LATE IN THE AFTERNOON, a half mile from the motor court, a car went out of control and flipped over on its side, spilling household goods along the highway. The two people in the car were taken to the doctor in Cross Roads. A deputy sheriff came out and stopped the traffic.
Cars and trucks and even a bus were backed up as far back as the motor court. Some of the people got out of their cars as they waited for the wreck to be hauled off the highway, and walked up to the motor court for a drink of water.
Mary Lee stayed in the house. Eli talked to the travelers while pumping a bucket of water from the deep well that had been on the place as long as she could remember. He seemed to be more sure of himself, not quite as shy as when she first found him in the washhouse.
After the four cabins were rented for the night and the No Vacancy sign turned on, Mary Lee washed her hair. She was sitting on the back steps, combing out the tangles and enjoying the evening, when Jake’s truck turned into the lane in front of the cabins. He lifted his hand in greeting. Mary Lee nodded.
“Trudy will bring her sign-painting brush when she comes out tomorrow,” she said to Eli, who was painting the boards he had selected for the new signs.
“The background paint should be dry by then.”
“She’s going to help me clean and rearrange the kitchen. We have six chairs. We may need to use the old chair in the washhouse. We’ll have to scrub it down and get it ready.”
“It’s wobbly, but I think I can fix it.”
“Trudy’s mother suggested that we charge ten cents extra for two breakfasts if it’s for a husband and wife. For two men, twenty cents each. Do you think that’s too much? You can get a steak dinner for thirty-five cents.”
“I don’t think so. They couldn’t get two meals uptown for that.”
“It’s what Ruby said. We can try it and if it doesn’t work we’ll have to stop. Oh, Lord. I hope it works. That three hundred dollars hanging over my head is driving me crazy.”
“What’s driving you crazy?” Jake appeared at the corner of the porch.
“Eli is painting boards for our new signs; then I’m going to talk him into cutting my hair.” Mary Lee fumbled for a plausible answer.
“Cut your hair?” Eli stopped painting. “I can’t cut hair.”
“Why are you cutting it?” Jake squatted down on his heels beside the steps and pushed his hat back off his forehead. His brows puckered; the eyes beneath them held a quizzical expression.
“I like it shoulder length. When it’s longer than that, it’s too hard to take care of.”
“It’s pretty. It’d be a shame to cut it,” he said slowly.
“Let Jake cut it,” Eli said, and dropped his brush in a can of kerosene. “It’ll take me half an hour to get all this paint off.” He held his paint-splattered hands out for her to see.
“I’m in no hurry.” Mary Lee was flustered by Jake’s presence.
“Are you afraid I’ll scalp you?” He cocked his head to one side. She could feel the intensity of his gaze on her flushed face.
“Nooo . . . I only want about this much off the ends.” She held her thumb and forefinger a couple of inches apart.
He stood and reached for the comb. Mary Lee automatically got to her feet.
“Get the scissors — or do you want me to use my knife?” Mary Lee saw the teasing glint in his eyes. His firm lips were tilted in a grin.
“Oh, you!” She stepped up onto the porch and went into the house. Seconds later she returned with the shears and paused on the steps. “Maybe I should wait for Eli. I don’t like that look in your eye.”
“Don’t worry. If I had the right to say so, I’d forbid you to cut off even a smidgen. Stand there on the steps and turn around. It’ll put me about eye level with the back of your head.”
Mary Lee stood as still as a stone, praying that he didn’t know that her silly heart was beating like the wings of a wild bird caught in a snare. It seemed to her that he ran the comb through her hair for a long time before he spoke.
“I don’t know why you want to cut it. It’s thick and wavy and . . . awfully pretty,” he said on a breath of a whisper. He ran forked fingers up from her nape and through her hair.
“Just trim the ends.” Then she said lightly, “I suppose you’ll want a quarter. It’s what the barbers uptown get.”
“I was thinking about paying you for letting me comb it,” he murmured.
Mary Lee’s head jerked around so she could look at him.
