Jacob Payne, bounty hunter, had been sitting at the corner table of the San Xavier Cafe all afternoon and was on his fourth cup of coffee. He had been back from his adventure in the town of Haven for five days now, the bulk of which had been spent resting and trying to heal from his bullet wound. But even as worn and incapacitated as he was, Jacob had a hard time staying put.
He was a man who needed action. Healing from a shot to the gut was making him antsy and he had to find a way to force himself to sit still.
Earlier that day, he had made his way to the cafe where Bonnie Loft was waiting tables. She would be there all day and he didn’t want to miss a moment with her. Jacob wanted to believe that she’d like to see him, that she was as enamored with spending time with him as he was with her. In the few days since he had been back from his last bounty hunt, they had shared their first kiss but hadn’t had much time for anything else. Even conversation was scarce as she had been needed to work. The cafe’s other waitress had up and got married and left for the goldfields of California.
Finally, Jacob had accepted the fact that he would need to be at the cafe as well if he wanted to see her. He could spend time with Bonnie and make himself rest at the same time. He tried to stay out of her way and not distract her from her work. Simply being in the same room as her had been a balm to his soul.
If he had to rest, he could do it near her.
Near her and near hot food. Better to spend the money sitting at the cafe all day than just getting restless on the porch of his boarding house by himself.
Jacob swallowed down a big mouthful of black coffee and set his empty mug on the wooden table in front of him. Bonnie must have caught that tiny sound. She glanced at him from where she stood near the door, chatting with other patrons. When he caught he eye, she blushed slightly, smiled, and nodded. She’d be over to his table as soon as she could.
Edwin Hogg—Jacob’s friend in Tucson and one of his regular poker-playing buddies—entered the cafe. The afternoon light cut into the space through the open door behind him. He paused briefly, looking around, before spotting Jacob and making his way to the table.
Without waiting to be invited, Ed sat down across from Jacob, picked up his empty mug and peered in it.
“Didn’t save me none?” he asked.
Jacob chuckled. “I’m sure we could even get you your own mug.”
“Wow. Living high on the hog, are we?” Ed joked. He turned in his seat to scan the room and try to get Bonnie’s attention.
She had just cleared empty plates and silverware from two tables closest to the kitchen. Her arms were full and her focus was on taking care of the other diners, but even in her abstraction she chanced a glance back to the corner of the room. To Jacob.
Ed had his hand raised to get her to notice him, but she looked right past him to where Jacob Payne sat, smiling softly at her.
A wide smile broke over Bonnie’s face. Her dark, almost black straight hair was pulled back from her face in a low bun, but a strand had escaped. It hung down in front of her right eye, and since her hands were full with dirty dishes, she was helpless to move it out of her way. She blew a small breath, up and out of the side of her mouth. The strand waved a tiny bit, but then resettled in the same place, directly in front of her eye.
Bonnie and Jacob both laughed—she at her helplessness and he at her endearing habit. She ducked her head briefly before she turned and made her way to the kitchen to drop off her burden.
“She’ll come back,” Jacob said to his tablemate.
“She didn’t even look at me.”
“She looked at me, though.” Jacob wrapped his fingers around his empty mug and looked into it, averting his eyes from whatever knowledgable or mocking expression Ed might have on his face. He’d give him a chance to compose himself. When he looked back up at his friend, the other had exactly the knowing smirk Jacob had expected. “What?”
“Nothin’.” Ed said and grinned wider. “How you been gettin’ on with that injury?”
“Oh,” Jacob shrugged, “this? Not bad. I’ve had worse. Hurts, though.”
He put his hand to his side where the outlaw Seamus Maloney had shot him just a few days earlier. The bullet had been removed, but the muscle was still torn and healing. It had been an intense couple days of chasing down the outlaw—the thief and murderer—and the gunshot barely scratched the surface of it. Jacob got his man, but at a steep price.
When he had finally cornered Maloney, the outlaw had insisted he would not be taken alive. Jacob had given him every chance, but in the end he had killed Maloney in a quick draw. He had been well within his rights and within the law to do so. The bounty he had pursued very clearly allowed for the man to be taken in dead if necessary. All the same, it had been the first time Jacob had had to kill a man when bringing him to justice. That experience weighed on him even more than the bullet wound had.
