Nobody's Dream (43 page)

“I thought we’d been through that already.” Lucas’s gloved hand stroked her bare arm. “Who shattered your trust, Sweet Pea?”

Sweet Pea was even more intimate than darling! She had never heard him use that term on anyone but her. “Why do you have so many silly nicknames for women?”

She felt his shoulder shrug. “Maybe it’s a Texas thing. Or plain old country. My dad always used little endearments like that for my mom, especially ones with flower names like Rose and Petunia.”

“Thank the Goddess you do not call me Petunia.”

He chuckled, and the rumble transferred from his chest to her back.

That he used the endearments because of his parents surprised her. He was not patronizing her at all by using the silly words. It was a cultural thing.

But she still wished he did not use anything but ones he might use with a server at a restaurant. Impersonal ones. Not “Sweet Pea.” And definitely not “baby girl.” She was nobody’s baby girl.

The smoke all but disappeared as they continued to navigate the side of the mountain.

Cassie relaxed a bit. “I think you are right. We have evaded the fire.”

“Hope so. GPS says we still have another three-fourths of a mile to reach the highway.”

As they continued to cut across the slope of the mountain, Cassie found her body relaxing even further. The horse’s steady, rhythmic gait lulled her into a state of calm she rarely experienced when not immersed in her art. She had never ridden a horse before, but found it to be…harmonious. She was almost one with the animal, although her body seemed to be responding as much to the man sitting astride the horse with her as to the four-legged animal itself.

As her eyelids drooped and her head relaxed against his shoulder, Lucas’s arms wrapped around her more tightly. Rather than feeling smothered this time, though, she knew he only wanted to make sure she would not fall. Just for a moment, she would relish the strength of this man’s arms around her. She would have trusted no one else, but Lucas was a good and gentle man. She was safe with him…

The sound of a fire engine’s air horn caused her to jump. Cassie glanced around, seeing flashing lights and a lot of red trucks on the highway ahead of them. She had nodded off! How had she let her guard down enough to—

“You must have been exhausted.”

Between working on her woven
quipu
piece almost nonstop for days followed by the adrenaline rush, stressing over packing what she needed, and leading her animals to safety, she had not been sure she could find a safe way off the mountain.

Cassie shuddered. When she had become disoriented, she thought they might not make it to safety. “My girls and I might have died if you had not found us.”

“Your voicemail scared the hell out of me, Sweet Pea. I could only hear every other word in your message, but when I heard you say you were evacuating… Just didn’t know where you’d go, so I had to start where the trail began at your place.”

“You could have been killed coming through the fire like that.”

“I used Eduardo’s shortcut. Avoided the worst of it.”

Her skin felt warm against her back. “You’re very good at tracking.”

“Only so-so. Picasso did most of the work.” He reached in front of her to stroke the horse’s neck.

“Did you train him or is it instinct?”

“A bit of both. Working one-on-one with the same animal, you learn their signals, alerts, habits, and such.” The horse picked up the pace a little as they neared the side of the road, and they began the climb up the highway to where Lucas had parked his truck.

“I’ve been thinking lately about training some of the other horses I’m working with for SAR missions, too, rather than give them up for adoption. I can pair them up with some of my squad members, eventually. Situations like today’s prove the value in finding other ways to reach the lost and injured.”

He continued toward the trailer. “Pic and I have been training a while, but this is only the second rescue mission we’ve done. He answered the call today and then some. Didn’t you, Pic?”

Luke patted the horse’s neck, and the animal nickered his acknowledgement. Horses seemed to be very intelligent creatures, not unlike her alpacas.

Luke made a phone call to a dispatcher to let them know they had reached safety. “Let’s settle the animals near the trailer and go to the ambulance and have you checked out.”

“I’m fine.”

“Better safe than sorry. Probably won’t take but a few minutes if your eyes, throat, and lungs all look and sound good.”

Knowing the man did not back down on such things, she nodded. Realizing how close she had come to being lost out there, Cassie began to shake. Lucas reached for something in his saddlebag and soon placed her poncho over her head. She had left without it. The poncho had been a gift from
Abuela
the last Christmas before she passed over.

“I am so happy you rescued this. It holds much meaning for me, but in the rush to leave I did not have time to take everything I should have.”

“It helped Pic to understand who we were searching for.”

She reached up and stroked the nose of the tall horse. “Thank you, too, Picasso.”

After tethering the horse and alpacas to the trailer, she and Lucas walked to the parking lot at the pass. The area was teeming with activity, but someone called out to him.

“Hey, Rafe! Found her!” He gave the man a thumb’s up. “That’s Angel’s oldest brother. He’d have had my hide if I didn’t make it back with you.”

After an EMT pronounced her no worse for the experience, they started toward the trailer.

She turned toward her mountain, seeing smoke billowing at the peak. Flames shot upward in very close proximity to her place. It seemed the entire mountain was about to go up in flames. Tears sprang to her eyes. Nothing could survive.

Chapter Fourteen

N
early an hour later, Cassie preceded Lucas into his ranch-style house. They had settled the alpacas into one of the empty horse stalls in the barn, and the poor, exhausted animals had promptly curled up and fallen asleep.

