Chapter 16 #2
She took each come-on in the same manner, that is, with great amusement.
Smithy was the most aggressive one, the twenty-one-year-old basketball star and all-around God’s gift to women—just ask him.
He didn’t like being turned down, and afterward, when Callie had said no to him—twice—he made a point of riding the fastest and being the most outrageous.
He pretty much toed the line on everything they did, leaving her with the urge to throttle him.
“There’s one in every group,” Eddie said in disgust after lunch, when Smithy had tried jumping his horse, Tongue, over a small creek.
Tongue—named for his love of licking everything—ran along with Smithy as asked, until his hooves got wet.
Then he stopped so short that Smithy sailed over the top of him, landing in the water.
He’d been furious, made all the madder when his buddies howled with laughter.
But his fury hadn’t matched Callie’s. With steam coming out her ears, she’d started forward, but Eddie and Tucker had each put a hand on either of her shoulders, holding her back until she calmed down.
When she’d swallowed most of her anger, she had a long talk with Smithy, and only after threatening to send him back with Eddie, did he apologize and promise to be good.
“You always have this problem?” Jake asked after they’d continued on the trail.
“Which? Leading idiots, or dealing with the ridiculous come-ons?”
“The come-ons, mostly.”
“No,” she admitted. “Never.”
“Please.”
“Seriously, I don’t. It’s not that often we get a group of single males like this.” She shot him a wry glance. “They usually bring their own women.”
He frowned. “Funny.”
“I thought so.”
“So tell me why I feel like smashing some heads.”
She studied the darkening sky. Jake had been right, they were in for a doozy of a storm. “They’re just stupid kids.”
“They’re not much younger than you, and I can’t see you ever acting like this.”
“You know me well enough to make a statement like that?”
“Yes,” he said boldly. “Just like you know me. Whether we like it or not.”
They rode in silence for a while along the valley floor, surrounded on either side by towering canyon walls and wild, spinning clouds. They heard thunder in the distance, but still no rain. “I didn’t want to know you,” she finally said. “That way, when you leave, I wouldn’t care.”
“Every day I think about leaving.”
“You can’t wait to go.”
He looked at her. “Most of the time. But once in a while, like now…I don’t want to ever go.”
She didn’t know what to make of that, so she said nothing. They descended to the valley floor, moving along on the dry riverbed.
Ahead of her now, Jake handled his horse well.
He’d gotten quite proficient for a man who’d rather be moving of his own accord.
He held his reins with authority, his body at ease in the saddle.
He was definitely a chameleon, whatever he thought of himself, fitting into any different arena, no matter how foreign.
Eventually the last of the eight students, the only one who hadn’t yet hit on her, fell in line beside her.
“Problem?” she asked him.
“Oh no.” Wes grinned the grin of the wild and untamed youth. “This is great.”
“Uh-huh.” She lifted a brow. “Want to just cut to the chase?”
“Which is?”
“You have to come on to me. The others expect it. I know it, and you know it. You also know there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell you’re getting anything the others didn’t. So whatever line you’ve come up with, how about you just save it for another woman?”
“But now see, that’s the problem. There are no other women out here.”
“But you had to know there wouldn’t be. You guys came out here for fun, then you saw me and thought I’d be an easy mark, so—”
“None of us thought that,” he rushed to assure her. “We just had to try.”
“And it’s out of your system now, right?
Good,” she said when he nodded. “Then go have the fun you came for.” She sighed in relief when he rode off, but the relief was short-lived when a resounding crack of thunder split the air above them, accompanied only a few seconds later by a blinding flash of lightning.
One big fat raindrop landed on Callie’s nose. It was only the very beginning, she thought, and glanced back at Eddie, who was looking straight up into the sky.
“Uh-oh,” he said as the clouds slammed into each other violently, covering every inch of visible sky.
Even as she watched, they tumbled and churned, lowering until she felt as if she could reach up and touch them. “Okay, listen up, everyone! We’ve had a great time today—”
“Ah, man, you’re going to make us head back,” one of the guys groaned.
