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  Whatever, Forever

  by

  Lael R. Neill

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Whatever, Forever

  COPYRIGHT © 2014 by Lael R. Neill

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by RJ Morris

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

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  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Yellow Rose Edition, 2014

  Digital ISBN 978-1-62830-345-2

  Published in the United States of America

  At first Audrey saw only two greasy, jeans-covered legs from the knees down, terminating in feet clad in battered work boots. The rest of their owner lay on his back in the dirt, under the green bulk of an ailing tractor. Nearby a large tool chest sat unfolded on the ground, its contents clean and well ordered. Audrey nodded in approval. Respect for tools said a lot about a man. But then a muffled stream of invective filtered out, around words to the effect that he would have to get clear out from under the blasted beast to get the right something or another. It was followed by the thud of human skull on unyielding steel and a fresh string of unintelligible curses.

  “What do you need?” she asked, bending over to make sure he could hear her

  “Five-sixteenths socket,” came the reply. She stepped over to the toolbox, found the proper piece, and dropped it into the black-smeared hand protruding from beneath the machine.

  “Okay, Audrey, that’s enough of playing daddy’s little helper. Come on. We’ll be late for the trail ride.” The imperious command came from her older sister, Kelsey. “We paid enough for ten days at this swanky place that we don’t need to miss a minute, especially not to get greasy working on engines.”

  “You go ahead, Kels. I’ll catch up.” With a shrug and a flip of her carefully streaked and toned blond hair, Kelsey abandoned her sister. She did not quite say whatever, but the message came through.

  While she listened to the ratcheting click of the socket wrench, Audrey took a closer look at the tools. All Snap-On. Expensive but worth it. Mr. Greasy Jeans climbed another step in her estimation. Then the boot heels dug into the dirt and the jeans resolved into the lanky figure of a man, more or less her own age, wearing a T-shirt bearing not only several generations of grease spots but also a large oily pinkish streak of hydraulic fluid. He uncoiled and stood up, towering over her modest five feet three, and used the back of his left wrist to scrub sweat from his forehead, leaving in its place another filthy smudge.

  “Thanks for helping me out. I apologize for my language. My patience was wearing a little thin.” She looked up into a somewhat average face with large hazel eyes and a truly brilliant smile. “I’m Dave.” He held out his grubby hand, looked at it, and self-consciously dropped it to his side.

  “Audrey.”

  “Well, thanks again. And if you’re going on that trail ride, you’d better hurry. Alex doesn’t wait for anybody.”

  “I’ve probably missed it, then. I wasn’t all that into it in the first place. I’ve been on a jillion trail rides, and most of them are deadly boring. All you do is look at the backside of the horse in front of you and eat dust the whole way.”

  “So you’d rather sit around passing tools to a grease monkey?”

  She looked down with a diffident shrug. “My dad operates his own garage. I’ve been working with him since I was old enough to know not to play in the cleaning solvent. Besides, this dude ranch thing was my sister Kelsey’s idea. She only wanted me to come along as her cover so it wouldn’t look like she was some predator out here to snag a rich guy.”

  “Well, if she came for rich guys, they’re here, all right,” he agreed.

  “Sorry. Not interested. Once burned, et cetera. What’s wrong with the tractor?”

  “Hopefully nothing, now. It was just a blown O-ring, but it was spouting hydraulic fluid like a whale. I need to check it and make sure it’s not still leaking. Want to help me?”

  She felt her smile brighten. “Of course. What do you want me to do?”

  “Climb on and start her up.”

  “Are the plugs hot or do I need to let it warm up?” she asked as she stepped up into the seat.

  “It was running half an hour or so ago. They should be good to go yet. Just fire her up and see.” She pushed the clutch in, held the brake, made sure the transmission was in neutral and the PTO disconnected, and turned the key. The diesel engine started with an obedient rattling chug. She looked at Dave expectantly.

  “Okay. Lift the bucket while I look underneath. It doesn’t need to be much, just enough to get some pressure up in the pump.”

  She uncaged the control stick and raised the bucket a foot or so off the ground. “How is it?” she asked.

  “Looks fine. Go ahead and shut her down.” He scooted out from beneath the tractor and stood up, scrubbing at his hands with a shop rag full of hydraulic fluid. “So you know your way around farm equipment too.” She detected just a little admiration in his voice.

  “I’m pretty smart for a big city gal.”

  “A dude ranch must be boring for you, then. Even the fancy ones like Wedding Ring are pretty basic compared to, say, a cruise or a couple weeks in Europe.”

  She replied with an elaborate shrug. “Like I said, I’m Kelsey’s cover while she trolls for rich guys.”

  “Some vacation,” he snorted. “Look. The trail gang’s leaving.” She followed his pointing finger and saw the straggling line of riders heading out from the barn area.

  “No big deal. I’ll lie around the pool and read or surf the web or something.”

  “Let me apologize to you for making you miss your ride. If you give me a chance to clean up, I’ll get us a couple horses and you can come with me. I need to ride fence, but I promise it’ll be more interesting than that trail ride. If you trust me, that is.”

  “Any guy who respects his tools like you do has to be trustworthy.”

