Page 30 of Texas Splendor
Wylan began to turn up cards and rearrange the ones on the table. “We wait.”
Waiting had never been Austin’s strong suit. He had thought prison guards had beat patience into him, but now that he was once again his own man—no longer a slave of the state—impatience had become his companion.
He had spent three days walking the streets, talking to people in saloons. The seedier the saloon, the more hopeful he had been that he would glean some information. Although Boyd McQueen had appeared upstanding to many in the community, he had possessed a darker side that curdled Austin’s gut. He had to admit that it didn’t bother him that the man had come to an untimely end. His only regret was that he had been the one to pay for it.
He had hoped by now that he would have had a glimmer of information. He walked past the post office and approached the Griedenweiss stables. He had a need to ride fast and hard over the hills, to feel Black Thunder’s hooves pounding the ground beneath him, taking him away from an elusive quest toward … an unknown future.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a slight movement and shifted his gaze. A boy no older than seven was pulling a wooden wagon along the boardwalk. A sign hung over the side of the wagon.
PUPYS4SALE
2BITS
Austin changed directions, ambled across the street, and easily caught up with the boy. “What you got here?” he asked.
The boy ground to a halt and furrowed his brow. “Don’t you read?”
Austin smiled. “Yeah, I do. What kind of dogs are these?”
Confusion filled the boy’s brown eyes as he swiped his nose with his sleeve. “The kind that’s got four legs and a tail.”
Smothering a grin, Austin hunkered down beside the wagon. The boy obviously didn’t know a lot about breeding. Austin peered at the two puppies tumbling over each other. The tiny brown and white one caught his fancy. He scooped it up and studied it from all angles.
“That one’s a boy,” the child told him.
“Yeah, I can see that. How big was his mama?”
The boy held his hand level with his waist. “ ‘Bout this big.”
“Think he’ll be a good hunting dog?”
The boy nodded his head briskly. Austin figured he didn’t know if the dog would be good at hunting, but he needed to get rid of him. The puppy squirmed, yipped, and gnawed on his thumb. A fighter. He liked that. “I’ll take this one.”
“The other’s one better,” the boy said.
“Why is that?”
“On account of the other one’s a girl. If you git her, some day you can git more dogs that won’t cost you nothing.”
Grinning, Austin unfolded his body and reached into his pocket for a quarter. “I only need one.”
He handed the silver coin to the boy. “Don’t spend it all in one place,” Austin said, tucking the dog beneath his arm.
Feeling more content than he had in days, Austin ambled to the livery and had one of the workers saddle Black Thunder. He mounted the horse and settled the dog into the crook of his thigh. Then he turned the stallion west and prodded him into an easy lope.
He reached his destination just as the sun began to paint its farewell across the sky. It had been a long time since he’d thought of the sunset as anything but the sun going down, yet he almost imagined he heard the fiery ball announcing the end of its daily journey.
His heart pounding as the weathered house came into view, he brought Black Thunder to a walk. He saw Loree sitting on the porch, her elbows on her knees, her chin cradled in her palms as she gazed into the distance. Her braid was draped over her shoulder, the bottom curling near her waist. As though sensing his presence, she straightened and looked in his direction. Slowly, she rose to her feet, a tentative smile playing across her lips. “Hello.”
His heart felt as though someone had just closed a meaty fist around it. He drew the horse to a halt near the porch. “Howdy.”
She crossed one bare foot over the other and put her hands behind her back, causing the worn material of her dress to stretch taut across her breasts. Austin’s mouth went as dry as the West Texas wind in August.
“Did you find the man you were looking for?”
“No.”
She peered around Black Thunder, obvious curiosity furrowing her delicate brow. “What are you holding?”
