Dodge the Bullet

Chapter One

“Why the hell would I want to do that?” Dodge stretched his legs in the club chair of Thornton’s cramped insurance office. He’d taken off his hat, a fifteen-year-old Stetson coated with dirt and grease, and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Don’t make me remind you of our agreement.” Tommy Thornton straightened in his seat behind his desk. “I’ve come to expect a certain amount of bucking on your part, but this isn’t one of those circumstances. You can whine from now until doomsday, and I’ll still need you to help me out.”

Andrew Jackson Dodge contemplated the seriousness of Tommy’s threat. The fact that Tommy had brought up their “agreement” meant Tommy needed a favor bad.

It’s not that he disliked Tommy or felt threatened by the man who sat looking at him with a hint of fear in his eyes. Dodge had nearly four inches on Tommy and the kind of body that twenty years of hard work in the cattle ranching business produced. But he’d stepped up to help Dodge back when nobody else in his hometown of Hailey, Colorado would have pissed on him to put out a fire. Tommy had paid a hell of a price for the simple act of kindness.

“What kind of person owns a cattle ranch and doesn’t know a damn thing about ranching?” Dodge asked.

Tommy shifted in his chair and took a deep breath. “You know I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t feel you were the only one I could trust.”

“Quit blowing smoke up my ass and tell me who’s got your balls in a vice.”

“Senator Burwick called this morning.” Tommy slumped in his chair. “Apparently that family from Atlanta who bought the old Storey ranch is moving to town. They’ve been through the wringer, according to Burwick, and he wants to ensure that the community welcomes them and provides them with all the assistance they need.”

“I’m not exactly the Hailey welcoming committee,” Dodge said through gritted teeth. “And I don’t have time to hold some guy’s hand while he learns how to lose his ass in ranching.”

“The guy in question is a woman, and her husband was a good friend of Burwick’s. The reason I’m asking you is because I personally guaranteed Burwick she wouldn’t lose her ass in the ranching business, as you so eloquently put it.”

Dodge stood up and slapped his hat on the now empty chair. “You’ve got to be kidding me. A woman? You expect me to teach a woman—a Southern, city woman—how to be a cattle rancher?” He paced the office in two long strides. “And the only reason you asked me is because you knew I couldn’t say no. Don’t you dare waste your breath denying it, Thornton.”

“I was reasonably sure you wouldn’t say no. But,” he continued with a throat clearing cough. “Senator Burwick could make my life and the lives of everyone in this town a living hell if I can’t accommodate him on this little request.”

“This may seem like a little request to you, but I know from personal experience that woman are genetically incapable of ranching. I grew up with a house full of women and none of them—not one out of six—could handle the responsibility. Trying to teach a city woman to run a ranch would be like trying to teach a bull to play poker.”

“Are you done having a tantrum?”

Dodge kept pacing, pleased to see his work boots leave a dirty trail on Tommy’s freshly cleaned rug. “No, I’m not done. If her husband is such a good friend of Burwick’s, then why isn’t he down here learning to ranch? Why send his wife? Is he afraid to get a little dirt under his nails?”

“She’s a widow. Her husband was killed in a plane crash two years ago.” Tommy scowled at the rug. “You know there’s a boot scrape at the front door.”

Dodge stopped pacing and faced Tommy. “That ranch is over a thousand acres in the middle of nowhere. It’s not safe or practical for a woman to live there by herself.”

“She owns the ranch, so I’m assuming she’s prepared to live there. She won’t be alone, though. She’s got two kids.”

“I sure hope she knows how to shoot a gun because if the bears don’t come down to see what’s going on, the snakes will surely provide one hell of a welcome,” Dodge said.

“It’s my understanding that she’s not trained in any way. She can’t shoot a gun, run a tractor, or rope a calf.”

“You’re enjoying the hell out of yourself, aren’t you? What the hell am I supposed to do with some Junior League, country club-pampered widow?”

Tommy stood up and glared at Dodge. “I don’t have the foggiest idea what kind of woman she is, but Senator Burwick wants her taken care of and that’s all I’m trying to do. She’ll be coming into town Friday, and I expect you to drop by for a friendly visit before the weekend’s out.”

