Clay’s boss, Hollister Dodd, owner of the Canadian Wilderness Guide Service, had come out onto the wide porch of the lodge at the Chilihota Ranch. He watched the return of his clients from their packhorse excursion with a puzzled expression on his face.
“It was nothing, ma’am. Honest,” Clay managed to mutter past Mrs. Dewey’s stranglehold.
She took a step back. “I don’t know how you can say that. You saved our daughter’s life!”
“What’s this?” Hollister came forward to take the reins of Mrs. Dewey’s horse.
“Tanner pushed me in the lake.” Safe in her father’s arms, Karen, a blond-haired, blue-eyed pixie and the bane of Clay’s existence for the last two weeks, scowled at her older brother still sitting on his horse.
“It was an accident,” fourteen-year-old Tanner mumbled.
Something in his tone caught Clay’s attention and brought back memories of his own childhood. His brother, Jesse, used to sound just like that when he was explaining why Clay had landed in trouble while Jesse was supposed to be watching him.
Hollister’s gaze focused on Clay. “When did this happen?”
Mr. Dewey spoke up quickly. “Please don’t think Clay was negligent in any way. We made camp last evening at White Lake. The kids were horsing around on that big boulder that juts out like a ship’s prow. Clay cautioned them several times to get off the rock.”
He had, but little miss daredevil just had to see how close to the edge she could get. In a way, she reminded Clay of himself at that age. No wonder Jesse had been glad to see the last of him.
Hollister relaxed once he realized the family didn’t intend to sue him for all he was worth. Stepping up to Mr. Dewey, he ruffled Karen’s hair. “I’ll bet it was a cold dip.”
She nodded, and Clay had to agree. His dive from the rock ledge fifteen feet up had plunged him deep into the frigid waters of the snow-fed lake. The shock all but paralyzed his muscles. Even now, he marveled that he’d managed to reach the girl in the icy depths and find the strength to get them both to shore.
Mrs. Dewey pressed her hand to her heart as tears welled up in her eyes. “When Karen fell, Clay didn’t hesitate. He jumped in to save her. I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t acted so quickly.” Her voice cracked, and she couldn’t go on.
Her husband reached out to draw her close. She buried her face in his shoulder, her arms encircling both her husband and her child. Mr. Dewey said, “Karen can’t swim. Clay saved her life.”
In spite of their praise, Clay knew he hadn’t done it alone.
Even now, he wasn’t sure he trusted what he’d felt, but it had been as real as the icy water around him. Deep beneath the surface, at the moment all his energy had been sapped and he was sure Karen was lost forever, a healing presence had come over him. It gave him the strength he needed to reach the child and get her to shore.
God had been with him in that lake. He had no other explanation.
After the death of his parents when he was nineteen, Clay felt God had abandoned him and his family. It seemed better to live life without trusting in an almighty power that had failed him so completely. Clay had turned his back on the faith he’d grown up with. To his way of thinking, God didn’t care much about Clay Logan, so Clay Logan wouldn’t care about Him.
It was something of a shock to discover he’d been wrong.
Mr. Dewey extended his hand to Clay again. “If there is ever anything I can do for you, young man, all you have to do is ask.”
Looking stunned at the tale, Hollister asked, “Does Karen need to see a doctor? I’ll be happy to cover the cost.”
Karen scowled fiercely at him. “No! I won’t go to the doctor, and you can’t make me. He’ll give me shots.”
Mrs. Dewey wiped the tears from her cheeks with her palms. “You don’t have to have any shots, honey.”
Mr. Dewey shrugged. “It’s amazing, but she seems fine.”
“I’d feel better if you at least spoke to a doctor about this. Come inside and use my phone.”
With Hollister leading the way, the trio followed him into the lodge leaving Tanner still sitting on his horse.
Clay studied the boy’s dejected posture. He knew something of what the boy had to be feeling. “Care to give me a hand putting the horses away?”
“I guess.”
Dismounting, Tanner fell into step beside Clay as they led the animals to the barn. Inside, the building held a dozen large stalls filled with thick straw waiting to give the weary trail ponies a well-deserved rest. The warm smell of horses, grain and hay were scents Clay knew well. He’d grown up on a ranch, and he’d spent his whole life as a cowboy.
Side by side, Clay and Tanner worked in silence following the routine Clay had taught the teen and his family during their trek into the wilderness. The boy’s attention to detail, his willingness to follow directions and lend a hand had made him an ideal partner on their recent trip, unlike his less-than-helpful little sister.
“I didn’t push her. I was trying to pull her back from the edge,” Tanner said at last, as he slowly brushed down his mare.
“I’m not sure I’d blame you if you had. I considered it more than once.” Clay pulled the heavy saddle and sweaty blanket off his horse and threw it over the stall door with ease.
Chuckling, Tanner began brushing with renewed vigor. “She is a pain.”
“No kidding. You have my sympathy.”
“Mom and my stepdad spoil her rotten.”
“And anything she does wrong you get blamed for because you’re the oldest.”
Tanner looked surprised. “You must have a sister, too.”
“I do. Her name is Maya, but she wasn’t the one who caused the trouble in our family. That was all me.”
“Is your sister the oldest?”
“No, she’s the baby, but I have an older brother.”
Neither of which he’d seen in seven years. Had it really been that long? How much longer would it be until Jesse forgave him? Would he ever?
And what about Nicki? Did she ever think about him? He thought about her far too often.
Each time Clay received a call from Maya he wanted to ask about Nicki, but jumping off a fifteen-foot cliff into a freezing lake was a whole lot easier.
“How can I get a job like this?” Tanner asked, breaking into Clay’s somber thoughts.
“You bum around for a while, take odd jobs on ranches, wander farther and farther away.” His voice trailed off as the aimlessness of his past hit him.
Was that all his life had been up to this point? Where did it go from here?
“Away from what?” Tanner asked.
“For me, a place called High Plains, Kansas.”
Away from the windswept prairie. From the rolling Flint Hills covered in deep green grass where cattle grew fat and sleek and a boy could ride all day without seeing anyone but a lone hawk circling overhead against a sky so blue it hurt his eyes.
Clay patted his horse’s neck as he stared at the snowcapped Rocky Mountains outside the doorway without really seeing them. Instead, he saw Nicki looking shy and beautiful; saw the moonlight reflected in her eyes as she gazed up at him inside the gazebo by the river.
He’d kissed a few women since that night,