Mail Order Bride - Westward Joy: Clean Historical Cowboy Romance Novel (Montana Mail Order Brides Book 16)

by Linda Bridey

  Switch smiled hesitantly at Black Fox and shook his hand. “Sorry about that. I’m not much of an attacker. I’m not good with weapons at all, so there’s not much to fear from me. I could probably strangle someone, but I’d most likely make a mess of that, too. Not that I would strangle anyone here, of course. Why would I strangle Hawk’s family? Hawk is my friend and you don’t strangle your friend’s family.”

  Black Fox’s mouth quirked up on one side and he said, “No, you don’t. What kind of power is it that you have?”

  “I’m a good luck charm. Good things happen to people around me. Except myself. Isn’t that strange since the person closest to me is me?”

  Black Fox smiled. “You are very funny.”

  Switch smiled back. “That’s what people tell me. I made Joe laugh when I impersonated him the other night. He didn’t get mad at me or anything. I also recite Shakespeare.”

  Black Fox grunted. “Come with me and tell me more about this power of yours.”

  He ducked out of the tipi, with Switch following close on his heels. Hawk would have gone with them, but Striking Snake said, “Sit a while longer, my son. I have something to discuss with you.”

  Hawk sighed and sat back down to face the music.

  *****

  It didn’t surprise Will that Hawk showed up for work again the next day, despite the fact that snow still fell. It wasn’t nearly as heavy as the previous day, but was still coming down at a steady rate. Hawk stomped the snow from his boots and hung up his coat.

  “Hi, Will,” he said with a smile.

  “Hi. I hope you’re prepared to stay late if necessary. With missing more time yesterday, we’re even more backed up,” Will said without preamble.

  Hawk wondered what was bothering his normally friendly boss. There was no smile on Will’s face. In fact, there was a grimness in the set of his mouth and his eyes were devoid of warmth.

  “What’s wrong?” Hawk asked.

  “Nothing. Why?” Will responded.

  Hawk just shrugged and got started on the job he’d left sit unfinished the previous day. If Will didn’t want to talk about it, he wasn’t going to push. “Switch is still sleeping. I don’t know what time he’ll get here.”

  “You went to his place this morning?”

  “No. He stayed in camp last night and I couldn’t get him up,” Hawk said.

  “Great! I hope he’s not going back into hibernation already. I could really use him here today,” Will said in a grumpy manner.

  The door to the store opened and Rachel came into the shop. Will just stared at her as she came over to him.

  “Good morning,” she said pleasantly.

  Will clamped down on the happiness the sight of her brought him. Now it was accompanied by pain and anger. “What are you doing here?”

  “I work here,” Rachel said. “Or had you forgotten?”

  “I think we need to go have a discussion,” Will said and motioned toward the showroom.

  Rachel said hello to Hawk and then left the shop, followed closely by Will. Hawk’s keen powers of observation told him that Will’s bad mood was a result of an argument with Rachel. He’d also noticed that she wasn’t wearing her engagement ring. He sighed in dismay and shook his head.

  “Did you open the store?” Will asked as he closed the shop door.

  “No. Not yet. It’s not quite time,” she said, turning to face him. She longed to kiss him and feel his strong chest under her hands.

  “Rachel, we’re no longer engaged, remember? You don’t work here. You can’t,” Will said.

  “I’m your business partner, Will. Of course I work here,” Rachel said. “We had an agreement. Besides, no matter what happened between us, you still need me and I need to work.”

  Will’s lips thinned in frustration. “We didn’t have a formal agreement.”

  “Not in a contract, no. However, you’ve been giving me my percentage of the profits that we agreed on and it’s on the books, which legally constitutes an agreement,” Rachel said.

  She had him there and Will knew it. He felt his temper rise. “We can’t work together after what’s happened between us.”

  Rachel gave him a steely look. “Just because you called me a lying harlot when I didn’t deserve it doesn’t mean I can’t rise above it to earn a good living. I never lied to you, Will, but I can’t make you believe me. What I can do is work just as hard as I have been to make this business a success. We will need to get our agreement put in writing, however.”

