“Thanks,” Adrian said.
Joey and Adrian scaled the wall. Adrian spotted them. Steve had his arm around Faith who was smiling. Jealousy burned Adrian’s loins. It looked like she was having a good time. He could show her a good time. She didn’t need Steve for that.
Adrian stalked to the booth with Joey in toe.
“Evening,” Adrian said, announcing his arrival.
The foursome looked surprised to see them. Isaiah was a black man who lived in the area. He was also a ranch hand on the Lone Wolf Ranch. He was with a brunette that Adrian had never seen before. She had a big nose. Adrian glanced over at Faith and Steve. His brother was smirking like the cat that ate the canary. Faith looked at him with wide eyes.
“Evenin’, boss,” Isaiah said. He was wearing his favorite white Stetson. Adrian didn’t blame him. It was a damn fine hat.
“What are you guys doing here?” Faith slurred.
Steve had gotten her drunk. The cad. “Joey and I wanted to come out for a drink,” Adrian answered. He glanced at Joey.
Joey looked like he had swallowed a bug. He knew Adrian was full of it, but he knew better than to call him out in front of everyone.
“Mind if we join ya’ll?” Joey asked.
Adrian didn’t wait for an answer. He scooted next to Faith on the bench that she and Steve sat on, squeezing her in the middle.
“Not at all,” the brunette said. “The more the merrier.” She and Isaiah scooted over to let Joey sit down.
“I’ll buy the next round,” Adrian announced.
They chatted and drank beer for almost two hours.
“How about a dance, Faith?” Steve asked.
Faith shrugged. “I'll try. I don’t know how to do the two-step or anything like that.”
Steve chuckled. “It’s a slow song. You can swing it.”
“Faith, don’t you think you’ve had too much to drink to dance?” Adrian asked.
“No,” she answered simply.
“Let us out, big brother,” Steve said.
Adrian reluctantly stood up. He watched Faith and Steve scoot out of the booth to go to the dance floor.
Chapter 9
Steve wrapped his arms around Faith’s waist. They swayed to the music that wasn’t necessarily Faith’s taste. She appreciated different music, but that doesn’t mean she wanted to listen to it all night.
“What did I tell you?” Steve said. “Adrian likes you. He came here to spy on us. He just can’t admit right now.”
“It’s a coincidence that he’s here. You said Adrian came here all the time to have a beer or two,” Faith said.
“Yeah, but he came here tonight and made a B-line straight for us,” Steve said. “I saw him and Joey as soon as they came in.”
Faith shrugged. Steve could be right, but do I want to get involved with a guy who has ex-girlfriend issues? She knew how some men were. Some men used the excuse of having their heart broken once to treat all future women in their life like shit.
“Hey, buddy,” a man slurred as he approached them. He had on jeans and a hunting jacket. “Is that your wife?”
“No,” Steve answered.
“Well, let me have a spin with her,” the man slurred.
“Thank you, but this gentleman is my date. I’m afraid it might be rude if I danced with you,” Faith said. She didn’t want to dance with this middle-aged pot belly mofo. She had enough of those guys in Miami. They would come to Miami for the weekend trying to bed younger women knowing good and damn well that they had wives at home feigning for attention.
“Oh shit,” he slurred. “He ain’t gonna mind.”
“No offense, buddy, but I do mind,” Steve said. “There are plenty of ladies in here. Ask one of them to dance.”
“Don’t you dismiss me like some cow shit that you found on the bottom of your shoe,” the man slurred angrily. The man shoved Steve so hard he rocked back. Then, he put a vice grip on Faith’s arm.
“Get of off me!” she shouted.
Before she knew it, Steve swung the guy around and punched him in the face. The man hit the floor.
“Hey!” a man shouted as he came out of the bathroom. He headed straight for Steve. Before Steve could defend himself, Joey leaped at the guy like a cat, tackling him on the dance floor.
“You stuck-up bitch,” a man slurred loudly as he stalked towards Faith. “All you had to do was dance with him. It wouldn’t have done any harm. You started all this.” He started reaching for Faith.
