Chapter Five
L ainey stepped out into the warm sunshine and looked around the rest area near Baker City, Oregon. A woman walked a little dachshund in the grassy area, while a teen stood in front of a vending machine, looking as though he couldn’t decide what to choose.
As she walked past the boy, Lainey whispered, “taste the rainbow.”
The teen shot a startled glance at her over his shoulder, but she just smiled and kept walking.
She returned to her van, rolled her shoulders, and executed a few stretches before she got behind the wheel and started the vehicle, although she didn’t back out of the parking space. The inner debate she’d started eight hours ago continued to rage inside her head.
Today, she’d drive right past Baker City. Should she stop at the Circle P Ranch or avoid it at all costs? Even though she knew Jason wouldn’t be there, she wanted to see the ranch that was part of his heritage and in his blood and meet the people who were such a big part of his heart.
However, meeting his family seemed like a huge, enormous leap into territory she wasn’t sure she should enter.
It was one thing to tell herself she and Jason were just friends when they sent frequent text messages and spoke on the phone every evening.
Continuing to convince herself Jason was firmly cemented in the friends-only category could get tricky if she met his family and liked them as much as she anticipated.
If Shaun was any reflection of the rest of Jason’s relatives, she had an idea she’d love them.
Maybe she should have stayed on the beach another week.
After she’d wrapped up her interview and photos of a woman who, with her husband, had owned and managed a Tillamook timber company for forty years, Lainey had driven further north up the Oregon coast and rented a place right on the beach.
She’d spent two weeks there, enjoying the house with a big, comfortable bed, a large spa-like bathroom, and a deck that faced the ocean.
In a dozen steps, she had been able to sink her toes in the sand and had taken many long walks each morning, breathing in the salty sea air.
The weather had been beautiful, with only a few days of rain. The rainy days were a perfect excuse to stay inside and work. She’d finished her book and sent the last files to her publisher, then given herself permission to relax and enjoy having nothing she had to do for the foreseeable future.
Lainey had meandered into a few of the nearby coastal towns and browsed through shops. She’d dined at a variety of restaurants and had also spent time getting reacquainted with cooking on a full-sized stove.
Each evening, she’d curled into the cushy sofa and watched the sun set on the water while Jason had told her about his day and asked about hers.
He’d asked for permission to call her the first evening she’d been at the house, and she’d quickly granted it, then it had become not only a habit for them to talk, but also the best part of her day. She looked forward to answering the phone and hearing Jason’s rich, resonant voice.
Regardless of her reluctance to admit it, she was attracted to and entranced with Jason Price. Who could blame her? He was handsome, kind, generous, thoughtful, strong, brave, and nothing like any man she’d ever known, which was exactly why she wanted to get to know him better.
Lainey certainly hadn’t been looking to have her head turned by anyone, especially not a cowboy who worked at rodeos most of the year. She’d taken riding lessons when she was younger and could handle a horse, but she’d ridden an English saddle.
The little knowledge she had about rodeos and that lifestyle was what she’d gleaned from online searches and peppering Celia Kressley with questions.
Celia had also been good about keeping in touch. Since the day they’d met, the woman had texted half a dozen photos of Addie Kate in sweet or silly poses, waving to “Aunt Lainey,” as Celia had referred to her in the messages.
Lainey loved it.
She’d never had a niece or nephew to spoil. Never even had cousins to play with as a kid. It made her heart full to know the new friends she’d made had so easily accepted her into their extended family—a family she felt as though she was a part of because of Jason.
Lainey backed the van out of the parking space and drove onto the freeway.
It was just a few miles to Baker City. Both Jason and Shaun had given her detailed directions on how to reach the ranch.
She’d looked up the address on the map app on her phone so many times, she had all the turns memorized once she left the freeway.
If she left the freeway.
Lainey passed a slow-moving car packed so full of stuff, the back bumper sagged. She hoped the driver could at least see out the side mirrors. Otherwise, they were an accident waiting to happen.
Anxiety made her thumbs tap on the steering wheel while nerves roiled in her stomach as she neared Baker City.
