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He'd even ridden over and confronted his mother. Those were the best hand-me-downs he'd ever seen. Stephanie had confessed they were all new. Designs she'd created over the years. Unbeknownst to him, or the other boys, his mother had always wanted to be a dressmaker. Living in the middle of the prairie, where the closest town had fewer than fifty residents, hadn't hampered her passion. She'd gone ahead and created the gowns, claiming all along she knew someday she'd meet the woman she fashioned them for. Stephanie was ecstatic that woman had turned out to be his wife. Kid wasn't.
Jack slowed to a walk. Kid lifted the canteen from the saddle horn and took a long swallow of the warm water. The horse stopped then slowly turned so his rump faced the blazing sun. Kid watched Joe signal the boys to halt the round up and head for the ranch.
He had to get away from her this morning and the allure of the sparkling blue gown she wore. The dress had an enticingly low neckline which emphasized she'd gained a few pounds. He almost groaned aloud, thinking about how her breasts had grown into round, luscious globes of delight. The enchanting gown fit her like a glove. His hands wanted to trace over the smooth contours. Even now, sitting in the hot sun, miles away from her, the thought made his loins ache with need. The last two weeks had been hell. The smile that fell on him every time her magnetic blue eyes met his was pure and wholesome, and made his insides melt like butter in the sun. He couldn't find a fault in anything she did. Not her cooking, her cleaning, her intelligence, her 121
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willingness to please ... nothing. Sammy, completely head over heels in love, wouldn't leave her side for the largest steak on earth.
Kid removed his hat again and used his arm to wipe at the sweat on his forehead.
Joe sent the last cowboy toward the ranch, then turned his mount and rode in Kid's direction. His pace slowed and came to a stop nearby.
"Want to rest a spell under that cottonwood 'afore we head back?" the man asked.
With a shrug, he nudged Jack toward a lone tree several yards away. Once under the cooling shade, he dismounted and dropped the reins to the ground. Joe followed suit. Kid slipped the buttons of his shirt through the holes and pulled the wet material from his body. After using it to mop the sweat streaming down his torso, he flipped it over the back of saddle where the sun would dry it in no time.
"I don't really know why I decided these cows had to be moved today. It'll be a couple of months before they need to be closer to the ranch."
Joe nodded as he scraped at the ground with one boot.
"Kid, I'm sorry for whatever I did to piss you off. If you tell me what it was, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again." He moved to lean his back against the tree trunk and released a deep breath. "It wasn't anything you did. It's me. It's all me."
"What is it then? You sure have been acting out of sorts." Joe plucked a curled leaf and twirled the stem in his hand. 122
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"I'm feeling out of sorts," he admitted. That damn little worm eating a hole in his stomach was the cause of it. The parasite was eating him from the inside out. Maybe talking to Joe would help. Nothing else had.
"Why's that?"
A false laugh rose from his chest. "My wife for one. First I have you sniffing around her skirts, and now I have my brothers."
"Sniffing around her skirts? What the hell are you talking about?" The leaf fluttered the ground. Joe crushed it with his boot.
He lifted his gaze. Joe's eyes glistened with anger. Kid's ire rose, whether at Joe, the little worm, or himself, he wasn't quite sure. "You didn't want her to think you were the 'bad guy'."
"Yeah, what about it? I think she's a sweet little gal." Joe's eyes widen and his mouth fell open. "You're in love with her, aren't ya?" His hand slapped Kid's shoulder. "Hot damn!"
"No, I'm not. I'm just trying to protect her, which has turned out to be more work than I thought." He moved away from the tall tree trunk and kicked at a pile of hard dirt stretching over a long root.
"Protect her from what?"
He turned to answer. What was he protecting Jessie from?
Her brother? His brothers? Him?
Joe plucked another leaf, this time he stuck the stem in his mouth and chewed on it for a few minutes. "Kid, sometimes what one man has, ain't right for another man." He scowled but waited for the man to go on. 123
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"I know all these years you've been dreaming about having everything Sam Wharton had." Joe scratched his head.