Before Faith could get away from the large imposing man, Adrian came out of nowhere and gave him an uppercut.
All hell broke loose. Men that didn’t have any stake in what was going on started jumping into the fray. Instead of dancing on the dance floor, people were brawling on the dance floor. A waitress who was carrying a tray of mugs was accidentally pushed. She dropped the empty glasses on the floor. “Damn it!” she shouted. The young redhead took the tray and hit the guy that bumped into her over the head.
The band continued to play like nothing was going on.
“Get out of there, honey!” a woman that Faith didn’t know yelled at her. The woman grabbed Faith’s hand and pulled her over to the side. “You’ll get yourself hurt standing to close to a brawl!”
Faith knew that. After all, she spent the first fourteen years of her life growing up in a ghetto. However, she was awestruck at how quickly this all happened. If it happened in the hood she and her brother grew up in, it wouldn’t have surprised her as much. But, a backwoods bar filled with locals? She never thought she would see it in her lifetime. She thought cowboy bar fights just happened in the movies and on TV. She was wrong.
Isaiah was in the fray, too. He kicked a guy in the face. Steve was pummeling a guy on the floor. Joey just kicked another guy in the balls. Adrian punched a guy in the face, knocking his hat off. Another guy lunged at Adrian from a booth table top. They hit the floor. A guy that Faith didn’t know jumped on Adrian’s attacker and pulled him off of Adrian. Steve went flying past Adrian and the guy that helped him and hit the floor. The man that hit Steve was about to mount an attack until Joey came out of nowhere and jumped on the guy’s back. Joey had him in a chokehold. Other men were fighting on the dance floor along with the Matthews brothers. The drunken pot belly bastard that started it all was passed out against the wall.
Faith didn’t think it was going to end, but it did, and in a way she wasn’t expecting. Someone fired three gunshots into the air. Several women shrieked with fright. All the action stopped, and everyone in the bar looked to see where the shots came from.
It was Drew, the owner. He had a pistol in his hand aimed up at the ceiling. Dust from the bullet holes in the ceiling sprinkled down on top of him and a couple of patrons. Faith noticed that there were more than three bullet holes in the ceiling. How many fights did this man have to break up in the past by firing a gun?
“All right!” Drew yelled. “That’s enough. Now, you gul’damn tourists get the hell outta my bar!”
“I live here,” a man slurred.
“Bullshit!” a waitress yelled.
“There’s never a fight in here until you assholes show up!” Drew yelled. “This isn’t the first time you boys have come in here fighting with my regular customers and harassing the ladies. I should have banned you a year ago.”
“We’re not going anywhere!” a man yelled.
Drew pointed the barrel of the gun at him. “Oh yeah,” he said through gritted teeth. “Go now or I’ll pop a cap in your ass!”
The guy snorted.
“Maybe we should go,” another guy said nervously as he held his abdomen.
“Don’t worry, Devon,” the guy who was staring at the barrel of the gun said with amusement. He had a split lip. “He doesn’t have the balls to pull that trigger.”
Drew quickly adjusted his aim and pulled the trigger.
Women shrieked around Faith as she jumped at the sound of the gun.
The big mouth grabbed his knee and
crumpled on the floor, screaming in agony.
Every man that was on the dance floor had wide eyes.
“Anybody else wanna get shot?” Drew asked as he looked around.
Chapter 10
Adrian, Steve, Joey, and Faith were back at the Lone Wolf Ranch. Faith insisted on tending to their wounds in the kitchen. They were a little worse for the wear, but they gave better than what they got. The men who started all the trouble were tourists who came into Elliot once a month to hunt. A waitress had said that they were from Dallas. Privileged middle-aged men who thought they could treat middle-class Americans like crap.