  “You’re right. I don’t believe you. I gave you the benefit of the doubt once, but I won’t give you the chance to pull another fast one on me. You’re also right about the agreement. We’ll get it hammered out. You and I will only speak when it’s necessary for business purposes. That’s it. Oh, and if I see Brendon in here, I really will kill him,” Will said.

  “If I see Brendon, I’ll kill him myself. I already told you I want nothing to do with him. I never lied to you,” Rachel said.

  “From this moment on, I don’t want to discuss anything of a personal nature with you. Do you understand?” Will asked with a flinty gaze at her.

  His cold tone made her heart ache, but she wasn’t going to show it. “Yes, I do. Very well. I’m going to open up now.”

  Will just gave her a hard look and went back out to the shop. Rachel closed her eyes and willed away the tears that gathered behind them. Then, straightening her spine, she turned the store sign to open and unlocked the door, ready to begin another day even though her emotions were in turmoil.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  By noon, Will was nearly at the end of his wits. Rachel kept using the flimsiest excuses to come talk to him. Despite his anger and bruised feelings, he still craved her and she seemed to feel the same way as he did. The chemistry between them was still there and it was driving him to distraction. Everything about her, from the way she smelled to the way her hips moved, caused desire to burn throughout his body. He was going to have to do something about it so he could work properly.

  He almost groaned aloud when she came into the shop once again.

  “I brought some cold meatloaf sandwiches for lunch for all of us,” she said. “I’ll fix them and bring them out to you.”

  Hawk smiled and said, “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome, Hawk,” she said, and went back into the store.

  Will put down his tools and followed her. She had just flipped the closed sign over when he entered.

  “What are you playing at?” he demanded.

  Her eyebrows rose as she turned to him. “What do you mean? I’m just getting lunch for us.”

  “Don’t play innocent with me, Rachel. Are you regretting throwing your ring at me and calling things off?” Will asked sarcastically. “Are you trying to win me back?”

  “Yes, frankly, I am,” she said honestly. “I was so hurt and enraged that you not only thought I was lying to you, but also that I’m an adulteress that I reacted without thinking. I realize now that I was hasty. I think we need to discuss things further.”

  “I think we said everything that needs said,” Will responded.

  “No, we didn’t. Please come to my apartment tonight so we can talk, Will. Please?”

  Will looked at her beseeching expression and had to harden his heart. He told himself that she wasn’t to be trusted. Then he thought that talking about it might be a good way to convince her that they had no future because he couldn’t trust her. “I’ll come on one condition. If after we talk tonight, we can’t resolve our differences, the subject is never brought up again. That’s the only way I’ll talk to you about this.”

  Rachel considered his offer and saw that he meant what he said. She was confident that she could make Will see that she’d never betrayed him. “Very well. I accept your condition,” she said with a curt nod. “Now, I’ll get those sandwiches ready.”

  Will barely suppressed a smile at her insistence on fixing them lunch. “Fine,” he said and walked back
to the workshop.

  *****

  A strange sound intruded upon Switch’s slumber. He ignored it and began drifting into sleep again when it came again. He opened his eyes and looked around. To say he was disoriented would have been an understatement. Instead of the four walls of his spacious room, he saw the sloping conical hide walls of a tipi.

  Raising his head, Switch tried to make sense of where he was. Then he remembered coming home with Hawk the previous night. Something scratched at the tipi flap and Switch wondered if some animal was trying to get in. He threw the buffalo hides he’d been sleeping under off him and was immediately hit by the cold air.

  The fire had died at some point and it was freezing inside the tipi. The matter wasn’t helped by the fact that Switch was only wearing his underwear.

  “Switch?” a male voice said followed by the scratching noise.

  “Yeah. Uh, come in,” he said as he started pulling on his pants.

  Hawk’s younger brother, Moose, entered the dwelling. While Hawk looked more like Squirrel, Moose resembled Striking Snake.

  He smiled at Switch. “Mother says you are to come get something to eat and that you have slept long enough.”

