by Robin Deeter
Her teasing smile eased his anger and he smiled back at her. “All right, just remember you said that.” Looking over at Johnny’s bunkhouse, he saw that the door was open. Drawing closer, he heard snoring coming from within it. “Go on in the house. I’ll be right there.”
Leigh was curious, but did as he said.
Cy stomped into Johnny’s bunkhouse and over to his bed where he lay spread eagle in only a pair of knee-length underwear. “Johnny! Get up!” he yelled.
Johnny bolted up in bed with a startled cry. “What? What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong is that it’s almost noon and you’re still sleeping! Get dressed and come over to the house to meet Leigh. Once lunch is over, you better get back to work,” Cy said.
Johnny smiled. “Is she pretty?”
Cy said, “Don’t worry about that. Just do as I said.”
“That means she is,” Johnny said, pulling on a pair of old black trousers. “Ain’t she?”
Dang but he couldn’t stay mad at the kid. A smile tugged at Cy’s mouth. “Yeah, she’s pretty.”
Johnny shoved his arms through the sleeves of a dingy white shirt that was worn thin in some places. Cy decided that Johnny needed some new shirts. He’d have Daphne make him a few. “I gotta go to the outhouse and I’ll be right there.”
Cy shook his head a little as Johnny hurried out of the bunkhouse. He followed him and headed for the house. When he entered the kitchen, Daphne had just come up out of the cellar with a pitcher of milk from that morning. She barely glanced at him as she poured it into glasses and set them on the table.
“Do you want me to set the table?” he asked.
“No.”
“Daphne, I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to get hurt. Brock is never going to want anything to do with you and you know it. Especially because I’m your brother. You know how much he hates anything to do with the Comanche. He hated me to begin with and now it’s even worse since Rob hired me,” Cy said.
Daphne didn’t respond as she continued fixing their lunch, but Cy saw a tear escape the corner of one of her eye. He would have said something, but Johnny came bounding in the door like a puppy, all excited and bright-eyed. Cy tended to equate people with dogs, each person reminding him of a different breed. Johnny would have been a golden retriever, eager to please and friendly as could be.
He pursed his lips in frustration as the chance to talk to Daphne about Brock slipped away. Johnny didn’t notice his expression.
“Where is she?” he asked, looking around the kitchen as if expecting Leigh to magically appear.
Daphne gained control over her emotions. “She went to wash up and change. You get over here and wash up, too.”
Johnny never argued with Daphne. “Yes, ma’am.”
Daphne smiled at his respectful tone. His parents had instilled good manners in him, especially regarding the female species.
Leigh came down the stairs, which opened onto the foyer. From there, she turned left, and walked down a short hallway, past a small washroom, and into the kitchen. Cy sat down at the table and he was glad that he was seated when he caught sight of Leigh.
She’d changed into a simple blue calico dress and had pulled her hair back, securing it in a loose bun at the nape of her neck. Her appearance was so different from before that it made her seem exotic to Cy. And utterly desirable. Her green eyes seemed bigger and the dress showed off her slim, womanly shape.
Before Cy could say anything, Johnny jumped into action.
“Hello, ma’am. I’m Cy and Daphne’s cousin, Johnny Decker. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said, holding out his hand.
Leigh smiled as she shook hands with him. “Nice to meet you, Johnny. I’m Leigh Hawthorne.”
“You sure are,” Johnny said. “Pretty and strong. Just like I like my women.”
She laughed at his flirting. “Do you say that to all the girls?”
“Just the pretty and strong ones,” Johnny replied, pulling out a chair for Leigh. “Have a seat, ma’am.”
Cy wanted to kill his nineteen-year-old cousin for beating him to the punch with both the introduction and in seating Leigh. However, his anger dissipated when his gaze met Leigh’s. Her eyes sparkled with restrained mirth.
“Thanks, Johnny. What a gentleman you are,” she said.