Dodge gathered his hat from the seat he’d vacated and pointed it at Tommy’s chest. “After this, we’re even. You hear me, Thornton? Dead even.” He headed out of the office into the bright spring day.

Damn. He was knee deep in shit with his own ranch, running cattle all over the county, and now he had to coddle some woman from across the country just because she had friends in high places. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, something that happened only when he knew he was in for a world of trouble. And any situation involving Dodge and a woman usually ended up causing a whole truckload full of trouble.

* * *

Sarah Woodward pulled her old Ford pickup to a stop along Highway 278, otherwise known as the Rifle Range. It had been almost three years since she’d last been in Colorado and her memory was failing. Had she already passed the road that led to her ranch? Every street seemed indistinguishable from the next.

Todd had always driven when they came to Colorado, and she realized now how little attention she’d paid to directions. Like so many things in her life with Todd, she’d floated through with the confidence that he’d handle every detail. And he had, to the point where she’d spent the last two years trying to figure out how to run her life without him. After finally tackling their estate back home, she was ready to deal with her future in Colorado.

Selling the house in Atlanta and moving to Colorado meant making a clean start and was something she did as much for Todd as for the boys they’d made together. He’d loved the quiet valley they’d stumbled across five years ago and talked incessantly about putting roots down in the sleepy town of Hailey. It hadn’t been Sarah’s dream at the time. Everything they’d built together, pieced together since college, was in Atlanta. But she felt buried under the memories of him there, floundering in a sea of happy couples and well-meaning neighbors. Out here, in the wide open space he’d loved, she thought she could remember him at his best, full of life and promise. She wouldn’t sell the ranch that meant so much to him or allow it to sit idle.

Sarah made a U-turn at the Dairy Barn, thankful her kids weren’t there to pester her, and backtracked along the Rifle Range. Coming from the opposite direction, the turn-off was easier to spot and she soon turned onto the property. As dust swirled around her truck like seagulls chasing a breadcrumb, she noticed the caretaker’s house had fallen into disrepair. It had been almost a year since the land had been leased and the house occupied. Several windows appeared cracked and the shingled roof needed replacing. Sarah could only imagine the state of things on the inside. She continued along the drive and bounced along the bumpy road gnarled with the potato rock the valley was famous for and came to a stop at the cabin she and Todd had built almost three years ago along the banks of the Rio Grande River. Stepping out of the truck felt like stepping back in time. Todd had planned every detail of the cabin, and she could almost hear his voice calling her over the howling of the wind.

She unlocked the door and walked inside the garage of the small cabin. The family’s four ATVs and the trailer they used to haul things, as well as a sundry of fishing rods and floatation devices, sat neglected in the dusty space. The far wall contained shelving that held water shoes and work boots, baseball bats and balls, horseshoes, life vests, and all the things necessary for both fun and minor emergency repair. The valley’s spring winds had coated everything with a heavy layer of dust, the evidence of which was left on the abandoned vehicles.

She moved beyond the garage to the door to the interior of the cabin. After punching in the security code, she stepped inside. The first thing that hit Sarah was the smell. The scent of wood and sand and newness slapped her in the face. She left footprints on the grimy mudroom floor and the adjoining bath.

Sarah climbed the stairs slowly, savoring and dreading the appearance of the main living quarters. Everything was just as they’d left it, covered with sheets and waiting for their return. The three bedrooms off the hallway past the kitchen lay waiting for happier times and tired vacationers. She moved through the den to the deck that over looked Todd’s favorite patch of river. From the deck, she could hear water rolling in an endless stream over the rocks and boulders of the riverbed, the musical score in the background of her life to come. The sun was trying to peek through the billowing white clouds that came into the valley most afternoons from beyond the surrounding mountain peaks. The brilliance of it took her breath away. She wondered if the people of the valley ever took the time to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings.

