Jesse had the mine operating around the clock and he stayed up there right in the thick of things. The problem was there weren’t that many days left before the Independence Day celebration -- only seven, to be exact. That had to be why restlessness consumed Ellie, turning her nights sleepless and her days unsettled. It was a do-nothing, do-something kind of feeling that extended from the very depths of her outward. Where to go; what to do? In her current state of mind, nothing appealed to her.
Today was a perfect example. She paced from room to room. Regardless of the hot breeze through an open window, it felt like a cabin fever, mid-life crisis kind of day. The sun was shining now but the wind blew. The rain had quit, leaving the ground sloppy with puddles. On top of that her conscience nagged her to do something constructive, her ego dragged her through a quagmire of self-doubt, and her body craved both a cigarette and chocolate.
She had realized that morning it had been days since her last cigarette. So much had happened, she hadn’t thought about it. She’d better not think about it now, or she’d race down to Murphy’s for tobacco.
She scrubbed and rinsed out her clothes, carrying them outside to hang on the line. She dropped a blouse in the mud, then almost swallowed a clothespin when she sucked in a breath to swear.
How on earth had she ever allowed them to talk her into such a harebrained, stupid -- she hadn’t. They had tricked her; kidnapped her and now here she was in a century she still didn’t understand, living someone else’s life and falling in love with a man she definitely had no business loving.
She knew it illogical; their lives were anything but similar. Regardless, nothing could stop the passion when Jesse held her; the need he created deep inside, and the restlessness she felt, like now, when she wasn’t with him.
“You’d better not have tracked over my clean floor.” She looked at Lucky’s boots when she found him in the kitchen. She slapped her muddy blouse back in the sink.
“Well, here I come to see if’n you wanted fish for supper, but maybe I’ll just go catch some for me and Zeke,” Lucky said with a pout. While Ellie had learned some basic cooking skills during her tenure here, she still lived for the meals he cooked. And Lucky knew it.
“Wait,” she shouted after him as he vacated the kitchen as fast as he had entered.
Ellie caught up with him at the edge of the trees. “Can’t I go with you?” Anything was better than sitting around.
“What for?” Usually Lucky’s attitude was buoyant, or at least he didn’t pout for long. Perhaps he, too, was feeling pressure because of the short amount of time remaining.
Ellie thought furiously for an answer he would accept. “Well, I could catch a fish,” she began, and then inspiration struck, “and cook supper. Ouch.” A rock flipped into her shoe and she bent to slip both of them off, preferring to walk barefoot. When Lucky didn’t answer, she looked up.
He stood, with his mouth open, arms slack at his side, staring at her. She picked up her shoes and tucked her long skirt into her waistband and still he hadn’t said anything. She returned his stare in silence.
“You don’t like my cooking no more?” He finally asked.
“Lucky, I love your cooking,” she tried to soothe his ruffled feathers. “I just thought I could do something special for Jesse.”
“You want to cook for Jesse.” Lucky pushed his hat back to scratch his head in confusion. “You tryin’ to kill him?”
Ellie sputtered in agitation, even though she knew he was probably right. “You could help.”
Lucky started walking again and Ellie skipped to catch up.
“Please?” She smiled.
He scrunched up his face, but Ellie could already see a twinkle in his eyes. “All right, but you gotta do the work.” They had reached the water and he dropped his poles on the riverbank.
“Like what?” Ellie had never been fishing in her life, and now felt leery of his tone.
Turning over a rock, Lucky pointed. “Like gettin’ your own worm.” Laughing, he grabbed one and turned towards the water.
Ellie puckered her lips and squatted down by the creatures that wiggled around in the moist dirt. Briefly, she thought back to the time she had refused a date with Paul, an outdoors writer for the travel magazine. He had once asked her to go trout fishing with him on the Colorado River. At the time she had declined, knowing Paul’s reputation as a lecher. Now, she guessed she could have at least read his articles.
Sighing in frustration at the if onlys in her life, she gingerly reached down and picked up a worm. As she walked to the bank to get one of Lucky’s poles, she tried to brush the dirt off the wiggly thing.