  “What time is it?” Switch asked.

  “Early afternoon,” Moose replied. “Did you sleep well?”

  “Like a log.” Switch put on his boots and stood up. He pulled on his shirt and coat. “It’s cold out, huh?”

  “Yes. Your fire went out. You should have put more wood on it during the night,” Moose said as he led Switch over to their tipi.

  “Well, once I’m asleep for the night, I don’t normally wake up again. I’ll be right there. I have to answer the call of nature,” Switch said, and ran off into the woods.

  Squirrel looked up when Switch entered their tipi a little while later. She smiled as he sat down and held out his hands to the fire to warm them. There was something about Switch that spoke to her motherly side.

  “Good afternoon,” he said congenially. “It’s still snowing a little out there. This is some storm, huh?”

  “Yes, it is,” she agreed. “Do you always sleep so much?”

  “Not always, but if I don’t sleep at night, then I sleep until about this time,” he responded.

  Striking Snake asked, “Why do you not sleep?”

  “Nightmares and sometimes my brain just won’t wind down. My thoughts keep going,” Switch said as he looked curiously at what Squirrel was doing. “What is that? It smells heavenly. Speaking of heaven, I doubt my mother is going there. She’s not nice enough. I’ll bet she’s wondering where I am. I didn’t know where I was when Moose woke me up.” He laughed as his stomach rumbled.

  “This is fry bread,” Squirrel told him. “This is chokecherry dressing,” she said, pouring some on top of the flat, flaky bread.

  “Mmm. So I’m thinking that I’m just supposed to use my hands to eat it?” he asked.

  Striking Snake smiled. “Correct. Unless you want to borrow a fork from Zoe.”

  “Nah. This is fine,” Switch said as he scooped up some and shoved it in his mouth. The combination of the bread and dressing was delicious. Switch swallowed and looked at Squirrel. “How much of this do you have? I don’t want to eat it all if no one else got any.”

  She chuckled. “Go ahead.”

  Switch needed no further urging and began eating in earnest. Striking Snake and his wife exchanged amused looks as they watched him.

  *****

  J.R. Samuels, now a strapping lad of fourteen years, shoveled snow off the back porch of their home. His mother had asked him to do it, and although he didn’t know why it mattered if there was snow on it since they wouldn’t use the porch until summer, he did it without questioning her. It was just easier that way, he thought with a smile.

  As he finished, he noticed someone wading through the deep snow as they approached the houses by way of one of the pastures. His blue eyes widened as he realized that it was one of the smaller pastures where one of their longhorn bulls was kept. Bruiser was not a nice bull and everyone knew to stay out of his pasture.

  He threw the shovel to the side and started running for the pasture. “Hey, you there! Get out of there!” he shouted, and waved at the person.

  Whoever it was must have thought he was just being friendly, because they simply waved back and kept their current pace. J.R. reached the fence and he yelled at what he could now discern was a man. “Hey, mister! Get out of there. That’s a bull pasture!”

  J.R. decided that either the man couldn’t hear him right or he was stupid. Either way, the man was in great danger of being gored to death by the longhorn bull that was trailing behind him.

  J.R. tried again. “You gotta get out of there! That bull is dangerous!” He pointed behind the man.

  The man saw him point and turned around. To J.R.’s horror, the stranger walked toward Bruiser and the boy started through the fence. “Hey! Get away from him!”

  The guy stretched out a gloved hand to the Bruiser and J.R. just knew the bull was going to tear him apart. He stopped after only a few steps into the pasture when he saw the man pet Bruiser like he was a dog. After a few moments, the man patted the bull’s shoulder and started for the houses again. Bruiser stayed put.

  As he drew closer, J.R. asked him, “Are you crazy? That bull is meaner than a rattle snake. Didn’t you hear me shoutin’ at you?”

  The man said, “Yeah, I heard you, but I was fine. He’s not as bad as you make him out to be. I’m Switch. You would be?”

  “Switch? What kind of a name is that?” J.R. asked, as they both left the pasture.

