Danielle Steel - The Ranch

“Is this competition for Sam?” Tanya raised an eyebrow at her, “or is he too young for us?” she teased her old friend, and Zoe laughed at her assumption.

“Neither, you dolt, he's gay, or hadn't you noticed?”

“Actually,” Tanya looked at her thoughtfully, “I hadn't. Oh, well. You've got Sam. What more do you want?” She was in great spirits, and Zoe laughed at her as they rode back to the ranch.

“You're hopeless. What did you do today?”

“Just some errands and stuff.” The shops were great and they had all bought suedes and leathers and cowboy hats on their previous excursions. “I got some great turquoise cowboy boots.”

“I'm sure they'll look great at Spago. You've been here too long. I did that once in Aspen. Knee-high pink cowboy boots that I somehow convinced myself would look great at the hospital. I still have them, brand-new, never worn, in the back of my closet.” The two of them chatted and laughed all the way back to the ranch, and when they arrived, Hartley and Mary Stuart were having a quiet conversation in the cabin. They never seemed to run out of things to talk about, and it was obvious when the other two came in, that the couple had been kissing. It was like interrupting teenagers making out on the couch, and Mary Stuart blushed at a raised eyebrow from Tanya.

“Stop that!” she said under her breath to Tanya as she went to get Hartley a Coca-Cola.

“What did I do?” Tanya said, feigning innocence, but they were all like kids again, and it felt terrific. It was a much-needed counterpoint to the far too serious traumas of their lives, from suicide to divorce to AIDS to tabloids. And a little teasing and fun and romance between them was not only harmless but therapeutic.

“What are we doing tonight?” Zoe asked as she sat down, tired after an afternoon of seeing patients, but exhilarated by her conversation with John Kroner. “Tango lessons? Snake dance? Anything exciting going on?” The ranch provided a fair amount of entertainment, although Tanya and her friends didn't always join in, mostly so Tanya could keep her distance.

“I think it's just regular dinner,” Mary Stuart explained, and then glanced at Tanya. It was her turn to raise an eyebrow. “Will you be joining us tonight, Ms. Thomas?”

“Of course,” Tanya said innocently. “Why wouldn't I?”

“Would you like me to answer that?” Mary Stuart grinned wickedly and Tanya looked prim.

“No, thank you.” She was leaving them after dinner to join Gordon, but they didn't know that.

They had a pleasant dinner, the four of them, and Zoe went to bed early after her busy afternoon. Hartley and Mary Stuart decided to go into town for a movie, and by eight o'clock, Tanya was walking down the road to the corral in her old yellow cowboy boots, and her blue jeans and a big white sweater. She thought she could smell smoke in the air, and wondered if someone was having a cookout.

She had thought to put a cowboy hat on so no one would see her face quite so easily, and when she got to his door, she knocked once and slipped inside. She didn't want to hang around outside the cabin. And he was sitting on the couch, watching TV, and waiting for her.

“What took you so long?” he asked expectantly, looking like a kid waiting for Santa Claus, and she laughed softly as she locked the door behind her. He had already drawn the shades and pulled the curtains to keep their secret.

“What took me so long? Dinner was at seven, and it's five after eight. I thought that was pretty good. I almost ran here.”

“Next time eat faster,” he said with a broad boyish grin as he stood up to kiss her, and a moment later she was locked in his arms, and they both had their clothes off. They never even made it to the bedroom, but lay on the couch, making love, in front of the TV, oblivious to what the announcer was saying, and it was only afterward, as they lay there for a while, talking quietly, that he realized they were saying there was a fire on Shadow Mountain, and he sat up to listen.

“Is that close by?” she asked, noticing the worry on his face.

“Right above us.” He was listening intently to what they were saying, and suddenly she remembered smelling smoke in the air when she'd been walking down to the cabin to see Gordon.

The announcer said that the fire was confined to a small area, but the winds had just picked up, and the parks department people were worried. He made reference to a fire in Yellowstone several years before, and showed old footage of utter devastation. And then they went back to the normal program.

“They may call us out tonight,” he said quietly, looking at her. He was concerned for the ranch, and thinking about the horses.

“Would you rather I didn't stay here tonight?” she asked. She would have understood if he said she should go back to her own cabin.

“I don't see why not,” he smiled. “No one has to know you're here. They're not going to evacuate the ranch unless it turns into a real big one.” He went outside for a minute to look up at the sky. He could see some smoke, but there was no glow from the fire, and he wasn't worried. And when he came back inside, he was more interested in Tanya than Shadow Mountain.

He played some of his favorite music for her, and played with an old guitar, and she sang softly for him, so no one would hear them. She loved it when they sang together, and he laughed, as he touched her face with a gentle hand.

“It's just like singing to records.” They sang together again, and they shared a sandwich around midnight. He had gone to buy some groceries that afternoon after his ride with Mary Stuart and Hartley, and he told Tanya how much he liked them. “They've got something going, don't they?” he smiled. He had spotted it from the first morning. “Is she divorced?”

“She will be. She's leaving her husband. I think she's going to London next week to tell him.”

“Is he English?” She shook her head, he was interested in her friends and her life, and the things she cared about. He was interested in everything about her.

“He's working there for the summer,” Tanya explained.

“Why's she leaving him?” They were sitting at his kitchen table, when he asked her.

And Tanya sighed as she thought about it. “Her son killed himself last year. I don't know all the details, but I think her husband blames her for it. She didn't do anything to provoke him to it, I just think Bill doesn't know who else to blame. Their marriage pretty much fell apart after it happened.”

“Maybe it wasn't all that solid before that.”

“Maybe,” she said softly, but she didn't agree with him. “I think it was. I just think it was too much of a blow for them. And now she's too hurt by what her husband's done. I think it's pretty well finished.”

“You think she and Mr. Bowman will wind up together?”

“I hope so,” Tanya smiled, with a gentle hand on Gordon's arm. “What about us? You think we will?”

“We'd better,” he said, leaning closer to her, and looking into her eyes. “If you try to get away from me now, I'm going to come riding down Hollywood Boulevard on one of those saddle broncs, and come and get you.” The image was wonderful and she laughed at him.

“I thought you were giving them up.”

“Not till I come and get you.” They were both laughing, and she stood in his kitchen naked, with her long legs, wearing his shirt open as she washed his dishes. It was a photograph he would have loved to have, but he knew he'd remember it forever. She was so down-to-earth he couldn't get over it. She was just what she claimed, a plain old girl from Texas, but she sure as hell didn't look it, and no one else in the world would have believed it for a minute. “You blow me away,” he said, standing behind her, as he put his arms around her waist, and leaned his chin on her shoulder. “Next week, I'm going to think I was hallucinating all this time.” It made her sad to think about a time when she wouldn't be there.