Reining In Trouble. Tyler Anne Snell

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СКАЧАТЬ of Winding Road.

      “But, how can it be over if the man with the scar is still out there?” asked Caleb’s inner voice. It was a question that always followed the memories, darkening them even further.

      Today, though, Caleb refused to entertain them for long. He leaned into the beat of his music and focused on the comfort of routine.

      The burn of exertion didn’t kick in until Caleb was passing the third mile marker. Scots pines lined either side of the dirty trail, their roots gnarled and reaching every few yards. Caleb had run the trail since he was fifteen and knew when to jump over or step around the ones that threatened to take a jogger by surprise. Just as he knew the exact spot to veer off the beaten path and forge over a less-known one to his favorite place across all of the ranch. The trees clustered closer but Caleb wove around them and kept going.

      He heard the stream before he saw the water.

      The trees thinned out and the ground dipped. Caleb jumped off a dirt ledge and slapped the trunk of a tree that had his initials carved into it. Rocks worn by erosion lined flowing water that was clear enough to see more rocks making up the bottom in the distance. It wasn’t a particularly wide waterway, neither was it that deep, but it was always cold.

      Caleb was already thinking about stripping down, wading to the deepest point and dunking under for a quick refresher before he rounded the last line of trees. He stopped in his tracks. He wasn’t the only one who had been thinking the same thing.

      A woman was already standing in the middle of the stream. Her back was turned to him but there was no denying the top layer of her clothes was somewhere else. Her raven-black hair was twisted up and showed smooth tanned skin, bare and reflected in the water just over her waist. Caleb couldn’t tell if she had any bottoms on but thought it ungentlemanly to find out. Though he wasn’t above admitting that, even from his limited view, there was an attractive curve to the woman. It brought out a feeling of curiosity that mingled with a more intimate excitement, but he wasn’t about to search out that feeling. Not when the woman had no idea she was being watched.

      Caleb started to backtrack but whatever cool he’d had on the trail had been lost due to the new scenery. He missed his step and grunted as he tried to catch himself from falling. A splash of water was followed quickly by a gasp. Caleb’s palm bit into the smaller rocks on the shore. He managed to get his balance from them and went back to standing tall.

      Now he was the one with an audience.

      The woman had sunk down so far that the water was only an inch below her face. If that very same face hadn’t been scowling at him, as red as a cherry, Caleb might have taken an extra beat to appreciate the beauty of her sharp features, dimpled cheeks and dark brown eyes. As it was, he barely had the time to defend himself.

      And even that he did poorly.

      “Before you get any ideas,” he called, raising his hands in surrender. “I was on a run. I didn’t know anyone would be here.”

      The woman, who he placed around late twenties, stayed red hot. Even her words had heat to them.

      “Heck of a place for a run,” she yelled, motioning with one hand around them. The other he assumed was fastened across her chest.

      Her implication that he was lying transferred some of that heat to Caleb. He crossed his own arms over his chest.

      “I was running on the trail but decided to come and cool off,” he defended himself. “This is the deepest part of the stream.”

      “How convenient,” she replied with bite. Her eyes skirted to a log that had been on its side for the better part of two years a few feet away from him. Caleb saw a pile of clothes and a pair of tennis shoes on top of it. “Could you please look away now? Or does that take away part of your fun?”

      Caleb rolled his eyes, once again not liking the insinuation that he had been lying about his intentions, and made a show of turning all the way around.

      “Just so you know, I’ve been coming to this stream for almost two decades. In all of that time I’ve never run into another soul.”

      The woman’s feet slapped against the rocks behind him as she ran for her clothes. When she spoke he could tell she was struggling into them as fast as she could go.

      “I was out checking the trail, if you must know. I was also specifically told that no one is supposed to be out here for another week,” she tried. “Especially not walking the woods.”

      That got the detective side of Caleb prickling. The only people who’d been given rules on the ranch were employees and he sure didn’t remember meeting her. And, he was fairly certain he would have remembered.

      “And who told you that?”

      “The owners. I work here,” she said with pride. “So I suggest you get on your way before I report you to them.”

      Caleb snorted.

      “I wouldn’t be so smug about it,” she added. “One of them happens to be the sheriff. I don’t think he’d look too kindly on Peeping Toms and liars.”

      “You’re right, Declan doesn’t like liars,” he said, feeling that heat again. He’d never been accused of such a crude thing. The only women he’d been interested in seeing naked he’d let them know, not stalked them off to the side. “He doesn’t care for trespassers, either. The ranch might be open but it’s private property.”

      He chanced turning around. The woman was fully dressed in an outfit that gave credence to her claim of exercising. Her eyes drifted down to his shorts before they were back staring defiantly at him.

      The resolve she’d been swinging cracked with uncertainty. Still, she held her shoulders back and her chin high. She actually huffed.

      “I’m not trespassing. I’m coordinator for the Wild Iris Retreat. I just started last week.”

      A snatch of conversation flitted through Caleb’s memory. His mom had been asking Madeline if she would be willing to show the new girl around town a few weeks back. That had been at the height of the Keaton case. He’d barely been around the Retreat since he’d finished the job. While they all had a stake in the Retreat, his mother was the one who ran the technical details, including the hiring. Though he still was hard-pressed to believe the woman scowling at him. All of the Nash family had agreed they wanted to hire locally. It was hard to pass on a genuine experience if the Retreat was being run by an outsider.

      He ran a hand across the back of his neck. It was covered in sweat. The water sure would have felt good but he doubted the woman would stand for him stripping, too, and walking into it. He settled for leveling with her.

      “I don’t remember the job being open for anyone who wasn’t local,” he said honestly.

      A flicker of emotion he couldn’t decipher crossed her expression. Her scowl deepened.

      “Dorothy said I gave one hell of an interview,” she shot back.

      For a moment they just looked at each other. This time it was Caleb’s certainty that wavered. He believed the woman was telling the truth.

      “Well I never like to doubt my mother’s decisions.”

      The СКАЧАТЬ