Texas Tender

by Leigh Greenwood

  “It might if the guns were loaded, but they won’t be.”

  Newt turned angry. “Okay, let me out.”

  “Not yet. You might decide to run away before we find out who’s faster.”

  Newt’s expression turned contemptuous. “I’m not afraid to try this with bullets.”

  “I am. I wouldn’t want you to have a second sheriff’s scalp to add to your gun belt.” Will handed a gun and holster through the bars to Newt and waited while he strapped it on. “We’ll both nod when we’re ready.” Will removed his coat, hung it on a nail in the wall, and strapped on his own gun. “Then we wait for Emmett’s signal.”

  Newt’s confidence was so high, he was practically dancing in his cell. “You going to let me out if I prove I can kill you in a fair fight?”

  “I’ve asked Mara McGloughlin to stop by this morning. I’ll let you out after you apologize to her.”

  Newt stopped dancing and scowled at Emmett. “Hurry up, then. I want to get out of here.”

  Emmett took a deep breath, held it for a second, then said, “Now!”

  Two hands flew to the holsters. Two guns were drawn and two clicks sounded loud in the limited confines of the jail.

  “He beat you!”

  All three men turned to see a dazed Mara Mc-Gloughlin standing in the doorway.

  “He sure did,” Emmett said, looking at Will in shocked disbelief. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

  “You can’t tell which gun would have fired first,” Newt protested.

  “It was the sheriff’s,” Emmett insisted.

  “How did you do that?” Mara asked. “Nobody’s ever beat Newt.”

  “Have you ever heard of Luke Attmore?” Will asked.

  Mara shook her head, but Newt said, “He’s the most famous gunman in three states. Don’t try to tell me you beat him.”

  “I never could, though I tried hundreds of times.”

  Newt laughed. “Nobody’s lasted more than one gunfight with him.”

  Will unbuckled his holster. “We didn’t have real fights. He’s my brother. He taught me how to draw.” He was confronted by three disbelieving faces. “My adopted brother,” Will clarified.

  “You going to let me out?” Newt growled.

  “As soon as you hand over the gun and apologize to Miss McGloughlin.”

  Newt unbuckled the holster and pushed it through the bars, letting it fall on the floor.

  Will stopped Emmett from picking them up. “That doesn’t demonstrate good manners,” he said to Newt, “and throws doubt on whether your apology to Miss McGloughlin would be sincere.”

  Mara and Emmett looked at Will as if he were insane. Newt glared at him through rage-filled eyes.

  “I’m going to kill you.”

  “I expect you’ll try,” Will said calmly, “but you can’t do it from jail. And you won’t get out unless you pick up that gun, hand it to Emmett, and apologize to Miss McGloughlin. If you can’t manage to apologize in the next few minutes, I’ll give you another day in jail to think about it.”

  Newt turned so red in the face, Will thought he was going to start screaming at him. Instead, he collected himself, reached through the bars, picked up the gun and holster, and handed it to Emmett. The deputy handled it like a hot coal.

  “I’m sorry I bothered you,” Newt said to Mara. “I was too drunk to know what I was doing.”

  Mara nodded her acceptance of his apology.

  “Let him out,” Will said to Emmett before turning back to Newt. “Next time you drink too much, have one of your friends get you out of town before you land in trouble.”

  “I’m not done with you,” he said to Will when Emmett stepped back and let him leave the jail cell.

  “Then don’t let the grass grow under your feet,” Will said. “I won’t be here long.”

  Newt muttered a threat and stormed out of the jail.

  “You’re so brave,” Mara said with a sigh.

  Emmett left to make his rounds, and Mara followed Will back to his office.

  “Mama said supper would be ready at six, but you could come anytime before that. She says she’s got to thank the man who saved her little girl’s honor.”

  “I’ll be sure to be there on time.” Will sat down at his desk, dropped the two guns into their drawer, and closed it.

  “I hope you do come early,” Mara said. “There are lots of things I want to know about you.”

