Practically Married

by Christine Rimmer

  When he had finished with the fire, he rose and turned to face her.

  “What about Jobeth?” she asked, wondering all of a sudden if he had some kind of problem with her daughter’s behavior.

  He must have read her expression. “Relax. It’s nothing wrong.”

  “Good. Then what?”

  “Well...” He frowned, as if choosing his words with great care. “The truth is, she’s been after me.”

  Tess stuck the needle in the cloth and set her mending in her lap. “After you? For what? To let her quit school and take up cowpunching full-time?”

  He grinned. “Not quite.”

  “But almost.”

  “No, truly. It’s something else.”

  “What?”

  He put his hands into his back pockets, then immediately took them out and folded his arms over his chest.

  “What?”

  He finally got it out. “She wants her own horse.”

  Tess sat back in her chair, thinking that she should have known.

  Zach raised a bronze eyebrow. “What do you think?”

  Tess was thinking of the Suburban and what he had spent on it. And now this. He wanted to give her daughter a horse.

  “Tess?”

  She hedged, “Don’t you think Jobeth’s a little young?”

  Zach came down firmly in Jobeth’s behalf. “She’s eight. Abby had her own horse at eight—or maybe even at seven, now I think about it.”

  “But Abby was born here at the ranch. Jobeth hasn’t been riding that long.”

  “Tess, she’s a fast learner. You know she is.”

  Tess had seen her daughter ride. And Zach was right. Jobeth was a natural horsewoman. Still, Tess felt that she and her daughter had taken way too much from him already. She felt a little guilty to consider taking even more. She wanted to draw the line somewhere—for a while, at least. Until she and Zach knew better where they stood with each other.

  “Zach, you just can’t keep giving us things.”

  “Sure, I can.”

  “But we can’t possibly pay you back.”

  He frowned a little. “Wait a minute. You’re my wife. Jobeth is my stepdaughter. What I have is yours.”

  She stared at him. The basic problem between them seemed to hang in the air, unsaid—the little problem of the separate beds they slept in, of the way they were always so formal with each other, of the way he avoided her most of the time. Of whether their marriage was really a marriage at all.

  She considered the wisdom of going for broke. Of laying it all out there. Of saying again that she didn’t feel they were truly married, since they were so careful and polite with each other, since they didn’t even share a bed.

  Of course, if she went for broke, she’d be taking the chance they’d end up talking about Cash.

  She cringed at the thought of that.

  No. They’d only been married a week, today. She’d agreed to give it time. And she would. Whether that amounted to cowardice or wisdom, she had no idea.

  Zach spoke again. “You work damn hard, Tess. Harder, even, than I expected you would. You’re never idle. You’re either cleaning or cooking or working in your garden. And at night, you sit in here, mending and planning what other projects to tackle, working some more.”

  His words pleased her, reinforced her decision to remain silent for now on the deeper issues. She admitted, smiling, “I like to work.”

  “And people get paid to work. Do you want a salary?”

  “No. Of course not, I’m—”

  He finished for her. “—my wife. And my wife gets the benefit of what I have. She gets decent insurance and a decent vehicle—to help her do her work more efficiently. Just like my stepdaughter gets a horse, when she’s ready for one. I’m not a fool, Tess. I see the potential Jobeth has. She takes to life on the Rising Sun like a duck to a pond. She’s a responsible girl. And she’s ready for the responsibility of training her own horse.”

  Tess stared at him, so touched by what he’d just said that she couldn’t come up with more arguments.

  “Come on, Tess,” Zach said when the silence stretched out too long.

  She let out a breath, puffing her cheeks as she did it. “I suppose you’ve already picked out the horse?”

  “Yeah. A nice chestnut gelding. Four years old, part Arabian. Green broke, but that’s about all. Jobeth really would have to train him. I’d help her some, of course. And Tim said he’d keep an eye on her progress, as well.” Tim Cally was the Rising Sun’s third hand. He’d been a Bravo employee for over three decades. An old man now, he could still spend a day in the saddle when the ranch needed him. But he took it a little easier than Beau and Lolly as a general rule, helping out around the barn and sheds, mending tack, repairing machinery and handling any animal doctoring that didn’t require a real vet.