“Up to you. But the rain is coming. Either way, we have to get back off the valley floor to the canyons above in case of flash flooding. But if we leave now, we could gallop a good part of the way and make it to the ranch in two hours tops. Plenty of time to get a roaring fire going inside and sleep in warm beds.”
“So we make the choice between warm”—Wes looked around them even as the sky opened up, as another blinding flash of lightning flashed, followed by a resonating shuddering boom of thunder that vibrated the ground beneath their feet.
—“or wet and wild. Hmm…” Eyes lit with adventure, he looked at his friends.
“Wet and wild,” voted all the other guys, with whooping and cheers.
Eddie looked at Jake, who shook his head. Smithy pointed northeast to a rock formation not too far off, beyond the dry riverbed they stood in. “Looks like a naked chick. We need a picture of us beneath it.”
“All right,” Callie said. “But after we get there and take the picture, we go up.”
They rode on toward the rock formation, Callie holding her breath, knowing they had to still go down the valley a half mile or so before catching the trail to the higher elevation, where they’d be safe from a flood.
Halfway to the rocks, a series of lightning strikes hit close and the world went bright white.
The rain turned to buckets of water, and within seconds, they were all drenched.
This was more rain than even she’d counted on.
In fact, it was more than she’d seen come down in years.
They’d had a dry spring until now, and the parched, cracked earth couldn’t absorb it fast enough.
The flood she worried about became an all too real possibility, and they still were in the narrow valley between nothing but sharp, rocky cliffs.
She had to yell to be heard. “We’re sitting ducks in this dry riverbed!
” Which was already beginning to fill. “We make a run for the trail to the top, then head back, taking the high route this time. It’ll take longer, but we’ll be safer. ”
The guys started to moan and groan but Jake moved forward on his horse, until he was at Callie’s side. “She said we go back. We go back.”
“Fine!” Smithy yelled. “Just as soon as I get my picture.” He pointed to the rocks still to their north, barely visible now in the driving rain. Without waiting for anyone else, he kicked Tongue, who leapt into a canter.
“Goddammit.” Callie turned her horse around. Shielding her eyes so she could see through the pouring rain, she sought out Eddie, Tucker, and Jake. “Take the guys and head to the trail. I’ll go after Smithy. We’ll be right behind you.”
“I’m coming with you,” Jake said grimly.
“It’s going to flash flood,” she said urgently. “Just get the guys back—”
“Eddie and I can take these guys back.” Tucker nodded to the suddenly humble group of guys, all looking wet, bedraggled, and extremely young. “Capturing Smithy might take both of you.” He exchanged a long look with Jake, who nodded. “Go!”
Callie nodded curtly and urged Sierra ahead into a gallop, knowing Eddie and Tucker would get the guys up the canyon walls, then head back to the ranch. Jake was right at her side as they rode after Smithy. They could just see him up ahead. There, at the next bolt of thunder, Tongue reared up.
Callie gasped, fear becoming one big ball in her belly, but Smithy managed to hang on to the now terrified horse and keep going. “Smithy!” she yelled, her voice lost in the drumming rain. Seconds later, she lost sight of him entirely. “Jake! Do you see him?”
“We’re catching up to him.”
Jake wasn’t wearing a hat, so she had no idea how he could see anything. His hair was plastered to his head and water streamed down his face. But believing in him, she kept riding in the same direction.
Sierra jerked at the next crack of thunder, and the immediate flash of lightning, but stayed in control.
Thankfully Molly did the same for Jake. Callie had seen some spring storms before but never one as fast and violent as this one.
She hoped to God no one got struck by lightning, and even as she hoped it, the sky lit up again, a series of bolts that seemed to go on forever.
She thought she saw Smithy and Tongue again, only several hundred feet away now.
He’d nearly made it to the other side of the valley floor, where he’d be safe enough if he held still.
She nearly sagged in relief but then it backed up in her throat.
Because from the dry riverbed, the path they’d just ridden the past few hours, came a huge, thundering roar, and Callie knew what that meant. Water, tons of it, falling from the sky, from the sharp precipices, onto the dry riverbed, rushing at them.
And when it hit, they’d be carried downriver with it.