Eden: The Dangerous Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Sweet Version Book 2)

by Merry Farmer

  The best part of all was the time she got to spend with Luke.

  “You gonna eat that last piece of bacon?” she asked, nudging his shoulder as they sat side-by-side around the breakfast campfire.

  “Of course,” Luke replied, in good humor. Eden made a move to snatch the bacon from his plate, but he was faster. He swiped it up and chomped on it before she could do more than laugh.

  It was nice to have an easy, free relationship with a man. A good relationship, one that was proper and aboveboard. The cattle drive gave her a chance to get to know her new husband in a way she never would have if he’d gone off to work every day while she stayed home. She liked what she was learning. In fact, she’d venture to say she was falling hard.

  The two of them continued to nudge each other and giggle like disobedient kids in a school room, until Travis crossed behind them on his way to pick out a fresh horse for the day from the remuda, the herd of saddle-broken horses they had brought with them on the drive to give the other horses a rest now and then.

  “Breakfast should be squared away and we should all be ready to go in fifteen minutes,” Travis said in passing.

  “Yes, boss.” Luke jumped to his feet, taking his last bite of bacon with him.

  Eden hopped up after him, setting about gathering the breakfast dishes that the ranch hands had left behind. “You’re the boss too, you know,” she chuckled.

  She expected Luke to make some sort of snappy comeback, but instead he sighed as he stamped out the campfire.

  Eden frowned and straightened, her arms full of tin dishes. “What?”

  Luke was slow to look at her. His silly mood had vanished in a blink. He scowled at the ashes of the fire as he stomped with a little too much enthusiasm. Eden took her armful of dishes to the back of the chuck wagon, where Lawson, who drew the short straw and had wagon duty for the day, was setting things in order. She dumped the dishes there, then marched back to Luke, crossing her arms when she reached him.

  “Spill it, cowpoke,” she ordered him.

  Her teasing at least managed to wipe the scowl from Luke’s face and replace it with a fond smile. Eden enjoyed the shivery thrill that smile gave her, but she wasn’t after flattery at the moment. She continued to stare at her husband, arms crossed, brow arched to underscore her question.

  At last, Luke gave up with a sigh and stepped closer to her. “I’m supposed to be learning how to lead a cattle drive, right?”

  “Right.”

  Luke shrugged, a thread of anger working its way into his downtrodden expression. “So how come, three days in, Travis is still giving all the orders? He showed me how to run all the positions, told me a lot of stuff I already know about cattle.”

  “Yeah?” Eden shifted her arms to rest her hands on her hips, leaning closer to him in support.

  “The only reason I can think that he hasn’t turned over more authority to me is that he doesn’t think I deserve it in the first place,” Luke said at last.

  The spark of anger in his eyes over the situation caught hold in her. “That’s not right. Maybe he’s the sort of man who has a hard time letting anyone else take the lead.” Heaven knew her brother Brent was that kind of man, as they’d all learned far too many times.

  “Yeah, well…” Luke rubbed the back of his neck, grimacing. Then he sighed and let his arms drop. “Nothing I can do about it now except do my job. And maybe talk to Franklin when we get home.”

  “Maybe,” Eden echoed with a nod. She gave Luke an encouraging smile.

  He returned that smile, then marched off to get his job done. Eden continued cleaning up the camp, but the entire situation didn’t sit well with her. Yes, she’d learned a lot in the last few days, but not everything she’d learned was adding up. Travis not letting Luke take the lead, the other ranch hands poking fun at him every chance they got, Luke’s slips in confidence. Something had to be done.

  Once their camp was cleaned up and the men were busy saddling their horses and organizing the herd, Eden marched over to Travis.

  “I want to talk to you,” she began straight out.

  Travis was about to mount his horse, but stopped and twisted to face her. “What can I do for you, Mrs. Chance?” His lips twitched as if he thought calling her that was funny.

  Eden wasn’t amused. She crossed her arms and asked, “Why aren’t you giving my husband more responsibility? You’re supposed to be teaching him to lead a cattle drive.”

