Sweet Talking Lawman (6 page)

Uci cackled with laughter at
the idea of having another man in her life.  “Why would you want me to
have to teach another man how to be a husband?  Your own grandfather was
enough for me.  I trained him, I raised two sons that I had to train, then
I’ve raised you and Jenny and with you, the training is still going on. 
I’m not sure I’ll ever get you trained and I certainly don’t need another man
to deal with, and besides, if I decide to take another man into my life, I just
might not want an old one.”  She cackled again at the shocked look her
bawdy comment had brought to his face.

Saturday had come around
again and they were finished putting hay in Russ’s barn after only a couple of
hours.  Word had gone out that they would finish early and anyone
interested in competing could show up for a little impromptu jack-pot
roping.  Uci had come over to Jenny’s to help cook for the haying crew and
after they finished eating, everyone migrated down to the arena.  Levi
arrived pulling Rafe’s stock trailer, loaded with fifteen steers and Rafe’s
heading horse, Dollar.

While Levi backed the trailer
up to the arena to unload the steers, other trailers began arriving and in only
a short time, it appeared that most of the team ropers in the county had
arrived.

Rafe patted Dollar’s neck as
he saddled the big buckskin.  He was feeling lucky and was sure he’d have
a little extra money in his pocket by the end of the day.

The butterflies in Mesa’s
stomach fluttered wildly and she looked across the interior of the large SUV at
Jory sitting comfortably behind the wheel.

As if feeling her eyes on
him, he looked at her and a smile melted the harshness of his craggy
face.  “Getting nervous?”

She nodded.  “I’m
starting to recognize places.  Like that road we just passed.  Jenny
and I skipped school one day during our senior year and spent the entire day
swimming in a lake about two miles up that road.”

Jory chuckled.  “Did you
get caught?”

She shook her head
negatively.  “But Jenny’s Uci knew.  I don’t know how, but she
knew.  She didn’t punish us, or even scold us but, in her own way, she
made us feel worse about it than any punishment would have.”

“She’s the old Indian woman
that raised your friend Jenny, right?” he asked.

Again Mesa nodded. 
“She’s an amazing woman.  I suppose she was as much a grandmother to me as
she was to Jenny and Rafe.”

Jory’s pale eyes darted from
the highway to her, but then returned to the road they were traversing. 
“I imagine she’ll be glad to see you again.”

Mesa shrugged.  “I
hope.  I’m springing a huge surprise on them all and I’m not sure how
they’ll react to it.”

He detected movement in the
back seat and the warmth in his eyes magnified greatly as he lifted his chin in
that direction.  “She’s waking up.”

Mesa turned in her seat, as
far as the seatbelt would let her and smiled at her daughter.  “Good nap?”

Raale nodded.  “Are we
there yet?”

Mesa and Jory both
laughed.  They couldn’t count the times they had heard that question since
they’d left Branson.

“Almost.”  Mesa answered
quickly.  “Do you need to potty?”

“No, Mom.  I dust wants
to play outside…someplace.  I’n dust tired of being in dis car seat.”

Mesa’s heart went out to her
five year old daughter.  “I promise we won’t be much longer,
sweetie.”  She pointed out the window.  “See that fence over
there.  That’s the beginning of our land.”  Absently she wondered if
speech therapy might help Raale overcome her slight speech impediment. 
She knew many five year old children spoke more clearly, but Jory always
cautioned her not to push too hard.  He counseled her that once Raale
started school, if speech was still a problem, therapy would be readily
avalible.

Raale’s face lit up.  “Really? 
I don’t see a house.”

“We’ll come to a cross road
in just a few minutes.  Then we’ll have to turn right and drive for about
another mile to get to the dirt road that takes us to the house.”

Raale’s brown eyes stretched
wide as they scanned the field running parallel to the highway.  “Wow, we
gots a lots a…land.”

Mesa smiled
indulgently.  Having lived her whole life in the apartment above Howell’s
Hideaway, the child had no concept of the amount of land it took to raise
cattle.

She couldn’t help wondering
how her mother would react if they stopped at the main house and began
unloading and moving in with her.  Lifting her hand, she pushed back a
strand of hair that had pulled free of the clasp that held the rest of her long
brown hair confined at the nape of her neck.  What a horrifying
thought.  Shirley didn’t even know they were coming.

