The Rancher's Prospect (17 page)

Josh raised his eyebrows. Tara hadn't seemed the romantic type. “My grandfather—”

“I know what you believe about their marriage,” she interrupted. “You probably think it's crazy for someone like me, who knows so little about family and who hasn't known Walt long, to think I know better than you do. But from what I've seen, the thing that hurts Walt the most isn't his limp. It's losing his wife.”

Josh focused on his coffee, remembering what Grandpa had said at the hot spring pool about his leg not causing him the most pain... Did he mean his wife's death? The possibility that he'd been wrong about their relationship began to knock at Josh's brain. He wasn't sure what he believed any longer.

He finally looked up at Tara, trying to see beyond the weeks of conflict and frustration between them. From the beginning she'd represented one of his roadblocks to getting the Boxing N in better shape. Sexual attraction had been another complication—Tara wasn't the kind of woman he'd ever desired, or even liked. The McGregors tended to be a passionate, sociable family, while she was coolly sophisticated.

But he'd been wrong about her being a roadblock. Tara's work in the ranch office was unparalleled. He couldn't have done half the job in twice the time, and he knew it.

“I'm not sure about anything right now,” he said slowly. “Except that you've been good for Grandpa.”

Pink spots appeared on Tara's cheeks. “Thank you.” She topped off his coffee cup and sat down with her own, keeping watch on the path to the hot spring pool. “I'm not a people person, but he's a nice man.”

“I think you're more of a people person than you think. You knew what to say to Perry Whitlan at the hospital and you did a great job on the party. Folks in town like you.”

“They like Lauren,” Tara corrected him. “They're nice to me because of her. I mean, I don't make friends, really. It's my fault—I just don't let anyone close...” Her voice trailed off, suggesting a vulnerability he had rarely seen in her before.

“One of those outcomes of childhood?” Josh guessed. “Getting passed around because you were a sick child.”

Tara shrugged. “Maybe. What happened when I was a kid definitely had an effect, but I take responsibility for what came after.”

The sound of footsteps approaching was probably as much of a relief to her as it was to him. Tara got up and hurriedly checked on their breakfast.

Grandpa came into camp, his limp less noticeable than on some days. He eagerly poured himself a cup of coffee and seemed to have a fair amount of energy.

Although Josh believed the search for sapphires was ridiculous, he was beginning to understand why Tara had thought it was a good idea. Walt had more vitality and his physical recovery seemed to be accelerating. He certainly
looked
stronger and had better color in his face.

Josh swirled the contents of his cup, thinking hard.

He'd accepted that it was too late in the season to initiate a new breeding program; it would have to wait until the following spring. Either way he needed to buy more certified organic cattle. And while there were tasks on the ranch in need of attention, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on them knowing Grandpa was on Smaug's Mountain looking for sapphires. His grandfather might be doing better, but there were still risks. So maybe he should throw himself into the search. He could even bring some more food when he returned from getting the payroll done.

Josh gulped down the rest of his coffee. Life was complicated, especially with Tara Livingston in the mix.

* * *

T
ARA
WAS
GRATEFUL
that Josh hadn't brought up their encounter at the hot spring pool.

They ate breakfast and Walt insisted “we men” do the dishes, so Tara headed for the dig site to sift through more rocks and gravel.

Unfortunately she discovered that peace and quiet couldn't silence the voices in her head, so she determinedly pictured the photos she'd seen of raw sapphires. For the most part they weren't impressive. The advice had been to pay attention to anything translucent, colored or glittery.

Tara sighed, thinking how lovely it would be to find a sapphire. She didn't own much jewelry, mostly a few tasteful pieces appropriate to wear to work. But she had two pairs of utterly indulgent sapphire earrings. One pair were blue solitaires. The others were long drops with stones in a rainbow progression. The jeweler had explained that sapphires came in all colors, even red—but then they were called rubies. Buying those earrings had been an extravagance, because they weren't the sort of thing she wore socially
or
in her professional capacity.

