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Gus reached out and patted her hand. “Honey, I know how much I was asking of you when I made that phone call to you in Bahrain. I knew you hated Buck and hated this house.”
Val slipped her hands around the mug of hot coffee. Warmth against the iciness inhabiting her knotted gut. “Like I said, I’m here because of you, Gus. If you hadn’t broken your hip, I couldn’t have gotten out of the Air Force. Because of the situation, I was able to get what they call a hardship discharge.”
“I’m so glad you’re here. An elder like me with a cranky hip can’t run this place alone.”
“Gus, why save the Bar H at all?” Val drilled a look into her grandmother’s wrinkled, darkly tanned features.
“Why not?” The elder perked up, feisty now. “This is your home, Val. It doesn’t have to always be the terrible place it was for you as a child. You can create happy memories here, too. I had to sell our ranch in Cheyenne and it was the last thing I wanted to do. Pete’s family started that ranch a hundred and twenty years ago. It broke my heart to have to leave it in order to come back here. But I did it. Sometimes, life puts huge demands on us we don’t want to face. But we must sacrifice for a greater good.”
Guiltily, Val said, “You gave up so much. I knew you were grieving for Grandpa Pete’s passing. And I know you two spent your sixty years together building that spread into a profitable ranch. You walked away from all of it for us, Gus. Even at sixteen I realized the terrible sacrifice you made for us.”
“I did it,” Gus said, her voice firm, “because you two were far more important than our ranch. Family comes first. Always. You’re my granddaughter and all I ever wanted for you was happiness.”
“That didn’t happen,” Val said in a rasp, fighting back rising emotions. She held her grandmother’s teary blue gaze.
“I just wanted to put this whole damn thing behind me, Gus. I never wanted to be here again.”
“Then,” Gus said gently, “maybe it’s time to start healing up from it? Everyone deserves to have a home. A place where they came from. A place where they can come back to and call their own. Us Westerners believe in family, home and loyalty. Maybe between you and me some healing and good might come from this.”
“You’re such an optimist, Gus.”
Perking up, she grinned. “Yes, I hold out hope for hopeless, that’s for sure. Pete always called me a cockeyed idealist,” and she chuckled.
Laughing a little with her grandmother, Val took a sip of the hearty coffee. She thought back on her life since she’d left this ranch. She’d gone to college at eighteen. From there, she went into the Air Force. She was twenty-eight now. She’d only spent six years in the military and had been counting on making it to twenty years so she’d have a pension. “This ranch’s back is broken, Gus. The corrals are in terrible shape. The barn needs a new roof. I don’t see any cattle. I see a few horses out in one pasture. This place is not a moneymaker, it’s nothing but a money pit.”
Nodding, Gus said, “After Buck died of a heart attack, your mother made a lot of poor choices insofar as hiring good wranglers. It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know how to budget because Buck kept her out of the money and finances. He refused to let her know anything about the running of the ranch, and he took all his knowledge of keeping this ranch solvent to the grave with him. I tried to pick up the slack, figure out the accounting books, but there was only so much I could do.”
Val recalled that time. “I celebrated when Mom told me Buck had died.”
“No one can blame you, honey. But without Buck, this ranch went to hell in a handbasket. Your mom was depressed. No matter what kind of medication the doctors put her on, she spiraled deeper and deeper into a very dark place. I couldn’t talk or reason with her. She just locked herself away in her room.”
Val’s heart wrung with pain over her mother’s decline. She hadn’t been there to help her. She’d run as far away as she could.
“When it came to finding the accounting books,” Gus continued, “and then discovering all the places Buck squirreled money away, it took me a year to figure it all out. And your mother, by that time, had been diagnosed with the most virulent form of breast cancer and she died six months afterward.”
Val recalled the phone calls, the fact her mother was drifting away from her. Val had felt abandoned and adrift. “I remember the funeral.”
“Yes, and I remember telling you not to worry, that I could handle the Bar H. I felt at the time, I could bring it back bit by bit. But your mom chose wranglers like she chose Buck. They were young men who talked the talk but couldn’t walk the walk. That series of wranglers did nothing but allow the ranch to slide further into destruction. Good wranglers are worth their weight in gold.”
“And then, you fell and broke your hip,” Val said. She saw what the Bar H meant to her grandmother because of the fierce look that sparked in her watery blue eyes. Her jaw was set. Val knew the bulldog feistiness she’d always possessed was there even at eighty-four. “But even if that hadn’t happened, no one person could ever run this two-hundred-acre ranch by themselves.”
