Texas Tender

by Leigh Greenwood

  The problem, though, wasn’t Will or Mara or Junie Mae. It was herself.

  She could still recall the weakness that had gone all through her when she’d opened the door and found herself face-to-face with the most incredibly handsome man she’d even seen, but Will had restored her to normal by refusing to help find her bull. She’d been irritated when he’d put on the sheriff’s badge, and had gotten really angry when Mara became infatuated with him.

  But sometime during all of this her feelings had changed. When had that happened, and why?

  It had been before she found out he’d paid off her loan. She was glad he’d been able to talk Jordan into meeting with her and Carl, but that wasn’t any reason to become infatuated with him. It had been kind of him to explain to Carl that Mara’s thinking she was in love with Will was just a phase. Okay, he’d kept Van from running over Pepper, and stopped Newt from kissing Mara. So he was a decent man, but that wasn’t reason to think he was somebody special. He was only going to be in Dunmore long enough to get his bull.

  Feeling frustrated with herself and the situation, she walked over to the grapevine to see if any of the grapes were ripe, even though she knew they wouldn’t be ready to pick until just before frost. The cardinal took exception to her interest. She responded by shaking the vines until the bird gave vent to an angry squawk before flying off. The blue jay watched silently from a willow limb.

  She could find only one reason for these unexpected feelings. Just like every other female in Dunmore, she’d fallen in love with Will’s looks. How could she have done anything so stupid? She’d thought she was in love with Webb, and look how that had turned out. She’d had reason to think Webb was partial to her; absolutely no reason to think Will considered her anything other than a pain in his side. And she’d done everything she could to reinforce that opinion.

  The sound of an approaching horse was a welcome distraction. When she saw Carl riding toward her, looking tired and downcast, she was relieved. She was anxious to tell him that they didn’t have to worry about losing the ranch just yet.

  “Are you sure you don’t know why he paid off the loan?”

  Idalou had insisted that she and Carl thank Will together and do so at once. Carl must have asked her the same question a dozen times while they rode to town.

  “I was sure he disliked me. After the way he let Mara attach herself to him, I wasn’t sure he liked you any better,” she responded.

  “He’s been real decent about it,” Carl said, “but he’s such a gentleman Mara is more in love with him than ever. I know her mother is. When I rode over the other day, that’s all she could talk about.”

  “What were you doing at Jordan’s ranch?”

  “I went to let him know I hadn’t seen any of his cows on our range. After the way he behaved when we talked, I figured I ought to do something to let him know I believed he was trying.”

  Idalou wasn’t convinced that Jordan was innocent, but she didn’t say anything. They’d reached town. She hoped Will hadn’t left for one of the sumptuous dinners that were quickly becoming a source of conflict among Dunmore’s matrons.

  The streets were surprisingly quiet for late afternoon. They didn’t meet anyone they knew well enough to call out a greeting before they reached the sheriff’s office. They dismounted and tethered their horses at the hitching post.

  “Let me speak first,” Idalou said. “I’m the one who’s been most critical of him.”

  “That’s a good reason why I should speak to him first.” Carl didn’t offer to help his sister dismount. She’d been doing it unassisted for so long, the thought never occurred to either of them.

  “Let me give it a try,” Idalou said as she selfconsciously brushed dust from her skirt. “If I make a mess of it, you can take over.”

  When Idalou opened the door and stepped into the sheriff’s office, she could just as easily have thought she’d stepped into the middle of a quilting bee. Close to a dozen women filled the room, all talking at once and passing two pieces of paper back and forth, which they regarded with unhappy expressions.

  “You can’t sign up for breakfast or supper until everyone has had a turn,” Andy Davis’s wife informed Idalou. She was backed by her daughters, Louise and Sarah, who regarded Idalou in a manner that made it clear the girls saw her as a rival.

  “Carl and I just stopped by to thank the sheriff for a kindness. Do you know where he is?” She’d noticed almost immediately that Will was absent.

  “He’s back at the jail cells,” Mrs. Davis said. “He said it was an unsuitable place for ladies.”

  “Is anybody in jail?”

  “He had two drunk cowboys,” Louise Davis said with a superior smirk only a thirteen-year-old could achieve, “but he let them go before we got here.”

  “Then I guess it’s okay for me and Carl to go find him.” The shocked expressions on several faces amused Idalou, because she knew that some of the women thought her working on the ranch alongside her brother was very unladylike. Idalou moved quickly among the throng and passed through the door separating the office from the part of the building that housed the two jail cells. She found Will sitting in the farther cell, chewing on a straw, and looking out the small window with a pensive expression.

  Chapter Nine

  “Have you behaved so badly that the women have put you in jail?”

  Will turned away from the window when he heard Idalou’s voice and smiled when he saw her and Carl. “It’s the only place I’m safe. They’re in there deciding who can feed me when, and what each of them can cook. I thought they’d come to blows when two women wanted to use the same prairie chicken recipe. One finally settled on goose. I hate goose.”

  “It’s your own fault,” Idalou said, unable to repress a smile. “You shouldn’t be so charming. You could be as crabby as a bear.”