Perhaps she should get them converted into pendants and give one to Lauren on a gold chain. There had to be someone in Schuyler who could do the work. The jeweler in London would likely scream if he knew—he'd claimed that finding two sets of perfectly matched stones in so many colors had been difficult and expensive—but Tara didn't care. What was money if it wasn't used for things that mattered?

“Find anything?” Walt called, startling her. She hadn't heard the two men approaching.

“Not yet.” Tara didn't know whether or not she truly expected to find sapphires, but Walt had needed an adventure, and that had been good enough for her.

The morning followed its usual rhythm as they dug, carried and sorted. Walt was optimistic, checking each newly washed set of stones with high expectations, only to cheerfully toss them in the discard pail and turn to the next set.

Amazingly, Josh no longer seemed to be dragging his feet. Sexual satisfaction might account for the change, but probably not after the way she'd shut him out.

Honestly, men were something she'd never understand.

* * *

A
FEW
HOURS
after lunch, Walt left for his usual rest back at the campsite. Once he was gone, Tara grew nervous, wondering if Josh would think it was an opportunity to “get things out in the open” the way he'd done the first time they'd kissed. But she didn't want to talk about sex. It wasn't that she was a prude, but she had to admit that deep down she was a little old-fashioned.

“We've got a good pile by the creek,” she said when they were alone. “Do you want to wash and sort, or dig and carry?”

“Let's both wash and sort. Midday sunshine is best for checking the stones, and the two of us can resupply the pile when Grandpa gets back.”

She'd hoped for separate tasks to help minimize any discussion, only to decide that if Josh was determined to talk, he'd just push until he got his way. Besides, she shouldn't assume he wanted to bring it up at all...

“Sure,” she agreed.

She loaded a screen-bottomed box and dunked it under the small waterfall on the creek. Once, twice, three times and the stones seemed clean enough. So she sat on a log and started hunting, often stopping to admire the river-polished rocks. While not sapphires, they were beautiful in their own right.

“What are you smiling about?” Josh asked, balancing his own box on his knee and starting to search.

“I was thinking how beautiful these are, even if they aren't gems.”

“True. I've collected several to run through my rock tumbler. But this is the first time since I was a teenager that I've gone looking for anything except in a rock shop.”

“A rugged outdoorsman like you? I'd have thought it was natural to dig for your own stuff.”

“Too busy. I've been working cattle ever since college.”

Tara cocked her head. “I know it didn't pan out when you tried working with Walt, but why Texas?”

“I decided learning a different style of ranching was a good idea,” Josh murmured thoughtfully. “My brother worked for years as a ranch hand before getting the Crazy Horse, and it became obvious I should do the same. Of course, it was somewhat different for him. Jackson had to earn his way back from acting like a fool during high school. Great-Uncle Mitch wanted him to prove he was reliable enough to run the Crazy Horse.”

“Everyone seems to respect Jackson.”

“Yeah,
now
. But he and his first wife got married when they were eighteen because Marcy was pregnant. She was a disaster. Much later Jackson found out that he'd gotten
another
girl pregnant, as well. He and Kayla are married now.”

“Kayla is the one with dark auburn hair, right?”

“Right. She's a huge improvement on his first wife, but she has a business in Seattle, so they spend some of their time in the city. That would drive me nuts.”

“What a surprise,” Tara commented. “Ranching is your one true love.”

Josh seemed startled by her description.

“Uh, anyhow,” he continued after a pause, “I was offered a job in Texas and thought it would be nice to be someplace where nobody knew me. After a while, I was made foreman.”

“It must have felt good doing it all on your own.”

“Yeah, it was nice. The Gordons had barely heard of the McGregors or Nelsons, so I had to prove myself the same as anyone else.”

“Do you ever regret leaving Texas?”

“Yeah, whenever Grandpa and I get into a fight.”

