Healing the Forest Ranger

“You call me Lyn. I don’t like formality if I can avoid it. I’d like us to be friends.”

He blinked, his eyes glinting with hesitancy. “Okay, I’ll call you Lyn. When is your next trip? What are the plans?”

She noticed his omission of them becoming friends. That was okay. She’d learned long ago that she could work with people she had no fondness for. As long as she maintained her composure and worked professionally, it wouldn’t be a problem. At least not for her.

“I’ll be taking a horse trailer up into the McClellan Mountains on Friday and then riding into Barton’s Canyon to look at the creek there. If you want to tag along, you’ll need to bring your own horse. We can ride together, but plan to stay out all day.”

He flashed her a devastating smile. “Deal. I’ll even pack us a lunch.”

“That’s not necessary. I can bring my own food.”

“I want to do it. I promise you won’t regret it.”

She let the subject drop. What she ate for lunch was the least of her concerns.

They made a few more arrangements, with Lyn planning to drive out to Sunrise Ranch so they could load his horse into her Forest Service trailer. Then they’d drive up onto the mountain and unload the horses. They’d spend the entire day riding across some very rugged terrain together.

Lyn doubted her sanity for agreeing to Cade’s proposal. Being near this man made her jittery for some peculiar reason. She tried to tell herself that working with him would help with resolving the wild-horse problems. But it could backfire on her, too. If he didn’t like what he saw or didn’t believe what she told him, he could make a lot of trouble for her with the Toyakoi Tribe. Then she’d be forced to override him and call in the BLM anyway.

The last ranger on this district had dealt with a lot of angry people and even a death threat. Lyn wanted to avoid that, if possible. If she disagreed with Cade, what impact might that have on Kristen? Cade Baldwin was now Kristen’s doctor. Lyn certainly didn’t want him for an enemy. No, not one bit.

* * *

This was a mistake. Cade never should have come here to Lyn Warner’s office and asked to be included in her visits to the wild horses. No matter what she thought, he didn’t want to make trouble. But neither did he want to see the mustangs driven to and fro by a helicopter, captured in a corral, and then loaded on a truck to be transported miles and miles away from their home.

“What exactly are you planning to look at on Friday?” he asked, trying to ignore a large picture on her wall of a black stallion with a long flowing tail and mane as he raced across a meadow of green grass. Absolutely spectacular. Remembering Lyn’s camera, Cade wondered if she’d taken the picture.

Her chair squeaked as she sat forward. “Being new to this ranger district, I’ve never viewed Barton’s Canyon. I’ve been told that the creek is in bad shape, and I want to see it for myself. The Forest Service has worked hard to build up a nice band of desert bighorn sheep in that area, and I want to make sure we don’t lose any of them.”

Cade thought the bighorns could surely cause as much damage as the horses. “How many sheep are we talking about?”

“Approximately thirty-three, including rams.”

Okay, maybe not. Even Cade knew there were many more mustangs running wild across the range than there were sheep. He’d seen the horses himself and knew the bighorn were way outnumbered.

“You like bighorn sheep, don’t you?” she asked.

Her question took him off guard. “Of course. I love all the wildlife.”

“Good. Because I’m told they’re in danger right now. Not enough food and difficulty getting to a decent water source.”

But how could the mustangs cause that problem? The horses were just living out there, trying to survive. It couldn’t be so cut-and-dried. There must be another reason the bighorn sheep were in danger. Maybe this was just another scare tactic. A strategy Cade had seen other government employees use in the past. Next he expected Lyn to blame the mustangs for the demise of the mule deer and antelope, too.

Something inside him hardened. “I hope you’re not going to blame all of this on the wild horses.”

She took a deep inhale and paused for several moments as though choosing her words carefully. “I’ll tell you what, Cade. Let’s ride up Barton’s Canyon and take a look. I’d like to view it before I make any judgment calls. Maybe my people are wrong in their reports and there isn’t a problem. That would make my job much easier. I wouldn’t have to disturb the horses. But if something is wrong, it’ll speak loud and clear, and then I’ll need to deal with it accordingly.”

