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“You call me Lyn. I don’t like formality if I can avoid it. I’d like us to be friends.”
He blinked, his eyes glinting with hesitancy. “Okay, I’ll call you Lyn. When is your next trip? What are the plans?”
She noticed his omission of them becoming friends. That was okay. She’d learned long ago that she could work with people she had no fondness for. As long as she maintained her composure and worked professionally, it wouldn’t be a problem. At least not for her.
“I’ll be taking a horse trailer up into the McClellan Mountains on Friday and then riding into Barton’s Canyon to look at the creek there. If you want to tag along, you’ll need to bring your own horse. We can ride together, but plan to stay out all day.”
He flashed her a devastating smile. “Deal. I’ll even pack us a lunch.”
“That’s not necessary. I can bring my own food.”
“I want to do it. I promise you won’t regret it.”
She let the subject drop. What she ate for lunch was the least of her concerns.
They made a few more arrangements, with Lyn planning to drive out to Sunrise Ranch so they could load his horse into her Forest Service trailer. Then they’d drive up onto the mountain and unload the horses. They’d spend the entire day riding across some very rugged terrain together.
Lyn doubted her sanity for agreeing to Cade’s proposal. Being near this man made her jittery for some peculiar reason. She tried to tell herself that working with him would help with resolving the wild-horse problems. But it could backfire on her, too. If he didn’t like what he saw or didn’t believe what she told him, he could make a lot of trouble for her with the Toyakoi Tribe. Then she’d be forced to override him and call in the BLM anyway.
The last ranger on this district had dealt with a lot of angry people and even a death threat. Lyn wanted to avoid that, if possible. If she disagreed with Cade, what impact might that have on Kristen? Cade Baldwin was now Kristen’s doctor. Lyn certainly didn’t want him for an enemy. No, not one bit.
* * *
This was a mistake. Cade never should have come here to Lyn Warner’s office and asked to be included in her visits to the wild horses. No matter what she thought, he didn’t want to make trouble. But neither did he want to see the mustangs driven to and fro by a helicopter, captured in a corral, and then loaded on a truck to be transported miles and miles away from their home.
“What exactly are you planning to look at on Friday?” he asked, trying to ignore a large picture on her wall of a black stallion with a long flowing tail and mane as he raced across a meadow of green grass. Absolutely spectacular. Remembering Lyn’s camera, Cade wondered if she’d taken the picture.
Her chair squeaked as she sat forward. “Being new to this ranger district, I’ve never viewed Barton’s Canyon. I’ve been told that the creek is in bad shape, and I want to see it for myself. The Forest Service has worked hard to build up a nice band of desert bighorn sheep in that area, and I want to make sure we don’t lose any of them.”
Cade thought the bighorns could surely cause as much damage as the horses. “How many sheep are we talking about?”
“Approximately thirty-three, including rams.”
Okay, maybe not. Even Cade knew there were many more mustangs running wild across the range than there were sheep. He’d seen the horses himself and knew the bighorn were way outnumbered.
“You like bighorn sheep, don’t you?” she asked.
Her question took him off guard. “Of course. I love all the wildlife.”
“Good. Because I’m told they’re in danger right now. Not enough food and difficulty getting to a decent water source.”
But how could the mustangs cause that problem? The horses were just living out there, trying to survive. It couldn’t be so cut-and-dried. There must be another reason the bighorn sheep were in danger. Maybe this was just another scare tactic. A strategy Cade had seen other government employees use in the past. Next he expected Lyn to blame the mustangs for the demise of the mule deer and antelope, too.
Something inside him hardened. “I hope you’re not going to blame all of this on the wild horses.”
She took a deep inhale and paused for several moments as though choosing her words carefully. “I’ll tell you what, Cade. Let’s ride up Barton’s Canyon and take a look. I’d like to view it before I make any judgment calls. Maybe my people are wrong in their reports and there isn’t a problem. That would make my job much easier. I wouldn’t have to disturb the horses. But if something is wrong, it’ll speak loud and clear, and then I’ll need to deal with it accordingly.”
