by Myrna Temte
Damn, but he liked her. He liked her sass, her heat, her strength. He’d probably made too much of this attraction thing all along. He didn’t have to marry the woman to have a relationship with her. She wouldn’t want to marry him, anyway. She just wasn’t ready to let go of her dad yet, that was all.
If she was anything like her mother, she’d teach school on the res for a year, and then she would leave. Yeah, now he was seeing things more logically. He couldn’t have the whole ice-cream cone, but he could have a lick or two, couldn’t he? All he had to do was remember that she wouldn’t stay forever, and he wouldn’t get hurt the way Dan had.
He could enjoy her company, maybe even make love with her, but he couldn’t fall in love with her. Not that he really believed in that, anyway. The can’t-live-without-her kind of love the country-western songs talked about was just a figment of a bunch of crazy songwriters’ imaginations, anyway. Real people didn’t act that way—not once the honeymoon was over.
He wasn’t changing his life plan. He was merely postponing it in favor of an interesting side trip. When Julia got tired of living on the res and left, he’d find a good, traditional, Northern Cheyenne wife and settle down. Hell, he was only thirty-three; he had plenty of time to start a family.
But for now, he intended to learn everything there was to know about Julia Stedman.
“Well, let’s get to it,” Dan called, leading the way to the trailer.
To the others, Sam supposed moving Julia into her house was just another job to do in a long day full of many more jobs— enjoyable because of the chance to visit while they worked, but a job, nonetheless. To Sam, it became a subtle game to catch Julia’s eye or brush against her as they passed each other between the trailer and the house. She quickly picked up on his silent invitations to play and began making her own moves, private smiles, admiring glances at his biceps, sly little winks.
It was fun. It felt a little…dangerous to flirt with her right under her father’s nose, not to mention Jackson’s and Maggie’s. It was exciting and sexy, but frustrating as hell.
By the time the little trailer was empty, she was driving him crazy. The sun might be getting ready to go down, but his temperature was continually on the rise. What else could he do but retaliate?
Jackson and Dan went into Julia’s bedroom to set up her bed. Maggie left to pick up Franklin from her aunt Rose. Sam decided to help Julia unpack her kitchen boxes.
If their fingers brushed when he handed her an item to go in the cupboards, well, he did have pretty big, awkward hands. If he invaded her personal space to put something up high for her and just happened to breathe into the spot right behind her ear, well, a guy had to have oxygen, didn’t he? If his palm accidentally patted the sweet curve of her backside when she was bent over to put cleaning supplies under the sink, well, some things were just more tempting than any red-blooded man could be expected to resist. Right?
He couldn’t imagine why Julia didn’t agree, but the reproving scowl she gave him should have been warning enough. The problem was, he liked seeing her cheeks flush and hearing the sharp intake of her breath when he was getting to her. A scolding was unlikely to make him stop poking at her. At the moment, any reaction, even an angry one, suited him fine. He’d restrained himself for so long around her, he could hardly keep his hands off her.
Huffing with exasperation, she grabbed a box of utensils and shoved them into his hands. “Here. Put these in the top drawer by the stove, will you?”
The stove was about as far from the sink as she could send him without making him leave the room altogether. “Is this a teacher trick?” he asked. “Send the bad boy off to the corner by himself?”
Julia nodded. “Something like that.”
“If I’m good will you let me come back over there?”
Her left eyebrow arched in a perfect expression of doubt. “Will you be good, Sam?”
Her repressive tone tickled him. Rowdy boys wouldn’t have a chance with this teacher because she’d already seen it all. “Probably not,” he admitted with a grin.
She grinned back at him, but pointed a commanding index finger at him. “Then stay over there. I have work to do.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He opened the drawer she’d indicated and started transferring the contents of the box into it. “Maybe you should try to distract me.”
“I’m afraid to ask what you have in mind,” she said.
“A little talk is all. Gee, Stedman, what did you think I wanted? Get your mind out of the gutter, will you?”