With a heavy heart, Sarah turned away from the view and walked back inside the cabin and down the hall toward her bedroom. The rust-colored walls enveloped her like a warm blanket and the bed called out to her weary soul. She opened the deck door and the windows of the room, trying to pour fresh air and life into the closed off space. She had no more tears to shed, but the familiar pain in her chest was there, brought on by the sight of Todd’s things scattered around the room. His desk sat waiting and the dresser was filled with Todd’s clothes. It hadn’t occurred to Sarah that the cabin still held so many personal items.

Cleaning out his things from their home in Atlanta had been the hardest task for Sarah since Todd’s death. The thought of facing it again, although on a much smaller scale, made her heart ache. She quickly stepped out of the room and continued opening windows and removing the sheets from the furniture. She had a lot to do before the kids came out with her sister and they began the task of getting on with their new life.

Sarah had one week to get the place ready for the boys. She wanted the kitchen stocked, the bags unpacked, and the cabin as homey for them as possible. Because the schools in Colorado ran longer than in Georgia, they would have a chance to attend their new school and get a feel for what the next year would be like.

At thirteen, Kevin wasn’t happy about starting his last year of middle school in Colorado. Eleven-year-old Lyle wasn’t thrilled to be moving away from his friends, but he couldn’t hide his eagerness for adventure on the ranch. Their life in Atlanta was so different from Hailey. One of her reasons for leaving was to rein in her eldest son before he gave in to the peer pressure of some of his less-than-perfect friends. She knew it would be daunting to raise her two boys alone, but raising them in rural Colorado seemed simpler. She thought it would teach them, and her, the value of family and hard work.

Her first order of business after getting the house ready was to make a plan for the ranch. She thought she’d call her real estate agent on Monday and see if she could recommend a partner or even a ranch hand that could teach her the business. But for now, there was a truck full of stuff to unload and supplies to purchase.

Chapter Two

Dodge’s new pickup was the only vehicle on the Seven North late Sunday afternoon. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky to block the three hundred sixty degree mountain views that made the valley seem destined to move beyond its agricultural foundation. The giant aquifer just below the valley surface was drying up faster than an un-milked udder. Without water to support the farmers, the valley needed a new direction, a new focus.

Dodge hated to see tourism take over as the town’s primary industry. People would come and pillage the land just as the farmers had pillaged the water. Tourists and vacationers raised the price of land so high that people like him, homegrown cattle ranchers, couldn’t afford to own the land their cows grazed. Dodge had seen more than one family give up ranching for the sheer reason that they could make more money selling the land than they ever could ranching.

He squinted against the sun and thought about the current vacationer who thought she wanted to move to Hailey. Ha. Nobody moved to Hailey. Vacation here, sure. But moving to a town where winter temperatures routinely dipped to twenty below, with two kids and no husband, seemed absurd.

As he passed the rundown caretaker’s house at the entrance to the Woodward place, he envisioned the new woman in town. He had a mental picture of Sarah Woodward as Vivian Lee with milky white skin and a sassy attitude. He half-expected her to greet him wearing a hoop skirt. He stopped his truck behind an old Ford pickup that had seen better days and walked through the open garage doors to the only entrance he could find that would lead to the interior of the house. The house had been designed for vacationing, made with only one way in, allowing a certain measure of security when left deserted for months on end. When no one answered his rather forceful banging, he wandered around the side of the house toward the river and admired the peaceful view.

“May I help you?” a woman called from the second story deck.

Dodge turned around and held up his hand to block the sun from his eyes. The woman was merely a shadow in the blaze. “I’m looking for Mrs. Woodward.”

“Who’s asking?”

“The name’s Dodge.” He didn’t think he was talking to Woodward because she didn’t have a southern accent. “Do you know where I can find her?”

“It’s your lucky day, Mr. Dodge.”

She disappeared into the house. Dodge shook the sunspots from his eyes and looked up to see a slender woman come around the side of the house from the garage wearing jeans and a t-shirt. He guessed her age at mid-thirties.

“I’m Sarah Woodward.”

