The Forest Ranger's Child Page 5

  He shook his head. “If you’re not here, I have no reason to work the ranch anymore.”

  His words shocked her. He loved Emerald Ranch, just as she did. “But Emerald Ranch is your whole life.”

  “No, Lily.” He looked at her, his hazel eyes piercing her to her soul. “The ranch isn’t my life. You are. And now that baby you’re carrying.”

  She’d never expected to hear such words from her father. He hadn’t said he loved her, but he couldn’t put his feelings more bluntly. Her heart gave a powerful squeeze.

  “I’ve been a bit under the weather lately,” he said. “I’m getting old and my body’s wearing out. I just can’t do it alone anymore.”

  Something was wrong here. Something she didn’t understand. Was Daddy ailing? She’d speak with Dr. Kenner when she went in for her next prenatal appointment. He’d been the family’s doctor since she was born. Hopefully he knew something about Dad’s hacking cough and why he didn’t seem to have as much energy anymore. And in that moment, she felt so selfish. Dad had always been here, waiting. Bigger than life. Too tough to ever die.

  Or was he?

  He stared at her, not quite smiling, his eyes aglow with expectancy. “Well? What do you think, darlin’? It’ll take a lot of work, but once you have the baby, you can start training horses again. We can make a go of this together. Mom would be so happy if she were here.”

  He talked as if he expected her to stay. As if he expected her to keep the baby. “Dad, I think we should talk about this a little more. I’m not sure I can—”

  “Hello?”

  Lily turned and found Nathan Coates standing behind them. His broad shoulders filled the doorway, blocking the sunlight, his warm eyes cast in shadow. The moment Lily saw him, her pulse sped up into triple time.

  “Nate! I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.” Dad walked toward the forest ranger, his hand extended.

  Lily remained where she was. Why was Nate here? If she didn’t know better, she’d think the forest ranger had taken a special interest in her. Not surprising considering he’d saved her life several days ago. But she wanted to be left alone. To have time to heal her relationship with Dad and the Lord.

  Obviously her father liked the man. He had a lot in common with the ranger. But Lily didn’t want Nate hanging around all the time. Enough was enough.

  Now, she just had to find a way to convince Nate.

  Chapter Five

  “Didn’t mean to intrude.” Nate shook Hank’s hand and smiled, trying to appear casual when he felt anything but. Lily eyed him with a perturbed frown and he felt like an interloper. He shouldn’t have come out here so soon, yet he felt compelled. Like an inner force was pushing him to watch out for this woman and her child.

  Now he felt like a dunce.

  “What do you want?” Lily asked, her dainty forehead crinkled with disapproval.

  “Lily! Don’t be rude,” Hank said.

  Nope, Nate shouldn’t have come. He couldn’t explain why Lily had become so important to him, or the sensations swarming his chest every time he looked into her expressive brown eyes. A man like him ought to have more control over his emotions. Some invisible force pulled him to her in spite of his resolve to stay away. He was acting like a young, lovestruck kid. And he wasn’t in love. He’d know it if he were. He didn’t believe in love at first sight. It took years of deep friendship and growing trust to love a woman.

  Didn’t it?

  “I…I came to see Peg.” Nate stepped farther into the stable and gazed at the stallion standing in the farthest stall.

  Okay, nice recovery, if Lily bought it. Nate loved working with horses and he was good at it, too. He didn’t come out to Emerald Ranch often, but when he did, he always stopped in to see the stallion.

  As he reached a hand out to run his palm over the horse’s left cheek, he peered at Hank. “Have you given him his candy today?”

  Hank jutted his chin toward Lily. “She just gave it to him and he gobbled it down.”

  Nate chuckled as the horse nudged his shoulder. On occasion, Hank let him give the horse his treat. The two men had a rodeo bond. They both loved this horse and it seemed they both cared for Lily, too. “No, boy, you’ve had enough for today. We don’t want you to get the colic.”

  A deep sigh of impatience whispered past Lily’s lips and Nate looked at her. Her eyes narrowed on him, her expression completely hostile.

