AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stood up in time for him to give her a crushing hug. He was still as tall and gangly, but gray now streaked his dark hair and beard. His brown eyes danced as he looked her over incredulously, and the crinkles of his face deepened when he smiled at her.
“What’s happened, darlin’? Where’s your mother?” Roy asked after he regained his speech.
Deep sadness welled up inside her at the thought of talking about it out loud. “She passed about six months ago. I’m sorry to have waited this long to tell you, but I couldn’t bring myself to write it in a letter. I wanted to tell you in person.”
He went quiet, and the smile faded from his face. “Is that why you’ve come? To tell me your mother has passed?”
“I’ve come to stay, if you’ll have me.”
“To stay?” He let go of her shoulders and took a step back. “What about your kinfolk?”
“You mean Aunt Elizabeth, I suppose. I can’t go back to Boston. Not now, not ever. Boston was never my home, no matter how I tried to make it so. This is the only place I have ever belonged.”
Roy ran his hand through his hair, mussing it up as he scanned the horizon out the window. “It’s not safe for you here. This town just got the railway in. It stops here now, but sooner or later they’ll work to continue it. There will be teams of rough men out here. And ranchers from all around drive their cattle here and blow off steam in town. It seems half the danged town is made of saloons now. Things have changed since you left.” Roy shook his head. The look in his eyes pleaded with her to understand. “You look fair proper now, Elizabeth. You’ve built a life in Boston. Best you not ruin that by putting roots down here.”
“It’s Eliza now.” She swallowed hard and ripped her gaze away from him so he wouldn’t see the tears of rejection that stung her eyes. “I can’t go back to Boston. I can’t hear that I’m plain, or lazy, or unwanted, or a bastard child, or a thorn in the family’s name anymore. I’ll take my chances here, where I have a fraction of a hope at happiness.”
Roy heaved a sigh. “I don’t think this is the place for a lady such as yourself. There’s things out here that…well, they can hurt you. Especially a lady raised soft.”
She stared at his dirty boots and clenched her hands in front of her lap. “I’m not soft.”
Roy sighed and let a few heavy moments of silence hang in the air between them. “You can stay for a few days. I do want to catch up, but then I’m buying you a train ticket back to Boston.”
Hoofbeats echoed off the hard-packed ground outside. Roy turned for the door, listening, then cocked the pistol and opened the door. Eliza trailed him. Three figures charged the yard on horseback. Their thunderous entrance made a gray gelding tied to the post out front pull hard against his knotted reins. After Roy got a good look at the threesome, he holstered his weapon and waved. The trio came to a stop in front of the porch, and the leader tipped his hat to Roy.
The man in front had dark brown hair under his hat and short, dark stubble on his jaw. Tall in the saddle, he was wide in the shoulders. His piercing blue eyes seemed to bore into her very soul. She’d never seen eyes glow such a vibrant blue before. Perhaps it was a trick of the saturated sunlight or something. She was utterly stunned into silence, locked in his unblinking gaze. His eyes were so blue, they were almost white. Her heart pounded when his attention dipped to her body and drank in her dress, face, hair, and hat.
His horse was still fidgety from the run, sidestepping. The man tilted his head toward a corral filled with cattle and addressed Roy. “Those the ones you’re driving into town?”
Roy nodded. “Yep, sure are. You drivin’ some too? I heard the prices are decent right now.”
“Yep. In a few days. We only have three hundred head so I figured we could take yours up too, if you want. Tell me numbers, and I’ll get you the money after we get back. Save you the trouble.”
“Mighty kind of you. I’d appreciate that. I can come along and help, too.”
Eliza was staring. Indeed, she hadn’t been able to take her eyes off him long enough to notice the other two riders. Now he glared at her with a flash of annoyance.
Roy glanced at her and cleared his throat. “This is—”
“Eliza,” she said, smiling broadly.
The man waited a half-second too long to be polite. “Garret Shaw. Come on, Roy. Let me take a look at the cattle you’ve got.”
Then he rode off around the side of the house. Her heart pounded in her chest and ears to the rhythm of the receding hoofbeats. Garret Shaw. Garret Shaw? Garret Shaw! Holy hell, that fiery, brash man was her childhood friend!
He wore a black shirt and scuffed-up boots, and his horse was a tall bay. She didn’t remember Garret’s eyes being that bright!
Roy untied the gray horse from the post in front of the cabin. “He’s a little different now,” Roy murmured, and then rode off behind Garret and left Eliza to control her shock enough to face the other riders. To her surprise, one of them was a woman around her own age, though her mannish attire made it difficult to tell she was a lady at first.
“You don’t look like you’re from around here,” the man, who was older, said with an amused smile. His eyes were a bright gray, and so were the woman’s. They rivaled the brightness of Garret’s gaze.
It had to be the sunlight playing tricks on her eyes.
“The puffy dress has been throwing people off all day,” she said, repeating the word the little girl on the train had said.
The woman let off a soft laugh and the man’s mouth widened in a grin, showing white teeth against his tanned skin. “People call me Cookie,” he said in a deep, velvety voice.
“Cookie? Did your mother name you that, or is it a nickname?”
