Gabe stomped onto the back porch of Petra’s house in town with the heat of the late afternoon sun at his back. Buck turned to greet him, but at the sound of the slamming of the screen door, he hid his jolly greeting. “Problem?” He took note of the deep scowl on his son’s face.
“Birdie insists we attend this damned social. With you dining out with Adella and Jo at the social and out of the house, I…well, I thought we’d have the place to ourselves for a couple of hours.” Cheeks flushed, he qualified his statement, saying, “We have a lot to talk about—where we’re gonna live, that sort of thing.”
They’d all spent a day and a half with lawyers and the judge filing complaints, giving testimony. They were all exhausted and ready to clear their heads, relax a bit. Rafe and Doreen had gone to their home and taken Birdie, Jo, Edditha, and Adella with them.
“Uh, huh, I know your problem. I’m having the same difficulty. I really want to be sure McDaniels spends the rest of his miserable life behind bars. His minions are singing their hearts out, giving evidence against him, bargaining to lighten their sentences.
“Tommy and Ronnie are going to do some serious time for their part in all of this. I feel for their folks. Birdie didn’t want to press charges against them, and neither did Jo, but I couldn’t let them walk away scot-free. They put those girls in real danger. They could have died.
“The sheriff, the judge, and the lawyers are finally satisfied with Rafe’s, mine, Cornell’s, Edditha’s, Adella’s, Doreen’s, and Nil’s statements. We’ll have to wait and see about a court date. I hate it Jo and Birdie will have to testify before a jury. I hoped our lawyer could talk the judge out of it.”
He heaved a weighty sigh. “So, now we wait, and like you, I’d like to get on with the more important things, like weddings and the rest of our lives. I hoped to finally get Adella alone and all to myself. But she’s got her heart set on a dinner at the Geiser Grande. We’re leaving tomorrow. Our dinner date has to be tonight, can’t disappoint the lady.”
Gabe stood at the kitchen counter, a scowl on his face, staring out the window into the back yard. “I can’t get anywhere near Birdie. Doreen’s parlor is packed with chirping, clucking females morning noon and night talking weddings. Every old tabby and her daughter is falling all over themselves to meet Adella and Edditha, and fuss over Birdie. If they’re not in the parlor, they’re looting the shops in town, shopping for one frippery thing or another. When I tried to drag Birdie off for a sarsaparilla, Doreen shanghaied me. She turned me into their lackey, assigned to carry parcels. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“You better get used to it, if you decide to stay in Baker City, Doreen’s going to be a big part of your lives. This social is important to the women. But don’t put too much onus on Doreen. Adella informed me, Nils’s the one who came up with the big idea. The social is his way of putting his seal of approval on his soon-to-be daughter-in-law.”
Gabe grumbled and started for the doorway from the kitchen which led down the hall and to the stairwell. He stopped. “Van should be here to suffer along with me.”
“I gave him the option to come along. You heard him, he laughed in my face, probably figured it’d turn into a circus.”
“Well, get ready, ’cause the circus is planning to follow us out to the hot spring. Every single one of those clucking hens, and their roosters, and their chicks are planning to attend these weddings.”
Buck rubbed his hands together and grinned. “Well, hot damn. I hadn’t considered that.”
“You better start thinking where you’re gonna put everybody.”
Buck followed Gabe up the stairs to his room and started talking to himself, lining out the logistics. “We could get six or eight people to a cabin. The wagons could camp on the road. We could have the musicians up on the porch and hold a dance in the yard. Musicians?…we need some music. I better ask Doreen what she has planned. Maybe Adella knows, I’ll ask her tonight.”
»»•««
A fine steak dinner and some slow waltzes set Buck’s big plans for a night of seduction right on track. They strolled downtown to the hotel at dusk and meandered home in the moonlight. The evening was soft and warm, and a flirty breeze ruffled the leaves of the trees and played with Adella’s fine, silver wisps of hair around the nape of her neck and forehead. Buck couldn’t resist tucking one of the stray silver feathers behind her ear. Her throat felt warm and soft. In the shadows of the maple tree before Petra’s house, he lowered his head to kiss her temple.
In her ear, he asked, “I’ve been gonna ask you what the hell happened inside the house when those two thugs tried to tie Doreen and Edditha down. I don’t think I’ve heard your side of the story.”
Adella giggled, her head tilted to the side, inviting him to nibble at her neck.
“Stop it,” she said. She put her hands on his chest and gave him a little shove. “Someone will see us.”
“They might, but I don’t care. Besides, you invited me to nibble on your ear tipping your head to the side that way.”
“I did no such thing,” she said but added a little giggle, which confirmed his suspicion. Hooking her arm through his, she tugged on his elbow to get him to move. They entered the yard through the garden gate and stepped onto the front porch. She dragged him over to the porch swing, sat down, and scooted over, gathering up her skirts to make room for him.
“I’d been listening from the kitchen doorway to everything that nasty man was saying. Edditha looked ready to faint, so pale and frightened—I really didn’t know what to do.
“For that matter, I didn’t know if I could do anything. I was in shock. I grabbed the heaviest thing I could find, which turned out to be the cast iron skillet and hid behind the opened front door. I had not a clue what to do with it.”
