Sweet Talking Lawman

by M. B. Buckner

  The opening of the diner door drew his attention and he spotted Uci, Mrs. Barnett, Jenny and her family and the pastor and his wife filing in and heading over to claim a table near the one Rafe had chosen.

  “Great,” he drawled softly, a frown knitting into wrinkles between his black brows. “It looks like a freakin’ family reunion.”

  Mesa reached him as he spoke. She nodded. “When they found out we were meeting you for lunch, they decided to join us. I hope you don’t mind.”

  He pulled out the chair for her. “There wasn’t much chance for any privacy anyway.” His eyes held hers. “We’ve gotta work on that.”

  Mesa nodded and slipped into the chair he held for her. He pulled out the chair between them and placed Raale in the seat of it.

  The talk around the tables was constant and as much as he’d wanted to talk to Mesa’s family about what might be going on at the Rocking H, Rafe didn’t get a chance. Neither did he get a chance to talk to Mesa alone.

  As the meal was ending, Uci came over and asked if he could take her home.

  He nodded his head. “Sure can. I need to catch a couple of hours sleep anyway.” He turned to Mesa. “Don’t go off anywhere by yourself. You understand?”

  She nodded.

  “Can Raale come home with us?” Uci asked.

  Mesa looked at Rafe and he nodded with a grin. “She can entertain Uci while I sleep.” He was glad his grandmother had made the request. He knew he wouldn’t rest well until he got the mess involving the Rocking H cleared up, but it would help to know that his daughter was at his house at least for a few hours.

  Mesa couldn’t miss the hopeful look in Raale’s blue eyes and nodded her assent. Rafe picked up the check for his table and leaned down near Mesa’s ear. “I’ll bring Raale home later, but be thinkin’ about someplace private where you and I can…talk.” His voice was low, intended for her alone and he didn’t miss the pink tint that flushed quickly over her face.

  Mesa’s eyes watched him walk to the register to pay the check and when it was done, he and Spur followed Uci and Raale out the door, Rafe looking back at her one time with a flirtatious wink.

  When she knew Rafe was gone, Jenny hopped up from her seat and hurried over to drop in the chair next to Mesa. “Now, girlfriend, spill it. What did he say that caused that cute flush of color that tinted your face as he was leaving?”

  Mesa felt the color darken her face again, but she managed a smile. “He was just assuring me that Raale would be fine with Uci.”

  Jenny laughed. “Bull-lar-key!! I’m getting the feeling that y’all are getting together again.”

  Mesa cut her eyes around, hoping no one was paying them any attention and was relieved to see that they weren’t. “It’s not like that. We just have some things to talk about. You know; parental things.”

  “Did he make you swear off our friendship? ‘Cuz I’ve always been able to tell when you aren’t telling me the truth and I’m getting that feeling really strong.” Jenny frowned at Mesa. “He’s my brother, and I can tell when he thinks he’s pulling something slick and that’s what I saw just now.”

  A short burst of laughter escaped Mesa and she turned her head to look out the window as Rafe’s SUV pulled out onto the highway. “Jenny, you’re letting your suspicious nature get the best of you.”

  “Humpff,” Jenny grunted. “You’re cutting me out. That’s a very serious breach of the Life Long Best Friends Forever Code of Conduct, you know.”

  Mesa’s hand reached out and covered one of Jenny’s. “When there’s something between us for you to get excited about, I promise I’ll tell you.” Then her face brightened with a big smile. “You and I need a shopping day. We really haven’t had a chance to get together; just the two of us, since I moved back home.”

  For the next few minutes they planned an all-day shopping trip that would take them all the way to the mall in Liberty. The closest Oak Ridge came to having a mall was the Roger’s Seed and Feed that was next to The Tepee and the western store, Shaps.

  Later in the day, Rafe woke from a restless dream to a light tap on his door. He made sure the sheet was pulled up over his hips before his sleep heavy voice spoke. “Come on in.”

  Uci stood at the door for a minute then entered slowly. She walked to the window and pulled back the heavy drape that helped darken the room when he had to sleep during the day. She unlocked the window and raised it. When she turned to look at him her dark eyes were narrowed and her brows knitted. “If it wasn’t Mesa in this room with you last night, I might start taking scalps. In fact, I might do it anyway.”

