Thirty-six

“You all right?” Jake sat in a porcelain bathtub in the washroom. He wasn’t about to go to dinner without getting rid of the rest of the sweat and dirt from earlier in the day.

Randy poured a half bucket of water over his hair after just shampooing it. “I’m just worried about Gretta’s real reason for coming.” She handed Jake a small towel for his face, then walked to a sink to fold some other towels.

“Why don’t you get in this tub with me?” Jake teased.

Randy smiled. “Because when I do, we end up having some very unusual lovemaking, the kind I call disrespectful, which is the kind you enjoy the most. And, Mr. Harkner, that water is extra dirty this time, although there is someone downstairs who would probably gladly climb in there with you anyway.”

Jake grinned. “She’s not you.” He finished washing and rose to grab a bigger towel from a stand near the tub.

“She certainly isn’t. She’s twenty years younger than I am, which makes her half your age, and she loves big, strong, handsome, brave men. Who can blame her for that? I happen to love one myself.”

Jake finished toweling off, then opened the towel and wrapped her close. “And I love you. And you’re right about the age thing. I’m a little too old to keep up with the likes of Gretta MacBain.”

“Oh, please!” Randy kissed his bare chest. “As you age, Jake Harkner, sex is the last thing you’ll cross off your list of things you’re still able to do. And how should I take that remark? Do you mean an older woman like me is easier to keep up with?”

Jake shook his head. “Hell, you’re ten years younger than I am, and since you’ve become your old self again, you aren’t so easy to keep up with either, speaking of which, since I’m already naked—”

Randy ducked away from him. “We have company in the bedroom right below us, and she wouldn’t have any trouble discerning what’s going on up here if we romped in that bed.” She hurried into the bedroom and threw some long underwear at him, as well as a shirt. “Get dressed, Mr. Harkner. Cover that thing up before it’s too big to cram into that underwear.”

Jake laughed and tossed his towel aside. He picked up the underwear and pulled it on. Randy watched, admiring her husband’s beautiful build, which belied his age. She wished beyond hope they could stay in this playful mood, but a dark cloud hung in the room.

Jake’s smile faded. “I’m a little worried too,” he told her. “You’ve been through enough the last few months. I hate the thought of you having any more pressure on you, especially right now.”

Randy folded her arms in front of her. “It all depends on what Gretta wants. When I showed her to her room, she said it’s possible that what she needs will mean you leaving the ranch. You know how I feel about that, but I’ll try to understand, Jake. In the end, it’s your decision, but I know you all too well. Someone must be in trouble, and you’re Mister Good Samaritan when it comes to things like that.”

He finished buttoning his shirt, the blue one Randy liked best. He walked closer, leaning down to kiss her lightly. “It can’t be all that bad, Randy.”

“Can’t it? Our luck has never held up too well when it comes to living a peaceful life.”

He pulled her close and tugged the pins from her hair, gathering a fistful of her golden tresses into his hand and burying his nose in it. “You smell good—like roses, as always.”

“Don’t change the subject, Jake.”

He kissed her hair, her forehead, her eyes, then took her face in his hands. “Baby, Gretta is decent enough that she’d never deliberately make trouble. She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for something important. She knows what Denver did to all of us.”

Randy studied his eyes. “Well, then, I will have only one main objection to whatever it is she wants.”

“What’s that?”

“That if you have to go away, you won’t be traveling alone with Miss Gretta MacBain.”

Jake grinned. “You saying you don’t trust me, after all these years together?”

“I’m saying I don’t trust Gretta.”

His grin grew wider. “You damn well know me better than that, woman.”

Randy let out a little scream when Jake suddenly picked her up and tossed her onto the bed. He crawled onto it with her and lay on top of her. “I’m not dressed yet, Mrs. Harkner. How about if we—”

“Absolutely not!” Randy objected. “Not this time of day with company right below us!”

Jake sobered, studying her eyes. “Please tell me you aren’t serious about Gretta, Randy. We’ve been through way too much for you to even give thought to such a thing.”

She traced a finger over his lips. “Like you, Jake, I’m just trying to think of something to avoid the obvious. You’re going to have to leave. I feel it in my bones, and it will be something dangerous.” Her eyes teared. “I’m not ready for this. I still need you beside me. I need you in this bed every night. I need to feel your arms around me. I’ll never get over the fear that each time you go away you won’t make it back, not when there is danger and gunplay involved. And if Gretta is here, it’s going to involve danger and guns. Why else would she come to you for help? She has half the men in Denver wrapped around her little finger, or blackmailed, and she knows you aren’t impressed by beautiful prostitutes. She wants you for something those men can’t do, something besides sex that she knows you’re good at—better than any other man she knows. And that’s guns.”

Jake didn’t answer right away. He searched her eyes. The last thing he wanted was to see that look of fear again—fear of being without him. “Randy, if I have to leave, I’ll damn well come back just as fast as I can. I need you in my arms at night just as much as you need to be in my arms. Who do you belong to?”

