“Yes, I have more questions,” I say, holding up a letter dated two months ago. A letter that we only just picked up from Cade’s lonely mailbox that sits at the edge of his property and only gets delivery once a week because it’s so far out. “I told you it was strange that SueAnn never filed that lawsuit again. And this explains why! How could you seriously be so . . . so . . .”
“Stupid?” Cade says, raising an eyebrow and coolly taking a sip of his coffee like he doesn’t give a fuck, isn’t concerned about this very concerning letter from his bank.
“Negligent,” I say firmly. “Not stupid. Negligent.” I sigh and shake my head. “Cade, I understand how you live, and I’m coming to love it too. But you can’t just ignore the outside world! Do you know what could have happened if the bank hadn’t sent you this letter?”
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” he grunts. “We’ll head into town next month and get the bank to change that shit. It’s just paperwork.”
“Paperwork that should have been taken care of ten years ago!” I say, my eyes widening at how freakin’ nonchalant this man is! I look at the letter again, blinking as I read it once more and shake my head.
It’s a simple, computer-generated informational notice from Cade’s bank. The kind of notice they send you if you change your address or something. Except this wasn’t for a change of address—well, not Cade’s address, anyway.
“This is to confirm that the information on file for your Next of Kin designee has been updated,” I read out loud. Then I clear my throat before continuing. “SueAnn Carmichael. SueAnn. Carmichael. Your ex-wife, Cade. Your ex-wife is still listed as your next of kin for your bank accounts!”
Cade shrugs, sliding off the porch rail and standing up straight. “What, you jealous? Come on, Cass. I just never updated that shit all these years. Never even occurred to me.”
“No, I’m not jealous,” I say, and I totally mean it. I know that Cade’s telling me the truth—and that’s what infuriates me! “Cade, do you understand that if you’d died in the last ten years, SueAnn would have inherited all your money?! Hell, this is probably why she didn’t file that lawsuit again, why we haven’t heard a peep from her all these months! She probably found out that she was still listed as your next of kin and all she has to do is wait for you to friggin’ die to get everything! Shit, Cade, it could even be an incentive for her to . . .”
Cade laughs out loud, his eyes going wide. “To what, kill me? Put a hit on me? Send a few hired guns over here to take me down?! Cass, SueAnn might be crazy, but she isn’t a killer.” He laughs again, but then he stops dead in his tracks, frowning and cocking his head as if he just thought of something. “Wait,” he says, blinking as his hand goes up to his chin. “Read that letter back to me again.”
I do it, and Cade’s eyes go wide. He puts the cup of coffee down, almost knocking it over as he begins to pace on the wooden porch.
“You said SueAnn Carmichael,” he mutters rubbing his stubble and shaking his head. “Carmichael isn’t her maiden name. And it’s not my last name. There’s only one other Carmichael in town, Cass.” He stops again, his body going rigid, his head turning to the left as if he senses something. “We need to get out of here, Cass,” he whispers. “We need to get the hell out before—”
“You’re right, Cade,” comes a voice from our left—a voice that sounds vaguely familiar. “Your ex-wife ain’t a killer. Nah, she ain’t no killer, but I am.”
I jump to my feet as Cade steps in front of me, both of us turning to our left. A tall, older man dressed all in black steps out, three armed cowboys on each side of him, SueAnn standing beside him, her face twisted with uncertainty, clouded with guilt. Now I recognize the man as the guy who accosted Cade in the bar that day we first met. The man Cade said has wanted to buy this land for years, has wanted this land for years.
“Emmitt Carmichael,” Cade drawls, standing tall and broad in front of me, shielding me confidently, like he actually believes he can save us from seven armed cowboys with murder in their eyes. He coolly glances over at SueAnn, shaking his head slowly and sighing. “What have you done, SueAnn?”