The local men had dragged the beat-up, troublemaking tourists out of the bar and tossed them in the parking lot like they were garbage, which they were. Sheriff Langford had shown up as Faith and the Matthews brothers were leaving the bar. He had asked Drew what happened to the men that were there. Drew had told the sheriff that they got hit by a car. All five of them. He knew Drew was lying, but the sheriff had shrugged, stated that shit happens, and got back in his cruiser and drove off.
Faith had given Steve a few cubes of ice wrapped in a dish towel for his split lip. A bruise was also forming on his cheek. Joey sat at the kitchen table as he held a dish towel over his bloody nose. Other than that, he was fine.
Faith handed Adrian a slab of beef from the fridge for his black eye. “I still think ice is better for that.”
“My father used steak for a black eye. If it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for me,” Adrian said as he slapped the meat over his eye.
“I’m hungry,” Joey stated.
“Yeah,” Steve said. “I’m always starving after a good fight.”
“It’s after one o’clock in the morning,” Faith said.
“So?” the brothers said in unison.
A smile slowly spread across her lips. “Well, I guess it’s my duty to cook for the men that defended my honor. What do you guys want to eat?”
“Steak and eggs,” they mumbled in unison.
Faith chuckled. They were related all right. Twenty minutes later, Faith was placing big slabs of steak on plates. They all liked their meat medium rare. She had scrambled eggs on a hot plate. The boys sat down to dig in.
“You’re not eating?” Joey asked as he shoved a big piece of steak in his mouth.
“No, this meal is a little heavy for me at this time of night,” Faith said with a smile. She started running dishwater into the sink. She was going to wash the frying pans and bowls she had used.
“This steak is good, honey,” Steve said with his mouth full. “You weren’t lying. You can cook.”
“Thanks,” she said over her shoulder.
“The eggs are fantastic,” Adrian said. “They’re filling and fluffy all at the same time. How do you do that?”
Faith giggled like a girl. She started to become embarrassed by the way she laughed at Adrian’s compliment until he let out a low chuckle.
“I smell food,” Aunt Bea said from down the hall. She walked into the kitchen as she spoke. “Why are you boys eating this-?” She stopped short in the doorway when she got a look at her beat-up nephews. “What in the Sam Hill happened?” she asked in a high-pitched voice.
“We didn’t start it,” the men said with their mouths full.
“Really?” Aunt Bea said as she crossed her pudgy arms. She walked to the kitchen table.
“They really didn’t, Aunt Bea,” Faith said. “A drunk approached me in the bar that wouldn’t take no for an answer. Then, his buddies got involved. It really was unavoidable.”
“I see,” Aunt Bea said with less accusation in her voice. “I take it that they were tourists.”
“They were, actually,” Faith answered over her shoulder as she scrubbed the bowl she had scrambled the eggs in. “How did you know?”
“That’s the only time when a fight breaks out at Drew’s,” Aunt Bea said. “Some of the tourists that come here behave themselves – they have a good time and go back to where they came from. The others come here acting like wild coyotes. I have no doubt they deserved whatever they got.”
“Even the one that will be limping for the rest of his life thanks to Drew shooting him in the knee?” Steve asked with a mischievous smirk.
“What?” Aunt Bea exclaimed. “Drew actually shot one of them?”
“Yep,” Joey answered and shoved a fork full of eggs in his mouth.
“Apparently, those guys have caused Drew trouble several times before,” Adrian said. “He snapped.”
“Gosh,” Aunt Bea said. “I hope Drew isn’t going to get in trouble.”
The men chuckled.
“The sheriff showed up. He asked Drew about it and Drew told him that the guys got hit by a car,” Steve said.
“Langford believed that?” she asked with disbelief.
“Nope,” Joey said. “But, he let it go. The sheriff isn’t going to run Drew up the river over an asshole like that.”
“More like it’s because they’re cousins,” Steve said.
“Honey, why don’t you let me clean up since you cooked for these carnivores in the middle of the night? You must be exhausted after all that excitement,” Aunt Bea said as she approached the sink.
“Well, I am a little tired,” Faith said. It was almost two o’clock in the morning.
