Loe raamatut: «Thankful For You»

Chapter One

“I’m looking for a Dallas Dalton.” Nick Brand stood in the doorway of one of the bunkhouses on Bent Tree Ranch reserved for wranglers.

“Hey, Dally!” one of the wranglers, who was only wearing cowboy boots and a towel wrapped around his waist, bellowed over the loud talking of his bunkmates. “Door!”

Nick took off his mirrored sunglasses and tucked them into the front pocket of his navy suit jacket. He looked out of place, walking around his aunt and uncle’s Montana ranch wearing his regular business clothes. He knew that. But he wasn’t in Montana on vacation from his Chicago law firm; he was here on business.

Another wrangler, a short, stocky young man dressed for ranch work, announced his arrival again.

“Dally!” The wrangler grabbed a hold of the edge of a top bunk and shook it hard.

“Christ on a crutch! What!” Dallas popped upright like a jack-in-the-box.

The wrangler pointed at Nick. “Stiff. Eleven o’clock.”

Dallas fought to get her wild brown hair out of her eyes; after letting out a grunt of frustration, she kicked off the covers, swung her legs over the edge of the bunk and then jumped down. Barefoot, but still wearing ripped jeans and a faded Johnny Cash T-shirt, she walked over to wear Nick was standing.

Confused, Nick said, “I’m looking for a Dallas Dalton.”

Dallas wiped the sleep out of her eyes and then yawned loudly before answering. “You found her.”

Nick stared at the woman’s black fingernail polish, confused. “You’re Dallas Dalton?”

Dallas squinted at the sun coming in the bunkhouse through the doorway. “Twenty-four-seven.”

Nick shook his head; he pulled his sunglasses out of his pocket and put them back on. “I think there’s been a mistake. I apologize for the interruption.”

Dallas yawned again with a nod. Nick turned to leave, but Dallas stopped him. “Hey—hold on—are you Nick?”

Nick turned back toward the disheveled woman. “I am.”

Dallas stretched her arms over her head, which drew Nick’s attention, for a brief moment, to the woman’s perky, braless bustline.

“You’re in the right place.” Dallas extended her hand. “Hank told me to expect you yesterday.”

Behind his mirrored sunglasses, Nick stared at Dallas’s face. Her handshake was as strong and as firm as any man’s handshake.

“I was delayed,” Nick offered. “I was expecting a man.”

“Yeah. You’re not the first,” Dallas said.

She pulled a ponytail holder out of the front pocket of her jeans, clenched it between her teeth, gathered up her unruly mass of mahogany curls and secured them into a thick ponytail. Several tendrils escaped the ponytail holder and snapped back into position around her oval face. Nick had to consciously resist the temptation to tuck those wayward tendrils behind Dallas’s ear.

“Let me grab my stuff and we’ll head out,” she said.

Nick waited for Dallas just outside the door of the bunkhouse. Dallas reappeared wearing a cream-colored straw cowboy hat and carrying a pair of brown boots that were caked with dried mud.

“You been in town long?” Dallas yanked on one boot and then the next.

“First day.”

Dallas stomped her sockless feet farther into the boots, knocking some of the mud off. Satisfied, she looked up at him. “Ready?”

Nick followed Dallas to an early-model brown and tan Ford Bronco.

“It’s unlocked.” Dallas nodded to the passenger door.

Nick had to pull hard on the stiff door to open it, and the hinges squeaked loudly when he pushed it open far enough for him to get into the passenger side.

“I haven’t seen one of these in years.” Nick slammed the door shut.

“Bessy and I’ve been together since I was fifteen.” Dallas grabbed a stack of papers on the bench seat and tossed them into the backseat. “She’s a classic.”

Dallas’s idea of a classic and his idea of a classic were completely different. While Dallas shifted into Reverse, Nick examined the inside of the Bronco. The interior had been stripped—there wasn’t a radio or air-conditioning system, part of the dashboard had been removed, exposing a tangle of wires that no longer served a purpose. Dallas obviously used the Bronco for more than driving, which was evidenced by the clothing, blanket and pillows strewn across the backseat.