“It’s not what it looks like, Cade,” she stammers, and in her eyes I can clearly see that she knows she screwed up. Screwed up for the reason every woman screws up: For a man. For that belief she’s found her happily ever after, found her prince, her hero, her forever. A forever for which she’s willing to do anything. “Just sell him the land, Cade. Emmitt will pay market price. You’ll have more money than you’ll know what to do with!”
“I already have more money than I know what to do with,” Cade snarls. “This land is all I care about.” He pauses, and I feel him flinch as if he’s just realized that no, the land isn’t the only thing he cares about now. Suddenly I feel strangely guilty, like somehow I’ve compromised Cade’s ability to fight for his land, made him vulnerable in a way he didn’t foresee.
“This ain’t no negotiation, Cade,” says Emmitt, placing a hand on his holstered gun that hangs low on his thick belt. “You die out here, and this land belongs to SueAnn. SueAnn Carmichael. My wife in holy matrimony. And in the eyes of the law, of course.”
Cade snorts. “That next of kin crap means nothing. SueAnn can have those accounts for all I care. This land has nothing to do with the bank. It’s been in my family since before the goddamn United States was united!”
Emmitt grins, his tobacco-stained teeth shining yellow in the sun. Slowly he shakes his head. “Yeah, this land has nothing to do with the bank. But I got my lawyers to look up the deed in the public records. It’s your land fair and square, but there ain’t no clear answer to who gets the land if you up and die without a wife or kids or any family on record. Not unless you got a written will.” He grins again and stands up straight. “You got a written will, Cade? Signed and witnessed and all that shit?”
I glance up at Cade standing in front of me, and from the way he stiffens I know he doesn’t have anything of the sort. Of course he doesn’t! And although I know I’m his wife in flesh and spirit, I’m nothing in the eyes of the law. We haven’t been together long enough for me to make a common-law marriage argument. Nothing to contest SueAnn from claiming that since she’s listed as his next of kin in the official bank records, it stands to reason that she should also inherit his land in the absence of an heir.
I feel a chill come over me, and my belly seizes up in the strangest way. It’s not from anxiety, even though I’m as scared as I’ve ever been. No, it’s not that gut-wrenching, fear-induced sickness that I used to feel in my early days as a trial lawyer. I know that well and I can handle that just fine. This is different. It’s purely physical, something I haven’t felt before.
I blink as I feel the realization slowly dawn on me, and I gasp as I think back over the time we’ve spent together. Cade was right when he said time meant little out here, that a day, a week, a month, and a year could all feel the same. We’ve been here three months, making love every day, every night, everywhere, every-how! Three months. Three months and I haven’t bled. Haven’t had my period.
The sickness comes just as the realization hits me like a goddamn truck, and I almost fall down on our porch as Cade shouts and grabs me. I’m only sick for a moment, but it’s a moment that I know just sealed our fate, guaranteed that we aren’t walking off this porch, aren’t ever leaving this land. If I’m pregnant, then Cade will have an heir in a few months, regardless of whether the two of us are legally married. And if he has an heir, then SueAnn might still get Cade’s cash, but she’ll never get his land. Not unless Cade’s bloodline is wiped out.
Once again I feel like I’ve stepped into a time capsule, like we’ve been jettisoned into the past, to a time when men made their own laws, where the frontier really was the Wild West, where you fought for what was yours, fought for it yourself, because there was no calling 911, no waiting for the goddamn cops, no cavalry heading out in
to the far reaches of the New World to save your pioneer ass.
There’s complete silence all around, and I’m holding my breath as Cade locks eyes with Emmitt. There’s something being exchanged in that look, something old, something wild, something that seems to hearken back to that time when a man’s honor was all he had, his integrity was the law, his word defined his character.
“You and me,” says Cade quietly, flicking a gaze down at Emmitt’s gun and then back up into the man’s dark eyes. “Out on the bluff by the river as the sun sets over the mountains. We settle this like men. You and me. Last man standing takes it all. Everyone else walks away.”
Emmitt shifts on his feet, blinking once and looking over at me. Then he glances back at Cade and shakes his head. “She’s carrying your heir, Cade. If I drop you, she’ll claim the land anyway.”