When she’d spoken to Uncle
Rance last night by phone, he’d told her that he’d asked Marlie Arrowhead to
make sure his house was cleaned up and ready for her and her family.  She
knew it would be a little crowded for a while, but they’d get by until
something better could be worked out.  Uncle Rance had assured her they’d
all be fine.  He’d made some improvements to the house over the past few
years.  Mesa smiled.  She’d take a lot of pleasure in going right on
past the big house like she hadn’t even seen it, knowing that her mother would
be wondering who in the world was bypassing her house and driving on back to
Rance’s cabin like they owned the place.

“Mom, are dose cows ours,
too?”  Raale asked.

“Sure are,” Mesa nodded, her
green eyes sweeping over the dozen or so head of animals grazing just across
the fence.  Her brows arched briefly and then relaxed again.  From
the looks of those cows, Uncle Rance had been making some serious improvement
in the breeding stock.  He’d told her he had invested in some Limousine
bulls and really liked the looks of their offspring.  She could see why.

Jory slowed the vehicle as
they approached the intersecting road that Mesa had spoken of.  He turned
the SUV and began to accelerate again.

“Papa J,” Raale spoke from
the backseat, “are you gonna be a cowboy?”

He laughed.  “Not in
your wildest dreams, Pocahontas.  I’m too old to try to learn to ride a
horse.  I’m just going to keep right on taking care of you and your mom,
just like always.  I’m more than willing to let you and her be the
cowboys.”

Raale’s childish laughter
filled the interior of the vehicle.  “We can’t be cowboys, silly, we’re
girls.”

Mesa smiled.  “So, we’ll
be cowgirls.”

“And I can gets to have my
bery own horse?”  The child wanted that almost more than anything.

Mesa nodded.  “But it’ll
take a while,” she added, knowing the child was underestimating the size of a
real live horse.  “You have to learn to ride first and then we’ll have to
find just the right horse.”

“And I gets to meet my
daddy?”  That was the one thing of even greater importance to her.

Mesa nodded. 
“Yes.  But you have to give me a couple of weeks to work that out. 
Remember, I told you that he doesn’t know he has a little girl.  He might
need some time to get used to the idea.”

Raale shrugged, her full lips
rolling out in a pout.  Grownups had no idea how long a couple of weeks
could be to a little kid.  She’d seen some pictures of her dad and knew he
was so handsome.  She’d never understood why her mom had kept her a secret
from him, but Mom just said that grownups did what they thought was
right.  Then her brown eyes spotted the big two story house on the
hill.  “Is
dat
our house?”

“No,” Mesa replied, feeling
the butterflies fluttering like crazy again.  “That’s where my mother
lives.  We’re going to live with Uncle Rance.”

“Your mom is my grandma,
right?” the child queried her mother.

Mesa was sorry, but knew
she’d have to answer as truthfully as she could.  “Technically, yes, but I
have serious doubts that she will have any interest in filling that role in
your life, sweetie.  My mother is…not a very…ni,”

“Not a very easy person to
understand,” Jory cut in quickly.  He turned his head slightly to the side
and cast a smile at the child in the backseat.  “She doesn’t know about
you either, so we’ll just have to take things slowly there, too.”

Raale tilted one side of her
top lip in a childish grimace.  “Sheeze, Mom, why did you gotta keep me a
secret from eberbody?”

Mesa shrugged.  “I did
what I thought was right at the time.  When you grow up, you’ll
understand.”

The five year old sighed
deeply.  “But, if we eber one day gets a baby brother or sister, don’t
keeps it a secret, Mom.  Cuz it is not any fun being a secret.”

Mesa managed to keep a
straight face as she turned again to look at her daughter.  “I’ll make
sure I remember that.”

Jory turned the SUV off the
highway onto a dirt road and drove more slowly as they approached the driveway
that would lead to the big house on the hill.

“Keep going straight,” Mesa
said.  “Turn in on the next road.  It’ll take us up, past the barn
and around to Uncle Rance’s cabin beside the lake.”

Raale’s eyes were fixed on
the big house and her head turned, keeping it in sight as the car continued on
past it.  “My grandma libes in dat big house all by her own self?” 
Her childish voice was filled with awe that was the result of having lived her
life, thus far, in an apartment in the city.

Mesa shrugged.  “I’m not
sure.  Before my father died, we had a housekeeper and a cook that lived
there, too, but after daddy died and, when my mother didn’t pay them, they
finally left.  Then it was just me and her most of the time.”

A large barn loomed up just
off the highway beyond a road that turned off the wide graded road they were
driving on.  “This is the road, Jory,” Mesa said.

They could see several horses
in a small field near the barn and some pens just past it.  There was a
small group of cowboys gathered around leaning against the fence of a small
round pen with a high fence.

