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Rebecca Winters lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. With canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favourite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels because writing is her passion, along with her family and church. Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to e-mail her, please visit her website at: www.cleanromances.net.

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The Chief Ranger

Harlequin

Amen.

Vance Rossiter tipped back his dark head to take in the June sky. Brilliant white pillow clouds kept changing shape as they moved through a sea of blue peculiar to Yosemite. Maybe it was the trees in the park knifing into the rarified atmosphere that produced that intense color. This was his grandmother's favorite kind of day. Warm, with a refreshing breeze.

Content that she'd gone on to join his grandfather in a happier place, Vance chatted quietly with friends of his parents and grandparents. The fourth Rossiter had now been buried in the cemetery. They were a family well loved in this little community of Oakhurst, California, his birthplace.

Little by little the assembled group grew smaller. The hearse drove away. He shook hands with an official from the Sierra Phone Company, his grandfather's longtime employer. After saying goodbye to the pastor and the hospice people who'd cared for his grandmother over the last three months, Vance turned to his best friend, Chase Jarvis.

"Thanks for being with me today. It means a lot."

Chase clamped a hand on his shoulder. "Where else would I be?"

Vance gazed at his second-in-command. In a crisis or otherwise, Chase was the man to look to. "Running the park?" With both of them absent for the day, the chief of security was in charge.

A lopsided smile broke out on his face. "The guys at headquarters have everything in hand. They've planned dinner for you at Shane and Lisa's."

Vance glanced at his watch. It was ten after three. With the crowds of summer tourists descending on the park, it would take close to two hours to get back to Yosemite Village from here. "We'd better leave now."

By tacit agreement the two men left the flower-filled grave site and maneuvered their tall bodies between the tombstones to Vance's black Mazda, parked along the side of the road. Once they'd taken off, he said, "It was strange sitting in a church pew and knowing I'm the last Rossiter alive."

Chase's gray eyes shone with compassion. "I can only imagine how that must feel."

"Empty is the word that comes to mind." Even though his grandmother hadn't known him toward the end, she'd still been alive. The connection had been there. Her skin had felt warm; her fingers had squeezed his when he'd talked to her, working to a response.

He purposely drove past the home where he'd lived with his grandparents after his parents had been killed. There was a red Honda Civic in the driveway.

"The new renters?"

Vance nodded. "I'm glad someone answered the ad so fast. We agreed on a six-month lease. I'd have liked it to be a year's contract, but that was wishful thinking."

"Maybe they'll enjoy the area so much they'll stay on."

"Maybe. I should be glad it's not going to sit empty. My grandmother would be happy, too."

As they approached the Arch Rock entrance to the park, only thirteen miles from Oakhurst, Chase murmured, "Are you okay?"

"Yes. She and my grandfather both lived a full life and were ready to go when their time came. I can deal with that." He nodded to Ranger Thompson, who was manning the station, as they passed on through. The younger man smiled and waved.

After college Vance had joined the marines. He'd seen death up close and had dealt with it as it came, even his wife's. His red-haired Katy had signed up for the military as a nurse. They'd met and married in Germany. Their brief, eighteen-month marriage had ended when she'd been deployed to the Middle East and her convoy had been taken out by a roadside bomb. Casualties of war were inevitable, but devastating when they struck down one's own spouse.

All that had happened five years ago. Since then he'd gotten out of the military and had worked at two national parks before he'd been made chief ranger here. His marriage had been more like a series of short honeymoons interrupted by war. He and Katy had been incredibly happy, but fate hadn't allowed them to put down roots and start a family. At times the sadness came back, but Vance had managed to put the worst of it behind him.

He was doing all right now. The trick was to stay away from emotional entanglements. In the end it avoided the kind of heartache he never wanted to feel again.

"There've only been two deaths that still haunt me," he muttered. The image from the helicopter, of a man's and woman's frozen bodies partially buried in the snow on top of El Capitan, never left his mind.

Chase breathed in sharply. "It wasn't your fault. You need to get over that."

"You mean the way you've gotten over it?"

"Touché," he said in a quiet voice. "But after I issued the warning, you weren't responsible for the couple. They refused to come down off the mountain."

"That's not true. Providing for the safety of park visitors ultimately rests with me. When you put out the storm alert, I should have had the Darrows ordered off."

"You mean the way the government orders people to evacuate during a hurricane? Some individuals just won't do it. They think they're immortal. We can't use force."

A self-deprecating sound escaped Vance's lips. "Another time I will."

Chase stirred restlessly. "So will I. It'll mean a lawsuit slapped against us so fast, Superintendent Noyes will demand our heads."

"True, but being fired isn't the worst thing that could happen, with two lives at stake. The Darrows left a child homeless." Therein lay the sin.

"Agreed. Let's hope a situation like that never happens again. I was here before you were transferred from Bryce. Believe me, Vance, you were sorely needed. In fact, you're the best thing that's ever happened to this park. Let's keep it that way."

"You're full of it, but I appreciate your willingness to go down with me if it comes to that."

Chase put on his sunglasses. "I agree the Darrow accident was a tragedy, but those two were the ones at fault for doing something so selfish. I know parents who fly separately when they have to travel. If anything happened to one of them, the other would still be there to take care of the children. But not every couple thinks that way. You can't be everyone's conscience, Vance."

That's what the psychiatrist provided by the department had told him in therapy. It still didn't remove the sting of guilt or his anger over the senseless death that had robbed a youngster of his parents. They had no idea how lucky they were to have had a child at all. Vance would have given anything for the privilege?.

"You're right." Still, his hands tightened on the steering wheel, causing his wedding ring to bite into his skin. He hadn't taken it off, because a wedding band on a man of thirty-five in his kind of work was a subtle indicator of stability.

Not liking the direction of his thoughts, he phoned dispatch for an update. Cindy was on duty. So far, no emergencies.

"Sorry about your grandmother, Chief. I would have been at the funeral if I hadn't had to cover for Ranger Baird at the last minute."

"I know that. What happened to him?"

"The flu hit him hard. He's home doing you know what, sir."

"Afraid I do. Thanks for not giving me chapter and verse." She laughed before he hung up. It resounded in the cab. Vance flicked his gaze to Chase. "Our newest transfer ranger from the Smokies is cute and single."

"I was going to tell you the same thing. However, even with that drawl I'm afraid cute doesn't...