by Tess Oliver
“Whooee!”
A sharp cry from below broke the intensity and, however reluctantly, the kiss ended.
My head nearly spun off my shoulders, and I wasn’t completely sure I wouldn’t roll backwards down the slope once he released me. It took him a moment, it seemed, to gather his composure as well. Then he shot an irritated glance at the pasture below.
Jackson’s smile nearly split his face as he rode up the slope to greet us. “Don’t let me interrupt.”
“Too late,” Cade said angrily. “What do you want? Is there something wrong with the herd or did you just decide that you hadn’t annoyed me enough yet today?”
I felt my cheeks warm as Jackson threw a wink my way.
“Jacks!” Cade snapped. “Why’d you come up here?” The heat of passion had turned to the heat of rage, but Jackson didn’t seem the least bit worried that Cade glared at him as if he might, if given the chance, break him in two. Obviously, there was an unspoken bond between the two men that allowed Jackson to know, with confidence, that Cade would never hurt him.
The cold wind had left Jackson’s round cheeks red and chapped. “Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. Well, not bad news but strange news or at least news that I can’t explain.”
“Jackson, are you going to just stand out here and babble on like some drunken pastor, or are you going to tell me?”
“The good news is that the herd if fine. No wolf casualties.” He forced back a smile. “Or mud casualties either. But the craziest thing happened when I was inspecting the herd in the easternmost pasture. There are at least a dozen cattle out there with the Double Horn Ranch’s brand on ‘em.”
“Williamson’s cows? How the hell did they get into our pastures?”
“I asked them that, but they weren’t willing to confess.”
I laughed behind my gloved hand. Cade lifted a dark brow at me.
“Did you check the fence in that area?” Cade asked.
“You know I did, Boss. It’s all secure. Maybe Williamson’s got cows that can jump six feet if they get a running start.”
“You’re a regular circus clown today,” Cade said, obviously still not recovered from the abrupt interruption. “They must have gotten in the other day when the fence was down. Round them up and drive them back over to the Double Horn. I don’t need Williamson accusing us of being cow thieves. And let him know he must have a breach somewhere along his fence.”
Cade had given him the orders, but Jackson didn’t move.
“What are you waiting for?” Cade asked.
“Right. I’ll be off then, and when I get there, I’ll pluck off my glove and snap my fingers. I’m sure those cows will just magically line up neatly and follow me to their ranch. There are at least a dozen head of cattle down their mingling with ours. I’m gonna need help cutting them out of the herd.”
“Fine. Poppy and I will finish the ride around the perimeter, and I’ll meet you in the east pasture.”
“I’ve already inspected the fence on my way around the herds on this side, so you won’t need to dawdle. You can just ride straight in.” Jackson held back a grin as he tipped his hat at me and rode off.
I turned back to Cade. “He can be a bit—”
“Irritating?” Cade supplied the word faster than I could come up with it.
“Come to think of it, that is exactly the word I was searching for.”
We didn’t mention the kiss or our moment of intimacy as we prepared to ride back to the ranch. My legs wobbled with fatigue as Cade helped me back into the saddle. The horses, full with grass, lumbered lazily down to the road. Their heads lifted and they picked up their pace when they sensed that we were heading home. And still, nothing was said between Cade and me. Truthfully, there was nothing to be said. There was an unspoken acknowledgement between us now. Today, on that grassy slope, we had started something, and no matter where it led us, there would be no turning back.
Chapter 19
Cade
I watched Poppy as her slim, shaky legs carried her back into the house, her perfect bottom wrapped snuggly in the denims. It took the long ride home for me to cool my blood after the kiss. I hadn’t gone into it blindly. I’d known that once I’d allowed myself the pleasure of tasting her lips that my few shreds of remaining restraint would dissolve along with any common sense. And now that I’d held her in my arms, now that I’d devoured her with a kiss, now that I’d discovered that her passion and needs matched mine, I knew I had to have her.