Exhaustion was doing a number on her, as well. She thought about what she had left behind, but there really were only a few things up there she had grown an earthly attachment to that could not be replaced—
Abuela’s
blankets and shoulder cloth. All her artwork had been delivered to the gallery in Denver for the exhibition, except for the one she had taken with her. The portrait of her parents had been transported safely to Peru when Eduardo went home last month. But she had not remembered the blankets.

Tears stung her eyes. One of the most important remnants of her time in Peru with someone who loved her unconditionally and helped her form the foundation of her faith, and they had most likely been destroyed. Everything else could be replaced.

She pushed her regrets aside and began thinking more about the present. What would the sleeping arrangements be for her while she was here? The house was not very large. He had mentioned his double bed when they were negotiating the terms of their marriage arrangement, but she wondered now if there might not be another bedroom, too. If she was going to be here any length of time, she could order another bed and mattress set so as not to put him out.

Close quarters. Of course, they had managed fine in her even smaller cabin—well, once they had stopped sharing her twin bed. She would not be sharing a bed of any size with him.

“Let me take your poncho.”

She shrugged out of it again, having experienced a bout of shivers after sitting in his truck, either from the air conditioning or the aftermath of the adrenaline drop. She handed it to Lucas who hung it on a hook near the door while she continued to survey the room.

Cozy room. Brighter and airier than her place. A Buck Stove dominated the room, with a red and black braided rug filling the open space between the stove and the couch.

Lucas offered her something to drink, and while he was in the kitchen, she wandered around the room. Above the mantle, he had displayed the pastel painting of him and Milagrosa, sending warmth through her heart as she remembered that special moment with Lucas. On the mantle itself sat a photo of an older couple smiling down at her. The man wore a Stetson, and there was no mistaking his resemblance to Lucas. The woman’s eyes looked tired, but her smile seemed genuine.

“That was taken on their fiftieth anniversary two years ago.”

Cassie wondered how his parents could be married so long. How old were they when they had Luke? She had not intended to ask, but Lucas must have anticipated her question. “They were married close to twenty years before they had me. I think I more than wore them out before they were done raising me.”

“Oh, I am sure you were as easygoing then as you are now.”

He grinned enigmatically, but did not respond.

Cassie’s focus returned to the photo. Imagine trying for almost twenty years before finally becoming pregnant. Not that pregnancy was something she had ever thought about for herself, but the thought of wanting a child and having to wait so long seemed…torturous.

“Momma thinks I hung the moon. She was the one most involved in my upbringing. They worked the pipelines, so we were on the road a lot. She wanted to quit her job to stay home with me, but it just wasn’t feasible until I was in high school.”

“What kind of pipeline?”

He motioned for her to sit down and handed her a glass of iced tea. “Crude oil. I forget everyone doesn’t live where pipelines are an everyday part of life.”

“Did you always live in Texas?”

“Not in the beginning. We lived in Wyoming for a few years, I’m told. Then one summer they were transferred to Alaska. Maybe that’s where I fell in love with the mountains and snow, but I was only nine and didn’t learn about the power of the mountains.” A cloud descended over his eyes, no doubt remembering his wife, but he smiled ruefully. “Before and after Alaska, most of Dad’s jobs were in Texas or South Carolina.” He took a sip of tea. “Until high school, when Momma put her foot down and insisted they settle down so I could make friends and prepare for college in a good school district. So they retired and bought a place in El Paso.”

“I have never been to Texas. What is it like?”

“Big.” He grinned. “And brown. Not a lot of trees. But damn, the spring is nice, with the Indian paintbrush and cacti flowering, not to mention all the bluebonnets. Still, I don’t think I could live there again. Colorado has been home for a long time, since soon after I lost Maggie.” He looked away and took a long drink of his tea. “This is home now. How about you?”

“You know already that I grew up in Peru. Went to uni—Columbia—in New York City on an art scholarship and moved out here after graduation thanks to a generous alumna.”

“Why didn’t you go home to Peru?”

She took several sips of the too-sweet tea as she contemplated how to answer his probing question, but decided less would be more in this case. “My heart was no longer there. But the mountains here remind me of what I loved most about Peru. I can work from anywhere.”

“You ever feel lonely up on that mountain?” Cassie wondered why he wanted to know, but before she answered, he elaborated. “I used to think I was okay being alone until Angel moved in here a few months back. Only stayed a couple weeks, but the place sure felt lonely after she’d gone.” He grinned. “I sure miss her cooking, too.”

If he expected her to replace Angelina in the kitchen, he’d better think again. The thought of Angelina coming here when she was clearly in love with Marc seemed odd, too. Did she not worry that Lucas would make advances—or that Marc would go into a jealous rage like…?

Don’t think about Pedro.

The silence dragged out a little too long, and Cassie cleared her throat. “So you have a spare bedroom?”

“Nope. Just the one.”

Her hand trembled until she willed it to remain still by gripping her glass harder.

“When I bought this place, I just needed a functional house fast. Since it was just me, I figured one was enough. Wasn’t expecting all this drop-in company.” His teasing grin did nothing to calm her nerves. “Angel stayed here a couple weeks when she and Marc were having trouble.”