“Now you’ve got it messed up. I’ll have to comb it again,” he said.
Eli watched from the door of the washhouse, and the thought came to him that Jake liked Mary Lee, really liked her, in the way that a man wanted a girl to be his sweetheart. Eli didn’t know how he felt about that. He had taken to Jake instinctively, knowing that he was a good guy, but his mind questioned. Mary Lee deserved a man who would take care of her so that she wouldn’t have to work so hard. How would Jake feel about raising another man’s kid? His uncle hadn’t wanted him when his folks died, and he was blood kin.
Jake finished cutting the tip ends of her hair and asked, “What about the new signs? Where are you going to put them?”
“On the highway. We’re going to serve breakfast between six and eight every morning after the signs go up.”
Jake waited a minute before he spoke. “Is your mother goin’ to do the cookin’?”
“Heavens, no! She’d never get up in time. Trudy Bender, Ruby’s daughter, is going to help me get started. Then I can do it. Eli says my biscuits are as good as any he’s ever had.”
He was still for a minute, then took her by the shoulders and gently turned her around. His face was level with hers.
“You can’t take on more work.” His voice was deep and soft. He gazed at her for so long that a swift new wave of color filled her cheeks. “You’re already doing too much.”
“I have to. I’ve got bills to meet.” She wanted to press her hand to her heart to stop its mad gallop.
“You need to rest more.” His thumb and forefinger circled her wrist. “When is your baby due?”
“The last week in September.” The bank note is due the first of October! her mind screamed. She tugged on her hand and succeeded only in pulling her wrist from his fingers to have them interlace with hers. “Women have been having babies for years, you know,” she said when she finally got enough air into her lungs.
“I know.”
“Back in the olden days an Indian woman squatted behind a bush, had her baby, then caught up with the rest of the tribe.” She didn’t know why she told him that, and wished that she hadn’t. Suddenly embarrassed, she glanced at Eli leaning against the washhouse, hoping he would say something. When he didn’t, she said quickly, “It’s nice of you to be concerned about me, but . . . it really isn’t necessary.”
“I think it is. Have you seen a doctor?”
She laughed nervously. “For goodness’ sake. You sound like . . . like . . .”
Good Lord, she had almost said, “my husband!”
But Bobby wouldn’t have been concerned. He would have been angry because she couldn’t work and that the baby took time away from him.
“You haven’t left this place since you came here, have you?”
“I went to town today.” Her voice quavered thinking of what she had almost said.
“Would you like to go for a ride and see how the work is coming on the bridge?”
“No, but thanks. I can’t leave. Mama could act up or . . . if Frank Pierce discovered I wasn’t here, he’d cause trouble.”
“Eli will be here. The cabins are rented. Frank couldn’t do much harm in an hour.”
She shook her head.
“I doubt that anyone will see you with me,” Jake said. “If that’s what’s worrying you.”
“That’s not it,” she said forcefully.
“Go for a ride, Mary Lee,” Eli urged. “Pick out places to put up the new signs. They’ll be ready the day after tomorrow.”
Mary Lee’s eyes went back to Jake’s. “You haven’t cut my hair yet.”
“I trimmed the ends.” He caught a strand between his thumb and forefinger and traced its length. “I hate cutting off more of it.”
“I guess I’ll just have to put it up in a granny bun on top of my head.”
His eyes crinkled at the corners when he grinned. For the first time she noticed that his teeth were exceedingly white and even.
“Put away the shears and walk down to the truck. I’ll hide you until we’re out of sight. Your mother and Frank won’t even know you’re gone.”
“Frank isn’t here. Mama is sitting by the window. I suppose she’s looking for him.” Mary Lee reached over and took her comb from the pocket of his shirt. She looked away from him toward Eli. He could tell that she was pondering whether to accept his invitation. Her face was so expressive that he knew the instant she had decided, and he was smiling when she said, “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“What do you think, Eli?” Mary Lee waited until Jake had almost reached his cabin before she spoke.