Stop or keep going? She asked herself for the ninety-seventh time since she’d left the beach that morning.
That was the million-dollar question.
It would be awkward to stop, wouldn’t it?
What kind of weirdo just drives up to a house and says, “I met Jason, and he told me to stop by, but I know he’s not home. What’s for dinner?”
Imagining the look on the faces of Jason’s dad and brother if she did something that crazy made her smile.
Rather than shock the Price family, she would drive to Boise, where she planned to spend a little time exploring the Treasure Valley.
She’d never been there and wanted to check out everything it offered.
Celia’s parents lived in the area and had extended an invitation through their daughter for Lainey to look them up.
Maybe she’d do a book about farmers of the Northwest. Or …
At the last second, Lainey turned on her blinker and took the exit into Baker City.
Who was she trying to kid?
She already knew her next book would be about the faces of rodeo. If she dared consider the blunt truth, she’d love to put Jason’s good-looking mug on the cover.
When she’d stayed an extra day at the rodeo in California, she’d asked Celia for tips on shooting action shots since she’d never really tried.
Celia had shown Lainey the best settings to use with her camera and a telephoto lens.
Lainey had walked away with a bunch of photos that were okay, but one shot had been spectacular.
In the image, a saddle bronc rider, arm extended up like he was reaching for a cloud in the blue sky, rode a paint horse.
The photograph captured the moment the horse had propelled itself upward, lifting all four hooves off the ground.
The leather fringe on the rider’s chaps flew upward on the sides of his legs, and his face was a mixture of excitement and concentration.
Lainey had been so proud of the photo, she’d printed off a copy and framed it to hang in her van to remind her it was a good thing to challenge her abilities and learn new skills.
She had been intrigued with the thought of taking more photos at rodeos, just to see what she and her camera could capture.
As she drove into Baker City, Lainey pushed a button on her cell phone, and a voice began telling her where to turn, although she was sure she already knew the way. It wasn’t too far out of town, as she slowed at the top of a hill, that the voice on the app told her she had arrived.
Lainey paused briefly after turning off the main road and took in acres of green pasture where cattle grazed. In the distance, mountains covered in pine trees provided a scenic background. Sunlight reflected off a creek that wound through the landscape like an iridescent ribbon.
She followed the graveled road to a two-story farmhouse that appeared to have been built in the early 1900s. To complete the storybook image of what she’d built up in her mind, a white picket fence surrounded the yard, and flowers bloomed around the porch.
If she hadn’t been sure by the hanging Circle P Ranch sign she’d passed, the old man who came out the front door and hobbled to the porch steps would have convinced her she’d found the right place.
Jason definitely resembled his father.
Mike Price was nearing ninety, stooped a little, and had a hitch in his gait, but he strode without the help of a cane. When Lainey stepped out of the van, he greeted her with a friendly smile from the bottom porch step.
“You’re just in time for supper. Pull your van around on the side of the house, then you can come in and wash up,” the man said, waving an arthritic-gnarled hand toward the side of the house where Lainey could see a carport. “The girls are bringing dinner.”
At the very least, Lainey had expected him to ask her name, but Mr. Price turned and hobbled back up the porch steps, where two dogs joined him after racing around the corner of the house.
Lainey drove her van around to the carport and backed onto the gravel at the far side of the structure, assuming the small SUV and pickup already parked there likely belonged to Mike and his son, Galen.
There were two more pickups parked down by a big barn.
Various pieces of equipment, a shop, and several outbuildings completed the scene of the ranch Jason had described to her.
It was even more picture-perfect than she’d imagined.
Feeling out of place, she strongly felt the urge to put the van in gear and flee.
Instead, Lainey tamped down her flight response, turned off the van, and retrieved the pan of caramel-filled brownies she’d baked yesterday.
When she’d made them, she’d done it with the intention of sharing them with Jason’s family.
This morning, she’d nearly tossed them out, but right now, she was glad she’d stored them in the fridge in her van.
Lainey dropped her keys and phone in her shoulder bag, inhaled a deep, bracing breath, and opened the van’s door just as two SUVs pulled into the carport and parked.