“Yeah, that was funny how you avoided the question.”
“I was hoping you’d let me slide, but I figured you weren’t done yet.”
“So… What did Jackson want?”
“Warned me about Dade.”
“Him?”
“Yeah. Said he could be a real bastard if it came down to the messy stuff.”
“He worked here for a while. I didn’t realize he was with the Bart’s.”
“Guess he joined up.”
“He was always a loner when he was here. He was always nice to me. Helped me with things. I think he was sweet on me a little.”
“Did you know him well?” I asked her.
“As well as anybody I guess. He was pretty quiet.”
“Wasn’t that kind of creepy? You were just a little girl.”
“You mean like right now? He was your age you know.”
“Was? Is? I mean, you were underage back then, weren’t you?”
“You’re Jealous, aren’t you?”
“No,” I lied, my words tasted like ashes in my own mouth.
“I’m not a little girl, Cameron,” she sounded pissed.
We ate in silence for a while, and I took a cup of coffee from the thermos. The cloudy skies told me it wasn’t going to be hot today, but in the sunshine, out in the middle of the tall grass with no one else about, my heart skipped a beat. I gazed at Alison when her head was turned, taking in her features. The bruise was starting to darken a bit, and every time I’d seen it today I wanted to go back to stomping Tim all over again. Ali saw me looking and smiled. Maybe I’d been forgiven?
“So what else did Jackson say?”
“Who said there was anything else?”
“Your eyes did.”
“I…” I leaned forward, pulling her hat back and kissed her gently, feeling her breath catch.
My heart screamed yes, my mind screamed no, but I didn’t care. Ali’s hand gently rubbed the back of my neck, and when I opened my eyes I could see hers still shut tight, as she was lost in the moment too. Did she feel guilty? I wondered. Should I? We broke the kiss, and I almost started it up again when she chewed her bottom lip, looking at me hungrily. I realized I had been jealous when she was talking about Dade… The kiss had confirmed a lot of feelings I had swirling through my body.
“You talked about kissing me?”
“Indirectly.”
“So, what was it about then?”
“Sandy thinks there’s going to be a wedding.”
“Who’s?”
“Ours,” I said starting to laugh. The surprised look on Alison’s face only made me laugh harder, and soon the tears were rolling down my cheeks.
“That’s not funny.”
“No, it’s not,” I laughed harder.
“Cam, we can’t do this.”
“No, but we did. Twice,” I said, starting to get my mirth under control.
“Is it weird?”
“What? Kissing?”
“No, kissing me.”
“I had to find out if the first time was a fluke, to be honest. It’s been eating me up all day. When I left for the army, you were a fat pimply little brat who…”
She tackled me, knocking my hat off and straddled my waist, her arms pinning my shoulders. I could have probably gotten up, but the fierce expression in her face made me smile and I let her hold me.
“Fat? You never call a girl fat,” she slugged my arm lightly, and then returned her grip.
“Don’t forget pimply. And a brat.”
“I was, wasn’t I?”
“Not anymore,” I admitted, loving the feel of her body holding me down.
She leaned down and kissed me. It was like our first kiss. It was like the sun exploded and fireworks were going off all around me. It was full of passion, need. She wanted this, and she wasn’t holding back. I was surprised when I realized I wasn’t holding back either. My hands started roaming her back, my hand slipping under the back collar of her shirt to caress her skin. A low moan surprised me, and I became painfully aroused when she started unbuttoning my shirt, undoing the red flannel. Her auburn hair kept tickling the sides of my face and I used my free hand to push it back out of my eye.
“No, not anymore,” I hoarsely whispered when she broke the kiss. Repeating myself.
Her hands trailed across my chest, her fingernails lightly scratching me. Her eyes never left mine, nor did she give up her position on top. I think she liked this as much or more than I did. I knew it was wrong, but the hand on her back moved to her side. I used a finger to trace her stomach for a moment and I laughed when she almost fell atop me, giggling like crazy.
“That tickles.”
“I’ll have to remember that,” she buried my mouth with a kiss, but my hand was still there, touching her.
I ran it up her side, loving the feel of her silky skin and gently cupping her breasts through her bra. Her breath caught for a moment and then she was pulling away, almost falling backwards. Her expression was half horror, half excitement. I was painfully aroused, and for a moment, wondered if that’s what had done it, or was it me trying to feel her up?
“We shouldn’t have.”
“No, no. You’re right,” I answered, standing to button my shirt.
I looked down, and in our shenanigans, the sandwiches she brought were kicked all over, in the dirt. I sighed. Nothing worse than having a hard on and being hungry. Even the thermos had spilled. The horses didn’t care, there were still sipping at the pool of water and munching on the lush grass there.
“Shit, what was I thinking?”
“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to start things.”
“No, no. I can’t. I’ve never…”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s just that. I never should have-” The expression on her face changed to embarrassment, and she took a couple of deep breaths. “I’ve always wanted to do that, but maybe we shouldn’t.”
Of all the things to tell somebody who was worried about making out with his stepsister who was adopted, that wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I was expecting it to be about something else. Guilt perhaps?