The wagon creaked from side to side as Samuel drove it into the yard. Poor Charlotte didn’t look any happier than the night before when, while suffering what appeared to be miserable pain, my chivalrous brother accused her of sabotaging the evening. It was rare for me to work up sympathy for the woman, but last night, I’d wanted to punch Samuel for his cold indifference.
Charlotte, with arms crossed securely, waited for Samuel to help her climb down from the wagon. From the look on Samuel’s face, it had been an unpleasant trip home.
I walked up to the wagon, and Charlotte actually graced me with a rare smile.
“What did Doc Walker have to say?”
“Nothing,” Samuel growled. “He said nothing because he was out of the office all day. I wasted an entire day sitting in his sour smelling waiting room, and he never showed.”
“That’s strange. Where was he?”
“Apparently, Sheriff Stanton took sick last night after you men went out to hunt the wolf,” Charlotte said. “Probably caught a chill, but whatever it was, Doc Walker stayed at Stanton’s house the whole afternoon tending him.”
I helped Samuel unhitch the horses. “That doesn’t sound good. He was fine when we left him last night. Must have happened once he got home. I guess that means Carson is in charge. That doesn’t bode well for the town.”
Charlotte leaned forward with a gleam in her eye. Even sour from a long, wasted trip to town and suffering from a swollen ankle, the woman rallied when there was gossip to tell. “Well, Dorothy Murkel happened to walk into the doc’s office while we were waiting, and she said if the sheriff wasn’t up and around in a few days, the mayor of Billings would be sending us a new man to take Stanton’s place. It seems no one wants to trust an entire town to Deputy Carson.”
Samuel walked to her side of the wagon. “You gonna relay the entire week’s news to Cade, or I can I get you into the house so I can get back to my chores?”
She wriggled into position and lifted her arms, making it perfectly clear to Samuel that she expected to be carried.
Samuel scowled at me. “See what you started? How was the fence line? Everything secure?”
“Yep, only we’ve got another problem.”
“What’s that?” Charlotte plopped into his arms, and his knees collapsed for a second but he recovered. His face reddened as he held her.
“A handful of the Double Horn’s cows ended up in our pasture.”
Samuel nearly dropped his wife, but she threw her arms around his neck to make certain that if he did drop her, he’d be going down too. “How the hell did that happen?”
“I sent them a damn invitation and they accepted, Samuel. How the heck should I know how they got there? Jacks and I are headed out right now to cut them from our herd and get them back home before Williamson sends that fool Carson out here to arrest me.”
The veins in Samuel’s neck bulged.
“You’d better get your wife inside before you hurt yourself. I’ll put the wagon horses away.”
***
I wanted nothing more than too wipe the smirk off of Jackson’s face with my fist as we rode out to the pasture. But sometimes ignoring Jackson worked best of all. I rode on ahead trying to clear my mind of Poppy and set it on rounding up the cattle, but with her sweet fragrance still lingering, that was impossible.
Fortunately, Williamson’s cows wore a hard to miss brand on their hips, and they tended to be scrawnier than ours, so they were easy to spot. Or luck doubled when it se
emed they’d hardly mixed with our herd. For the most part, they’d huddled together in a small cluster near the rear, making it easy to cut them from the rest without stirring up the whole bunch.
Jackson caught up to me and surveyed the work we had in front of us.
I looked over at him. “Seems you were doing your usual exaggeratin’. They won’t be hard to separate at all. Let’s drive them over to the gate and then I’ll let you take ‘em home. That is if you can handle driving a dozen head of cattle a mile down the road, Cowboy.”
“They were more mixed in when I first saw them. Besides, I’m just trying to save you from yourself.”
I rested my forearm over my pummel and looked at him. “Now, what is that supposed to mean?”
“I just think it is downright stupid of you to start fooling around with that girl when you know her family is gonna swoop in any minute and drag her thousands of miles away from here. I’m trying to keep you from getting your heart stomped. I see the way you look at her Cade. This isn’t just some meaningless flirtation. I’ve never seen you look at a girl the way you look at Poppy.”
