by Indiana Wake
“No, you really do not have to…”
“Yes, I do,” he said in a firm voice which brooked no argument. “What sort of a man would I be not to at least see you safely home?” And with that, he set his horse off walking.
Suki was amazed when Dancer simply followed along, happy to keep pace with the other horse and her brand-new friend, Sonny Reynolds.
Chapter Six
An hour later saw them at the Shepherd farm where John Shepherd shook the newcomer’s hand for the fifth or sixth time.
“I can’t thank you enough, Mr. Reynolds.” John Shepherd said again, his relief more than a little evident.
“Not at all. Truth is, Miss Shepherd held onto that horse with more skill than most cowboys I’ve met,” he said without any hint of sarcasm. “And if I hadn’t called out so loudly, Dancer would likely have settled back down before your daughter was thrown. I guess I’m somewhat responsible is what I’m trying to say.” He gave a rueful smile.
“Well, you must come over here one night for some dinner. My wife isn’t here at the moment, but I know she’ll be keen to meet you once I’ve told her of your kindness to our girl.” Suki was both pleased and horrified by her father’s words.
She adored him for his kindness and his determination to do right by other people; he was a good man. But she felt a little panic-stricken by the idea of Sonny Reynolds coming to spend time with her and her family. She knew it was ridiculous, but the panic grew in her chest until she wished that Sonny would simply politely refuse and leave.
At the same time, however, Suki was almost certain that she would be sorry to see him go. Why, oh why, was life so confusing? Why couldn’t she be normal? Why couldn’t she be pleased by the little accident that had her spending the entire afternoon with one of the most handsome men in town? Why couldn’t she be more like her beautiful friend, Honey Goodman?
“I sure would like that, sir.”
“John, please,” John insisted.
“John. And I’m Sonny,” Sonny replied. “Well, I guess I’d better let you all settle down after all the excitement,” he said and nodded respectfully at Suki’s father.
“I’ll call over to Felton Lowry’s place to see you, Sonny.” Suki’s father was still smiling warmly. “Give you a time and day for dinner and all,” he went on.
“I sure would like that, John.” As Suki studied him, she realized that Sonny Reynolds seemed pleased, touched almost.
She wondered then what it must be like to move away from everybody you knew to start a brand-new life somewhere else. Somewhere else where you didn’t know a single soul and had to take on the world without a friend in all the world.
“Yes, you must,” Suki said, hardly able to believe that she had spoken the words aloud. “I really am grateful to you, Mr. Reynolds.” He raised his eyebrows at her and smiled. “Sonny,” she corrected with a smile.
“You’re welcome,” he said, his blue eyes holding hers for a moment.
“Well, good day to you, Sonny. And welcome to town, I reckon you’re going to fit in a treat.” John Shepherd put a steadying arm around his daughter who had been standing on one foot for some minutes leaning gently against the fencing.
“Good day, John.” He turned his attention back upon Suki. “And good day to you, Suki.” He nodded. “If that ankle of yours heals, maybe I’ll see you in the town barn on Saturday.” It was a gentle suggestion, not a request that demanded an answer.
“Yes, you will,” she said, feeling a little breathless and exhausted from all the excitement.
Father and daughter stood side-by-side watching Sonny Reynolds disappear into the distance.
“He strikes me as a good man, Suki,” her father said without any hint of a motive. As always, with John Shepherd, he spoke as he found it.
“Yes, he was very helpful.”
“I sure am sorry, sweetheart, I should never have let you go out on Dancer. She just wasn’t ready.”
“She was never going to be ready, Daddy,” Suki said, trying to hide her exasperation for the man she loved more than any other in the whole world. “We had to begin somewhere.”
“Yes but, I ought to have been the one to…”
“Why, Daddy? Are your bones made of any different stuff than mine? Anybody can be thrown from a horse.”
“I know, I know,” he said, recognizing his overprotection and letting it drop with a kiss on the top of her pale blonde head.