“My mind? Excuse me, Brightwater, but I’m not the fanny-grabber here.”
“I didn’t grab it. I just sort of…patted it. You want to grab mine, so we’ll be even?” He turned his back to her and presented the appropriate target.
Laughing, she threw a pot holder at his rump. “No, thanks. I’ll pass on that, but I wouldn’t mind talking.” Her smile faded then, and her voice softened. “In fact, there’s something I’ve wanted to discuss with you for a long time.”
“What’s that?”
She busied her hands stacking dish towels into a drawer. “I haven’t forgotten what you said about me at the first tribal-council meeting I attended. That I wasn’t qualified to teach here because I didn’t know enough about the tribe or living on the reservation.”
“That wasn’t meant to be a personal attack,” Sam said.
“I understand that.” She glanced up at him and gave him a small, thoughtful smile. “I also think you’re probably right. After working with the children for the past six weeks, I realize there are a lot of things about the reservation I don’t understand. But I want to.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s terribly important for the children. I don’t want to needlessly upset my kids because I don’t understand their home lives and their culture.” She shut the drawer, then turned around, leaned against the cupboards and crossed her arms over her chest. “Maggie doesn’t think I have anything to worry about. She says I can pick it up as I go along, and take classes at the Indian school.”
Sam finished with his box and carried it to the table. He thought she looked adorable standing there, so earnest and concerned, all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and reassure her. Unfortunately, after all of his earlier horsing around, she probably wouldn’t let him do that.
“Maggie’s right,” he said. “Believe me, Jules, you’re already more sensitive than most of those teachers in Whitehorn. I’ve seen how much you enjoy working with our kids. I’m not worried about that anymore.”
“But perhaps you should be. I thought about this while I was driving, and I know expectations for the new school are sky-high. If we want to capitalize on that enthusiasm and channel it into a really positive learning atmosphere, the staff needs to be ready to deal with these kids from the first day of school. I won’t be the only teacher who’s never lived on a reservation before.”
Sam nodded thoughtfully. “How would you go about doing that? You can’t learn everything about the Cheyenne culture in a three-day orientation session.”
“I know. I’ve been soaking up as much as I can since I moved in with Dad, and I still have lots of questions.” She pushed away from the cupboards and picked up another box from the table. “But I did have an idea that might help.”
“What is it?”
“The Laughing Horse kids who’ve gone to school in Whitehorn can probably remember things their teachers did that confused them or hurt their feelings or made school especially difficult in some way. If we talked to lots of people about their experiences at school, we could compare them and develop a master list of the worst behaviors for the teachers to avoid until we’re all more comfortable with each other. Does that make any sense?”
“You mean list the things the teachers in Whitehorn did that were especially offensive to our kids?”
“Exactly. Some of us are going to make mistakes, Sam. There’s no avoiding that completely. But if we could avoid the worst ones that
we just wouldn’t be aware of because of cultural differences…I think it’s worth a try to get everybody started on the right foot. What do you think?”
Sam walked around to her side of the table, took the box out of her hands and grasped her upper arms. “I think it’s a great idea. But we’d better get going on it. We only have a couple weeks now before school starts.”
“We?”
“Yeah. We. I’m the one who criticized you for not knowing the culture, so I figure it’s up to me to educate you.”
“You’d really help me with this?”
“You bet. I know some young men you should talk to. They all dropped out of school, and they’ve been struggling to get their GED certificates and learn some job skills ever since.” He stroked her smooth cheek with the backs of his fingers and felt his temperature rise when a blush darkened her skin. “Of course, that means you’ll have to go out with me. For strictly professional purposes, of course.”
“Oh, of course. It’s a dirty job, but hey, somebody’s gotta do it.”
“A dirty job, huh?” Chuckling, he put his hands on her waist, picked her up and plunked her onto the counter. He rested a hand on either side of her hips and brought his mouth down close to hers.
