Page 30 of Love’s Silver Bullet

“Who told you that?” Finn set his coffee cup down, eyes in a squint.

“Dash did,” Shaylee volunteered as she licked first her spoon and then her plate, which Aunt Libby promptly removed from her hand with a parental smile.

“Well, that should be your first clue it wasn’t true,” Blaze said with an evil grin, finger-shooting a watermelon seed into Dash’s hair. “The only thing Dash ever learned how to shoot off was his mouth.”

Chuckles rounded the table while Finn addressed Sheridan with a patient smile. “Your brothers are men, sweetheart. Men have to learn to hunt and protect their families. Besides, shooting comes more naturally to men.”

“Unless you’re Dash,” Blaze quipped, earning more laughter.

Aunt Libby grunted. “I’d like to see you tell that to Miss Oakley and Miss Smith, sweetheart, but make sure you have your hands raised when you do.”

Maggie and Sheridan giggled in agreement.

“At any rate,” Uncle Finn said with a conciliatory smile reinforced by a firm lift of brows, evidently anxious to steer the conversation away from Aunt Libby’s suffragist tendencies, “you’re learning to shoot now, Sher, so it’s a moot point.”

Clay cleared his throat. “Uh, sir, as I mentioned, I train many of the new hires to shoot as well as ride, so I’d be more than happy to offer my services to Sheridan as well.”

“Oh my goodness, Clay, really?” Sheridan practically bounced as she straightened up on the chair, socking Blaze in the gut at the thought of his little sister growing up. “Uncle Finn bought me my first gun for Christmas—a derringer—for protection when I go to New York in the fall, but I don’t know how to use it. So, would you really give me lessons?”

“I’m giving you lessons, Sher,” Blaze said in a clipped tone before the dandy could even respond, “so no need to bother Mr. Morgan.”

“I assure you, it’s no bother whatsoever.” Clay smiled at Sheridan before he shifted his gaze to Blaze with a calm look that belied the gleam of challenge in his eyes. “I give lessons all the time, so I truly don’t mind.”

“No, but I do.” Blaze stared him down, his tone as tight as his jaw. “She’s my sister and my responsibility, so I’ll be the one teaching her how to shoot, Mr. Morgan, not some stranger.”

“But, that’s just it, Blaze,” Sheridan said with a taut heft of her chin, her temper apparently warming along with his, “you’re not out of that cast until right before I leave for New York, and I don’t want to wait that long.”

“Wait a minute.” Finn peered at Blaze with a crease in his brow. “I thought Jake was giving her lessons?”

Blaze shifted uncomfortably in his chair as heat scalded the back of his neck. “Nope. He asked me to do it because apparently someone”—he burned Sheridan with a hard gaze, tempering it with a faint smile as strained as this confounded conversation—“gave him some trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” Finn asked with a scrunch of his face, pinning Sheridan with a look that caused her cheeks to blossom bright red.

Blaze stared his sister down. “You want to tell him or should I?”

Muscles wobbled in Sheridan’s throat as she turned to face their uncle, a familiar lift of her shoulders assuring Blaze she would do everything in her power to safeguard Jake’s secret.

And hers.

“Jake was downright crabby and mean with me, Uncle Finn, and he even made me cry.”

Propping elbows on the table, Uncle Finn lifted his coffee halfway, tone dubious before he took a drink. “That doesn’t sound like Jake. Did you do something to upset him?”

A blush swallowed her whole, clear up to the roots of her hair, and Blaze decided to save her sassy little butt.

Just like he was trying to do from the dandy.

Blaze raised his sarsaparilla in a mock toast. “Jake says when it comes to teaching Sher, she’s like stallions in a stall, bucking him at every turn.”

“He’s right, Uncle Finn,” Sheridan was quick to add, obviously anxious to deflect Finn’s curiosity as to the true source of their conflict. “But I’m afraid Jake’s the one who did most of the bucking, not at all happy about teaching me, so if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather he not. And since Blaze won’t get his cast off for a while and Clay offered—”

“Absolutely,” Clay said all too quickly, first with a smile to Sheridan, then one to Finn. “I’d be delighted to teach Sheridan.”

Blaze’s jaw molded tight. Oh, I just bet you would—

“Thank you, Clay, but no,” Finn said before Blaze could even open his mouth, relief seeping through his gritted teeth that Uncle Finn was finally taking control. “Sheridan’s lessons are the responsibility of our family, son, so we will handle it.”

Blaze all but smirked at the sudden sobriety in Clay’s face, grateful that his annoyingly polite demeanor would get him absolutely nowhere with Finn McShane. “I wouldn’t mind, sir, truly, and I’d love to repay you for your hospitality today.”