fat?” he asked.
“No, I just don’t take the time. There’s always a handful of things I don’t get done every day.” She offered him half.
He took the sandwich slowly, as if he expected strings to come with it. When she didn’t say anything, he ate.
They sat watching the smoke drift up from the dying fire for a while, and then she asked, “How’d the courting go today?”
“Better, I think.” He stretched his long legs in front of him almost touching her. “I’m learning women are not near as easy to figure out as I thought.”
“You mean it’s simpler if you tell them what you want and they tell you how much it’ll be?”
“Yes, that would be nice. Then I could save up for just the right kind of wife.”
“So, Lewt, what do you want?”
“I want a good woman; you know, someone who doesn’t drink or swear or yell. Someone who’ll be home when I get there with a hot meal waiting. Someone who will keep the kids and will—”
“Stop right there.” She laughed. “If you want kids they cost extra.”
“All right. I’ll take two. A boy and a girl.”
“What about in the bedroom?”
“We’ll have the bedroom. That’s just the way it is when folks are married. She won’t mind the bedroom, she might even like it, but of course she’ll pretend she doesn’t because I think that’s what proper ladies do.”
“They do?”
He swore under his breath. “I can’t believe I’m even talking about this with you. If it weren’t dark I don’t think we’d be having this conversation. But since we are, if I could just go to the store and buy a proper wife, what do you think she’d cost?”
“Would she have to love you?”
“I don’t care. It’s not important. I’ve been living without love all my life, and from what I see, the emotion causes more pain than joy.” He thought about it a minute and added, “I’d tell her I loved her if she needed to hear it. I’d want her to be happy.”
Em handed him two cookies, ate two, and then gave him the last one.
He broke it in two and gave her half.
She stared down at the half, thinking that he was thoughtful even when he wasn’t trying to impress anyone. He’d also told her something very strange. His rich mole family hadn’t loved him.
“Do you know what it takes to make a woman happy?”
He laughed. “I thought I did. Money, a solid house, a man who comes home every night and never beats her. That should be enough to make any woman happy, don’t you think?”
“I think it’s a lot more than that, Lewt.” She stood and picked up her gear. “We’d better be getting back.”
They rode halfway back before the cloudy night grew so dark that Lewt had trouble following.
She stopped and pulled up close. “Turn your horse loose. She’ll go back to the barn eventually. You’d better ride double with me or we’ll be out here all night. There’s a shortcut through the trees and I’m not sure you’ll be able to keep up with me.”
He climbed down, looped his reins over the saddle horn, and slapped his horse hard enough on the rump to send her along. Then he felt for the stirrup and climbed up behind Em. Their hats bumped, along with knees. He spooned his long leg behind hers and removed both their hats and handed them to her so she could string them over the saddle.
She stiffened as he settled in behind her.
He let out a frustrated breath. “I know you don’t like it, but do you mind if I circle my arm around you? I feel like I could fall off without anything to hang on to.”
“All right,” she said. “I’ll just pretend you’re not there.”
“Fair enough,” he said, close to her ear.
They rode through the shadows of the trees. She’d crossed this way a hundred times in daylight, but never in darkness. Probably for fear he’d touch the wrong thing, he put one hand on the saddle horn and the other at her belt buckle. In the blackness, she laid her hand over his.
He seemed to understand. He turned his palm up and held her gloved hand tightly in his.
CHAPTER 16
AS THEY RODE THROUGH THE TREES, LEWT CLOSED his eyes, then opened them, realizing he could see nothing either way. It had been so long since he’d been in the country he’d forgotten how black the night could be on a cloudy, moonless night.
He felt like