“Wow,” I said, the only thing I could come up with.
“Is that a good wow, or a bad wow?”
“I thought you were worried about the family connection thingy?” I started to button my shirt.
Bonus! I found my sandwich, still in the Ziploc. Yes, it still looked sad, but it was edible. I took half out and tossed her the other half. She caught it and almost dropped it, having to reach way down. Bad throw, that’s the old me coming to the surface, the bad one. It was a surefire way to catch a glimpse of cleavage, and of course…. It worked. Mentally I kicked myself. She bit off a chunk and looked at me with pity in her eyes and handed me back the sandwich.
“Can I tell you something?”
“Sure,” I said, all kinds of confused.
“When you left for the army, I was pissed.”
“Why?”
“Because I had the world’s most crushable crush on you.”
“You hated me?” I was confused.
“I was 12 back then. It’s how girls act when they like a guy.”
“No wonder, guys never understand women.”
“Hey!”
“Well, just saying.”
“And for a while, I was really down. Dad figured it was because of the divorce, and that was part of it. He had me go to a counselor. Finally, your mom stopped by. Something she’d forgotten at the house and was picking up… I lost it and started crying. I told her everything. I didn’t realize my dad was in the kitchen doorway, and god, I almost died of embarrassment.”
I smiled, I could only guess, although getting caught kissing her at the wedding last night definitely gave me a taste of the embarrassment she might have felt.
“Then they both sat me down. ’Twelve is too young to fall in love’ they told me. I told them I felt horrible because it wasn’t just that, it was because you were m
y brother, or were. I shouldn’t have feelings like that for you.”
“You were a pretty smart and complicated little mess back then, weren’t you?”
“Definitely.”
“So then what?”
“They told me time would make things easier. For the most part, it did. I forgot about you for a while. Then you sent home a picture of you and your army buddies. You were in Fallujah. Mom had started dating Dad again by that time and I sort of…”
“What?”
“Stole the picture.”
“What?”
“Yeah, Dad found it under my pillow,” her face was burning up with embarrassment, the red coming all the way down her neck.
“Oh geeze. I think I remember that shot.”
“Yeah, you were smoking a cigarette and had two machine guns crossing your shoulders.”
“Oh god, yeah, that’s the one. I wasn’t wearing a shirt. It was supposed to make Mom feel better… It was a badass, still alive no injuries love you Mom, picture.”
“Well, I loved it too.”
“So why tell me all this now?”
“Because, when Dad told her about it, she came and talked to me. I told her I still felt the same way I did when I was younger.”
“But I sent that picture two years ago.”
“Yeah. She said, sometimes the heart loves who it wants. Since we’re not blood, there’s no reason to feel too bad about it.”
“That’s what Jackson said too.”
“You shit! I knew you were holding back,” she reached down and ripped up a handful of turf and pelted me in the face with it as I was finishing off the sandwich, getting some of the grass in my mouth.
I spit it out, sputtering and wiping my tongue. No way did I want to eat grass that might have cow piss sprinkled around it. She let out a surprised squeak and turned to start running when I bolted forward after her, dropping my food to the ground. Fuck the horses, they could stay there… I chased after her, kicking up little bits of grass until I tackled her, using my body to pad the fall. We wrestled a moment, before it turned into another kiss. And another.
“We have to finish this fence soon,” she told me, running her fingers through my hair as I pulled her tight to me.
“We have time,” I kissed her neck, watching her body stiffen.
Two gunshots broke the silence around us. She tried to jump up, but I held her down, and motioned for her to crouch, low in the grass. I couldn’t see any threats and the coast was clear for quite a ways. The shots hadn’t sounded right next to us, but somewhere just out of eyesight maybe. Echoes are funny in the mountains, something I learned the hard way.
“Stay down low, let’s get to the horses.”
“Were they shooting at us?”
“They could be anywhere. Sound is funny out here, but no, I don’t think they were shooting at us.”
“Good. I think.”
Getting back to the basin of water, I finally stood, stretching my muscles in my back as I took stock of everything around us. There were bushes where somebody could be hiding, but nobody would be out this far on foot, not if they were smart. I guess that’s one of the disadvantages of living on a large ranch. Bill’s was one of the largest in our area, and even as a kid, I’d never been over all of it.
“Take care of the horses.” I told her, picking up the rifle and using the scope to look around.
It took me a minute, but I saw a small cloud of dust to the south of us, towards the fence line.
“Looks like they are over there.” I motioned.
“I can’t see anything.”
“It’s far off. Want to look?” I held out the rifle, but she shook her head.
“Let’s go look, but don’t ride right on me. Keep about a football field apart from us. God, I wish I had a cell phone right about now.”
“You don’t have one?”
“There was no point until I got home.”
“Don’t worry, I have one. Do you want it?”
“No, but if we have trouble, you need to call for help.”
“Jackson first, right?”
“Yeah, the guys with the trucks are the closest. Then call the Sheriff’s office.”
“I don’t want to call them, they-” She didn’t have to finish that sentence for me to understand her opinion of the sheriff, and the help he might give. If any.
“I know, I know. Trust me, ok?” She just nodded and we mounted up.