Her reasoning impressed him. No thumping her fist on the desk. No insisting the horses were to blame. If she could stay impartial until she saw something wrong, then he could, too. Or at least, he hoped he could. “That sounds fair to me. But what kinds of problems have your people reported?”
Her brow furrowed. “Let’s just wait. If something’s wrong, we’ll see it. Let’s educate ourselves first, and then we can talk about it in depth, okay?”
Again, her insight startled him. He hadn’t expected the new forest ranger to be so reasonable. And that made him even more suspicious that she might have hidden motives.
“Okay.” He answered slowly, afraid he might have to defer to her judgment on this topic. After all, what did he really know about vegetation and wild animals? As a medical doctor, he’d studied plenty of science and biology. He was definitely smart enough to see through a shell game. But he knew almost nothing about ecosystems, watersheds, wildlife and grazing needs.
What if there was something wrong? And what if Lyn blamed the problems on the wild horses? Cade could write his senators on behalf of the Shoshone Tribe, but the BLM had the law on their side. They’d do whatever they deemed was right.
“And if we don’t find anything wrong, will you leave the mustangs alone?” He didn’t want the bighorn sheep and other wildlife to suffer, but neither did he want her to move the horses if they were innocent.
“Absolutely.”
But in her eyes, he saw doubt. And a bit of regret. And that gave him a shivery foreboding. “You seem skeptical.”
“I am,” she admitted. “I have a master’s degree in ecology, and I do this job for a living, Cade. I’ve seen this situation before. The problems aren’t always easy to address, but the cause seems to be consistent in these circumstances.”
In other words, she was almost certain she’d find problems, which would require her to act against the horses.
“Are you sure you can be objective toward the mustangs?” he asked, feeling a bit cynical.
She nodded, her eyes narrowing. “Oh, yes. Remember I’m here to protect all the wild animals, including the mustangs. I don’t have the luxury of preferring one animal over another. I’m a conservationist, not a preservationist. All of these animals are important to the area.”
Cade wanted to believe her. He really did. But there’d been trouble in the past, and he’d grown accustomed to distrusting government employees. But not at the expense of the desert bighorn sheep. And the mule deer. And many other species he couldn’t name right now.
No doubt Lyn could name them all.
“Okay, I can accept that.” As he said the words, he hoped he meant them. For now, he’d wait until Friday and see what happened from there. He’d know soon enough if the horses were the problem. And then he’d do everything in his power to help save them.
As he left Lyn’s office, he couldn’t help feeling a bit on edge. As if he’d been told he had a large lump in his throat that needed a biopsy to determine if it was malignant or benign. The unknown made him nervous.
He was absolutely certain of one thing. If Lyn Warner had ulterior motives, he’d ferret them out. Just as she must trust him to provide the best medical care for her daughter, Cade must also trust Lyn to do what was right for the wild horses.
And there lay the crux of the problem. Neither of them fully trusted each other. At least, not yet.
Chapter Four
Friday morning, Lyn watched as Cade Baldwin stepped out onto the front porch of his white frame house. She tried to smile as she parked her green Forest Service truck and horse trailer at the side of his wide, graveled driveway.
He stood waiting as she got out of the truck. Dressed in cowboy boots and tight blue jeans, he wore a gray chambray shirt that embraced his muscled arms and the width of his shoulders like a fitted sheet of fine linen. Even from this distance, she caught the flash of his white teeth as he squinted against the morning sun. He tugged a battered hat low across his forehead, shadowing his eyes. He stared back, taking in her ranger uniform, a deep frown creasing the corners of his full lips.
With a couple flips of her hands, she pulled her long, blond hair back into a ponytail and walked toward him. A blue-coated Australian cow dog stood beside Cade, panting and wagging his tail happily. Lyn wasn’t surprised when the dog didn’t rush her. Real cow dogs were highly trained, calm and obedient. This one seemed especially well behaved.
“Good morning, Cade,” Lyn called.
