Page 21 of Wellspring
He didn’t need both feet to work as a blacksmith, did he?Cade could shoot him there and it wouldn’t keep him from working.Just take off a toe or two, enough to teach him a lesson.
Cade sighed.Miz Roarke would never go for it, no matter how much Cade wanted to.He’d just have to hope Erick wasn’t too offended, or worse repulsed, by Burke’s implication.Cade wouldn’t be lucky enough for Erick to return his interest.He’d started to hope, really hope, after the storm, but then things had gone south in Austin.If he’d been less focused on getting back to Wellspring, maybe he’d have been able to think about it, work out what had gone wrong between them and get things back on track, but there hadn’t been any room for anything other than figuring out how to squeeze one more mile out of the daylight they had until they’d finally made it home.Maybe Erick had thawed a little last night, but Cade couldn’t be sure, and that went back to his luck.He’d used up his allotment of luck and more the day the Comanche found him.It was one of the reasons he never gambled or played other games of chance.
He looked skyward to see the stars fading.He’d spent so much time thinking about Burke that he hadn’t taken the time to see to his more personal needs.Maybe it would be easier today since Erick would be staying here to work with the mustangs while Cade would be out on the range, unless Payne had other plans for him.Without Erick’s constant proximity, Cade might actually manage to think about other things besides how much he’d like to take Erick to bed.
He finished up, dried off, and dressed for the day.As he left the shower, he heard Javier ring the bell announcing breakfast.He hoped Javier had made flapjacks, but Cade would settle for his fluffy scrambled eggs after weeks of trail food.
He grinned when he got close enough to smell fried dough.He looked around to find Erick, warmth blooming in his gut at having him near to hand again, and dragged him toward the mess tables.“You’re in for a treat.Javier made flapjacks this morning.We gotta get in line before Logan and Svensen do, or there won’t be any left.”
Erick looked rumpled and bleary-eyed and absolutely adorable as far as Cade was concerned.He followed Cade toward the food line.“I would give them my share in place of a cup of coffee.”
Cade pointed toward the huge pot at the end of the table.“That’s one thing that’s never in short supply, especially mornings.I should warn you, though, Javier makes it strong enough to put hair on your chest.”He resolutely didn’t think about the intriguing patch of hair on Erick’s chest.Instead he swiped a hand over his shirtfront.“Not that it worked on me.”
Erick’s cheeks pinkened just enough for Cade to notice, and that was even more intriguing than the hair on his chest that didn’t need any help from Javier’s coffee.“I think I will manage to survive it.”He accepted a plate of flapjacks and hightailed it to the coffee pot, returning to the table with a cup filled to the brim.Cade could see his gaze sharpening as he sipped the dark brew.
Cade would get a cup of his own later, but for now, he dug into the flapjacks, unable to stop the moan of delight that escaped him at the light, fluffy texture.“Even more than sleeping in my own bed, this is how I know I’m home,” Cade told Erick when he’d swallowed.
Logan plopped down on the bench next to Cade, looking like he hadn’t slept in days, dark circles under his eyes and tension lines around his mouth.“Here.”Cade fetched a cup of coffee and put it in front of Kit.“You look like you could use this.”
Kit grunted and drank the entire cup without pausing.Cade refilled it before he could ask.“Bad night?”
“Bad month,” Kit replied.“We hit the two-year anniversary of Mac losing his leg.I keep thinking he’s dealt with it, and it keeps coming back to bite us in the ass.”
Cade hummed in sympathy.He couldn’t even imagine what MacRae had gone through, losing half his left leg to a Confederate bullet at the battle of Palmito Ranch just two weeks before the war finally ended.
“Oh, sorry, Erick.You didn’t meet Kit last night.Kit Logan, Erick Heller.Erick came back from Galveston with me,” Cade said.
If he didn’t know Kit was devoted to Mac, he might have felt a flare of jealousy at the way Erick’s eyes widened when he shook the bigger man’s hand.“Svensen take off already?”
“Soon as we got back,” Kit confirmed.
“Olav Svensen and Kit were on night watch,” Cade explained.“Svensen’s sweet on the schoolmarm in Eldorado.Payne always arranges for him to have weekends off so he can spend them in town with Miz Sarah.”
“Be glad, it means two more nights without listening to him snore.”Kit chuckled.“Second-best thing about me and Mac having our own cabin.”
Cade laughed.“Yeah, yeah, rub it in.Look, if you need to stay close for a while, I’ll take your night shifts until Mac’s doing better.I know the nights are the worst.”
“I might take you up on that,” Kit said.“He won’t complain, but it’s easier when we’re both on the same schedule.”
Erick finished the last of his flapjacks—how did he manage to eat so quickly without shoving them into his mouth the way Cade did, he wondered—and drained his coffee.“I would not be late my first morning.It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr.Logan.”
Cade frowned and resisted the urge to run after Erick, but he wasn’t a lost puppy desperate for attention.(Chel might disagree, but Cade wasn’t planning on sharing that observation with her.) Still, he’d wanted to spend a little time with Erick at breakfast since he wouldn’t have a chance again until dinner.Oh well, too late now.He finished his own meal and clapped Kit on the shoulder.“I’ll tell Payne I offered to switch shifts with you.”
He started to get up when Payne’s shout cut through the morning bustle.“Listen up, everyone.Webster probably told most of you about the newest threats from the JR last night, but in case you didn’t hear it, Reichardt and Ulrich are up to no good.Until further notice, no one goes out of sight of the ranch house alone, and keep your rifles handy and your pistols handier.We won’t start anything, but if they choose to start it, we will damn well finish it.Is that understood?”
A chorus of “yes, sir” and “got it, boss” rang out in reply.
“Webster, Bessette, take the herd northeast of here today.Chiles and Beaufort, you keep an eye on the southern herd.Logan, get some sleep.And when Svensen gets back, tell him the rule applies to him too.If he wants to go into town to make cow eyes at Miss Dawson, he’ll have to find someone to go with him.I’m not risking him riding through JR territory by himself, no matter how much he fancies the schoolmarm.”
When Payne had finished issuing his orders, Cade walked up to him.“Hey, boss, Logan says MacRae has been having a hard time of it recently.I told him I’d take his night shifts as well as my own until MacRae is doing better again.”
“That’s damn generous of you, Webster.”
“Logan would do the same for any one of us if our positions were reversed.I figure it’s the least I can do after being gone for so long.”He gave Payne a nod and headed back to the bunkhouse to get his hat and pistol so he could meet Chel and head out north.
By the time he made it to the barn, she already had Nahnia saddled along with her own horse, Chanteur.“About time you got your lazy ass in here,” she said as she tossed him the reins.He tried to catch one more sight of Erick.Discreetly.He didn’t need Chel hassling him about it, but he’d be out on the range all day.A final glimpse to hold him ’til dinner wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” Cade quipped to distract her.“Or is it that you woke up in your own bed instead of in Javier’s?”Javier had his own cabin because he had to wake up so much earlier than everyone else and often went to sleep earlier as well.Cade didn’t actually know if things had progressed to that stage between the two of them, but Chel would wonder what was wrong with him if he didn’t give her just as much shit as she gave him.
