The Lost and Found (21 page)

Crimson Sage

EVENTUALLY I MUST HAVE
fallen asleep; I don’t remember anything else, not falling to sleep, not how I arrived in Josiah’s bed, not until I woke up, with the sun shining through the window, reflecting brightly off the snow. I rolled over, my eyes searching for Josiah. He wasn’t anywhere. I sat up and glanced to the bathroom; the door was cracked open, but the lights were off. Josiah’s loft wasn’t that big, so it didn’t take long to realize he wasn’t there. I checked the time and saw it was after nine.

Crap. I must have been really tired.
I thought as I scrambled out of bed. I quickly washed my face in the bathroom sink and then returned to his bed and made it. I was just searching for my shoes when I heard steps outside his door. I heard the lock turn and then the door opened.

Josiah stepped inside, carrying two plates. “Good morning.”

I was suddenly shy for some odd reason. Blushing, I mumbled, “Morning.”

“I brought breakfast.” Josiah set it on the bar in front of one of the stools. “Coffee’s still hot. Sit down I’ll get you some.”

I did as he asked and watched him as he moved about the tiny kitchen. After a moment he sat next to me and we began to eat. “Billy say anything?” I asked him between bites.

“Yeah.”

I blushed again. “Well? What did he say?”

“He said to give you this and to tell you he installed a lock on your door, for added privacy.”

“
What
?”

“Billy installed a lock on your bedroom door, for added privacy. He asked me to give you the key.”

“Yeah, I heard that part. Did he say why?”

“Nope.”

“Did he say anything about where I stayed last night?”

“Nope.”

“Do you think he will?”

“I’m not worried about it.”

“You’re not?”

“No, are you?”

“I don’t know. I mean… I’m an adult and all, but I’d imagine he’d have an opinion about this… and you and me.”

“I’d imagine,” Josiah agreed. “Look, I told you before — we’ve done nothing wrong. I won’t act as though I have. You shouldn’t either.”

“Okay,” I agreed; no reason to worry about it, really. “What’s on the agenda today?”

“You. Me. And Trigger.”

Trigger, I knew, was one of the ranch horses. I wondered what Josiah had in mind for us today that involved the horse.

“Um… okay. What are we doing with him?”

“You’re going to learn to ride him.”

“
What
? Nuh-uh. I’m not riding that horse.”

“Crimson,” he said, his voice soft and reasonable. “You’re going to learn to ride today.”

“I don’t
want
to learn to ride.”

“That’s because you never have. Once you try it, you’ll love it.”

“No, it’s because I just don’t want to ride horses.”

“Are you
chicken
?”

“No.”

“I think you are.” He rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.

“I. Am. Not,” I ground out.

“Prove it.” He locked his eyes with mine.

I glared at him. How did he always manage to get me to bend to his will? He’d maneuvered me into a corner and now I was trapped. And he knew it.

“Fine. Whatever. But if I get hurt, it’s all your fault.”

“You won’t get hurt,” he reassured me.

“So you say.”

“So I know.” He was confident.

“Again.” I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

“I told Billy you’d be gone all day, with me.”

“Look, if I’m going to play cowboy with that horse, I refuse to do it where the boys are going to see me land on my butt.”

“Already taken care of. You’ll ride behind me, until we get to a place I know and you’ll learn there, away from prying eyes.”

At first that sounded like a good plan. Then, I wondered if that was truly a wise decision.
What if I fall off and need medical attention
? I bit my lip and watched as his eyes followed the movement.

“I like that lip the way it is, Crimson,” he said. Josiah reached out and ran a thumb over said lip, then leaned in and gently kissed me. He kissed me slow and easy and deep. My head whirled and I couldn’t remember what I’d been worrying over. It was hard to stay focused when his mouth moved over mine, his tongue touched and tasted, his teeth nipped playfully.

“No fair,” I breathed.

“Very fair. This is all I get to do. I’m going to make sure I do it well. And often. And you have a mouth that was made for kissing.”

“I trust you.”

“I know.” He grinned. “Let’s get going.”

I helped him clean up our breakfast and then went to brush my teeth with a borrowed toothbrush. Josiah gave me one of his hats and a sweatshirt. Both had his scent, and I loved it. He then handed me one of his jackets. Between his clothing and the looks he kept giving me I doubted I’d feel the frozen air at all.

Josiah must have already been to the horse barn, because when we got there Trigger was standing outside his stall, already wearing his saddle and bridle. Josiah mounted first and then offered me his hand so that I could climb up behind him.

Instinctively I wrapped my arms around him and leaned into his back. Trigger sidestepped a little nervously, and I remembered hearing or reading once that horses could smell fear on people. I tried to calm myself down by breathing deeply and in doing so caught another enticing whiff of Josiah. My fears eased and I was able to relax enough to enjoy the ride with him.

The snow wasn’t that deep, maybe a foot or so; some areas were deeper than others. Trigger didn’t seem to have any problems with it. He seemed eager to go and moved out willingly into the crisp white morning. As close as I could tell we rode for over an hour, following some unseen trail that only Josiah and Trigger seemed to know about. We rode across a small creek that I was sure fed into the pond back behind the ranch house. Josiah then took us through a narrow canyon that ran for maybe thirty feet. It was much cooler in there, in the shade of the towering rocks and cliffs. The wind was brisk as it blew over us and I couldn’t help but shiver. Josiah dropped a hand to my thigh and rubbed it encouragingly.

“We’re almost there.”

“Okay,” I breathed against his shoulder.

The canyon opened into a small valley that was, for the most part, free of snow. Against the far wall stood the remains of an old log cabin. Most of it had caved in at some point, but it looked like someone had cleared some of the debris away and built a small fire ring. I saw wood that had been cut and stacked near it. Josiah rode right up to the cabin and then stopped.

