Chapter 31

Colt worked on painting the porch railing a few days later, humming as he did. The noon sun beat down hot in him, causing sweat to roll down his back and forehead. The white paint had covered the entire porch except the railing, which still remained its original wooden color. He was fixing that today, and then the entire house would be finished.

He had to admit that the place had turned out better than he had expected. It was the best-looking place outside of Plateau, that was for sure. To Colt, it even outshone the ranch house.

“You thirsty?” a feminine voice came from the door.

Colt turned and smiled at Jessie.

“Carby sent some lemonade,” she said, holding up the glass pitcher filled with the yellow liquid.

Colt looked at the half-painted railing. “I reckon I’m due for a break.”

Jessie smiled and poured him a glass of lemonade. Colt motioned to the steps as he took the glass from her.

“Care to join me?” he asked.

Jessie smiled and nodded, taking a seat. Colt refused to be seated when a woman was standing. Grace had raised him that way since he was a boy, and it never left him.

“You want a glass?” he asked after he was seated.

“I don’t think I’d mind one. Let me run get one right quick,” Jessie moved to stand.

Colt stopped her with his hand. “I’ll go get it. You sit tight.”

He walked inside and to the cabinet in the wide kitchen, smiling at the sight of the red and white checked curtains that Jessie had made. To think that he had once dreaded seeing them finished and hung up. Bliss wouldn’t have enjoyed them as much as he had.

Suddenly, he noticed how the thought of Bliss didn’t sting at all. It was just a normal thought.

He smiled as he walked back out the open door and sat down on the steps beside Jessie, holding the glass out to her.

“For you, m’lady,” he grinned.

“Thank you,” Jessie smiled in return.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, content to sit there and drink their lemonade.

“I’m surprised that Adam hasn’t shown up yet,” Jessie sighed.

A knot formed in the pit of Colt’s stomach. She had probably been looking for him.

“You think he’ll change his mind and apologize?” he asked.

Jessie shrugged. “I don’t really care one way or another. It… it doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, losing him. Sure, I think about him every once in a while, but I think I’m better off where I am. Even if it is in the middle of nowhere in Arizona.” Her eyes twinkled at the last statement.

Colt chuckled, the knot in his stomach unraveling into butterflies.

“I guess I expected to be more heartbroken, you know?” Jessie sighed. “The only thing I really regret is that I had to let it get this far before I finally understood what kind of man he was.”

The sorrow in her voice made Colt’s heart sink. He wanted to punch that low-down idiot until he saw the error of his ways, perhaps longer. No one deserved to be treated that way, let along a woman like Jessie. She wouldn’t hurt a soul, and yet she had been tricked because of the money she didn’t even know she had.

“I went through the same thing as you, once,” Colt told her with a sigh.

“What do you mean?” Jessie asked.

“There was this girl that I thought I loved more than anything else in the world. She was what I woke up for, and what I went to sleep dreaming about. For years I thought that we had something, but I guess I was just that little boy to her all that time. When I finally did confess my feelings, she said she had no idea what I was talking about. Turns out, she loved someone else. She married the man, and can you believe I didn’t even go to the wedding? Her best friend, and I didn’t have the decency to attend her wedding.” Colt shook his head.

“Who was she?” Jessie asked, her eyebrows drawing close together. “You said that you grew up here, and there were no other women besides the cook and B… Bliss? It was Bliss?”

Colt nodded, not making eye contact with her. That sting he was waiting for never came, and it nearly made him smile. He glanced up at the sky and sent a split second prayer of thanks upward.

“A… And you had to build this house for her?” Jessie looked back at the building.

Colt nodded again, this time he looked at her. There was no pity in her eyes, only concern. Strangely enough, that made him feel better than any sympathy. It was nice to know that she knew better than to pity a man over a woman.

“Why, that Sherman Cooper deserves a hole in the head! After all you went through, he put you to doing this. It’s most insensitive!” She fumed.

Colt laughed. “He didn’t know about my feelings about Bliss. No one did.”

Jessie shook her head. “I never would have guessed it.”

Colt smiled. “I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was love, but I reckon it wasn’t as deep as it ought to have been. Now, I feel like I could carry on with her as if nothing ever happened.”

Jessie shook her head as if she hadn’t heard a word he had said. “That wretched man. He worked you like a dog on this this house, and endured all that emotional pain, and what did he do with it?”

