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WHEN JOE STEPPED ONTO the porch, his coffee in hand, he looked out toward the north paddock and saw Dan on his pony, while Laura stood at the fence and watched. It had been a strange morning. Heck, more than that, Joe thought. A strange evening, a strange night, and now a strange morning to top things off. He had slept fitfully and risen late, which he hated to do; after gobbling down some of Wally’s specialty—runny eggs and burnt biscuits—he had come out to see how the day was going to go.
He glanced down at his hand and saw that his knuckles were a bit swollen, which wasn’t surprising. It had been a long time since he’d been in a fistfight, but he supposed that you couldn’t exactly call last night’s scene a fistfight. His fist had been the only one involved.
It had also been a long time since he’d stayed in a hotel that seedy. However, his business in town had taken far longer than he’d hoped, so instead of riding all the way back out to the ranch at night, he decided to stay in a cheap hotel. I guess you get what you pay for, he thought. I just don’t remember paying for a guy running around chasing a girl with a knife.
In the end, he accomplished very little except wasting some money on a room he didn’t even sleep in. In his experience, getting knocked out was something most men didn’t take kindly to, especially when they hadn’t seemed particularly agreeable in the first place, so he decided not to linger. They paused only long enough for the girl to retrieve a small bag from the other man’s pocket, and for Joe to retrieve his things from the room. After that, they were on their way. It was just as well. He was pretty sure that the bed had fleas anyway.
He still couldn’t say exactly why he decided to bring her out to the ranch, other than she obviously needed help. Lincoln was a big city—well, big for Nebraska, anyway—and she easily could have disappeared on her own, but in that moment he felt like she needed more than what a well-timed right hook could provide. Leaving her to fend for herself when a thug like that was after her just didn’t seem right. Maybe that’s why I brought her out here, he thought. Simple as that. I hate bullies and I have a weakness for pretty girls. It was a snap decision.
It wasn’t until they were aboard his carriage and on the way out of town, in fact, that he’d even had a moment to ask her name. Laura Ford, she had said. Her name sounded nice. Short and simple. He had the feeling, however, that her story was not particularly short, nor especially simple.
Nevertheless, finding out her story would have to wait. On the ride out to the ranch, neither of them had spoken much. She was understandably shaken up by what had happened, and Joe had been consumed by his own thoughts. Or, rather, one single thought that had risen above all the rest: what the heck am I going to do with this girl?
Everything about it had happened so fast that it was hard to believe it had happened at all. Yet there she was, elbows on the fence rail, watching Dan ride around on his pony like it was something she did all the time. Like she belonged here.
He pulled his gaze away from her before his mind got to thinking about things he probably shouldn’t. Well, maybe just one more look. She was the kind of girl that stole his breath away. She was a bit younger than he was, but with a wise look to her face, as if she’d seen more than most people her age. Her chestnut hair was beautiful in the morning sunlight, and she wasn’t so skinny like some of the girls he’d seen around. She had some curves everywhere he liked them, and though he had no business thinking about her that way, he couldn’t help but imagine her breasts cupped in his hands, her ass pressed against him as he entered her from behind.
Yep, Laura was a real woman, and she looked like it. On top of everything else, however, it was her eyes that he first noticed, when he opened his door and let her into his life. They had left a mark on him in some way, as if he’d been branded by her gaze. Her eyes were green, just like his...except they weren’t like his at all. While Joe’s eyes were the dark green of the summer fields, hers were like something he’d rarely seen before. They were pale and clear, like precious stones.
“She’s a pretty girl, that one,” Wally said, appearing at Joe’s side.
“You must have been reading my mind.” Joe took a sip of his coffee, but it was already cold, and it hadn’t been much better when it was hot. He tossed the rest out onto the grass and set the cup on the porch railing.
“You dumped out my coffee? I’d take offense, except I tried it myself,” Wally said. “I know it wasn’t real good. Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about,” Joe said. “I pay you to help run the ranch, not make breakfast. But I appreciate it anyway. Dan didn’t give you any trouble while I was gone?”
“Not a bit. Well, I caught him setting up a little fence he was going to try to jump the pony over,” Wally said, shaking his head with a grin. “Again? Man, you leave him out of sight for one minute....”
“Takes after his mother, I reckon.”
Joe chuckled. “I guess he does, at that,” he said. “You headed out?”
Wally nodded. “Some of the men said that the fence along the south line needed fixin’, so I’ll be out there until it’s finished. See you later.”
Joe watched as Wally rode off for the far reaches of the ranch, and then he turned his attention back to Laura and his son. Guess it’s time for me to get to work too, he thought, and set off for the paddock. “Good morning,” he called out as he approached.