“Why don’t you just mind your own business, Jacks? Let’s get to work. I’ll cut them and you drive them over to the gate.” Jackson knew me too well, and he always knew exactly where to hit to make it count the most. And damned if he wasn’t a hundred percent right. For the first time in my life, I felt as if my heart was ripe for the taking, and the rotten reality was, Poppy would probably be gone soon. Then she’d be so far away, I would likely never see her again. But at this point, I had to take the risk. Just like the cow and the cup, life sometimes had a funny way of righting itself, and just maybe this whole thing was not destined for heartbreak and pain.
River and I zeroed in on two of the smallest cows that were conveniently standing nearly by themselves. It should have been easy. As a team, River and I were experts at separating animals from the herd, but these the two cows spun around frantically almost as if disoriented. They nearly trampled each other before slipping back between the other Double Horn heads.
Jackson cupped his hands around his mouth. “First you missed the wolf, and now the cows. Told you you were getting too distracted by that girl.”
“Jackson, if I’d wanted someone to be jabbering at me while I worked, I would have dragged Charlotte out here instead.”
The next run was more successful, and two of Williamson’s cows peeled off of the herd and skittered toward Jackson. He and Winslow chased them into a corner.
What I’d expected to take half an hour took well over an hour. It was as if Williamson’s cows had never been cut, driven, or for that matter, near a horse. I rode up to the corner of the pasture where Jackson had the nervous animals hovering in a trembling mass of cow flesh.
Jackson shook his head as I approached. “What the heck is wrong with these animals? They are as edgy as rabbits cornered by a fox. I’m expecting that one near the gate to faint any minute.”
I lifted off my hat and wiped my forehead with the back of my arm. River’s neck was lathered with sweat, and it was hardly a warm day. “I can’t figure it out. I mean you could expect them to be a little nervous standing with a different herd and in a different pasture, but these cows are ready for whiskey shots. I’d better help you drive them home after all.”
Jackson opened the gate, and the agitated animals poured through it as if the devil was chasing them instead of two ordinary cow horses. I shut the gate behind them and looked back. Our herd stood calmly, so there couldn’t have been a wolf in the vicinity. And that’s when something occurred to me. “You know something, Jacks, I just remembered— after I mended that fence the other day, I did a quick rough count of our heads. I sure don’t remember counting twelve extra or seeing Williamson’s scrawny stock, for that matter. I would have noticed if these cows had been there.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Jackson’s smug tone had returned.
“Jacks . . . you need to leave it alone.” Jackson knew me well enough to know when he’d pushed things too far. And this was definitely one of those times.
Without another word, he pressed his hat on his head, and we drove the antsy cows up the road to the Double Horn Ranch.
Mitchell Williamson, the rancher’s eldest son, was on horseback. He met us halfway to the ranch. Mitchell was Samuel’s age. They’d hung out together as teenagers until something came between them. Samuel never spoke about it, but I was pretty certain it had to do with a girl Mitchell liked who had set her sights on Samuel instead. I never liked the guy. He was still as rail thin as when he was fifteen.
“I saw the cloud of dust and rode out to see what it was.” Mitchell looked over his cattle. His lips were drawn tight. “I suppose there’s a reasonable explanation for why you’re walking up the road with our stock.”
“Don’t know if I’ve got a reasonable one. All I know is they managed to wander into my east pasture, so we’re bringing the lost lambs home.” I met his suspicious scowl with cool indifference. I was in no mood to fight with the man or plead my innocence. “You’d better check your fences. They must need some mending.”
Mitchell spit a wad of tobacco toward the ground, and Jackson had to shift his knee to avoid it.
Jackson’s jaw twitched, and he straightened in his saddle. “You’re lucky that wad of shit missed me.”
“Roly Jackson, what were you gonna do if it did hit you?”