  Tess still just wasn’t sure. “How about if we wait another year? Until then, she can still ride that sweet, old mare you picked out for her.”

  Zach smoothed his hair back with his hand—and kept to the goal. “Tess. I believe she is ready. And the gelding’s a good animal. Smart and quick, but no meanness. Horse-ornery, now and then. But you want them to have a little damn spirit.”

  Tess opened her mouth to voice more objections. But he looked so hopeful—hopeful for the sake of Jobeth.

  His eyes coaxed. His words cajoled. “Come on, Tess. Give the kid a break.”

  Tess made a noise in her throat and picked up her mending again. She knew exactly what was going on here. If she said no now, then Jobeth would come after her next. And probably Tim, as well. She wouldn’t have a moment’s peace until she gave in.

  And she did trust Zach’s judgment when it came to Jobeth. He was watchful and protective of the child. He wouldn’t let her come to harm.

  He’d just...done so much already, for the two of them. In spite of his generous words about how hard she worked, Tess felt it would be impossible for her contribution to the marriage to ever equal his. And what if it just didn’t work out between them in the end? Then Jobeth would have to give up the horse. How much worse would it be to give it up than never to have had it in the first place?

  “That garden of yours is looking good,” Zach said, pulling out all the stops.

  She looked up at him, saw his coaxing smile—and couldn’t resist playing along with his game to butter her up. “Tim put up the wire fence for me. And it took me forever to turn and till that ground. Lots of clay in it. Maybe I could open a little pottery shop in my spare time. Throw a few bowls and such.”

  He chuckled right on cue.

  She bent her head and took a stitch, and then another, drawing the needle through the cloth with precision and care. Then she shot him a look from under her lashes. “I’ve put in corn as a windbreak. That should help some, and a hedgerow, too. And you know the beds had to be raised good and high. That was more work. But there’s no other choice, with the gully-washers we get sometimes.”

  “You’re right,” he said. “No other choice.”

  “But it’s coming along.”

  “I can’t wait to taste the results.”

  She looked up, a more direct look than before. “I know what you’re doing.”

  If he’d had his hat in his hand, he would have been twisting the brim. “She’s ready, Tess.”

  At that moment, Tess felt almost tenderly toward him. She wished they were intimate, just to have the right to touch him. To rise from her chair and put her hand on his arm.

  When she spoke, her voice came out a little husky. “You’re good to her. So good. Her own father...” She looked down, took a stitch, wondered if she’d said too much.

  “What?”

  She met his eyes again.

  He commanded, softly, “Say it.”

  She chose her words with great care. “They didn’t...understand each other. He wanted to lasso the moon for her. But Jobeth, well, you just can’t dazzle Jobeth. She didn’t want the moon. More than once, he brought h
er home fancy dolls, dolls with beautiful painted faces, all dressed up in gorgeous clothes, dolls that cost a lot more than we could afford. She would say thank-you and she would really try to mean it. But all she wanted was for him to get us an apartment that allowed pets. So she could have a kitten, you know?”

  He nodded. Then he asked, even more softly than before, “And what about you?”

  She looked down at her mending, and then up at him. “Me?”

  “Can you be...dazzled?”

  She stared at him, her pulse all at once rocketing into high gear. What did he mean by dazzled? Did he mean something about Cash? If any man could be called a dazzler of women, that man would be Cash Bravo.

  But then she breathed easier. Her heartbeat slowed. Zach had gone to school in Medicine Creek, after all. And so had Josh. Of course, Zach had to mean Josh.

  Tess was aware of a deep sadness then. She thought of Josh that first time she’d seen him, the day he came to work at her father’s ranch. She’d never seen a man so handsome, with those green eyes of his and that devilish smile. He’d had an aura about him. Something that seemed to make the air shimmer around him. An aura of risk. Of wildness. Of things of which her parents were not going to approve. She’d been just seventeen. And he had been almost thirty.

