Sweet Talking Lawman (7 page)

“Bob,” Mesa spoke from the
back seat.  “When’s the last time you saw Uncle Rance?”

“Sunday afternoon me’n Gibby
went to see him.  He’s shore wantin’ to come home.”  The man’s voice
sounded wistfully soft.  “I’d a brought him, too, but I knew Ms. Shirley’d
be down here raising he…”  Remembering the child in the back seat, he
amended the word he’d begun.  “Eck.  She ain’t made no secret that
she wants him left up there at the home.”

“Are the doctors ready to let
him leave?”  Jory joined the conversation.

Bob shrugged.  “What
good’s it do to ask about somethin’ that can’t happen?  It’d just get his
hopes up for a let-down.  That ain’t good for us old folks.”

Mesa reached up and patted
the old man’s boney shoulder.  “Well, he
is
coming home.  I’ll
hire a couple of nurses to help out for a while, but Uncle Rance is not staying
up there any longer than the doctor thinks necessary.”

The old cowboy flashed a
smile at her as he pointed at the house sitting on the edge of a fifteen acre
lake.  “Just pull up there next to the porch. The boys’ll be here in a
minute to get y’all’s stuff unloaded.”

“Oh my goodness!”  Mesa
exclaimed.  “Uncle Rance said he’d made some improvements, but I didn’t
know he’d built on to the cabin.”

They were looking at a large
two-story log cabin with a wrap-around-porch; nestled back against a stand of
evergreen trees that edged the lake.

Bob hopped out of the SUV and
pulled Mesa’s door open.  He was grinning from ear to ear.  “Rance
and the boys did most of the work themselves.”

She just stood drinking in
the sight.  She’d expected the rustic four room cabin Rance had moved into
all those years ago and this was certainly way beyond that.

“Rance was seeing a woman
from town sometime back and I think he was planning to get married, but she got
the cancer three years ago and moved up north to live with her son and his
wife.  She died after about a year.  Rance went all the way up there
for the funeral.”  Bob explained the changes.  “When they was
planning to get married, they wanted room for her family to come visit.  I
was sorry it didn’t work out.  That’s probably the happiest I ever seen
Rance.”

“Mom,” Raale tugged on her
mother’s hand.  “Can we go inside?  I needs to potty.”

Mesa laughed and started
toward the cabin.  “This is so much better than I expected.  I think
I remember there used to just be an outhouse.”

“What’s a outhouse?” Raale
queried.

Bob chuckled as he followed
them.

“Well,” Mesa turned the
question over in her mind a few times trying to decide how to answer. 
“It’s an out-door bathroom, except there isn’t anything in it but the potty
seat and that’s made out of wood, and it doesn’t flush.”

Raale paused, her dark eyes
searching her mother’s face to decide if she was kidding.  “Ewww. 
For real?”

When her mom nodded, she
sighed deeply.  “Well, I’n glad it’s not like dat anymore.  I’d be
scared to go dere.”

The ranch hands arrived and
made short work of unloading the SUV and putting the contents where they were
told, while Mesa, Jory and Raale explored the house.

Inside, they were delighted
to discover three bedrooms on the ground floor and another two upstairs. 
In addition the ground floor had a great-room with huge windows looking out
over the lake and the kitchen was equipped with fairly modern appliances and a
room that Uncle Rance had used for his office.

“This is wonderful,” Mesa
sighed, looking at Jory with relief.  “You can have the room across from
Uncle Rance and when we get a nurse, she can take the room next to his. 
Raale and I will take the up-stairs rooms, that is if you’re alright with
that.”

Jory laughed.  “It
doesn’t matter to me.”  He turned and looked out the window at the
lake.  “We should have come home a long time ago, precious.  This
place is beautiful.”

Mesa shrugged.  “As
lovely as this place is, it looks a whole lot better knowing I won’t have to
live with my mother.”

The cowboys were finished and
exited the front door, heading back to the pick-up they’d all arrived in. 
They loaded back up and were waiting for Bob to join them when one of them
honked the horn.  “Let’s go, Bob.  Ms. Howell’s coming down the
road.” Gibby called.  It was obvious that they didn’t want to be there
when Mesa’s mother arrived.

