CHAPTER 27

Big Rock

 

Leo Goldstein was a handsome young man who had taken over the general store a few years earlier when his father, who had founded the business, retired. He took the paper that Steve Markham handed him, looked at the list Cal had written on it, and said, “Of course, this won’t be a problem. I don’t have this much wire on hand, but I’ll get it sent out from Denver right away. Tell Cal it should be here in, oh, three days.”

“I sure will,” said Markham with a nod. “Obliged to you.”

Denny watched that exchange from the corner of her eye. She and Brad stood in front of the glass-fronted counter where the candy was displayed. There were a number of different kinds, and it made for a colorful, appetizing assortment. Brad was bent over, face close to the glass and hands resting on his knees as he studied the selection with wide eyes and occasionally licked his lips. He looked like he could happily stand there all day.

Denny wasn’t going to rush him. She stepped back a little to let the youngster gaze to his heart’s content, heard a footstep beside her, and glanced over to see that Markham had joined them.

“Well, I got Cal’s little chore done,” he said.

“I suppose that means you can head on back out to the ranch.”

“Naw, Cal said it was all right for me to just stay and ride back with you and your ma and the boy.”

“Did Cal come up with that, or did you ask him if that would be all right?”

A sheepish grin appeared on the cowboy’s rawboned face, and he chuckled. “You know me too well, Miss Denny, and that’s a plumb fact. But he didn’t argue, and, well, he’s the foreman, ain’t he? If he says it, it’s all right.”

“Fine,” Denny muttered.

“You know, I can’t quite figure out why you act like you don’t like havin’ me around,” he said quietly. They weren’t the only customers in the store, but other than Brad no one else was close by, and the tall shelves of merchandise partially shielded them from view. “I know for a fact that ain’t true.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, you like havin’ me around. I know you do. And I like bein’ around you.” He lifted his left hand and lightly touched her right arm, about halfway between her elbow and shoulder. At first his fingertips just grazed her through the shirt sleeve.

“What are you doing?” Denny asked tightly.

His touch shifted and tightened a little. He wasn’t really holding her arm, but his hand closed loosely around it. In a hoarse whisper, he said, “I knew the first second I laid eyes on you, Denny, that you and me were meant to get together. It’s as plain as day that you like me and I like you. I like you a hell of a lot, in fact.”

Denny cut her eyes toward Brad, who had his back to them. He didn’t seem to be paying the least bit of attention to them with all that candy on the other side of the glass to keep him enthralled, but it was always difficult to say just how much kids were aware of what went on around them. They could be surprisingly observant.

“Stop it,” she told Markham. “This isn’t the time or place—”

“I know it, but it’s been durned near impossible to get you by yourself. This is as close as I’ve been able to come.”

“Well, it’s too close,” Denny snapped. “Get your hand off my arm.”

“If you’re sure . . .”

“I’m sure.”

Markham let go of her arm. But he looked around quickly, as if checking to see if anyone was watching, and then put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him and leaned down to press his lips to hers. The kiss took Denny completely by surprise, and her first impulse was to jerk back, ball her hand into a fist, and punch him in the face.

For some reason, though, she didn’t do that. She stood there and allowed him to continue kissing her for what seemed like a minute or more but was probably only a few seconds. She thought her heart had beaten only a handful of times when he stepped away and let his hands fall from her shoulders.

“If that gets me fired, I pure-dee don’t give a damn.” The familiar grin stretched across his face. “It was worth it!”

Denny’s pulse hammered in her head. In a way, she still felt like hitting him, but she knew she wasn’t going to do that. She also knew, whether she wanted to admit it or not, that she wouldn’t mind if he were to kiss her again . . .

To put that thought out of her head, she said sharply, “You shouldn’t be as worried about being fired as you are about what my father might do!”

“The famous Smoke Jensen’s gonna shoot it out with me ’cause I stole a kiss from his daughter? That don’t seem very likely.”

“What about thrashing you within an inch of your life? Hell, I might do that.”