“Well, your mama is sure going to want to hear all the details when she gets back from Trinity Goodman’s place!” he said with a chuckle as his daughter sighed, knowing that much was true.
Chapter Seven
Sonny had arrived at the town barn so early he felt like a bit of a fool. He’d had Suki Shepherd stuck in his head for the entire five days since he’d helped her home and it had made him a little eager. Still, there were one or two others from the town trailing into the barn, so he followed.
“What can I get you?” a bright and smiling young woman said when he approached the punch table. “Liquor or fruit?” she went on.
“Liquor please, ma’am,” he said, returning the smile as he accepted the tin cup of what was clearly heavily laced punch if the smell of alcohol was anything to go by.
“You have a nice night now.” The woman was still smiling, her perfectly formed ringlets swaying about her face with every move of her body.
“Thank you kindly,” he said, wandering away the moment someone else came up for a drink.
He settled down on a hay bale and watched as the number of people in the barn began slowly to swell. There were enough people around now for him to feel less conspicuous. Taking a swig of the eye-watering punch, he looked all about the room in hopes of seeing Suki walking in. Or hobbling in, that ankle sure was swollen by the time he’d returned her to her father.
He smiled to himself; John Shepherd was certainly a nice man and he had no doubts that his wife would prove to be similarly pleasant. Brad Lowry had certainly been right about that much, at least.
He wondered idly if his friend might be making an appearance that night. He hadn’t seen much of Brad all week; his father had a multitude of tasks for him to perform within the ranch and Sonny had been left largely alone to wander the plains. The truth was, and he would only ever admit it to himself, that he had suffered from the loss of Brad’s constant conversation and would have welcomed a little distraction from his all-consuming thoughts of Suki.
There was something about her and he couldn’t quite make out what that was. She was certainly beautiful with her pale blonde hair and blue eyes, coloring so like her father that the family resemblance was striking. And, from his own private study of her, he already knew her to be wonderfully curvy and soft looking; the sort of woman he would be glad to reach out and touch.
He chuckled to himself as he wondered exactly how a woman as suspicious as Suki would react to such a thing. She was certainly no pushover, that was for sure, and he went on to imagine her hitching him up to the back of the oxen in place of the plough and running him face down back and forth across her father’s fields.
“All alone?” the tawny ringleted young woman from the punch stand asked, seeming freed of her duties.
“I’m just waiting for somebody,” he said.
After all, the chances of a woman who claimed not to enjoy dancing at all coming out on a night when her ankle was badly swollen were very slim.
“A girl?” she asked with a hint of distaste.
“A friend,” he said ambiguously and smiled, not really wanting her conversation.
She continued to smile at him, and Sonny realized he felt a little bad for her. She was just being friendly and, it would seem, had quitted her post before the evening had even begun to make sure that he was all right. She doubtless recognized him as a newcomer and was seeking to put him at his ease. What sort of a gentleman would he be if he did not at least acknowledge her efforts with a little kindness?
“Well, a couple of friends,
I guess. I thought Brad Lowry might turn out tonight,” he admitted, hoping he looked somewhat more affable than he might have appeared just moments before.
“I should think so. Brad very rarely misses these.” She suddenly sat down next to him on the hay bale, a little too close for comfort.
He almost laughed out loud; when had it ever bothered him to have a young lady throw herself at his feet?
“Oh well, then I guess he’ll show,” he said, careful to inch away from her by degrees so that she would not notice his aversion.
“My name is Gracie Thornhill, by the way,” she said, tipping her head coquettishly to one side and letting her glossy ringlets frame her face.
“Sorry, forgive me,” he said, remembering his manners and briefly wondering where on earth they had come from in the first place; certainly not his violent father nor his absent mother. “I’m Sonny Reynolds.”
“I know,” she purred and narrowed her eyes. “You’re a cowboy,” she said, stating the obvious or so he thought.
“So, are you going to be stuck delivering punch all night?” he asked and immediately regretted it.