“No, I couldn’t. And then the hip replacement went wrong, and I’m stuck with this damned cane for the rest of my life. I can’t ride a horse or go out and mend the fences. So much was taken away from me when I broke my hip, Val. I grieved over this situation a long time before calling and asking you to come home. I don’t want to see this ranch sold, too. It broke my heart to sell ours. I cried for weeks over that decision. I was hurting so badly from Pete suddenly being torn away from me, too. We were a good team. The best of friends. And then, suddenly, in one moment, he was gone….”
Val reached out and gripped her grandmother’s hand, its knuckles slightly enlarged with arthritis. “You’ve had to go through so much, Gus. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, honey, I know you are. We’ve all gone through our share, it seems. When Cheryl would bring you to visit our ranch in Cheyenne, I couldn’t understand why you were such a shy shadow that hid from all of us. And every time Pete came near you, you were like a wild horse running in the other direction. Lord, how I wish I had picked up on your reactions properly. After the fact, I talked to a therapist about abused children. It was then I realized you were terribly wounded and wouldn’t trust any man. Not even my Pete. And he was one of the most gentle, loving men you could ever meet.”
Dragging in a huge breath of air, Val felt as if the weight of the world was bearing down on her shoulders. “Gus, you can’t blame yourself for not knowing what was going on. I myself wish I’d done something. If only I’d called the sheriff. Or talked to one of my teachers.”
“Don’t go there,” Gus warned her. “You were innocent in all of his, Val. You were a trusting, vulnerable child.”
Hot tears wedged into Val’s eyes. With an angry swipe, she wiped them away. “I just couldn’t ever understand why my Mom lied to the doctors when she was taken to the hospital. She had a broken arm and collar bone, eyes blackened and both cheeks fractured. And she lied to them! She told them she’d been bucked off a horse, hit the pipe corral fence and then fell to the ground.” Gulping, Val stared helplessly at Gus. “They believed her! When you came here and told me that, I just felt like I was going to implode with rage.”
“You were raised in a toxic environment, so you thought love was being beat. You never knew any different as a child. How could you?”
“I’ve tried so hard to forget my past!” Val choked, the tears flowing down her taut cheeks. “When you asked me to come here, I threw up. I couldn’t hold back the fear, the memories avalanching me again.”
Gus scraped the chair back, picked up her cane and hobbled around the table. Leaning down, she slipped one arm around Val’s shoulders and kissed her red hair. “You’ve had nothing but pain from the time you were born,” Gus agreed. “But you listen to me. You’re a Hunter. You have the blood of my family running strong through you, Val. I know this is the hardest thing you’ve ever done, but really, it isn’t.”
Val lifted her head, the tears blurring her grandmother’s deeply wrinkled face inches away from hers. “W-what do you mean?”
“Honey,” Gus said in a whisper, placing a kiss on her wrinkled brow, “the worst was living in this house when Buck was alive. He’s dead and gone now. I know you have the past to work through, but he ain’t here any longer. That makes this easier than the first eighteen years of your life, doesn’t it?” She gently held Val’s tearful blue gaze.
“I—I don’t know.”
“I do. Besides,” Gus said, gently wiping the tears from Val’s pale cheeks, “you have me. Together, you and I are a force to behold. We can bring this ranch back to life, and make it even better than before. We can make it beautiful, successful and you’ll have the money you need for when you want to retire.” Giving her a soft smile, Gus added, “Family should be a team, Val. Oh, it’s true, there’s always a rotten apple in every family barrel, but don’t walk away from it all just because of one person. Your ma put her heart and soul into the Bar H. Now, we’ll do the same. Together…”
CHAPTER TWO
THE SWEET SMELL of alfalfa hay entered Griff McPherson’s nostrils. He walked into the large, airy barn, carrying a huge baling hook in each of his hands. A ranch customer had backed his Chevy truck up against the lip of the wooden platform and was waiting for twenty bales to be placed onto its bed. Sweat trickled down the sides of Griff’s temples as he approached the first bale and quickly sank the long, sharp hooks into it. With a grunt, he hefted the eighty-pound bale out of the building and dropped it into the truck. He reveled in his strength, feeling close to the earth and to all life of late. Working at Andy’s Horse Emporium, a central place in the valley for ranchers to buy hay, feed and other supplies gave him deep and growing satisfaction.
Just having a job in this sputtering economy made Griff feel grateful as he walked quickly back into the barn. His well-worn boots thunked hollowly against the graying oak plank floor. Andy had taken pity on him when Griff’s brother Slade had kicked him out of the family ranch house. Mouth tightening as he leaned down and hooked a second bale, Griff turned and walked it out to the truck.