“Morning.” A monotone reply. No lilt in his voice.
The greeting seemed to signal the dog. He ran to meet her, snuffling at her legs. She bent down and held out a hand, palm up, waiting for the animal to sniff her skin before she petted and scratched his ears.
“Hi, fella. You got a name?”
“Gus,” Cade supplied in a rather brusque tone.
She glanced at Cade’s forearms and hands where a myriad of white scars blemished his golden skin. Like he’d been sliced repeatedly with a knife. Noticing her gaze, he quickly rolled his sleeves down, hiding his arms from view.
She stepped back from the dog, trying to be as pleasant as possible. After all, Cade was the one who’d asked to join her, not the other way around. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah, Flash is over here.” He walked toward the corral, moving with the slow grace of a man who knew his place in the world and wasn’t afraid to do what had to be done.
A bay gelding stood with his head over the rail fence, ears pricked forward with interest. A handsome mustang.
While Cade carried his saddle to put inside the back of Lyn’s horse trailer, she glanced around his yard. Yellow tulips bloomed along the side of the two-story house, and there wasn’t a weed in sight. Tall, straight fences showed good repair, the house wearing a fresh coat of paint. She could find no fault with its upkeep.
“You have a beautiful place here. A very large house,” Lyn remarked.
“Thank you.”
She glanced at the white wraparound porch and chained swing that swayed gently in the breeze. For just a moment, she imagined herself sitting there in the evening with a glass of lemonade in her hand. She envisioned Kristen running across the green lawn and laughing. No limp. No holes in their hearts. A happy family once more.
Lyn studied the upper floor where three wide windows and shutters trimmed with blue paint gazed down at her. A cheery place she longed to explore. “How many bedrooms do you have?”
Cade opened the corral gate and led Flash toward the horse trailer. “Three downstairs and five up. There’s also three baths, a large kitchen, mudroom and living room with a rock fireplace. The guesthouse out back has three more bedrooms and another full bath. Are you in the market?”
She blinked. “No, I was just curious.”
“Good, because I’d never sell this place. I just finished renovating the downstairs bathroom, complete with a walk-in shower and jetted tub. The work is good therapy.”
“Therapy for what?”
He frowned as though he’d confided too much. “I just like to stay busy.”
Hmm. She could read a lot in what he didn’t say. Rob had fought in the Gulf War. He’d liked to stay busy, too. It helped him forget a lot of trauma, and Lyn wondered if it was the same for Cade. Though she’d never been to war, she understood the feeling. “What’s the guesthouse for?”
“Years ago, it used to be a bunkhouse filled with wranglers who helped work the ranch. Now it just sits empty.”
“And you live here all alone?”
“Yep.”
She hurried to open the door and lower the ramp to the trailer. “Where’s your family?”
He hesitated, a hint of sadness in his expressive voice. “I have a cousin living back east, but the rest are all gone now. My grandfather died last spring and willed me what’s left of the ranch. Over the years, he’d sold off pieces of it here and there.”
No wonder Cade would never sell. The ranch must have a lot of sentimental value for him. “I’m sorry to hear of your loss.”
Her Appaloosa mare stood inside the trailer, and Flash neighed a low greeting and waved his head. The other horse nickered in return, and Flash walked right up the ramp without any urging. Cade closed the metal door behind him.
Lyn glanced at Gus, who hadn’t left her side. “Your dog seems pretty calm. Would he like to go with us?”
Cade nodded. “That’s thoughtful of you. He takes my commands and does well up on the mountain. He won’t chase any wildlife, unless I ask him to.”
That was good enough for Lyn. Without a word, she opened the door and gave a shrill whistle. “Come, Gus!”
The dog’s ears pricked forward, and he stared at the woman for several moments as though assessing her. She wasn’t his master, after all, but she’d worked with cow dogs when she’d been a kid on her parents’ ranch. The dog decided she was okay and raced to the door, hopping up inside.
Pulling his cowboy hat off his head, Cade wiped his brow. “Looks like he minds you better than he does me.”
