Peace River (Rockland Ranch Series) (8 page)

                                                        ****

              Looking back on that afternoon in the diner, Rossen couldn’t help but be amazed at the turn of events.  Before that, they hadn’t even really thought about traveling with someone to help them.  Now, five days later, they couldn’t imagine not having the help.  Their lives were more interesting, more organized and they were certainly better fed.  The trailer that had before simply been a means to accomplish their work, now felt like a home.  Isabel was indeed a wonderful cook and was also serious about feeding them as athletes.  It was delicious, but she was also very good about nutrition.

             
She’d turned out much better than they’d hoped.  She had none of the pushy, suggestive demeanor they often encountered from women.  She never flirted, and though their relationship was casual as they were practically living in each others’ back pockets, she was always polite and respectful. 

The o
nly thing that was at all weird was that although Isabel was competent and capable, sometimes he could swear he saw fear at the back of her eyes.  Never when it was just the three of them, but sometimes just as she stepped out of the trailer, when she quickly looked around, or if someone surprised her or came up from behind.  He knew Slade had noticed it too.

             
Several times Rossen had tried to ask her about her life and her family on the long and monotonous drives, but she hadn’t volunteered much.  She was from the small town in California where they’d picked her up.  She was studying sports medicine in school.  Her mother was dead, and she and her father weren’t close.  She casually mentioned that she liked horses but never attempted to ride hers.  Neither Slade nor Rossen ever handled her horse.  She was always careful to take care of him herself. 

They'd never eve
n gotten a glimpse of the horse without its sheet and hood.  She never took it off and even exercised the horse covered, and they’d been surprised that their own horses almost seemed to be afraid of it.  Granted, it stood inches over theirs, but they’d never seen their horses act that way before.

             
Probably the most amazing thing of all about her to Rossen was that Slade seemed completely okay with her.  It wasn’t that Slade was uncomfortable with women.  He just didn’t ever really quite trust them.  Other than Rossen’s mother Naomi, and little sister Joey, Slade never let his guard down around women.  Not so with Isabel.  From just a few moments after she’d stepped through the door of that little restaurant, a slender, young woman in jeans and sandals, Slade had seemed at ease with her.

             
Actually, the fact that Slade had even considered this whole deal surprised Rossen--surprised and pleased him.  Rossen loved their life.  The rodeo circuit was exciting and challenging and he loved the competition.  He loved truly striving to excel.  His partner was the best, their horses the consummate athletes, but deep in his heart he knew the real reason he was out here still and not home working the ranch and business with his parents and siblings was because of Slade.

             
Slade was one of the greatest men he’d ever known.  Honest and hardworking, competent, generous and smart—he had it all.  Except peace.  Slade had been raised by a wonderful father who had worked hard to raise his children in spite of choosing a flake for their mother.  He’d married Slade’s mother before he really knew what she was like, and then spent the next eleven years trying to make up for that mistake.  He’d finally quit trying to fix his bad marriage when his wife ran off with, of all people, a preacher when Slade was ten and his little sister Chante was six. 

Rossen
knew that Slade had known for years that his mother had been unfaithful, and he had known forever that she was shallow and self-centered.  Still, her abandonment, and the fact that it had been a supposed man of God, had rocked Slade’s world hard.  Slade was still distrustful of religion and women. 

His good father had picked up
the pieces as well as possible. Slade had loved and respected him and adored his little sister, and they’d had a good life without his mother.  Then, when Slade was twenty-one his father and sister had been hit and killed by a drunk driver. 

             
Slade had never been the same.  He’d simply gone on with his life.  He was still going through the motions, and was, in fact, doing very well, in some ways.  He was on track to make it to the National Finals Rodeo for the third year in a row in team roping and all-around.  His ranch and his investments were doing great.  On the surface everything seemed fine.

             
But Rossen knew he’d lost the light in his eyes.  He’d lost his trust in people, especially women, and questioned his faith in a God he couldn’t understand.  He couldn’t understand why God had let a drunk driver kill innocent people.  He couldn’t understand why He’d taken the father and sister whom Slade loved and needed, instead of the mother who had only hurt him and left with someone who was supposed to be one of His shepherds. 

Rossen
didn’t think Slade was even sure why he was here or what his purpose in life was.  He had tons of friends, especially women, but still he seemed a little alone.  He believed that almost all women were as shallow and selfish as his mother had been, and he had been proven right time and again. Rossen and his family understood and had basically adopted Slade long ago, but they had never been able to completely fill the void left in his heart and were still trying to get him to trust in organized religion again.

             
So, Rossen was still here, traveling the country and winning at rodeos.  Always beside Slade, always dependable, always having a good time.  And every once in awhile surprised and pleased.

             
                                          ****

              Isabel climbed up into her bunk and slid the curtain over to obtain some privacy.  As she slipped out of her jeans and let her hair down, she thought of her friends back home.  She’d been gone for five days now and felt like she was beginning to be very comfortable with this new life.  Slade had gotten her a new cell phone so they could touch base when they needed, and she was getting along well with them.  So far they’d traveled to the rodeo in Redding and one in Reno, and tomorrow they'd be in Oregon for another. 

             
She hadn’t watched the first two rodeos.  She’d still been worried about getting away and was trying to get used to this new life, so she’d stayed near the trailer while Slade and Rossen competed.  She’d been very careful to keep Ebony well hidden.  He was probably dying to get out and run, but until she figured out a way to hide him long term, she had to keep his presence low key. 