There was another full-time young man working at the Emporium with him, and between the two of them, they were kept busy all day long. It was hard, physical work and Griff absorbed it with quiet joy. It was a far cry from his days as a banker on Wall Street. As he hefted another bale and carried it out of the barn, he glanced up at the blue morning sky. How could he ever have left Jackson Hole, the place he was born and raised? The Tetons Ranch had been in his family for a hundred years. His soul was here. How could he have not come home as soon as he’d turned eighteen?
The third bale was dropped into the pickup. Griff leaped down into the bed of the Chevy and expertly arranged the bales so he could make a solid foundation for the rest to come. Inhaling deeply, his white cowboy shirt clinging to his body, Griff smiled to himself. In one easy, fluid leap he was back on the platform. Grabbing the hooks with his sweat-stained leather gloves, he moved into the shade of the barn. His mind lingered on his past life, working in derivatives at his uncle’s Wall Street firm. When the crash hit, he’d been out of a job. Coming home had been a rough landing.
The air was full of fine dust and bits of the alfalfa that had been trucked in for ranchers in need for their horses or cattle. The growing season in this part of Wyoming was only seventy days and not long enough to grow a crop of either alfalfa or grass hay. It all had to be brought in from nearby Idaho or from other surrounding states. And it made the price higher than usual.
Griff’s nostrils flared as he sank the hooks into the next bale. In about twenty minutes, he’d have the order filled, the bales neatly stacked upon one another, tied in place with the rancher’s stout nylon straps so they wouldn’t fall off during transit. The work satisfied him. It was far better than sitting in a chair staring at a computer and translating graphs and analysis. He was born into a Wyoming ranch family. And God, it was good to be back home even if it meant living hand to mouth. If not for Andy hiring him to work five days a week, Griff knew he’d have to leave Jackson Hole for a soup kitchen in a major city.
“Hey,” Andy hollered to him from the office across the way, “when you get done, I need you in here, Griff. There’s a lady in here lookin’ to hire a full-time wrangler.”
Straightening, Griff pushed the tan Stetson cowboy hat off his brow. “Fifteen minutes,” he called back. He saw Andy nod, raise his hand in acknowledgment and disappear back inside the main store. Lifting the hat off his head, Griff quickly wiped his brow. He could smell his sweat. It came from good, hard work. He now realized he’d been wasting away in New York City. Out west, he was once again hard-muscled, physically fit and ready to take on his newly evolving world.
* * *
VAL WATCHED ANDY return to the front desk where she stood waiting. She had received a warm welcome from him when she’d first walked in the door. He’d recognized her right away. “Griff will be in here in about fifteen minutes,” he told her.
Val felt leery. “Are you sure he’s a good wrangler, Andy?”
“Yep, I am,” the man said, ringing up her items at a cash register.
“But, you said he’s only been here a couple of months.”
“I know you’ve been gone a long time, Miss Val, but surely you know Slade McPherson? Owner of the Tetons Ranch?”
“Yes, of course. Everyone thinks well of him.”
“Griff is Slade’s younger fraternal twin brother. Now, you recall that at six years old these two boys lost their parents?”
Scrunching her brow, Val tried to remember. “I was young at the time, Andy. Humor me?”
“That you were. And you’re still young and beautiful, Miss Val,” he said with a wink. “Slade and Griff’s parents were killed in an auto accident. Red Downing, who owned the ranch next to them, was drunk when he struck them. All three of them died in that tragic event. The two boys were split up. Slade stayed with a local uncle and Griff got shipped out to New York City to the other uncle who owned a financial services firm. Griff went on to get an MBA from Harvard and became a banker at his uncle’s company. That is, until the Wall Street crash. Griff came home hoping that his older brother would hire him, but he couldn’t.”
“I see,” Val said. “He’s a city slicker, then, Andy.”
“Ah, well…sort of…but he’s a darned hard worker, Miss Val. He isn’t lazy. He likes what he’s doing, and he’s good at it.”
Val found that hard to believe. “My mother was really poor at picking good wranglers. I don’t want to follow in her footsteps, Andy.”
Andy gave her a sad look. “Your mom was really hurting, Miss Val. I tried to tell her the men she was hiring were lazy and no good, but she didn’t listen.”
“Did she come in here to ask for a referral?”
With a heavy shake of his head, Andy said, “You know Buck hated me and my store. He was always bad-mouthing me. It’s no wonder your mom, after his death, didn’t come in here for my help. I would gladly have offered it.”
Reaching out, Val touched the man’s arm. “I’m so sorry, Andy. I really am.”
