Chapter Four
Larissa didn’t have far to go to find Callie and Hattie Briggs. Long before her frustration with Matt faded, she heard the rumble of the ATV motor headed her way and spotted Callie herself behind the wheel with her grandmother riding shotgun. The utility vehicle had a small bed in the back where the two dogs rode, tails wagging. A roll cage and funky metallic purple paint job suggested the work vehicle had another life before its time on the ranch.
“Larissa!” Callie called, waving as she steered around a fat spruce tree. “We didn’t want to miss you!”
Hattie held on to one of the roll cage bars, her long gray braids swinging to one side with the movement of the vehicle. She looked smaller and more fragile than Larissa remembered her, as if she’d lost a few clothes sizes. She wore a heavy poncho that seemed much too warm for the day. The brim of her brown leather Stetson still fit her well though, the big cowboy hat casting her narrow face in shadow.
Callie rolled to a stop beside Larissa as the matching Australian cattle dogs barked a friendly greeting.
“Hop in back, hon, and we’ll bring you up to the porch for some tea.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at Callie’s grandmother. “Hello, Mrs. Briggs. It’s nice to see you.”
“I hope we’ll have more time to visit this week.” Hattie gave a slow nod of recognition even though her eyes appeared a bit cloudy. “It’s a reason to celebrate when a native returns home. Too many young people leaving. Not enough of them keeping the traditions alive.”
Before Larissa could feel the sting of the mild scolding, the dogs were herding her toward the wagon, winding around her legs and crowding her in the direction they wanted her. Despite the rough start to this day and the difficult discussion with Matt, she couldn’t help but laugh at the cattle dogs’ exuberance.
“Okay, I’m coming,” she assured them, stepping up into the back to sit on the metal grate that served as a small cargo bed for the vehicle.
Satisfied, the dogs leaped in beside her and settled one on either side, tails thump, thump, thumping against the seat.
“Golda and Gerda will keep you safe,” Callie called over the rumble of the engine, “but it couldn’t hurt to hang on to the bar.”
“Got it.” Larissa gripped the edge of the bed to steady herself as they headed away from the house. “I thought we were having tea on the porch?”
Callie raced in the opposite direction, giving her brother a thumbs-up as they sped past him. Larissa noticed his gaze was on her, however, and not his sister. His steady gaze stirred an unwelcome heat inside her. She didn’t understand him at all. Why wasn’t he shoving her toward her car to leave the state after what she’d told him? She’d expected him to be angry. Sad. And he had been…
Yet afterward, something had shifted. He’d flirted with her openly. Suggested he wanted her to stay for “positive closure.” He’d been joking, obviously. Except… What if he had a point?
“First I need to show you where we’re having the wedding ceremony. You’re going to love it.” Callie jammed harder on the gas once they passed the cluster of barns, bumping along the worn dirt path as a tinny radio blared a mournful country love song.
“Out here?” Larissa found herself curious. Yes, she needed to tell Callie she wasn’t staying for the wedding. But it could wait until she’d at least seen the spot where the younger woman would say her vows. “It’s not too far from the house for you to walk in your dress?” She remembered Hattie’s blue jean wedding and bit her lip. “Unless you’re not wearing a dress?”
Hattie made a tsking sound. “It’s a dress, all right,” she said dryly.
Callie laughed. “Gran doesn’t like it because it’s Girlie Times Ten. But I love it. How many days a year do I get to be frilly?”
“I just think a wedding should reflect the couple,” Hattie argued.
“And it will. Just because I get dirty and work with my hands doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate fashion.”
Hattie turned slightly in her seat to speak over her shoulder to Larissa. “Fashion, she calls it. It looks like a floating wedding cake.” Shifting to face forward again, she pat Callie’s arm. “But live and let live. At least we agree on the site.”
“That we do.” Callie slowed the ATV as they neared the ranch manager’s log home, a property that hadn’t been in use when Larissa lived here since Jeb had preferred an RV he’d parked on the ranch near one of the natural streams. “I’m going to spend the night before the wedding here, and then we’ll have the ceremony in the meadow to the west.”
Larissa was only half listening, her mind racing back eight years ago to when the log home had been vacant. Matt had brought her out here more than once when they’d been dating. The first time, he’d made them a late dinner after a particularly rough drive back from the university, insisting she spend the night.
For safety’s sake.