The heated light in Cy’s eyes told her that she’d done right by changing into something more feminine. Whenever she was working outside, she wore men’s clothing, but when she wasn’t working, she wore an old dress like the one she had on now. She only wore a couple of petticoats under it, which she knew wasn’t considered proper in the higher circles of society. But, she wasn’t from high society and neither was Cy’s family, so she figured that it didn’t matter any.
Johnny pushed in her chair for her and then helped Daphne finish putting the meal of cold ham sandwiches, chow-chow, and potato salad on the table. Johnny seated Daphne and then sat down. Cy and Daphne bowed their heads and Leigh followed suit. She’d expected Cy to say the blessing, so she was surprised when Johnny said it instead.
When he was finished, they raised their heads and Daphne began passing dishes around.
“Hey, Cy, Daniel stopped by while you were gone,” Johnny said.
Cy groaned. “What did he want?”
“He said that he’s going to Oklahoma City tomorrow and he wanted to know if there was anything you wanted from there,” Johnny said. “He said to let him know.”
“Ok. Thanks.” To Leigh, Cy said, “Daniel is our other cousin. He has a twin brother, Sylvester. We call him Sly. Our mother and Daniel’s father were brother and sister. Johnny’s our cousin through our father. Pa was Uncle Ephraim’s older brother.”
Sadness clouded Johnny’s eyes. “Yeah. My parents were killed by a twister last year and our farm was blown to hades. I was in town at the store when it came through.” Guilt laced his voice. “It should have—”
Daphne laid a hand on his forearm. “No, Johnny. We’ve talked about this.”
He gave her a wan smile. “Yes, ma’am.”
Daphne said, “So Johnny came to live with us last year and we’re so glad to have him.”
Cy said, “That’s right, even though he eats us out of house and home and sleeps half the day.”
“Cy, stop that!” Daphne chided him.
Johnny didn’t take offense. “Not every day. I have a good reason for being up at night.”
Cy arched a brow at him and waited, asking an unspoken question.
Johnny grinned. “I can’t tell you yet. It’s a surprise.”
Cy gave a dubious grunt and went back to eating. Leigh wondered if that was his usual mode of conversation.
Daphne smiled. “I’ll bet Daniel knows what you’re up to.”
“No, he don’t,” Johnny said. “Nobody knows and that’s the way it’s gonna stay until I’m done.”
Again, Cy cocked an eyebrow at him, only this time, he stared directly into Johnny’s eyes. The two men’s gazes held, but it didn’t take long for Johnny’s eyes to drop.
“I’m not telling you and that’s that. So go stare at someone else.”
Cy chuckled and Johnny smiled back.
Leigh thought that their dynamic was brotherly in nature, with Cy being the older brother. Throughout the meal, the tension between him and Daphne was noticeable, but Leigh stayed out of it. It was none of her business and she didn’t know them well enough to attempt to intercede.
When lunch was over, Cy said, “I’m sorry to have to leave you right away, Leigh, but duty calls.”
Leigh said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get unpacked. Johnny, how about you show me around the ranch a little?”
Johnny was proud that she’d asked him. “Sure. Just let me know when you’re ready.”
Daphne rose and began clearing the table. Johnny jumped up to help her.
Leigh said, “Daphne, lunch was delicious. You’re a great cook.”
“Thank you,” Daphne said. “We�
�re having fried chicken for supper.”
“It’s a good thing I’m gonna be busy around here. With a good cook like you here, I’d be as big as the side of a barn if I wasn’t,” Leigh remarked.
Cy said, “I don’t think you’re in any danger of that happening.”
Leigh smiled at his praise. “Flatterer. Get out of here and go to work.”
“Not even married and she’s bossing me around already,” he said, standing up and pushing in his chair. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Leigh and Johnny said goodbye to him, but Daphne turned away, already starting to wash the dishes. Cy sighed and left. He was sorry that he’d hurt Daphne’s feelings, but he wasn’t about to let her get her hopes up about something that would never happen. It didn’t comfort him any as he rode back to town, though.
