Wearing the Rancher's Ring

“Hello, Clancy. It is you, isn’t it?” she asked.

Her voice was still rich and melodic and the sound shimmered through him like a welcome sun ray.

“Yes, it’s me.” He reached for her hand and she didn’t hesitate to curl her fingers firmly around his. “Hello, Olivia. This is quite a surprise to see you here.”

Surprise? Hell, he thought, it was more like a violent earthquake.

A faint smile crossed her face and it dawned on Clancy that he couldn’t decide what his gaze wanted to concentrate on the most. Her dark hair and tanned skin were a rich, vibrant color, her eyes like a shimmering gray sea. He’d forgotten just how pretty, how downright sexy she’d been, but now that she was standing so close, everything about her was rushing back to him, jolting him with erotic memories.

“I moved here to Carson City a couple of weeks ago,” she explained. “A job transfer.”

His mind whirling with questions, he forced himself to release his hold on her hand. “Job? Here in Carson City?”

“For the Bureau of Land Management. Rangeland—you might remember. I work the Sierra Front field out of the district office here in Carson City.”

She gave him another smile, the polite sort of expression that was a display of manners rather than genuine pleasure. Clancy could only wonder what she was really feeling about seeing him again.

“Yes. I remember your classes revolved around land management,” he said stiffly. They’d met in college while he’d been working to finish his degree in ranch management and she’d been working toward a degree in land management. Apparently, at some point after she’d left him, she’d gone back to college and acquired the degree she’d needed to go to work for the BLM.

“So how have you been?” she asked.

He started to answer but was interrupted as Jessi suddenly showed up with his coffee. As the waitress placed the cup and saucer onto the square wooden table, Clancy gestured to one of the chairs. “I was just about to sit. Would you like to join me?”

She cast a quick glance over her shoulder at the big man she’d been dining with. “Well, for a couple of minutes. Wes is nearly finished with his breakfast.”

Clancy quickly helped her into a chair, then settled in the one kitty-corner to her left.

“Would you like more coffee?” the waitress asked her.

Olivia quickly waved off her offer. “No thanks, I’m all done.”

Jessi shot a speculative glance at Clancy, then moved away to wait on a table full of hungry construction workers.

Trying not to stare at Olivia, he reached for his coffee cup and took a long swig. His mind must have short-circuited, he thought. He shouldn’t have asked her to join him. Anything he could possibly say to her would only rake up things that were best left in the past. Even so, a ton of questions were already forming on his tongue, begging to be released.

“So you don’t live in Idaho anymore,” he stated the obvious. “What about your mother?”

Dark shadows flickered in her gray eyes before her gaze fell to the tabletop. “She fought a long hard battle, but she passed on about eight years ago.”

Arlene Parsons had been the main reason Olivia had left him and her studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Once she’d learned her mother had been diagnosed with cancer and needed her care, she’d quickly gone back home to Idaho. Clancy had wanted to wait for Olivia until the issue with her mother was resolved. He’d desperately wanted to keep their romance alive, in spite of the distance between them. But she wouldn’t listen to any of his suggestions. She’d cut her ties and told him it would be best for him to forget her and get on with his life. Now, ten years later, he was still trying to do just that.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I lost my mother, too, about seven years ago. It’s rough.”

Her gaze lifted back to his face and Clancy could see that the news of his mother’s demise had taken her aback somewhat.

“Oh. I’m sorry. Did she go through a long illness, too?”

“No. She suffered a fall. An accident at home.” He tried to smile, but painful memories kept getting in the way. “So what do you think about Carson City?”

“It’s very different from Twin Falls. But I’ll get used to it. Anyway, I’m happy to go wherever my job sends me.”

So the BLM moved her around from time to time, he thought. The idea sent his gaze on a search of her left hand. No ring. But that hardly meant she was unattached. Could be the big guy she’d been having breakfast with was her husband.

And why would you care one way or the other? The woman turned her back on you. She’d found it easy to move on and forget the precious time the two of you had spent together.

Trying to ignore the bitter voice in his head, he asked, “What does your family think about the move?”

Her pink lips pressed together. “I don’t have a family.”

Clancy had never expected to hear that from her. All these years he’d imagined her with a husband and children. “Oh. I figured you probably had a husband and kids by now.”

Something stark and resentful appeared in the depths of her eyes.

“I’ve already tried marriage. It didn’t work.” She suddenly smiled, but the display was just as phony as the one she’d given him moments earlier. “I’ve not been near your family ranch yet, but I’ll be in that area with a field supervisor soon. Do you Calhouns lease any government land? Or do you own it all?”

“We lease a few thousand acres of government land. If you do happen to go over ours, I think you’ll find that we’ve taken extremely good care of it.”

“I’m sure we will.”

The man she’d been sitting with earlier suddenly walked up and stood next to Olivia’s chair. She immediately rose to her feet to join him.

“Wes, do you know Clancy Calhoun?” she asked him.

The man, who appeared to be around Clancy’s age, regarded him closely. “Calhoun? Are you one of the Silver Horn Calhouns?”

Clancy nodded. “Yes. That’s my family’s ranch. I’m the manager.”

“Well, it’s nice to finally meet one of you. I hear a lot of good things about your cattle and horses. I’m Wes Wagoner, I work with Olivia for the BLM,” he explained with a friendly smile. “Since she’s new around town, I’m trying to show her the best places to eat.”

Immediately rising to his feet, Clancy reached to shake the man’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Wes. And you didn’t steer her wrong by coming here to the Grubstake. The food is always good.”

As if on cue, Jessi arrived with a platter filled with enough huevo rancheros and hash browns to feed a crew of men. While the young waitress refilled Clancy’s cup, the other man gestured to his food.

“Don’t let your breakfast get cold,” Wes told him. “We’ve got to be going anyway.”

“Yes. Work is waiting,” Olivia chimed in. “It was nice seeing you again, Clancy.”

Feeling as if the air had suddenly been knocked out of him, he said, “Yeah. You two take care.”

They moved on and Clancy sank into his seat. But instead of picking up his fork and digging into the scrumptious breakfast, he sat there, stupefied and wondering why this morning, of all mornings, he’d had to be here at the Grubstake.

Normally Clancy had breakfast with the rest of his family on the Silver Horn. By now he would’ve already been snug in his office, drinking a second or third cup of coffee and listening to the morning farm and market report. But this morning, he’d agreed to meet a fence contractor here at the Grubstake to talk over a project to rebuild some of the ranch’s cross fences. Never in his wildest imaginings would he have figured on running into Olivia in this busy café. And to learn she was living and working right here in the Carson City area had thrown him for a complete loop.

Did that mean he might see her again? Dear God, he hoped not. He couldn’t go through another five minutes like that. His insides were still trembling and his stomach was clenched into a tight fist. And yet the idea of never seeing her again made him just as sick. Either way, he was equally damned, he thought.

“Is something wrong with the food, Clancy? If it doesn’t taste good, I’ll have Juanita do it over.”

He looked up to see that Jessi had returned to his table and he tried to gather his senses as she tilted a glass coffee carafe over his cup and filled it almost to the brim.