Chapter Six
February 12
Dair was feeling lucky. She’d been at the ranch for a full month and never had a run-in with Ray Crawford. It was a quiet Monday morning, and she rode a black quarter-horse gelding named Poke around the indoor arena at a slow trot. She felt bad because Noah was cleaning horse stalls while she was out here enjoying herself riding and training.
The covered arena was empty at nine a.m. All the horse owners who had their charges stabled at the Bar C were at work. It got busy in the evenings around six, she’d found out. But she now had eight horses in training, and Dair had been up since five a.m. sharp, starting work at six.
Poke was a registered quarter horse and his owner wanted to put him into Western classes at state-level shows. The only problem was that Poke would often, at a canter, change leads the wrong way in an arena. And in judging, the horses had to be on the correct lead to win or qualify for a ribbon. She kept her calves against the barrel of the chunky quarter horse, who snorted with each beat of the canter. It was a slow canter, one designed to bring Poke into a collected balance. When she and Noah had seen the owner ride Poke for the first time, the horse was strung out, his nose leading, and he wasn’t properly gathered up and collected, as it was called in the training industry. If a horse was collected, it meant he was in balance. But when a horse was strung out, they often switched leads back and forth when they shouldn’t.
She’d had Poke for a month, and the horse was stubborn by nature. Most quarter horses she’d worked with were friendly, open, and trusting. But Poke wasn’t. He wanted control and constantly tried to wrest it from whoever was riding him. To stop this bad habit, he had to learn to become collected.
So, after discussing him with Noah, who was very knowledgeable, they switched him to a snaffle bit with a running martingale and she kept her hands on both reins. In Western riding, the reins were held in one hand. But for training purposes, she had her hands down by the horse’s withers, keeping them quiet and asking him to keep his head properly tucked. When Poke found out he couldn’t tear the reins out of her hands, that she had the control, he sulked. But every time Dair started to loosen those reins even an inch, he’d jerk his head forward, yanking them away. He was a work in progress. Sooner or later, Dair would gain his trust.
Outside the windows, the sun was shining brightly, gold patches here and there along the thick, sandy ground within the arena. She wore her denim jacket, a red muffler, her hands encased in warm gloves, and denim jeans. Dair loved what she was doing. Everything was perfect here at the Bar C for her. She loved the Sunday dinners Garret cooked for everyone over at Reese and Shay’s home. There was so much laughter and good times on that special day for all of them. Ray Crawford always had an invite to join them, but he refused to eat with the vets. That was fine by her, because the vet wranglers were tight with one another.
She’d made good friends with Kira, Garret’s military vet wife, and Shay. The three of them often got together and had a good time. Her mother and grandmother were happy for her, as well. Things couldn’t be much better, and Dair thanked Shay and Reese for embracing her and giving her a job at the ranch. It was a dream come true.
Her heart stirred as it always did when she thought of quiet, serious Noah. It was getting tougher for Dair to keep her distance from him. She was tempted to reach out and touch him from time to time. Not a flirt, Dair felt a need to be close to him in an emotional sense. A lot closer than she had with any other man in her life. That threw her, more than falling off a horse or getting bucked off by one. Her relationships with men were few and had turned out to be certified disasters.
Dair heard the door at one end of the arena open up. Twisting her head in that direction, she saw Shay and Kira come in. They smiled and waved at her. Dair smiled back. As she cantered around to their end of the arena, she pulled Poke to a stop where the women had hung their arms over the top rail. “What are you two up to?” Dair asked, patting Poke’s damp, black neck.
Shay grinned. “Hey, we were going to go into Kassie’s Café for lunch.” She gestured around. “Kira and I need a break from the ranch and the winter. We’d love to have you join us. Can you come with us, Dair?”
Looking at her wristwatch, Dair said, “Well, I can take an hour at noon. Would that work?”
Shay nodded, giving Kira a happy look. “Absolutely! How about we pick you up here and we’ll drive into town and have a girls-only lunch?”
“Sounds great,” Dair said. “You two stay out of trouble. You’ve got that look in your eyes.”
Kira laughed. “Hey, I’m climbing walls. I’m not used to eight months of snow. Feels like I live in Alaska. I need to get out and about for a while.”