“Go to bed,” Aunt Bea said. “I can take over from here. Besides, I got to figure out what I’m going to cook for dinner since the boys are eating the steak I thawed out.”
“All right,” Faith said and moved aside. She grabbed a dish towel to dry her hands. “But, first, I’m thanking my heroes.” Faith walked over to Joey and planted a kiss on his slim cheek.
Joey’s face flushed crimson. “Awe,” he mumbled bashfully.
She walked over to Steve and kissed him on the cheek.
“It was nothing, ma’am,” Steve said with a big grin.
She chuckled as she approached Adrian. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She made it quick because she didn’t want to offend him again.
“It was our pleasure,” Adrian said. “They were jerks. I’ll walk you to your door.”
“No need,” she said. “Finish your food before it gets cold.”
“Are you sure?” Adrian asked.
“I’m positive. I’ll see you guys in the morning,” Faith said.
Chapter 11
A few days later, Steve drove Faith into town again. Aunt Bea had called in a favor with the local dentist. His secretary had just quit and he was looking for another one. Aunt Bea asked him to interview Faith.
The interview went better than Faith had hoped. She had told Dr. Brent that she had a two-year degree in secretarial support and that she had worked at a hotel typing in guest information for five years. Two of those years had been spent being a supervisor. Dr. Brent had said that if Aunt Bea vouched for her, that was good enough for him. He had hired Faith on the spot. He had asked her to start the next day.
Faith told Steve about her good fortune on the way back to the ranch.
“That’s great, but I won’t get to see you as much,” he said with a mischievous chuckle.
“You’re such a flirt,” Faith said with a smirk.
“I only flirt with good lookin’ women,” he said as he made the turn onto the dirt road.
“The only problem is me getting to town five days a week,” Faith said.
“I’m sure Aunt Bea will let you borrow her car. She hardly drives it anyway,” Steve said as he drove his truck on the road. “Days when she wants to drive, I’ll be happy to take you to town and pick you up.”
“Thank you,” Faith said. “You guys have been so good to me.”
“You know how you could thank me? By letting me teach you how to ride,” Steve said.
Steve had been trying to get her on a horse for days.
“Why do you want me to learn how to ride so badly?” she asked.
“Because Adrian likes to ride,” he said with a proud smile. “It will go a l
ong way with him.”
“Uh, I don’t know,” Faith mumbled. “For one thing, horses are big…too big. Second thing, Adrian doesn’t want me. I’m not going to throw myself at a man that doesn’t find me attractive.”
Steve burst out laughing. “He finds you attractive, especially when you wear those Levi jeans. How many of those things did you buy anyway?”
“I got a few pairs. I like jeans. What’s wrong with that?”
“Not a damn thing, honey. Your ass looks delicious in them,” Steve said with pride.
“Steve,” she said with astonishment.
He laughed.
“Have you been looking at my ass?” she asked with surprise.
“Of course, I have,” he admitted without shame. “So has Adrian. I’ve caught him a couple of times doing it in the past two days.”
“You boys are bad,” she said, trying not to smile.
Steve glanced over at her. “Yeah, but you like it.” He chuckled. “Let me teach you. I think you will like it.”
“All right, I’ll try it,” she conceded.
An hour later, Steve and Faith were riding horses.
“You’re doing great,” he said.
She smiled. She actually liked it. The white horse she was on was called Lily.
“Let’s let them rest for a minute. Gently pull on the reins,” he said.
Faith did what he said. The horse stopped along with Steve’s horse.
“Good,” he said with a smile.
“Such a good horse,” Faith said as she petted the white beauty. “I didn’t think I would like this, but I do.”
“I told you,” Steve said. “You need to learn how to trust me.”
Faith chuckled. “I’m starting to.”
“You know, we’re only a little ways from the coral that we brand the cattle at,” Steve said with a smile. “Adrian is out there with the boys. Let’s say we gallop out there. Show him what you’ve learned today.”
Faith shook her head as she smiled. “I have to say, I’ve never figured you to be a matchmaker.”
The Rancher Page 4