Protecting What's Mine: A Western Romance

by BL Craven

  I worked the wire from the farthest post it was still tacked to and unwound the kinks and random snarls from when the wire had snapped back. Finally, I had a section that I could pull within a few inches of the cut side. It appeared that there was enough slack, so I used the pliers to pull it tight, my arms straining. My gloved fingers of my right hand started twisting the heavy wire back together. I wasn’t going to do this by hand and expect it to hold forever, just tight enough to hold until I could get a new grip with the pliers.

  “You big dummy, I have two pairs, you know.”

  “Oh, thanks. I got it.” My cheeks burned at her scolding. Two pairs would make life easier, but I was committed for now.

  I slowly eased the tension off the pliers and let go when it was obvious it wasn’t going to come loose right away. I grabbed both ends of the wire I’d twisted together with the pliers and gave them some more twists, then tucked that parallel with the wire, finishing the quick patch. I handed them back to Ali, and we mounted up again. The sun was just peeking over the mountains now, and soon, it would be full daylight.

  “Good thing the posts are spaced every ten or fifteen feet.”

  “Yeah, otherwise some of these dumb cows might make a break for it. If they found it.”

  “Has that been happening?”

  “Some, but not many. Just a little more than normal. We always lose some to dogs or coyotes, and we don’t find much of them when that happens. Lately, it’s been the calves, just after they’re weaned.”

  “I thought the ranch always bought young and raised them to size? I meant to ask about that yesterday.”

  “We used to, but we’ve been breeding them now too.”

  “You’ll have to fill me in on that.”

  We rode and talked. The day passed lazily, and we didn’t find any more cuts, and decided to water the horses and break for lunch. Alison led us about ten minutes east of the fence until we came to a low rise, and a shallow basin of water filled a depression in the ground.

  My stomach rumbled loudly, making it known that I was ready to eat lunch. When I dismounted, I pulled a smashed sandwich out of my pocket and held it out to Ali. She wrinkled her nose at me and shook her head. The other saddlebag she hadn’t used before, she opened, and she pulled out a thermos and three wax paper wrapped packages. She sat on the low rise and motioned for me to sit beside her.

  I took my lame looking sandwich and sat, putting the rifle down beside me and watching the horses poke their noses in the water, smelling it before they started drinking.

  “What are you thinking about? You’ve been quiet since the wedding,” Ali asked, handing me one of the wax paper wrapped packages.

  I opened it. Looked like a ham and cheese sandwich, no mayo, a little bit of lettuce and tomato. Perfect for a picnic lunch with no fridge handy. I bit into it and tried to find an answer I could live with.

  “What you asked me earlier,” I said biting in, chewing.

  “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 Barts.”

  “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.

  “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’d 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, pulled 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’d been 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.”

  “Whose?”

  “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 on 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 any more,” I admitted, loving the feel of her body holding me down.

  She leaned down and kissed me. It was like our first kiss, only less awkward without the crowds watching. 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 roamed her back, my hand slipping under the back collar of her shirt to caress her skin. My head was spinning with desire and confusion. Her auburn hair kept tickling the sides of my face, and I used my free hand to push it out of my eye.

  “No, not any more,” I hoarsely whispered when she broke the kiss.

  Her eyes never left mine, nor did she give up her position on top. I think she liked it 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. Her breath caught for a moment and then she was pulling away, almost falling backward. Her expression was half horror, half excitement. For a moment, I wondered if my desire was what had made her move, or was it me trying to feel her up?

  “We shouldn’t h
ave.”

  “No, no. You’re right,” I answered, standing to button my shirt.

  I looked down and, in our shenanigans, the sandwiches she’d brought had been 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, they 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 should never have…” The expression on her face changed to embarrassment, and she took a couple 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?”

  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 was 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 twelve 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 my 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, and I got some of the grass in my mouth.

  I spat 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’d 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 the 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 guessed that was 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, toward 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, okay?” She just nodded, and we mounted up.

  She listened; I’d 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 was why I had the rifle across the saddle, one hand holding the reins. I had to give Charlie’s horse credit, other than the nip this morning, the rest of the day she’d proven to be well trained and good tempered.

  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’d seen horses do that, but not so much cattle. I came to the top of the gentle hill and saw two r
iders 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 backward. 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, toward the heart of the ranch land, 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 all right.

  “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?”