  Nope, he definitely shouldn’t be here.

  “Well, I best be on my way. I have a few streambeds I want to check throughout the valley, to see what the flooding level is doing today. I’m planning to go up the mountain in a helicopter tomorrow afternoon.” Nate stepped back, prepared to leave.

  “Why a helicopter?” Lily asked.

  He turned to face her, liking the way her beautiful brown eyes crinkled with curiosity. “With three bridges out in Ruby Valley, I called the regional Forest Service office in Ogden, Utah, for help. Because of our serious flood situation, we’re the only ones in the region they’ve allowed to use a helicopter. I plan to fly across the East Humboldt area and the Ruby Mountains. We’ll look for any debris dams that are building up in front of a potential flood. It’s the best way to be aware so we can prepare for danger down below.”

  Her brow furrowed. “What kind of danger?”

  “Debris torrents. They move fast, usually strike without warning, and destroy property and kill anything in their path.”

  Hank scratched his chin. “You mean like a mudslide?”

  Nate shook his head. “No, a debris torrent is caused by boulders, tree limbs and rootwads that dam up in places like narrow canyons and ravines. The melt-off from heavy snows or rains builds up behind it. When it breaks loose, the destructive force is astounding. It can come down the mountain at speeds above thirty-five miles per hour. It obliterates anything in its path, including a ranch house. I’ve seen the devastation it leaves behind afterward, and it’s serious. I want to take a look and see if we’ve got any of our ranches in danger.”

  “Ah, I’ve lived in this valley all my life and never seen anything like that here,” Hank said.

  “It could still happen,” Nate said. “The snowpack we’ve had this past winter beats anything on record to date. We’ve probably had a one-hundred-and-fifty-year winter.”

  Lily rested a hand atop her round stomach. “What do you mean by that?”

  “The snows we had this winter probably come only once every one hundred and fifty years. It’s just not normal. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but I want us to take precautions if the excess melt-off might cause a debris torrent to come down on one of our ranchers.”

  “Bah! We’ll be just fine.” Hank waved a hand in the air, brushing Nate off.

  Lily didn’t look so convinced. Her tiny nose crinkled with her frown. “Do you think Emerald Ranch is in danger?”

  At first glance, she looked relaxed, her voice casual, but Nate knew better. He heard the slight catch in her voice and knew his admonition worried her. And he didn’t want this woman to fret about anything except having a healthy baby. “Not yet, but I’ll be flying up tomorrow and then again in a couple of weeks, just to make sure.”

  “I’d like to go with you, if that’s possible.”

  Nate coughed, surprised by her request. But then he realized she was motivated to protect Emerald Ranch, not be near him. He glanced at her stomach, then up to the butterfly bandage covering the small gash on her forehead. A feeling of warmth and protectiveness blanketed him. If he did anything to cause her to lose her baby, he’d never forgive himself. “You can come along, but only if your doctor says it’s okay.”

  “I can call Dr. Kenner’s office today, but I should be okay to fly for a couple more months. I feel fine. And the baby moves all the time.”

  Nate would love to feel the baby’s movements. How he wished he had a right to press his palm against her stomach and feel the little kicks there. The thought of spending the afternoon with her appealed to Nat
e, no denying it. “Good. I’ll swing by to pick you up around noon tomorrow.”

  “Okay.” She turned and walked toward the house, her long hair bouncing with her brisk stride.

  With her gone, Hank clasped Nate’s upper arm. “Look, Nate, I really like you, but I don’t want you to get Lily all worked up over nothing. She just got home and I don’t want to worry her. Not with a baby on the way.”

  Nate nodded. “I agree, but I don’t think it’s wise to keep her in the dark, either. She has a right to know the dangers, in case she needs to get herself away from the ranch in a hurry. I wouldn’t tell you about debris torrents if I didn’t think they were something to take very seriously. Hopefully nothing will come of this, but if it does, I hope you’ll trust my judgment.”