“No, she won’t,” Cade says without even looking at me. “You have my word. My word in front of witnesses. She’s my woman, and she’ll honor my word if I fall.”
I blink as I listen to Cade talk like he’s in some fucking Western movie. I’m about to laugh out loud when I remember that Cade doesn’t watch movies. This is Cade. This is who he is. He’s dead fucking serious. Without hesitating he’s just put his life and land on the line for his wife and unborn child. Even if he dies, I get to walk away. That’s the deal he’s making.
But Emmitt shakes his head again. “Even so, if I kill you, do you really expect me to believe your lawyer woman isn’t gonna go right to the cops?”
“She won’t,” says Cade, again with that cool confidence of a man who’s either in supreme control or off his goddamn rocker. He glances over at SueAnn and then back at Emmitt. “This starts and ends here. The man who falls stays on this land with every other man who’s fallen here. This is no one else’s business.”
I want to scream at how goddamn ridiculous this is, but for some reason I’m quiet. Truth is, I don’t know if there’s another way out. I could tell Cade to just sign over the land to Emmitt—or sell it, if Emmitt’s still paying. But I can’t do it. It’s crazy, but I won’t do it! There’s a part of me that understands why Cade needs to do what he’s doing. This land isn’t just dirt. It’s a part of him. It’s a part of us! A hundred years ago when a man and woman staked a claim and built a life past the frontier, it was more than just land they were claiming. They were claiming a new life, a life that they were willing to risk everything to defend. I can’t ask Cade to just sign it over, even though I might be walking out of here a widow before I’ve even got a wedding ring!
I look at SueAnn and know she understands, and so I nod at Emmitt even though I can barely breathe. He frowns and cocks his head, like he’s trying to figure out if I’m serious. For a moment I wonder if he’s just going to say screw it and shoot us all. That would be the smart thing to do, wouldn’t it?
“Fuck it,” Emmitt says, exhaling hard as the color rushes to his face, a wild look gleams in his eyes. “All right, Cade. You got your showdown. Guns at dusk. Man to man. Everyone else walks no matter what. It starts and ends on this land.”
I watch in stunned silence as the two men shake hands across our porch, and then Emmitt retreats past the stables with SueAnn and his men, leaving me staring at the setting sun, wondering if I’m back in the dream that started with a kiss three months ago and might now end in every frontier woman’s nightmare.
13
CADE
“It’s almost nightfall and you haven’t said a word,” Cass says to me, resting her head on my chest as I stare up into the reddening sky. She’s right. I haven’t said shit. I’m focused and wired, feeling an excitement rippling through me that’s so fucking magical that all my cheesy cowboy poetry can’t capture it in words.
It’s not just the gut-churning excitement of feeling what every gunslinger felt throughout history. It’s also that feeling of how Cass understood what I needed to do, understood why I made the deal I did, understood that this is who I am, that my life wouldn’t be worth shit if I backed down and signed over my land just to save my own ass. She understands, and that makes me know I’m going to be the last man standing when the sun dips below the horizon. I know it. I just fucking know it!
“There’ll be plenty of time for talk when this is over,” I whisper. Then I glance up at the sky and grunt. “It’s time. Help me get ready.”
I stand, blinking as I look into her eyes and try to bury the part of me that yearns for a full life with this woman, raising our children together on this land. I know that thinking about that could mean death. It could open the door to the fear that’s knocking and whispering “lemme in!” You let fear in, you die. Simple as that.
I stand up straight and take long, deep breaths as Cass helps me put my gunbelt on. I wear my great-grandfather’s leather, smooth as silk, with a silver Colt that’s as good as new. Then I take Cass’s hand and walk with her from our house, heading for the bluff as the sun casts shadows long and dark on this old land.
