Page 29 of Wellspring
Chapter Seventeen
ERICK DIDN’Tsee Cade until dinner the next day, their respective duties and the extra night shifts Cade had taken on for MacRae keeping them busy on different parts of the ranch, but Cade was all smiles and a friendly clap on Erick’s shoulder as he put down his plate of something Javier calledarroz con pollo.Erick had never seen rice quite that yellow before, but none of the other hands seemed surprised by the color, and everything Javier had served so far had been delicious, so Erick was willing to give it a chance.
That train of thought derailed completely when Cade left his hand on Erick’s shoulder as he hopped over the bench and took his seat.Erick told himself Cade had just needed to keep his balance and Erick’s shoulder was at a convenient height to lean on, but Cade had never seemed to need help before, displaying nearly acrobatic grace in everything he did.
“I hear you met Lutz in town,” Cade said when he was settled.“At least it sounds like he was almost polite.”
“He knew my name, or some version of it, so your assumption that Carter or someone from JR is in contact with him proves true,” Erick answered.“Though his only complaint was to refer to Burke and Payne as ‘squeaky wheels.’”He missed the warmth of Cade’s hand, though they needed both to cut into their chicken, which proved as delicious as every other meal Javier made.“Miss Dawson was so kind as to lend several books for our lessons,” he added.
Cade leaned into him enough to bump their shoulders together.“After dinner?I mean, if you don’t have anything else planned?”
Erick forced himself not to shift even closer to Cade in return.“I have it on Javier’s authority that Burke will be particularly unpleasant tonight since Miss Hart refused his advances.”Erick hoped it wasn’t obvious how much he longed to spend time alone with Cade under any pretext.“Leaving the bunkhouse seems prudent.”
“We can always go down to the spring,” Cade said with a soft smile, so different than the smirk he directed at most of the other hands.“It’s cooler there anyway.”
The other cowboys continued to insist it would get hotter over the summer, but as far as Erick was concerned, it was hot enough already.Cooler sounded good to him.And it meant not having to conduct their lessons in front of the other hands, though in fairness no one but Burke had mocked Cade about them, and mockery seemed his default reaction to everything.Michele had even joined them on the nights she didn’t spend with Javier.Admit it,he scolded himself.You don’t want to share him with anyone else.
“And I’ve been practicing my letters.I took the notebook with me and studied them while I was watching the herd yesterday and today.Not a lot to see out there, most days,” Cade added, his expression so eager that Erick couldn’t help but praise him.
“You have made excellent progress with your writing.Now that we have books, we can begin lessons in reading as well.”Cade approached everything with enthusiasm, whether it was their lessons or Javier’s meals or the cows who had just calved for the first time.It was such a refreshing contrast to Erick’s former contemporaries who considered any display of emotion vulgar.
Cade’s smile turned shy, but he bumped Erick’s knee with his own and dug into his meal with his usual gusto.A number of the other hands nodded or spoke as they got their own dinners and sat down to eat, but none of them joined Cade and Erick, making Erick hope he hadn’t done anything to offend them—or to betray his interest in Cade beyond teaching him to read.Even Michele, practically a fixture at Cade’s side, stayed near the serving line with Javier rather than join them as she usually did.When Cade had wolfed down everything on his plate, he patted his stomach.“Do you want more or can we go now?”
“Let me get the books from the bunkhouse.I can meet you at the stream if you like?”
“I’ll go with you so we can walk together.”Was it Erick’s imagination that Cade walked a step closer to him than he had before?His warm smiles, the nudges of shoulder and knee, the speed with which he finished his meal, all tempted Erick to hopes he knew he shouldn’t entertain.He retrieved the books from his bunk and started down the path that led to the creek, trying not to indulge his fancies.Cade was excited about learning to read, not about the person teaching him.
It would have been easier if the back of Cade’s hand didn’t brush against his occasionally.Each time it happened, Erick expected Cade to pull back or apologize or brush it off, but he did none of those things.He never did more, but he did nothing to keep the random touches from happening again.
Erick was careful not to react in any way that might appear to be discouraging.
When they reached the hanging swing beside the spring, Erick sat and opened the primer Miss Dawson had lent him.Cade settled beside him, so close their hips and thighs pressed against each other.Erick swallowed down the urge to wrap an arm around Cade’s shoulders when he leaned forward to study the book.
“You know the letters by now.”Erick pointed to the first page, where the capital and lowercase A were illustrated by a ripe red apple.“Can you sound out the words?”
Cade’s brow furrowed.“It’s an apple, but that’s not reading.That’s looking at the picture.”He huffed a bit and looked at it again, clearly committing the letters and sounds to memory.“Okay, apple.Got it.What’s next?”
“Perhaps I should hide the pictures,” Erick said with a smile as he turned the page to a drawing of a bell.“If you know the word, read me the letters that spell it.”
“Bell,” Cade said.“B-E-L-L, bell.”He reached for the next page just as Erick did and their fingers tangled against the sheet.
Erick felt his cheeks heat and prayed Cade was too intent on the book to notice as he turned the page.“I have seen one of these in the barn.Payne insists it is only to keep mice out of the hay, but I saw him petting it one morning.”The page showed an illustration of a large orange tabby.
Cade laughed.“That’s Biscuit.The one in the barn, I mean.His name’s Biscuit.Cat.C-A-T, cat.And don’t let Payne hear that you saw him.He once threatened to fire Burke for claiming Payne liked Biscuit.Of course he threatens to fire Burke at least once a week, so maybe it would be different if someone else said it.”
“I am not sure which is worse, the threat of Payne firing me or the idea of being linked with Burke in his mind.”The next page showed a long-eared hound.“Packs like this were common for hunting, though I preferred to rely on my own skill rather than run my prey down until it was too weak to escape.”
“The Comanche hunt with dogs sometimes,” Cade replied.“We’ve had hounds at times since I’ve been here, but there ain’t any hanging around right now.D-O-G, dog.Do you miss your home?You rarely talk about it, but when you do, it seems like you have good memories.”
Erick gave the question the consideration it deserved.“Not so much, no.There were very rigid expectations of proper behavior, especially within my own family, which I found stifling.”He wasn’t brave enough, or perhaps foolish enough, to admit struggling in particular against the expectation of marrying again to provide an heir.“I respect my family’s heritage, but I did nothing to contribute to it.”
“It makes me glad I live out here,” Cade said.“Apart from being polite to women and chewing with my mouth closed, nobody much cares how I act.Not as long as I don’t break any laws, anyway.For what it’s worth, I’m glad you ended up here.”
Erick could no longer imagine what his life might have been like if he hadn’t had the good fortune to meet Cade, but until he met Cade, his life had been ruled by the dictates of society, the first being never to flaunt one’s emotions.He found it harder to leave that rule behind than he would like.“I find myself glad to be here as well.In Prussia I had peers and acquaintances.Here I hope I am beginning to prove myself enough to make true friends.”Hoping he did not sound too much like a stiff prig, he turned the page, trying to return Cade’s attention to the book rather than personal revelations he found uncomfortable to discuss.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when Cade rested a hand firmly on his knee.“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’d call us friends.”
And that is enough, Erick insisted.It must be.“If not for your friendship, I would still be in Galveston hoping to find someone willing to take on a raw immigrant.”And that did not bear thinking about.He tapped the book’s image of a large bird with a white head.