Buck put his arm around her and pulled her into his side. She put her head on his shoulder, and they leaned back in the swing. He pushed off a little, and the swing began a slow glide back and forth.
“I couldn’t take out both men. I knew that much. And I certainly didn’t want them to discover me. I waited for the one called Patch to go back outside. The other one, Foote, he’d started to molest poor Doreen, his hands going up her legs while he tied her down. She brought her knee up and into his…his…person… He doubled up, and she bit his ear and wrenched his hand. He squeezed his eyes shut, and I snuck up on him and whacked him over the head with the skillet. I remember Edditha slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from squealing. I was proud of her for it.”
Buck chuckled, picturing in his mind’s eye the event. “It gave me, and I’m sure Rafe too, considerable peace of mind to know you ladies had things well in hand inside the house. Made my decision to go on the attack much easier. I admire a woman who isn’t afraid to charge into battle.”
She wriggled in his embrace and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Mr. Buxton, you do say the most flattering things.”
“Warrior woman, I’d like to kiss you silly.”
Her face tilted up, challenging him with her eyes, she said, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll conk you on the head?”
“Nah, I know the skillet’s in the kitchen on the stove, I checked. Let’s go inside where I can give you a thorough going over.”
She balked, staying him with her hand on his thigh. “What about Gabe and Jo?”
“Jo’s staying over at Doreen’s with Birdie. And I suspect Gabe, poor fella, is stuck at the social until the last dog is dead.”
When he started for the front door, she stopped him, her hand going to his chest. “I’d like to stay the night,” she said.
He opened the door, took her hand, and started up the stairs. “Of course you’ll stay the night.”
She stopped at the bottom riser. “But, Gabe will find out, don’t you see?”
Buck hesitated two steps above her. He wagged her hand, stepped down one step, and took her by the elbow. “I see, and I don’t care. He doesn’t get a say in what I do, not in this instance.”
She followed him up the stairs and down the hall but stopped at his opened bedroom door.
He drew her into his chest. “I’m not fooling around here, Adella. I want you to understand. I’m serious. I don’t want to scare you, but I’m falling in love with you. I don’t know how we’re going to work it out, what with you living in Portland and me at the hot spring. I hadn’t planned on saying anything tonight—I was going to wait until we got back.”
She entered the room and put her arms around his middle. “I’m glad you spoke up. I feel the same. As a matter of fact, I’m all a dither. You’ve been courting me, Mr. Buxton. I haven’t been courted in a long while. I feel alive, beautiful, desired. It’s a heady feeling.”
She tipped her head to the side and heaved a weighty sigh. “I suppose I’ll have to get practical eventually, but for now, tonight, I intend to thoroughly enjoy myself.”
“It would please me, ma’am, to see to it you do,” he said, his voice hoarse with desire.
»»•««
“Did you hear all of that?” Birdie asked, standing to the side of Gabe’s opened bedroom door. Gabe didn’t answer but closed the door very, very quietly.
In the dark, his voice was barely above a whisper. “I sure as hell did. My old man is fooling around with Edditha’s mother, for God’s sake. What the hell does he think he’s doing?”
“Sounded to me like she’s fooling around right back,” Birdie answered. “So? What do you think we should do?”
Gabe jerked around to face her. He’d like to go down there to his father’s room and punch him in the nose, that’s what he’d like to do. As if fooling around with Edditha’s mother wasn’t bad enough, he was going to fool around with her in his mother’s bedroom, in the bed where his mother had slept. This house belonged to his mother. Growing up, they’d stayed here many times. They’d never lived here because Buck didn’t want to live in town.
If he and Birdie lived here, Gabe would never be able to look at the bed again; he’d see Buck and Edditha’s mother.
Jesus.
He made his way to his bed and sat down on the edge to think. “I don’t know what to do. I guess we’ll wait a bit and I’ll take you home.” He couldn’t make love to Birdie now, not with Buck down the hall, doing, doing what he was going to do.
Birdie plopped down beside him, her skirts knocking over a picture frame which had been teetering on the edge of the nightstand. It landed with a distinct crash and jangle. Birdie squeaked and slapped her hand over her mouth.
Gabe bounced to his feet and held his breath.
They both heard the bedroom door open down the hall and then footfalls. The knock on the door caused Birdie to squeak again.
Gabe groaned, hung his head and closed his eyes, his hand on the closed door. “Yeah.”
“That you, Gabe?” Buck asked from the other side.
“Uh, huh,” Gabe answered, his eyes squeezed shut.
“You in there with Birdie-Alice?” Buck asked.
“Uh, huh,” Gabe answered, eyes still shut, pulling his lips in tight between his teeth.
Gabe heard Buck’s deep throated chuckle through the closed door and cringed.
“Good night, Son. Adella and I’ll see you two in the morning at breakfast. We head home in the morning. Got to get up early.”
“Yeah, okay. Goodnight, Dad,” Gabe answered, releasing a big breath.
Behind him, he heard Birdie begin to giggle. Oh, he would have to tickle the daylights out of her, then love her up until she cried uncle.