Dair knew that Kira made her living by translating Arabic documents to English and vice versa, for global clientele, and contributed financially to the Bar C. “You weren’t born in Wyoming, that’s why,” she teased.
Wrinkling her nose, Kira laughed. “Got that right! If I didn’t love Garret so much and being here at the Bar C, I’d find warmer digs elsewhere, for sure.”
“I hear you,” Dair called, turning Poke around. “See you two girls at noon.”
* * *
“So?” Kira prompted, sitting opposite Dair and Shay in a bright red vinyl booth in Kassie’s Café. “How are you and Noah getting along?”
Dair smiled over at the black-haired woman. She, too, had gray eyes like Noah, but they were pewter colored compared to his lighter ones. Kira had been in a Special Forces Army A-team with Garret Fleming. Their story was one of pain, loss, and heartbreaking separation. It did her heart good to hear that Kira had wandered into the Bar C, looking for work, not knowing Garret was already there. It was a swoon-worthy love story with a happy ending for both of them. “Now, Kira, there you go again, playing matchmaker, as usual.”
Kira tittered, pushing her large platter of sweet-potato fries into the middle of the table so they could all share them. “Noah’s single, terribly good-looking, and he has no bad habits that I can see.”
Shay chuckled. “Unlike most guys who have bad habits you could drive a truck through, Noah’s almost perfect in comparison.”
Dair gave Shay a wry look as she sank her teeth into the delicious Angus beef hamburger. Kassie’s Café was the most popular eatery in the small town of Wind River. The place was packed, noisy, and she loved the laughter she’d hear from time to time from the patrons. Kassie was cooking in the kitchen today because one of her cook’s called in sick. She, too, hired women vets as waitstaff because she’d been in the military herself. It made Dair feel far more loyal to Kassie as a result. Dair always came here to eat because she was taking care of other women vets. “No one’s perfect,” she agreed between bites.
“Actually, I don’t know if Noah told you this yet or not,” Shay said, licking the ketchup off her fingers, “but he was married to a woman named Chandra a long time ago. But that was when he was in the military. He’s never said much about it, except that they got a divorce when he was twenty-three.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Dair said. “He’s twenty-eight now.”
“Yeah,” Kira said, waving a fry at them. “Noah’s really sensitive underneath that skin of his and I think the divorce broke him in a lot of ways.”
“That’s because he’s like us,” Shay said. “I haven’t met a military vet yet who wasn’t loyal to death. It’s just part of who military people are: They’re team oriented, love unity, and are loyal to a fault.”
Dair took one of the proffered sweet-potato fries. “I didn’t know that about him.”
“Noah’s slow to warm up to people, but eventually,” Shay told her, “he does. I think he’s been hurt very badly by his divorce. He blames himself for it, not his ex-wife.”
“Well,” Kira added, “he’s never had a girlfriend since he joined the Bar C, Dair. You should know that.”
Lips twitching, Dair saw the glint and devilry in Kira’s gray eyes. “Don’t you feel guilty at all?”
Laughing, Kira said, “Not in the least! From what Garret’s said, he thinks Noah’s lonely as hell and he was glad to see Shay assign you to his home. We’re all hoping you two might get together on a personal basis.”
Rolling her eyes, Dair mumbled, “Hey, I’m not the pick of the litter, believe me. I don’t do men well at all.”
“Why is that, Dair?” Shay asked gently, tilting her head and holding her gaze. “You’ve never talked about your family. Are there skeletons in your closet, like I have in mine?”
Wiping her fingers on the napkin, Dair felt enough trust with these two women vets to open up. “My father, Butch, was a mean abuser. My mother, Ruby, didn’t know it until later, about a year into their marriage. He changed a lot at that time, I guess, from what she said. He became mentally and emotionally abusive toward her, always trying to control her.”
“Ouch,” Kira murmured, giving her a sad look. “What happened after you were born? Did he get worse?”
“He did,” Dair said, sitting back after pushing her empty platter aside. “I don’t want this intel to get around, okay?” She saw them become serious and nod their heads. “When I was nine, my dad got angry at me. I was down on my hands and knees in our garden. He’d yelled at me to get over there to him. I guess I didn’t move fast enough for him and he came roaring down the garden, grabbed me by this arm”—she held up her right one—“and jerked me up, hard. It broke one of the two bones in my lower arm.”