She listened; I’ll have to give her that. The look she gave me when I rode off told me she wasn’t happy being so far back, and in a way I understood. She was probably scared of something happening to me, because I was out front… Something could happen to her, while I was far ahead. I was scared of that too, and that’s why I had the rifle across the saddle, one hand holding the reins. I have to give Charlie’s horse credit, other than the nip this morning, the rest of the day she’d proven to be a well trained and a good tempered horse.
I slowed Lightning’s walk to almost a crawl, following the fence line now. The ground on the other side of the fence had been worn down to bare earth. I’ve seen horses do that, but not so much cattle. I came to the top of the gentle hill and saw two riders on the other side, one of them doing something with the fence. I turned and waved to Alison and started down, kicking the horse into a fast gallop.
If there was going to be trouble, I wanted to have the element of surprise. A horse coming at you full run while you were standing flat footed at a fence should do that. I think. Probably would help if they knew I was armed, but I was improvising, not seeing any on them. The two looked up in shock as the sound of the hooves reached them, and one of them fell over backwards. The one who didn’t, pulled his hat off and his chest moved with what could only be laughter. That put my mind at rest. I got within shouting distance when I realized that the cowboy who’d fallen had a lumpy, black and blue face and was moving stiffly. It took me a moment, but when I got to within twenty feet I knew for sure who it was.
“Tim, what the hell you doing messing with our fence?” My voice was low, threatening. I held my fist up beside my head in the universal stop motion and hoped like hell Ali understood.
The stranger saw my motion and his gaze followed my back trail. He could probably make out the form of a rider back there. Even if he saw it was Ali, he wouldn’t know if she was armed or not. As far as things went, it was a pretty funny way to meet.
“We were fixing a break,” the stranger said, motioning with a pair of pliers. “Your damned cows keep coming on our side. And it’s our fence too, this side at least.”
He had a point, he was on the other side, and there wasn’t any sign of their horses crossing the break.
“Was that you shooting?” I asked the stranger while keeping a wary eye on Tim.
“Yeah, coyotes have been bad this year. Got one about a three minute ride south of here. You going to put that up?” He asked, pointing at my rifle. It was pointed away from them, towards the heart of the ranchland, but it wasn’t on my back. Theirs was in the scabbards, hanging off their saddles.
“Yeah, I might as well,” I told him.
“Is that Alison up there? I’ll kill that fucking bitch.”
“Shut up dickhead,” the stranger snapped at Tim, who looked shocked.
I smiled, this guy might be alright.
“I’m Cameron,” I dismounted and held my hand out over the fence. He took it and shook.
“Dade,” Oops, maybe not.
“You guys riding fence?”
“Yeah, about the same as you. Which direction are you and your rider heading?”
I pointed the direction, which was the same as where they had come from. “That way.”
“You guys find anything?” He asked me.
“Fence was cut, about twenty minutes into the ride. Know anything about it?”
“Nope. We found this section after shooting the coyote. Also found two cows who’d wandered over. We ran them back through the hole.”
; “How’d you know they were ours?”
“Your ear tags are orange. We use white.”
“Smart.”
“Why are you talking to that shithead? He’s the motherfucker who did this,” Tim started spewing words, pointing to his face.
“Beat your ass into pulp, taught you a lesson? Shut your stupid mouth before I give you the same,” maybe this Dade dude wasn’t so bad after all.
“Shut up Tim. You’re lucky you’re not in jail. You should be, but I don’t know how you’re out. Shut the fuck up before you buy yourself a world of hurt,” my voice was cold, but I meant every word.
“Fuck you.” He stormed off towards the horses.
“If you fixed that section already, I’m going to head back to the main house.”
“I’m going to head down towards the coyote you shot. Jackson says they’ve been getting the new calves lately. Maybe I can find a den.”
“Old Jackson’s still there?”
“Yeah, old as dirt and twice as ugly.”
“That’s him.”
“Yeah. You know… What’s the issue between the Bart’s and the Masterson's? Water, land?”
“A woman I think.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah, it’s always about a woman, isn’t it?”
“What about the water thing?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that. Engineers from the army corps of engineers did something, and we’re developing that section of land. Guess the water went where it wanted to.”
“There’s some butt hurt over on this side of the fence, and some think the water getting diverted was deliberate.”
“Not that I know of…”
The shot whipped by my head, almost blowing out my eardrum with the sonic wake. I pulled the butt stock of the gun, using the sling to spin it around my shoulder until it was in firing position and flicked off the safety. Tim, I’d lost eye contact with Tim. He was lining up for a second shot on me as Dade turned to rush him. I hesitated for half a heartbeat and shot.
Both Tim and the horse he was sitting on fell heavily, and Tim started screaming. I could hear pounding hooves behind me, but I was out for blood. I had another round chambered as Dade pulled the rifle away from Tim, who had a leg pinned by his dead horse. I had only a split second to decide. Kill him and start a whole new batch of trouble or knock the horse out from under him and throw his aim off. I was done with the killing business, so I got the horse.
Stepbrother Cowboy: A Western Romance Page 6