Lucky laughed. “You don’t gotta scrub ‘em. Some fish is goin’ to chomp down on ‘em anyhow, and the fish don’t care if’n there’s some grit to the squishy fellow.”
“Lucky.” Ellie grimaced in disgust. She wasn’t a squeamish person, but he had a way of making the image very unappetizing.
Ellie baited her hook without problem, but she had trouble getting the worm and hook thrown out into the creek far enough to do any good. Besides, Lucky had chosen a point where the moving water cut the bank sharply away and the grass was slippery. She finally got the hang of it, swinging her fishing pole out over the water with one hand and holding a tree branch with the other.
Lucky had caught half a dozen before Ellie felt the tug of a single fish on her line. Excitedly, she jerked the pole back.
“I’ve got one,” she yelled. Holding the pole with one hand, she stretched forward as far as she could to reach the other end where the pull of the fish bent the pole towards the water.
“Miss Eliz--” Lucky never got the words out.
Ellie’s feet slipped out from under her and with a screech she pitched headlong into the water.
It took only seconds for her to come sputtering to the surface, for the water was only a few feet deep, but freezing cold from the mountain springs which fed it. Lucky was laughing so hard he couldn’t even help her out of the water.
Shivering even in the heat of the summer day, Ellie waded downstream to where the bank wasn’t as steep.
“I really wonder if any man is worth this much trouble.” She muttered out loud as she sloshed back to where Lucky was gathering up the fishing gear.
Unsuccessful at hiding his smile, Lucky smirked. “I think we got enough for supper.” Then with a chuckle, he added, “Course, you might have to go without, but we’ll make sure Jesse’s fed good.”
Ellie tried to kick him, but ended up tangled in her wet skirts and flat on her fanny. Lucky left her sitting there, laughing all the way back to the house.
By the time Ellie had changed into dry clothes, her throat felt scratchy, her ears were clogged, and she had the sniffles. Regardless, she refused to let Lucky fix the meal they had planned. Besides, he didn’t seem to mind telling her what to do and her throat hurt bad enough she didn’t sass him back.
Confident that she knew when to take the pie out of the oven, and how long on each side the fish needed to fry in the big iron skillet, she sent Lucky after Jesse. The sun was setting behind the mountains, and regardless of the twenty-four hour operation of the mine, she knew Jesse took a break about the same time every night.
She put the last of the fish in the warming pan on the back of the stove and took the biscuits out and stacked them nicely on a clean plate. She went to the bedroom to give her hair a quick combing, only to realize she had flour on her skirt and face.
Knowing Jesse would arrive any minute, she quickly washed and changed to a new dress of red and white stripe, banded at the sleeves and cinched waist with red. As much as she had tried not to take advantage of having an unlimited bank account, she couldn’t resist the dress when she saw it in Murphy’s window. She figured she deserved at least that for giving up cigarettes.
She coughed several times, momentarily unable to catch her breath. “It’s a good thing I did quit,” she muttered, trying to clear her throat. It appeared the dunk in the stream had settled a cold in her throat. Shrugging, she decided it wasn’t going to interfere with her surprise dinner for Jesse.
Speaking of, she wondered where he could be. She lit the lamps in the living room, then glanced out the door. The last of the daylight faded, which meant it had to be at least eight o’clock.
By nine o’clock, Ellie’s throat bothered her enough she figured a glass of wine would help soothe the rough edges. Besides, waiting for a date to show up had never been her strong suit. She just hoped dinner would still taste good.
By eleven o’clock, Ellie didn’t give a damn about dinner, or much of anything else. She had been stood up. Numbly, she set her wine glass down next to the near empty bottle, curled up on the couch and fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
Jesse knocked on Ellie’s door bright and early. For too many days, he had been working long hours at the mine. They had to keep after it. Jesse felt in his bones they were within inches of the motherlode and he desperately wanted to clear his debt with Scott. He was just as weary as the rest of the men, but they were all hanging in there with him.
That must have been why, when Lucky told him Ellie wanted to see him and that he’d better be ready for a surprise, and that he’d better like the surprise, Jesse let the message run in one ear and out the other. Lucky was always muttering about something and Jesse had been too tired to listen.
He knocked again. It wasn’t all that early, and Jesse thought to take Ellie out for breakfast. The door opened a crack as he raised his hand a third time.
