The Forest Ranger's Return. Leigh Bale
doors, pushed them open and stood inside the reception room. The aroma of coffee filtered through the air, along with the click of someone typing on a keyboard and a phone ringing down the hall.
He hesitated, thinking he shouldn’t be here. Thinking he should have insisted that Cade come instead. But the truth was, Dal wanted to see Julie again. To find out if her ankle had healed. To go jogging with her.
To catch up on her life.
He tried to tell himself this visit was all about business. To develop a horse trail and campsite for amputee kids out at Sunrise Ranch. And yet, he knew it was something more. Something he didn’t understand.
He also knew that being near Julie might put him on a one-way collision course to heartache. He could never fall in love again. Never marry. Never have a family of his own. The secret he kept hidden deep inside his soul wouldn’t allow him to pretend.
So why was he here?
He still wasn’t quite sure. And that thought caused him to turn and reach for the door handle. Ready to leave. Ready to run away.
“Hi, Dal. Can I help you?” Shauna Cline, the receptionist, greeted him. A woman of perhaps fifty years, her red cheeks plumped with her smile.
He nodded politely. “Hi, Shauna. I... I’m here to see the new forest ranger, if she’s available.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
Dal shook his head. “Nope, sorry.”
He’d never needed an appointment to visit Lyn Baldwin when she’d been the forest ranger here. But after marrying Dal’s best friend and having two children, Lyn had retired to become a full-time mom six months earlier. Maybe Julie was a bit stuffier, but he doubted it. Not from what he remembered about her. Julie Granger had always been laid-back and easygoing. Anything but conventional.
But that was before her folks had died. She could have changed. Life had a funny way of doing that to people.
“Excuse me one moment, and I’ll see if she’s free.” Shauna stepped around the counter and bustled down the hall.
Glancing at the clock on the wall, Dal noted the time. He thumbed through a pamphlet on preventing forest fires. He didn’t sit down, and he didn’t have to wait long.
“Dal! This is a pleasant surprise.” Julie greeted him with a tight smile and stiff shoulders. In her eyes, he saw a hesitancy that told him his visit was anything but pleasing to her.
“How’s your ankle?” Dal shook her hand, his gaze swishing over her spruce-green pants and the bronze shield pinned just above the left front pocket of her drab olive-color Forest Service shirt. A drastic change from the running shorts and shoes she’d been wearing last week. The uniform seemed odd to Dal. He had to remind himself that she was a professional woman, and the tables had turned on him. He now needed her help.
“Fine. I just started running again yesterday morning.”
And he’d missed her somehow. Maybe that was a good thing.
“I’m glad to hear it.” He glanced at Shauna, who sat at her desk watching them with attentive gray eyes. “Um, I’m here in an official capacity. I have a business proposal I’d like to discuss, if you have the time.”
“Sure! Come on back.” She spun around and headed down the hallway, glancing over her shoulder to make sure he followed.
He did, trying not to stare at the gentle swing of her hips. He couldn’t get over the graceful change in her. What a shame life had cheated them out of growing up together, going to college and possibly marrying. If her parents hadn’t died, he might not have gone to war. He wouldn’t have been there to save Cade Baldwin’s life, and he wouldn’t have lost his leg.
What kind of man might he have become if Julie hadn’t been yanked out of his life? It did no good to think about it, but he couldn’t help wondering.
Her office wasn’t overly large, but included an alcove where a wide mahogany conference table sat surrounded by six tall-backed chairs. Stacks of reports rested in tidy piles along the edge of her desk. He gazed at a picture of two desert bighorn sheep hanging on one wall and a mule deer standing beside a mountain stream on the other. She obviously still loved the outdoors, just as he did.
She rounded the desk. “Please, have a seat.”
He sat opposite her, conscious of her watching him. Glad the desk provided a barrier between them.
“So what can I do for you?” Her chair creaked as she sat back and crossed her legs.
He cleared his throat. “There’s an old mountain trail just south of Sunrise Ranch. It comes out on the other side along Lake McClellan. I don’t know of many people who use it except me. We’d like to develop the trail a bit more and even put a campsite at the top of the mountain where it overlooks the lake.”
“You want to alter a trail that already exists?” she clarified.
He nodded, wishing he’d asked Cade to come and make this request instead. He longed to blurt out the truth to Julie. That he knew her, had never forgotten her and wished he could tell her his darkest, most hurtful secret of all. “Yes, we want to take some of our amputee kids up there on horses for an overnight camping experience.”
Without a word, she stood and reached for a round canister sitting behind the door. Opening it, she unrolled a large map of the area and spread it across the conference table. She waved for him to join her. “Can you show me exactly where the trail is located?”
He stood and walked to her side. Her gaze dipped to his legs, but he knew she saw nothing of his prosthesis beneath the cover of his blue jeans and scuffed cowboy boots.
She bent over the table, her hands smoothing the map before she pointed at a small red star. “This is where we are in town.” She skimmed her index finger over the map toward the east. “And this is Sunrise Ranch. Here’s Lake McClellan. Where’s this trail you want to develop?”
He leaned closer to inspect the map. Bold green numbers indicated the locations of Forest Service trails and campsites in the area. A legend at the bottom of the map named each trail. He recognized several, but it took him a moment to find the isolated one he sought. He couldn’t concentrate. The citrus fragrance of Julie’s shampoo distracted him and he blinked several times, trying to focus.
“Right here.” He traced a thin line rising over a mountain peak and skirting the northeastern side of the lake.
She peered at the spot. “Number eighteen. Gilway Trail.”
“Gilway,” he repeated.
“Probably the name of the person credited with finding the path.” Without explanation, she stepped over to the wall and yanked open the drawer of a metal cabinet. Her long fingers skimmed the lips of manila folders before she pulled one file out and laid it open on the table. A rustle of papers followed as she flipped through the pages, her eyes narrowing as she skimmed several paragraphs of various reports.
Dal watched in fascination, impressed by her obvious interest in the topic. Finally, she stood back and smiled wide.
“Gilway has been around for ages. No one really knows when it originated. Probably used by the Indians as an old hunting trail before the white man even lived in this area. It’s already zoned for hikers and pedestrians. Semiprimitive nonmotorized.”
“Nonmotorized?”
“Yep. That means no snowmobiles, motorbikes, cars, trucks or engines of any kind. Except chain saws, of course. In case we need to fight a wildfire up there.”
Good. He liked that. “What about horses?”
“Horses are okay.”
A feeling of relief swept over him. He’d ridden that trail many times and didn’t want to get in trouble for taking a horse up there.
“No campsite presently exists at the