Chapter 6
Leigh woke with a start early the next morning, disoriented at first. Lying in her bed, she looked at her familiar things sitting on the bureau in her new room. It came back to her. She’d come west to marry a complete stranger. A very handsome stranger. There was no denying that Cy was charismatic and pleasing to the female eye.
However, there was more to him than that. Although he’d been somewhat taciturn last night after he’d gotten home, she didn’t sense that he was antisocial. Angry and sad were the words that came to mind when she thought about his quiet nature. She understood that. The whole first year after Walt’s death, she’d been angry and sad, speaking only when she’d had to. Her smiles had been few and far between. Stan had been one of the few people who’d been able to coax a laugh out of her.
It had been too warm to sleep with anything heavier than the sheet. She threw it back and stood up. It was hotter out here than it was in Massachusetts, which she’d have to get used to. As she walked to her dresser, the sounds of dogs and a human voice came in through the open windows in her room.
Looking out, she saw Cy out on the front lawn, working with his dogs. The collie puppy, whom Cy had named Queenie, frolicked with the adult dogs. Cy had joined in the playtime, down on his knees on the brown, water-deprived lawn. He acted just like the dogs, bowing playfully while growling realistically, and taking turns wrestling with each of them.
She’d never seen anyone do that before and she grinned while she watched him. On impulse, she leaned out the window and whistled.
“Here, boy. Here, Cyrus.” She made kissing noises.
The dogs and human all stopped their play. Pudge cocked his head as he looked up at her, his tongue stuck partway out of his mouth. Burt barked at her and Slink just yawned and sat down. Queenie was too busy attacking Cy’s pant leg to pay attention to her.
Cy had forgotten that she was there. He didn’t know how he could have, but he had. When he looked up at her, his heart gave a lurch over how beautiful she looked. Her brown hair tumbled around her shoulders in thick waves, and her green eyes shone with mischief.
The way she was leaning out the window pulled her nightgown tight against her breasts, offering him a tantalizing glimpse of cleavage. He could have looked all day, he thought as a certain part of his anatomy agreed with him.
Giving her a sheepish grin, he stood up and dusted off his jeans.
“Good morning,” he said. “I’m sorry if we woke you.”
Leah said, “Nah. You didn’t.”
Cy liked her accent and thought that she probably thought he had one, too. “Good. Daphne’s cooking breakfast.”
“Are you still in the dog house?” she asked, winking at him.
He’d figured that she’d picked up on the tiff between him and Daphne. “Yeah. It’ll probably be that way for a couple of days. It happens every now and then. Siblings.”
Leigh nodded. “I’ll get dressed and come down. Do you have time to show me the nearest creek?”
“Sure. Why?” he asked.
“To see if we can do any irrigating. I have some ideas about that,” she answered.
“All right.”
“Good boy,” she said.
“Do I get a treat?”
She smiled. “A treat?”
He nodded. “Whenever one of the dogs does something well, I always reward them with a treat or by petting them.”
Her cheeks colored at the thought of petting him. It wasn’t that she was shy, she just hadn’t met a man that she’d been attracted to since Walt. Of course, she hadn’t really paid attention to men, either. But she was paying attention now, and touching Cy was a tempting idea.
“Well, if you’re expecting me to pet you, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to disappoint you,” she teased. “I don’t have any scraps, either.”
Far from deterred, Cy said, “I’ll think of something. I’ll take an IOU for now.”
She chuckled. “I’ll be down.”
She withdrew from the window and Cy reined in his libido. Benny had been right. He needed a good roll in the hay. Dragging his mind away from that, he went to wash up for breakfast.
* * *
Looking out over the land before her, Leigh’s gaze followed the thin thread of water as it meandered through the west pasture. The problem was that they needed more water on the eastern part of the ranch and the stream didn’t flow that way at all.
“How far up the stream does your land go? Does the stream stay in a mainly straight line or are there some bends?” she asked Cy.
“There aren’t any bends, but the land gets higher. Why?”
