Love Finds You in Valentine, Nebraska Page 4

  She halted in the foyer. To the left was a living room, and a bedroom was on the right. They walked into the living room, and the windows squeaked when Derek opened them to unhook the shutters. “Mom keeps dustcovers on most of the furniture. You can take some of them off if you want to, while I get some more light.” But she was still standing in the middle of the floor when he came back, so without speaking, he started uncovering the furniture.

  The house had been vacant for a long time. What else could I have expected? Kennedy thought. She stirred out of her reverie and helped Derek fold the cloth he’d taken from a Windsor reed organ.

  “You probably think I’m foolish for expecting the house to look like a mansion, but I’ve always thought about it the way Mother described it having come here as a bride. When my grandmother died, I didn’t come with Dad because Mother was still living and I wouldn’t leave her. When Grandpa died, I was in finals and didn’t come back for his funeral, either.”

  From the living room they moved into an octagonal sunroom then into a large parlor and the dining room. The kitchen was the most modern room in the house, with fairly new appliances, but the rest of the furniture had probably been bought forty or fifty years ago. Only a few antique pieces remained.

  “It seems rather futile for me to be here now,” Kennedy said. She was disappointed that she didn’t have any sense of belonging in the house.

  Almost in silence they walked upstairs, where there were four bedrooms and a bathroom. The furniture was similar in each room—an oak bed, a dresser, an armoire, a rocking chair, and a nightstand. Most of the furnishings could have been there since the house was built. In the first room, Kennedy checked out the dresser drawers. Each drawer had papers or items of clothing, piles of mutilated paper, and a stale odor indicating that the house at one time or another had been infested with mice.

  “I’ve seen enough for today,” Kennedy said wearily. She’d looked forward to seeing her ancestral home, but all she felt now was a horrible feeling of emptiness.

  She had hoped to find contentment here, but she had experienced nothing but disappointment.

  Derek locked the door and pocketed the large key. Pointing northward, he said softly, “The family cemetery is in that direction. It’s only a short walk, if you’d like to go.”

  She shook her head. “Oh no, I can’t deal with that today. But if you’ve got time, I’d really like to see some of the rangeland.”

  “On horseback or by truck?” he queried with a slight lift of his heavy brown brows as he and Kennedy got into the cab of the vehicle.

  “I’ve never ridden a horse in my life,” Kennedy admitted.

  “Well, City Girl, that’s the best way to see your ranch,” he said with a mischievous arching of his left brow.

  “Well, Cowhand, you’ll have to teach me how to ride,” she countered.

  His brow arched again in a way that she found most fascinating. With a hint of humor in his intense brown eyes, he waved his hand in a gesture of defeat. “I sure can’t do that in one afternoon. We’ll go in the truck.”

  Kennedy didn’t answer. She figured his good-natured ribbing was designed to ease the unhappiness that visiting the house had caused her, but she wasn’t in a talkative mood. Besides, she was wrestling with a preposterous idea that had popped into her head out of the blue. She couldn’t erase hang-ups from the past if she kept running from reality. Was it time to face the hurdles head-on?

  Derek’s impersonal gaze swept over her. “I’m not sure you’ll be comfortable in that getup. We may do some walking, and your arms could get burned from the wind and sun.”

  She grinned, remembering how much “that getup” had cost her.

  “Do you have jeans and a long-sleeved shirt?” Derek continued.

  “Yes, but the shirt is silk, probably no more suitable than this ‘getup.’ I bought the jeans especially for my trip to the country,” she answered, although now she realized that they were too stylish for the ranch. She needed plain Levis like her father had often worn.

  “When we get back to the house, you can change into jeans, and Mom can loan you a shirt.” He surveyed her body again, but not quite as impersonally as before. “No, I think you’d better wear one of my shirts—hers won’t fit you.”

  before. “No, I think you’d better wear one of my shirts—hers won’t fit you.”

  Laughing, she said, “And I suppose yours will!”

