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“Then do me a favor: see if you can find someone to watch the twins during the day,” Jessy suggested. “Sally doesn’t need that responsibility right now. I’ll leave it in your hands. Whoever you choose will be fine with me.”
“I’ll get on it right away,” Cat promised. “By the way, Culley mentioned that he saw you this morning.”
“Yes. I passed him on the road. I didn’t notice him until I was all the way by.” Jessy wasn’t entirely comfortable with this new subject.
“He said he thought you were on your way to the Circle Six.” Cat didn’t come right out and ask where Jessy went, but the unspoken question was there.
“I thought about stopping by to see you, but I had too many things to do.” Jessy smiled to herself, realizing that she had just taken a page out of Laredo’s book with her evasion. “And I still have a lot to do, so I’d better get at it.”
Using that as her exit line Jessy left the kitchen, and headed for the den to tackle the paperwork she had postponed.
The summer sun blazed hot and strong over the rough and rocky foothills. Perspiration rolled down Chase’s neck as he hefted a bundle of shingles onto his shoulder, his muscles straining under the burden. But it was a kind of sweat and strain that felt good and vaguely familiar.
After adjusting his load for better balance, he moved to the ladder propped against the cabin. A shirtless Laredo was on the roof, nailing down the last batch of shingles. The rhythmic pounding of his hammer echoed in the stillness. With his free hand, Chase grabbed hold of a rung and started up.
He was halfway to the top when Hattie toted a pail of dirty water out of the cabin. The instant she saw Chase, she came to an abrupt stop.
“Would you mind telling me what you are doing on that ladder, Duke?” she challenged.
“Enjoying the view. What does it look like?” He smiled away her question.
“Then enjoy it from down here.”
“I think I’ll have to start calling you Harping Hattie,” Chase replied, eyes twinkling. “A little honest work won’t hurt me.”
“It won’t hurt you a bit,” Hattie agreed, “as long as you do it on the ground. What would you do if you got a dizzy spell while you’re on that ladder?”
“Count on you to catch me,” he teased.
“You don’t know me very well. I would let you fall just to teach you a lesson.”
“Now that sounds like hard-hearted Hattie,” Laredo said through the nails he held between his teeth.
“It’s called tough love,” she countered with her usual spunk and set the pail on the ground. “When you come down, you can empty this bucket and fill it with some clean water. When you get done with that, I have a mop waiting for you inside—or a scrub brush. You can take your pick.” She turned on her heel and went back inside.
Laredo removed the last nail from between his teeth and glanced at Chase, dry amusement gleaming in his eyes. “If we aren’t careful, she’s going to turn into a slave driver.”
“There is something about a dirty house that seems to get a woman’s dander up.” Chase slung the shingle bundle onto the tar paper-covered roof not far from Laredo’s feet, then paused and turned his face to the steady breeze. His idly roaming glance noticed a plume of dust in the distance.
“Better hold it, Laredo,” he warned. “There is somebody on the road. They look to be a mile or so away yet, but sound can trave
l a considerable distance in this country.”
Laredo immediately straightened from his task and slipped the hammer into the loop on his tool belt. Turning sideways, he scanned the long vista, zeroing in on the dust cloud. “Pass me those binoculars hanging from the ladder.”
After removing the high-powered binoculars from their leather case Chase handed them to Laredo and waited in silence while the other man focused them on the source of the dust cloud. “Can you tell who it is?”
“A ranch pickup with the Triple C insignia on its door. I can’t make out the driver. It might be Jessy. Then again, it might not be. We’d better play it safe. It’s time to take a break anyway.”
He waited until Chase had begun his descent, then moved to the ladder and swung a foot onto a rung. When he reached the bottom, he passed the binoculars to Chase and headed for the water jug. After guzzling down a large quantity of it, he poured some on his faded blue kerchief and used the wet cloth to wipe the sweat from his face and neck while Chase tracked the vehicle’s progress through the binoculars.
Laredo cast a sideways glance at him. “Which way is it headed?”
“If it turns west at the next intersection, probably here. Which should mean it’s Jessy.” He kept the binoculars trained on the pickup. “It’s about time she showed up. It’s been three days now. I expected her to come yesterday.”
“I don’t imagine it’s easy for her to slip away.” Laredo wandered over to stand beside Chase.
“Probably not.” But the admission was a grudging one. A second later he announced, “She turned west.” He lowered the glasses. “It’s Jessy, all right, I just got a good look at her.”