  “Like what?” Will asked, suddenly aware of the true nature of Mara’s expression and beginning to feel like a fly cornered by a spider.

  “Are you married?”

  “No.”

  “You sweet on anybody?”

  He should have answered yes to both questions, but he’d learned long ago that although telling lies might help at a given moment, in the long run they caused even more trouble.

  “No, but I’m not the marrying type.”

  “Why? You’re not very old.”

  “I’m twenty-eight.”

  “I like older men. They’re more mature.”

  “You’re too young for someone my age,” Will said. “You need a husband who won’t be old when you’re still young.”

  “I’m eighteen,” Mara said.

  “See, that’s ten years. Practically a lifetime.”

  Mara laughed. “You’re funny.”

  Will wasn’t feeling the least bit amused. He realized that saving Mara had turned him into a hero in her eyes. From there it was only a short leap to husband material. He hadn’t been avoiding the clutches of females for more than ten years to fall victim to some young woman who couldn’t see reality because of the shining armor blinding her.

  “You shouldn’t be thinking of marriage yet. You have years and years to enjoy having men adore you.”

  Mara frowned. “Mama says I should be married already. She was a mama when she was my age.”

  “Do you want to be a mama?”

  Mara looked besotted. “If I can have your babies.”

  Will nearly choked. “You don’t even know me. I could be a murderer, for all you know. You should marry some nice young man you’ve known all your life.”

  Mara frowned again. “Papa wants me to marry Van, but I used to be sweet on Carl Ellsworth.”

  “Used to be?”

  “Until I met you.”

  Now he was in for it. All he wanted to do was buy a bull. How complicated could that be? Instead, the damned bull was missing, he’d let Lloyd Severns talk him into being sheriff, and now the daughter of the richest man in town was infatuated with him and wanted to have his babies. He could barely resist the temptation to toss his badge on the desk and hop on a fast horse out of town.

  “Stick with Carl. He’s a nice fella.”

  “Papa says I can’t marry a poor man.”

  “What makes you think I’m not poor?”

  “You’re buying that bull.”

  “Maybe I’m not buying it. Maybe my father is.”

  “If your father is rich, you are, too.”

  Boy, did this girl have a lot to learn. “Jake adopted eleven kids, then had one of his own. Even if he wanted to give me money, it wouldn’t be much. I’m probably no richer than Carl.”

  “Papa said everybody knows that Jake Maxwell owns practically a whole county. He thinks you’ll make a fine husband.”

  “You mentioned this to your father!”

  “To Mama, too. She can’t wait to meet you. That’s why she wants you to come early to supper. They won’t let me marry Carl, and I don’t want to marry Van, but they said I could marry you.”

  Chapter Four

  Will felt the noose tightening around his neck. All he’d done was protect a young woman from abuse, and now she wanted to marry him. What was wrong with women that once they got a look at his face, nothing else seemed to matter? Everybody knew the best-looking horse rarely had the most stamina, coordination, intelligence, or a decent disposition. Didn’t they understand it co
uld be the same with people? Especially men.

  “Choosing a husband is much too important to compromise on,” he said. “If you don’t really love him—”

  “I love you,” Mara assured him.

  Unfortunately, she spoke just as Carl walked through the door. For a moment he looked devastated. In an instant his expression changed to anger. He turned his blazing gaze on Mara, but Will was certain it would find him soon enough.

  “Just yesterday you said you loved me,” Carl said. “Seems all it took was a pretty face and you forgot all about that.”

  “He saved me from Newt,” Mara said.

  “I’d have saved you if I’d been there,” Carl insisted.

  “But you weren’t there,” Mara pointed out. “Besides, everybody in Dunmore is afraid of Newt.” She favored Will with a brilliant smile. “Will’s not. And he can draw faster than Newt. I saw it.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Emmett saw it, too,” Mara said, drawing herself up to confront Carl. “I can’t love anybody who doesn’t believe me.”

  “Mara, everybody knows you make up things.”

  “I do not. I only exaggerate sometimes.”