  Rafe hadn’t blushed in years, until then. “Uci…,” he started awkwardly, but stopped when she shook her aging head disapprovingly.

  “Don’t,” she said slowly. “If it’s just sex, you better take it somewhere besides this house and if it’s more than that, you better be careful. You already disrespected that girl once. It breaks my heart that you could do it again. There’s an innocent child to be considered now, and since you and Mesa are adults, I’m taking the baby’s side. You got that?”

  He nodded. “I…don’t know what to say.” He knew when he’d crawled into the bed that he could still smell Mesa on his sheets and that was probably part of why she’d been in his dreams, but he couldn’t believe that Uci could smell the lingering odor from the doorway. But he knew it was from there that she’d known. He’d seen it in her eyes. The opening of the window had been done to make a point and it was a point well made.

  “Don’t say nothing, just heed my words. Now, get up and come down for supper. Raale has played with Spur until he’s exhausted.” As she left the room, he could hear her grumbling to herself about wishing she could wash away his sins as easily as she could wash the sin out of his sheets.

  Rafe was grateful that Raale was with them at the supper table. He could still feel Uci’s disapproval and as much as he’d been hoping she wouldn’t ever know, her disappointment gnawed at his sense of honor.

  It was late when they finished eating and he reminded Raale that they needed to get her home before her mom started worrying.

  The child quickly hugged Uci and thanked her for teaching her to string beads. Then she followed her father out to his truck, proudly wearing the bead necklace that Uci had helped her make.

  He didn’t allow Spur to jump up in the truck with Raale and the big bulldog stalked off to sulk. As he stepped up into the cab he spotted Uci standing on the porch and powered down his window. “I won’t be long,” he called to her.

  She nodded. “You just think about this. Every woman deserves to be courted and made over, no matter what has happened before.”

  Rafe put his window up and drove away. He listened to Raale’s almost constant chatter with one ear as his grandmother’s words rolled around in his thoughts. He hadn’t thought he was being disrespectful to Mesa. A frown knitted his dark brows. Hell, truth be known, he hadn’t thought at all, at least not with the brain above his belt. He wondered if Mesa had thought of it as being treated with disrespect. It really didn’t matter what anyone else thought. He shook his head from side to side. Who was he kidding? It mattered. It mattered a lot.

  “Daddy, did you hear me?” Raale asked, her brows knit so much like his own.

  “Sorry, baby girl, I guess my mind wandered. What did you say?”

  “I asked why Uci is mad at you. It makes me sad when peoples gets mad at you.” Her big brown eyes searched his face for an answer.

  Rafe shrugged. “You know, even adults sometimes do things without thinking about the consequences, and she wants to make sure I think things through before I make a bad mistake.”

  Raale’s frown deepened. “What does conqu…se……that long word mean?”

  “Con se quen ces,” he spoke the word slowly, by syllables. “Consequences are what happens when a person does something…..without thinking about everything that could happen….because they did it. Does that make sense to you?”

  “No,” the
child answered, sighing deeply, “but I guess I’ll unnerstand when I gets older, prodaly. That’s what Mom always says.”

  Rafe chuckled. “Uci thinks I did something I shouldn’t have done. She wants me to think about it and make sure I’m not making a mistake that could cause someone to get….their feelings hurt.”

  “Oh,” Raale’s lips tilted up in a smile. “It’s not nice to make somebody feel bad. I guess Uci’s right.”

  He nodded. “Uci’s a wise lady and she’s still trying to teach me to do things the right way.”

  Raale giggled. “Papa J says he’s a slow learner. Are you one, too?”

  Rafe grinned at his daughter and nodded. “I guess I am. I hope you don’t take after me like that.”

  “Mom says I’m too smarty pants for my own good, so I guess that means I’m not like that.” Raale chortled mischievously. “But sometimes when she says it, I don’t think it means a good way.”

  After only a lapse of a few seconds, the child spoke again. “Are you finished being mad at my mom for keeping me a secret from you?”