Time means nothing again, and the next thing I know I’m facing Emmitt Carmichael as the world fades away to black around us. In the distance I can hear the hooves of those wild mustangs. Far away that coyote wails for the rising moon. Above us is the scream of an eagle picking its prey before the sun sinks. It feels like the universe’s poetry, I think with a grim smile as I remember how men were made in the Old West, understand the thrill of the gunfight, understand that even a dog like Emmitt gets it, can’t resist the call of the showdown at dusk.
There’s no countdown or anything. No “take ten steps and turn” bullshit. This is two men facing each other, looking each other in the eye, each waiting for the other to move, each knowing that he has to be the one to move first. Like they say, in the west there’s only two kinds of men: The quick and the dead.
Which one are you tonight, Cade? I think as I feel everything slow down, see Emmitt go for his gun just as my hand moves with instinct that comes from every man who’s defended this land.
You gonna be quick enough, Cade? I wonder as I see the flash of Emmitt’s gun, hear my Colt crack like thunder in the air. I hear Emmitt’s bullet cut through the air past my right ear, making my head ring. But he’s missed. He’s missed, and I never miss.
I swallow hard as I see Emmitt go down in the dust, his legs kicking up in the air as he shouts in pain. But something feels off. Something’s not right. Emmitt went down a hair too soon. My aim was true as an arrow, but I swear the man dropped before the bullet got there! What the hell?
I lower my gun and squint into the distance. Emmitt is writhing on the ground, but he’s holding his leg, not his arm or chest. I blink as I wonder if I’m imagining things, but then I hear the telltale rattle of the snake and I almost fall to my knees.
“Sonofabitch,” I mutter, my mouth hanging open as I start to laugh. “Son of a—”
14
CASS
“Son of a bitch!” I scream when I realize what’s happened even though I can’t believe it! “Last man standing! Last man standing! Last man standing!” I scream, jumping up and down as I race towards my Cade, who’s standing there with a smoking gun, shaking his head and laughing at the madness of what just happened.
Slowly we walk towards the fallen Emmitt, who’s cursing and kicking, his face red as he pulls up his trouser leg while SueAnn wraps a tourniquet just above the snake-bite. One of his men pulls out a vial of anti-venom and injects it, and then all of us are just looking at each in muted shock, not sure what comes next.
“Last man standing,” I say firmly, shaking my head and looking down at the very much not-standing Emmitt. “Game over, gentlemen,” I say with a smile before pointing my finger at Emmitt in warning. “Unless you want us to finish this all the way.”
Cade looks over at me and tries to keep a straight face. I know he’s not going to put a bullet in a fallen man, and I think Emmitt knows that too. Finally Emmitt sighs and lays back dow
n, groaning and cursing once more before swiping at the air and shaking his head.
Cade’s got his gun out, but the fight is over. I stand beside him as we watch the men help Emmitt to his feet, and we’re both quiet as the group slowly hobbles off into the sunset. It feels so damned surreal that I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
But then I feel Cade’s arm slide around my waist, and he tips his Stetson hat back, whips me around, and leans in and kisses me just like the hero does in every cheesy Western movie ever made.
I’m about to laugh at the madness of it all, but then I remember that Cade doesn’t watch movies. This is who he is. My cowboy. My man. My forever.
This is who he is.
And this is who we are.
Always and forever.
∞
EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER
CASS
“OK, this is taking forever,” I gasp, my eyes bugging out as I finally see the baby’s head emerge. Baby horse, that is. What, you thought I’d give birth to my twins in the middle of nowhere with no one but a dirty cowboy as a midwife? Fuck that.
I glance down at my twins, Christopher and Christine, both of them suckling at my breasts while my husband helps our filly deliver her first foal. I’m happily sitting here, my big ass on a bale of hay, my boobs hanging out like it’s the most natural thing in the world, a bunch of horses around us like all of this is totally normal. Then I jump in astonishment as the foal pops out from its mother and immediately stands up on all fours. It falls flat on its wet face, but stands up again until it finds its footing.
Curvy for Him: The Lawyer and the Cowboy Page 7