“Great,” Mesa muttered as she
followed Bob to the door.  “The arrival of the wicked witch of the Rocking
H.”

“Bring the little one down to
the barn when you can.  I know she’s wanting to look around.”  Bob
said as he hurriedly climbed into the back of the truck.

Jory sensed Mesa’s
tension.  “I’ll take Raale down to the lake for a while.”

“There used to be a path along
the side of it.  It’ll do her good to take a nice walk along the
edge.  There might be some screaming going on here.”  Mesa suggested
as she watched Jory lead her daughter out the back door.

Shirley had stopped the truck
the hands were in so by the time she pulled to a stop in front of the cabin,
she knew Mesa was inside.  She stomped up the steps and pushed the door
open, barging into the room as if it was her home.

“What the hell’s going on
here?”  She demanded, her bleached blond hair swinging in rhythm with her
angry stride.

Mesa drew in a deep
fortifying breath before she turned and looked at the older woman. 
“Hello, Mom.  It’s so good to see you, too.”  Her voice shimmered
with unconcealed sarcasm.

“What are you doing here,
Mesa?”

Mesa forced a smile. 
“I’ve come back home to make sure Uncle Rance is taken care of and to help him
run the ranch.”

“Like hell, you are. 
You steal money out of my purse and run off to God only knows where and I don’t
hear a thing from you for years and now, out of the blue, you think you can
just come waltzing back in here and take over the place?”  Shirley
fumed.  “This is
my
ranch now, and you can just pack up and go back
to where ever the hell you came from.”

“I’m still an equal owner in
the ranch and since Uncle Rance and I have agreed to this arrangement, I’m
afraid you don’t have much to say about it.”  Mesa was proud that she was
still in control of her temper.

“We’ll see about that.” 
Shirley snatched a cell phone out of her pocket and pushed in a number. 
After a minute she spoke, her brows knotted in anger.  “I want to speak to
the Sheriff. ----What do you mean he’s not in?  You get him on the phone
and tell him to get his ass out to Shirley Howell’s place.  I have a
trespasser here who is refusing to leave. -----I don’t give a flying flip if he
is at a roping and no I do
not
want to talk to the deputy in
charge.  I want Rafter Storm Horse out here and I want him here
yesterday!”  She slammed the phone shut but opened it again almost
immediately and pushed in another number.  It appeared no one answered so
she closed it again.  “I’ll have my lawyer out here before dark!”

Mesa shrugged.  “You do
that, Mom.  This is one battle you’re not going to win.  I’ve already
been over all the papers with my lawyer and with Uncle Rance’s lawyer and
they’ve assured me that I’m well within my rights as an equal owner, to come
back here to live.”

“You relinquished all claim
to this place when you sneaked out of here in the middle of the night.” 
For the first time, Shirley began to doubt her own conviction.  “I don’t
need you coming in here turning my life upside down.”

“I left because the man you
had living in the house with us at the time, tried to rape me the night I
graduated from high school and you were passed out in your room, too drunk to
help me or to care that I needed help.”  Mesa’s voice had raised an octave
and she struggled to regain control of herself.  “I left because I thought
I’d killed him.”

Shirley’s eyes stretched wide
and she shook her head.  “That’s a lie!  You were just a kid and
Melvin wasn’t interested in you!”

“Well, that wasn’t what he
said when he pranced into my room naked, so eager to show me what he wanted to
give me as a graduation present.”  Mesa turned away from her mother’s
fury.  “I screamed for you to help me, but he just laughed because he knew
you were too drunk to give a damn.”

“I don’t believe you.”
Shirley said, but her voice sounded uncertain.  Vaguely she remembered Melvin
having a cracked head the morning they discovered Mesa gone.

Mesa shrugged.  “That
night I was forced to realize that unless I wanted to become a part of the
arrangement he had with you, I needed to leave, so I did.”  She turned
around and faced her mother.  “But now I don’t need anyone’s protection
and I’m here to stay.  Go on back up to your big house on the hill and
don’t worry about me turning your life upside down.  I don’t want to be
involved in
your
life any more than I want
you
involved in mine. 
Between Uncle Rance and me, we’ll continue to see that you have your share of
the income from the ranch deposited into your account just the way he’s been
doing it all these years.”