That finally made Brad notice something was going on. He turned his head to look back at them and said, “Denny, you said a bad word. I’ve gotten in trouble with my ma for sayin’ things like that.”

“Well, I’m a grown-up, so I can say whatever I want,” Denny responded. “But your mother’s right to tell you to watch your language. How you speak has a lot to do with what people think of you.”

“I reckon.” With the shifting attention span of childhood, he changed the subject and asked, “How many pieces of candy did you say I can have?”

“I didn’t say . . . but I suppose two wouldn’t hurt.” She didn’t think Melanie would mind that, assuming that she ever found out about it.

“Then I want a piece of licorice and a peppermint stick.”

Markham laughed. “Those sound like mighty good choices to me, too. Reckon I’ll have the same thing.”

“Do you have money to pay for it?” Denny asked him.

“I do. I wasn’t dead broke when I showed up in Big Rock, you know. Just durned near.”

Denny motioned Leo Goldstein over as soon as the proprietor wasn’t busy with another customer, and Brad made his selections. Denny paid for them, and the two of them strolled out of the store while Markham remained to make his transaction.

Sally had already given the list of supplies she wanted to Goldstein, and a couple of clerks were packing up the order. They would load it onto the buckboard when it was ready. Sally had gone to the town hall to have her meeting with the Ladies’ Aid Society. For the moment, the buckboard sat empty in front of the store’s high porch, which also served as a loading dock.

Brad bit a piece off the short length of licorice Denny had bought for him and stood there chewing it while the two of them looked around town. Big Rock was a fairly busy place on the summer morning, with a wide variety of people on the boardwalks and plenty of horses and wagons moving in the street. Brad’s eyes eagerly took in all the activity.

Boots clomped on the porch behind them as Markham emerged from the store and joined them. Instead of going for the licorice first thing, he was licking the peppermint stick he had bought.

“What’s this town social your ma was talkin’ about?” he asked Denny.

“What do you think it is? You’ve gone to socials before, haven’t you?”

“You mean with dancin’ and little cakes and sweet punch that the local boys slip a little tanglefoot into? And when the boys and girls get tired of dancin’, they slip outside under the trees for a little sparkin’?”

“That’s right. Big Rock has one of those every few months, and the next one is this Saturday. It’s a shame Louis and Melanie have to miss it, but I’m sure they’re having fun by themselves, wherever they are.”

“Oh, I reckon so,” said Markham, with just enough of a leer in his tone to make Denny frown briefly at him in disapproval. He went on. “Is everybody in the valley invited to these here socials?”

“Of course. People come from miles around.”

“Like they did to your brother’s weddin’.”

Denny smiled. “Yes, that’s right.”

“And I suppose the fellas ask the girls they like to go with them.”

“That’s right.” Denny paused. “Except for one time each year when turnabout is fair play and the girls ask the fellows instead.”

Markham’s eyebrows jumped up. “Does this happen to be one of them special times?”

Denny hesitated. She didn’t want to tell him the truth, but at the same time, he could find out from just about anybody in town. After a moment, she said, “Yes, it is.”

“Which means you can ask any fella you want to be your beau for that night.” A look of realization came over him. “That is . . . unless you already asked somebody . . .”

Denny glanced at Brad, who was enjoying his licorice and completely ignoring any talk about town socials and what went on at them. For a second, she considered telling Markham that she had already asked Brad, but she had tried to use that excuse at the dance following Louis and Melanie’s wedding and that hadn’t really worked out. She couldn’t think of anything else, so she told the truth. “No, I haven’t.”

“Well, then . . .” Markham preened, wiggled his eyebrows, and grinned expectantly.

Denny stood there, well aware that he was going to keep on pestering her until she made up her mind. She tried to shove the thought of that kiss out of her head, but without much success. The seconds ticked past, and finally, out of exasperation as much as anything else, Denny said, “Oh, all right. Steve Markham, will you go to the town social with me?”

The words were barely out of her mouth when she glanced past him and saw Brice Rogers coming up the steps at the end of the porch, well within earshot of the question she had just posed.