I swallowed hard and looked away. “This place looks pretty bare.”
Understatement.
Jude’s gaze returned to me, forcing my attention back to the conversation we needed to have. “It is. Travis—well. He hasn’t been the same since the accident.”
I nodded, remembering the day he fell off the barn, who set all that in motion. “Simon Haldon changed lives.”
Jude’s face set into harder lines. “He did. But Trav’s got Rachel now. He comes down sometimes, works with her at the vet surgery. Here, it’s mostly just Eve, and me when I’m not at Nat’s.”
“You’re still around?” I asked with a measure of surprise. From the looks of Jude, he had moved on.
“He’s still here, and he still sleeps in the bunkhouse,” Natalie piped in grumpily, though the corners of her mouth curved up. “Though I’m just on the other side of the ridge.” She pointed to the white capped peak that loomed behind Red Hart’s ranch house, pensive and stoic.
I stared up at the solitary mountain. The range spread out behind it, but that one mountain watched over the house buried at its foothills.
“That’s a pretty long drive around, though. Not like there’s a road straight through the middle between here and Canada.” Jude grinned, rolling his eyes for my benefit. “Customs gets used to us.”
“They do.” Natalie snuggled into him.
“There used to be something through the range,” I murmured. “Eve mentioned it once. Long time ago.”
Jude frowned. “If you feel like going for a hike, ask Walker Roan. He’s out on the other side of the ridge, about a day and a bit of a hike that way.” He waved a hand toward the northeastern boundary corner. “He bought land from Len a decade ago. Long way back. He’s not too friendly, doesn’t like to talk. Trav and I went up there, helped him build the house he’s got. If you want to trek in a few days further, Bode Hunter’s out there too, but he’ll shoot you before he talks to you. Carves the sapphires we pull out of the river. Trader Kyle talks to him.” Jude scratched his chin. “Well. Kyle talks. Dunno if Bode actually talks back at all. Anyway they might know about a pass through, but no one else is out there.”
“That you know about.” Natalie poked him.
Jude maintained a straight face and looked at me. “That you know about,” he conceded.
I watched them, my lips twitching. “That’s good to know.”
“What do you do?” I asked Natalie, struggling to follow the conversation.
“Elk.” They both answered me together. Natalie spurred off into a fit of giggles as Jude tucked her into his chest and ruffled her hair. A stupid grin decorated his face.
The kind of stupid I kinda still wanted on my face when I finally got to see Eve.
I cleared my throat, needing to find my girl. Too much standing around after driving so far left me aching.
“Eve mentioned that she might go looking for a deer she thought hadn’t been around for a while.” Jude took off his hat, revealing premature grays that speckled his hair as he answered my previous question.
We all grew a little older year by year here.
“It’s been gone for days,” Natalie added in as she wound her arms around his waist, squeezing tight.
I withheld a groan, tapping my hat on my leg. Thatdidsound like Eve, all too well.
“Any ideas where she’d look?” I directed my question at Jude, speaking over the tiny, brown haired woman wrapped around him, and tried to ignore the pang of my heart in an empty cavity.
Jude jerked his head backward. “Western boundary land. Up near?—”
“Black Hill.” This time Ididrelease a groan. “If I’m not back by tomorrow, send the sheriff for the body. It won’t be mine.” I settled my hat on my head under their combined curious gaze, and headed for my truck.
Hell, I was proud of me for managing not to run.
Eve’s shade drove with me as I headed for the western boundary, a reflection of the last trip we had done along this section together. Hell, that felt like an eon ago. Maybe it had been. Here, Red Hart Ranch shared a good dozen miles of fence line on the border of Black Hill land, both adjoining the Canadian border to the far north. Beyond were rugged mountains Eve had shown me, all virtually inaccessible, though she had mentioned the land used to house an original customs outpost, long forgotten, when her family first built the ranch. That was where Jude mentioned the two mountain men lived on a few days’ hike out. I doubted anyone could drive into their places, which I suspected, was exactly the way they like it.
My truck ate up the miles of winding unmaintained property tracks as I lost myself in memories of looking for livestock along the boundary with Eve on a previous trip. A string of four black pickups drove parallel to my path on the other side of the boundary line jerking me out of memory lane and back to reality. An arm raised out of the driver’s side cab to hail me.
I waved back, unable to make out the driver before the trucks disappeared into the tree line. I paused for a moment, letting my truck idle, but the neighbor’s land wasn’t my business. The sounds of the other trucks faded, and I resumed my path that followed the fence line for a short distance before I turned slightly north and headed deeper into the forest, returning to my reminiscence.
