Page 68 of Unwilling Wolf

“Take a walk with me?” he asked Eliza.

“Be delighted.” She dismounted before he could assist her and snatched the reins from his hand. “Come on, ol’ Bucky-boy,” she crooned. They roamed in silence while she waited for Garret to find his words.

“While Burke was in town, he heard there was a dance coming up. The McDowell’s barn burned to the ground a month back, and folks in town aim to raise a new one. The barn-dance will be afterward.” Garret reacquired Buck’s reins, and Eliza hiked up her skirts to keep pace with him. “Normally me and the boys would help with the barn and be on our way, but since you are here—well, I figured I would see if you needed to go,” he ended.

“If I needed to go. Garret Shaw, are you asking to accompany me to a dance?”

“Hardly,” he said, sparing an annoyed glare for her. “Just thought you would require more socialization than the rest of us.”

To sidle around a cluster of cacti, she hiked her skirts higher. “Let me guess. The boys want to go, but you want to use me as an excuse for it.”

At the edge of her vision, a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “Do you want to go or not?”

“Fine, but I want Lenny to come, too.”

Garret stopped walking so abruptly, Buck nearly stepped on the back of his boot. “Now why in Sam Hill do you think Lenny would want to go to a barn-raising and a dance?”

“I don’t, but I’ll ask.”

“Do you wear those work boots every day?” he asked, peering at her footwear.

“Of course I do. They were a gift from Lenny, and they are comfortable. Would you prefer I wear my fine, high-button leather shoes to properly milk a cow? And furthermore, do you have any idea how many times a day that damned rooster chases me? I would likely never escape in those.”

“Yes or no,” he asked in an impatient tone.

“Ask me nice and proper.”

“I don’t know what that means.” Garret sounded annoyed and exasperated now.

“Be. Sweet.”

His sigh tapered into a growl. “Eliza Shaw, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to a dance?”

She grinned despite the sarcasm that painted every one of his words. “Why Garret Shaw, I would be delighted.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“No,” Lenny responded immediately.

Having let the subject rest for exactly three seconds, Eliza tried again. “Burke is going.”

Lenny sighed and stood back to admire her efforts on Eliza’s hair. “Even if I went to the dance, he would look at me the same.”

“Not if you took a night off from your breeches and wore a dress,” Eliza said.

“I don’t think anyone would enjoy the way I wore a dress.”

“I would. And if anyone says anything, I’ll punch them straight in the throat.”

Lenny let off a soft laugh. “Burke wouldn’t like one of my traditional dresses. No one at that barn-raising would. It’s best if I stay here.”

“I think you’re wrong, Lenny. Burke knows you very well. I do not think he will be cruel.” After some quiet contemplation while she made her bed, Eliza folded. “I am truly up to my eyeballs in problems with the male gender at the moment. Who am I to give advice? But can I ask you a selfish question?”

Lenny lifted her chin higher. “Ask.”

“Will you go with me? Hang those boys, I need a friend there. You’re my friend. I don’t care if you wear a potato sack, I just want to have fun. And truth be told, I don’t want to face Anna Jennings and her friends alone.”

Lenny canted her head and studied Eliza. “I am your friend?”

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