“You’re gonna have to pay for that one, Stedman.”
Her lips twitched with repressed laughter. Her eyes were shiny blue pools he could look into forever.
“Oh, yeah, Brightwater? What’s the price?”
He was about to collect, when Dan spoke from the doorway. “No time for hanky-panky. I promised Sara we would be finished by the time she gets here.”
“Grandmother’s coming?” Julia asked, obviously excited about the prospect.
Suddenly feeling like an intruder, Sam moved away from her, grabbed another box, picked a cupboard at random and started unloading the contents.
Dan laughed and rolled his eyes. “Oh, yeah. Probably the rest of the relatives, too. They’re bringin’ supper to welcome you to your new home.”
“That’s so sweet.” Julia’s voice thickened. “They didn’t have to go to so much trouble for me.”
“Hey, Nahtona.” Dan came into the kitchen and squeezed her shoulder. “Of course they did, and it’s no trouble. You’re one of us.”
You’re one of us. Dan’s words warmed Sam at first, then hit him like a head-on collision. He wanted them to be true, wanted to believe Julia really could be one of them, would be one of them. He wanted it with an intensity that made him feel as claustrophobic as a fly suddenly trapped between two windowpanes. Damn. A few hours of fun and games and he was already losing perspective on this situation.
It was okay to like Julia. It was okay to enjoy her company. It was even okay to want her in his bed. But it was not okay to care deeply about her or to entertain the slightest hope that she ever would consider spending her whole life here at Laughing Horse.
A man could get hurt that way. If you didn’t hope for impossible things, you didn’t get your heart broken when they didn’t happen. Dan had taught him that lesson by example, with Julia’s mother, no less. A smart man would heed that lesson.
It would be safer to call off this whole thing—flirtation, friendship, relationship, whatever it was—right now, but Sam knew he wouldn’t do it. He was already in too deep for that. He would have to be vigilant, however.
He couldn’t afford to love Julia, and it looked as if she might prove to be a very lovable woman.
Nine
“Look who’s here.”
“Welcome back, stranger.”
Julia looked up from tying her apron behind her back, smiled and walked the rest of the way from the kitchen into the servers’ station. Janie and Melissa North stood side by side, sipping coffee and watching the dining room.
“Hi,” Julia said. “Anything interesting happen while I was gone?”
“In Whitehorn?” Janie heaved a dramatic sigh. “Hardly. How was your trip?”
“Long and hot. Some of those stretches through the middle of Wyoming are unbelievable. Nothing but miles and miles of sagebrush and antelope.”
Melissa nodded sympathetically. “No kidding. Go east of Billings and Montana’s the same way.”
Janie picked up a dishcloth and wiped down the ice machine. The front door opened. Deputy Reed Austin walked in and took a seat at the lunch counter. Sighing again, Janie grabbed a coffeepot and went out to greet him.
“What’s with her?” Julia asked.
Melissa rolled her eyes, then smiled wryly. “J.D. hasn’t been in for almost a week, so she’s pining. I don’t understand why she’s focused on him when there’s a great guy like Reed doing everything but tap dancing to get her attention.”
“I don’t, either,” Julia said.
Melissa picked up the clipboard that usually hung in the kitchen beside the employees’ table. “I’m figuring out the schedule for the rest of the month. How much longer can you work for me?”
Julia pointed to the next Wednesday on the calendar. “I’ll have to quit by then for sure. We’ll be starting school right after Labor Day. I need to get my classroom ready and look over the curriculum before the teachers’ meetings start.”
“All right.” Melissa penciled some notes onto the calendar. “You’ve done a great job here, Julia. Would you be interested in coming back next summer?”
“I’ll probably have to go to summer school, but I might be able to work a few shifts.”
“Fair enough. Just let me know.” Melissa gave her a sad smile. “I’m going to miss you. I think of you as a friend as much as an employee.”
“Thanks, I feel the same way,” Julia said. “And you won’t miss me too much, because I’ll probably be in here a lot as a customer.”