  Travis’s grin dropped, and his jaw with it. “Well, ma’am, I am teaching him.”

  “Mmm hmm.” She continued to stare him down, as if they were about to march twenty paces and draw. “So why haven’t you given him the chance to take the lead for a while.”

  “Well…I…uh…”

  “And furthermore, why are you letting the other men continue to make jokes at Luke’s expense?”

  “Jokes? Um…I hadn’t noticed any—”

  “Men don’t treat other men as a leader if they’re allowed to make jokes about him,” Eden stormed on. “You all keep bringing up that saloon fight he was involved in and his escapades at Bonnie’s—which I happen to know for a fact are pure fabrications,” she added. Travis opened his mouth, but she rode over him with, “Franklin Haskell wants Luke to learn to be a trail boss. As far as I understand, he’s in charge of you all. So, you tell me why you aren’t following his orders.”

  Travis stood frozen, staring at her. She knew it was a wily move, but she settled her weight on one leg, sweeping back the corner of her jacket to show off her Peacemaker as she planted a hand on that hip. Travis blanched.

  “All right, I accept that you may have a point,” he muttered.

  Eden grinned. “Good.”

  Travis looked up to meet her eyes. “Why didn’t Luke come to me himself? Why did he send you?”

  Uh-oh. She hadn’t thought about that. It didn’t look great when a man’s wife defended him to his boss. “He thinks he can handle things himself,” she said, willing to make herself look like a loose cannon as long as Luke got the respect he deserved.

  It was Travis’s turn to cross his arms and hum, “Mmm hmm. So this wasn’t his idea.”

  Eden winced. “Not exactly.”

  Travis stepped closer to her. “I’ll tell you the truth, Mrs. Chance.” This time he didn’t say her married name as if it was a joke. “Luke is a good worker, but he doesn’t exactly have the best track record with dependability.”

  Eden wanted to snap back a reply, but she kept her lips sealed.

  “You haven’t known him that long, but I’ll admit that he’s been well-behaved since you showed up,” Travis went on. “He could be a fine trail boss, but he lacks confidence.”

  “Not as much as you think,” she said.

  Travis shrugged. “You’re here talking to me, not him. That says something.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, but this time it was Travis’s turn to cut her off.

  “I’m more than happy to help Luke do whatever he wants to do, but he needs to have the confidence to come to me and ask. Understand?”

  Unfortunately, Eden did. “Yes,” she grumbled. She couldn’t leave it at that. “The least you could do is give him the opportunity to come forward and show his confidence.”

  She squared her shoulders, looking Travis straight in the eye to show him she wasn’t intimidated by him contradicting her. Travis held her gaze for longer than was strictly proper. Then he nodded—a nod full of respect. That was something, at least.

  “I’ll do my part if he does his,” he said.

  Eden nodded to him one last time, then turned to search for her horse. Several yards away, across the abandoned camp and the dust that had been kicked up by the herd as it started to move, Luke sat atop his mount, watching her with a scowl. Eden peeked over her shoulder at Travis as he too mounted up. Lord help her, but if that was jealousy in Luke’s eyes she’d have to knock some sense into him.

  Then again, it might not have been the best idea to talk to his
boss without checking with him first.

  “Yee-ah! Get a move on there! Cody, watch out for the runners on your right,” Luke called across the rumbling herd as they walked around a particularly treacherous turn at the bottom of a low hill.

  “Huh? Oh, right,” Cody called back. He nudged his horse to chase after the potential strays.

  Luke ground his teeth at the way Cody had been so slow to respond. He’d been grinding his teeth since that morning when he saw Eden talking to Travis. The two of them had stood a little too close, spoken far too intensely over something. It was bad enough that his foray into leadership wasn’t going so well, but to have his wife whispering away with another man, a stronger, bolder man? She’d been awful nice to Travis when he came to the Hen House the other day, no matter why she said she’d done that.