“ ’Bout what?”
“About me going with Jake.”
“You’ll be all right with him and we need to know where to put up the signs.”
“Yeah, we do, don’t we?”
Jake couldn’t believe what he was doing. Just last night he had decided to stay as far away from her as possible. He knew that it was dangerous to his peace of mind to get involved with Bobby Clawson’s widow, but, dammit to hell, he couldn’t help himself. He just wanted a little time alone with her; then maybe he’d get her out of his system. He seemed to lose his common sense when he was with her. She had no idea how sweet she looked with her hair all soft and shiny, her mouth smiling and her little round belly poking out.
He hurried inside the cabin and yanked off his shirt. He washed quickly, pulled off his boots and pants and put on a clean pair of jeans and the blue shirt she had washed a few days before. Rubbing his fingers over his rough cheeks, he wished that he had time to shave. He combed his hair, picked up a blanket and went out to the truck. After taking out a pair of moccasins and his water jar, he carefully spread the blanket over the seat.
Jake waited beside the car for so long he began to think she wasn’t coming. Disappointment was beginning to eat a hole in his chest when she came out of the back of the house and hurried along behind the cabins.
“I had to wait until Mama went to her room.” Relief set Jake’s hands trembling as he opened the door and helped her up into the truck. “I don’t like sneaking around,” she said after he slid under the wheel.
“Slide down in the seat if you don’t want her to see you when we pass.”
She bent sideways until her head almost touched his thigh. “Is she in the window?”
“No, but stay there until we pull out onto the highway.”
When Mary Lee felt the tires hit the pavement, she sat up. “I hate having to do that.”
He grinned at her. When he looked back toward the road, she felt free to look at him. Without a hat, he appeared to be younger.
“How old are you?”
Startled by the question, he glanced at her. “Almost twenty-six.”
“Then you’re twenty-five.”
“I’ll be twenty-six tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow is your birthday?”
“Yeah. It just occurred to me this morning.” His smiling eyes met hers. Happiness sang like a bird in his chest. It was such a miracle that she was here in his dirty old truck with him.
“My daddy always made a big to-do over my birthday. I always had a birthday cake and a present, even if it was just a little something.”
“What’s a birthday cake?”
“You’ve never had one?”
“Not that I know of.”
“It’s a cake made especially for the birthday girl or . . . boy. A candle is put on for each year. After they are lighted, you make a silent wish before you blow them out. If you blow them all out without taking another breath, your wish will come true. After that everyone sings the birthday song.”
“I guess I’ve heard of it, but just never saw one.”
“You were just a little older than I am when you went to prison.”
“I soon learned how to take care of myself.” He spoke as if he didn’t mind talking about that time in his life. “There are a lot of hard men in there, and a few decent ones. I put in my time and got by.” There was a bitter tone to his last words.
“Mr. Clawson was here today. He said you had his cattle penned and had changed the brand.”
“Why did he tell you that?”
She evaded the question. “I asked him if he saw you do it. He didn’t give me an answer.”
“He was in Arizona at the time. His foreman and a couple others took the sheriff out to where the cattle were penned. Are you going to ask me if I stole them?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I guess I don’t want you to . . . tell me you did.”
“If I had stolen the cattle, I’d not be dumb enough to pen them up where they would be easily found and I’d not spend a couple days changing the brand. I’d have driven them as far away as possible and sold them to a slaughter house.”
“Someone wanted to get you in trouble with the law.”
“I think I know who, but I don’t know why.”
“Today is the first time I’ve seen Mr. Clawson since I married Bobby.” Mary Lee’s hands were clenched tightly together. “He seems to think he’ll have a say in how my baby is raised. I’ve news for him. I’ll take my baby far away before I let him have anything to do with it.”
“He didn’t take a hand in raising Bobby until he was already set in his ways. Bobby’s mother spoiled him. She was at odds with Ocie and took pleasure in bucking him every time he tried to make a man out of Bobby.”
“You knew Bobby when he was a kid?”
“We went to the same school.”