Colt smiled and watched her. Her jaw set in a square form, and her green eyes seemed to sear through the middle distance. He shook his head and leaned over just enough to press a kiss in the middle of her cheek, taking her empty glass in his hand. She sat there for a moment, staring straight ahead before gawking at him.

“I reckon it turned out just fine, didn’t it?” He waited for her to stand, then stood up beside her.

Jessie smiled. “You can’t complain about the house, that’s for sure.”

Colt looked around at the place, pleased with what he saw. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jessie smooth a strand of hair back behind her ear. He smiled, her self-conscious nature endearing to him.

Yet, he couldn’t resist teasing her.

“You nervous about something?” he asked.

“Nervous? No. Why would I be nervous? An absolutely absurd observation on your part, Mr. Kidd,” she said quickly.

Colt laughed at her knowingly.

“What’s so funny?” She asked, cutting her eyes at him.

“Nothin’,” he grinned, walking to through the open doorway and placing the empty glasses on the table.

Maybe he shouldn’t have given her a peck on the cheek, but he didn’t regret it.

He glanced at her through the doorway, watching as she watched the wind sweep over the land in view of the porch. At that moment, with the wind whipping her hair all around her face and putting it in disarray, was the exact moment that Colt fell completely and madly in love with her.

He didn’t deny it one bit.

*****

Jessie tried to keep eye contact to a minimum with Colt that night. Every time she looked at him she ended up barely concealing a foolish grin. Ever since that scene on the front porch she had been incredibly shy around him. She didn’t know what had exactly changed about him, but something made him seem… happier. He smiled a lot more, and it even reached his eyes. How those baby blue eyes seemed to sparkle when he smiled. To think he had deprived the world of that luxury.

Surprised by her own thoughts, she but her head down to conceal a blush and looked at her untouched plate of mashed potatoes and fried chicken. While she wanted desperately to eat, her stomach was so full of butterflies that she couldn’t eat a bite. Maybe it was better this way. The greasy food was not good for her weight, anyway.

She took a sip of leftover lemonade and leaned back. Her eyes wandered too far to her left, and connected with Colt’s. He smiled at her.

A blush burned her cheeks as she quickly looked away, training her face to not smile back.

“Okay, so one of you is gonna have to tell me what’s going on.” Granny set her glass down and looked between them.

“What do you mean?” Colt asked.

“You two aren’t speaking to each other or me, which is odd considering the two of you talk like a pair of canary birds,” Grace commented.

“I’m just tired,” Colt shrugged, glancing over at Jessie with a knowing glint in his eye and giving her a quick wink.

Jessie would have died of embarrassment right there if the sound of thundering hoof beats hadn’t stopped the three of them from moving a muscle.

Terror seared through Jessie as she looked to Colt, whose teasing manner had turned grave in a matter of milliseconds.

“Kidd! I know you’re in there!” A voice called.

Jessie froze, her gut clenching.

Adam had returned.

“Already?” Carby asked.

Colt stood from the table and motioned for the women to stay seated. He walked to the open window and looked through it.

“You want something, Adam?” he asked.

“You know what I want. Where is she?” Adam spat out from atop his horse.

“Who are you talking about?” Colt asked as if he had no idea what Adam was spouting off.

“Jessie. I know you have her!” Adam growled.

“If she’s here, then she’s here on her own free will. I didn’t drag her here, if that’s what you’re implying,” Colt said with a nonchalant quality to his voice.

“Quit stallin’! I know you have her, and you know that I know you have her. So hand her over and no one gets hurt,” Adam pulled a revolver from his hip and Colt tensed.

He looked around for the gun that would normally be above the doorway, but he had taken it to the ranch for one of the cowboys to fix the lever. Groaning inwardly, she watched as he thought up a plan quick.

Adam dismounted his horse.

“Jessie, come here,” Colt waved her over.

Jessie stood and walked over to him.

“I’m gonna send you out there and you stall him, okay? I’ll walk around the house and sneak up on him from behind,” he said.

Jessie nodded. Fear and dread rose up in her, and she tried to swallow it. Colt must have sensed that, for he put a hand on her shoulder and leaned in close to her ear.

“I won’t let him hurt you,” he whispered.

Jessie nodded and opened the front door as Colt shooed his grandmother to one of the rooms where she would be safe.

She stepped out onto the front porch and faced her ex-fiancé.

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