Laura turned and gave him a smile that made his stomach flip. “Good morning to you,” she said. “Your son here is quite the rider.”
Joe stepped up to the fence next to her and watched Dan put the pony through a series of figure-eights. “He’s almost as good as he thinks he is,” Joe said. “You be careful,” he added, calling to Dan. “No reason to show off just for Miss Laura.”
“Aw, dad, I just wanted to show her my new trick.”
“Later.” Joe turned to Laura. “Did you get some rest last night?”
Her smile only brightened. “A lot more than I would have gotten back at that hotel,” she said. “Even without George coming after me. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I take it George was the guy I popped in the nose?”
“The one and only,” she said. “Except that’s not quite true; he has a brother who’s just as bad. Worse, maybe.”
Joe pushed the brim of his hat back a bit and rubbed his forehead. The day was beautiful, that much was certain. The sky was clear, the sun was warm and the breeze was washing them in clean, fresh air. Out here on the ranch, it was easy to forget sometimes that there was evil in the world. “You want to tell me what happened back there at the hotel?” he asked.
Her smile faded away, like a flower past its bloom. “Not really,” she murmured. “But I know that I owe you an explanation. I owe you more than that, to be honest. If it weren’t for you....”
Joe watched her shudder as her voice trailed off, and he could see tears welling up in her eyes. It made his chest ache to see her in such distress, and even happier that he’d been able to step in the night before. “If you’d rather not talk about it yet, you don’t have to,” he said. “I just thought you might want to explain, but if you’re not ready, there’s no rush.”
She nodded and wiped her eyes, then took a deep breath before she was able to speak again. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not. Listen, I appreciate your help and letting me stay here and everything. I don’t know what I would have done without you. But I should get going this afternoon.”
“Oh...well, sure, if that’s what you have to do,” Joe said. “Where are you off to?”
“I’m going out to California.”
Joe’s eyelids shot up toward the brim of his hat. “That’s a long way for a woman on her own,” he said. “And expensive. You have money?”
“Almost a hundred dollars.”
He frowned. “That’s not going to get you all the way out there,” he said. “That might not even get you out of Nebraska.”
“It’s enough to get started,” she said, and then her voice grew quiet. “I’ll figure something else out along the way.”
Joe took another moment to consider Laura, though this time it had nothing to do with his appreciation of her womanly qualities. She was wearing the same clothes she had yesterday—no surprise there, as her only bag was certainly too small to contain much extra clothing—and her eyes had become clouded, as if she knew that she had hard times ahead but she saw no way around them. Yet here she was, ready to head out West, today, with a head full of steam and little else. Lord, what she must have gone through, he thought. Had to be something horrible to put a fire under her like that. “Well, I just wanted to say, there’s no hurry,” Joe said. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like.”
She turned to look at him and her eyes narrowed, as if she were doing calculations in her head. “In exchange for what?”
“Huh?”
“If you let me stay here...just what are you expecting from me?”
Joe shrugged. “Not a thing,” he said. “It’d be nice to have somebody else out here for a while. Breaks up the monotony. On the other hand, I can understand if you don’t want to. Wally’s breakfast usually sends people running.”
She laughed. “It was a bit hard to take, I have to admit,” she said. “I saved one of those biscuits in case I run into George again. I’m going to use it as a weapon.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Joe said. “Anyway, it’s up to you. If you’d like to stay a while, we’d like to have you; if you want to go, I can run you into town this afternoon.”
She watched him closely for a long while, looking him up and down as if trying to find some fault, all the while biting her lower lip in thought. “It would be nice to stay here until things calm down a bit,” she said. “For a day or two, no more. I don’t want to put you out.”
“As long as you like.”
“In that case, I’ll stay,” she said. “For a little while. Thank you, Joe. That’s twice you’ve helped me out. I won’t forget.”
“Think nothing of it.”
“Dad, look!” They turned to see Dan clinging to the saddle while the pony reared up on its hind legs. Dan whipped off his hat and waved it in the air quickly before the pony dropped back down to all fours.
“You’re going to get hurt if you keep fooling around like that,” Joe called.
“No way,” Dan shouted, the glee filling his face. “Lightning would never hurt me.”
“I’m not worried about Lightning; I’m worried about you.”
If Dan heard him, it wasn’t clear; the boy went back to turning his pony through tight little figure-eights as if his father hadn’t said a thing.
“He sticks on that saddle like a burr on a blanket,” Laura said. “I’m telling you, he has some real talent.”
Joe snorted. “Yeah, he does,” he said. “He takes after his mother.”
“I was wondering about that,” Laura said. “I haven’t seen her around just yet.”
Joe let out a long sigh. “Nope, and you won’t, either,” he said. “She’s dead.”