“Whatcha want?” The voice, deep and scratchy, wasn’t one Jesse recognized, and the gloom inside prevented him from seeing past the door.
“Ellie?” It had to be her, even though it didn’t sound like it.
From what he could see through the widening crack, she was dressed in a pretty candy-cane-striped dress which accented her small waist, and for a moment Jesse was tempted to forego breakfast for a taste of her. When he glanced up, however, he noticed her hair was tangled about her face; her eyes were red and puffy. She looked worse than when she’d had the fever, but he knew better than to tell her that.
“Well, look whoz ‘ere.” She swung the door the rest of the way open as she spoke, but Jesse still wouldn’t have recognized her voice.
“What happened to you?”
In response, she coughed. Jesse stepped forward to help, but she held up her hand.
“Stay right there, you...you varmint!”
Did she say varmint? “Ellie--”
“Don’t you Ellie, me. I am so mad at you, I could--” coughing interrupted her outrage.
Jesse could tell from her stance he’d better not try getting any closer, so he used his voice to soothe her. “Calm down, darling.”
Her hands went to her hips; a sure sign she was upset. Jesse just didn’t have a clue why.
“I caught a cold ‘cuz I fell in the creek. I fell in the creek fishin’ for you. I cooked the damned fish, along with beans and biscuits and a cherry pie, and you weren’t here to eat it.” She drew in a deep breath. Jesse thought sure she’d start coughing again, but she was just stubborn enough to hold her breath and refuse to let even a little cough escape.
“I’m sorry, honey, I got busy.” He offered the apology with a shrug. “I’ll take you to breakfast instead.”
“You...got...busy.” She enunciated each word with an angry toss of her head. “So I’m suppose to just forget all the hard work I did; just suppose to toss it all to the dogs?”
Her attitude set Jesse’s teeth on edge. He had worked all night in the mine, stopping near dawn to catch an hour’s sleep before washing and coming to town. Didn’t she know how close he was; didn’t she care? Anger got the best of him.
“Be reasonable, Elizabeth. It never bothered you before if I worked late. Sometimes it never seemed to bother you if I came by at all.”
“I’m tired of being reasonable.” She shrieked at him. “Everyone tells me what to do. I can’t say what I want, or do what I want.” She stopped in the middle of her tirade to cough, her hand going to her throat. Jesse would have helped, but her posture prohibited him from getting close. Besides, at the moment he was just as mad.
Once she caught her breath, she poked a finger in his chest, sending him backwards across the porch. “I’m tired of this.” She waved a hand that vaguely included him and the entire town. “I want hot running water, jazz on CD’s, a cold beer and a hot pizza!” With a cry sounding close to despair, she whirled away from him and rushed back into the house.
The door slammed in his face.
* * *
It took a long walk up the mountain, a cold soak in the creek, and a few hours’ sleep before Jesse’s temper became manageable enough for him to think clearly. He went back to work but his mind remained on his troubles.
Lucky had told him to be in for a surprise, but Jesse could hardly warrant Ellie’s fit of temper in that category. Well, come to think on it, the degree to which she had lambasted him was a surprise.
He grinned, then sighed in resignation. What was he to do with her? He loved her like crazy. He even recalled thinking how glorious she looked shrieking at him like some fishwife.
Obsessed -- that’s what he was. He’d been around gold, silver and Elizabeth half his life and hadn’t gotten “the fever” as the old-timers called it. But like reaching manhood, it must hit some later than others. At twenty-four years of age, he had an unquenchable thirst for one feisty, extraordinary woman who plagued his dreams and tormented his physical wellbeing.
With a manly sigh, Jesse knew what he had to do.
Later that day, he nervously stood on her doorstep, this time prepared, or so he hoped. She didn’t immediately answer his knock, and he began to wonder if she would. He had turned to leave when he heard a tentative query.
“Now what?” At least she sounded better.
Before he lost his nerve, he thrust out his gifts. “I don’t know what pizza is, but will daisies do?”
She looked from the handful of wildflowers and crock of beer up to his brooding gaze and with a cry, she flew into his outstretched arms. Hugging him close, she covered his face with kisses, regardless of the fact they stood on the porch in broad daylight.