  He cut his eyes and looked at her briefly before turning his attention back to the road. “Why do you ask that?”

  Raale rolled her brown eyes at him. “At Uncle Rance’s bar-b-que you was setting close to her and today at da restaurant you setted with her again, and you whispered in her ear and her face turned pink.”

  He grinned at his child’s astute observations. “It’s kinda complicated. My feelin’s were hurt that she kept you a secret, but we’re both your parents, so we need to be friends.”

  A childish chortle drew his eyes again and when she met his eyes there was a definite sparkle in her brown orbs. “Is she gonna gets to be your girlfriend?”

  He shrugged. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. There are a lot of things we need to work out before…” he paused, not wanting to lie to his daughter. “Maybe she is, but I don’t want you thinkin’ it means we’ll get married or anything like that. That probably won’t ever happen.”

  “Why?” She wasn’t satisfied with his answer. She wanted more.

  Frustration caused Rafe to shrug again. “When two people get married, they have to love each other a whole lot and promise to always be honest with each other and trust each other.” He looked at his child again and was glad that she was looking at him. He hoped she could understand the truth he was trying to share with her. “When your mom didn’t tell me about you, it was kinda like a lie. It broke my heart that she could keep something so special, a secret from me. You’re the most important thing in my life, and until y’all came to live at Rance’s cabin, I didn’t even get to know about you. When I think about that, it still makes me angry at her. I’m not sure I can ever forget about it and that’s what would have to happen for us to ever…be…ever get married. Maybe we can go places together and have fun, maybe we can be friends, but we might not ever be…anything more than that.”

  Raale nodded. “Maybe I can gets her to say ‘sorry,’ to you. That makes things all better. ‘Sides, my mom is special. If she gets to be your girlfriend, you won’t think about her keeping me secret. You’ll habe too much fun to think ‘bout it. My mom is a lots of fun.”

  Rafe braked the truck to a stop in front of the log cabin and watched, his eyes alive with interest as Mesa stepped out on the porch to greet them. Raale quickly unfastened her seatbelt and scampered across the seat to dive into her father’s waiting arms. He carried her to the porch and set her on her feet, his eyes drinking in Mesa with each step he took.

  Raale gave her mother a hug and a quick rundown of her day before she went in search of Papa J, leaving Mesa standing on the porch with Rafe.

  He knew he had to tell her that Uci knew about their night together, but felt awkward, wondering if Mesa thought he’d been treating her with disrespect. He drew in a deep breath of resignation. “I don’t know how she knew, but when Uci came to my room to wake me up this afternoon, she knew you’d been there with me.”

  Mesa’s eyes stretched wide. “Oh no. Rafe, I am so sorry. Was she angry?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t think angry is the right word. I think she was disappointed in me. I got a lecture about not showin’ you proper respect.”

  Mesa smiled and stretched out one hand to gently stroke his chin. He’d shaved after his nap and she figured he was headed back in to the office to finish a long day.

  “You know Uci is a little old fashioned,” she said softly.

  He nodded. “Yeah, she is. Do you feel like I’ve not treated you with respect?”

  Mesa shrugged. “I don’t think you’ve been disrespectful to me. Things are different than when she was a young woman.”

  Rafe looked at her, searching her face for any hint of mendacity. He wasn’t sure she was being totally truthful about her feelings. “Yeah, Uci is old fashioned, but she raised me, so I guess I’m kinda old fashioned, also, and I’m thinkin’ she might have a point. Maybe I’ve been so busy thinkin’ about my wants, I haven’t been concerned with what’s right.”

  Mesa frowned. “What does that mean?”

  It was his turn to shrug. “Maybe we should approach this….whole thing…the old fashioned way.”

  “How old fashioned?” Mesa’s brows knitted tightly. “You aren’t thinking about offering my mother some of your horses to pay for me, are you?” she teased.

  He chuckled. “How many do you think she’d want?”

  She punched him quickly in the side. “Not funny, Storm Horse! I would not make a very submissive squaw.”

