Scoundrel

by Rebecca Goings

  “He’s my little Charlie,” Marcus said, glancing over Shirley’s shoulder with a smile. “Takes after me with the way he attacks his mama.”

  Everyone chuckled while Lissa’s cheeks heated. Marcus gave her a wink then continued to look down on his boy. Their sitting room wasn’t very big, but Shirley and Lissa sat on the sofa while the men stood over them.

  “He is gorgeous, truly,” Shirley said, caressing his little head. “How are you feeling?”

  Lissa shrugged. “About as well as to be expected. Marcus won’t let me do anything too strenuous, but I’m just so exhausted.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Luke said, his voice gentle. “Losing a loved one is never easy.”

  Lissa dabbed her eyes while Marcus rubbed her shoulder. “Doctor Newcomb has come by to check on me. Seems I’m mending well.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Shirley replied. She lifted her gaze and looked at her sister. They smiled at each other, but she could clearly see the grief in Lissa’s eyes. “Is Charlie a good baby?”

  “The best,” Lissa answered. “He’s perfect.”

  Shirley nodded and glanced at Luke. Once their eyes met, he hunkered down next to her and gazed at the baby in awe. She offered him the bundle. He recoiled for a moment then set his jaw. With uncertainty on his face, Luke took Charlie with careful hands and grinned.

  “Well, now,” Marcus said with mirth in his voice. “You look like a right fine daddy.”

  Luke’s eyes went wide and Shirley couldn’t help but giggle when his startled gaze settled on her. “Holding a baby agrees with you,” she told him, smoothing the hair from his brow.

  “I don’t believe I’d know the first thing about being a daddy,” he confessed, looking back down at the infant in his arms.

  “Oh, it’ll be your time soon enough,” Marcus replied, chuckling.

  Now it was Shirley’s turn to blush. After an uncomfortable silence, she spoke once more, changing the subject. “What are we going to do with the shop?”

  Lissa leaned back into the sofa. “With Marcus as the sheriff of the Gulch and the arrival of our baby, I don’t think we can do much to help run it.”

  “There’s not enough money to hire any help,” Luke said, still clutching onto Charlie.

  Shirley took a deep breath and blew it out in a sigh. “Which means it’s up to Luke and me to keep up.”

  “With that mercantile,” Marcus replied, “I don’t know how much longer you’ll be able to compete.”

  “Just got a new vendor from Cactus, making saddles and tack.” Luke glanced up to his old friend. “But I don’t think it’ll be enough.”

  Charlie chose that moment to start crying. His wails filled the room and Lissa stood to retrieve him from Luke’s arms. “He’s hungry.” The moment the baby cuddled with her, his mouth rooted for a nipple. “I’ll be back.”

  Shirley watched as her sister retreated into her bedroom. When her eyes wandered back to Luke, his hands were tucked into his pockets. He smiled at her and rocked back on his heels. She returned his smile as a thought struck her.

  “We should sell the shop.”

  “What?” Marcus looked genuinely shocked.

  “We should sell it,” she repeated.

  “But that shop was your father’s pride and joy,” Marcus said. “He started it with your ma.”

  “I know,” she answered, nodding. “But none of us can keep it up. If Luke and I try to run it, we’ll be forced to close in a year, anyhow. And we’ll be flat broke. If we sell it now, we can get something from it and move on.”

  “But we’ll be out in the cold, filly,” Luke said, rounding the sofa to sit next to her. He took her hand in his. “We’ll have nowhere to go.”

  Shirley smiled up at him and cupped his cheek. “You once told me you wanted to buy some land and work it. We could find a nice home, like Lissa and Marcus did. Maybe have money left over to buy a few horses or cows.”

  He stared at her as a silence descended upon them.

  “It’s not a bad idea,” Marcus offered.

  Luke shook his head. “That’s your pa’s shop, darlin’. I…I can’t…”

  She put her hand on his lips. “That shop is full of old ghosts. Of my mother’s memory, and now my father’s. It’s failing and we all know it. I want a new start. With you. I want a safe place where we can raise our children.” She looked away and bit her lip.

  He tilted her chin back up to look her in the eye. “You want to start a family?”

  Her eyes stung. “Someday,” she answered in a small voice.

  Marcus cleared his throat. “Well, if you do start makin’ babies,” he said, grinning, “Shirley won’t be able to help you much. You’ll be running the shop on your own, Luke.”

  Shirley nodded and squeezed her husband’s hand. “And you’ll be stuck working another man’s dream, not your own.”

  “If that shop fails, then you’ll have a wife and a child to feed,” Marcus went on. “Not to mention the fact that the mercantile will eventually make that property worth less than it is now. You’ll be lucky to sell then.”

  “Is this what you want?” Luke asked, looking back at Shirley.

  She nodded. “Yes. I can’t go back there and live like nothing happened. I can’t stay in the place where my father died. I cannot watch as his dream is torn down. He would have wanted us to do all we could to survive. He would have wanted only the best for us. Didn’t Daddy tell you, before he passed, to give me a good life, to do right by me?”

  “Yes,” Luke said with a sigh.

  “Then this is what I want.”

  Marcus chuckled and smacked Luke on the shoulder. “She’s not above using your own guilt to get her way.”

  Luke turned his head and scowled darkly at his friend. But Shirley pulled his face back to hers with a grin. “Marcus is right,” she confessed. “Please, Luke. Let me give you your dream.”

  “Is it my dream, filly?” he asked, grinning himself. “Or yours?”

  She gave his words a moment of thought. “Ours.”

  He nodded once. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

  Shirley jumped into his arms and planted kisses all over his face. She didn’t care that she was sprawled across his lap or that Marcus’s laughter rang throughout the house.

  She was about to start an amazing new life—one with the crass, crude, foul-mouthed man she adored.

  About Rebecca

  Rebecca resides in Portland, Oregon with her husband and five children, who are the light of her life. A native Californian by birth but a native Oregonian at heart, Rebecca loves the Pacific Northwest and never plans on leaving. You can find out more about Rebecca at www.rebeccagoings.com, www.twitter.com/rebeccagoings, and www.facebook.com/rebecca.goings.

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