He’d been a perfect gentleman, even when she hadn’t wanted him to be. They’d talked late into the night in front of a fire, falling asleep together on the couch until he’d woken her to tuck her in one bed while he went to sleep in another room…
“What do you think?” Callie asked, spreading her arms wide where she’d stopped the utility vehicle in the middle of a field.
Both women stared at her expectantly as the dogs hopped out to run around. Tugging her thoughts out of the past, Larissa lifted her gaze to the view and gasped.
In this part of Wyoming—headed west toward Laramie from Cheyenne—grasslands turned to rolling hills and then to mountains. With no buildings anywhere except for the little house behind them, the sky felt as vast as any sea, like you could get swallowed up in all that blue if you reached high enough.
Here, at the edge of a green meadow dotted with Indian paintbrush flowers in reds and yellows, stood a breathtaking rock formation. Red stone jutted up from the hillside, dark spruces ringing the bottom of a jagged plateau and a few patches of dark moss clinging to the top. On one end, a round boulder perched like one in a cartoon—just waiting to fall except it had surely been there for hundreds of years.
“Wow.” She didn’t remember seeing the land from this perspective before. The handful of times she’d come here with Matt, it had been in the dark hours after his cattle and her sheep were safely in their respective barns for the night. “It’s incredible.”
Wind whipped hard, sending her hair into her eyes until she scraped it away with one hand to maintain the view.
“Stay there.” Callie pointed a finger at Larissa and backed up a step. “We have the archway lying in the grass. I’m going to raise it so you can see how it looks.”
“That sounds heavy—” she started to say, but Callie was already jogging away with Golda.
Hattie shifted in her seat of the open-air vehicle, releasing her hold on the roll cage bar. “You’re staying for the wedding.”
It wasn’t a question. And no matter the cloudiness of Hattie Briggs’s slate blue eyes, her gaze seemed plenty sharp at the moment.
“The thing is, I only just learned that Callie was getting married,” Larissa explained, unwilling to be backed into an awkward situation with Matt’s family. “I had already made plans for auditioning in Las Vegas…” She trailed off when the older woman shook her head slowly, gray braids swaying.
“Your job won’t disappear in one week.” Hattie reached between the seats to clutch Larissa’s wrist. “Besides, you ran from us last time and I know that could not have been the right ending for you and my grandson.”
“We definitely aren’t getting back together.” She hoped that sounded more convincing than she felt. Larissa didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up where that was concerned, even if Matt’s dark gaze and strong muscles made her daydream about touching him again.
Tasting him again.
“So don’t,” Hattie said simply, turning away from her to peer out the front window where Callie was struggling to lift a log archway on the far end of the meadow. “But you were a good friend to this family once. Why not stay for a few days and repair that?”
The idea settled around her like an old coat, familiar and comfortable. A perfect fit. Larissa had been so busy chastising herself for coming up here and stirring up the past with Matt that she’d overlooked what was most important about her trip. She’d wanted to make peace with the past, but maybe that wasn’t just about Matt Briggs. Maybe she needed closure with Wyoming and who she used to be. She’d turned her back on more than a relationship when she’d left here.
Looking forward, Larissa slid out of the cargo bed to admire Callie’s wedding arch—graying tree trunks lashed together with thick rope. A simple, rustic frame for a couple saying their vows in front of all this natural beauty. Lifting her fingers to her lips, Larissa gave a wolf whistle of approval across the open field.
“You make a good point,” she told Hattie while Matt’s sister carefully lowered the arch back down to lie in the grass. “I’ve missed the Briggs family and I’ll stay through the wedding.”
“Good.” Hattie swiped at her cheek, making Larissa wonder if she’d had tears in her eyes watching Callie with the bridal arch. “Not all the Briggs are with us anymore. But you can visit with the rest of us.”
Her chest squeezed tight in empathy. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“It’s a loss to all of us. But thank you.” The older woman pointed behind them toward the ranch manager’s house. “You can move your bags out here anytime, because Callie already made up a room for you so you can stay out here this week.”
“Here?” Her throat went dry at the thought of spending time in a house that carried a lot of memories.
She’d made a baby with Matt here. Even though she’d miscarried, she sure never forgot that night. She was almost certain she knew the moment it happened.
“Yes.” Hattie lifted her chin. “Split Fork and Briggs Ranch will both be full of guests. But I remembered how much you liked it out here.”
Larissa almost swallowed her tongue, which led to a coughing fit as Callie rejoined them. Callie pounded her on the back.
“You okay?” she asked, wide blue eyes never guessing the cause of her embarrassment.
