Twenty-six

Randy waved Lloyd over to the veranda as soon as he rode in. He could see she was distraught as he headed Strawberry to the main house and dismounted. Evie was also there, and Katie sat on the veranda rocking Donavan. They all seemed anxious, and Lloyd hardly knew which woman to go to first. His mother was still mending emotionally, Evie was always upset over anything that affected her father, and he needed some time with Katie after being gone for nearly ten days.

“What’s wrong with your father?” Randy asked Lloyd anxiously when he came up the steps. “He got home a couple of hours ago, and he just sits in that big chair by the fireplace and won’t talk to me.” She folded her arms. “What happened out there?” She looked around, her eyes tearing. “And where are the boys—and the rest of the men?”

A very tired Lloyd removed his hat and set it on a table. He ran a hand through his hair and then pulled it behind his back. “The boys stayed behind for some camp cleanup. They’ll come back with the rest of the men. They’ll probably only be a couple more hours getting here. And I need a bath and a shave. I managed to wash off most of the soot in the creek and put on a clean shirt, but I’m so damn tired I’m not real sure I can deal with Pa right now.”

“You have to! He’s deeply troubled about something, Lloyd. I’m not ready for this!”

Lloyd grasped her arms. “Mom, relax. You know he sometimes just needs time to sort things out.” He led her to a chair and made her sit down, looking at Evie, who seemed as concerned as her mother.

“What’s wrong with Daddy? He’s almost as distant and unreachable as he was after you were shot last summer.”

Lloyd rubbed at his eyes. “I’ll go talk to him. You women stay out here.”

“Lloyd, what happened?” Katie asked.

He sighed deeply. “Brady Fillmore started a grass fire and tried to steal another steer.”

Katie’s eyes widened. “Please tell me you didn’t hang him in front of the boys!”

Brian walked up behind Lloyd. “Welcome back. What the hell happened out there?”

“Brady Fillmore started a grass fire,” Evie told her husband.

Brian moved beside her, turning his gaze to Lloyd. “Well, something more than that happened. Your father is in a mood, Lloyd, like he doesn’t care about anything. He’s in there chain-smoking and won’t talk to anyone, not even Randy.”

Lloyd leaned against a porch post. “Yeah, well, some ugly things were said. Brady Fillmore insulted him pretty bad in front of the boys, which normally wouldn’t faze Pa. He’s used to it. But—I don’t know. He came close to shooting Brady, but then he said to let him go. Made him promise to sign over his land to the J&L to make up for our loss, and to get out of Colorado. But something else was wrong. He rode off before the rest of us, so I followed. I was afraid this would happen. I was just hoping it wouldn’t.”

Randy put her face in her hands. “I need him, Lloyd. Things have been so good the last month or so. And he was in such a good mood when I left him at the barn four days ago. He was going to take Ben and Little Jake to check the fence line, and the next thing I knew, Rodriguez came to the house, carrying on about a fire, and Jake and the boys were gone. Jake came back a changed man.”

Lloyd knelt in front of her. “I’ll talk to him. You know he always perks back up after things like this, and he loves you.”

“Brady Fillmore said something about him killing his father, didn’t he? He talked about his outlaw days.”

“Pa just didn’t think we should hang Brady in front of the boys, although I dearly wanted to. Pa said he didn’t feel he had the right to judge, but he really clobbered Fillmore. For a minute, I was scared he was going to shoot him point-blank, but he didn’t. I think he thought about you and the boys, so he walked away.”

“You can get through to him, Lloyd. You always can. You know how he thinks…as a man thinks. I can only speak from a woman’s point of view.”

“Will it help if I talk to him?” Evie asked. “After you were shot, I—”

“No.” Lloyd rose. “I’ll do it.” He turned to Katie, walking over and kissing her cheek and kissing the baby. “Go on home and get things ready for me to take a bath,” he asked her. “I’ll be along.”

Katie looked up at him, and he kissed her lips. “I missed you,” he told her.

“I missed you too. After what happened last summer, I hated the thought of you going to Denver. I’m so glad you’re home.”

He smiled for her. “Me too. And things went fine in Denver. I got a good price for the cattle.”

“How about Evie’s Garden?” Brian asked. “What’s the loss?”

“Most of our backup grass. Pa said he wants me to use that bounty money to buy feed to get us through the winter, then the neighboring ranchers can use some of our grass if they have to. And we might have to share Horse Creek with some of them. We can only hope for the best.”

“I’m sorry, Lloyd. Is Little Jake okay?” Evie asked.

Lloyd smiled sadly. “You know your son. He wanted us to hang Fillmore. He was furious that the man had insulted his grandfather.”

Brian closed his eyes and shook his head. “He’s going to be one tough Harkner man someday.”

Lloyd touched Brian’s shoulder. “He’s also a Stewart. And he has a father who is a great example of how to remain calm and fair and how to settle things peacefully. And his mother is next to a saint, so those things will have their effect. I think what Pa did yesterday will stick with him. I think Jake was thinking about what those boys saw last winter and figured he’d teach them not everything needs to be handled that way. He told them this was different because no family member was hurt. But for some reason, the ugly things Brady said hit Pa harder than normal. He just rode off without saying much…and apparently we’ve just added another couple thousand acres or so to the J&L.”

“Well, there’s one good thing.” Brian stepped back and studied his brother-in-law. “Go in there and see what’s wrong with your father. You’re a hell of a good man, Lloyd, and sometimes you can get through to him when the rest of us can’t. I have a feeling he needs to talk to you, not Randy. You and Jake have a special understanding of each other, and God knows there are things about that man you’d understand far better than I would. I don’t have quite a mean enough streak in me.” He gave Lloyd a rather sad smile.

“Yeah, well, God knows I inherited that from him,” Lloyd answered wryly. He rubbed at his neck wearily before going inside.

Jake sat in his favorite red-leather chair near the huge stone fireplace at the end of the room, smoking quietly. Lloyd noticed he wore the same clothes he was wearing when he left. Shit. He’d never, ever looked defeated before, and that’s how he looked now. That wasn’t Jake.