  He swallowed the sour taste at the back of his throat. Women sure did have a way of turning your world topsy-turvy. If Eden had been Mrs. Piedmont or Lucy Faraday or Corva Haskell or any other woman from town chatting with Travis, he wouldn’t have given it a second thought. But Eden was his wife, and whether he liked it or not, seeing her talking to another man made him grumble like a bear. That wasn’t a quality a leader should have either.

  “Whoa, whoa, keep up back there,” Travis shouted from point position as they cleared the curve and led the herd on to the next plain.

  Luke twisted to check over his shoulder. Eden was riding drag with Billy and Mike, and doing as fine a job as the men. That much brought a reluctant smile to his parched lips. He was proud of her, proud of her strength, her smarts, and the fact that she hadn’t complained once since they’d hit the trail. Granted, he was sure the past she hadn’t yet told him about was the reason she was so tough, and he couldn’t decide if he wanted to know everything about it or nothing at all, but he was still proud.

  Which looped him back around to the conversation she’d had with Travis.

  Luke let out a frustrated sigh. A woman as intrepid as Eden should be with a man who had grit, who possessed a steel backbone. Was he that man? Was he man enough for her? He thought back to their wedding night. It had been his first time with a woman, and he figured he’d done a good enough job, judging by the sounds Eden had made. But a niggling thought at the back of his mind figured she’d had as much to do with that as he did. He hadn’t known the first thing about what he was doing.

  He winced and rubbed his face and eyes to push away the headache that was forming. What if Eden decided she’d rather have a man who knew what he was doing in bed, in life, in everything? What if she ended up wanting Travis instead of him?

  “You look like you’re about to puke, sweetheart.”

  Her voice right behind him jolted Luke so hard he nearly slipped out of his saddle.

  “Whoa there.” she chuckled. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I didn’t think I would startle you either.”

  “I was thinking,” he admitted, fighting not to feel sheepish over his thoughts. They were legitimate thoughts, possible concerns. He didn’t have to feel guilty about thinking them.

  Then why was he being so defensive with himself?

  “Good.” Eden nodded, thankfully oblivious to the riot going on inside his head. “I like a man who thinks.”

  “Do you like a man who takes charge and is respected by his peers too?” he grumbled before he could stop himself.

  Eden hissed out a heavy sigh, shaking her head. “Don’t go counting your chickens before you look hard enough to realize they’re ducks.”

  The metaphor was so strange that Luke laughed in spite of himself. The fact that Eden could make him laugh when he was wallowing in self-consciousness only made him want her more.

  A real man, a man worthy of Eden, would speak out and not sit on the burrs of his doubts.

  “What were you talking to Travis about?” he asked, working not to look jealous and stupid.

  To his surprise, Eden blushed. “I might have gone and chewed him out for not giving you more responsibility.”

  Luke’s brow flew up. “You chewed out Travis? Over me?

  “Now, before you get all upset at me for taking things into my own hands,” she rushed to defend herself, nudging her horse to ride right up next to his, “I just want to let you know that I only did it because I think you deserve more credit. I should have let you take the lead, though. I’m sorry.”

  Luke was so flabbergasted—by her honesty and by her gumption—that he stared at her in silence as they rode on. The herd was already spreading out across the plain to munch on the parched grass. Travis signaled from the front for them all to stop for lunch, and Luke waved back. He wheeled his horse around to check on the tail end of the herd. Mike raised his shoulders in question, and Luke gestured for him to follow the direction of the herd so they could camp for a few hours.

  It was several minutes before he had a chance to react to Eden’s statement as the two of them walked their horses to the stream where Lawson was setting up lunch.

  “You know.” He began slowly so that he could sort out the jumble of his thoughts. “I can think of maybe three people who have ever gone out of their way to defend me in my life.”

  “Really?” Eden seemed genuinely surprised beside him.

  Luke nodded. “My ma—my real ma, before she died—Josephine, and my big sister, Libby.” He smiled as he thought of all three of them and turned to Eden. “I always thought it was funny how the only people who ever saw something in me were women.”