“Hey,” he said, brightening, “it’s not your fault. You’re not your father’s daughter, thank goodness. Give yourself credit—you came to me and asked for a good wrangler. Griff won’t let you down. Now, he’s green, that’s true, but he’s eager to learn and he makes things right.”
“I don’t know. When has a city slicker ever turned into a wrangler?”
Chuckling a little, Andy leaned his hands on the counter. “I know what you’re saying, Miss Val. But Griff is changing my mind about that old saying, too. I didn’t think he could reinvent himself. But he has.”
“Work is hard to find,” Val agreed. “I’m just worried that he has too high-powered a résumé to want to stick it out as a wrangler. As soon as this economy turns around, he’ll be gone. We really need someone long-term who will work with us to get the Bar H back on its feet.”
“I know,” Andy said in a soothing voice. “I hear you, Miss Val. I can’t stand here and say Griff won’t leave at some point. I really don’t know. What I do know is he’s been invaluable to us here at the Emporium. It’ll be a shame to lose him but I know he’ll do a great job for you. He’s a good mechanic, fixing engines and other ranch equipment, and that’s what you need.”
McPherson sounded like the right man, but her gut warned her against getting her hopes up. She looked toward the back door where Val knew he would be coming in any minute now. “Can you give me fifteen minutes to talk with him? To see if he’s really what we’re looking for, Andy?”
“Sure.” He pointed to the coffee station at the rear of the store. “You two help yourselves to coffee and then go out back to talk. You’ll have privacy out there.”
Val saw the door open. She wasn’t prepared for her reaction to the person who entered the shop.
Griff McPherson was tall, about six feet three inches, a hundred and eighty pounds of lean, cougar muscle. When he took off his tan Stetson hat, she got a good look at his face. His short black hair was plastered against his skull with sweat. His face was square with a broad brow, clean-looking nose and a stubborn-looking jaw. It was his startling spring-colored green eyes, large and filled with intelligence, that snagged her beating heart. He was ruggedly handsome, Val thought.
In fact, he could easily pose as a model for a marketing ad. She saw him remove his stained leather gloves and tuck them into the belt of his Levi’s. The dusty white shirt he wore clung to his upper body, outlining his broad shoulders and well-sprung chest. And when he lifted his head, his gaze settling on hers, Val quickly lowered her eyes. She felt shaky. And excited. And scared. What were all these crazy-quilt emotions about? Confused and taken off guard, she didn’t have time to process them.
“Miss Val, meet Griff McPherson,” Andy said, and gestured for the wrangler to come over and shake
her hand.
“Miss Val, nice to meet you.” Griff held his hat in his left hand and extended his right one toward Val Hunter as he took her in. She was beautiful. He searched his mind trying to remember her. Was she new to the area? Unsure, he managed a slight smile as she lifted her head and looked up at him. Val wasn’t short. In fact, she was only about four inches shy of his height. And she was fit, her body long and reminding him of a supple young tree. It was her dark blue eyes that looked like deep pools of water from a nearby lake, that grabbed at his heart. Instantly, Griff felt heat move through him as their hands met and clasped. Val’s face was oval, cheekbones high, eyes wide spaced and filled with intelligence. As his gaze dropped to her bow-shaped lips, he felt his entire lower body tighten with desire. Shocked at his response to her, he quickly released her hand.
“Andy said you were looking for a full-time wrangler?” he said.
Clearing her throat, her hand pleasantly tingling, Val said, “Yes, I’m here to interview candidates.” She didn’t want this eye candy of a cowboy to think this was a done deal.
“Of course,” Griff said.
“Andy invited us to get a cup of coffee and go outside to talk.” Val gestured toward the coffee station.
Griff gave his a boss a quick look. “My break time?”
“Yep,” Andy said with a grin.
Val couldn’t get her heart to settle down. The man walked a respectful distance behind her. She strained to pour the hot coffee into an awaiting paper cup without spilling it. Mouth dry, she felt tongue-tied in front of this iconic-looking cowboy. She had to repeatedly warn herself he was a city slicker in disguise.
“I’ll meet you outside.” Val hastily opened the door. She saw him nod as he reached to pour himself a cup of coffee.
On the back porch, Val took a long, calming breath. The wrangler had rattled her. Her reaction wasn’t something she’d expected. Val tried to steady her heart and breathing. How could a stranger take away her breath? She knew she’d been too long without a relationship. The last man she had been with, Dan Bradley, was a Marine major who had gone to Afghanistan and been killed two years ago. He’d stolen her heart, infused her dreams and she had been looking forward to marrying him once his tour was over. She had yet to fully recover from the loss. The next year, her mother had died. Most recently, she’d had to walk away from her career to save the Bar H. Pressing a hand to her chest, Val tried not to dwell on all the loss and sadness she carried within her. Funny enough, Griff made her forget all of the baggage and scars life had given her. It was an amazing and shocking moment. Val had no answer as to why he could have affected her so.