Dallas used the crank handle to roll down her window. Nick followed suit and rolled down his window, as well. He rested his arm on the edge of the open window, glad for the fresh air.

“Did Hank fill you in?” he asked.

Dallas nodded and stepped on the gas. The cowgirl was not a cautious driver—she sped along the driveway, kicking up loose gravel and dust, the oversize wheels disconnecting with the ground as they took a series of bumps. Nick looked around for a seat belt but didn’t find one; instead, he gripped the window frame with his hand and hoped that she had more control of the old Bronco than it seemed. At the end of the driveway, Dallas slowed down but didn’t bother to come to a full stop before she pulled out onto the main road.

“Do you work for my uncle full-time?” Nick asked, glad that they were on paved road.

“Not me. I’m just workin’ here until I save up enough money to get back on the barrel racing circuit.” She patted the cracked dashboard. “I hope old Bessy here can make it for one more tour.”

A barrel racer. That made sense. She was independent, confident and tough enough to live with a bunkhouse full of cowboys.

“Professional?” he asked.

“Since I was seventeen.”

“Can you make a decent living doing that?”

“Some do. I don’t. Most of my winnings go right back into travel expenses and taking care of my horse. I’m lucky if I break even, but most years I’m in the hole.” Dallas laughed. “How ’bout you?”

“I passed the Illinois state bar exam last month. Once I’m done with my business here, I’ll start working at my father’s law firm.”

“Nepotism.” Dallas nodded. “I can dig it.”

The cowgirl continued, “I haven’t been back to Lightning Rock since my pop died. Not sure how it’s gonna feel goin’ back there now.”

“Davy Dalton was your father?”

When Dallas nodded, Nick continued, “I’m sorry I didn’t make the connection earlier.”

“Don’t worry about it. Not much of a family resemblance there.”

Nick looked over at his chauffer. The sun had bronzed her skin; her shoulders and arms were muscular, as were her thighs. She wasn’t overweight, but she was stocky. Her fingernails were clipped short and the only jewelry she wore was a small turquoise cross on a silver boxed chain around her neck. She didn’t necessarily look it, but Dallas came from rodeo royalty. Davy Dalton, a legendary bull rider, had been a longtime friend to his uncle Hank.

Nick was about to offer his condolences when Dallas made a sudden right-hand turn onto a heavily pitted dirt road. They immediately drove through a deep dip in the road and this time, Nick left his seat and had to put his hand on the roof of the Bronco in order to stop his head from smacking up against it.

“It’s a bit bumpy,” Dallas acknowledged, but didn’t slow down.

Nick wanted to ask her to ease up on the gas pedal, yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it. It seemed out of step for the man to ask the woman to take a rocky road more gently. If this cowgirl could take it, so could he. He simply hoped that the road to Lightning Rock was short. He had spent a couple of summers at Bent Tree when he was a kid; Bent Tree held thousands of acres, so there were many areas of the ranch he’d never seen. Lightning Rock, fifty acres of high ground, was new to him.

A couple of S curves later, Dallas stopped in front of a rickety fence with a gate that was half off its hinges.

“We’ll walk it from here.” Dallas turned off the engine. “We’ve been slammed by rain lately—Bessy’s too heavy. She’s bound to get stuck in the muck.”

Nick nodded his understanding. He hadn’t exactly planned to be walking around in the mud, but he could adapt. He took off his jacket and rolled up the long sleeves of his light blue shirt. Together, they walked through the narrow opening between the sagging gate and the rotted fence post. As far as the eye could see, grassy knolls abutted hills with craggy gray and white rock pinnacles, and farther still, majestic snowcapped mountain ranges. It felt as if he had stepped into paradise on earth.

“Look.” Dallas pointed to a flat expanse of land, knee-high with golden, willowy brush. A small group of moose was moving slowly through the grassland.

Nick spoke his thoughts. “I feel like I’ve just discovered heaven on earth.”

“You have.” Dallas continued on her way. “I can’t believe you’re gonna sell it.”

Nick didn’t answer immediately. After a minute, he said, “My father has a responsibility to do what’s best for my aunt’s trust.”