She smiled brightly and looked like a cat who had stumbled upon a dish of cream. No doubt she thought that he was hoping to spend a little time with her that night if she wasn’t too busy sloshing fruity liquor into tin cups.
“No, I can get Kelly March to take my place, she won’t mind. I’ve already told her to stand in for me.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean for you to abandon your post, I was just enquiring,” he said, not wanting to be brutal but not wanting to be stuck with her all night either.
There was something about the young woman that he couldn’t immediately take to. She was certainly a beauty and very well turned out to boot. Seeing every perfect ringlet and the thick layer of stacked white petticoats which bounced around her ankles and lifted the hem of her pretty dress, he was certain that she had spent much of her afternoon getting herself ready for the night.
And yet, despite her beauty, femininity, and obvious effort in every feasible area, he wanted her to go back to Kelly March, whoever she was, and let her have her evening back.
“You don’t need to go worrying about that, Sonny,” she said, and he bristled a little at her presumption.
He thought immediately of Suki and how she had determinedly addressed him as Mr. Reynolds until asked to do otherwise. He wasn’t a delicate man by any stretch of the imagination, but he appreciated good manners showing up in others. It was a good judge of character, that.
“Well, I guess Brad will be here sooner or later,” he said in a vain attempt to disentangle himself.
“Who else are you waiting for? You said a couple of friends, Sonny,” she said nosily.
“I was hoping to see Suki Shepherd, as a matter of fact,” he said, and the young woman’s face fell dramatically. “It’s just that she was thrown from her horse this week and I was wondering how she was doing.”
“She’s practically a farmer, Sonny, don’t you go worrying about her,” she said with such haughty distaste that he had no doubt whatsoever that Gracie Thornhill was no admirer of the young woman who had overtaken his thoughts for so many days now.
“Well, I’m a cowboy and I still would have complained if I’d have hurt myself the way Miss Shepherd did,” he said and laughed in what he hoped was a good-natured way, despite his growing annoyance.
“It hardly matters anyway, she can’t dance a step,” she said and gave a shrill laugh. “I don’t know why she bothers coming to the barn dance at all, she never gets up from the hay bales.” She was smiling at him in a way he didn’t really care for. Gracie Thornhill did not like Suki Shepherd, and she did not want him to like her either.
“I guess we are all different, Miss Thornhill,” he said, determined not to be as familiar with her as she seemed content to be with him.
Seriously, when did he become so strait-laced?
“Well, maybe I’ll just keep you company until Brad arrives. And if you want somebody to dance with, I sure would be willing.” Her eyes were wide, and she stared at him without a hint of embarrassment.
She was absolutely interested in him, no doubt about it. He had, of course, encountered such women before but he had generally been pleased to meet them, safe in the knowledge that their association would likely not last beyond a couple of dates, or even that same night.
“Aren’t you meeting someone, yourself?”
“I’m part of the scenery here, Sonny. I know everybody so I’m never really alone.” She was so confident she was verging on arrogant.
“Well, I have one or two things to talk over with Brad when he gets here, so I might not quite make it to the dance floor.” He was trying to let her down gently.
“All work and no play sure will make you a dull boy, Sonny.” She was leaning in towards him, giving him a very good idea of just how low-cut her otherwise wholesome gingham dress really was. “Once you get up on that dance floor with me, you’ll forget about Brad Lowry and make no mistake of it.”
The woman was so persistent he was beginning to wish he hadn’t decided against being rude to her in the first place. He wanted Suki to be sitting with him on the hay bale, not this vain creature. And if Suki didn’t show, he wanted to take another drink and sit on that same hay bale just thinking about her and wondering when her father would come to Lowry’s place and give him a day to come to dinner.
Brad had been right in his first idea that Suki Shepherd had got under his skin. She certainly had and the beautiful woman now sitting next to him was nothing but a very pale imitation of the real thing.