  Zach prodded, “Well?”

  She kept her head high and answered honestly. “Yes. I have been dazzled. Foolishly. Dazzled. But Jobeth isn’t so easily fooled. All she wanted was a cat. And now she’s got a whole barn full of cats. There’s a furry critter everywhere she turns. And you...”

  “I what?”

  “You never come up on her fast. You take your time. You let her come to you. And you never tried to give her a doll. Oh, no. If you give her something, it’s exactly what she wants.”

  He was silent. Then he said with a slight smile, “Like a horse.”

  She made a little humphing sound. “So. We’re back to the point.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  She tried to look her most severe. “Do I have a prayer of saying no and making it stick?”

  “Well now, you’re her mother and you’re the one who—”

  “Just answer the question, Zach.”

  He looked abashed. “No, ma’am. Probably not.”

  She knew she was beaten. Still, she said, “Give me a little time. To think it over.”

  “Well, sure.” He frowned. “How much time would that be?”

  “A few days?”

  “All right, then. Three days.”

  For the next three days, Tess could feel the weight of her daughter’s yearning. Nothing was said. Jobeth knew better. She had let Zach fight this battle for her, and she wouldn’t step in herself unless it appeared that the prize was truly lost.

  But Jobeth couldn’t keep the hope from her eyes. Over and over, Tess would look up from the sink or the stove to find her daughter’s gray-blue gaze on her.

  Say yes, say yes, those eyes seemed to chant. Tess would smile and go on as if she noticed nothing. In the end, she knew she couldn’t deny such desire. And in her heart, Tess did agreed with Zach: Jobeth was ready for her own horse.

  Still, Tess wanted the time to change her mind. And she felt it only fitting that her daughter should wait and wonder a while. A big dream like this shouldn’t come true too easily.

  On the third night, the night when Tess was to give him the answer on the matter of Jobeth’s first horse, Zach brought an armload of wood with him when he came in for the last time. He went straight through the kitchen and central hall to the great room, where he knew Tess would be sitting. He strode right to the wood box and dropped in the logs. Then he picked up the poker, opened the stove door and prodded the coals a bit. After that, he shoved in a log and shut the stove door.

  He stood, turning to face Tess. Their eyes met.

  He thought she looked really good, sitting there so quietly with her knitting. The light from the lamp at her side gave her hair a curried shine. She had an inner peace to her, a calmness inside herself that he’d always admired. So different than a lot of women.

  Sometimes, lately, looking at Tess, Zach would find himself thinking of Leila, his first wife. Remembering. Comparing a little, maybe. Leila was a woman who never could sit still. You wouldn’t have found her sitting in the great room knitting happily away in total silence, not in a thousand years.

  He had loved Leila. The kind of love he’d thought would never die. It had seemed to him that she had cut his heart out and taken it with her when she left.

  But that had been so long ago. And now, looking at Tess, he could hear his heart. Beating a little too fast right inside his own chest. Leila didn’t have it, after all.

  And the point was not to go losing it again.

  Tess looked over those flying knitting needles and smiled. Zach gestured toward the blue wad of yam that was gradually taking the shape of a tiny foot. “What’s that?”

  “Booties. For Jace. I’m going to make a little hat, as well. And a sweater. I made the same set for Tyler Ross and Meggie admired it, so I thought I’d make one for her baby, too.” She set the knitting aside and folded her hands in her lap.

  Zach was pretty sure he’d get the answer he wanted tonight, but he felt a little nervous anyway. If Tess did say no, he would have to back her up. He would have to face the disappointment in Jobeth’s eyes. He didn’t look forward to that. Probably he had too damn much pride when it came to Jobeth. Pride that he had never let her down. Pride that she had taken to him so completely, that she ran to do the tasks he set her, that she looked up to him as if he had all the answers to all the questions ever asked.