There was nothing that angered Jackson more than being called by his childhood nickname Roly Jackson. I could hear his teeth grind together as he clenched his jaw. His gloved fingers twisted tightly around the reins. “I would have—”
I put up my hand to stop him. “Mitchell, we didn’t come here to brawl. We were doing you a favor by bringing your stupid strays back to you. And since you’re here now, you can take them the rest of the way by yourself.” I reined River around and motioned for Jackson to follow. He paused dramatically for a moment then turned Winslow around and walked up next to me.
“My dad is going to find it mighty interesting that you ended up with a dozen of our cows,” Mitchell called to our backs.
“Let me hit him, please Cade, let me have a go at him.” Jackson’s words slid out from gritted teeth.
“I might have to mention this to the Sheriff,” Mitchell continued.
I stopped and spun River around to face him. Mitchell’s eyes widened and his hand dropped over his pistol. “I ain’t gonna shoot you, you coward.” I looked back at Jackson. “Why the hell does everyone reach for their damn gun when they see me?” I faced Mitchell again. “Williamson, if I wanted to steal cattle, I sure as hell wouldn’t risk my neck stealing from your stock. These animals are pathetic. And now I’m sorry I bothered to bring this buzzard bait back at all. I should have just let ‘em go.” River seemed to sense I was done and turned around again.
“We’ll see what my dad says about this whole incident.”
“He grew up an even bigger fool than I’d expected,” I said.
“All I know is, if that tobacco had hit me, I would have taken that skinny asshole down off that ugly horse of his and made him swallow his whole can of Durham.”
“Yeah, well it’s done, and hopefully, we won’t have to deal with him again.”
“Boy, that yellow-bellied toad sure hugged his revolver when you looked at him.” Jackson laughed. “For a moment there, I was sure he was gonna piss his chaps.” Jackson picked up his hat and combed his hair back with his fingers. “Look at that, Cade. It looks like we’ve got a storm coming in. Those look like some serious rain clouds.”
I looked in the direction he was pointing and squinted at the mass of black swirls hanging low in an otherwise blue sky.
“I didn’t see those—” I grabbed Jackson’s arm to shut him up.
“That’s not rain. That’s dust. Let’s get back to the ranch. We can push some of the herd under trees.” I kicked River into a full run.
Chapter 20
Poppy
The l
ast pile of laundry had been clipped on the line. When Libby was out of view, I pressed my face against Cade’s shirt as it danced in the breeze. It had been washed but there was still a faint fragrance of the man left behind on the soft cotton fabric. For the rest of the afternoon, after Cade had dropped me back at the house, I’d drifted into daydreams about the kiss. Libby seemed to sense that my mind was not on our chores, but she hadn’t mentioned it. Something deep down told me the woman knew far more than she was letting on. In that respect, she reminded me a great deal of Nonni. Only now, my confidence in my grandmother’s never-ending knowledge had waned some. I could not understand why she hadn’t found me yet. None of it made sense. Even though I was a great distance from Salem, I was still in the new world. And, certainly, Nonni would have discovered trains by now too. Then a dark thought overshadowed all else, even the spectacular, breath-stealing kiss. I’d left my tiny, albeit powerful grandmother standing in a dank cell next to the most ruthless warlock in the world of sorcery. What if Angus had hurt her or worse? With great powers came a higher order of immortality, and Nonni had both, but Angus Wolfe’s were greater. A shudder ran through me, and I pushed the impossible thought from my mind.
“I’m going to carry in this empty basket,” Libby called to me. “Grab the second basket and we can get supper started.”
“Of course.” The second basket sat at the end of the laundry line. I hurried through the waves of wet linens to grab it up. As I stood, I noticed something in the distance. A gigantic mass of dark clouds hovered on the horizon, and this time I was certain they had to be rain filled. From the looks of it, there would be a downpour large enough to bring some relief to the drought. I started snatching the freshly washed laundry from the line. “Libby! A storm’s coming!”