“Um.” She coughed again while both dogs returned to circle around her, tails wagging and butts shaking. “Fine.”
Hattie winked at her. “I like an early morning walk,” she explained. “I used to see you and my grandson leaving here, holding hands.”
Larissa sincerely hoped they’d pulled the blinds on those long winter nights. Who’d have thought anyone would be nearby in the middle of vast ranch acreage?
“So you’re staying?” Callie slung an arm around her shoulder. “I told Matt you couldn’t possibly refuse.”
They piled back into the ATV, then returned to Larissa’s car to gather her things and settle her in the ranch manager’s house. Callie made plans to take her dress shopping even though Larissa couldn’t imagine the soon-to-be bride would have a second free all week. They invited her for dinner, insisted she attend Callie’s bridal shower the next day, and warned her there would be a fishing party for the wedding guests on the property if she wanted to attend later in the week.
It was kind of them, but left her feeling overwhelmed an hour later inside the sparsely furnished log home. It was a three-bedroom and two-bath house with an upstairs loft and, of course, that giant stone fireplace in the family room where she’d fallen asleep in Matt’s arms that first night.
But she wasn’t staying here for Matt’s sake, she told herself, so there was no sense remembering that night in vivid detail. She would focus on repairing her relationship with Callie, be a help to the bride. When she wasn’t doing that, she could visit some of the spots around Cheyenne that had been special to her, once upon a time. So by the time next Sunday rolled around, she could leave town with a clear conscience and the assurance that she’d done what she’d set out to do. Make amends with the past so she could focus on her future.
Funny how the longer she spent here, the harder that seemed.
*
Early that evening, just past sundown, Matt wrapped the last of the duct tape on the corrugated pipe where the irrigation system had sprung a leak before dinner.
Truth be told, the sudden geysers in the west pasture had been lucky for him since he hadn’t been ready to sit down around the supper table with his family and Larissa. Because while he was glad Callie had talked her into sticking around this week, he wasn’t ready for the extra scrutiny that would come with it. When he spent time with Larissa this week—and he planned to—it would be on his own terms.
Without an audience.
He left a couple of ranch hands to bury the new drainage pipe by the light of their truck headlamps, making sure they knew to firm up the soil on top so none of the livestock stepped in a sinkhole tomorrow. The west pasture had fresh grass and they’d just put it into the feeding rotation a few days before.
Heading back to the house to shower, Matt figured it was late enough that Larissa would have already left. He could just drive straight back to the Split Fork and clean up at his own place, but he didn’t feel right about leaving Briggs Ranch without letting his mom know. It was Sunday, after all, and he’d planned on eating with them. He’d grab a slice of pie or something and be on his way.
He was almost at the side door—the entrance closest to a downstairs shower—when his sister shouted from overhead.
“Nice of you to grace us with your presence.” Callie sat on the pitched roof just outside her bedroom window, Larissa beside her, perched on the wide wooden sash. Light spilled out from Callie’s room where he could see her wedding dress hanging from a full-length cheval mirror in the middle of her floor.
“What are you doing up there?” He wasn’t sure how he felt about seeing Larissa on the roof of the house where he’d grown up.
He’d dreamed about her being part of his family once. Now, on a week when his family was treating her as one of their own, Matt was determined to keep her at arm’s length emotionally. Enjoy the attraction and leave it at that.
“I wanted Larissa to see my dress, and then I figured she might as well check out my stargazing spot as long as we were upstairs.” She passed a container to Larissa, who tipped the flask to her lips.
“Are you sure you should be imbibing while you’re two stories up? You’ll feel guilty if your wedding guest breaks a leg.” He tried to see what Larissa was wearing. Jeans and those red boots he liked; that much was certain. He couldn’t see the shirt with the light from behind casting her in shadow.
“It’s not alcohol,” Callie called down. “It’s a vitamin drink I got at the health food shop to make my hair extra shiny before the wedding.”
Larissa set aside the flask on the windowsill and wiped the back of her wrist across her lips. “Surprising how much it tastes like Jack Daniel’s,” she observed dryly while his sister giggled.
Matt told himself it was none of his business as he headed indoors to shower off the grime from the irrigation project. Except who was going to make sure Larissa got back to the ranch manager’s house safely? She’d already taken her life into her hands today getting into the ATV with Callie at the wheel. His sister had never known the meaning of caution.
Toweling off and pulling clean clothes from the linen closet where he still kept some things, Matt decided there was no time like the present to get closer to Larissa. Now that the dinner hour had passed, he wouldn’t have an audience. It would be just the two of them.