  “You can roll up the sleeves. It’s better to have a shirt too big than too small. While you change, Mom can fix us a lunch.” Kennedy retrieved her jeans from a garment bag in her car and went to the bathroom and changed. June brought her one of Derek’s shirts that was too small for him. The sleeves were several inches too long, but June shortened them with safety pins, agreeing with Derek that Kennedy needed a long-sleeved shirt. “When you’re not used to our sun and wind, you can sunburn mighty quick.”

  When Kennedy rejoined Derek, she detected laughter in his eyes as he said, “Where did the city girl go?”

  “I’m still the same, Cowhand. Clothes won’t change me into a cowgirl.”

  He didn’t respond as she expected him to. Instead he said, “I still think you’d better stay with Mom at night, but if you won’t, do you want to try to reserve a motel room before we leave?”

  “How long will we be gone?”

  “As long as you want to be. This is a big ranch, and even in a truck it takes awhile to cover all of it. We’ll only see a small portion of it today. Some places are too rugged to take the truck and we’ll have to ride horses to get there.”

  Pleased to know that she would have a good reason to extend her stay, Kennedy said, “I’ll probably have seen enough in a few hours, and we can be back by mid-afternoon. I’ll call about reservations then.”

  A half hour later Derek was explaining about the crops grown on the ranch—alfalfa, wheat, and oats—and how they were needed to feed the stock during the winter months. Kennedy had never been surrounded by so much open country in her life. Next they came to the grasslands—large pasture fields where Black Angus cows and white-faced Herefords grazed.

  She counted more than a hundred horses in another field. “These are mostly used at roundup time,” Derek explained. “We ride the ones in the corral at headquarters just about every day.”

  After an hour had passed, Kennedy realized that they were steadily ascending. When they came to a rocky embankment, Derek put the truck into four-wheel drive, and the vehicle laboriously climbed a rough trail that took them to the top—giving Kennedy a bird’s-eye view of the terrain they’d been driving. The grasslands extended for miles. As the strong wind stirred the green blades, the grass moved sinuously like ocean waves toward the pine-crested buttes of the Niobrara in the far distance.

  Awestruck by the beauty before her, Kennedy gasped. “Oh, it’s beautiful! Derek, what do you think a new owner would do with the ranch?”

  “I don’t know. It depends on the buyer. You hear all kinds of rumors when a piece of property is up for sale. If the buyer is someone who loves the land, it would probably continue as a ranch. But I’ve heard it might be turned into a housing development, providing large building lots for rich people. There’s also talk of a country club or a shopping mall.” He paused. “Do you want to get out? This is a pretty view, and you can get a good look at the rangeland from here. We can eat before we start back home.”

  “Oh, yes,” Kennedy said, her eyes glowing. “I could look at that scene for hours.” Derek circled the truck and opened her door. Still looking at the scenery while exiting the truck, Kennedy missed the step and tumbled forward.

  “Oh!” she squealed. Derek stepped forward and caught her in a close embrace. Still frightened, she clutched his arms and looked up to thank him. His protective arms wrapped around her like a warm blanket. Time stood still, and Kennedy could feel his heart thudding against her own. Was it fear or something else that caused her to gasp for breath?

  His nearness kindled emotions she
had never experienced, and she felt wrapped in an invisible warmth. His eyes swept over her face, and she lowered her eyelids a little to avoid his searching gaze. She sensed that he was leaning toward her, and she stared at his lips, which were coming closer and closer.

  Suddenly she felt his body stiffen. He released her quickly and stepped back. In a husky voice he asked, “Did you hurt yourself?” Not physically, she thought. Although she was breathless, she made an effort to speak calmly. “No, thanks to you. I shouldn’t have been so clumsy.” Derek seemed to have gained control of himself, for he said, “That’s a high step.” She had to get away from him. She walked to the promontory, where stunted pine trees provided some shade. The promontory was covered with grass and clumps of yucca. “This is a good place to picnic, and the view is spectacular.”

