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“You sent him a note.”
“Yes. I wanted to know if he saw anyone around. Anyone suspicious. Specifically, your previous foreman, Jimmy.”
“You think he’s causing trouble?”
She sighed. He didn’t need to sound so skeptical. “I think he’s vicious enough to do a lot of things behind a person’s back.” Asa stared over her shoulder, obviously pondering her statement. She touched his cheek, bringing his gaze back to hers. “About this ridiculous fear you have regarding my loyalty…”
“I don’t doubt your loyalty.”
She continued as if he hadn’t interrupted. “You are my husband. The man I trust with my ranch, my life, and the lives of any children we might have together. If you put that on a scale and balance it against my affection for Aaron, you’d see there really isn’t any competition.”
His expression didn’t change. Behind his eyes, emotions surged. She sighed. She was obviously going to have to spill her guts, to borrow one of Asa’s sayings. “I don’t believe you’re right about Aaron, but, if this comes to a confrontation and it doesn’t go the way I think it will, when the dust settles, I’ll be standing there by your side.”
“You mean that?”
“I’m not in the habit of saying what I don’t mean.”
His response was interrupted by the knock on the door that prefaced Cougar’s “Y’all up in there?”
“We’re up.”
“You got company.”
“We heard. Tell him I’ll be right down.”
“He wants to see Elizabeth.”
Asa put his fingers over Elizabeth’s lips, preventing her response. He stared into her eyes as he said, “He’ll have to make do with me.”
“Better hurry.” Cougar growled. “Looks like lack of sleep has been hell on the man’s patience.”
“I’m right behind you.”
As soon as she heard Cougar’s footsteps leave the door, Elizabeth shook free of Asa’s hand. “There’s absolutely no reason I shouldn’t go down and speak to Aaron.”
“Darlin’,” Asa drawled in that slow way that said his mind was set. “Until I’m as convinced of that man as you are, you’re not getting within shouting distance.”
She followed him as he headed for the dresser. “You’ll have a much better chance of intelligent conversation if Aaron is sure I’m all right.”
Asa opened a drawer and pulled out a shirt. As he shrugged into it, he said, “I’m not looking for intelligence. I’m looking for truth.”
“Which,” she persisted, “you’d be much more likely to encounter if both of you are calm and rational.”
He buttoned the shirt to mid-chest. He looked impossibly handsome and assured. “You’re not going down, Elizabeth. The man came here wearing guns.”
“Everyone wears guns.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You just got done saying you trusted me.”
She stamped her foot. “Don’t twist my words against me.”
He grabbed his boots and sat on the bed. His other eyebrow winged upwards to join the first. “Exactly how am I twisting things?”
“By trying to make me feel guilty so I’ll abandon rational argument.”
He stomped his right foot into its boot. As he stomped the other one in, he asked, “Is it working?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Somewhat.”
He stood and tucked his shirt into his pants. “There’s no somewhat about it, Elizabeth. Either you trust me or you don’t.”
Part of her wanted to argue, but he was right. . Either she trusted Asa to handle things or she didn’t.
“You won’t get into a fight?”
“Not unless I’m provoked.”
“You promise?”
He paused on the way to the door. “I promise I won’t hurt your precious Aaron unless there’s no choice.”
She really was going to have to take a sledgehammer to her husband’s stubborn pride. “I wasn’t worried about Aaron.” He stopped and turned. While she had his attention, she added for good measure. “And you were wrong earlier.”
“About what?”
“I wasn’t trying to tell you I trusted you.”
His only response was a surprised lift of his right eyebrow. She bit her lip and then risked it all. “I was trying to say I love you.”
He stood like he’d been pole-axed. Not a muscle moved anywhere on his body, but his eyes burned almost black with emotion. Her pulse hammered in her ears. Her impetuous revelation might have been a miscalculation, she decided, as he struggled to get himself together. She counted ten beats of her heart before Asa found his voice. If he hadn’t been so obviously off balance, she might have been crushed by his reply.
A low drawled, “Thank you, darlin’,” as the man slipped through the bedroom door was hardly the response of a woman’s dreams.
* * * * *
She stared at the closed door and decided it was a miscalculation making her announcement just then. As much as she wanted him to know he ranked first with her, telling Asa she loved him as he went to confront her best friend whom he regarded as an enemy might not have the calming effect she’d been hoping for. It might, in fact, trigger all those over-protective instincts she was trying to soothe.
