{Chapter 26}

A few days passed with settling in to ranch life again. For Toni it was like a breath of fresh air to finally smell dust when she walked out of the door each morning. She smiled when she saw the blasted chicken chasing Tiny, when she caught Ben and Katie in each other’s arms instead of working - repeatedly. Things she had once taken for granted were now like indulgences that she had missed during her two weeks away.

She was standing on her porch watching Erik work with Prince while thinking on these things.

“For once I find you idle. It’s kind of a shocker,” Wade grinned from beside her.

She looked over at him. “Just thinkin’.”

“Dangerous stuff right there” Wade leaned against the porch railing beside her and they both watched Erik as he stood in the stirrup on one side of the horse.

He just stood there as if he had all the time in the world. Toni had no idea what he was doing, but she decided to let him to it.

“How are things with you two?” Wade asked.

Toni looked over at him. “Fine. I feel bad that the poor man has to sleep on the floor, though.”

“You could change that,” Wade teased.

Toni rolled her eyes and punched his shoulder. “Don’t be a dufus.”

“You two getting along?”

“I suppose, why you so anxious to know?” Toni asked the question more like an accusation.

“No reason,” Wade pushed off the railing.

Their attention directed to Erik, who had just been thrown through the air by the contrary horse.

“Oh, for the love of…!” He tore off his hat, threw it into the dirt before jabbing his fists into his hips, and commenced to telling the animal of his sentiments on the subject. “I come out here and break my back every day just so you’ll be able to be ridden, and this is the thanks I get?”

The horse bucked and snorted.

“What if I called this whole arrangement off, huh?” Erik acted as if the horse could understand him.

Prince snorted again.

“Yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it!” Erik smashed his hat back on his head and stomped out of the corral, leaving the saddled horse alone.

He came up to Toni muttering some words she couldn’t understand. He continued speaking until she thought he wasn’t even speaking English.

“Problem?” She leaned over and asked him.

“Nope” Erik said, not looking at her.

“Seems like Prince is being contrary today.”

“It ain’t his fault,” Erik muttered.

“Somethin’ nagging at you?”

Erik sighed. “Yeah, I guess. I’ve been struggling with how to tell you this for a while now.”

“Tell me wha-a-t?” Toni drew out the last word.

“Well, I’ve been thinking. I need to call of this whole marriage thing.”

**********

Smooth, Erik. Real smooth.

He rolled over on his bedroll, placed in the back of the barn on an old workbench. He had explained to Toni his reasons for wanting to call of the marriage, and then she kicked him out, and threw his bedroll after him. He had been sleeping in the barn for two nights now and it hadn’t got any easier. She had thrown harsh denunciations at him, such as “you’re a filthy liar”, “You’re just like the rest of ‘em”, “You were planning this the whole time”, and “You stupid, Bible-thumpin’, heart-breakin’, rat.”

He hadn’t meant to hurt her in any way, but it seemed that she just didn’t understand and didn’t take his reasons seriously. The last thing he had intended was to use her or lie to her.

Not that the marriage mattered anymore with that gang in jail.

“I’ve gotta apologize to her, Cooper” he said to his horse in the next stall over.

Suddenly, an idea came to him. He jumped up and grabbed his guitar.

This was one idea that was bound not to go awry.

**********

“You are perhaps the worst shot of anyone I’ve ever known” Zach said to Harlan as he tried to his the tin can sitting on the ground a few yard away.

They had traveled out to a place where their shots couldn’t be heard by anyone to teach Harlan Downs how to shoot.

Lousy idea.

“I’m not equipped with the skill of marksmanship,” Harlan said.

“Clearly. Jose, show him how to load the blasted thing” Zach waved to his partner and turned his back, rubbing his forehead in thought.

His plan was not working out as he had counted on. Harlan was hopeless with a gun of any sort, and Jose was clearly not enthralled with the idea of jumping the residents of the Broken F. It was not as if they had another choice in the matter. His best friend’s death had to be avenged.

There was no other option.

“Let me show how to do this again, Harlan.”

**********

“Awe, their first fight!” Katie squealed as she and Ben sat by the watering hole, watching a few horses drink from it.

“What’s so great about that?” Ben asked, leaning back on his elbow. “We don’t even know what it was about.”

“So, fighting builds character, especially when they make up. Now all we have to do is get them to make up,” Katie stated.

“Why? They’ll make up on their own time, Katie,” Ben protested.

“You’re not sure of that,” Katie said defiantly.

“Yes I am. Wanna know why? Because it’s a whole lot easier to admit you’re wrong - even if you’re not - than to go through all the humiliation and trouble of a divorce.”

Katie gasped. “You don’t think they’ll get a divorce, do you?”

Ben groaned. “You take things way out of proportion, Katie!”

Katie gasped again. “Are we having our first fight, too?”

Ben rubbed his face. “You’re hopeless. Just hopeless.”

Katie giggled. She knew exactly what got under his skin. He sighed before grabbing her and kissing her soundly.

“Are we making up now?” she asked after they pulled apart.

Ben rolled his eyes and she threw herself back into his arms. “I’m just teasing you.”

**********

This had better work. Erik stood in front of Toni’s window that next night, holding his guitar. Taking a deep breath, he did the most nerve-wracking thing of his life. Strumming a few chords, he began in a shaking voice,

“Lonely. I’m so lonely without you.

I’m just a man, but I keep tryin’,

to say I’m perfect, that’d be lyin’,

But I’m so lonely. So lonely without you.”

Her bedroom window opened and she leaned out with a confused look on her face.

“It’s not that I’m afraid of the dark.

It’s not that old dusty barn smell.

It’s just that I never realized I fell - for you.

I’m so lonely without you.

“The way your hair blows in the wind.

The way your eyes sparkle when you smile at me.

It’s really something beautiful to see.

I’m so lonely without you.”

Katie had come out of her bunkhouse as he had expected, and Toni just leaned against her window frame with an emotionless face.

“If I were to say ’I’m sorry’, would you take me back?

If I were to say ‘I love you’, would you smile?

And if were to say ‘I’ll never let you down’, would you believe the words I said?

Because I… I’m so lonely without you.”

Erik finished his song with one last strum on his guitar and high hopes. In all truthfulness, he was terrified.

“Would you sing it again?” He heard her ask.

Surely it hadn’t been Toni that said that. He looked at her.

“Huh?”
“Will you sing it again?” A smile broke out over her face and she leaned completely on the window frame.

Erik heaved a sigh of relief. “Gladly.”

**********