“Like this?” She deftly removed the hook she’d caught the fish on, secured another one into his gills, and put him back in the water.
“You been holdin’ out on me. This is not your first fishin’ trip,” he said.
“You didn’t ask me if I’d been fishing, did you?”
He handed her the can of worms and sat back down. “What else are you keeping secrets about?”
“Shhhh,” she said loudly. “You’ll scare the fish.”
Sawyer caught three small bass. Rhett caught three sun perch. Finn brought in a catfish, but it was smaller than Haley’s, and Dewar caught a bass, but it, too, wasn’t as big as Haley’s fish.
She was glad that she didn’t have to scale or cook the fish. Her granny had insisted that she clean a sun perch one time but she’d done such a poor job that there had only been one single bite of fish worth frying when she was finished.
“Who caught the biggest fish?” Buddy hopped off the wagon seat with the agility of a teenager.
Haley held up her hand. “I did and I talked and they all shushed me and I still got the biggest one, so I don’t believe that bullshit about not talking because it will scare them.”
Buddy laughed. “Smells v-v-very good!”
“Yes, it does,” Haley said. She’d watched Dewar prepare the cornmeal that Coosie had left behind. He’d added salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of red cayenne pepper.
“And since Haley caught the biggest fish, she gets the first pieces that float.” Dewar used long-handled tongs and fetched out several pieces that came to the top of the cast-iron cauldron filled with boiling oil. He laid them on a plate and handed it to Haley.
She broke a piece off and blew on it before she popped it into her mouth. “H-h-hot!” she said.
“Fire or pepper?” Coosie asked.
“Both,” she gasped.
He popped the ring from the top of a can of Coors beer and handed it to her. “That’s why I brought cold beer. Hot fish, hush puppies, and cold beer. Don’t get no better than that.”
Haley sipped the beer but she disagreed with his last statement. The fish was good but that beach scene she’d played out in her mind was a helluva lot better.
***
Her intentions were to stay awake until everyone went to sleep that night and then slip into bed with Dewar. Even if there weren’t trees to produce bedrooms or even a remote area where they could find privacy, she could still feel his arms around her. But two seconds after she shut her eyes she was asleep.
She dreamed about falling off Apache’s back right into a bed of hungry fire ants. They were all over her, biting and making red marks that itched so bad that even clawing couldn’t bring relief. She awoke sitting straight up, whining and scratching her ankles so hard that they had red stripes on them.
Dewar unzipped his sleeping bag and walked across to her on his knees. “Haley, what is it?”
“Ants. They’re biting me.”
He shined a small flashlight on her feet. “There’s nothing here. Were you dreaming?”
“Fire ants and they’re still biting me,” she said.
He looked again and went back to his bed, opened his saddlebags, and brought out a bottle of clear fingernail polish. “It’s not ants. You’ve got a bad case of chiggers. Hold this flashlight for me.”
“Painting my toenails isn’t going to help.”
“But painting theirs will.” Dewar chuckled.
She held the light and he began to put one drop of nail polish on every red dot he could find. He blew on each drop until it dried. She wasn’t sure if the polish stopped the itching, or if the warmth of his breath creating a fire in her gut made her forget about it, but something worked.
“There’s one on my thigh,” she whispered.
“Take off your jeans. Looks like I need to check you for ticks.” He smiled.
“I thought you said chiggers. Is that some kind of evil ticks from hell?”
“No, chiggers are little red bugs that get on some kinds of wildflowers and grasses. They bury into your skin and itch like hell, but the polish suffocates them and they die. I was making a joke. Brad Paisley has a song out about checking his girlfriend for ticks.”
“Honey, you can check me for anything you like as long as it stops itching.” She kicked off her jeans and peeled her knit shirt over her head. “Check away.”
He pulled up the leg edge of her lacy panties, applied three drops of fingernail polish, and again blew on the tender skin until it dried.
She managed to keep the moan soft. “Do you know what you are doing to me?”
“I’ve got a very good idea because it’s making me pretty hot doing it,” he said.
He found two more under her bra strap on her back and one an inch from her nipple. “Put that in your reality show notes.”
“Bring fingernail polish and don’t ask why,” she said.
“Clear fingernail polish or someone might look like they’ve got measles,” Dewar said. “Now let’s get you dressed and I’ll hold you until you fall back to sleep.”
“I’d rather get all the way undressed and take care of a deeper itch,” she said.
“So would I, darlin’, but there is no privacy at this place. Unless you want to go up on the other side of the pond.”
She shivered. “No thank you. That’s where chiggers live. Damn their sorry hides, anyway.”
He helped her re-dress and then stretched out beside her. “I love the way you fit in my arms.”
“Me too. Like I was made special for that purpose,” she said sleepily.
Chapter 19
Monday morning dawned without a cloud in the sky. The sun came up in a big orange blaze of glory with the promise of a warm day, and the cows were eager to move out of the pasture, across the gravel section line road, and into the next phase of the journey. Even Eeyore had a little extra spunk in his usual ho-hum, head-down walk.