That was Ellie for you.
“I’m sorry, Jesse, so sorry,” she crooned as she tugged him inside and closed the door behind him. Before he could answer, she was in his arms again, hugging him tight enough to get inside his skin. He felt the same way.
“I don’t care about the cold dinner; or the beer or pizza, or any of it. Really, I don’t.” Her cold lent her voice a deep, throaty quality Jesse found instantly appealing.
He kissed her deeply, breathing the scent that was her, all fresh air and sunshine. Finally lifting his head, he couldn’t help but tease her. “Then you don’t want my offerings; not even the cold beer?”
“Later,” she breathed the single word close to his ear as she kissed his neck.
Jesse was fast forgetting everything except the feel of her, and regretted having his hands full so that he couldn’t touch her. “Later the beer won’t be cold.” He threw back his head as her lips traveled along his shirt collar then down where he had the first couple of buttons undone.
“So?” Her question was a warm, fuzzy puff of air on his neck.
Reaching around her, he managed to set the crock of beer on a table without spilling, but the flowers dropped in a pile when her hands slid beneath his belt to massage his back. With a heartfelt sigh, he gave up the fight. “So, I can’t remember.” Laughing, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom.
With each piece of clothing he removed, Jesse’s passion rose until he wondered how he could contain it long enough to make sure Ellie found her own pleasure.
“Jesse, now!” Her command brought a smile to his lips, and while her outstretched arms beckoned him, he lingered at her feet where he had tugged her stockings off and flung them across the room. Giving her a lecherous grin, he ignored her edict and began kissing the soles of her feet, her dainty ankles, her silken calves. With deliberate slowness, he worked his way up her legs, transferring his attend from one to the other.
“Do you know how desperately I love you?” He questioned huskily as he continued raining kisses on her hot skin. “I can’t get enough of you; I want under your skin like you’ve gotten under mine.”
Exotic kisses swept across Ellie and she thought she’d melt from the heat. “Oh,” she moaned, rolling her head from side to side, panicking because of the intensity of feelings she experienced. This time was different; this time there was an aura of other worldliness about their lovemaking that scared her to death. Afraid that if she crested without him she would leave this world for another, she clutched his shoulders, tugging.
“Jesse, please,” she begged, “I need you now; I can’t wait.” She breathed the words into the air, having lost her sense of direction and feeling as though he was everywhere around her at once.
Jesse relented, partially, and kissed the hollow of her belly, tongue swirling into her navel. She couldn’t understand how he could be in such control; she sure wasn’t. As he worked his way upwards, kissing the underside of her breast, she could finally reach him. The instant her hand circled his manhood, she knew he wasn’t in control at all.
With a groan, he pulled her hand away, pinning both wrists above her head and with a yell of victory, took her with one swift stroke. Ellie’s legs immediately circled his lean waist to hold him tight against her.
“More,” her feverish whisper rasped and he obliged, sinking deep into her being and taking over her mind.
Just as she reached the brink of ecstasy, her body clutching around him, he stopped all movement. Ellie strained for fulfillment, pleading for what only Jesse could give her. She arched her hips; he didn’t move. She lifted her head to nibble on his neck; still he didn’t twitch. With a groan, she dropped her head back to the bed and lifted her eyes to his.
“Did you think it would be this easy? That I would let it end so quickly?” She hardly recognized his voice, so deep and husky and full of unspent passion. But even as he voiced his desire to extend their euphoria, she could tell the toll it took. His forehead creased in concentration, his sensuous mouth shut in a tight line.
Ellie couldn’t stand it. She jerked her hips beneath his. “Please. We can always make love again later. I need you now.”
An erotic smile touched his lips, spread to his eyes. With infinite slowness, he lowered to kiss her lips, his barely brushing hers; stopping to savor the corner of her mouth, sliding upward to lavish kisses on her eyes, her nose.
“Now; later. There is no time except infinity in which I will love you.” He breathed the words against her skin. “No stopping for breath, no sunrises or sunsets to mark the days; no questions. Just forever.”
And then Ellie clung to him as he took them both to the pinnacle of passion, where lovers can see to the ends of the earth and beyond, and know they will be together always.
