{Chapter 4}

“It’ll take us a few days to track him down, but he left a trial a blind man could follow. Would you be willing to wait for a few days in Lovelace?” Carpenter asked Wade as he gathered a horse and a gun to ride out with the Marshall.

Wade growled inwardly at the delay. “Of course. Let me just send a telegram to my boss and let her…er… him know.”

Carpenter nodded and exited the office of the livery stable. Wade went outside to where Jay was waiting for him.

“Looks like we’re gonna be a while bud” Wade said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“They gonna go after him?” Jay asked.

“I reckon. I’ve gotta send a telegram to my boss then we’re getting you a change of clothes, okay?” Wade started walking down the street with Jay on his heels.

“Is your boss nice?” Jay asked.

“I guess. Sh… He’s a good boss to have” Wade said.

He didn’t want very many people to know that he worked for a woman, no matter how much that woman could put a hurting on any man.

“Mr. Wade?” Jay ran up to walk beside him.

“Yeah?”

“Will you take me home with you?”

Wade stopped. Did the boy just expect Wade to leave him somewhere?

“Of course. What did you think I was gonna do with you?” Wade asked.

Jay shrugged. “Guess that means you kinda like me?”

Wade continued walked. “Sure I do.”

“Mr. Wade?”

Wade looked down.

“I kinda like you, too.”

***********

“Your grandmother left behind quite an interesting will, Aubrey” Aubrey sat down at her father’s desk shortly after her Gram’s short funeral. It had been two days since Gram had taken her heavenly flight, and Aubrey was just trying to be strong for her family. Her Gram had always had heart problems, and her bad health had restricted her to the bed years ago. It was good that she wasn’t hurting any longer.

Yet she couldn’t figure out what her father meant by “interesting”.

“How do you mean?” she asked him.

“Well, she… she… Why don’t you read it yourself?” Daddy handed her a white piece of paper.

Aubrey accepted it and skimmed down until she saw her name. She read her grandmother’s request regarding her relationship, age, and place of residence.

“Am I reading this right?” she asked, tears in her eyes.

“I’m afraid so, darling. You are to be married by your twenty-first birthday or you will be… disinherited. In the meantime you aren‘t even allowed to live with us.” Her father ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair.

“Papaw have anything to do with this?” Aubrey asked.

“His name is signed at the bottom” Daddy smoothed his goatee and sat at his desk.

Aubrey felt like crying, but her father didn’t do the tears. Tears were weak, and he wouldn’t hesitate to tell her so.

“So I have no choice if I want to stay a part of the family? How could she do this? I know it’s wrong to talk ill of the dead, but her conniving ways of getting me hitched have gone too far. Papaw was a part of this? I can’t believe that he would…” Aubrey covered her mouth to keep from bursting into tears.

Where was she supposed to find a husband? There were only a few ways to catch a husband, even if there were one she would marry.

“What do they expect me to do?” she asked.

“I don’t know, baby girl. I think this is good for you, though.”

Aubrey stared at her father, a thousand disrespectful comments rushing through her mind. She bit them all back.

“Good for me? This is unfair, Daddy!” she exclaimed.

“Then go talk to your mother about it” daddy waved her out.

Aubrey stood and fisted her hands. This was preposterous!

It was raining outside, but she didn’t care on iota. She ran out onto the back stoop and sat down, allowing the rain to fall on her and soak her through. Her anger boiled until she felt like screaming in rage. Her family had no right to do this to her. After all she had invested into them, and all she had tried to do, they treated her like an item needing sold. Now they had marked her down so that the first poor buyer that came along would snatch her up.

Well, she wasn’t going to be reduced so low. She would just pick out her own husband. Then she would get as far away from Lovelace as she could for a while.

***********

“Aubrey, we’re out of options. I’ve listed all intelligent single men in town and you don’t want any of them” Brooke sat on a stood at the counter of the store across from where Aubrey stood behind it.

“Then I’ll have to settle for an unintelligent one. I’m not marrying any man twice my age or one old enough to be my younger brother. I’m tired of living in the back room” Aubrey nearly whined.