Lyn chuckled as she got into the driver’s seat and started the engine. She waited for Cade to join her and snap on his seat belt. With Gus sitting between them, panting, Lyn put the truck in gear and pulled out of the yard.
They didn’t speak as she took the dirt road leading up to the McClellan Mountains. The desert rolled out before them, beautiful with its austere sage and golden-brown hues. She pointed at a rocky outcropping bedecked by blue lupine and mountain sunflowers. “Isn’t that pretty? Spring is finally here.”
Cade blinked in confusion, then nodded. “I’ve been up this road zillions of times, but never noticed any flowers before.”
She kept her gaze in front of her, navigating the twisty turns with ease. “I suppose war and medical school are a big distraction. It’s hard to stop our busy lives long enough to notice the beautiful world we live in.”
He didn’t comment. As they climbed in elevation, the vegetation became more scrubby. A trail of PJ’s hugged the dirt road leading into the canyon. Silver-colored rocks and gravel littered the vast hills with clear views of the mountains flowing beyond the horizon. Desolate or not, Lyn loved this place already. When she went up into the mountains like this, she could almost forget her troubles for a short time.
“Isn’t the desert beautiful?” she asked, not necessarily looking for an answer.
“I think so,” he said, then clamped his mouth shut as though he regretted speaking.
At the mouth of Barton’s Canyon, Lyn pulled the truck over to a flat area and killed the motor. “We’ll ride the rest of the way from here on horseback.”
“Whatever you say.”
They unloaded their horses. A quiet camaraderie settled between them as they worked. Without her asking, the doctor lifted her blanket and saddle onto the back of her horse. Lyn could easily do the chore, but Cade’s thoughtfulness impressed her and she thanked him. Gus lazed patiently beneath the wide spread of a cottonwood, not at all bothered by the waiting.
“This is Applejack.” Lyn patted the neck of her white Appaloosa mare.
“Is that a Forest Service horse or your own?” Cade eyed the government brand on the horse’s rump.
“Forest Service. I don’t own a horse anymore, although Kristen keeps begging me to buy her one.” Lyn drew in a deep breath and let it go. “Most kids want a puppy, but not my Kristen. She wants a horse—as if she could ever ride.”
“Why can’t she ride?”
She waited for Apple to exhale before tightening the cinch on her saddle. “I think you know the answer to that. Kristen can barely walk, let alone ride horses. I think she wants one because her dad loved them so much. She wants to play soccer and girls’ basketball, too.”
He pulled the reins up over the gelding’s head and stepped up onto his horse. “So let her. There’s no reason she can’t do all those activities.”
Everything within Lyn rebelled, and she looked at him as if he’d gone daft. “No, I don’t want her falling off a horse or getting knocked down by an angry teammate. She doesn’t move very fast, and she’s been hurt enough.”
They both had. If only they could start to heal now. But it seemed an impossible goal, always out of reach. Everything was so difficult. The hospital and doctor visits, the continuous pile of medical bills, shuttling Kristen back and forth from school, the girl’s constant sullen attitude. Everything had become an exhausting task. And if losing Rob wasn’t bad enough, it now seemed there was a wide gulf of anger between mother and daughter. And Lyn didn’t know how to breach the void.
“Don’t you think Kristen should decide what’s too difficult for her to do?” Cade asked. “Maybe she figures getting hurt is worth it to try and succeed at new things. Kids need to try different activities to help build their confidence.”
Lyn’s mouth hardened. This man didn’t know her or her daughter. Not really. One doctor’s visit didn’t give him the right to tell her how to raise her own child. “I’m her mother. I know what’s best for her.”
She ignored his deep frown and turned her back on him as she adjusted the halter over Apple’s muzzle. As she climbed into the saddle, she hoped Cade would let the subject drop.
“What if I help Kristen?” he persisted. “I’m pretty good with horses and could give her riding lessons. It’d strengthen her legs and back, which would help her walk better, too. As her doctor, I highly recommend she try anything she likes. Let her live her life, Lyn.”