  “Yeah, I think so.” Derek dusted off a rock with his bandanna, and she sat down, still looking out over the river valley. She couldn’t meet his gaze. Whatever had happened to her must have affected Derek, too, for when she slanted a discreet glance in his direction, his face seemed a shade lighter than usual.

  As they ate, Derek pointed out the ranch headquarters, the general direction of Valentine, the Niobrara River, and the approximate western boundaries of the ranch, saying that they couldn’t see the eastern sections from this point. Kennedy had a lot of questions, and he fielded them as well as he could.

  After a while she said, “I’ve seen enough new things for one day, but let’s just sit here for a few minutes before we go back. That is, if you have the time.” Thinking he might as well put their relationship in perspective, Derek said coolly, “You’re my boss. We’ll stay here as long as you want to.” She frowned at him. “I am not your boss.”

  “With Smith out of the country, you’re the nearest thing I have to one.” The reproachful look in her eyes hurt his conscience, but he had to do something to counteract that fiasco between them a short time ago. “But we needn’t argue the point right now. Let’s talk about something else. You’ve lived in Los Angeles all of your life, but that doesn’t tell me much about you. What do you do there?”

  “Oh, it’s the same as the life of any city girl.” She gave him a sassy look, so he figured he was forgiven for hugging her. That is, if she’d been offended in the first place. “I graduated from high school and went to college all within the same city.”

  “What’d you study to be?”

  “An attorney,” she told him. “I specifically prepared to represent underprivileged people who need legal counsel. I’ve finished my college work, but I haven’t taken the bar exams yet. With the pressure of finals and dealing with Dad’s death, I needed some time off before I start reviewing for the exams. In California they’re given in October and February. I hope I can be ready by October, but I’ll have to review tons of information we covered in law school.”

  “I suppose you were at the top of your class,” he said with a slight smile.

  “Hardly that, but I did graduate from the university with honors.”

  “Have you traveled much—outside of California, I mean?”

  “I’ve been in Europe a few times, and to Hawaii,” Kennedy replied. “For my high school graduation present, my parents took me on a Mediterranean cruise. But that’s enough about me. What about yourself? I’d never heard of you until yesterday, so now it’s my turn. For starters, did you and your parents live anywhere else before moving to the Circle Cross? Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

  Derek wasn’t too keen on revealing his family background, but perhaps it was best that she knew now. He knew that there wasn’t any place in his life for a girl like Kennedy. Although he would like to be her friend, he wasn’t sure he could handle that without being hurt. Grief over her father’s death had made her vulnerable, and Derek knew that nothing must happen between them that they would both regret when she left Valentine.

  vulnerable, and Derek knew that nothing must happen between them that they would both regret when she left Valentine.

  He’d almost kissed her when she fell into his arms an hour ago, and he doubted that she would have objected. But what was probably a summer fling to her could mean a lot more to him. He wasn’t one to flirt with a woman. She had a right to know the worst about him, if for no other reason than because he worked for her.

  “I grew up in the slums of Chicago. I have no idea who my parents were or if I have any siblings. As a matter of fact, I don’t even know my birthday. When I was about two years old, the police picked me up. I was wandering the streets. They took me to a children’s shelter and the staff tried for a year to find some clue as to my parentage, but they never did.”

  Kennedy’s eyes widened. “And you still don’t know?”

  Determined not to sugarcoat the facts, Derek said laconically, “Nope! The director listed my birthday as August 15, the day I was taken to them. They recorded my age as two. After I was shifted from one foster home to another, Dad and Mom adopted me when I was eight.” A wide range of emotions flitted across Kennedy’s face—shock, concern, disbelief, and another emotion he couldn’t define—perhaps it was disgust. He couldn’t tell for sure, so he added harshly, “So you see, while you were traveling overseas and living in luxury, I was living from hand-tomouth. There’s a big difference in our backgrounds, Kennedy.”

  Tears misted her majestic green eyes. “But how could you have turned out so well when you had such a poor start?”

