Rhee shook his head all the way back to his truck.
Change clothes at the Painted Cave? What next? Maybe nothing. Nothing at all. Maybe it would be a simple picnic date like he dreamed. Inside the camper shell atop the truck would have to do just like always. He had Wranglers, T-shirts, cotton button-ups and bolo ties. Whatever the occasion called for.
Except he never exchange his boots for loafers or his Stetson for a ball cap or bare head.
So why not act like this day was just what it was: A date with a pretty woman. It had been a long time since he’d been on a real date. A man in Rhee Ryland’s line of work didn’t have much of a social life. Never in one place long enough. This time yesterday, he’d had no living idea he’d spend extra time in Rancho Lorena just to schmooze a beautiful woman. He’d already found out what he needed to know, and by all rights and all brains, he should have hightailed it out of here.
But for some reason, his gut told him he couldn’t. He didn’t want to leave here, and it wasn’t just because he liked being in Caffey’s company. If he’d had his druthers, he’d pretty much swear something was going down, fast and soon. He had good instincts about things like that.
And after it did, for some reason, Promise, Colorado and that ranch where he’d spent his formative years seemed the proper place to go. It was just the countryside of Rancho Lorena surrounding him with wide open spaces, cattle lowing underneath the trees, and horses gnawing hay in corrals outside of town. But something in his blood had started Promise flowing again and pumping through his heart.
Dressed in his well-worn jeans and blue, long-sleeved shirt, he waited for Caffey at Nikki’s, out back where he tossed a ball for the pups and gave them eager hugs because no one was looking. It had been more than a long while since he’d hugged something. Just a simple hug. Taking a weeping Caffey in his arms because she mourned another man didn’t count as a bona fide hug.
He needed to rid himself of his tension, his bad gut. His longing for a life he’d willingly left behind. One thing he knew: leaving tonight was not an option. He just knew tomorrow held nothing good. Those feelings were why he got paid the big bucks.
With both dogs conked out at his feet, he sat on the back porch and leaned against the door, Stetson over his face, while he waited and tried not to think troubled thoughts about something looming. He drowsed, actually. Camper shell didn’t make all that good of a bedroom, and it had been a long night.
“Hello!” Through the warm air, her voice sounded as sweet in his ears as those hand bells at church.
“Why, hi, darlin’.” Heat covered him when the moniker slipped out without thinking. He got to his feet quick, eyes shut, hoping the brim of his Stetson hid his stupidity. It didn’t. Opening his eyes, he saw her face flushed with pleasure. In her left hand, she held a hefty picnic basket, and a plaid blanket draped over her right arm along with two leashes. One purple, one hot pink.
“I sure hope the pink leash’s for Darlin.” He tried to cover his muddle. “Can we walk to that spring you talk about?”
The mystery scent of hers wafted across him.
“You and I could. It’s just a couple miles outside of town.” She smiled at him first, stopping his breath in his throat. Then, she kneeled at the puppies who had awakened quick with wagging tongues and whining affection. “But these babies wouldn’t make it. We can load up my car.
As she got busy leashing up her charges, he took the basket. “That scent you wear. It’s, well, to be honest. It makes me crazy.”
She looked up at him. “In a good way, I hope.”
He grinned and drawled, “The best way.”
After leashing the puppies, she stood next to him. “Zak’s folks have a small grove and run an olive oil press. It’s an olive leaf scent Mr. Pender has developed. Zak and Nikki are trying to market it online and with local merchants. I figure I’m a walking advertisement.” She nodded. “I get lots of compliments at the Brew Basket.”
“I can see why.” He leaned closer. “I know I’d buy a case of it.”
“I’ll give you a bottle,” Caffey grinned but turned away quick. “That way, back in Colorado, you can always think of…Rancho Lorena.”
For a wonderful flash, he ached to wonder if she meant to say think of me. The thought of being so far away from her suddenly niggled. “You mean, I could always think of you,” he said.
“Yeah.” The word came out so breathless he had to lean close to hear.
And it was the right moment to pull her close.
****
Darlin’? The word hung in her ears like a song, and Caffey held him like there was no tomorrow, because for them, there was no tomorrow. And she let his kiss linger, the softness of his mouth delighting hers as she reveled in the pressure of his arms around her. Marveling how safe she felt and reckoning that it was a foolish feeling to feel.
But not foolish enough to spoil her day. It seemed God wanted to give her a treat. Temporary, but tasty.
If Rhee happened to like her olive leaf fragrance, well, his outdoors scent set her heart to pattering like hail on a tin roof. It was an aroma of rainwater, a scent of sunshine all in one. Better, his kiss and embrace were sudden treasures, magic moments to tuck in a place in her mind easy to get back to on those long lonely nights ahead. Suddenly the forsaken puppies started to climb up their legs, ending her daydream.
“Wow,” Rhee said, and they both pulled apart at the same time. “That was something.”
Her cheeks warmed, and she nodded, shyly avoiding his eyes although she liked seeing herself in them. “It sure was.” After catching her breath, she braved a look that took her breath away again. Far away. He might as well sign on as cover model for American Cowboy. Whoever said computer geeks were…well, geeks? “I guess we better tend the dogs.”
Like he was brandishing a lariat, Rhee grabbed the leashes and watched her as she gathered the picnic basket. She rather liked his gaze on her. Experienced enough to accept the depth of his interest and attraction, she also sensed none of the predatory lust that had marked her first dates with Everett. Like he’d been marking his territory. As always, guilt mixed with grief in her gut, for she’d loved him once. Her heartsickness at his death had been genuine. Everett had been young still, and talented, with enough years left to make things right with those he’d wronged.