Dodge extended his hand and wondered if his face showed surprise. Her deep green eyes were a dead on match for the grass growing in the pasture over her shoulder. Her strong grip and skeptical smile had illusions of apple pie cooling in the window disappearing with an almost audible pop in the air. She didn’t look capable of ranching, not with her slight frame and soft hands, but she clearly wasn’t the helpless Southern widow he’d imagined. She raised her brows as if encouraging him to speak.

“I, uh…” Dodge hadn’t planned to find the widow Woodward so attractive. “I’m Dodge.”

“So I heard.”

“Tommy Thornton asked me to stop by and make sure you were settled in okay, see if you needed any help with things.” Dodge tried to settle into the prepared speech he’d decided to use.

“Who?”

“Tommy Thornton.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know a Tommy Thornton. You’re going to have to be a little more specific.”

Of course she didn’t know Tommy. Thornton was a small fry compared to the likes of Senator Burwick. Dodge didn’t like name dropping, and he certainly didn’t like dropping the name of a no-good, sometime farmer and slick-as-a-pig-in-mud politician like Burwick. “Tommy’s a friend of Senator Burwick.”

“Burwick sent you?”

“Tommy Thornton’s an insurance agent in town. He’s a friend of mine. Apparently your friend Senator Burwick asked him to check on you, Mrs. Woodward.”

“I’d hardly call Senator Burwick a friend. While I do need some help around here, I can’t say I’d trust anyone who came at his request.”

“I couldn’t agree more. I wouldn’t trust Burwick any farther than I could throw the man.”

“Are you interested in the ranch hand job?”

Dodge laughed. “I’m afraid I’ve got a full plate running my own ranch right now, but thanks.”

She eyed him under the cover of thick lashes. “So if Senator Burwick asked Mr. Thornton to check on me, then why are you here, Mr. Dodge?”

“Just Dodge, ok? I’m not that much older than you, sweetheart.”

“I doubt you’re older than me, period.” She furrowed her brow and her hands flew to her hips. “And don’t call me sweetheart. So why are you here, Dodge?”

“I’m here because I owe my friend Tommy a favor.”

“Must be a big one.”

The hairs on his neck started prickling again and he wondered what to take of the prickly Mrs. Woodward. Dodge found it best to place women in one of a series of categories he’d come up with in his thirty-eight years of dealing with the opposite sex. The fact that each of his six sisters and every woman he’d ever dated fit neatly into one of his categories proved that he was smarter than the average male.

Sarah Woodward was pretty enough to be in the “eye candy” category, but she downplayed her looks too much. She hardly wore any makeup and dressed in old jeans and a t-shirt. But thanks to the wind, Dodge was able to appreciate every delectable curve of her body.

He didn’t know her enough to know if she belonged in the “never satisfied” category. She obviously wasn’t “low class” because she had enough common sense to recognize Senator Burwick as a dickhead. He didn’t think she was his least favorite, a “man hater”—her eyes were too gentle. But the only other choice, the “I’ll make you want to touch me, but you never will” category didn’t fit either because she wasn’t showing off her assets: a great body, full lips, beautiful green eyes, and thick brown hair that called out for a man to run fingers run through. Dodge realized that he’d let his thoughts wander away from the conversation and he couldn’t remember what they were talking about.

“Why would slick Be —er, Senator Burwick want to make sure I was doing okay?” Sarah asked. “And if you already have a ranch of your own to run, it doesn’t sound like you have the time to help me even if you want to.”

“I’m just here because of Tommy,” he said, looking around. “So, what can I do for you?”

“Short of finding someone to teach me the business, I don’t know.”

“You’re the one with friends in high places, Mrs. Woodward. Why don’t you get someone to run the ranch for you?”

“I don’t want someone to run the ranch for me. I’m looking for someone to teach me the business.”

Dodge tried not to smile at her naivety. “Mrs. Woodward—”

“Sarah.”

“Okay, Sarah. Anyone who knows anything about ranching is too busy trying to make ends meet with his own business to bother helping another future competitor. I realize the South is known for its friendliness, but around here it’s pretty much every man for himself.”

“I’m willing to pay someone for their help.”

“That’s good because the only kind of help you’ll find around here is the hired kind. But the kind of help you need can’t be bought.”