He headed into the kitchen to grab something to eat and found a lone slice of pecan pie under the glass dome on the counter. Helping himself, he stopped in the living room to give his mother an update on the irrigation problem and let her know he’d stop by later in the week. By the time he polished off the last bite of pie, he realized he was in a hurry to see Larissa. Now that he’d allowed himself to start thinking about her again, the need to touch her was like a fever in his blood—a surge of heat that made him ache.
He would have taken the stairs up to Callie’s room to find her if he hadn’t heard an old country-western tune playing in the dining room. Curious, he peered past the vintage barn door that Callie had salvaged and hung between the rooms. There, Larissa stood in the middle of the hardwood floor demonstrating a country waltz step for Callie, who watched intently.
“Your partner takes the first step forward; you go backward. Like a two-step, except this is a three-count dance.” Larissa glided backward in her boots, quietly graceful as her body rose and fell in the three-count rhythm.
She wore a sheer black blouse over a white tank top, her slight curves covered but visible at the same time. With her back to him, he could see the indent of her waist, the gentle swing of her hips as she turned.
“One-two-three—” She faltered mid-spin as she saw him.
Her green eyes met his as she hesitated. He’d bet his ranching operation that she was thinking of that night they’d danced in the barn during a rainstorm.
“It’s easier with a partner.” He offered his hand, reaching toward her without touching. He still remembered the steps even though he hadn’t danced that way with anyone but her.
They’d danced for hours that night. He’d been so grateful for an excuse to touch her. Hold her. He’d kissed her for the first time while the rain pounded outside the open barn doors, coating them in a sheen of cool mist. Sealing their bodies together right through their clothes.
“I don’t think we’re ready for that yet.” Larissa’s voice scratched on a smoky note. She arched an eyebrow at him. “Callie is going to wait for a real lesson once Reggie gets into town.”
“Not ready?” He lowered his arm but didn’t take his eyes off hers. “I’m pretty sure the dance has already begun, darlin’.”
The country-western song Larissa had been dancing to came to an end and Callie jammed her smartphone in her back pocket.
“Okay, this is sounding like a totally private conversation.” Callie edged backward toward the door. “Larissa, we’ll shop tomorrow. Matt, make sure she gets safely to her door?”
“Count on it,” he said.
“That won’t be necessary,” Larissa said at the same time.
“In the dark? Through wolf and cougar terrain?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He took her hand and tugged her toward the side door, trusting she had more sense than to face down hungry predators on her own. “Do you have a coat?”
“No.” She followed along behind him. “Wolves?”
“They are thriving here since they were reintroduced. Some days I think my herds are personally responsible for their success.” He grabbed a hoodie off the coatrack near the door. “Take this.”
“Thank you.” She shrugged it over her head as he opened the door and the wind whipped through the house. “I forgot how much the temperature drops at night.”
He pointed toward his truck. “Hop in and I’ll drive you over.”
Opening the passenger door for her, he waited while she climbed the step to the running board and slid inside the cab. He shut the door behind her and moved around the vehicle to take his place behind the wheel. Even before he fired up the engine he moved the toolbox to the floor and wiped the grit off the seat between them.
“I noticed you skipped dinner tonight.” She shoved the hood off her face and pulled on her seat belt.
“The irrigation system went haywire.” He turned the key in the ignition and headed toward the main road. While he could access the smaller house by driving past the barns, there was no real road between them. The smoothest route for a truck was to go back out to the county route and enter from the other side.
“I heard.” She gripped the armrest as the truck bounced over a pothole, jostling her closer in spite of the seat belt. “And while I’m sure that’s a problem, it occurred to me it might have been a perfect excuse if you were trying to avoid me.”
“No.” He turned onto the highway and flicked on his brights. Antelope and elk came through here all the time and he didn’t want to tangle with either. “I was anxious to talk to you again, actually. But I will admit that I was in no hurry to do so in front of my whole family.”
“So you were avoiding me,” she clarified.
“I was dodging awkward questions that will come up soon enough.” He weighed his words, not wanting to scare her off now that she’d decided to stay through the week. “I haven’t dated much in the last few years, so there will be some speculation about us spending time together.”
“Why?” She tucked a strand of hair behind one ear. “I mean, I know why people like to speculate. But why no dating?”
He wasn’t interested in spilling his guts as he headed toward the house where they’d made a whole lot of memories. He turned off the county route and onto the dark access road. A few low sets of eyes caught the headlights as he made the turn, alerting him to coyotes or maybe wolves. The animals scattered deeper into the woods that provided a barrier between the pastureland and the road.