  Nate walked away, giving Hank no opportunity to argue. Nate knew what he was doing. If he didn’t go up on the mountain and then warn the ranchers of potential hazards, they could blame the Forest Service. Nate had to do everything in his power to ensure that didn’t happen. But his concern for Lily went even deeper. He’d saved her and her child’s life from a flash flood and he wasn’t about to see her harmed by something even worse.

  * * *

  The whir of the helicopter blades overhead stirred up a dust cloud around the tarmac at the small airport just outside of Jasper. Lily shielded her eyes against the afternoon sun and waited beside Nate while the chopper landed. She’d called the doctor the day before and he’d signed a note saying she could go up in the air if she felt well. She should avoid flying in a big airliner after eight months.

  “Come on.” Nate cupped her elbow and led her out onto the blacktop. The sliding door of the chopper opened and Nate helped her step up inside before greeting the pilot.

  “Howdy. I’m Eddie Slater.” The pilot reached across the seat to shake Nate’s hand.

  “I’m Nate Coates and this is Lily Hansen, one of our local ranchers. Thanks for flying in to help with this project.”

  Eddie’s gaze lowered to the gentle bulge of Lily’s stomach and his eyes widened. The pilot looked doubtful, but before he could speak, Nate interceded. “She has a release from her doctor to fly.”

  Eddie’s expression softened and he turned back to his controls. “Okay, if you say so.”

  Lily sat back and buckled her seat belt. Nate did the same, his warm gaze resting on her face. “You okay?”

  She nodded, hoping he didn’t get the wrong idea. She hadn’t tagged along because she was interested in him. “I’m just worried about Emerald Ranch. I want to make sure we’re not in danger.”

  He flashed a consoling smile. “Me, too.”

  Did he really care, or was this just the forest ranger talking?

  As the chopper lifted off, Lily gazed out the window, concentrating on the ground below. She would have gone online last night to check out more info on debris torrents, but Dad didn’t own a computer or have an internet connection at the ranch. If she decided to stay here, she’d have to remedy that.

  She’d never heard of anything but a flash flood, and she couldn’t imagine the kind of damage Nate had described. On the evening news several years earlier, she recalled seeing the damage mudslides had caused to some homes in California. But here in sleepy Jasper, Nevada, she couldn’t imagine something like a debris torrent taking out an entire ranch.

  Eddie flew the helicopter over town and then toward the mountains. In the lower valleys, pools of water surrounded green fields of alfalfa. The chopper skirted the side of long stretches of road where a narrow bridge of six-inch layers of asphalt stood with no support underneath. Lily had never seen anything like it before.

  “Did the floods cause that?” she asked.

  “Yep, the water was so intense that it just swept away the base beneath the road,” Nate said. “You can see why we’ve closed it off. It looks innocent enough, but a car passing along that road wouldn’t realize the danger until it’s too late. The weight of the car would collapse the bridge of asphalt and cause serious injury to the driver.”

  Lily shook her head in awe, wondering how Nate knew about these things. His expertise and caution on behalf of the community impressed her.

  Within minutes, the chopper climbed high into the Ruby Mountains where twenty-foot poles had been set up to measure the depths of snow. Nate lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes before scanning the area with his gaze.

  “Where are the poles? I can’t see a single one.” Lily squinted out the window.

  “That’s because they’re all buried beneath the snow.”

  Eddie gave a low whistle. “That means the snow is over twenty-feet deep here. And it’s the end of April. Even with the level of melt-off and flooding you’ve been having, I don’t think the floods are finished yet.”

  “Me, either,” Nate agreed.

  This revelation amazed Lily. “How many feet of snow did we get this year?”

  “We estimate over thirty-three feet. In February, we had to bring in dump trucks and front-end loaders to clear the snow away from Main Street in town just so cars could drive through.”

  Eddie steered the chopper away from the enormous white drifts, following the rivulets of melt-off as they ran into the nearby creeks. The chopper followed the headwaters leading down the mountain to the valleys below. The runoff started out small, but quickly became rushing torrents of water.

  Near Secret Valley, Lily gasped. A geyser sprayed outward from the mountain, taking them all by surprise. It came from nowhere, reminding her of a broken fire hydrant she’d seen in Houston, spraying high into the air before splashing down below and soaking everything in sight. The kids had played in the water before the fire department had shut it down.