Quite why he liked Suki so much he couldn’t fathom. She was aloof and had certainly given no sign of liking him anywhere near as much as he liked her. But she had softened a little out on the prairie, if only by the necessity of needing his help. Still, he wanted to set eyes on her more than anything in that moment.
And, as luck, or lack thereof, would have it, Suki Shepherd appeared. She was leaning heavily on the friend she had been with the last time he saw her in the town barn. He smiled brightly, before seeing the look of recognition in her face as she let her eyes stray to the woman sitting so closely by his side that a blade of grass wouldn’t fit between them.
Perhaps, seeing Suki at that moment wasn’t going to be as fortunate as he’d first hoped.
Chapter Eight
It was all Suki could do to keep her mouth from dropping open in surprise. Of all the things she had expected to see, Sonny Reynolds sitting so close to Gracie Thornhill that she was almost on his lap was not one of them.
She knew, of course, that Gracie Thornhill would do anything in this world to turn her upside down; she just hadn’t realized that Sonny Reynolds would be the one to join her.
“Is your ankle hurting? Here, lean on me a little more.” Honey, who was intent on getting her hobbling friend safely to a hay bale, hadn’t seen Sonny and Gracie.
“No, I… I think I want to go.”
“But why? You’ve made it this far. Oh.” Finally, Honey saw the two of them. “Oh, come on, you know what she’s like.”
“Please, just get me out of here.” Suki tried to look away but couldn’t.
Finally, Sonny looked over and saw her, the surprise in his eyes clear. No doubt he hadn’t expected her because of her state.
“Suki, that won’t help you. You’ll stew and you’ll feel bad.”
“I feel bad already,” Suki hissed. “I feel humiliated and I don’t really know why.”
“Then, the best thing to do is hold your head up high and don’t let anybody see it. If you scurry out now, your feelings will be clear, and that little wasp, Gracie Thornhill has won.”
“I don’t much care if Gracie Thornhill wins or loses, it’s not her making me feel like a fool. But I take your point. Maybe we could just sit here.” She looked down at a vacant hay bale some ten feet from where Sonny and Gracie were sitting.
“Sure, Suki. Can you manage?” Honey
asked as she set her friend down on the bale with the greatest care.
“Thank you.” Suki perched on the very edge of the bale as if ready to run away at any moment, despite the fact her swollen ankle would have made such a thing impossible.
Between the ankle and the feelings of embarrassment, Suki felt trapped and wished the night could be over already.
“I’ll get us both a drink. Will you be all right here?” Honey asked and it was clear she was fighting hard on her friend’s behalf to make everything appear normal. “We’ll just go on as normal, sweetie.”
“Right, yes,” Suki said, trying to get a hold of her resolve. “Yes, a drink would be nice.” She smiled up at Honey, releasing her.
As much as she knew the drink would help with appearing unperturbed, Suki felt her heart sink when she saw the long line of people waiting in the queue. Ordinarily, Gracie Thornhill would be helping to serve the drinks. She liked that sort of thing, something which would garner her a little attention from every man who stepped up to the punchbowl. However, Sonny Reynolds had successfully tempted her away from her customary role that night, and with apparent ease.
Even though Suki peered about the room as if looking for somebody else altogether, she knew that Sonny was looking over at her; she could almost feel his bright blue gaze burning into her. Suki couldn’t meet his eyes.
She concentrated hard on Ted Oliver, who was dancing enthusiastically with Jennifer West, the girl who worked in the diner. He smiled when he saw her and she waved at him, grateful for a little distraction and that tiny opportunity to look normal; to look anything other than hurt.
But why was she hurt? She hardly knew Sonny Reynolds and she had spent much of their short acquaintance nursing feelings of mild annoyance for him. Then, quite out of the blue, her mind filled with an image of him out on the plains, his handsome face calm and his entire being focused on soothing her nervous horse. She recalled him pacing with his arm outstretched as if in friendship to the creature. How languidly he walked, how careful he had been in his every movement not to startle Dancer any further. Suki had been impressed by him, even mesmerized by him as much as her horse was.