She wanted to see her little brothers so bad, yet she couldn’t. Her parents and grandfather didn’t like that she was too… too scared to get out into the world and find a husband that they shoved her out instead.

“You’ll have to give a little, Aubbie” Brooke’s older sister, Ida, came from where she was looking over baby items, her hand on her pregnant stomach. “Don’t be hard on a man who doesn’t meet all of your expectations. There isn’t a perfect man.

Brooke walked to the window. “What about out West? There are lots of good strong men out there working ranches.”

“I’ve never come across a handsome cowboy” Aubrey lied.

She still couldn’t get that stranger she had bumped into the other day out of her mind. She didn’t remember much about him except for his eyes.

Sapphire colored blue eyes.

“What if you did find one?” Brooke asked.

Aubrey walked to the window to stand beside her best friend. "Brooke, I am not about to marry a barn shovelin', cow punchin', horse kissin' cowpoke. Most of them are ugly as sin anywa--"

She quit talking as a tall cowboy led a big white gelding up to the trough across the street and let him take a good long drink. Her words had been proven wrong before her very eyes.

"That face!" Brooke swooned.

"Those muscles" Brooke's sister, Ida, chimed in.

"That dirt all over him!" Aubrey giggled. "He's perfect!"

One look and she knew that it was the same stranger she had seen the other day. He had a little boy up on the saddle, the same little boy she had seen that looked so scrawny the other day, but he had now gotten a little weight on him.

The cowboy smiled up at something the boy said, the sun reflecting off the golden flecks in his brown hair. His wide, genuine smile sparkled like a full moon at midnight, and Aubrey felt her stomach knot up. That boy was probably his son, and his wife - whom he was madly in love with - was probably waiting for him to return.

“He’s probably married, girls,” Aubrey said, not bringing herself to turn from the window.

“What if he’s not? What if that’s his little brother?” Ida offered.

“Like a man that handsome is single” Aubrey shook her head.

Then, as if his very intent was to scare the living daylights out of them, the cowboy started across the road with the little boy on his shoulders.

“Oh no!’ Aubrey panicked.

“Act normal, Aubbie! We can’t have him know that we were watching him!” Brooke said.

Aubrey rushed behind the counter and pretended to write down an order from a catalog, Brooke rushed to sit back at the counter, and Ida went back to looking at baby things.

The door opened and Aubrey looked up into those deep blue eyes again. His face was shaven this time, and his clean, hard jaw line made his eyes stand out even more.

“C-Can I help you?” Aubrey asked.

The cowboy set the little boy on his bare feet. “This here feller needs some shoes.”

His voice was drenched in a thick Texan accent, and his deep voice was soothing while demanding.

“Is that so?” Aubrey leaned on the counter and looked down at the boy, thankful for the diversion. “Do you know what size you are?”

“I’m six and a half,” the boy said as-a-matter-of-factly.

Aubrey laughed. “What size in a shoe are you?”

“Never had no shoes” the boy said.

Aubrey looked up at the cowboy, pretty sure that her disappointment showed on her face.

He held his hands up. “I ain’t the boy’s Pa. I found him alone a few days ago. Guess you could say I’m his guardian.”

Aubrey nodded, pleased that the cowboy felt the need to defend himself to her. “Let’s see what we can find.”

She walked to the back and came out with a few pairs of shoes.

“I think I might have a pair that would fit you. Sit on this crate” Aubrey motioned to an old empty crate near the counter.

The boy sat down and his bare feet dangled off the edge.

“Gotta name, little guy?” Aubrey asked.

“Jay” the boy answered. He pointed up to his guardian. “That Mr. Wade.”

“Nice to meet you both” Aubrey looked up at the cowboy, smiling down at her.

She found a shoe that fit Jay and got the match to it. She put them both on and stood up.

Jay’s green eyes shone when he looked down at the shoes. Wade tousled his blonde hair.

“How do those feel?” he asked Jay.

“Feels right good” Jay smiled up at Aubrey.

“Good” Aubrey smiled right back down at him.