The fingernail polish had been passed around before they left that morning and Haley had found two more places right below her belly button where a couple of slow climbers had buried in. She’d escaped behind the wagon and threatened the whole bunch of cowboys with justifiable homicide if they so much as peeked while she painted the red dots.
And now they were back in the saddle for another day herding cattle north toward Dodge City. Dewar had told them at breakfast that morning that they’d probably cross the state line that evening and her heart had stopped beating.
“That only means that we’re more than halfway there,” Coosie had said.
Her heart settled into a regular routine as he explained they’d still have about thirteen more days until they actually sold the cattle to the feedlot Dewar had picked out.
They’d only been riding an hour when they passed a cemetery. It didn’t cover acres like the ones Haley had seen in Dallas, or even the ones in Louisiana where her grandfather was buried. It was small but well kept with flowers on the grave sites, freshly mown grass, and tombstones of all descriptions shining in the morning light.
It reminded her of the brevity of life and how she should be reaching out to grab opportunities while they were at hand instead of waiting until they were miles down the road. Was Dewar the opportunity of a lifetime? Or was he a plaything for a month? She had never in her entire life started a relationship of any kind after only knowing someone for a week. She’d certainly never even thought about falling into a pile of leaves with a cowboy.
The faint noise of a train rumbling down the tracks to the west drew her thoughts away from the cemetery. She’d researched what seemed like a lifetime ago on the Internet and found it was the trains that brought an end to the trail drives. When the railroad put tracks closer to their ranches, the need to drive the cattle all the way to Dodge City disappeared.
What would it take to change her? And at the age of thirty, could she even make changes or was she so set in her ways that it would be impossible? She pondered on that the rest of the morning. Would Dewar like her if s
he became a ranching woman or would her decision make her such a different person that he fell out of love with her?
Love! She sputtered without even saying the word. He’d never uttered such words, never even mentioned them after sex or during sex when men will say anything. Not Dewar; his words were always well chosen and so sweet. But if he did fall in love with her, would he fall out of love with her if she changed? That was the question.
At noon she was downright grouchy because of unanswered questions. Coosie laid out bologna, cheese, tomatoes, and everything to make Dagwood sandwiches. She slathered mustard on one slice of bread and folded it around one piece of bologna.
“Chigger bites still bugging you?” Finn asked.
“They’re fine,” she said.
Rhett raised dark eyebrows over his green eyes. “You sick?”
“Nope, just not too hungry. Ate too much breakfast,” she explained.
“Well, I’ll tell you one thing. If I’d known them damn chiggers were taking up homesteading on my legs I would have never gone fishing. The fingernail polish stuck the hair down flat and every time I move it rips out another hair. I swear, Haley, I don’t know how in the devil you girls get your legs waxed,” Sawyer said.
That brought out a weak giggle. “Boys ain’t as tough as girls.”
Dewar smiled.
“What’s funny?”
“You said ain’t instead of aren’t. You’re beginning to talk like a redneck. Be careful or they won’t let you back into that fancy office down there in Dallas,” he said.
Daggers shot from her eyes. “It’s living around the bunch of you that causes me to swear like a sailor and…” She stopped herself before she said, “think about having wild sex with you all day.”
“And what?” Dewar pressured.
“And use the word ain’t. Momma will throw the whole lot of y’all off the roof of the office building if you do much more damage,” she said.
“We still got almost two weeks to ruin you, girl,” Rhett said. “You may go home with a tat yet.”
“Hmmph,” she said and bit into her sandwich.
***
When it was time to pull up reins that night they were back in a flat area with no trees, not even a sapling beside Bluff Creek. There was no more than two inches of water in the bottom of the creek; barely enough to water the cattle. Not nearly enough for a real bath or washing clothes.
“So we’re in Kansas?” She removed the saddle from Apache and carried it to the spot where her bedroll was lying.
“We are,” Dewar said.
She went back to her horse and took off the blanket, brushed him well, and sent him out to graze with the cattle. Coosie was already working on supper, and the smell of fried chicken permeated the evening air. Buddy was busy brushing down the two horses that pulled the wagon. The cousins were making out their beds and griping about the water being low in the creek.
“This has been fun, but I wouldn’t do it again for all the money in that damned reality show,” Sawyer declared.
“Why?” Buddy asked.
“I didn’t realize how much I’d miss a bath at the end of a long, hard day. I don’t mind getting dirty and sweaty. But when the day ends, I like to be clean and…” He paused and looked at Haley.
“Finish your thought. Don’t hold back on my account,” she said.
“Go to bed clean and naked, instead of wearing everything but my boots and not having a real shower or even a creek bath,” he said.
“Nothing like the feel of cool sheets on a naked body,” Dewar said.
Haley’s imagination picked up speed so fast that she could almost hear the gears grinding. Dewar, tangled up in sheets, his head on a pillow, and not a stitch of clothing between him and her fingers. There he was in her mind’s eye propped up on an elbow smelling all woodsy and sexy, his hair wet with a fresh shower and his body ready and willing.
“How about it, Haley?”