He turned his attention back to Ed. “Hurts,” he repeated. “But manageable.”
“Anyone in particular been helping you manage it?”
“Why don’t you just come out and say what you want to say, Ed,” Jacob challenged.
The other man opened his mouth, but closed it again abruptly as rapid footsteps approached their table.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Bonnie said as she approached, tucking that one rebellious strand of hair behind her ear. “A refill, Jacob? And what can I get you, Mr. Hogg?”
“Afternoon, Miss Loft,” Ed said.
Jacob noted how his smile to greet her held none of the mocking with which he had needled Jacob. Ed liked and respected Bonnie. Heck, everyone liked and respected Bonnie. Tucson was one of the fastest growing cities in the Arizona Territory, and yet every man, woman and child who met her had only good things to say about her.
And yet she continued to give Jacob her undivided attention. It was enough to make a man nearly burst with pride.
“You hungry, Ed? Or just some coffee for you?” she asked.
“Both, if you have it, Bonnie. What’s on the menu?”
“We’ve still got some rabbit stew and I think a bit of the short ribs.”
“The ribs’ll do. Sounds good. And coffee. And another cup for my friend here,” Ed said, gesturing to Jacob. “Maybe you’ve heard of him. Jacob Payne, famous bounty hunter.”
“All right,” Jacob said, trying to quiet the man. No part of his job did he do for the attention, but he had been successful enough recently that word couldn’t help but spread.
“Mrs. Everill is finishing up an apple pie right now, Jacob. Can I bring you a piece?”
“Yes. Please.”
“And coffee?” she asked, not taking her eyes off of him.
“And coffee.” He nodded. “Thank you.”
“Sure thing, gentlemen.” Bonnie rested her hand on the tabletop briefly, only an inch or less from Jacob’s hand, before turning away to return to the kitchen.
Jacob watched her walk away and it was a full twenty seconds before he realized Ed was talking to him.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
Ed laughed, loudly enough that the table next to them glanced over.
“Nothin’, Jacob,” he said, still chuckling. “Don’t you mind me none. I know my charms are nothing compared to Miss Loft’s.”
“All right then,” Jacob agreed with a smile. “What’re you doing here anyway, Ed? You know you’re not gonna drag me to a game right now.”
“No, no. Not that. Not today, anyway,” he said. “I was just wondering how long you’re gonna be in town this stretch. If you had any leads to jump on right away.”
“Not yet,” Jacob said. “But you know I never know when something will come up. I promised myself I’d give myself a chance to rest this time. This bullet wound is only going to slow me down if I start up again too soon.”
“So how are you filling your time?”
“Like this,” Jacob answered. “Sitting for once. Reading the paper. Watching people. Making friends with my neighbors before I’m out on the road again.”
“How long do you think you’ll be here?”
“Hard to say. At the moment, I have enough saved that I don’t have to start thinking about another job for a while yet. And, of course, I’m not as young as I once was, so my healing might take a bit longer.”
Ed laughed at that. “That reminds me of the war. We were marching for days with blisters and bullet wounds and aching muscles. But we were all twenty years old so we thought nothing of it. Remember that?”
“Now that I’m over thirty, seems everything takes a lot longer, doesn’t it?”
Ed laughed again and they heard delicate footsteps returning to their corner of the cafe.
Two coffee mugs were placed gently on the table, right in between them. “Here you go, gentlemen,” Bonnie said. She had managed to carry both of their plates at the same time, and served each man in turn. Pie for Jacob; ribs for Ed. “I’ll come back and see about you in a bit.”
“Thank you,” Jacob said softly.
“This looks mighty tasty, Miss Loft,” Ed said. “Give my compliments to the cook.”
“I’ll do that,” she said with a smile and one final look at Jacob, before she hurried off to greet the group of older men that had just entered the cafe.
“Seems like you got a pretty good deal set up, Jacob,” Ed said as he picked up his fork. He nodded at the fresh, hot apple pie sitting in front of the other man. “Can’t really beat that.”
“You’ve got that right,” Jacob said as he watched her walk away.