She gave him a grin. “That’s great news. We’re gonna flood as much of the pastures as we can. We’ll set up a gate at the right place on the creek so we can let water out on a regular basis. That way, we’ll keep the fields as green as possible, even during a drought without permanently altering the stream bed and causing disturbances for farmers downstream who depend on it.”
Cy looked at her with new appreciation. It was such a simple solution and it had never occurred to him. Of course, irrigation techniques weren’t in his wheelhouse of skills. “A gate. What kind of gate?”
“A thick wooden one. We don’t want it to be too big, though, and let out too much water at a time. When I say ‘flood’ I don’t mean that we want to create a lake. We’re just growing grass, not rice. But, we might be able to get some water down to your wheat field, too. It’s not looking too healthy,” Leigh said.
“I’m impressed. I’ll show you farther upstream,” Cy said.
They mounted up and rode for higher ground. When Leigh saw a place in the stream that would work well, she stopped and dismounted. Cy watched her walk up to the edge of the creek, enjoying the view of her shapely derriere in her jeans.
He couldn’t decide which mode of dress he liked her in the most. On one hand, the jeans gave him an excellent idea of what her body looked like, but the dress looked so pretty on her. He smiled as he thought that she was the best of both worlds.
Leigh turned to him. “This’ll do. We’ll dig a deep trench down to that pasture. Higher on the right side so that the water goes in the right direction.”
Cy frowned. “That’s gonna be a long trench.”
“Yep. You got some family who’ll help?” she asked.
Cy figured that Daniel and Sly would lend a hand, and maybe Uncle David, too. He thought about tracking his friend, Hector, down, but he didn’t want to take the time to do it. He’d ask Benny to keep an eye out for him. In the meantime, they’d just have to do the best they could at getting the trench dug. Whatever it took to turn things around.
The thunder of hoof beats reached their ears and Cy smiled when he heard war trills. He recognized Sly and Daniel’s horses as they raced towards him and Leigh. Glancing at Leigh, he saw her staring wide-eyed at his cousins. It was the first time he’d seen fear in her eyes since meeting her.
“It’s okay, Leigh. They’re my cousins,” Cy said.
Leigh relaxed. She’d never met Indians before.
Daniel and Sly halted their horses and slid from their bare backs. Where Daniel was tall and toned, Sly was shorter
and broader with a heavier muscle mass. Both of them wore simple cloth breechcloths, much to Cy’s consternation. He would have preferred for them to meet Leigh when they were decently dressed instead of almost completely naked.
“Leigh Hawthorne, meet my cousins, Daniel and Sly Lone Wolf,” Cy said.
Daniel smiled, his blue eyes alight with good humor as he shook her hand. “So you’re Cy’s woman? Hard to believe that someone as pretty as you is gonna be a ranch foreman.”
“Thanks,” Leigh said, her heart thumping at the sight of the barely clothed men. She wasn’t used to seeing so much of a man’s bare body. She refused to show her apprehension, though. “I’ll do a good job even though I have breasts.”
Cy and Daniel burst into laughter and Sly cracked a slight smile. She laughed with them, but kept an eye on Sly. He was downright scary looking. Handsome, but scary. It was hard to believe that he and Daniel were related, let alone twins.
His eyes were even darker than Cy’s and his skin was a deeper hue of bronze than either Daniel or Cy’s. He stood with his arms crossed over his bare chest, and with his long, coal black hair blowing in the wind, he was the epitome of a Plains Indian. His midnight gaze moved over her as he assessed her critically.
Finally, he stepped forward and held out a hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said. Although his voice had a rough timber, he spoke softly. A warm light now lit his eyes, but he still didn’t smile.
“Nice to meet you, too,” Leigh said uncertainly.
He dropped her hand and stepped back, his eyes moving to the stream. “What are you doing?”
“We found a place to build a trench so we can surface irrigate the pastures and grow some decent grass,” Leigh said.
Daniel raised an eyebrow. “A trench? We have a well that irrigates our pastures. Never thought of diverting a stream. Of course, that’s not really my job. I’m a trainer, not a field hand. That’s Sly’s area of expertise.”