  “All the credit goes to Mom and Dad. He was originally from Nebraska, and after a few years, they decided that Chicago was no place to raise a boy. He got a job on the Circle Cross, and we moved. I was fifteen and way behind in my studies, but I wanted to better myself, so I studied hard. I graduated from high school and got a football scholarship to the university, but I didn’t graduate with honors.”

  “But don’t you see,” she said earnestly, placing her well-groomed fingers on his hand, “that you’ve accomplished more than I have? I had every advantage, so it wasn’t any big deal for me to make good grades. You’re the one who deserves a pat on the back.”

  “I haven’t gotten many of those,” he said without rancor.

  Playfully, she reached over and patted his broad shoulders, and the uncomfortable moment passed.

  “But what about guys?” Derek asked, figuring she would tell him to tend to his own business. “I can’t believe that someone like you hasn’t had a lot of romance, but I don’t notice an engagement ring.”

  “I had my share of teenage romances, but they were short-lived,” Kennedy admitted. With a smile, she recalled, “Dad accused me of being too picky. The last two years I’ve been seeing another law student, Steve Martin. But what I considered friendship must have meant more to him. He asked me to marry him a few months ago. I didn’t want to hurt him, so I told him I’d think about it. He’s traveling in Europe this summer, and I told him I’d give him an answer when he comes home in September.”

  “What kind of a man is he?” Derek demanded, as if he had the right to question her.

  “Oh, he’s a good guy and would make a fine husband, but”—she regarded him with a steady gaze—“I don’t think I’ll marry him. There’s no spark between us, if you know what I mean.”

  Derek knew exactly what she meant, and he wondered if she, too, had experienced the electric-like bolt that had shattered his composure when she fell into his arms. He cleared his throat. “Well, I sure can’t give you any advice,” he said. He forced himself to add, “I’ve avoided women, for the most part. I have nothing to give a wife and children. Besides being poor, I don’t have a name, and I have no idea what kind of background I’d bring into a marriage. So I’m better off to leave women alone when I don’t intend to marry.”

  “Oh,” she said and turned from him to look out over the plains. He watched her profile, hoping she didn’t turn quickly, for he figured his face revealed the perplexing emotions he’d been experiencing since she’d suddenly come into his life.

  After the silence
continued for ten or fifteen minutes, he said, “It will take an hour to drive back to the ranch. The tourist season is starting now, so if you want to be sure of getting a motel room, we’d better hit the road.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not ready to leave yet. I’m thinking.”

  He smiled, knowing that whether or not she admitted it, she would make a good boss. He lay back on the rock and covered his face with his hat. He was dozing when she said, “Derek?”

  He sat up and put on his hat. “Ready?”

  “Not quite. What would you think if I told you that I’m thinking of moving into Riverside for the summer?”

  “I think it’s insane if you’re figuring on living there alone,” he answered bluntly.

  She glanced at him crossly. “I thought you’d agree with me.”

  “Why would you want to live there?”

  “In the first place, I don’t want to go home yet. I need to wait until Cousin Smith gets back so I can find out who wants to buy the ranch and why. If he doesn’t want to tell me, I definitely won’t sell. Also, I want to meet some of my cousins while I’m here. I can’t see any reason to pay motel rent when I own a perfectly good house.”

  “A perfectly good, isolated, mice-infested house! Don’t forget that. The place is almost a mile from ranch headquarters. You’ll be afraid, and I’ve judged that you’ve never really taken care of yourself. Can you even cook?”

  Ignoring his question, she looked directly at him. “I thought you might want me to stay.” He avoided her gaze. “As far as that’s concerned, I’d enjoy having you around. I believe we could become friends if we had a chance. And I hate to see this ranch go out of the family. But I feel responsible for you until Smith gets home, and I can’t watch you and do the ranch work, too. We’re going to start the spring roundup soon and be branding the calves, which will take at least two weeks. It’s a dawn-till-dusk job.”

  “I’ll cause you as little extra work as possible, but I’ve made up my mind. I’d like to do this. I’ll go into Valentine and get a few groceries, and tonight I’ll set up light housekeeping in my ancestral home.”