  A deeper shade of brown melted his eyes. “A submissive squaw would get borin’ in a hurry, darlin’. There’s nothin’ wrong with a good healthy disagreement, occasionally.” He leaned toward her, his mouth pausing near her ear. “Makin’ up could be so much fun.”

  Mesa laughed softly. She wasn’t about to argue with that.

  At the sound of the door being pulled open Mesa stepped away from him and Rafe frowned. He had no intention of hiding their new relationship from anyone, but then his thoughts paused for a reality check. He’d been all for hiding it from Uci. That needled his conscience, going against what he’d always thought his character to be. He didn’t like seeing himself as less than honest. He’d have to fix that.

  “Well Sheriff Storm Horse, have you found out who ran me off the road?” Shirley Howell asked, facing them with her hands on her still slender hips.

  Rafe shook his head negatively. “I’ve got the forensic team from Liberty goin’ over your car. We’re hopin’ some of their tests on the paint flecks they were able to get will at least narrow down the year and the color, maybe the manufacturer of the truck.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Of course, everybody and his brother around here has a brown truck, so finding the brown truck will still be a shot in the dark.”

  “What are the chances it was just a drunk driver?” she asked him finally.

  He pulled the cap he was wearing off and raked his fingers through the thick black hair atop his head. “Slim to none. I walked the highway a good piece along there and it was easy to see where the truck rammed your car, from behind and from the side. You have an enemy, Miz Howell, and you need to try to help me figure out who it is. And the more I think about it, I think it has somethin’ to do with the Circle H.”

  Her brows arched suspiciously. “What makes you think that?”

  A hard vein of steel edged his voice and the touch of his eyes. “First Rance’s horse is shot out from under him, then someone runs you off the road, and now that kid that worked here has been murdered. Is there somethin’ I need to know about what’s goin’ on here at the ranch?”

  Shirley frowned. “Like what? You think we’re into something illegal?”

  “No ma’am. But maybe somebody else is. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary? Anything that just might seem a little….off?” Rafe was worried about Mesa and her family. All of them.

  Mesa watched her mother’s face, trying to determine how candid the ol
der woman’s answer would be.

  The tension in Shirley’s shoulders was nothing unusual but Mesa had not noticed it today, before this conversation started. It was the tightness around her mouth that made it noticeable. Mesa’s stomach tightened in fear. “Mom, what are you not telling Rafe? He needs to know, and so do I. I have a child to think about and if you have any idea who killed Hal Cartwright, you need to start talking.”

  The older woman glared at her daughter in quick anger. “Don’t start giving me orders. You might think you’re running this ranch, but my life is another matter!”

  Rafe grasped Mesa’s elbow and held her in place as he put the other hand between the two women. “I don’t need another cat fight,” he hissed quickly. Turning his attention to Shirley Howell he hesitated, but when he spoke, his voice was rigidly soft. “If there’s somethin’ you haven’t told me, now would be the time. My child and your child are livin’ here and if they’re in danger, I need to know it.”

  Shirley’s body seemed to shrink before his eyes. When she looked up at him, her eyes looked older and he could see the fear in them. Still she hesitated for a minute and then her voice was almost a whisper. “I was dating Ralph Shivers, for a while. He wanted to buy the place and I suppose he thought romancing me would give him an edge, but Rance wouldn’t even consider selling. Ralph got a little nasty about it but then Rance had the accident. Ralph started putting pressure on me to sell since Rance wasn’t going to be able to run the place anymore.” She lifted her eyes and looked at Rafe. “He made a tempting offer. More than the place is worth and I knew I wasn’t going to be any kind of manager. I was waiting for Rance to realize that selling was best.” She swung her head and looked at Mesa. “Then you came home and to be honest, I was relieved. I know you’ve always loved this place. It was your daddy’s pride and joy and it was your heritage. I told Ralph to take a hike. The ranch was staying in the family.” Her head dropped and she pushed her hair back from her face before looking up at Rafe again. “He totally freaked out. I never dreamed Ralph could be so abusive. I was petrified of him that night. Before he left, he told me I’d regret making that choice, but I can’t believe he’s to blame for Rance’s accident, or for killing poor Hal.”