Three

“It’s that incident earlier today, isn’t it, Jake?” Randy rubbed liniment on her husband’s aching left leg, always wanting to cry at the odd bump in his shinbone. Imagining the hell he’d gone through alone in Mexico sometimes kept her awake at night. Sometimes he still thrashed around in bed because of nightmares from it, let alone the pain that often kept him awake.

“What do you mean?” Jake asked.

Randy began wrapping a stretchy gauze around his leg. Sometimes it felt better when supported with a tight wrap. “I can always feel it when we make love, my darling husband. The anger comes through in how you make love.”

Jake lit a cigarette. “I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

Randy smiled softly. “Of course not. Heaven forbid Jake Harkner should hurt a woman.” She started a second layer of gauze. “You were just more forceful, like you wanted to prove to yourself someone like Tommy Tyler wasn’t going to interfere with your pleasure or your wife or in any other way disrupt your life.” She tied off the gauze then and met his gaze. “You forget that after almost thirty-three years, I know your every single mood, the meaning of your every movement, every look in those handsome dark eyes…how you’re feeling when you touch me and make love to me.”

Jake looked her over lovingly, but then Randy caught a hint of the old Jake as he took a deep drag on his cigarette. “I should have killed him. You know I don’t like leaving an enemy alive. We’ve been through enough to know the kind of damage that can do.” He set the cigarette in an ashtray beside the bed. “I hate this New West. A man can’t be a man anymore.”

Randy laughed lightly, this time a genuine laugh. She ran her hand gently over his leg, leaning down and kissing it. “There isn’t a person living who would ever accuse Jake Harkner of not being a man! You are so incredibly masculine that I still worry about women going after you when you go into town for supplies. Wasn’t it Gretta Decker who said you reeked of sex?”

There it was! The smile she loved. She’d managed to get his mind off of Tommy Tyler.

“Yeah, well, that notorious prostitute from Denver is now married to our own cowboy Cole Decker and living in a cozy little cabin only a half mile away right here on the J&L.”

Randy straightened and pulled her robe a little closer around her nakedness. “Yes, and they seem so happy, but I can’t help being a bit wary when you have to go over there to see Cole, especially if he’s not home,” she teased.

Jake laughed. “They’re great together, aren’t they? I actually don’t think Gretta would ever cheat on that man, in spite of her past. Besides, Cole is my best friend, let alone the fact that I would never want to have to answer to you for something like that.”

She leaned closer. “So big, bad Jake Harkner is scared of his wife?”

“You bet I am.” He held out his arms. “Come here, Mrs. Harkner.”

Randy smiled as she stretched across his bare chest, always admiring her husband’s fine build, still solid for a man his age—a man most others still didn’t care to cross. He’d proven earlier today that was smart thinking.

Jake stroked her hair. “I’m glad Cole is happy, after what he and I went through last winter…and I’m glad for Gretta. She’s been an amazingly good wife to him. I think this is the life she always wanted.”

“I think so too.” Randy kissed his neck, and Jake rolled her onto her back and moved on top of her.

“And there are still times when I can hardly believe I’m actually still alive and lying in this bed with the most beautiful woman in Colorado.”

“Even though I’m in my fifties?”

“No one would ever guess that. And in my eyes, you’re the frightened twenty-year-old I met back in Kansas…and later bedded in the back of a wagon somewhere on the plains, losing my soul and heart forever.”

Randy ran a finger along the thin, now-faint scar down the left side of his face, from a wound suffered years ago when he was a marshal in Oklahoma. So many years. So many scars. The worst were the scars on his back, some from the beatings he took from his drunken father when he was a little boy, and more from being beaten with a bull whip over a year ago in Mexico, when he was left for dead in the desert.

“Much as you hate the word, Jake, you are a hero to a lot of people. I don’t know how you’ve survived so much, and I hate it when something happens like today that forces you to revisit that lingering anger and hatred down deep inside. You’ve come so far. Letting that man go proves how you’ve grown and changed.”

He kissed her once more and moved to her side, pulling her close. “I’m just sorry for all you’ve been through putting up with me.” He pressed his hand against her belly and gently rubbed it. “You gave me this great big family. If not for Lloyd and Evie and all the grandkids, I’d be the same lost, lonely man I was when we met—or most likely dead a long time ago. And you’re right. I can’t help feeling angry over what happened earlier. I just hated for those sweet little girls to see and hear that, especially so near the holiday. I hate being the one who keeps bringing up the ugly side of life around here without even trying.”

“You can only live your own life being the wonderful father and grandfather that you are, Jake.” Randy scooted up and kissed his neck. “Those little girls think you’re the greatest thing that ever walked. All the grandchildren think that, and rightly so.” She sat up straight then. “Let’s take all the children into Brighton next week, if weather permits. They’re anxious to buy Christmas presents for their parents and each other. We’ll separate them, keep brothers and sisters apart so they can buy for each other. They love the trip into town, and it will help get all of us into the Christmas spirit and forget what happened today.”

Jake picked up his cigarette and took a last drag before pressing it out. “Whatever you want.” He grinned, pushing her robe aside where it had fallen open again, revealing lovely breasts. “Right now I’m thinking I could make love to you again.” He moved a hand inside her robe. “It helps me forget about the pain in my leg.”

Randy smiled. “Jake, we just did this.”

“So?” He rolled her onto her back again. “No kids are here tonight, and I’m not getting any younger. We’d better take advantage before this old man can’t do this anymore.”

Randy laughed lightly. “That will be the day!” She ran her hands over his arms and shoulders. “I don’t see any old man. I see a very virile, handsome, strong man who does reek of sex.”

Jake kissed her deeply. “You’re my best medicine, Randy. Tu eres mi vida, mi querida esposa.”

He met her mouth in another deep kiss, a man who knew exactly how to make her want him all over again. That hadn’t changed in all the years they’d been together. Jake Harkner wasn’t just good with guns.

Randy’s robe came off, and she tried to remember if, in all the years they’d been together, she’d ever said no to this man.