  “Not when I grew up with Isabelle and Drew both lecturing me on how to behave, and Jake and nine older brothers ready to break my head if I upset either of them.”

  Idalou doubted that was true. Will seemed to be a basically nice man, but it was obvious that everyone in his life had spoiled him. Being the youngest and the best-looking in his family had probably made that inevitable.

  “I wish you’d tell me how you do it,” Carl said. “I don’t want every woman in Dunmore swooning over me. Just Mara.”

  “You’re fine as you are,” Will said, coming out of the cell. “Looks can be a curse.”

  “Please curse me,” Carl said with a laugh. “I never had a female fight to feed me.”

  “Count yourself lucky. They load my plate with enough food for two people,” Will said. “Then they expect me to come back for seconds. And that’s before they bring out the dessert. If I don’t want seconds of something, they demand to know why I didn’t like it, if they used too much pepper, not enough salt, maybe more butter or cream would make it richer. By the time it’s all over, I’d rather have gone hungry.”

  Idalou was surprised to find herself feeling sorry for Will. It was her fault in a way. If she hadn’t lost the bull, he wouldn’t have had to stay in Dunmore and no one would have asked him to be sheriff.

  An uncomfortable fluttering in her stomach made Idalou edgy. If they never found the bull, their only other option would be to hand the ranch over to Will. Would he let her stay at the ranch to cook and take care of the house and the animals, the chickens, the milk cow, and the pigs? Would he let Carl work for him? Would he share a room with Carl? Would he move Carl to the bunkhouse and stay in the house alone with her?

  The fluttering turned to a sinking feeling. Will had no reason to stay in Dunmore when his family had huge holdings in the Hill Country. The sensible thing would be to sell the ranch.

  “I can’t sympathize with you about the food,” Carl said, “but I can about an office full of bickering women.” He nodded his head in the direction of the female voices coming through the closed door.

  “All of them arrived with food,” Will said. “Fortuna
tely, they were so anxious to make sure theirs was the best, they kept tasting until most of it was gone.”

  “The kids are going to be disappointed,” Idalou said. Will’s snack breaks were famous among the kids below the age of ten.

  “They’ve already promised to send more for the afternoon,” Will said with a groan. “I’m thinking of inviting all the teenage boys to stop by.”

  “We didn’t come to add to your troubles,” Idalou said. “In fact, we came to thank you for relieving us of ours, at least temporarily.” Having struggled for so long, her first feeling had been relief, followed by extreme gratitude. But close on its heels she realized that she’d only gained time. She now had a new and greater obligation which she had to repay. It brought all sorts of new uncertainties.

  “Why did you pay off the whole loan?” Carl asked. “All you had to do was make the quarterly payment.”

  “It seemed pointless to have to go through this again in three months when I could put an end to it altogether.”

  “But you haven’t put an end to it,” Idalou said. “Now we have to pay you.”

  “You’ll find the bull.”

  “What if we don’t?” Carl asked. “I’m starting to think someone’s stolen it.”

  “Then pay me when you can.” Will paused, apparently turning over a thought in his mind. “Mc-Gloughlin and Sonnenberg have too many cowhands in the saddle for anyone to steal an animal like that and not be seen. Animals don’t usually wander far from their range, so I expect he’s holed up in a ravine or wash somewhere with good grass and enough cows to keep him contented. I’ve known bulls to get so shy of people, they actually hide from them.”

  “You seem to know a lot about cows,” Carl said.

  “I’ve lived on a ranch most of my life. I don’t know much about anything else.”

  “We really do need to talk about how we can repay you,” Idalou said. “It makes me uncomfortable to owe you money. You still haven’t told us why you did it.”

  “A couple of reasons. I don’t like to see anybody forced off their land, especially not when something as simple as finding a bull can fix everything. It didn’t seem fair.”

  “But it wasn’t your worry.”

  “As sheriff, I didn’t like seeing what was shaping up to be a fight over your land. This way all the pressure is off and everybody can go back to things as they were.”

  Idalou knew things would never go back to the way they were. McGloughlin was too determined to have their land. If Mara married Van, Carl would leave Dunmore, and there wouldn’t be any reason for her to stay either.

  But she didn’t want to think that far ahead.

  “We still need to talk about it,” Idalou said.

  Will seemed to brighten. “Why don’t you accompany me on my rounds tonight? We’d have plenty of time to discuss everything that concerns you.”

  “Carl should be present when we talk.”

  “He could come, too.” Will didn’t seem as enthusiastic.

  “I’d rather discuss things in a more businesslike environment,” Idalou said. “If you want company, ask Junie Mae to walk with you.”

  Idalou was sorry for the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. Saying something like that was spiteful and jealous. Will looked as if she’d flung something unpleasant in his face.

  “If Junie Mae’s not feeling up to it, there are lots of other young women who’d be delighted to keep you company,” she added in hopes of making her words sound less rude. Junie Mae hadn’t been looking her best recently, but she was still a very beautiful woman.

  “I have to be careful not to foster unfounded expectations,” Will said. “I can walk with you because everybody knows you dislike me.”