"Have you ever realized how things look a whole lot bigger and brighter when you're little? Maybe that rich rancher's place wasn't so big. And maybe his fancy wife wasn't so wonderful either. You were just a tyke when you stopped by his place with your Pa."
He turned and started walking toward Jack. This conversation would get him nowhere.
A hand fell on his arm. "Kid, don't walk away. What is it about Jessie you don't like?"
He shook the hand off and pulled his shirt from the saddle. Silence hung in the hot air. In the distance a bird chirped, the dried seed pod of a yucca plant rattled. When he'd fastened the last button Kid let out a heavy sigh and admitted, "Nothing, there's nothing about Jessie I don't like."
"Then what's the problem?"
Kid mounted. "That is the problem." He turned Jack in the opposite direction from the ranch.
Joe nodded as if he understood. "Where're you going?" He wished he understood. He looked at the hot sun and made a decision. "To Dodge. I'll go to see if any more drives are coming in this year."
"Want me to ride with you?"
"No."
"It's getting awfully late in the year for drives."
"Yeah, I know. Maybe someone got a late start out of Texas."
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"How long you plan on being gone?" Joe reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a cloth sack.
Kid took it, knowing it held hard tack and jerky. Joe was always prepared. The man also handed him his canteen. After wrapping the leather strap around his saddle horn, he tucked the sack into his saddlebag.
"A few days."
"She'll be worried about you." Kid pinched the bridge of his nose. "Keep an eye or her, Joe."
"I will. Be careful of riding too hard in this heat." Kid nudged Jack forward. "I will."
* * * *
Jessie glanced at the table set for two. Her heart landed in the pit of her stomach with a sad thud.
"He never said anything about needing to go to Dodge City. When did he decide to go?"
Joe didn't answer right away, just stood in the doorway, one hand running up and down the doorframe.
"Today. He's checking to see if a late drive rolled in." She pushed a clump of hair behind one ear. Had she done something wrong?
"He didn't say anything about it. Not this morning, not last night." Her feet stopped behind his chair. The wood felt cold beneath her fingers. "Hog shot a prairie chicken on his way over this morning. He showed me how to make dumplings. Said they're a favorite of Kid's."
"Hog?" Joe sounded surprised.
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She clamped a hand over her mouth then nodded. Gloom had fuddled her mind. "Please don't say anything. I promised Hog I wouldn't, and he's been so good, teaching me how to cook and all."
"Hog's been showing you how to cook?" Joe's wide eyes held disbelief.
Jessie waved for him to step into the kitchen. "Promise you won't tell Kid?"
Joe closed the door behind him. His brow pulled down and caused more wrinkles to cover his tan forehead. "I-I promise."
Relieved to think of something besides Kid's absence, she said, "Hog loves to cook. Matter of fact, he does most of the cooking at his mother's. But Kid doesn't know about it. Hog's afraid he'd be mad. Stephanie swears by his cooking, which is why he's the one she sends over everyday to teach me." She laid a hand on Joe's forearm. "I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone."
"Don't fret, I won't tell anyone."
"Thank you. He's been so helpful and is a very patient teacher."
"You're still talking about Hog?" She nodded. "He's going to be disappointed. He was excited to show me how to make the dumplings. I'm supposed to tell him if Kid liked them." Steam rose from the kettle in the middle of the table, full to the brim of chicken, vegetables, thick gravy and fluffy, white dumplings. "I'll never be able to eat all this."
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Joe scratched his cheek. "Well, if you don't want to eat alone, I could join ya."
"You will?" She clapped her hands. "Thank you. Please sit down. I never realized how sad it is to eat alone until I came to live here."
He took the chair she normally sat in. Her hand ran over the back of Kid's chair before she lowered onto it, and tried to absorb a feeling of his presence from the hard wood.
"There are biscuits under that cloth. Help yourself." Jessie filled both plates and passed one to Joe.
"Didn't you eat with your brother?"