  That drew a chuckle. “All right. You got it. I’ll behave like Sir Gollywog or however that went. But I have to get this grease off. If you don’t mind waiting at the bunkhouse while I clean up?” He gestured to a building across from the barn. It looked like something from a western movie set, with clapboard siding obviously repurposed from an older structure, and a long farmer’s porch across the front. Dave took up his toolbox and led the way. She sat on a rustic porch glider and fanned herself with her hat while he went inside.

  With nothing to do but look around while she waited, she took in the stunning scenery. Surprisingly, Eastern Washington held its own with Colorado, Wyoming, and Texas when it came to kicker culture. She had never seen so many purebred cattle and blood horses in one place in her life. The Wedding Ring Ranch nestled up against the Teanaway Ridge, which formed the southwestern boundary of the Kittitas Valley.

  She had become so absorbed in her surroundings that it almost surprised her when Dave returned. Still wet-headed from a hasty shower, he had changed into fresh jeans, brown riding b
oots, and a blue-and-white-checked western shirt. His eagle-and-American-flag belt buckle called attention to his flat belly; her mouth went dry as she imagined the six-pack beneath it. Once outside, he clapped his well worn light tan Stetson on his head. It marked him as a true cowboy. Nobody with any sense wore a dark hat in the intense Eastern Washington sun.

  “Ready to go?” he asked.

  She gave him her best smile. “Ready. I haven’t ridden fence since last summer on my uncle’s place.”

  “You can ride, then?”

  “Well enough to ride fence and move cattle. I know I’d never win any equitation prizes, but I don’t fall off. I was taught to ride by a retired Hollywood stunt woman.”

  “You probably know more than I do, then.” He led her back toward the barn. The dim warmth inside smelled richly of hay and well kept horseflesh. A fussy sorrel mare paced inside the first loose box she passed. She paused every now and then to call, her whinny full of distress.

  “Weaning,” Dave explained.

  “Poor mommy,” Audrey sympathized, talking to the horse. “But even human mothers have to let their babies go eventually.” The mare responded with another heart-wrenching cry.

  “Six or eight mares are going through this mess right now. They keep enough foals around the ranch for the cute factor. But they’re all registered Quarter Horses and they go to good owners, mostly people who want horses for sports like barrel racing and reining. The animals at Wedding Ring are solid and well bred. The handsome part doesn’t hurt either.”

  He headed toward another loose box holding a big Appaloosa gelding. The horse turned and stuck his head over the door as Dave approached. “Hey, Okie,” he said, scrubbing his fingers under the horse’s jaw. Okie had dark bay forequarters and a white rump with a sprinkling of egg-sized dark spots down to the hocks. Like some Appies Audrey had seen, the hair in the spots stuck up roughly, seeming to grow in a different direction from the rest of his coat.

  “Wow! He’s good looking!” she exclaimed. Okie turned his attention toward her, sticking out his nose to catch her scent.

  “I think he agrees with you.” Dave chuckled. “This is Okanogan Polar Star. Okie for short. He’s my horse.”

  “Management lets you keep your own horse here?”

  “It’s one of the perks. He’s my working animal, so they don’t have to furnish me a horse or pay his vet bills. I think I’ll saddle up Ace for you. He’s one of the movie star horses we keep for VIPs, but nobody needs him at the moment, and he could use the exercise.” He passed Okie’s stall, leaving the gelding hanging over the door with a wistful look on his face.

  Ace took Audrey’s breath away: a large, stylish, deep gold palomino with a flowing mane and tail. “That one looks like his pedigree is as long as the Queen of England’s,” she remarked.

  Dave laughed softly. “Double registered, Palomino and Quarter Horse. Wedding Ring Ace of Diamonds.”

  “You won’t get into trouble for letting me ride him?” she asked.

  “No. That won’t be a problem. And don’t worry. He’s a push-button horse.” Audrey watched while Dave tacked out both horses with sure, economical motions.

  A few minutes later they were on their way, climbing along a fence line that ran straight up between two pastures, toward the tree line. Here and there he dismounted to check a post or the tension on the wire, and when they came to a big gate, he loosened the chain, took hold of the corner of the gate, and backed Okie around to let her go through. Then the horse followed the arc of the gate until Dave could fasten it again.

  “All our horses are trained to open gates,” he explained. “Even Ace is pretty good at it.”

  “Okay. Can I open the next one?”

  “Sure, if you want to try.”

  They climbed steadily from the irrigated pasture into the dryland. She smelled the sharp, turpentine scent of warm pine duff on the dry August breeze and watched the occasional cloud scudding across the summer sky. This is what a vacation is all about, she thought. If Kels is out to find herself a rich boyfriend, more power to her. I’ll settle for an afternoon riding fence with the maintenance guy.

  They eventually went through another gate, which Ace opened and closed as easily as Okie had. “We’re on Forest Service land now,” Dave informed her. “Wedding Ring subleases it to another rancher to run his cattle on, but I do like to check it now and then. Besides, there’s a really interesting place up ahead. I thought we could take a break. You can see clear down the valley from there.” The last quarter mile turned into a narrow, rough game trail. She guided Ace in behind Okie and leaned forward to take some of the stress off the big gelding as they climbed. For a while she could hear only the creak of tack, whooshy horse breath, and the occasional muted clink of a shoe on stone. Then they broke out onto a flat area on the top of the ridge. Dave stopped and simply looked out over the panorama that spread itself before them.