  “It’s a nickname.”

  “Oh. I’m J.R.”

  “Nice to meet you J.R. This is the Samuels place, right?” Switch asked as he looked around at his surroundings.

  “Yeah. So what brings you?”

  “Well, my good man, I’m here in the hopes that Hope might be home,” Switch said.

  J.R. laughed. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of a blizzard so people aren’t traveling around a whole lot unless it’s an emergency or something.”

  “Does that mean she’s here?” Switch asked.

  “Yeah. She’s stayin’ with us. She was stayin’ with Aunt Tessa, but with the storm, she made my cousin, Katie, sleep in her room and so Hope got moved to our house,” J.R. said. “C’mon with me.”

  “Ok. I spent the night in the camp. It was fun,” Switch said, as J.R. led him in the front door of their house.

  A small black poodle came running up to them, yipping with excitement.

  “Shut up, Trouble,” J.R. told the dog.

  The little dog’s tail was a blur as he inspected Switch’s boots. Switch reached down to scratch Trouble’s ears.

  “You can hang your stuff up here,” J.R. said as he took off his own coat and hat, which he hung haphazardly on the coat rack.

  Switch did as J.R. directed and looked around at the parlor. It is an attractive house, he thought.

  “Ma! We got company!” J.R. said loudly as he walked down the hall to the kitchen.

  Maddie said, “There’s no need to shout, young man. I’m right here.”

  J.R. smiled at her. “Well, since I can’t see through walls, I didn’t know you were downstairs.”

  She chuckled. “You sound like your pa.”

  “Ma, this is Switch. Switch, this is my ma, Maddie,” J.R. said.

  Maddie smiled at the dark haired young man before her. “Well, Switch, it’s nice to meet you. That’s an unusual name.”

  “Nice to meet you, ma’am. It’s a nickname. Nice place,” Switch said.

  “Thank you. Why don’t you have a seat? Would you like some coffee?” she asked.

  “Sure. Is Hope here?” Switch asked as he sat at the kitchen table.

  “Yes. J.R., go let Hope know she has company, please?” Maddie directed her son.

  “Ok,” J.R. said, and left the kitchen.

  “How do you know Hope?” Maddie
asked.

  “We met at the Watering Hole a few nights back. She’s a good dancer. Speaking of dancers, I hear that you’re a good dancer,” Switch said. “Your husband said you waltzed away with his heart.”

  Maddie blushed. “He said that?”

  “He sure did. That’s pretty romantic, I think,” Switch said. “He said that he couldn’t waltz when you first met, but by the time you were done teaching him, he’d lost his heart to you.”

  Maddie grew weepy with happiness that Seth would still think that way about her. “Oh, my. Yes, that’s terribly romantic. I’ll have to thank him for saying that,” she said, and dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.

  Switch smiled. “Women always get emotional when their man says something like that about them. Speaking of emotional, I was really happy to get to stay in camp last night. I didn’t get up until about an hour or so ago, though. I usually sleep late. Well, not always, but enough. I work with Hawk at Will’s furniture place.”

  “You do?” Maddie sat a coffee service on the table.

  “Yep. That’s a nice service, Maddie. Speaking of services, we have coffee services, too, along with people to serve us. Oh, speaking of people to serve you, I’ll bet my housekeeper is worried about me. I don’t often spend an entire night away from home, so she’s gonna be looking for me. That’s ok. She’ll see me when she sees me,” Switch said.

  Maddie just listened to him since it seemed that a response wasn’t really needed. She found his subject changes amusing. “What’s your real name?” she asked.

  “Justin Keller,” Switch said. “But I like Switch better. My mother always calls me Justin, but it’s in this very haughty, unpleasant tone.” He cleared his throat and began speaking in a falsetto voice. “Justin, you will be home when I tell you to be home. Justin, put on some decent clothes, for God’s sake!” He changed back to his normal voice. “See? Not exactly endearing when someone says your name that way, is it?”

  “No, I suppose not,” Maddie said. “So Elizabeth is your mother?”