Mary Lee and Jake had gone a distance in companionable silence before he spoke again.
“There’s no sky as beautiful as New Mexico sky at twilight.”
“Have you been to a lot of other places?”
“I worked for a year on a ranch in Oklahoma. I liked it there. The Fleming people were good to work for, but New Mexico is my home.”
“Where exactly is your home?” Mary Lee drew in a deep breath. “Oh . . . oh—” Her eyes met his when he turned at the sound. “I’m sorry. I seem to be asking a lot of questions.”
“It’s all right. My home is anywhere within a radius of fifty miles north of Cross Roads. There are little villages in the mountains you’ve never heard of. My mother was from one of them.”
Jake turned off the highway and onto a graveled road. The steel structure of the bridge was outlined against the darkening sky. He pulled over and stopped.
“It’s two hundred feet long and spans a gorge that’s a hundred feet deep.”
“Oh, my. Is it about finished?”
“My part of the job will be done in a couple of days.”
“What did you do?”
“See that girder that slants up to the top and levels off? I put in the bolts, then welded the joints.”
“Not . . . up there on top?”
“Yes, up there on top. Some days the wind was so strong, I couldn’t go up.”
“Oh, Jake . . .” Unaware that she was doing so, she clutched his arm. “It gives me the shivers to think of you up there.”
“At times it gave me the shivers to be there.” Especially after two men plunged to the floor of the canyon. He put his hand over hers for the brief instant before she withdrew it.
“Then why do you do it?”
“It’s good pay.”
“It should be for the risk you’re taking.”
“It’ll be over soon. I’ll take my money and break horses until another job comes along.”
“Are there more bridges to be built around here?”
“One more that I know of. This bridge will take a big kink out of the highway and shorten the route between here and Sante Fe by at least five miles.”
“I hope they don’t decide to bypass Cross Roads. I’d be sunk.”
“There’s no danger of that. They won’t bypass a strip that’s already paved.”
A few stars were appearing in the sky. Jake didn’t want to start the truck and head back to the motor court. The ride would be all too short. He glanced at her. She was relaxed and comfortable with him. He wanted to ask her why she had married a no-good like Bobby, but was afraid to risk the possibility of her resenting his question about her personal life.
“A friend of mine will be coming in a few days,” he said, wanting to keep the conversation going. “I worked with him on the Fleming ranch in Oklahoma.”
“Is he a cowboy?”
“No, he’s a mechanic. He can fix a motor if it’s at all fixable. He kept the machinery on the ranch going while I was there. Later he bought a garage on the highway. He’s right fond of motorcycles and will be riding one when he gets here.”
“Is he coming for a visit?”
“I don’t know how long he’ll stay. A couple of other fellows took over his garage after his mother died, so I guess he’s footloose. He said something about visiting a friend up in Colorado. You’ll like Deke. He’s a funny-looking little man, but you don’t notice it after you get to know him.” Jake was smiling broadly. “He’s not any bigger than you are, and that’s not saying much.”
“Well, thank you, Mr. Ramero. I’m not so small. Especially now.”
“You’re not much bigger than a mosquito,” he teased.
“A mosquito after a full meal?”
Had she stopped to think about it, she would have been surprised at how comfortable she was speaking to him and to Eli about her pregnancy. Talk of having babies was not a subject mentioned between a woman and a man who was not her husband or close relative.
She felt warm and giddy, basking in his teasing smile.
“You’d better start this truck and head back to the motor court before this skeeter bites you.”
“Yes, ma’am. Nothin’ I hate worse than a skeeter bite.”
When they were back on the highway, she said, “We didn’t look for places to put up the signs.”
“How many signs will you have?”
“Four. Two on the east side of the court and two on the west.”
“I’ll take care of it. You want the first one about five miles out?”
“And the second one about a mile out, but you don’t need to do it. Eli thinks he can get a ride out with someone and walk back.”
“I’ll do it. Eli shouldn’t leave you alone at the court.”
“He’s just a boy.”