  Eden’s answering smile was so soft and feminine—almost as if she had tears in her eyes—that it tightened his throat.

  “It’s because women are smarter than men,” she said, leaning closer.

  “You know, Mrs. Chance, I think you might be right.” He winked at her, hoping she would take it to mean that he had no hard feelings about her talking to Travis. Why had he thought she would take a shine to Travis in the first place?

  Because he wanted her so much that the very idea of her turning to someone else was almost more painful than he could bear.

  He sucked in a breath. Whoa. No wonder love was compared to Cupid firing an arrow. It hit you that fast and stuck that hard.

  They reached the edge of the quickly thrown-together camp. Luke hid his sudden burst of feeling by dismounting. Getting skewered by Cupid’s arrow was one thing, but if Eden didn’t feel the same about him, it would be more of a wound than a wonder.

  He busied himself getting Marshall settled and helping Eden with her horse. Only when he had gathered his calm enough to look strong and commanding did he whisper to her, “I appreciate your help, Eden. I really do. I only hope I can live up to your expectations.”

  She stepped closer, lifted to her toes, and kissed his lips. “You will,” she said and patted his cheek before stepping away to help Lawson with lunch.

  Cody and Billy hooted and made kissing sounds at him. “Want us to rope off an area so the two of you can be alone?” Cody laughed.

  “We could clear out the back of the wagon for a while,” Billy added. “Just don’t go rocking hard enough to break the wheels.”

  They snorted with laughter. A few of the others reluctantly joined in. Eden frowned.

  “That’s enough of that.” Travis stepped in, his voice commanding. “Show some respect.”

  Cody and Billy’s teasing expressions faltered. They glanced to Luke, as if expecting him to go along with his teasing, to open himself up to being the butt of jokes.

  Luke settled into an easy stance, tipping his hat back and grinning like he knew something they didn’t. “I might have to take you up on that offer.” He winked across to Eden, who grinned and blushed and shook her head. Cody and Billy continued to gape, so of course Luke leaned closer to them and said, “Jealous, boys?”

  To everyone’s surprise, neither Cody nor Billy had a ready comeback. There was a first time for everything.

  “Well, we all know who the smart one here is,” Mason added as he took a bowl from Lawson and served himself cold b
eans from a pot. “I bet we’re all wishing we had sent off for brides ourselves.”

  Lawson laughed at the comment and started around the camp, handing out tin bowls to everyone. Cody and Billy not only kept silent, they edged around Luke with the averted looks and hangdog expressions that men only wore when they worried they’d gone too far and offended someone they shouldn’t.

  Luke grinned. Hope filled his chest as he helped himself to a lunch of cold beans and cornbread. If he wasn’t mistaken, he’d just taken the first small step to being a real leader.

  “Good job,” Eden whispered as she sat next to him on the ground beside the chuck wagon.

  “You think so?” He leaned into her, bumping his shoulder against hers.

  “Yep.” She nudged him back.

  Luke couldn’t remember the last time he’d been happier. Things were looking up.

  Lunch was unusually quiet, almost as if the boys didn’t know what to say if they didn’t have Luke to tease. It wasn’t until Mason suddenly frowned and squinted back the way they’d come that the mood shifted.

  “Who’s that?” he asked.

  They all turned to look back at the hill they’d just come around. It was a couple hundred yards away, but a lone figure on horseback stood out against the western sky. Luke squinted, trying to see far enough to tell if he recognized the rider.

  “Must be a scout from a local ranch,” Travis said.

  “I didn’t think there were any ranches out this far,” Luke said.

  “Could be an Indian?” Lawson ventured.

  “No.” Travis shook his head. “He’s not dressed right.”

  “You can tell from this far away?” Cody asked.

  “I bet it’s one of Bonneville’s men following us,” Mrs. Piedmont’s man, Oscar, said.

  The others hummed in agreement, standing and setting aside their lunch to glare at the lone rider.

  “Bonneville,” Luke growled. He balled his hands into fists, ready for another fight.

  But no, a leader didn’t lead his men into pointless altercations.