  “I don’t dislike you,” Idalou blurted out. “I’ve never disliked you.”

  Will didn’t look convinced. “Let’s just say that no one would believe you’re likely to become infatuated with me.”

  “I wouldn’t allow myself to become infatuated with anyone,” she declared.

  “That’s a wise decision,” Will said. “Now, I’d better get busy and do something to earn my pay. I doubt hiding from a bunch of women qualifies.”

  “I haven’t thanked you yet,” Carl said.

  “Your sister thanked me enough for both of you.”

  “I want to speak for myself,” Carl stated. “I don’t know why you decided to pay off the loan, but it was a damned decent thing to do. After the way Idalou and I have been plaguing you, I’m surprised you’d want to have anything to do with us, but I’m glad you did. You’ve got to let me know if there’s ever anything I can do for you.”

  “Clear all those women out of my office,” Will said in a joking manner.

  “You got it.” Without waiting, Carl turned and opened the door to the office. The sound of voices poured out like an avalanche, but was cut off when he closed the door behind him.

  “How does he intend to get rid of those women?” Will asked Idalou.

  “I don’t know.” She was feeling like a louse. What was it about this man that made her act so ungraciously? Carl had made her look like an ill-mannered ingrate, even though he was male, and younger to boot! What kind of woman was she turning into? She hadn’t always been like this, snapping at anyone who tried to help her or offered a little kindness. She used to be cheerful, friendly, to enjoy being around people. When had she turned into a disgruntled shrew?

  When her parents died. When her brother and the ranch both became her responsibility. When it became clear she couldn’t keep the bull and the ranch, too. When she became convinced that Jordan was trying to ruin her and no one would listen.

  But Will had listened. He’d taken the extraordinary step of paying off the loan. Why couldn’t she be nice, say something grateful? Why wasn’t she feeling enormously relieved instead more insecure than ever?

  “Your brother has grown up,” Will said. “You can stop worrying about him.”

  “I’ll probably never stop worrying about him.”

  “Then don’t let it show so much. It makes him feel like you don’t have faith in him.”

  What made Will think he knew more about Carl than she did?

  “I’ve been a younger brother all my life,” Will said as though reading her thoughts. “Somebody has always been trying to take care of me. They do it because they love me, but they don’t know how to stop. One day it’ll become too much, and Carl will break away regardless of how much it might hurt you. You’re the only one who can make sure that doesn’t have to happen.”

  Idalou resented Will’s interference in her relationship with her brother yet she realized he was right. In a way, she even resented his paying off the loan—it made her feel a deeper obligation to him—at the same time as she breathed a sigh of relief. She resented his being sheriff, though he’d surprised her at how much everybody in town liked and admired him. She resented that every female in town was falling over herself to impress him, and that he was accepting all the adulation gracefully.

  She’d just made a list that would have made any other man a saint in her eyes, and all she could do was feel resentful toward him. What was wrong with her?

  She was upset that somehow she felt outside the circle. He didn’t treat her with the exaggerated politeness he reserved for other women, or hold her in his arms while she cried, or let her kiss him in thankfulness. He treated her like an equal. That was what she wanted, but she hadn’t expected equality to feel so rotten.

  The door to Will’s office opened and Carl stood in the opening. “They’re gone,” he said.

  The silence from the room backed up his words.

  “How did you get them to leave?” Idalou asked.

  “I told them if they didn’t leave the sheriff alone when he was working, he’d have to stop coming to their houses for meals.”

  Will laughed. “A dose of truth that came better from you than from me.”

  “Certainly not from me,” Idalou said. “They’d have been certai
n I was trying to keep you for myself.”

  “Instead of turning me down at every opportunity,” Will said.

  Idalou didn’t know whether to blush or return a sharp remark.

  “Lou doesn’t mean to be rude,” Carl said, “but she hasn’t stopped being angry at men since Webb threw her over for Junie Mae.”

  “Junie Mae is a beautiful woman.” Idalou managed to get the words out despite her embarrassment. Will’s laughter startled her.

  “You ought to hear what my mother says about the value of looks,” Will said, “especially when she’s talking about me. It’s character that counts, and I’m sure Webb would soon have realized you have an ample supply of that.”

  “More than enough,” Carl said with a sigh that made all of them laugh.

  “We’d better be going,” Idalou said, “but we do need to sit down soon and decide how to pay you back.”

  “Find that bull,” Will said. “In the meantime, I’ll keep on being sheriff. I’m enjoying sticking my nose in other people’s business without getting a lecture for it.”

  “Why do you always have to be so mean to the sheriff?” Carl asked when he and Idalou were mounted up and riding out of town.

  “I wasn’t mean.”

  “You probably didn’t notice, because it’s the way you always act with him. And why did you have to tell him to ask Junie Mae to walk with him? Hell, Lou, the man was asking you to walk with him. That’s the same as saying I like you and want to spend some time with you. If you don’t like him, fine, but you had no call to mention Junie Mae.”

  “You didn’t walk in on Junie Mae kissing him,” Idalou said, too angry at Carl’s unjustified charges to keep that piece of information to herself.