Both women gasped.
Dair grimaced. “My mother heard my screams of pain and came running out of the house. She lit into Butch, beating him with her fist and the rolling pin she was using to make pie dough. She forced him to let go of me. Long story short? She picked me up, ran to the car, and drove me to the hospital ER. On the way, she called the police, charged him with assault, and they threw his ass in jail. She immediately got a restraining order against him. In the meantime, she hired a lawyer and divorced him. He got four years in prison for breaking my arm.” Shrugging, Dair added, “I was glad my mother divorced him. After he was gone, we were both a lot better off.”
“That’s just awful!” Shay whispered, pressing her hand to Dair’s upper arm. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
“Bastard,” Kira snarled under her breath. “I have no patience with abusers in general. I lose it if I see a child being beat on by a parent. I won’t tolerate it. I immediately get involved.”
Dair gave her a look. “Yeah, so do I. It’s a real hot button issue for me, too.”
“Is your arm okay now?” Shay asked.
“It’s fine.”
“What happened to your father?” Kira asked.
“After he got out of prison, he left for California and we lost track of him. My mother was fine with that, and so was I. He’s probably out abusing some other poor woman in that state or beating up on her kids.”
“They should put him away for good,” Shay muttered, anger in her low tone.
“Well, your father,” Kira pointed out, “was abusive toward you and your mom. He’s still that way.”
Glumly, Shay whispered, “I know. It’s a messy, complicated situation with Ray now.”
“I’ve barely seen him since coming here,” Dair told them. “I sometimes see him getting in his truck to go into town, but that’s all. He doesn’t seem to do much around the ranch. I heard he spends most of his time in town, at that condo Reese rented for him. He seems to slide between it and the house here on the ranch.”
“Oh,” Kira warned, “he’s going to be around. It’s just a matter of time. Garret saw him over at the arena the other day, checking out the horses we board for folks. He ran into him because he was going to help Noah clean the stalls. Ray told him he was going to take one of the Bar C horses for his own. Garret asked him if he’d talked to Reese and Shay about it first.” Wrinkling her nose, Kira said, “Ray cursed him out and said he didn’t need anyone’s permission to take one of his own horses to ride.”
“Oh dear,” Dair said. “Noah said nothing about this to me.”
“Garret came to me,” Shay said. “Reese was in Jackson Hole with our lawyer at the time, and I told him when he got home last night.”
“I’ll bet Reese isn’t happy about this,” Dair said. “I sure wouldn’t be.”
“No,” Shay said, “he’s not.”
“What a FUBAR,” Kira muttered, finishing off her burger. “Your father’s a mean, abusive man. I know because I had to take care of him the first couple of months I came here. And he still drinks to this day, defying his doc’s orders to stop. He’s a selfish, self-centered bastard.”
Dair gave Shay a sad look. “This has to be really tough on you, Shay.” She saw the woman’s blue eyes grow cloudy and she could feel a lot of unspoken emotion around her.
“I’m so glad Reese is in the breach with me in this situation,” Shay told them. “He’s not emotionally involved with Ray like I am. We’ve got a good lawyer and he’s giving us sound legal advice about how to deal with Ray. One day, we think he’ll go over that legal line and then? We can get a restraining order against him that will stick. Until then . . . we wait.”
“You are looking to get him kicked off the ranch?” Dair wondered. To her, that would be a wise move. As long as Ray stayed at the Bar C, he was going to continue creating upset and friction among everyone who lived there.
“We’re working toward that goal,” Shay admitted. She pushed her half-eaten burger away, folding her hands on the table. “But we have to do things within the law. Otherwise, Ray could use our actions against us in court, and it could go against us.” Shaking her head, she whispered, “It’s such a stress on us. Every morning when I wake up, I wonder if we’ll have the ranch or not when it’s all over. It’s a terrible feeling to know your own father is plotting and planning to hit us with a civil law suit to take this ranch back at some point, regardless that my mom willed the Bar C to me.”
* * *
“Smells good in here. How’d your day go?” Noah asked, coming in from the mud porch at six that night.
It was Dair’s turn to cook for the week, and she was at the sink, washing her hands. “Good. We’re having roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, and fresh green beans.”