“What? No, I am not getting a tat. Momma would throw me in the Bayou with the gators and Daddy would disown me,” she stammered.
“Wasn’t me talking.” Rhett chuckled.
“It was me—I asked if you miss a bath every night,” Sawyer asked.
She nodded and gulped, glad they couldn’t read minds. “Oh, yeah, I damn sure do! So you wouldn’t be interested in being the trail boss for the reality show, Sawyer?” She changed the subject.
“Your daddy hasn’t got enough money for me to do that job.”
“Not even if the women contestants looked like Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders?” she asked.
“No, ma’am! When I get to that hotel in Dodge City, I may have room service brought into the bathroom and not get out of the tub for two whole days. When I get home, my girlfriend isn’t going to want a man that smells like a boar hog,” he said.
“How about you, Finn? You want to be trail boss for the reality show?”
He slowly shook his head. “Not me. This has been a good run, but I’m ready to go home and buy my own place and get settled into life.”
Dewar looked up. “How remote are you willing to go?”
“For what?”
“A ranch?”
“Why?”
“Well, I heard from a friend that there’s a ranch out in the Palo Duro Canyon that’s been for sale for more than a year and the folks are itchin’ to sell,” Dewar said.
“Don’t say yes, man!” Sawyer said. “I went back in there to look at a place one time and believe me, it’s way, way back in the sticks.”
“Sawyer ain’t tellin’ the half of the story,” Coosie said. “Only thing that lives in that place is rattlesnakes and lizards.”
“Y’all stop it,” Dewar said. “My friend thinks it’s paradise.”
Finn looked at Dewar. “Sounds like something I’d sure be interested in looking at.”
“I’ll call him when we get back home and he can set you up with the realtor if it’s still for sale,” Dewar answered.
“What are you two going to do when this is over?” Haley asked Sawyer and Rhett.
Rhett loosened his ponytail and shook out his hair. “Get a haircut and find a job. You need help at the horse ranch, Dewar?”
“Always got a job for you there, cuz,” Dewar said.
“Might talk to Aunt Maddie about that,” he said.
Sawyer held up a palm. “I’m going home to my woman and never leaving her again. I’m going to use the money I make on this trip to buy a diamond ring and propose to her. I like ranchin’, but I want to live close to a town. It don’t even have to be a big one but it’s got to be big enough for at least one good decent honky-tonk so I can shoot some pool and have a beer.”
“Think you’re going to do that when your woman gets that ring?” Rhett asked.
“She’s a good woman. She won’t mind me going into town and blowing off some steam on Saturday night.”
“Ain’t no woman worth havin’ that good, cuz,” Dewar told him.
“And why would you say that?”
“What’s she going to be doing while you are shootin’ pool and havin’ a beer at a honky-tonk filled up with women wanting to dance or take you home for more than a dance?” Dewar asked.
Haley’s head slowly moved from side to side.
“What? You don’t agree with me?” Dewar asked.
“About the woman part? Yes, I agree with you. Sawyer, you’d best think twice about an engagement ring if you aren’t through with partying. I was shaking my head at the idea of that canyon. I’ve been to that place. There is nothing out there for miles and miles and it’s all flat land and then boom, it’s like a big bomb blew a crater in the earth. Pretty land but desolate,” she said.
“And you couldn’t live there?” Dewar asked.
“I could, I suppose. I wouldn’t though. I need people and civilization around me.”
Coosie called supper before she could say anything more and Dewar was quiet the rest of the evening. When she tucked herself in that evening, she lo
oked over at him only to see his back. Was the short-lived relationship over because she didn’t want to live in a godforsaken canyon? She’d never sleep without an answer, so she threw back the side of her sleeping bag and padded across the grass in her sock feet.
She snuggled up to his back and nibbled on his earlobe. “Wake up and talk to me.”
“What’s there to talk about, Haley?”
“Quit pouting. You are mad at me because I said I needed civilization, aren’t you?”
“I’m not mad and I’m damn sure not pouting,” he said.
“I am who I am, Dewar. You knew the day I drove up on your ranch. You are who you are. I don’t ask you to change so don’t ask me to.”
He rolled over and kissed her with so much tender passion that it brought tears to her eyes.
“And what do we do about that side of it?” he asked.
“What side?”
“The one that can’t stop thinking about you. The one that wants to touch you every minute of the day and listen to your voice and hear your giggle. Who loves just to watch you pet that damned old donkey. What do we do about all that, Haley?”
“We face it head-on and make decisions later. Right now we’ve got cattle to get to the feedlot and a reality show to plan,” she answered.
“And when it’s over, can you walk away without looking back?”
She shivered. “I don’t know, Dewar. I guess we’ll wait until it’s over and see what happens.”
He pulled her close to his body and wished that he was naked and they were in a bed with sweet-smelling sheets. She deserved that much. Hell, she deserved more than that, but like he’d told her repeatedly and from day one, he was a plain old cowboy. He could give her all the love in the world, all the security in the world, and promise to be faithful unto death. But he couldn’t change any more than she could. Once they were back in their separate and opposite worlds, love, security, and faithfulness might not be nearly enough.
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