“I found this old place a few years back. Billy said I could check it out, see what I could find. I’ll get a fire started and then we’ll get busy with your lesson.”

Josiah was in his element out here. As I sat back and watched him expertly start the fire, with minimal effort, it occurred to me that he seemed to be in his element no matter what he was doing. I’d watched him in many varied activities, from fixing fence, to automotive repair, to tractor driving, to teaching me how to drive a stick, to starting a fire, and now to teaching me how to ride a horse. I found myself trying to peg him, to classify him, but I was unable to.

Josiah was a puzzle. A delicious puzzle. He wasn’t a cowboy — no Wranglers, no western boots, or cowboy hat. Yet he was comfortable with horses and ranch life. He wasn’t a farmer either, and yet he knew his way around farm equipment and crops.

I carefully looked him over now as he showed me once again how to mount Trigger. Today he wore faded blue jeans that sat low on his hips. The material hugged his butt, not to the point of being indecent, maybe just to the point of being obscene. Obscene because he looked so darn good in them. The denim was neither too tight, nor too loose. His dark, red hair was hidden under a deep grey beanie and his muscles were covered in a couple layers of flannel and knit.

He was rugged. Like Gracie had said, he was untamed and just the thought of him caused me to shiver in excitement.

Josiah wasn’t a jock, but he was fit enough and clean enough he could have passed for one. He wasn’t punk or biker, but with the piercings, the tattoos, the moody eyes, and the muscle he could’ve been. Josiah, I decided, was his own class of man. His own breed; he was one of those rare guys who were supremely confident in themselves as men, completely and thoroughly at ease in their maleness.

He caught me looking at him. Those blue eyes sharpened, focused on mine. “You play dangerous, Crimson.”

I drew in a deep breath and shook my head. “Not really, I was just deep in thought.”

Josiah dismounted, dropped the reins, and stepped up to where I’d been standing, warming by the fire, warmed by watching him. “And, what were you thinking about? There’s heat in your eyes.”

My breath caught. Here, again, he was completely at ease with himself as a man. Completely at ease with how a woman should respond to him. Another facet of him to consider and solve. “I was just trying to figure you out.”

“And what conclusion have you reached?”

“That you’re your own breed. You’re not like anyone I’ve known before.”

Josiah studied me quietly. His blue eyes strayed from mine, slowly moved down to my mouth and focused there for a minute before continuing downward, to where my heart was now pounding in my chest, as if he had x-ray vision and could see it thundering there. His gaze flicked back up to mine and he said, “I don’t think you’re ready to know me completely yet. We’ll both have to be patient. Let’s get you on that horse before I run out of patience.”

I hated to admit it, but Josiah had been right. Riding a horse
was
fun. Trigger was patient, responsive, and well behaved. Josiah was instructive and informative. It didn’t take me too long to discover that riding horses had its own rhythm. At first, after I was in the saddle by myself, I felt a little unstable. Like I might slide off one way or the other. With Josiah absent, I had nothing to grab on to except the saddle horn, which didn’t feel as reliable as Josiah had. But, after several minutes, I was able to adjust and move my body in the correct patterns.

We stayed there in the little valley for another hour. Josiah had me saddle and unsaddle Trigger. Then we mounted again; this time he rode behind me as we headed for home. About twenty minutes after we’d left the mouth of the canyon, we came to a clump of bare white birch trees. Josiah had his chin resting on my shoulder, his arms around me. I was maneuvering Trigger around the trees, just skirting them, when Josiah went from relaxed to alert in the span of a half a second.

“Hold up,” he said, sitting up straight.

I pulled Trigger to a stop and Josiah slid down from behind me. He quickly made his way to the trees, scanning the area.

I watched him in silence, wondering what had triggered his attention and agitation. Josiah scouted around, his gaze on the ground. He walked down our back trail a little ways, then turned and came back to me.

“Josiah, what’s wrong?”

“I think someone may have followed us out here.”

“Who?” I asked, looking around.

“Not sure yet.”

The tone of his voice gave me the impression he did know. I looked at his face as he prepared to mount the horse; his blue eyes were hard, flinty. His jaw set. His nostrils were flared. Josiah was definitely irritated. I wondered if he suspected Rob. I couldn’t imagine why Rob might have followed us today, but then again, I couldn’t figure out who else might have been interested in what we were doing either.

A couple times on the way back, Josiah had me stop and he’d get down to check something out, then without a word he’d remount and we’d be on our way again. Other than those brief stops, we rode the rest of the way back to the ranch in silence.

Josiah and I unsaddled and tended to Trigger, and I gave the golden gelding an extra scoop of grain for all his efforts.

“Hey.” I nudged Josiah’s shoulder where he stood, leaning against the open barn door. “Everything all right?”

“I want you to promise me something, Crimson.”

“What?”

“Promise me you’ll let me know if anyone here bothers you. Rob especially. You’re a beautiful woman on a ranch full of pubescent male youths and testosterone-fueled young men. Things can happen. If any of the boys here is in
any
way inappropriate, whether by word or by action — I want to know about it.”

“Do you suspect one of them of following us today?”

“Those tracks I saw led back here. Someone from the ranch followed us and spied on us.”

“Who?”

“I have my suspicions, but no proof.”

“Is that why Billy installed the lock? Did you ask him to do it?”

“No,” he shook his head.

I studied Josiah for a couple moments, trying to decipher the look in his eyes. We heard the back door slam shut and we glanced toward the house. Billy stood on the patio and waved us over to him.

“Crap,” I said weakly. Josiah chuckled, took my hand, lifted it to his lips, nipped me with his teeth as he winked, and then led me to the house.