“He’s more of a man then you think he is. He didn’t let Frank back him down.”
“He’s only thirteen.”
“Hard knocks have made him older.”
“I don’t know what I would have done these past weeks without him. If I could, I’d keep him with me always.”
“Does he have folks?”
“An uncle who doesn’t want him and sent him to the orphanage.”
“Bastard,” Jake muttered under his breath. Aloud he said, “There it is. The court is still there.”
“So is Frank. There’s a light on in number one.”
“He’ll not be playing a radio unless he’s got a new one.”
“I thought you only took out the tubes.”
“I broke a little something taking them out.” She saw the flash of white teeth as he grinned at her. “Do you want me to let you out at the house?”
“Go on down. Frank might be watching.”
Jake parked the truck beside his cabin. She had opened the door and slid out by the time he got around to help her.
“Thank you for showing me the bridge.”
“My pleasure.” He took her hand, and she didn’t pull it away. “Will you go with me to look at another bridge . . . if I can find one?”
She laughed up at him, pulled her hand free of his and looped her hair behind her ears. “I think I’ve seen the only bridge worth seeing within fifty miles.”
“Mary Lee.” He liked saying her name. “At the end of the week, I will have been here two months. I’ll move out and get a room uptown so you can rent this cabin by the night.” They were walking behind the cabins toward the house. “Two months for forty dollars is still a bargain.”
“Mama rented to you for four months and you have the receipt. The law says you can stay.”
“The law may say so, but your mother wasn’t playing with a full deck when she rented to me. You could be getting another twelve dollars a week from my cabin and afford to hire some help.”
She stopped, turned and looked up at him. “Why would you do that?”
He looked down at her for a long time, his eyes roaming her face. Her mouth was soft and sweet, her expression troubled. All her doubts and hurt were there in her eyes.
“Why, Jake?”
“Because . . . I . . . want to help you and this is one way I can do it.”
“Don’t move out.” The words burst from her. “With you here, Frank won’t try anything.”
His hands came up to grip her shoulders. “I know about the note the bank holds. You need every dime you can get.”
“How come you know about that?” Her hands came up to hold on to his forearms.
“Frank, trying to be a big dog, told Paco at the Red Pepper Corral. He said after the bank takes over, he and Dolly will run the place.”
“I’ll burn it down first!” Tight-lipped, she glared at him.
“I’ll help you.”
“I suppose everyone in town is waiting to see me lose the motor court.”
“You won’t lose it. You’ll make it and we’ll celebrate. You and me and Eli will go to Sante Fe and have a barbecue dinner.”
“You sound sure.”
“I am sure.”
“Well, then, what’s there to worry about? I’d better go in. Mama’s probably out there with Frank. She’ll be drunk if she isn’t already. They might come in the house.” Her hands dropped from his arms, and she turned away.
“Mary Lee.” She stopped. He was still standing where she’d left him. “Do you really want the baby?”
“Of course I do. Whatever gave you the idea I didn’t?” “Do you want it because it’s Bobby’s?”
“No! I want it because it’s mine.” She brought her hand up and slapped her chest. “Bobby merely sowed a seed in the wind.”
Jake lifted his hand, turned, and went back toward his cabin.
Mary Lee stepped up on the back porch. Her opinion of Jake had changed drastically. When she first met him, she had thought the look in his cold green eyes was possessive and ruthless. After getting to know him, she saw him as being both gentle and protective, and genuinely concerned about her, the baby, and the motor court.
Eli was sitting at the kitchen table playing a game of solitaire.
“Is Mama over with Frank?”
“Yeah. I didn’t come in till she left. I looked in the window and saw her tryin’ to get in your suitcase.”
“She wouldn’t find anything there. I put all the money in a fruit jar and hid it.”
“Did you decide where to put the signs?”
“Jake said he would take care of it. He insisted.”
“Are you going to let him?”
“It would be rude to turn down help when it’s offered.”
Eli ducked his head and grinned. “Yeah, it would.”