“Maybe you ruined me for other women,” he suggested.
“Ha. Tell that to the bouncy blonde who had her paws all over you at the bar last night.” She wrapped her arms around herself and tucked her hands into the sleeves of the big hoodie he’d given her. “Clearly, she hasn’t heard the news.”
“I’m not going to flatter myself that you’re jealous.” He couldn’t stifle a grin. “But damn. That sure sounded like you wouldn’t mind taking her place.”
“Hardly.” She sniffed and sat up straighter. “But I will admit a little envy about her type. In the dancing world, girls like that get the most parts.”
“Last I knew, Tammy Lynn couldn’t dance her way out of a paper bag,” he assured her, his mind going back to the way Larissa glided around the dining room floor back at his mother’s house.
There was a sensual grace about her that caught his eye. And held on tight.
“Well, dancing skills aside, she’s got the right height and build that directors love in their shows. Broadway is getting more diverse, for sure. But the number of opportunities go up exponentially when you fit the classic profile.” She cast a sideways look his way. “And don’t think I didn’t notice how you neatly sidestepped my question about your dating history.”
He rolled to a stop in front of the log home that had been vacant for months. They’d had a tenant in there for several years after Larissa moved away, but it had been empty since before his father’s death.
He’d never imagined how much his father’s passing would divide his life into “before” and “after.” It’s like everything had stopped in his world when he got the call that EMS was on their way to the Briggs Ranch. Trying to shrug off the memory, he put the truck in Park and switched off the engine.
“Are you taking questions about your relationship experiences since you left Wyoming?” he asked her pointedly. When she shook her head fast, he grinned. “You see? We understand each other perfectly.”
She was quiet for so long he wondered what she was thinking. Finally, she pulled a single key on a red ribbon out from her jeans pocket. He recognized the ribbon from the rack of keys at his mother’s house.
“I’m staying for the wedding because Hattie implied I’d broken my friendship with your family and that I should repair it.” Larissa’s face was pale in the moonlight that filtered in through the front window.
Wind raced past the truck windows, creating a screechy sound.
“It’s kind of you to do that.” He wanted to know if he figured into the picture at all. Would she admit it even if he did?
“I’m doing it for me as much as for them.” She wound the ribbon around her finger while they sat in the truck cab. Close but not touching. “I came here to smooth over the way I left last time, and I realize that means making amends with your family as much as with you.”
“Good.” He was tempted to test that theory right now. To see if she was truly here to hang out with his family or if she’d been as intrigued by the chemistry between the two of them as he was. “Then you’re already making headway since Callie wants you to teach her how to dance before the wedding.”
“I hope so.” She nodded.
And made no move to retreat into the house.
The air in the cab crackled with awareness. His. Hers.
It was too soon to act on it, he knew. If he set foot in that house tonight with her, things would get out of hand in a hurry. The last thing he wanted was to share something incredible with her only to spook her and send her running in the morning. Better to let it build.
“I’m looking forward to dancing with you again.” He reached across the bench seat to brush his knuckles along her cheek.
He liked the way her eyelids fluttered once. Slowly.
Her breath caught before her words tumbled out. “It’s been a long time. Are you sure you even remember the steps?”
The moment stretched out. Both of them remembering plenty. He wanted to kiss her lips and remind her how well he knew every little thing about her. The places she liked to be kissed. The way she would melt into him if he palmed the small of her back.
“Some dances you never forget.” He let his touch linger on her cheek another moment before stroking his thumb along her lower lip.
Her gaze tracked his, her mouth impossibly soft against his skin. “We’ve been down that path before,” she reminded him. “And look how it worked out.”
“Maybe we approached it all wrong last time.” He lowered his hand, knowing he needed to let her go. “We’ve got a chance for a do-over. A week just to enjoy this.”
“If I was a ‘one week’ kind of girl, that might be fun.” She levered open the passenger side door before he could get it for her. “But that’s not me.”
She angled away, shaking her head. Matt shoved out of the truck to walk her to the door, but she made quick work of the lock and disappeared inside with a mumbled “’Night.” He waited to see the lights come on inside before he returned to the cold truck.
He’d done the right thing. They’d both had an emotionally draining day after the revelation about the miscarriage. But no matter what Larissa said about not wanting to revisit the past, Matt knew that if they spent more time together, they were on a collision course to do just that.