  “I think you’re straying from the point here,” Will said. “You two are in love with each other. You need to be talking about how to convince your parents that you’re perfect for each other.”

  “How can he be perfect for me when he can’t stop his sister from accusing Papa of trying to ruin them?” Mara demanded of Will.

  “How can she be perfect for me when she thinks she’s in love with you just because you kept a drunk from kissing her?” Carl countered.

  Will thought he’d done a little more than that, but his reputation wasn’t the issue here. “I only stepped in because no one else was helping her.”

  “Van would have stopped Newt,” Mara said. “He’s not afraid of anybody.”

  “Van is a spoiled, selfish brute who’s not smart enough to know when he’s in danger,” Carl said. “He’ll get himself killed just like Webb did.”

  “How dare you say that about my brother!” Mara said and burst into tears.

  Will looked at Carl for an explanation. “Webb thought he could ride anything with hair,” Carl said, then turned to Mara. “He wouldn’t have been on that horse if he hadn’t been showing off for his new girlfriend after he’d ditched Idalou.”

  “He wouldn’t have ditched her if she’d stopped accusing my father of being behind everything bad that happens on your ranch.”

  Remembering his own desolation when Jake had nearly died from a gunshot wound, Will felt some empathy for Mara. Still, he was horrified to find himself in the middle of a squabble that was dragging up family skeletons faster than a grave robber. He didn’t know what to do to calm these tempestuous waters—Isabelle was the peacemaker in the family, even if she had to use a big stick to do it, but Isabelle was far away.

  “Look, kids—”

  “We’re not kids.” Mara and Carl turned in unison and glared at him. “We’re eighteen.”

  “Then stop acting like you’re eighteen months,” Will shot back. “You’re not going to solve anything by dragging up things to blame on each other.”

  “I don’t have to drag up things.” Mara eyed Carl angrily even though she was speaking to Will. “He and his sister keep handing them to me.” When she spun around to face Will, all traces of anger had vanished. “Don’t forget to come early to supper. Mama’s had me tell her at least half a dozen times how you saved me. She can’t wait to thank you in person.” She flashed a brilliant smile filled with defiance at Carl. “I have something special for you,” she said, speaking to Will again.

  “You’re a low-down, rotten sneak,” Carl fired at Will the moment Mara went through the office door. “You’re a belly-crawling snake, a yella coyote, a—”

  “Hold on before you run out of interesting things to call me,” Will said, relieved to have just an irate young man to deal with. “I’m none of those things and wouldn’t be if I had the chance.”

  “What do you call a skunk who makes up to another man’s girl by having dinner with her parents?”

  “Dinner is part of my payment for being sheriff. I wasn’t going to set myself up to get shot at and have to eat bad food in the bargain.”

  “Don’t go,” Carl said.

  “Are you going to cook supper for me?”

  Carl looked stunned that the idea would even occur to Will.

  “I didn’t think so. And you can get shut of the idea that Mara’s in love with me.”

  “I wouldn’t have to get shut of it,” Carl snapped, “if you’d minded your own business.”

  “So you think I should have let Newt have his way with Mara.”

  “Of course not, but—”

  “There’s no but about it,” Will snapped impatiently. “Besides, how was I to know you and Mara were having a fight and she’d turn to me as the answer to her prayers?”

  “She’s just bowled over by your looks,” Carl said, scowling. “Every female in Dunmore is. Even my sister.”

  That stopped Will in his tracks. He hadn’t gotten off to a very good start with Idalou, but that hadn’t affected his eyesight. Idalou was a damned fine-looking woman. A little too spirited, mind you, but he’d entertained thoughts of a few strolls in the moonlight. Just because he didn’t want to get married didn’t mean he wanted to turn in his tickets to the dance. “Your sister thinks I’m nice-looking?”

  “No guy has a chance with you parading around looking like some fancy actor in one of them shows I saw in Fort Worth. You wouldn’t be so popular if you had my face.”

