Silver Creek - G.L. Snodgrass Page 0,50
prefer being a rancher’s wife.”
Carver’s eyes grew big at the suggestion. Him, with a bar girl. But then, slowly, his forehead began to relax as he examined the idea.
“Well, it’s something to think about. I won’t be leaving for a few days yet.”
“Want to stick around to see the fireworks?”
“Maybe,” Carver said. “You got to admit. It is entertaining.”
“You let me know before you take off,” Luke said then paused for a moment. “I’d be thinking a good bit about Scarlet Perkins. Think she might make the right man a good wife.”
Carver frowned, “Yes, but …”
Luke shrugged his shoulders. “The nights get mighty cold up in those mountains during the winter. And ain’t we all got things in our past we ain’t right proud of. That ain’t what is important. It’s tomorrow that counts.”
“What about you?” Carver asked. “Could you see yourself with a woman … like her?”
Luke laughed as he turned to leave. “I ain’t ever going to know. It was never going to be anyone but Becky for me.”
The cowboy was left in the dark to think about it as Luke once more slipped into the shadows. The knowledge that it hadn’t been Felton’s men shooting at him changed things again. A new enemy. One that struck from hiding. God, would there ever be a time when he didn’t have someone wanting to kill him?
He shook off the morose feeling that threatened to consume him and instead focused on getting to Helen’s before they left for home. With Chester on his stage run, the two women would be unescorted.
When he got to the restaurant he pulled back and held in the shadows until they stepped outside. Becky pulled her shawl up around her shoulders. Luke couldn’t help but smile. The woman was beautiful and tugged at his insides.
Instead of making himself known, he held back. He was a target, he reminded himself. No need to place Becky in danger by getting too close but he couldn’t let her walk down this street alone.
His gut tightened when not ten feet from the restaurant’s door Becky suddenly turned and hissed, “Luke?”
Shaking his head, he stepped out of the shadows so that she could identify him, “I’ll stay back for a bit,” he whispered then slipped back into the darkness next to the building
Her shoulders slumped with relief as she shot him a heart-stopping smile. Then taking a deep breath she and Helen started for home again.
Luke followed, scanning the roofs and corners for anyone that might want to take a shot at him while at the same time keeping an eye out for anyone who might want to snag Becky off the street.
His stomach was tighter than a drum until he got them to their home. He watched as they both entered without ever acknowledging his presence. Taking a deep breath. he turned to go when a scuffling sound from the side of the house stopped him.
“Luke,” Becky whispered as she came to the corner and peeked around the edge. Obviously, she had gone inside then slipped out the back door and come around to him. If anyone was watching, they never would have seen her.
He sighed to himself as he made his way to her. He should tell her to go back inside but he couldn’t, the drive to be with her was just too strong.
“How’d you know it was me, back there at the restaurant?” he asked.
She shrugged, “I don’t know, something inside of me just knew.”
He laughed, “Zion would have been impressed. I thought I was good, but you …”
She smiled as she reached for him and pulled him into a hug so that she could lay her head on his chest, “It only works with the man I love. Otherwise, you could have been a team of horses and I would have been oblivious.”
“You need to go inside,” he said as he leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
She slumped into him, obviously unhappy about it. “We haven’t talked,” she said, “not really. Every time I think we might, something interrupts us. Pap, Jake. When are we going to have time, just the two of us?”
“What is there to talk about?”
Becky gasped as she pulled back to look up into his eyes. “What is there to talk about?” she asked with a stern tone. “You aren’t serious?” Then suddenly her eyes grew big as she pulled away from him. “Unless … Maybe we don’t have a future. Maybe I’ve been stupid.”
Luke frowned at her.