  “Where is that much water coming from?” Lily asked.

  Nate didn’t look at her as he answered. He seemed to be studying the erosion caused by the vast stream. “Underground streams inside the mountain. Most people don’t realize we have tunnels of rivers flowing beneath the ground. When those underground rivers can’t hold the water, they explode outward.”

  Lily felt impressed by his knowledge. “I never knew.”

  He pointed at a steep ravine leading downstream. “Look at that.”

  Eddie lowered the chopper so they could get a better look. Entire uprooted trees, rootwads, boulders and mountains of dirt blocked the flow of the melt-off. Rushing water had started backing up behind the dam, caught in the narrow canyon with nowhere else to go.

  Nowhere but down the mountain.

  “Wow! That dam must be twenty-feet high,” Eddie exclaimed.

  “At least.” Nate turned his head to look at Lily. “This is what I was trying to describe to you and Hank. This is the beginning of a debris torrent.”

  “But where did all those dead trees come from?”

  “About ten years after timber is cut, the roots of the trees decompose. Heavy rains and snow push the dirt and rootwads down into the ravines below where they cause debris dams. That’s why I shut down timber harvest here in this area of the mountain after I arrived in Jasper. We can use our natural resources, but we need to manage them effectively so they don’t create a worse problem. This area has been overharvested for trees, causing erosion.”

  Lily widened her eyes. Never before had she realized the full impact of what humankind did to cause mayhem to the environment. She was now a believer. She had to tell Dad about this. Because she’d seen it with her own eyes, he’d surely believe her. “Is Emerald Ranch safe?”

  They flew over the mountain ridges above the ranch. From this distance, she got a great view of the house, barn, green fields and corrals with frolicking colts and fillies. Absolutely stunning in its beauty.

  Lily held her breath and awaited Nate’s verdict.

  “I don’t see anything yet,” he finally said.

  Yet! Lily released her breath in a slow exhale. “Do you think that could change?”

  “Yes, it could. I’ll fly up here again in two weeks, just to make sure nothing develops
in the meantime.”

  What a relief. Knowing Nate was here to watch over the ranch gave Lily a sense of security she hadn’t felt in years. “But what will happen with the debris dam we saw above Bill Stokely’s place?”

  Nate swiveled around to stare out the window again. “With all the pressure the water behind the dam is creating, the Stokelys better watch out if it ever breaks loose.”

  Eddie shook his head. “I’d sure hate to find myself in the middle of its path.”

  Lily agreed. “Can the dam be dissolved somehow, so it won’t be a danger to Bill and his family?”

  Nate shook his head. “Nope. There’s no way to remove the dam without it giving way. But Bill can move until the flood waters have absorbed into the earth and dried out.”

  That wasn’t what any rancher wanted to hear. No man wanted to lose his ranch. It was his home and livelihood. But Lily figured moving his livestock and family was better than losing their lives.

  “We will have to go down and warn them.” Nate pointed toward the valley floor.

  The chopper headed down the mountain, following the route the flood would take if it should break through the dam. Wide fields opened to their view, surrounding the barn and house of the Stokelys’ place. Even here, the irrigation ditches had overflowed, flooding the alfalfa so the brown Angus cattle huddled together in dry corners as they grazed. Emerald Ranch was in the same predicament, except they didn’t have any cattle to worry about.

  Just world championship quarterhorses.

  “Can you set the chopper down in that empty field over there?” Nate pointed to a dry area uninhabited by livestock.

  “You bet.” Eddie did as told. Within minutes, the chopper bumped down, but Eddie didn’t kill the engine in case it wouldn’t start up again. Better to leave it running on idle.

  “You want to go with me to speak with Bill Stokely?” Nate asked Lily.

  “Would my presence help?”

  “I think so.”

  She nodded, not wanting to miss any piece of this operation. “I’ve known Bill and Myra Stokely all my life. Myra was my mom’s best friend. I hate that their ranch is in danger.”