“What do you mean?”

Dodge tried to think of a way to explain with a certain political correctness the nuances of life in a small southern Colorado town. But he couldn’t think of a single p.c. way to do it. “You can hire a helper, but he’ll need instructions and pretty regular supervision. And a working knowledge of Spanish wouldn’t hurt.”

Sarah kicked loose a potato rock with the toe of her shoe. “I hate to ask, but what do you suggest I do?”

Dodge moved a few steps closer to Sarah and scratched the hair at the base of his neck. “Well, what I’m trying to say is that you should probably consider selling this place and going back home to Atlanta where you belong.”

Sarah let out a sarcastic chuckle. “How very welcoming of you, Dodge, but I think I’ll ignore your oh-so-helpful advice. I’ve got 1,200 acres of ranch land. I think I can find someone.”

“I’m glad you find this funny because if you’re serious about staying and going into the cattle business, you’re going to have to have a sense of humor. This ranch is so run down that if I were you, I wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

“What are you saying? The ranch isn’t worth running cattle on?”

“Lady, what you’ve got here is a whole lot of potential. You’ve got very senior water rights, not to mention almost three miles of river on the place.” He’d already done enough research to learn her place was too rich for his blood. “That’s about as good as it gets around here.”

“I know I’m sitting on prime real estate. I’ve had more than one offer in the last few years to sell. But this ranch is for cattle, and I want to run cattle on it. I’m not going to be talked out of this, so if you’re not interested in helping me, then I’ll find someone who is.” Sarah lifted her chin in the air. “It was nice to meet you, Dodge.”

When she turned to walk back toward the house, Dodge bit his tongue and gently reached for her arm. “Now hold on just a second. I didn’t say I wasn’t interested in helping you. I’m just trying to be straight with you about how hard it’s going to be.”

“If you’re too busy with your own ranch, how can you help me?”

“There’s no real way to learn the business without jumping in and figuring it out as you go. Or you can spend four years at the University getting a ranch management degree and then have to start all over anyway because all the crap they teach you doesn’t apply in the real world.” Dodge was getting off on another sore subject and stopped himself while he could.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “So I should just buy some cattle and see what happens? I don’t operate that way. I need a plan.”

“I’m not suggesting you buy some cattle and let them loose on the ranch. Hell, with the shape of your fences and the pastures, they’d either starve to death or end up all over the county.”

“Then maybe you can help me make a list of what needs to be done and prioritize.”

Dodge felt like he’d been maneuvered. She wasn’t the weak pushover he’d imagined she’d be. “You got some paper and a pen?”

“I’m sure there’s some in Todd’s desk.”

“Why don’t you run inside and get it? We’ll hop in my truck and you can jot a few things down while we take a look at the property.” He ushered her along with the impatient wave of his arms. As she disappeared into the house, he rubbed the back of his neck and figured a quick drive around the property should get him off the hook with Tommy and put him on his merry way within the hour.

* * *

Sarah eyed Dodge warily before turning to go inside the cabin. She knew the ranch had been neglected, but to hear it confirmed was like getting kicked in the teeth. She’d pinned all her hopes for the future on the ranch. She’d expected a learning curve, but not to have to start from scratch.

Dodge obviously didn’t like slick Benji Burwick, as Todd used to call him. The senator had approached Sarah on more than one occasion since Todd’s death about buying the ranch that ‘must be a burden to her and the kids with everything that’s happened.’ He couldn’t even hide the false sympathy in his voice. The fact that the people of the state couldn’t see past his façade and voted him into the Senate was more than a little frightening.

After locating a pen and pad of yellow legal paper, Sarah stole a look at Dodge out the bedroom window. He wore the usual uniform of the valley, jeans and an un-tucked t-shirt with well worn boots and an old cowboy hat. He was tall and lean, with muscular forearms and unusual golden eyes. His calloused hands proved he was used to hard work. She could tell by the earlier tone of his voice and his uncomfortable stance that he didn’t want to help her. While she could admire his looks, she had to wonder about his motives.