{Chapter 12}

A little, fluffy-tailed bunny. She nearly had a heart attack over a bunny. She had to get her imagination under control. The bunny hopped off and Aubrey breathed a sigh of relief. If the coyotes were anywhere near, the bunny would have been long gone.

At least that’s what she thought when all the sudden a crashing noise came from beside her. She jerked around, a gasp escaping her lips. She found it was only Wade, with a pile of sticks at his feet.

He must have saw her fear.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to scare you” He knelt beside her.

Aubrey took a deep breath and smiled. “I’m just skittish.”

“You’re just not used to the land out here. The longer you live here, the more you’ll get used to the sounds of the animals” Wade put a few thicker sticks on the fire and sat back, leaning on his hands, which were positioned behind him.

“I hope so. I don’t like jumping at every little sound” she chose not to tell him about the rabbit.

“You’ll get used to it” Wade smiled, and Aubrey looked away. The last thing she needed to see was those tempting dimples.

She leaned back next to him the cold air cutting through her shawl and dress.

“Do you know any of the constellations?” Aubrey asked Wade.

Wade nodded. “I know them all. You?”

Aubrey shook her head. “I know the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, but that’s as far as I go.”

I’ll point them out to you” Wade leaned back flat on his back and Aubrey laid beside him.

Wade pointed up a little to her left. “See that?”

“Wade, there’s a million stars where you’re pointing” Aubrey grinned.

“Okay. See those stars that form a square right there?” Wade asked.

“Sort of. I think so.”

“See the other stars forming two lines from it?”

“I-I think so.”

“That there’s Andromeda. It’s said that she’s the princess in a Greek legend who was chained to a rock and eaten by a sea monster called Cetus,” Wade explained.

Aubrey looked over to him. Where did he get all these smarts?

“See that one there that looks like a funny lookin’ Z?” Wade pointed to another part of the sky.

Aubrey scooted closer to him to follow where he was pointing.

“Yeah” she told him, waiting to hear the story behind this constellation.

“That’s Cassiopeia. Legend says she’s Andromeda’s momma and is chained to her throne for sayin’ that she was pertier that the Nereids” Wade explained to her.

Aubrey smiled. Wade had a brain in him, for sure.

“Sometimes she’ll be upside down in her sufferin’” Wade grinned.

Aubrey’s smile broadened. “Show me another one.”

He pointed out Pisces, Sculptor, and Tucana.

“Where did you learn about all of these?” Aubrey asked.

“I know such fancy stuff sounds strange coming from a dusty cowpoke, huh?” Wade asked.

“No, I find it quite intriguing that you know all of this.” Aubrey smiled, scooting closer to him, mostly because she was cold.

“Well, my Momma knew all about the constellations and what they meant. She made me memorize all of them and where they were located. It sort of stuck, I guess” Wade said.

“Where’s your Mother now?” Aubrey asked.

“In Virginia. I grew up there. Moved out here to find work on a glorious cattle ranch. I had a very rude awakening, needless to say. I developed a love for horses and signed up with Toni here. She was a Curtis then. I’ve worked here for eight years… but I’m sure you don’t need to know my background.”

“No, I want to know. You know basically everything there is to know about me, anyway” Aubrey smiled over at him.

“Well then I guess you should know that I didn’t just move out here on a daydream. I walked out on my family,” Wade blurted.

Aubrey was struck silent. She knew that Wade was incapable of such a thing. At least she hoped she knew him that well.

“My Pa was a drunk and I couldn’t take it anymore. He was cheatin’ on my Momma and I knew that if I stayed I would kill him” Wade enunciated the last four words carefully and perfectly.

Aubrey didn’t say anything but let him say what he wanted.

“I had two older brothers that were able to keep him from beating Momma too bad, but I still should have stayed to support them. I ran off like a coward.”

Aubrey felt her heart ache for his pain. Guilt he didn’t have to feel. She clasped his big, strong hand in her own and laid her head on his shoulder. “I don’t blame you for leaving. You said yourself that you would have killed the man if you stayed. You would have been less help had hanged for murder.”

Wade sighed. “That’s not how I feel about it.”

“That’s because you take all the blame onto yourself about everything. You blame yourself for our wedding, blame yourself because you think I’m not happy, and now you’re blaming yourself for doing the lesser of two evils. It’s quite exasperating, Wade” Aubrey said.

Wade didn’t say anything.

“You need to forgive yourself. Look at all the good you’ve done. You’ve provided a little boy with a home and a desperate woman with a place to live. You’ve made her the happiest she’s been in a while. Even though she knows this thing is going to take some work, she thinks you make a great friend” Aubrey smiled.

Wade was silent for a moment and the only noise was the gentle roar and occasional crackle of the fire.

“Friend. I can deal with that” He smiled.

A breeze came through, and Aubrey shivered.

“You cold?” Wade sat up.

Aubrey sat up beside him. “Just a little.”

Wade shrugged off his buckskin coat and wrapped it around her shoulders.

“Aren’t you cold?” Aubrey asked.

“Na” Wade waved her question off with his hand.

They both sat and stared into the fire for a while. Neither of them felt compelled to go back home and sleep.

**********

The plan to dethrone Sheriff Duncan was just about as dumb as the Texas Camel Experiment of ‘56.

Toni paced the ground in front of her fireplace and rubbed her bottom lip with her thumb, as she had a habit of doing when she was thinking. How would she get Adam Sterling to turn on his boss? There were holes everywhere in her plan. Even if she did get the deputy in office, how did she know he wouldn’t be just as terrible as the one before him?

She stopped pacing and faced the fire.

“You, Toni McBride, are in way over your head,” she mumbled.

“Well, I didn’t know you were that in love with me” The strong arms encircled her from behind.

Toni smiled as her husband kissed her neck.

“Guess I am pretty loveable” Erik teased her.

“You’re a little high on yourself, ain’t ya?” Toni asked sweetly.

“You know it’s true,” Erik whispered in her ear.

Toni turned face him with his arms still encircling her waist.

“Maybe you should prove to me just how loveable you are” she smiled.

“Hmm…” Erik thought a moment. “I mean, really, do you really need proof?”

Toni socked him on the chest. “Erik McBride, You haven’t kissed me in nearly a day and a half. What’s it gonna take for me to weasel it out of you?”

Erik thought a moment. “Well, let me think on that a minute…”

Toni grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him close. “I mean, really, do you need to think on it?” She grinned.

Erik smiled and kissed her, finally, long and deep. Though she had been married to Erik for three years, her heart never failed to skip a beat when he kissed her like he meant it.

And now she could tell he meant it.

He pulled away from her, his face only a breath from hers.

“Maybe you’re not completely and totally unlovable as I thought” Toni teased.

Erik kissed her again, pressing her against him and she felt herself melt in his arms.

“Yeah, you’re most definitely loveable.”

**********

Aubrey woke up as Wade was leaving the next morning, clad in his jeans and chaps as usual.

“Y-You want some coffee before you go?” She asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

“No, you gone on back to sleep” Wade told her, whispering so he wouldn’t awake Jay.

“I don’t mind” Aubrey said.

“I’m fine; I’ll grab a cup down at the ranch. Go back to sleep, love” Wade said.

Aubrey collapsed back onto her pillows.

Did he really just call her “love”? Was she just imagining things?

She was probably too sleepy to know what year it was right now.

What year was it anyway?

She thought it was 1869, but she couldn’t be sure.

Soon, the pleasures of sleep enveloped her yet again.