"Excuse me?"
Joe chewed then swallowed. "Back at your place, I thought you lived with your brother. Didn't he eat with you?"
"Russell wasn't home very often. When he was ... he'd usually already eaten."
From the way Joe ate, the meal had to be delicious. The food hit her stomach like stale bread. It wasn't eating alone that gave her a sad, sinking feeling, it was eating without Kid.
"Did he say how long he'd be gone?"
"Who?" Joe took another biscuit.
"Kid."
"Five days or so." He spoke around the food in his mouth.
"That long?"
A wide smile crossed his face, and he nodded like he knew something no one else did.
"What?" Jessie set her fork down.
"What, what?"
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"I thought by the way you nodded you had something more to say."
"No, no, just that it takes that long to ride to Dodge and back."
"Oh." She picked the fork up and used it to shove the food around her plate. "I suppose I could go over and check the soddy while he's gone," she thought aloud.
"Uh?"
She sighed. "I claimed the land, I have to keep it up or I'll lose it." The fork clattered as it landed on the rim of her plate. Her chin fell to rest in the palms of her hands. "I'll have to move back there after Russell pays his debt." Joe's mouth closed before his fork entered it. He lowered the food to his plate. "Why would you have to move back there?"
"Our marriage will end then."
"Huh?" He laid his fork down. "Your marriage to Kid?" She nodded. "The preacher agreed it could end then." Another deep sigh left her lungs. The thought was excruciatingly sad. "So I should go check the soddy. Every time it rains the base crumbles and snakes find their way in. They're just bull snakes and mean no harm, but if the holes aren't fixed the whole bottom row of sod might let loose."
"I don't think Kid would like you going over there, but I tell you what, for sharing this here delicious meal with me, I'll take a couple of the boys and ride over there. We'll patch it up so you won't have nothin' to worry about." Joe picked up his fork and scooped the food into his mouth. 128
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"Oh, would you? Thank you, Joe. That is so kind of you." She folded her hands in her lap, not really wanting to see the soddy. "Kid won't mind, will he?"
"Nope, matter of fact I think he'd like it." Joe swirled the last biscuit across the gravy on his plate before he popped it in his mouth.
"He will?"
"Yes, and he'll be awful sorry he missed this meal." He leaned back in his chair, patting his stomach with one hand.
"Hog really cooked this meal?"
"I cooked it, but he told me how. He really is a fine cook. I've learned so much from him." Should she tell him the rest?
Her mother had always called her a chatter box, but during the past several years she'd had no one to chat with. Could Joe keep two secrets? She hoped so.
Jessie leaned forward and whispered, "He and I are creating a cookbook. We are writing down his best recipes and when it's all done, we're going to send it to a publishing house in New York. I found the address in one of Kid's books. You won't tell him will you?"
Joe gave her a puzzled look. "Who? Kid?" She nodded. "And please don't tell Hog I told you. His dream is to be a cook in a fancy restaurant like they have out east."
"Hog?" He scratched his head. "Guess I just never thought of him as the cooking type."
She rose to clear the table. "Well he is, and we made a deal, he'd teach me how to cook, and I'll write down all his recipes for his book." With both hands full she walked to the 129
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sink. Thinking of the Quinter brothers, a slight smile tugged on her cheeks. "They're all nice men when you get to know them."
Joe gathered other items off the table then carried them to her. "Who?"
"Hog, Snake, Bug, even Skeeter."
"And Kid?"
"Oh, he's definitely the nicest." Her cheeks burned. Sometimes her tongue was completely uncontrollable. A chuckle filled the air. "Yes, he is the nicest." Joe cleared his throat. "Thank you, Mrs. Quinter for supper. I have to get out to the bunk house now. The boys are gonna think I forgot about them."
Jessie pretended to smooth the hair away from her face, while actually feeling to see if her cheeks were as hot on the outside as they were on the inside. Glad they were cool to the touch, she nodded, "I'm sorry I kept you from them, but I'm glad you ate supper with me."