“I’d like that,” Melissa said. “Oh, by the way, I really want you to come to my end-of-summer party. I shut down the Hip Hop for Labor Day and take the whole staff to our cabin in the mountains. You can bring a date if you want.”
“I’ll be there. Just tell me what time.”
Melissa went back into the kitchen. Julia walked out to the lunch counter and scanned the dining room. Everything looked ready, so she ambled over to visit with Janie and Reed during their last ten minutes of peace before the noon rush started.
“Well, heck,” Janie said when Julia finished telling Reed about her new job. “Once school starts, I’ll hardly get to see you at all, Julia. Why don’t we go out for a movie and a beer tomorrow night? You know, like a girls’ night out?”
“I’d love to do that sometime, Janie, but I’ve got a date tomorrow night,” Julia said.
“Oh, yeah?” Janie said. “Who’s the guy?”
“Sam Brightwater. We’re going to the dance at the powwow grounds.”
“You lucky duck,” Janie grumbled. “I’ve always wanted to go to one of those dances, but I couldn’t talk J.D. into leaving the Kincaid Ranch for even one night.”
Reed leaned forward and rested an elbow on the counter beside his coffee cup. “I’d be glad to take you to that dance, Janie.”
His voice was as smooth and quiet as usual, but there was a glimmer of determination in his blue eyes that made Julia want to applaud. She saw Janie open her mouth and guessed the first words to emerge would be an automatic refusal. She stepped closer to Janie and, keeping her hand well below the counter where Reed couldn’t see it, gave Janie’s thigh a hard poke with her index finger.
Janie squawked and shot Julia a surprised frown. Julia frowned right back at her and mouthed the word Go. Eyebrows halfway to her hairline, Janie pulled back, unwittingly giving Julia exactly the opening she’d been expecting.
Smiling at the deputy, Julia gave him an encouraging wink. “That’s a great idea, Reed. Maybe you two could join Sam and me. Why don’t you meet us at my house at eight tomorrow night, and we’ll go over to the dance together?”
Reed immediately agreed to her plan, slapped some money on the counter and beat a hasty retreat before Janie could object. The second the door closed
behind him, however, she turned on Julia, spitting like an angry alley cat.
“I can’t believe you did that,” she said. “I don’t like Reed that way. Everybody knows it’s J.D. I want.”
“I know, Janie,” Julia said softly. “But J.D. doesn’t seem to be interested in dating you, and Reed does. Why not give him a chance? You might decide you like him a lot.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Janie grumbled. “He seems awfully… young.”
“He’s older than you are. Besides, it’s just one date. And maybe if you weren’t quite so available all the time, J.D. would be more interested.”
A thoughtful frown creased Janie’s forehead. “You think?”
Julia didn’t, but she had no intention of admitting as much to Janie. Rather than lie, she shrugged and asked, “What have you got to lose?”
After a moment’s consideration, Janie laughed. “Not much, I guess. All right, I’ll go. But you’d better stick close.”
“It’ll be the four of us all evening. We’ll have fun. You’ll see.”
“I hope so,” Janie said. “It’s been such a weird summer. They had more trouble out at the Kincaid Ranch while you were gone. For Dale’s sake, I should be glad J.D.’s sticking close to home. He’s so nice to look out for Dale the way he does.”
The bells over the front door jangled, and the first wave of customers came in, cutting off any reply Julia would have made. She supposed it was probably just as well. The more she learned about the problems at the Kincaid Ranch, the more uneasy she felt about everyone connected with the place.
She’d heard so many conflicting opinions tossed around every day at the Hip Hop, it was impossible to get a clear picture of what exactly might be going on out there. The only thing everyone seemed to agree on was that the trouble was escalating, and it wouldn’t be long before somebody got seriously hurt or even killed. Even the Indian community was talking about it, and Julia had no doubt whatsoever that Janie would be better off with Reed than with J. D. Cade, any day.