“Miss Val?” Griff murmured, meeting her out on the platform. He settled his hat on his head as he approached her. He noticed she looked distracted and nervous and he wondered why. Griff remained a respectful distance from the woman. He silently appreciated her rosy cheeks and sparkling blue eyes that spoke of such life in their depths. Why hadn’t he seen her around Jackson Hole? Was she a stranger to the area? Had she just bought a ranch? Griff’s curiosity was piqued.
“Yes, Mr. McPherson. My grandmother, Gus, would like me to find a wrangler who can help us around the Bar H ranch.” She gulped inwardly and looked up to meet his narrowing green gaze. He had such large, black pupils and it made him look incredibly handsome. His mouth…oh, sweet Lord, his mouth was sinfully shaped, the lips neither too thin nor too thick. The corners were curved slightly upward. She wondered if he had a good sense of humor.
“The Bar H? Isn’t that a two-hundred-acre spread south of Jackson Hole?”
“Yes, it is.” Val moved uneasily and barely tolerated his interested gaze. Why did McPherson have to be so blatantly masculine? “Gus broke her hip recently. She can’t do the work as she did before and we need help. Good help.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Griff sipped his coffee. He liked the way Val’s slightly curled red hair lay across her shoulders. She stood with her back straight, her chin at an angle. She was a proud woman. “I’ve heard of Gus. My brother, Slade, said there were several matriarchs in the valley. Iris Mason is one and I’ve met her. And he also mentioned Gus. I don’t suppose there would be another Gus?”
“No, just the one.” She liked his low, mellow voice. It was the kind of voice that could soothe a fractious horse. Or a nervous female like herself. “I had to come home to help her. And even I can’t do it all alone.”
He bit back his questions. Val was tense, her shoulders locked. Was he affecting her that way? Griff hoped not, because if it was him he could kiss this job goodbye. “I see. You don’t have any wranglers at the Bar H right now?”
“No.” Val grimaced. “My mother didn’t hire any good ones. They left the place a wreck, took her money and disappeared into the night.”
Ouch. Griff nodded and frowned. She was probably tense because she wanted to hire someone with better morals and values. He hoped Andy had spoken well of him because his dream job was to become a full-time wrangler on a ranch. Andy knew working here was temporary until some rancher could hire him. “Wranglers are the grist that make a ranch work.”
His modulated voice wafted through her like a feather gently settling upon her wildly beating heart. Val could tell Griff was sincere. “No question about that.” Val cleared her throat. “I need to know what your skills are, Mr. McPherson.”
“I’m a hard worker,” he said, opening his hand to show her the palm, “but I think my calluses will attest to that.” He smiled a little.
Val stared at his large, well-shaped hand. Indeed, there were thick calluses across his palm. What a beautiful hand. For a blinding instant, she wondered what it would be like to have those fingers graze her flesh. The thought was so startling, so out of the blue, that Val unexpectedly coughed. She stepped away from him, a hand pressed against her slender throat.
Griff allowed his hand to drop back to his side. Val Hunter looked absolutely confused. About him? Something was going on between them but he couldn’t ferret out exactly what it was. One thing Griff knew for sure: Val was very athletic. She wore a set of Levi’s that showed off her shapely hips and long, long legs. The pink blouse she wore had its long sleeves rolled up to her elbows, showing that she was ready to work. He liked the way the breeze played with some of the strands of her copper-colored hair. The freckles across her cheeks and nose seemed darker for a moment. She looked like a young teen, although Griff suspected she was probably in her late twenties.
“I can mend fence, fix trucks and other farm equipment, do any odd jobs you need done,” he said after she seemed to have regained her composure.
“Have you done any cattle breeding? Vaccinating? Do you know the signs of a cow in distress?”
“No,” he admitted slowly, “but I’m willing to learn if you’re willing to show me.” He wanted to lie and say he did, but Griff wouldn’t do that. He had the integrity of a Westerner in his blood. He knew from his old job that young men and women would lie all the time about their skills and experience just to get a job. He wasn’t going to lie to Val. Griff saw her brows dip over his admittance.
“Do you even ride a horse?” she demanded. Val saw his mouth curve faintly.
“Yes, ma’am, I do ride.”