Tara chuckled. “You've had some doozies. I also suspect you have Walt's dry sense of humor. By the way, what did you ask him this morning?”

“Nothing dramatic. He mentioned bringing Grandma up here every fall, and it surprised me. My folks used to take us camping on the other side of the ridge when I was a kid, but not Grandpa. I always thought he was too busy on the ranch...wouldn't even take a vacation.”

“Doesn't ranch work get quieter in autumn?”

“Some.”

Tara fingered one of the Montana agates Josh had told her about. “I know it didn't go well this morning, but perhaps you could try asking him again about Evelyn. When he's in the right mood, he tells wonderful stories about her.”

“Maybe.”

Tara knew better than to push, though she wasn't sure where the conviction had come from.

Josh emptied his rocks into the discard pail. “It's interesting—for some reason we never came over on this side of the ridge when we camped up here.”

“Then you missed out on the hot springs.”

“Nah, there's hot springs over there, just nothing like the pool.” Josh's voice dropped. “That's been a real pleasure.”

Tara swallowed, fairly sure he wasn't just talking about warm water.

* * *

J
OSH
WATCHED
FAINT
COLOR
brighten Tara's cheeks. Her reactions weren't what he'd expected. In his experience most women were blunt when it came to sex, or else they were coy. Neither seemed to fit Tara, and she obviously didn't want to discuss what had happened.

He looked down at his tray of rocks, though it was hard to focus on them. A much more attractive image was the memory of Tara coming up out of the water, a hint of steam rising from her bare skin, his perfect fantasy.

Trying to shake the provocative memories away, he laughed. “Now when I go to sleep at night, this is what I keep seeing—rocks and more rocks.”

“Me, too, but at least you can put names to a lot of them. What prompted your interest in geology?”

Josh thought back to when his grandmother had first told him the story of Boxing N sapphires. He'd been eleven and had come into her personal sitting room to find her examining polished stones in a carved wood box.

“It was Grandma Evelyn.”

He went on to tell Tara how his grandmother had shown him the stones and told him what each one was called—aventurine, pink quartz, sodalite, amethyst, jade...dozens and dozens of them. Then Grandma had told him about the sapphires on the Boxing N. Finally she'd said, quite intently, “Josh, there are gems all over this ranch if you know how to see them. Don't confuse them with anything else.”

Tara looked at Josh. “She sounds like a wise woman. Maybe she wasn't just talking about sapphires.”

Josh shook his head. “Don't get sentimental on me.”

“You should know by now that sentiment isn't my strong suit. I'm too practical.”

“If you weren't sentimental, you wouldn't have gone looking for family,” he retorted. “As for practicality, you didn't know about Lauren, but you still tried, hoping someone out there would be looking for you, too.”

“I suppose. But I'm sure your grandmother must have been terribly sentimental.”

“Yes and no. She believed in being practical, just like you, but she was also an artist. I swear. Grandma Evelyn was interested in everything. The year before she... Well, I got her a smartphone so she could look up something on the internet whenever she wanted.”

Tara was a good listener. She nodded quietly and seemed to be waiting for more, so Josh tried to describe the strong, funny and beautiful woman who'd connected with each of her grandchildren in individual ways. She'd been an artist who illustrated children's books and had painted unique birthday and Christmas cards for every member of her family. Her garden had been like a painting as well, beautifully designed and tended.

“I still have the cards Grandma gave me,” Josh said, his throat painfully tight. It still didn't seem possible she was gone.

Tara was silent for a long moment. “It sounds as if she was a second mother to you.”

He nodded slowly. “She was. I could always tell her everything.”

Tara shifted uncomfortably and finally leaned forward. “I'm probably going to say this wrong, but I think you're unbelievably fortunate. Not because Evelyn died, but because she was really, really special. Having someone you can grieve for so much... Even the grief seems like a gift.”

She dumped the rocks she'd checked into the bucket, then walked away to refill her tray.