Dallas disagreed. “Selling off the crown jewel of Bent Tree can’t be what’s best.”

Nick heard her but didn’t continue with that topic. The fifty acres of pristine Montana land that was Lightning Rock had been heavily disputed by the Brand family since the untimely passing of his paternal grandfather. His uncle Hank had inherited the bulk of Bent Tree Ranch; any parcels of land he hadn’t inherited, he had purchased outright from his three siblings. Hope, his only aunt on his father’s side, who had died young from breast cancer, had inherited Lightning Rock. Upon her death, his father had become executor of her estate and trust, including managing control of the fate of Lightning Rock.

“There she is...” Dallas pointed to a tall cluster of rocks jutting out from the apex of a mound a short distance away. “Lightning Rock.”

“Do you want to head that way?” she asked.

Nick nodded. He had been curious about the namesake of this parcel of land. It was an anomaly—a cluster of rocks that had been struck by lightning so many times that the quartz veins that crisscrossed the surface of the rocks had been turned into petrified glass. As they approached the rock formation, Nick realized that the family of rocks was much larger than he had originally thought. Lightning Rock was as wide as a midsize car and at least twelve feet in height.

“There’s a perfect spot to sit down at the top.” Dallas put her foot into a foothold and started to climb Lightning Rock.

Nick, although he hadn’t really climbed anything since he was a teenager, followed her lead. At the top of Lightning Rock, there was an indentation that was an ideal place to sit and watch nature’s drama unfolding all around the landmark.

“Look at all of this fulgurite.” Dallas traced her fingers along the veins in the rock. “It’s everywhere.”

Every time lightning had struck the cluster of rocks, the silica, or quartz, had turned to glass. From the sheer amount of fulgurite that could be seen with the naked eye, Nick imagined that the rocks must have been struck by lightning hundreds of times. This oasis, tucked away in the middle of Bent Tree Ranch, had inexplicably drawn the wrath of lightning for generations. For a little bit longer, they sat together on top of Lightning Rock, and then Dallas took him to the small homestead that her father, Davy, had leased from the Brand family. The homestead, tucked away in a forest at the base of a mountain, included a barn, a small cabin, a single-wide mobile home, an old yellow school bus and several antique trucks that were in various stages of decay. Dallas took the key to the mobile home off her key ring and handed it to him.

“You can go in if you want. I’ll wait out here,” she said.

Davy Dalton had died in the mobile home, so Nick could understand why Dallas didn’t want to go in. He unlocked the door and entered the odd world of the rodeo legend. In that later part of his life, he had become a hermit of sorts. He didn’t have visitors and he only went in to town when supplies were too low to be ignored. The trailer was piled high to the ceiling with papers and magazines and tin coffee cans and rodeo trophies. There was a small path leading to the back of the trailer, but Nick didn’t explore past the foyer.

“Your father was quite the collector.” Nick pulled the door of the trailer shut behind him.

Dallas half laughed, half snorted. “That’s a nice way of puttin’ it.”

Nick slipped his sunglasses back on. “Is the cabin in the same shape?”

Dallas nodded. “And the barn and the bus and the shed. I don’t know what drove him to do it, but no matter how many times I badgered him into cleanin’ up the place, he’d just fill it up again. I finally just gave up and let him live his life how he wanted.”

Nick spent a little longer walking the homestead, assessing the expense of cleaning up the property. He didn’t know the whole story of Davy’s final years, but it was sad to think of a rodeo legend ending his life on such a sad note. The last stop Nick made was the three antique Chevy trucks embedded into the earth.

“These are real heartbreakers,” Nick said to Dallas when she joined him.

Dallas had her hands tucked into the back pockets of her jeans. “Pop always meant to get around to restoring one of these for me. He was going to fix up this middle one and use the other two for original parts.”

“What year are they?”

“Nineteen fifty,” Dallas said. “Nothing more than a heap a’ junk now.”

