“Glad to hear it. So just bring me some clothes and my money, and I’ll go. And I could use the loan of a horse, too.”
The fool just wasn’t getting this. Tess sighed. “That squintyeyed fellow who showed up in the church with the halfbaked grin on his face was my brother, Sean. And he knows something isn’t straight here. If he gets wind that we’re not hitched for real and proper, he’ll go squealing to lawyer Bartlett like the pig he is, and Bartlett will take his side, because he’s a pig too.”
Her groom’s eyes narrowed. “And why should I be concerned about this?”
She threw up her hands. Could it be more obvious? “Because I married you to keep this ranch! What good is wasting three hundred good dollars and going through this nonsense if I lose the ranch anyway? You’ve gotta stick around a few days and make this look real, just until Sean goes back to his hole in California. How hard could that be?”
A muscle in his jaw twitched as he gritted his teeth. “Listen, lady, I don’t have a lot of time to hang around here playing house. You have a problem with your brother? Well, I have problems of my own. And three hundred dollars will help solve them. So keep your bargain, give me what you owe me, and I’ll be on my way. Now.”
She tried to be patient. “You’re not being reasonable.”
“I’m being reasonable for the first time in two days, because I’m sober for the first time in two days.” He exhaled a frustrated sigh, which deflated him enough to make his shoulders sink below the water. “I can’t believe I actually married you.”
That stung. “Hey. Lots of guys would be glad to marry me!”
“Then why didn’t you get one of them?”
“Because I don’t want a permanent husband. Don’t you ever listen?” Her patience threatened to wear thin. “I don’t see that asking you to park yourself here for a few days is expecting so much. After all, you are getting three hundred dollars.”
“So you keep promising.”
He lifted one arm from the water and draped it along the rim of the tub. His fingers had crinkled from the water, but other than that little detail, that arm was remarkably muscled, sprinkled with black hair plastered against sunbronzed skin. Tess felt a flush turn her own skin warm. She’d seen her daddy in the tub often enough, and Sean too before he left. But the sight of them in the wet altogether had never made her feel hot and dizzy. Tess wondered if Rosie had stoked up the stove too hot.
“Listen, wife.” The emphasis he put on the word made it a mockery. “I’m going to get out of this tub and find some clothes if I have to parade naked in front of everyone on this godforsaken ranch. Then I’m going to walk back into town, if I have to, to catch a stage out of here. So if you don’t want your maidenly modesty outraged, I suggest you get the hell out of here and get my money. Because I’m going to be one unhappy cowboy if you welsh. And you don’t want to see me unhappy.”
His voice had risen in volume, but Tess knew a bluff when she saw one, so she just chuckled smugly, confident that she held all the cards. Then he rose up. Water cascaded from slabs of muscle and ran in streams that outlined every sinew. And everything else. Her eyes widened and an involuntary gasp escaped her mouth.
Her face more fiery than Rosie’s stove, Tess whirled around and squinched her eyes shut, as if she could erase the sight imprinted on her unwilling brain. “I’ll get you some clothes,” she choked out, struggling to regain at least one finger of the upper hand. “But you can wait for your money until I have the deed to this ranch in my hand. So I’d just think about sticking around for a few days, cowboy, because you don’t want to see me unhappy either. Trust me on that.”
With a flourish she didn’t quite feel, she marched out of the kitchen, sweeping the curtain closed behind her. The cussing that followed her out made her almost smile.
JOSHfuriously rubbed himself dry with the towel that had been draped across one of the kitchen benches. Damned but that woman had more cojones than most men he knew. What kind of creature was she, anyway? She dressed like a man, talked like a man, swaggered like a man-and apparently had no trouble in outsmarting this particular man. This sorry state of affairs could convince him to never touch liquor again. He couldn’t believe he’d been drunk enough and downright stupid enough to do this to himself.
Before he had toweled away the last of the water on his skin, men’s clothes flew like missiles through the curtain that separated the kitchen from the rest of the house. The jeans were big, but he cinched them in with a worn leather belt. The gray flannel shirt pulled across the shoulders, but otherwise fit. Josh wondered if some other unsuspecting male had stumbled into this nest of women and left so fast he plumb left his clothes behind. He could understand it.
“Are you dressed?” Rosie’s voice asked from the other side of the curtain.
“Yeah. Come on in.”
Rosie flung the curtain aside and stood for a moment to regard him appreciatively. “You don’t look so bad when you’re not swaying like a drunken mule.”
“Uh… thanks. Where should I empty the water?”
“Oh, I’ll do that.”
Josh couldn’t imagine letting a woman carry the heavy tub of water while he stood around and watched. “No, ma’am. Just tell me where to dump it.”
A slow smile softened her face. She had a pretty face that had seen a lot of wear. The smile called up remnants of a fresh girl, though.
“Take it out back. This way.”
He picked up the tub and followed her out.
“Colin’s clothes fit you fine. Though I could let out the shoulders of that shirt.”
“I won’t be around long enough for you to bother, ma’am.”
“Tess said you’d be staying a few days.”
“That’s yet to be settled.”
“You can’t leave while Sean is still sniffing around. He’d be on to Tess for sure. He doesn’t deserve this ranch. Not any part of it.”
“I’ll take your word for it, ma’am.”
“You don’t have to. Ask Miguel. Ask any of the hands who’ve worked here since before Sean left. It wasn’t that he was a bad boy, just lazy. That boy spent more energy dodging work than anybody I’ve ever known.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Josh emptied the tub and hung it on a nail on the back wall. Everything here had its place, he noted. No clutter messed up the yard. What Rosie called the “back” was actually a courtyard, where a fivefoot adobe wall connected the main house with a smaller building constructed in the same style-singlestory adobe with few windows that could be quickly shuttered in case of foul weather or Indian attack. Though the Apaches hadn’t given anyone much trouble for the better part of two decades, Arizonans had long memories.
In the courtyard was a hearth for outdoor cooking, a couple of worktables, a scattering of stools for those who wished, maybe, to sit outside on a mild evening and whittle or swap tales. The hard ground was swept clean of dust and debris.
Beyond the courtyard wall Josh could see two corrals, a barn, bunkhouse, chicken house, toolshed, and smokehouse, all in good repair. Grass already sprouted green between the mesquite, piñon, and cedar, and in the near distance wound the San Pedro, which carried precious water to give life to a land that would otherwise be parched. Fat, healthylooking cattle grazed the river bottom, and on the crest of a nearby hill, a herd of horses stood in silhouette against the setting sun.
The people here had good reason to value this ranch. Many a man’s dream centered on having a place like this. A woman’s dream could rest here as well, Josh figured.
Rosie had noted his visual survey. “The Diamond T isn’t like the grand rich places that run thousands of head, but it’s a good ranch. Colin McCabe, God rest him, was a hardworking man. He knew cattle, and he knew horses.”