  Carl still looked like a teenager, but he had muscles on those broad shoulders and a tan from working in the sun. He’d soon develop into a man women would definitely give a second glance. “There’s nothing wrong with your looks,” Will said.

  “Yes, there is. I don’t look like you.”

  “If you looked like me, you’d have to be like me, and that would get you in all kinds of trouble. Would you have let yourself be talked into being sheriff of a town you’d never seen the day before?”

  “Hell, no. That’s stupid.”

  Will shrugged. “There you go. You wouldn’t want to be stupid. Mara wouldn’t like that. Idalou wouldn’t like it, either.”

  “I wouldn’t care if I was stupid if Mara would marry me.”

  Will hadn’t grown up with nine older brothers without recognizing the signs of a lovesick kid. Left alone, Carl would probably just make things worse. “Sit down,” Will said. “Being angry with me isn’t going to solve anything.”

  “Nothing can fix things,” Carl moaned, charging across the small office. “Mara hates me, and we’ll lose the ranch because I can’t find the bull.”

  “Sit down,” Will said. “I can’t think with all this activity.”

  Carl threw himself into a chair next to Will’s desk and dropped his head in his hands.

  “Women are a peculiar breed,” Will said. “They have this way of making a man think his life isn’t worth a bent horseshoe unless he can corral one for himself, but they don’t make it easy. They don’t mean to be so contrary, but they can’t help themselves.”

  “What are you talking about?” Carl demanded without looking up.

  “Women want to get married, but it goes against their nature to make it easy for you. Chances are, Mara decided you were the one the moment she set eyes on you, but did she let you know that?”

  “No. I was mooning after her for months before she’d even talk to me.”

  “Exactly.” Will came around the desk and leaned against it with arms crossed. “They set it up so you have to do all the work. Then if anything goes wrong, it’s your fault because you were pursuing them, not the other way around.”

  “But men are supposed to pursue women. Any woman who went after a man would be considered loose.”

  “And who made up that rule?”

  Carl looked blank.

>   “Women. You won’t see a man objecting if a loose woman takes a shine to him. No sirree. He’ll consider himself a lucky devil and dive right in.”

  “I don’t want a loose woman,” Carl protested. “I just want Mara.”

  Will decided this wasn’t the time to describe some of the attractions of loose women. “And she wants you,” Will said. “I’m sure of it.”

  “She sure has a funny way of showing it.”

  “I know this is hard for you, but try looking at it from her viewpoint.”

  “You don’t have to tell me I’m not rich like Van or handsome like you.”

  “That’s not what I was going to say,” Will said, restraining his impatience. “Now, here’s an attractive young woman caught between two handsome men. She likes you very much and wants to marry you, but you’re not rich and her parents disapprove. Van, however, is rich and her parents do want her to marry him. She doesn’t, so she’s at an impasse.”

  “I tried to get her to run away, but she won’t.”

  “Of course she won’t. She’d miss out on all the drama and on a bang-up wedding. Now, imagine this impressionable young woman is suddenly rescued by a handsome stranger who just happens to be the son of a rich man. Naturally, she’ll think she’s fallen in love with him. She wouldn’t be a woman if she didn’t.”

  “I don’t see how any of this is going to help me,” Carl moaned. “If she wants to marry you, and her parents want her to marry you, I don’t have a chance.”

  A shiver of fear ran down Will’s spine. If he left town now, he’d miss dinner but be spared a wife. But he wanted to buy the bull, so he’d better get things straightened out first.

  “Mara doesn’t want to marry me. Do you think she’d have gotten so mad at you if she did? She overreacted and is probably now wishing she hadn’t said anything to her parents about marrying me. She’s in a quandary. How can she marry you and save face doing it?”

  “She can’t,” Carl moaned.

  “Certainly she can.”

  “How?” Carl asked, hopeful.

  “That’s what you have to figure out.”

  Carl looked deflated. “I thought you had an answer.”

  “Hell, I don’t understand females. They scare me to death. We’ll have to put our heads together to figure out something. And while we’re doing it, we have to find that bull.”