“You’re a great cook,” he said, giving her a warm look of approval. “I hear through the pipeline that you three girls went out for lunch today at Kassie’s.” He came over to the counter, looking at the bowl of salad she’d just made, picking out a sliced carrot and popping it in his mouth.
“Yeah, it was a good mental health outing, Noah. I needed a break.” She glanced over at him. Her lower body tightened and she tried to ignore the pull that always leaped between them when he was nearby. She wiped her hands dry on a towel. “How was your day?”
“Better now that I’m home here with you,” he admitted wryly. He picked up a couple more slices of carrot. “Can I set the table for you?”
“No, thanks. Why don’t you go get cleaned up? I’ll take care of things around here. We’re eating in half an hour.”
“Okay, sounds good. I’ll be out here by then.”
As he ambled off, Dair stood there watching him walk. Noah was boneless and that came from being in terrific athletic shape. Her heart thumped once to underscore her joy over seeing him. Usually, during the day, they saw little of one another because of their different duties. He was so handsome. More than anything, she liked his quiet, sensitive demeanor. He bestowed it on humans and animals alike, but then, he’d been a WMD dog handler and it took great sensitivity to do that very special job. Dair had it herself.
Every night, it was getting tougher to ignore him on a man-to-woman level. Her body wanted him. Her heart yearned for him. But her memory, and it was a long one, put up a big red stop sign.
She quickly set the table and made the thick, brown, fragrant gravy. Cooking was something she could do without thinking, and her mind, plus her heart, were centered on Noah.
The days flew by and she always looked forward to the nights with him in their home. And it was a home, she realized. He was a tower of strength to her, unlike the other men she’d been drawn to in her youth. Noah’s constancy, stability, and quiet way of moving through life appealed so strongly to her. How many times had she lain awake at night throughout the years, wishing for a man just like him? Dair honestly thought she’d never meet someone like Noah, that it was all her idealistic imagination. But it wasn’t. Noah Mabry was as real as they got. And that had thrown Dair out of her bitter promise to never get into a relationship with a man. Ever. She’d been hurt too badly, too often. Her heart was wounded and suffering. Somehow, Noah eased that dull pain and reminder. He drew her, and that scared the hell out of her.
“Need any help?” Noah called as he reentered the kitchen later, rolling up his sleeves to his elbows.
She turned, seeing he’d changed into a dark gray long-sleeved tee that brought out the lighter shade of his eyes. “You can take the roast and set it on the platter,” she said, gesturing to it sitting on the drain board. Now, in the evenings, he changed into a pair of gray flannel gym pants and traded his cowboy boots for a set of sneakers. His black hair gleamed from the recent shower, but the dark stubble below his high cheekbones gave him a dangerous kind of look. Not a bad one, but one that made Dair very aware of how masculine Noah was. Her body glowed with desire, making her frown.
She brought over the salads and vinaigrette dressing, setting them down. Dair knew it was supposed to be first soup, then salad, and then the entrée, but ranch life wasn’t Miss Manners. She brought over the bowl of piping hot green beans, sprinkled with slivered almonds with pats of butter melting across them. Noah retrieved a steaming bowl of mashed potatoes after finding a big spoon to stick into them. Butter melted from the center of it, spreading golden tentacles outward. She had added pepper and a bit of crushed basil over the top of it. In no time, they were sitting down and eating.
“So?” he prodded, cutting into the succulent roast beef, “how was your girls’ lunch out? Hear any gossip?” He grinned a little, teasing her.
“Nothing new,” she said, and told him about Ray.
“He’s a burr under everyone’s saddle.” Pouring thick gravy over his mound of mashed potatoes, he said, “I’m just glad you haven’t crashed into him yet.”
“I don’t want to, believe me,” Dair said between bites. She saw the satisfaction on Noah’s face as he ate slowly, savoring every bite, as if it were sacred or something. He always did that when it was her turn to cook. When he did his week of cooking, which was made up of pretty basic foods and food groups, he never had an expression on his face as he did when he consumed the meals she made for them.
“He was out in the barn while you girls were at Kassie’s getting lunch,” he warned her. “I was over in the other part of the green barn, where we keep our ranch horses and ran into him over there. He was checking them all out.”
Groaning, Dair said, “Did you have a run-in with him?”