Guilt because she was one of the wronged ones and for years, hadn’t cared to have him make things right. Hadn’t felt the need to try to resurrect the love she’d once borne him. And worse, didn’t miss him.
She sighed. All that was another lifetime ago. Caffey wasn’t sure how long today’s tingling would last, or the taste of Rhee on her lips, but she determined to make the day one to remember. After all, it would be their only one.
While he settled the puppies, she loaded the trunk then waggled her car keys at him.
“You too macho to ride along while a girl drives?” She asked, flirting under her lashes as she looked up at him.
“Hmmm? I’m willing to go wherever you take me.” He flirted back.
Wherever you take me? He was a cowboy, after all. “Montana, maybe?”
Heart pounding, she almost bit her lip and hid her reaction by a slam of the trunk. How had she let that slip out? He might be Zak’s friend, but the circumspection—make that paranoia—she’d lived with for fifteen months had stupidly flown off in the sudden summer breeze. She’d let her guard down again despite her raging fears earlier, and this time, he noticed. Why hadn’t she said Colorado? She watched his face change, slightly to be sure, but underneath the brim, the rising eyebrows couldn’t be missed. Was it a flicker of tension rippling beneath his shirt or just the warm summer wind?
The wind. She had to believe it was the wind, or else she’d be the stupidest incognito woman on earth, partying with a stranger.
But no. He was Zak’s friend.
“Come on.” She tossed him the keys, changing direction entirely. If she could keep busy babbling directions, they’d have a built-in conversation.
Within a second, things seemed as they were before. After tightening the seatbelt, he asked, “Where to?”
She directed him down a thin, one-lane asphalt country lane through rolling hills, determined more than ever to make it a regular day and a regular first date. And a regular last date at that.
“Beautiful spot,” Rhee mused ten minutes later as they made camp underneath a live oak tree. Around them spread the sun-dappled grassy ranchland of the Santa Ynez valley, speckled hither and yon with grazing horses and cattle and hugged by dun-colored hills. If she recalled correctly, she’d recently learned Rancho del Cielo, the late President Reagan’s longtime ranch, was somewhere nearby. Might make a good conversation starter if things got weird again.
But Rhee seemed so totally relaxed that she reckoned her Montana slip up didn’t matter. He was Zak’s friend, after all. She had to believe it and made it a chorus inside her head.
“Well, you’re a cowboy. And if you’re anything like Zak, you’re not a vegetarian.” Caffey joked as she spread lunch out on the blanket. “I have a feeling you’ll like Brew Basket’s roast beef and red onion on sourdough with our own wasabi mayonnaise.”
“Wasabi?” He grinned.
“An Asian horseradish. Super good. As for me, well, nothing beats out buffalo mozzarella and basil on bruschetta.”
“I take it you’re a vegetarian.”
She shook her head, reminding him because she’d said it already. “Nope. I’m a cowgirl through and through. But there is something to be said for California cuisine and Farmer’s Market tomatoes.” Then somehow shy, she reached for his hand. “Say grace, won’t you?”
Rhee nodded. “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let these gifts to us be blest.”
They said the Amen together.
Something about the prayer, his voice, touched her. “That was lovely, Rhee.”
“Thanks.” He looked at their clasped hands. “Something my ma taught me years ago.”
“Nice.” Caffey let go and busied herself with their lunch.
Aromas from the delicious food had obviously whiffed up the puppies noses, for they rose on haunches on red alert, tongues flapping like sandwich meat themselves. But when Rhee started to rip off two pieces of roast beef, Caffey had to laugh.
“Now, now. Their mommy doesn’t allow them to eat people food.”
“Wha..?” Rhee’s face crinkled.
“Nope. Not a single bite.” She began to croon to the dogs. “And she made me vow that I wouldn’t, either. So I brought very suitable organic dog biscuits for you.” She dug in the basket and supplied the suitable treats.
Rhee chortled. “Organic? Sounds like a snooze fest to me. My dog at least got to rummage through garbage once in a while.”
“Rhee!”
“Aw, that’s what dogs do. I fed him proper. He lived to be...” His voice trailed off as though he didn’t know for sure.
An odd, panged expression flitted across his face. There was so much she didn’t know about Rhee Ryland. Maybe she ought to try cooking up that pasta on her miniature stove top and hunker down for a long chat. It didn’t seem right offering to entertain Rhee at Nikki and Zak’s. She doubted they’d mind, but it was a subject that had never come up, and she didn’t want to impose or overstep. But her place, well, that would mean allowing a stranger into the one place that was hers and hers alone.
And of course, there was a whole lot he didn’t know about her.
No. A long chat was definitely off the table, no matter she wanted to be with him. Right then he gave her a long, lazy smile that tingled her toes the same time the funny dread poured over her again. She shivered from head to foot. Whether he was the cause of it, she didn’t know, but she didn’t dare to try to find out.
For fifteen months, she’d been able to escape the bad things she knew would catch up with her sooner or later. She wasn’t a naive little college girl anymore. Since Everett’s suicide and the threats against her, she’d honed her instincts and was shamed that, with Rhee, she’d let her guard down. Regret swamped her. Whatever bad was going to happen, it was going to happen soon.
What if he was part of it?