“Jake Harkner.”

“Every damn inch of you, plus your heart and your soul. I have you back, and I don’t want to lose you again. Yo te amo, mi quiero. Tu eres mi vida.”

“You know how much I love you, Jake. And I’m stronger now, but I’m still afraid without you. And the only reason I’m worried about you coming back is because you’ve been a little different ever since the fire in the valley. I know you all too well, and you’re seeing a changing world that doesn’t have room for men like you any longer. But I have a need for you. They don’t make men like you anymore. The only one who comes close is Lloyd, and this new world will be a struggle for him too, but it will be easier because he doesn’t have the ugly past that drives you.”

He smiled sadly. “I promise to hang around, for your sake. Whatever Gretta needs, we’ll find a way to face it together. You just remember that we are always together in spirit…always. Wherever I am, I’ll be right here in this bed with you every night. Promise me you will remember that.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I’ll try. But you’re my Jake. You keep me safe.”

“Every man on this ranch will keep you safe, most of all your son and your grandsons and Ben. You’ll be protected and loved, and I’ll be with you. We don’t even know yet that I’ll have to go anywhere at all, so let’s be strong, mi vida. If I have to leave you, it will be just as hard on me as on you.”

He kissed her and started to move off the bed when the front corner that held most of their weight suddenly crashed to the floor. Randy screamed as it went down, and Jake hung on to her as they rolled off the bed.

The broken bed helped relieve their worries as they broke into almost uncontrollable laughter. Jake kept hold of Randy and rolled her away from the bed. They ended up lying on a braided rug.

“Mother?” They heard Evie call out the word.

“Oh Lord, Jake, can you imagine how this sounded downstairs? And you’re in your underwear!”

Jake reached up and pulled a quilt off the bed, both of them still laughing as he covered himself. By then Evie was knocking at the door. “Mother, are you all right?”

“Yes!” Randy yelled the word amid laughter. “Go away!”

“What’s wrong?” Evie yelled through the door.

“Something came loose on the bed,” Jake yelled. “Go help Teresa with dinner, and make sure the boys have that side of beef roasting.”

“Oh dear Lord,” Evie said through the door. “Mother, you will never live this one down! We have company right downstairs!”

“Evie, just go!” Randy called to her. She broke into laughter again as Jake held her close inside the quilt.

It took both of them a few minutes to stop laughing.

“Oh, Jake, Evie was right. I’ll never live this one down! You always find a way to humiliate me.”

“That’s because it’s so much fun watching you blush when we’re around other people.” Jake kissed her several times over until they sobered.

“Jake, I’m scared,” she told him. She threw her arms around his neck. “Everything has been so good between us lately. Why this, now?”

“Let’s wait and see. Maybe this isn’t nearly as bad as we think it might be.” He rose and pulled her up with him. “You should see yourself. Your hair is a mess, and your dress all wrinkled. You’ll have to change.”

Randy ran her fingers through her hair. “And I’ll have to repin this, thanks to you.” She shook her hair out. “Honestly, Jake. How many times have you done this to me? People will think we were doing more in that bed than we were.”

“You know me. I don’t care what they think.”

“You don’t get embarrassed as easily as I do.” Randy laughed. “The worst part is we’ll need to send someone up here to fix the bed.”

Jake left her and pulled on his denim pants. “It’s probably just a couple of loose screws where the frame fits into the headboard. I’ll take a look at it and fix it myself. Will that make you feel better?”

“Much better.”

He buttoned his pants and studied her lovingly. “Randy, thank you for being so nice to Gretta. Not many wives would understand.”

“And not many men grew up like you did.” She gave him a chiding look. “However, I can’t forget that she once said you reek of sex. I’m quite sure she didn’t mind having your arm around her all the way from that fence line to the house.”

Jake grinned. “Hell, I was just being polite.”

“Mmm-hmm. And women like that can walk all over you.”

“Hell, you walk all over me.” He walked closer and wrapped her in his arms.

“I’m not so sure it isn’t the other way around,” she told him, breathing in his familiar scent. “And you smell so good I would like to go to bed with you right now, if the circumstances were right. And now the bed is broken.”

“We can always use the floor.”

She wiggled away from him. “We have to get back downstairs!”

Jake began tucking in his shirt. “Yes, ma’am. And don’t be worrying about Gretta and whatever it is she needs. My whole worthless life depends on you being well and happy. This is the most we’ve laughed in a long time.”

“It is, isn’t it?” She rushed up to him and stood on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. “Go ahead downstairs. I am going to make up the bed so it isn’t a mess, in case Lloyd decides to come up here and fix it.” She left him and closed the washroom door, then covered her face at her embarrassment. “Oh, dear Lord.” The only good thing about the bed collapse was it had helped relieve their worry over why Gretta MacBain had paid them a visit in the first place. “God help us,” she said quietly as she repinned her hair.