“No,” he said, wiping his mouth on the white linen napkin. “I generally find if I’m respectful and keep my distance, it doesn’t set him off as much. He asked me about Poncho, the bay quarter horse we just added to our string.”
“That’s the one you worked on because he was a kicker?”
“Yes. Reese had assigned Poncho to Garret because the horse is twelve hundred pounds, and he’s the biggest wrangler we have. The two are a good fit.”
“Does Garret know Ray was over there today? And has an interest in Poncho?”
Mouth quirking, Noah said, “No . . . not yet.”
“Did you tell Reese about it?”
“Yes. It’s his job to tell Garret. Reese is the foreman, and all these types of issues go to him first.”
“What do you think Garret will do?”
“Oh, he won’t be happy. Poncho was a notorious kicker and I finally got it worked out of him with two months of intense training. He and Garret have this understanding. Poncho knows if he lifts a leg to strike out at Garret that the horse sees him as bigger than himself. And Garret’s six-foot-three, and two hundred and twenty pounds, so that horse is smart enough to put two and two together and not try to raise a rear leg to kick him. I’m not so sure he would do it with someone as short and thin as Crawford. Poncho respects size and that’s about it. As a matter of fact? His previous owner who raised and broke him, has Crawford’s size and weight. I’m afraid Poncho might put it together and kick the hell out of him. I did warn him that he’s a kicker. Crawford shrugged and said nothing, so it’s on him. I warned him.”
“Horses aren’t dumb,” she agreed. “Well, what else did Ray do?”
“He’s not that strong yet to deal with taking a horse out of a stall and putting him in cross-ties. But he asked me to bring Poncho out so he could take a closer look at him, and I did that for him. I’m not interested in having a battle with the man unless it’s necessary.”
“I like your peaceful live-and-let-live attitude.” She saw him grimace. “What happened next?”
“Well, Poncho was good in the ties as Ray walked around and inspected him. He didn’t say anything. And then, he just walked away without a word.”
“You mean he didn’t even thank you for your help?”
Noah gave her a droll look. “Ray, thank anyone for anything? You’re kidding me, right?”
Shaking her head, Dair muttered, “He reminds me so much of my father that I hope I never have to deal with him personally.” She stabbed at a bunch of green beans with her fork, brows drawn downward. She glanced up and Noah was studying her, an odd look in his expression.
“What?” she demanded.
“You’ve never spoken much about your family,” he began. “Was your father like Ray Crawford?”
There was an edge of concern in his tone, and she saw him grappling to not allow it to show, but she could hear it in his voice. Even more surprising? Dair felt an incredible sense of protection pouring off Noah. Frowning, she couldn’t understand his reaction except that no one liked an abuser, which is probably why she sensed his guardian-like energy surrounding her right now. “Worse,” she muttered. “It’s not dinner-table talk, Noah.”
“Yeah, I get it.” He scowled deeply. “Sorry . . .”
The silence cloaked them, the clink of flatware against their plates the only sound for a good five minutes. Dair swore she could feel Noah thinking. There were times when he went into that deep thought process, and she could always feel that shift within him. His gray eyes would darken a bit and he wouldn’t talk for a while, as if digesting some huge invisible issue only he knew about. It wasn’t that he was ignoring her, but something she’d said had triggered something within him. Reminding her of a dog gnawing on a bone, he just seemed to go away for a bit, as if chewing over something very important.
Sometimes Dair wished she could hear what was inside his head. Noah was a deep thinker. He usually spoke little, thought a lot, but when he did speak, it was always important and she always paid attention. He wasn’t one of these guys to pop off, went ballistic, or get the cart before the horse. Just the opposite of her abusive, knee-jerk father.
She was cutting her roast beef when he said, “Do me a favor, if you can.”
Dair’s fork and knife poised over the meat. “Sure. What is it?” There was a turbulent darkness in his eyes and she’d come to know that when they were that color, Noah was upset about something.
“Would you, when it feels right to you, tell me more about your family and your father?”
For a split second, Dair froze, but then went about cutting her meat. “It’s not a happy episode in my life, Noah.”
“I got that. But I want to know.” His gaze burrowed into hers.
If Dair hadn’t felt that protective warmth of his enveloping her in that moment, she’d have said no. Instead, she murmured, “I’ll think about it . . .”