sky Cowboy
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Book 4: His Outback Cowgirl
About the Author
When not writing Alissa Callen plays traffic controller to four children, three dogs, two horses and one renegade cow who really does believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. After a childhood spent chasing sheep on the family farm, she has always been drawn to remote areas and small towns, even when residing overseas. Once a teacher and a counselor, she remains interested in the life journeys people take. Her books are characteristically heart-warming, emotional and character driven. She currently lives on a small slice of rural Australia.
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His Outback Cowgirl (Wildflower Ranch Book 4) Page 12