* * *
Ellie watched Jesse sleep and tried to keep the desperation at bay a little longer. She gently brushed the hair back from his brow, memorizing the silky feel of it as she had already tucked away memories of his smile, his laughter, and his tender loving.
“How can I bare to leave you, sweet Jesse?” She whispered in the dark. “If I don’t go to the mine in just a few days, I will not be sent back to my own time, but you will die.” She bit her lips together to keep from crying out loud. There was no choice, and she knew it. She just couldn’t stand the agony of it.
“I will love you forever,” she murmured, bending forward to kiss his bare chest.
The arm which had been around her shoulders tightened. “Mmmm,” he mumbled, but didn’t wake up. Ellie guessed that would have to do for now.
* * *
Ellie wiggled closer to the warmth at her side, scooting a leg over the lean hips then sliding her foot up and down a hairy leg.
“Now that’s a very nice way to wake up.” Jesse murmured close to her ear, then kissed the corner of her mouth.
Ellie would have remained as is, but the clanking noise next to her ear roused her curiosity. She slowly raised her head. “What are you doing?” She licked the side of her mouth where he had kissed. “And why do I taste like cherry pie?”
“Because,” Jesse smacked his lips, “I am having breakfast.” He scooped the last forkful of pie into his mouth. “Delicious.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and Ellie wasn’t sure if he meant the pie at all.
Bemused, she brushed her hair out of her eyes as Jesse plunked the plate and fork on the side table then hung over the bed, mumbling as he dug through the clothes they had left piled on the floor.
Even though there was an enticing view of male buttocks as the sheet tugged lower with his movements, Ellie’s attention was diverted. She smelled--
“Ah, here it is.” Jesse straightened up just as Ellie scooted off the other side. “Hey, where are you going?”
“Coffee.” Ellie thought by now he would remember she didn’t do mornings well.
He grabbed her arm to stop her. “At your service, ma’am.” A steaming mug was carefully waved under her nose.
She settled back against the headboard, content. “Ah, you’re a good man, Jesse Cole.” She smiled sideways at him.
“I like to think so.”
For several minutes, they sat in silence, sipping their morning coffee, close but not touching, and yet Ellie felt him as though they were. She reached down to his free hand, entwining her fingers with his. He brought their hands up to his lips, kissing her knuckles one at a time.
As she watched, he set his coffee aside, then slid a ring onto the third finger of her right hand. It was a beautifully crafted solid gold band--like a wedding band. Ellie jerked her hand back, but he refused to release it.
“I want you to have this. It was my mother’s, made from the first ounce of gold pa ever took from the Nightingale.” The ring felt like a burning brand against Ellie’s skin.
“I can’t,” she whispered, not wanting to break the spell which held them, but fearing she had to say something; had to tell him the truth. Jesse didn’t appear to notice her anguish.
“I know we’re not married, yet. That’s why I put it on your right hand.”
“Oh, how can you want me when I shrieked at you and said such awful things?” The tears came, regardless of how hard Ellie fought against them.
“I won’t run for cover, Ellie. I’m built to endure.” He took her hand and placed it over his heart. “I won’t desert you when things get tough...or when you wake up grumpy.”
“It’s not that--” her voice trailed off. She couldn’t tell him; too much depended on everybody playing their roles, and if Jesse knew the original outcome, he’d try to change it around.
“What is it, El? You can tell me anything.”
But she knew she couldn’t. As his finger idly rubbed against the ring he had put on her finger, she cursed the day her editor had sent her to Reno; cursed Lucky and Zeke for finding her at Peavine and bringing her back through time. Then she realized she never would have met Jesse, so regardless of the bad surrounding them, she clung to the good; the love that was Jesse.
She laid across his chest, her forehead touching his. Ever so gently she kissed his lips, hungry for the taste of him. “I will wear your mother’s ring, Jesse, with honor and with love, until the day you tell me you want it back.” Or until I return to my own time and it will no longer matter to you, she thought mournfully.
“Never, El. You’re mine for eternity, remember?” He returned her kiss.
“Oh, yes,” she breathed. He just didn’t know how close to the truth he really was.