Chapter Thirteen

To Alex’s surprise, the men acted completely normal around her that afternoon, as if it had been decided that was the best way to handle the situation. Of course, no mention was ever made of that day at Boyd, and Garrett did seem particularly kind and friendly. The usual joshing went on unabated with Garrison and Cal getting their favorite digs in every chance they could.

“Well, heavens to Betsy, Lady Lex, I hardly recognized ya in a dress,” Garrison said. “You’re not goin’ all feminine-like on us now, are you?”

“It’s a party, Garrison. I wear dresses to parties. Usually.”

“Heck,” said Cal, “it couldn’ta been you, Ladilex, in that kitchen over yonder, in a dress. That would jus’ have to be some other gal impersonatin’ y’all.”

“Impossible. I don’t think anyone anywhere could impersonate our Lady Alex.” Tom came out and started to throw steaks on the fire. “Chicken for y’all,” he said to Alex, “knowing as living here on a ranch and all—”

“All right, Tom.” Annie stopped him. “Alex go throw a coat on, it’s a bit chilly out for your thin frame.”

Alex marched back into the house then came out with one of Tom’s light jackets.

“Got a tear in your pocket, Tom.” Alex pulled out the pocket lining to show him. “Your woman’s falling down on the job.”

“Alex, any time you want to start mendin’ for us, you just let Annie know,” he replied turning a steak.

Garrison introduced her to his lady friend, Millie. Sara Beth was there, sitting primly by Cal’s side, but not looking like she was particularly enjoying it.

The two children came running out with the presents Alex had brought them—puppets she had made from papier maché, with gloves for their hands which she had had Rose sew.

“Let me see that now.” Tom pulled his son over. “You make this?” he asked Alex.

She nodded. “Had some spare newspaper, you might say.” She pointedly looked in Sara Beth’s direction.

“You sew it and all?” Tom asked.

“Well. I didn’t actually do the sewing, no.” She felt Jesse’s hand on her shoulder as it slowly moved to around her waist. She wished she could turn and kiss him there and then, her body ached so much for him, but she just huddled further into the large jacket. “I fashioned and painted the heads and Rose sewed the bottoms. See, here you are Tom.” She pointed out the one with which Sue Ann was currently playing. “Is it a good likeness?”

“I tell you it’s a wonder what this woman can and can’t do.” Jesse looked at her lovingly. “One day we all are gonna have to just figure it out.”

****

In the late afternoon heat of the following Saturday, Oliver and Alex stood at the corrals with Tom and Jesse, watching the boards go down, the torches and lanterns go up and the tables come out. The July Fourth party was that evening, and Oliver gave directions he needn’t have bothered about, while Alex shrugged at Jesse as much as to say Oliver was wasting his time as everyone knew what to do. Tom was just silent.

Suddenly he said to Alex, “You know he’s planning a big party for your birthday?”

“What?” Her eyes narrowed at Oliver who’d gone to direct work on the bandstand. “Is it supposed to be a surprise?”

“No, I don’t think so. Said he was gonna discuss it with you. Alex? Alex!” Tom stood helpless as Alex marched to Oliver and started an almighty row. Everything came to a halt.

“I do not want a party!”

“Why ever not?” Oliver asked in true surprise. “It’s your eighteenth birthday. That’s a very big occasion here.”

“Well, not in England!”

“We’re not in England, we’re in Colorado.”

“I don’t care if we’re in bloody Timbuktu. I’m not having a party!”

“And may I ask why?” Oliver was keeping unusually calm about this and it infuriated Alex.

“Because such a party as you have in mind—”

“How do you know what kind of party I have in mind?”

“I know you, Uncle Oliver. I know it will be some sort of money-wasting extravaganza with all your bloody awful friends from the Cheyenne Club, or what remains of it, and I’ll be miserable all night. It’s my birthday and I am not having a bloody party. Parties like that are nothing more than asking people to buy one gifts one certainly doesn’t want and which the givers can barely afford but are forced to try to outdo their friends and neighbors by giving. The whole thing is in bad taste, exceedingly bad taste I might add, when half the ranches are going bust—”

“You had a coming out party.”

“Against. My. Will. And that was something totally different anyway. Frederic could well afford it.” She stopped to see Jesse and Cal standing there amused, and widened her eyes, beseeching them for support.

“We’ve always had a birthday party for you, Lady Lex.” Jesse raised his eyebrows a bit and she understood the signal he couldn’t speak his mind in front of Oliver.

“No you haven’t. Oliver gave dreadful dinner parties, which I abhorred, and Annie gave me a couple of delightful luncheons, but I’m not bloody twelve years old anymore. Anyway,” she continued, turning back to Oliver, “I don’t suppose you were counting the punchers in, were you? I mean, heaven forbid I have anyone at my birthday party I actually like!” She stomped off toward the house.

“You’re swearing an awful lot these days, young lady, and I don’t like it one bit,” Oliver called after her.

Alex didn’t turn back.

By evening, she was calmer. Tom came over while Alex was putting out some dishes.

“You settle the matter?” he asked.

“We reached a compromise—two parties in one. His grand guests over at the house for a dinner-dance, which I attend until 9 p.m., then I can come over here for the better part for the rest of the evening. Oh, dear, I do wish I hadn’t agreed but he kept going on so. He said we all needed our spirits raised.”

“That’s so.” Annie joined them and Tom put his arm around his wife. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe we could all use a darned good party before fall round-up—”

“If there is one,” Alex finished.