Her reasoning impressed him. No thumping her fist on the desk. No insisting the horses were to blame. If she could stay impartial until she saw something wrong, then he could, too. Or at least, he hoped he could. “That sounds fair to me. But what kinds of problems have your people reported?”

Her brow furrowed. “Let’s just wait. If something’s wrong, we’ll see it. Let’s educate ourselves first, and then we can talk about it in depth, okay?”

Again, her insight startled him. He hadn’t expected the new forest ranger to be so reasonable. And that made him even more suspicious that she might have hidden motives.

“Okay.” He answered slowly, afraid he might have to defer to her judgment on this topic. After all, what did he really know about vegetation and wild animals? As a medical doctor, he’d studied plenty of science and biology. He was definitely smart enough to see through a shell game. But he knew almost nothing about ecosystems, watersheds, wildlife and grazing needs.

What if there was something wrong? And what if Lyn blamed the problems on the wild horses? Cade could write his senators on behalf of the Shoshone Tribe, but the BLM had the law on their side. They’d do whatever they deemed was right.

“And if we don’t find anything wrong, will you leave the mustangs alone?” He didn’t want the bighorn sheep and other wildlife to suffer, but neither did he want her to move the horses if they were innocent.

“Absolutely.”

But in her eyes, he saw doubt. And a bit of regret. And that gave him a shivery foreboding. “You seem skeptical.”

“I am,” she admitted. “I have a master’s degree in ecology, and I do this job for a living, Cade. I’ve seen this situation before. The problems aren’t always easy to address, but the cause seems to be consistent in these circumstances.”

In other words, she was almost certain she’d find problems, which would require her to act against the horses.

“Are you sure you can be objective toward the mustangs?” he asked, feeling a bit cynical.

She nodded, her eyes narrowing. “Oh, yes. Remember I’m here to protect all the wild animals, including the mustangs. I don’t have the luxury of preferring one animal over another. I’m a conservationist, not a preservationist. All of these animals are important to the area.”

Cade wanted to believe her. He really did. But there’d been trouble in the past, and he’d grown accustomed to distrusting government employees. But not at the expense of the desert bighorn sheep. And the mule deer. And many other species he couldn’t name right now.

No doubt Lyn could name them all.

“Okay, I can accept that.” As he said the words, he hoped he meant them. For now, he’d wait until Friday and see what happened from there. He’d know soon enough if the horses were the problem. And then he’d do everything in his power to help save them.

As he left Lyn’s office, he couldn’t help feeling a bit on edge. As if he’d been told he had a large lump in his throat that needed a biopsy to determine if it was malignant or benign. The unknown made him nervous.

He was absolutely certain of one thing. If Lyn Warner had ulterior motives, he’d ferret them out. Just as she must trust him to provide the best medical care for her daughter, Cade must also trust Lyn to do what was right for the wild horses.

And there lay the crux of the problem. Neither of them fully trusted each other. At least, not yet.

Chapter Four

Friday morning, Lyn watched as Cade Baldwin stepped out onto the front porch of his white frame house. She tried to smile as she parked her green Forest Service truck and horse trailer at the side of his wide, graveled driveway.

He stood waiting as she got out of the truck. Dressed in cowboy boots and tight blue jeans, he wore a gray chambray shirt that embraced his muscled arms and the width of his shoulders like a fitted sheet of fine linen. Even from this distance, she caught the flash of his white teeth as he squinted against the morning sun. He tugged a battered hat low across his forehead, shadowing his eyes. He stared back, taking in her ranger uniform, a deep frown creasing the corners of his full lips.

With a couple flips of her hands, she pulled her long, blond hair back into a ponytail and walked toward him. A blue-coated Australian cow dog stood beside Cade, panting and wagging his tail happily. Lyn wasn’t surprised when the dog didn’t rush her. Real cow dogs were highly trained, calm and obedient. This one seemed especially well behaved.

“Good morning, Cade,” Lyn called.

“Morning.” A monotone reply. No lilt in his voice.

The greeting seemed to signal the dog. He ran to meet her, snuffling at her legs. She bent down and held out a hand, palm up, waiting for the animal to sniff her skin before she petted and scratched his ears.

“Hi, fella. You got a name?”