Peace River (Rockland Ranch Series) (26 page)

             
When he awoke again, she was nowhere to be seen, but the smell of whatever she was baking filled his home.  He was still lying there thinking about her when she came back in wearing an old pair of cut offs.  She opened the front door and paused, brushing dirt off her knees, then came on into the kitchen where she washed her hands at the sink and bent to take their dinner out of the oven.  Seeing his eyes on her, she came around and watched him struggle to sit upright. 

             
She put a throw between his bare back and the leather couch and said honestly, “You don’t look so good.”  

             
That’s not what he’d been thinking about her.  Trying to shrug his one shoulder, he said, “I look better than I feel.”  He sighed.  “I can’t believe it’s taking me this long to get back on my feet.  The shoulder and collarbone are okay, but whatever I did inside is still a mess.”  He glanced down at his stomach and then laid his head back against the top of the couch.  The bandage on his abdomen had been removed and there was just a strip of clear tape over the long red scar that lay neatly between rows of muscles on his belly. 

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

He chuckl
ed 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 member 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.