Cal wandered over, said “Evenin’” and nodded to them all.

“Cal, you sort of look like you got out of the barber’s chair a moment too soon.”

“Oh, Alex,” admonished Annie. “You sure do call things as you see ’em!” She laughed and took Tom away to dance.

“Ah, heck, Ladilex, what am I gonna do when you’re an old married woman an’ stop bein’ a smart-mouthed li’l gal?”

“Why would I stop, Cal?”

“Y’all’ll have about a dozen chil’ren followin’ you and you’ll haveta give ’em a good example.”

“Anyway, I’m not getting married, remember? So, no marriage, no children, smart mouth forever.”

“Well, Jess may have a might to say ’bout that.” Alex shrugged at him, before her eyes slid over to where Jesse was talking with Sara Beth. She raised an eyebrow. “She’s my guest, Ladilex,” he assured her.

“Don’t go out with Sara Beth, Cal. You’re far too good for her.”

“Yeah, well…”

Alex gave him a squeeze and wandered off toward the stables. Music was playing and quadrilles formed for the dance. She noted that Garrison and Millie danced together for a while and she wondered what makes a man or woman fall in love with one person over the other. Why did she melt every time Jesse was near, but not with Cal? Jesse led Sue Ann out to join Tom and Annie, and she recalled how he had danced with her when she was that age, and how much more simple life had been then.

The stable was quiet, the horses calm. Alex moved down to Ranger’s stall and fed him a carrot from a basket. She propped herself against the stall door and stroked his blaze, running her finger gently along its outline. The door opened and Jesse came in.

“I thought you were dancing with Sue Ann,” she said as he came up to her.

“J.J. felt left out, took over my place. Anyway, what’re you doin’ in here? Everyone’s lookin’ for you, wantin’ a dance.”

“I was waiting to see if you’d kiss me.” The words just seemed to tumble out. Alex tilted her face almost boldly toward him.

He hesitated, surprised. “I can’t kiss you, Alex.”

She looked away for a moment, but was drawn back to that familiar face. Jesse was so gentle, yet so strong. She knew now she had always loved him—for as long as she could remember, she had loved him.

“If I kiss you,” he went on, “I won’t be able to stop.”

“We could have an experiment,” she said softly, “to see if you could stop.”

“Is there a prize involved?”

She thought for a moment. “No. Just the kiss. I guess that’s the prize. Anyway, it’s an experiment, not a competition.”

He looked at her. “You jus’ want your way. As usual.”

“I won’t deny that.”

“No, don’t. If I was to tell you the moon was shinin’ tonight, you’d move heaven and earth to prove the sun were out, if that’s what you believed. That’s the way you are, ain’t it?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. You know me best, it seems.”

“Yeah.” He extended his hand to her. “Gonna dance then?”

“Mebbe,” she said putting on her Colorado accent. “Mebbe I will, mebbe I won’t.” She took his hand and jumped down from her perch.

He laughed. “Yeah. That’s what I thought. At least with dancin’, there’s no argument as to when the music stops.”

Jesse led her back to the party. Alex saw Oliver look at the two of them across the corral dance floor; no doubt he was wondering exactly how involved Alex had managed to get herself with the young puncher. He nodded to Alex, waved good-bye and left. She considered for a moment what Oliver would make of her and Jesse, decided she didn’t care a damn, and followed Jess to join the circles for the next dance.

They had just missed a two-step and now everyone gathered for a square dance to music that was no longer strange to Alex’s ears. The men and women wove in and out of each other, formed couples, went round, formed quadrilles, and the whole thing started again. Every time Jesse took Alex’s hands, he found he wanted to stop, just stop right there, and hold her. He wondered if the experiment was not so much if he could stop kissing her if he started, but whether he could resist kissing her at all. He knew he couldn’t, not that evening, not with her looking like the first wild flowers of spring, something fresh and alive yet exotic and untamed.

When the music stopped they were not together and he politely nodded to the woman opposite him and turned to find Alex. A waltz was next and they moved toward each other as if someone had thrown a loop about the two of them and were pulling it tighter and tighter. He held out his hands but when she placed hers in them, he didn’t hold them for the dance but stood there caressing them, their fingers moving in and out of each other’s as if the hands had a life of their own. At the same time, his eyes lost in hers, Jesse had no sense of where they were, where they stood. Alex kicked off her shoes as she had done when she was young and stood on Jesse’s toes when he slid his arms back around her and held her to him for a moment. She tilted her face up to his, brushing his lips lightly with hers before he sought her mouth. Then, for a moment, the magic was broken by a small voice to his side.

“Mama?” Sue Ann gave her mother a jab as Annie filled a plate for her. “Are they kissing or eating each other?”

From the corner of his eye, Jesse saw Annie look up. She gently turned her daughter’s face back to the table of food and smiled. “Oh, they’re just in love, sweetheart,” she said.

Alex sensed Jesse guiding her back into the shadows, out toward the darkness at the edge of the dance floor. For a moment they stopped as the kiss got deeper. Yet Alex was suddenly aware of the people, friends and otherwise, around her.

“That’s positively disgusting.” Sara Beth turned to Millie, nodding in the couple’s direction.

“Oh, Sara Beth, I wish I had me that kind of disgusting—and so do you!”

And then Alex heard the familiar voice as Cal stood with Garrison and just laughed.

“I guess that smart mouth of hers is learning its lesson at last,” he said.