  Once he had let himself imagine that Starr would be like Jobeth. But instead, she was down in San Diego, cutting school all the time, hanging out with troublemakers and generally driving her mother crazy.

  Tess coughed politely into her hand.

  Zach realized he was stalling and bestirred himself. “It’s been three days. Since we talked about that horse.”

  “Yes. It has.”

  “Have you come to a decision?”

  “I have.” She looked so serious. For a moment, he feared the wrong answer was coming. But then he saw the smile that kept trying to pull on the corners of her mouth. “All right,” she said at last. “Jobeth can have the horse.”

  It took him a moment to register her words—and his own relief.

  She filled that moment with instructions. “She’s to take it slow. And have supervision. Either you or Tim should be there when she starts to put him through his paces, because she’ll need training herself.”

  “I promise,” he said. “I’ll be there.”

  She looked all soft. Her eyes had a happy shine to them. “I know you will. Thank you.”

  He felt about ten feet tall. At that moment, the whole world belonged to him and him alone. It was almost as good as when he’d taken her to get the Suburban.

  His body stirred as he imagined himself moving forward, closing the distance between them, putting out his hand. She would lay hers in it. He would pull her up, out of the chair and into his arms, her soft, slim body molding all along his. He would lower his mouth to hers.

  And when she returned his kiss, he would not know for sure whose face she saw when she closed her eyes...

  He looked down at his boots. And then over at the big windows above the sofa. Night had fallen not too long ago; the windows showed only a dark reflection of the room. “You’re welcome,” he said, and turned for the stairs.

  “Zach.” Her voice stopped him just before he cleared the arch to the hall.

  “Yeah?”

  “Good night.”

  “Good night, Tess.” He went on up the stairs to his solitary room.

  Jobeth got her horse the next day after school. When Zach took her out to the pasture to catch him, her eyes were shining so bright, it almost hurt to look at her.

  For the next three days, as far as Jobeth was concerned, nothing existed but that horse. She name
d him Callabash, just because she liked the sound of it. She got up in the morning before her mother or her stepfather to give him oats and carrots and she groomed him until Tim Cally swore she was going to wear the hide right off of him.

  Bozo, newly branded and now formally a steer, stood in the small pasture on the other side of the barn, mooing forlornly in longing for the attention Jobeth no longer had time to lavish on him.

  In the afternoon, with either Tim or Zach looking on, Jobeth worked with Callabash, leading him around the corral on a tether, later tacking him up slowly and carefully, requiring a little help to get the saddle on and all the straps cinched up good—and finally mounting him and riding him in a circle, getting him used to the feel of her on his back.

  On Friday, Tess stood at the sink peeling potatoes and stealing glances out the window, where Jobeth rode Callabash at a smart trot around the corral. Both Zach and Tim hung on the fence, watching and calling out occasional instructions.

  Grinning in satisfaction at the sight, Tess looked down at her work once more. When she looked up, a sheriff’s office 4X4 came rolling into sight from around front. Zach jumped down from the fence. He waved at Jobeth, calling out something that caused the child to smile and wave back. Then Zach got into the 4X4 on the passenger side and the vehicle drove away.

  Frowning, Tess wiped her hands on her apron and went out the back door. She crossed the yard to the corral where Callabash still trotted in a circle with Jobeth on his back.

  Tim obligingly dropped off the fence when he saw the boss’s wife coming toward him.

  “What happened?” Tess asked the old man. “I saw the sheriffs car. Is something wrong?”

  Tim swiped his hat off and shuffled his feet. “Well, ma‘am. I reckon Zach saw somethin’ that shouldn’t have been there. Out near the Crazyman Draw, it was. He didn’t like it, so he got someone from the sheriff’s office out here to have a look, that’s all.”

  “I don’t understand. What did he see?”

  “Tire tracks, ma’am. Looked like a pickup and a stock trailer. And dog tracks, too.”

  Tess didn’t like the sound of that at all. “More rustling, is that it?”