Perhaps she could buy some women’s hair dye and dye the distinctive lightning shaped marking that ran down the side of his face.  ESPN had once done a piece about the marking and ha
d made it pretty famous.  Even without the lightning bolt he was huge and his coat glistened like black oil.  She needed to find a way to get him to some barn in the middle of nowhere where he couldn’t be discovered.  She’d stay there with him, although she was afraid to be alone.  She had the little gun her grandfather had given her, but she knew if she was ever found alone by the kind of men her father associated with, it wouldn’t be enough. 

             
During the long drives of the last few days, once she’d finally gotten enough sleep, she had been racking her brain to find a solution to this whole mess.  Maybe she should figure out how to legally just sign the whole farm over to Eli and his family.  Judd and his buddies would finally leave her alone and she knew Eli would always see that she was taken care of.  She’d almost decided to do just that, but Eli wouldn’t be on board, and honestly, it felt like giving up and giving in.  Knowing this train of thought would do nothing more than discourage her, she tried to push the negative thoughts away and rest.

             
She could hear Slade and Rossen outside her curtain still moving around and talking quietly.  The more she came to know the two of them the more she genuinely liked them.  Rossen was a cut up and pretty much enjoyed life to the fullest no matter what he was up to, although sometimes she knew he was much more substantial under the surface than he appeared.  He loved to read, and had a deep, quiet inner core that inspired total confidence in spite of his happy-go-lucky attitude.  She hadn’t been surprised to find out in their conversations that he had a degree in petroleum engineering and was actively involved in his family’s oil drilling business back home on their Wyoming ranch.  He had several brothers and a sister, and they sounded down right entertaining from the stories he told.  He assured her she’d meet them as they traveled home sometimes between rodeos to tend to business. 

             
Although she’d been inexplicably drawn to him from their first meeting in the diner, Slade had been a little harder to get to know.  He never talked about his family, and Isabel didn’t feel comfortable asking.  Much quieter than Rossen, he didn’t seem to be shy, but was more naturally reserved.  It was a still-waters-run-deep kind of thing that was very intriguing.  He had a wicked sense of humor that blended beautifully with Rossen’s madcap goofing. 

She’d never seen two humans
who were better friends.  They seemed to be able to almost read each other’s minds.  In some ways they were complete opposites, but that only served to enhance their friendship.  Slade was absolutely competent and had an incredible grasp of a huge variety of interests, although it took awhile to come to know it.  He was calm and gentle around his horses, and they seemed to perform for him almost without being asked.  Slade was just quietly confident in a way that inspired confidence from those around him as well.  Isabel innately trusted him, and had from the get go. 

             
She’d started to help them with some of their paperwork and was amazed at what the two accomplished with a couple of cell phones and laptops. 

             
She’d found that along with his rodeo, Slade ran a several hundred acre ranch in Wyoming and had extensive other investments.  He had an older couple who stayed there and Rossen’s brothers helped to run the place when Slade wasn’t there, with occasional help from other locals. 

             
Isabel cooked, kept the trailer as straight as possible in the small space, helped in the “office” and had done a couple loads of shirts and jeans for them.  She’d found them interesting, resourceful, and completely incapable of a coherent schedule.  They could do anything it seemed, except keep an organized calendar.  How these two had been this successful on the road this long with their current system, or lack of one, amazed her. 

She tried several ideas and finally they just came up with an oversized wall calendar that they both had
room to write notes on and then together they would figure mileages, and purses, and pencil things in.  Quite by mistake they found a system with her taking the wheel, and then with their heads together, and both cell phones out, they kind of got into a zone that seemed to work beautifully.  After that it was a daily regimen, and both remarked several times how much smoother their lives ran under her influence. 

             
After just a few days they all seemed to be comfortable, and once Isabel figured out that they ate like five times what she was used to feeding a jockey, she relaxed even more and began to enjoy the journey. 

             
The one thing that still troubled her was the ports of entry.  So far, the ones they’d passed had been closed.  Some others they'd missed as they'd exited for one reason or another, but she knew that eventually, they would end up stopping, and she'd have to provide documentation for her horse.  She knew when she just happened to mention who they were towing there was likely to be a fuss, especially when word got out that he’d disappeared. 

She wished there were a way to avoid this altogether.  Until she found the way, she waffled between feeling guilty for not being totally honest with
Slade and Rossen after they’d turned out to be so good to her, and knowing she had to protect them from being involved in such a mess.  At length she decided she’d better tell them.  She'd do it sometime before the rodeo tomorrow.  Somewhere along there she fell asleep and dreamed of long, lean race horses and cowboys.

                                          ****

              Slade watched Isabel slip gracefully into her bunk.  As he listened to her get ready for bed he thought of the last time he’d lived this close to a young woman.  It had been six years since the death of his father and sister.  The pain was less sharp now, but still deep. 

Chante
had been dark where Isabel was blonde, but in many ways Isabel reminded him of his sister.  They both looked at him with that steady, calm, absolute trust in their eyes.  They were both quick to smile and slow to anger.  Both were practical and organized, but still with a touch of that different drumbeat.  Isabel had climbed out of her tiny bedroom this morning wearing the wildest flowered capris he could have imagined.  She could do anything they needed so far, and do it all well.  She seemed wise beyond her years, and in spite of the hint of fear deep in her eyes, didn’t hesitate to turn up a good song and dance around their tiny, tiny kitchen.