“Stop here.  I see Bob
and Gibby.  I want to let them know we’re here.”  Mesa spoke softly,
her voice laced with excitement and fear.

“Can I gets out, too?” 
Raale’s voice was filled with hope and demand.

Mesa nodded.  “Let’s all
get out.  It’ll feel good to stretch our legs, even if it will only be for
a minute or two.”

When the SUV stopped, a
couple of the men turned and watched, curiosity etched on their faces.

Stepping out, Mesa pasted a
smile on her face and forced her shoulders back with an air of necessary
confidence.  Since Raale was behind Jory in the SUV, she knew he’d
unbuckle the child and help her out.  Not feeling the assurance she hoped
she was projecting, Mesa walked toward the group.  She was almost there
when one of the men whooped loudly and stepped quickly forward to pull her into
an affectionate hug.

“Wha-hoo, Miss Mesa!” Bob
Godfrey exclaimed.  “You’re all grown up and I dit’n hardly know you.”

She laughed up at him and
once he released her, she was wrapped into another broad chest for a raucous
greeting.  “Just look at you!”  Gibby Hall almost shouted.  “The
prettiest filly this place ever raised.”

The other men gathered around
as Jory and Raale arrived and everyone was soon introduced.  But once the
formalities were over, Bob assigned some chores and turned back to Mesa and her
family.

“Rance told me to expect you
this evening or tomorrow and Marlie has already got his place ready for
y’all.  I just dit’n expect y’all this early in the day.”  Bob’s eyes
kept darting back to Raale and Mesa was sure he’d already guessed who her
father was, but he’d never ask.  Instead he winked at the child.  “I
reckon I’d better see if I can find the little saddle that your mama learned to
ride in.  I bet it’s still here somewhere.”

Raale smiled, her chocolate
eyes sparkling with flashes of amber, just like Rafe’s sometime did.  “Is
her little horsy still here somewheres, too?”

The elderly cowboy shook his
head negatively.  “Nope, but don’t you worry about that any at all. 
We’ll find a horse for you to learn on.”

Mesa knew that Raale was
trying very hard to act all grown up about the prospect of riding a horse, when
in reality she was aching to do a little happy dance and squeal with joy. 
She extended her hand toward her daughter.  “Let’s go on to Uncle Rance’s
house and get unpacked.  Maybe there’ll be a little time later to come
back to the barn and look around.”

Bob turned toward the barn
and sent a piercing whistle in that direction.  Several of the hired hands
appeared at the door.  Bob lifted his hand to his mouth.  “Come down
to Rance’s house and let’s get the boss and her family unloaded and moved in.”

Mesa turned and led the way
to the SUV, a smile lighting her face.  Bob Godfrey had called her,
the
boss
!  She knew he’d used the words as a title of respect, but it
still sent a shot of excitement through her.

She slipped into the back
seat with Raale while Bob settled into the front seat to direct Jory along the
way to Rance’s cabin.

She dreaded moving into the
small house, but took comfort in knowing that with the money she and Jory had
made from selling Howell’s Hideaway, they could easily afford to build onto the
cabin, or build what they wanted from the ground up.

Bob turned his attention to
Jory.  “So Mr. Madison, how long’re you staying?”

Jory smiled.  He had
long ago reached the point of not taking offence when people assumed he was
Mesa’s hired help.  “Oh, I’m not going anywhere, unless Mesa and Raale
do.  We’re family and you should just call me Jory.”

Bob’s shaggy brows arched in
surprise.  He knew the other man wasn’t Raale’s father, because one glance
at the child and he knew her father was Rafter Storm Horse.  He didn’t
know when or how Mesa and Rafe had gotten together, but there was no doubt they
had.  He shrugged.  It was her business how she lived her private
life.  “Well, I hope you like living here, ‘cause this place is gonna need
Miss Mesa for a real long time.  I don’t think Rance will ever be up to
running the place again.  Not by his self.”

Jory nodded.  “I think
Mesa’s accepted that.  I’m not sure if Rance has.”

Bob chuckled and waved his
hand to indicate that Jory make a right turn onto an even smaller road. 
“I can promise you that he ain’t.  Rance Howell is tough as new leather,
but he’s dang near as old as I am.  I know I ain’t up to the ever’ day
hard work that I used to do, but he ain’t got to that point yet.  It’ll
take him a while to get there.  Me, I’m glad to make sure the boys feed the
horses and keep the stalls clean,” he grinned back toward Raale.  “And to
teach city girls how to ride, but you ain’t gonna catch me dropping no rope
over a steer’s head or throwing bales of hay up on the hay wagon.  I’m too
old for that.”