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“Not really, but you did seem quite fond of him.”
“I was. He was easily the sexiest guy I’ve ever met, and, truthfully, I was looking forward to seeing more of him. But finding out he is a fortune hunter was more a blow to my ego than to my heart,” Laura insisted
“Naturally,” Tara agreed. “And you’re much better off with Boone. The man has it all—money, power, position, and good looks.”
“True.” Through the cabin window, Laura watched the land rushing up to meet them, each blade of grass becoming discernible. “I imagine Boone’s in Texas by now.”
“If Max has anything to say about it—and he will—you’ll hear from Boone again. And fairly soon, I suspect.”
The jolting thud of the wheels making contact with the runway stopped further conversation. Which was just as well. Laura’s thoughts were on Sebastian, not Boone.
She couldn’t help wondering if the day might come when she would run into him again. The possibility was enough to resurrect that familiar flutter of excitement. Instead of being upset that the mere thought of him could arouse her, Laura accepted it.
Distance was what she had needed to acquire the proper perspective on the situation. Just as she accepted that nothing permanent could ever come of the attraction she felt for the man, that didn’t mean she couldn’t indulge that attraction, in the event of some future chance encounter. It was an attitude that seemed both worldly and wise, and one Laura felt comfortable wearing. In a way it was like an armor to protect her from further hurt.
The plane taxied to a halt on the hangar apron. As Laura unbuckled her seat belt, Tara relapsed an attention-getting sigh. “Laura, darling, if you don’t mind, I’ll say my good-byes now. There’s really no reason for me to get off here
, since we’ll be flying on to my private airstrip at Wolf Meadow as soon as your luggage is unloaded. Give my regards to your mother and Chase, will you?”
“Of course.” Laura crossed the aisle to Tara’s seat and bent down to air-kiss her cheek. “Thank you for an absolutely glorious trip.” She straightened. “Talk to you soon.”
When Laura stepped from the plane into the bright afternoon sunlight, there waiting on the tarmac was her boy-slim mother, Jessy Calder, dressed as usual in boots, Levis, and a cowboy hat. The crisp white blouse she wore was the only thing that set her apart from a working ranch hand. Chase Calder, Laura’s grandfather and the family patriarch, stood next to Jessy, gray-haired and stooped, without the rock-hard muscles that once covered his big frame—as evidenced by how heavily he leaned on his cane.
Jessy welcomed Laura with open arms and a deep-shining look of love. Even though they had little else in common, the love of a mother for her child and a child for her mother linked them together.
After an exchange of hugs, Jessy stepped back to take a good look at this grown daughter of hers. “We’ve missed you.” In a purely motherly gesture, she brushed the loose blond hair from Laura’s face. “You’ve been gone a long time.”
“No longer than when I was off at college.” Laura chided affectionately and turned to give her grandfather a big hug.
“It’s about time you came back.” His wide smile negated the gruff reproach in his voice. “Maybe now I can stop worrying about you.”
“You know you don’t have to worry about me, Gramps.” She planted a kiss on his cheek, leaving a smear of lipstick behind. “I’m a Calder.”
“Don’t you forget it, either,” Chase Calder admonished, his eyes atwinkle with pride.
A movement in her side vision caught Laura’s attention. Laredo Smith was standing next to the Suburban’s rear fender, his boyish features belying his fifty-odd years. For almost as long as Laura could remember, the long, lanky cowboy had been a fixture at the Triple C. There was a story that Laredo had saved her grandfather’s life when Laura was a small child, but that was something people rarely talked about, making it another part of the Calder legend.
But Laredo had always been something of a mystery. Nobody seemed to know for sure where he was from, whether he had family somewhere, or even if Laredo Smith was his real name. Laura had asked often enough but never received adequate answers, certainly not from Laredo. Yet there was never any doubt about the absolute and unqualified trust placed in him by both her mother and grandfather.
“I should have known you would be somewhere close by, Laredo,” Laura said, his presence reminding her that even though he lived in an old line shack in the far western corner of the ranch, he was always at the Triple C headquarters, in the vicinity of either her mother or grandfather. She had long suspected, ever since her early teens, that her mother and Laredo were secretly lovers, mostly from the tender way they sometimes looked at each other. But if they were, they were unfailingly discreet.
“I see the world traveler has finally come home,” Laredo remarked, leisurely moving to join the threesome.
“I don’t think Europe exactly qualifies as the world,” Laura chided.
“Maybe not,” Laredo conceded.
“Where’s Trey?” Laura made a quick scan of the hangar area, but saw no one other than the two men who manned the private airstrip, serving as mechanics, ground crew, and, at the moment, baggage handlers as they unloaded her luggage from the plane’s hold. “I thought he’d be here.”
“He would have,” Jessy assured her. “But some truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and plowed up a large stretch of the boundary fence along the highway early this morning. You know how cattle are. The minute they discovered the downed fence, they had to find out what the grass tasted like on the other side. When Logan called to alert us we had cattle out, he said it looked like there might be close to fifty head scattered up and down the highway. I sent Trey and a bunch of the boys to round ’em up and get the fence back up. They haven’t returned yet, so they must be still at it.”
If Laura had needed a reminder that the Triple C, for all its immense size, was essentially a working ranch, with cattle representing its livelihood, she had just gotten it. On a priority list, her return hardly held the importance of nearly fifty head of cattle straying off the range.
She put aside her disappointment at Trey’s absence and asked instead, “Was the driver all right?”
“He was pretty shook up but otherwise okay,” Laredo answered. “The same can’t be said for his truck. The tractor got banged up good.”
Scowling, Chase peered at something beyond her. “Is all that your luggage, or is some of it Tara’s?”