  The view nearly took Audrey’s breath away. To the east, the whole Kittitas Valley lay like an abstract sculpture made by giants. Grayish tan mountains crowned with pines encircled the green valley floor, and far away she could even glimpse the Yakima River before it made its right-hand bend and cut through the hills on its way toward its union with the Columbia.

  “During the last ice age the river ran straight down through the eastern end of the valley, but then that got blocked by ice and the river cut through the hills. It’s still flowing that way,” Dave informed.

  “This is absolutely stunning,” she breathed. “Thank you so much for bringing me up here.”

  “My pleasure entirely,” he said with a smile, coming off Okie’s back to help her dismount. Ace’s height made a long step down for her. Dave tied both horses and took a couple bottles of water from his saddlebags.

  “Cheers,” he said, handing one to her. They toasted each other with Ozarka, and she could have melted when he laughed. Though she had initially thought his looks only average, he had sensitive eyes, a straight nose, a square jaw, and when he took off his Stetson, precisely barbered yet boyish sandy hair.

  All too soon Dave gave her a leg up onto Ace and they headed back. The sun had already begun its descent toward the Cascades when they came through the last gate. “Want to canter back?” he asked. Her answer was to boot Ace in the ribs. Dave switched the reins across Okie’s rump and the Appaloosa jumped to catch up. They came down to the back of the barn in a cloud of dust and laughter. She pulled Ace to a halt and bounced down.

  “Thanks so much! I really enjoyed that ride,” she said, smiling up at him.

  “I’m glad you did. I wanted to make it up to you because I made you miss the trail ride. But I had an ulterior motive. I wanted your company. Riding fence can get way boring when you’re by yourself. But you need to get back to the ranch house. You only have half an hour to dinner.”

  “No big deal. I don’t think they dress for dinner here, do they?”

  “No. Just jeans and boots.”

  “Good. Then all I need to do is wash up.” She took Ace’s reins and led him into the barn next to Dave and Okie.

  “So are you going to the casino tomorrow?”

  “I don’t want to. I’m not much of a gambler. I think I’ll just hang out here.”

  “Well, if you’re going to stick around, tomorrow is pool maintenance day.”

  “Is that a hint or an invitation?”

  “Take it however you want,” he replied with a grin.

  “Okay. See you at the pool, then.” She took her leave with a wave and warmth in her heart.

  When she made her way to the dining room, Kelsey was already there, every hair in place, makeup spit-shined, and decked out in her best diamond tennis bracelet and the dinner ring she had inherited from their grandmother. She took a look at Audrey’s dusty boots and wrinkled her nose.

  “I saw you coming back,” she said, taking advantage of her high heels to look down on her sister. “Who were you riding with?”

  Audrey shrugged. “His name’s
Dave. The guy who was working on the tractor.”

  “Leave it to you to attract the handyman,” Kelsey said with a decided sneer. “Tomorrow I’m going to Toppenish with a movie producer, in his limousine.”

  “Well, whoopee-do for you,” Audrey riposted, not bothering to mask her sarcasm.

  “I don’t believe you. Here you are, out of work, and you don’t even try...”

  “If you’re not going to say something you haven’t said at least ten times already, just shut up, Kels.”

  “Honestly, Aud...” She never finished her sentence.

  “There she is!” a masculine voice caroled. Kelsey’s expression shifted from anger to delight in a slippery instant.

  “Hello, Michael!” She turned to greet a smallish, balding man wearing a bolo tie with a huge turquoise slide. She swept over to meet him, taking his arm proprietarily and caressing his biceps as though it belonged to Mr. Universe. “Audrey, this is my friend Michael Graeber. He’s the one I told you invited me to go to Toppenish with him tomorrow. Michael, this is my sister Audrey.”

  “Very nice to meet you,” she murmured, taking the proffered hand, which bore a pinkie ring with a diamond big enough to call UFOs down from the sky. His grip felt flaccid and uncomfortably clammy. She resisted the temptation to wipe her palm on her jeans.

  “Lovely to meet you too, my dear. Would you like to accompany us tomorrow, then? I hear the local casino offers some wonderful entertainment.” He favored her with an oily smile.

  “No, thanks. It’s grand of you to invite me, but I’m not into gambling, and I have made other plans.”

  “Well, another time, then.”

  “Yes, certainly.”

  “May I escort you to dinner? It’s not often I have two lovely ladies on my arm.” In spite of Kelsey’s discouraging tug, he offered Audrey his free arm with a flourish. She had to fight against drawing back.

  “No, thank you. I’m meeting someone.”

  “Pity. Well, then, since I can’t entice you to spend some time with us, have a lovely evening, my dear.” The unusual pitch and pace of his voice made her wonder about his sexual orientation. Kelsey, what on earth are you doing? You’re really barking up the wrong tree this time.