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“Dunno. Both, probably.”
“You fuck her?”
I winced. “Yes?”
Travis let out a huff that could have been the forerunner of a derisive snort or a laugh. “She leave you?”
“Yeah.” Admitting that still hurt.
“Heard she’s like that.” He shifted off the wall to lean over the veranda next to me.
“Who’d you hear that from?” I asked, a little sharper than I planned.
It wasn’t like she’d been a virgin. I knew she had experience, coming onto me like that. Not that I’d been any sort of innocent party.
“She’s...wild.”
“Girl or horse?” I squinted, but they were well out of sight.
“Either.” Trav sighed and stretched his neck to one side. “Be careful with her, yeah?”
“I won’t hurt her. I don’t fuck around when I’m...with someone.” I met his hard stare head on, daring him to tell me different.
“I didn’t mean her.”
Well, fuck.
****
I spent the next two weeks running back east across the borderlands and crossing over occasionally. Picked up a hitchhiker or two, did a little ranch work for extra coin. Anything to keep my mind off Sienna and the way she rode me beneath the waterfall that night in the cave.
Which was why I looked for her from the moment I rolled out of Jack Stone’s house all the way back to Red Hart. Even as I pulled up, my eyes darting all over the place, I knew she wasn’t there. The boys flocked me the moment I opened the back of the truck and set up my stool next to it.
But rather than selling with my table like I usually did, I sat back and let them pick through my wares, keeping half an eye on the pickpockets, and one firm eye on the mountain behind the big house.
“Hi, Kyle,” Eve welcomed me warmly.
She had a big smile on her face, but even I could see she’d lost the weight she put on in Texas with the man she should have married, at least in my opinion if anyone asked me. Not that they had, so I kept that one under my hat.
I returned the hug she gave me, resting a hand on her back for a moment too long. She looked at me with a question in her eyes, and I promptly wiped my face blank.
“Promise us all you’re eating that food you set out for every, yeah? Stuff yourself with some of those Montana sandwiches the boys like so much.”
“Always a charmer, aren’t you?” she asked wryly, though her smile strained at the corners.
“Try my best, ma’am.” I tipped my hat to her. “Weather’s been good since I was here last?”
Eve smirked at me. “You’re not here to ask me about the weather, Trader Kyle,” she said, and I was pleased to hear the smile in her voice. But her eyes darkened a little as a cloud passed over the sun behind the house. “I haven’t seen Sienna for a week or more. I can ask Jude...” She glanced around, but the supervisor was nowhere in sight.
“I’ll find him to ask myself,” I promised her. “Don’t pester about it, Miss Eve. Tell me your Texas man will be back to take care of you sometime?”
She shrugged. “Maybe around Christas.” Her pensive mood blanketed the yard.
Even the boys shuffled away, a few handing me coins for the trinkets they found for their girls, or the girl they wanted to have.
I kept that damn bracelet out of the trays again, and hell, maybe I'd find time to give it to her, if I saw her any time soon. Or maybe I'd sell it to another girl in White Cap next time I was in town.
That last was utter bullshit, and I cast the thought away.