“I’m staying right here until
the sheriff shows up and throws you off the place,” Shirley replied
firmly.  “You don’t belong here anymore.  I’ll go to the nursing home
and make Rance sign whatever papers he needs to sign, but you are not welcome
on the Rocking H and I mean to see you gone!”

Mesa walked over and pulled
the front door open.  “The rocking chair on the porch will be very
comfortable while you wait.  Until someone with official authority orders
me off, I’m staying and I don’t have any intention of entertaining you while we
wait.”

Shirley walked to the door
and stopped, anger flashing in her eyes as she faced her daughter.  “I
will never understand how I could have been a mother to such an ungrateful
child.”

A sad smile touched Mesa’s
face.  “If you’d been any kind of mother after Daddy died, I doubt we’d be
having this conversation.”

The older woman snorted
loudly and stepped out onto the porch.

Shirley had barely cleared
the opening when the solidly built door slammed shut behind her, and then to
make sure she didn’t barge back in, Mesa turned the deadbolt lock, feeling a
surge of perverse satisfaction, knowing her mother could hear the bar slide
into place.

Inside she was quivering like
a puddle of gelatin, but she was thankful that she hadn’t given in to the urge
to scream curses at her mother.  In spite of the past, she had stayed
aware that the woman she was dealing with was her mother, and Raale’s
grandmother.  It was hard to believe that Shirley Howell would ever
embrace that relationship, but if the child had anything to say about it, they
would eventually become, at least, sociable.  Raale didn’t seem to
recognize negativity, or maybe she just chose to ignore it, Mesa wasn’t sure
which.

Then she remembered the phone
call Shirley had made.  She’d summoned Rafe and Mesa was pretty sure he’d
respond.  Before she would have time to prepare herself, he’d be
there.  She’d known that coming back here meant meeting him again was
inevitable, but despite the weeks she’d already had, she still wasn’t prepared
to face Rafe.

She remembered vividly the
night he’d walked so casually into Howell’s Hideaway.  She’d recognized
him as he lifted a mug of beer from the bar and strolled across the floor to
lower his big frame into a chair at the table closest to the stage where she
was sitting on a stool in front of the microphone.  She remembered she’d
been so surprised, she’d messed up the lyrics of the song she’d been singing,
but thankfully it was one of her newer pieces, so no one seemed to
notice.  It had been a night out of one of her dreams.  Rafe had not
so much as looked at another woman despite the fact that every woman in the
place was eyeing him.  He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her.  He
kept telling her what a beautiful woman she’d become and later, upstairs, he’d
finally kissed her.

Trying to plan a quick meal
she’d asked him what he’d like to have and he told her.

“You, Mesa,” his voice was
rough as sandpaper.  “I want you.”

His eyes held hers as he
lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers.  That gentle touch
snatched her breath away.

His chocolate eyes sparkled. 
“I’ve been wantin’ to do that for years.”

Mesa could hardly breathe as
his head dropped again.  Just before his lips touched hers for the second
time, his eyes closed, his sooty lashes resting against his bronze skin and
then she couldn’t see anymore because her own eyes closed and she lost herself
in the movement of his lips on hers.  The first kisses were tender,
lingering and almost chaste, but then Rafe’s lips separated and his tongue
traced the crease where hers came together, seeking entry.  Mesa wasn’t
even aware that she responded by letting her lips part, but the feel of his
tongue slipping into her mouth, ignited a fire that shot through her body like
a charged flux.  She groaned into his mouth and he pulled her close
against him.

Then he pulled his mouth away
from hers.  “Lord, Mesa, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything like I
want you.”  It was something between a whisper and a growl, and his hot
breathe against her ear only increased the heat rushing through her body, pooling
below her stomach.  When he found her mouth again, he took possession of
it, exploring, coaching, encouraging, inviting, and daring her to respond in
kind.