***********

Wade stood in front of the most beautifully glorious woman he had ever laid eyes on. How was he even putting coherent sentences together while staring at her? Her brown hair boasted a cowlick that on some women would be strange, but on this lady, it was quite adorable. Her luminous hazel eyes, framed in thin yet long lashes, looked up at him with a smiling glint in them. She had perfectly arched eyebrows and a perfect nose above pastel pink lips. Her round, flawless cheeks boasted a hint of pink and a soft jaw line. Her rich brown hair was pulled back in some shape or form that women were doing nowadays.

“How much are they?” He heard himself asking of the shoes on Jay’s feet in the midst of his studying her perfect face.

She told him, and he had no idea how he retained the information long enough to pay her, but he did.

“We’ve got to get on home, Aubrey. You take care of yourself” A young woman called from the door as another woman - obviously in the family way - followed her out.

Her name was Aubrey.

“Okay. Bye, Brooke. Take care of Ida” Aubrey smiled and called out to him.

She gave Wade a dime in change and smiled down at Jay. “Can I get you anything else?”

Jay shook his head.

Wade nodded and smiled at her, reaching out to take Jay’s hand. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure” Aubrey smiled at them and they exited the mercantile.

Jay had to walk fast to keep up with Wade’s long stride.

“When’re we gonna get your horse back?” he asked.

Wade smiled. “Whenever the Marshall finds the man who took him, I suppose.”

“I kinda like Abe” Jay said as they approached the white Appaloosa, much like the one that Wade had been expecting to get in a mare form when the Tennessee Walking horse had arrived.

“Me too, Jay. Well, since we’re stuck here for a while…” Wade hoisted Jay up onto Abe, “… what do you think we should do?”

Jay smiled mischievously.

***********

Toni smiled as Erik looked her up and down as if evaluating her.

“Practicing? On what?” he asked.

“Poles, posts, anything really. I have to say I’m pretty good” Toni grinned.

“Uh huh. On a still, stiff target. Sure you remember all of your lessons?” Erik asked sweetly, beginning to pace around her in his usual way.

“Care to test me?” Toni said in a daring tone.

Erik smirked. “How about a few scenarios?”

Toni nodded. Erik walked up behind her and put an arm around her throat. “Okay, say I have you in a headlock. What do you do?”

“Well…” Toni thought hard.

She brought her foot up and stomped on the toe of his boot. His arm lessened around her but didn’t let go. She elbowed him in the ribs and his arm finally loosened.

“Best that” she giggled.

Erik smiled at her, rubbing his side. “Okay, deal. Now, what if…” Erik picked her up by the waist and slung her over his shoulder.

“Erik!” She screeched.

“Yelling ain’t gonna save you, darlin,’” Erik laughed.

She kicked and flailed, but to no avail.

“Daddy? What did Mommy do?” Little Sandy asked from her position in the doorway.

Erik whirled around, dropping Toni on her stomach hard.

“Ow!” she protested.

“Oh, baby I’m so sorry” Erik knelt beside her.

She sat up on her knees and doubled over, groaning.

“Toni? Toni, what hurts, honey?” Erik asked, his voice heartbreakingly concerned.

His hand reached out to her, and she pulled it hard, knocking him over before she scrambled to sit on top of him.

“How’s that, Teacher?” she grinned down at him.

He laughed at her and pulled her down to kiss her. She did the wrong thing… and got distracted. He rolled over until he sat on top of her.

“Never allow yourself to get distracted. Lesson number one” he grinned.

Just then, Sandy chose to hop on his back and giggled. Erik laughed and pulled her around to sit on her mother, too.

“That’s not fair!” Toni exclaimed.

“I wouldn’t call faking being injured and nearly scaring me to death fair either, sweetheart” Erik told her.

She sighed, as much as the weight of two people on top of her would allow, and tried to move.

“Nah, I think I’ll keep you here for a while” Erik grinned.

Sandy smiled down at her, and Toni felt bested.

“You two beat all I’ve ever seen.”

So-o-o? Lemme know what you guys think! Will dedicate this chapter to the best commenter tomorrow! #lazybum

God Bless!