For Dallas, these trucks were almost her undoing. It was hard work not to let her sorrow show at being back at Lightning Rock now that her father was gone. Her stomach felt like it was jumbled up in a giant knot and tears of sorrow had been trying to push through ever since she first turned down that familiar dirt road. If she didn’t get out of here quick, she’d end up bawling in front of Nick Brand, and that didn’t suit her at all.

Dallas turned away from the trio of old trucks. “Ready to head back?”

She was relieved when Nick gave a slight nod of his head; she got the impression that he had seen enough to get a sense of the place: it was a mess.

On the way back to the Bronco, Nick said to her, “I was really expecting to deal with your brother. Won’t he want any of his father’s trophies?”

“You won’t see Brian within a hundred miles of this place,” Dallas said bluntly. “He hated Pop almost as much he hated life on the rodeo circuit. Blames Davy for all of his problems. Last I heard, he was working for Lowe’s in the garden department.”

Dallas smacked a bug that had landed on her arm, flicked it off, while she continued talking. “I always knew that I would be the one to tie up the loose ends of Davy’s life. I’m his daughter, and I loved him like crazy, so...that’s that...”

For the rest of the walk back to where they had parked, neither of them spoke. It wasn’t until they were back inside the Bronco that Nick asked, “What’s on your agenda for the rest of the afternoon?”

“Practice.” Dallas made a quick U-turn and stepped down on the gas. “You can watch if you want.”

* * *

He wasn’t the only man who wanted to watch Dallas practice barrel racing. A small group of cowboys were hanging on the fence or leaning on the fence, which surrounded the practice arena. Nick positioned himself on the opposite side of the fence and waited for Dallas to start.

“You Angus’s boy?”

Nick turned slightly to the left to see if the question had been posed to him. An older man with severely bowed legs, deep wrinkles carved into his face and a thick black mustache peppered with white stood next to him.

“I am.”

The cowboy offered his hand. “Tom Ketchum.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Your father and I go way back.” Tom joined him at the fence. “You take after him.”

Nick caught a glimpse of Dallas walking out of one of the many Bent Tree barns leading a sleekly built blue roan gelding over to the arena. She swung into the saddle and started to work the mare to warm her muscles. Once Dallas started to ride in the arena, all eyes were on her.

“She draws a crowd,” Nick said to Tom.

“That she does.” Tom chuckled. “I’ve trained her off and on since she was a kid, and it’s always been that way.”

The more Nick watched Dallas ride, the more he wanted to watch. She had that “it” factor—that intangible quality that makes the world stop and take notice without ever really knowing why.

“One of those cowboys a boyfriend?”

Tom rested his boot on the bottom slat of the fence. “Dallas isn’t the kind to get pinned down. She’s never let anything interfere with barrel racin’.”

Dallas cantered by, and even though he knew that she saw him, her focus was entirely on her horse.

“She’s ready, Ketch.”

Tom pulled a stopwatch out of the pocket of his blue-and-white-checkered shirt.

“Watch this,” Tom said to Nick.

Dallas cantered out of the arena, made a small circle and then halted at the arena entrance to wait for Tom’s signal. Dallas’s horse pranced in place, anxious to race toward the first of the three barrels placed in a triangle pattern. Once Tom gave her the signal, the rowdy cowboys quieted while Dallas galloped full throttle toward the first barrel. As Dallas rounded the first barrel, Nick heard her yell “Ho” to the mare. Once around the first barrel, Dallas urged her swift-footed gelding to gallop the short distance to the second barrel.

“Ho!” Dallas’s voice was sharp and crisp and commanding.

“Now she’ll head for the money barrel,” Tom explained.

Once Dallas rounded the third barrel, all the cowboys started to cheer and wave their hats in the air. Tom stopped the stopwatch and looked at the time.

“I’ve seen her do better.” He shook his head before he gestured for Dallas to go again. “Give her more leg when you go around the last barrel, Dallas! You’re losing a ton of time letting her drift so much!”

Now Nick understood why Dallas drew a crowd—she was a dynamic, risky rider who was sexy as hell to watch.

“Can I give you a word of advice, son?” Tom asked without looking at him directly. “Never try to corner somethin’ that’s meaner than you.”