The Renegades: Cole (13 page)

She
had
actually been thinking of it, she realized, as they rode along south in an uncomfortable silence. Ever since he’d kissed her the first time, no, to be brutally honest, ever since she’d opened her eyes and seen him looking down at her, holding her in his arms in the middle of the street in Pueblo City, she had wondered what it would be like to be in his arms in a bed with something on their minds besides dodging bullets. She had kept that wondering a sort of secret from herself, she supposed, because it
was
quite bold and shocking.

But wouldn’t such an experience fit right into her plan to really
live
every moment of every day … and night?

“Cat got your tongue?”

She flicked him a disdainful glance.

“Well, pardon me for asking,” he drawled in his most irritating way, “but for somebody who’s always dead set on stirring up a little confab to pass the time, you’ve surely held your peace too long.”

He made a great, dramatic show of pulling his watch out of his pocket.

“I’d say for a whole hour or more.”

Frowning at the watch, he shook it and then held it to his ear.

“Yeah, it’s running. I reckon it’s right. Why, Aurora, it’s been nigh onto two hours since you have said one word.”

“I’ve decided to keep my promise not to talk to you. You know: the promise that gave you so much hope.”

“Too late,” he said. “You’ve talked so much in the past you’ve got my curiosity all stirred up.”

She turned on him.

“Don’t try to tell me that! You have not cared to learn the first thing about me, and you haven’t!”

He raised his black eyebrows.

“Well, now, I wouldn’t say that. I know you’ve got a dickens of a temper and a heart of stone.”

She narrowed her eyes and flashed him a vicious look.

“Just because I wouldn’t let you have your way with me. What a selfish thing to say.”

He raised one hand in the air between them.

“No, no, now I’m not thinking only of myself. There’s poor old Terry, too, you have to admit. By the time he gets home, we’ll have to say that he rode for a solid week on a horse that may have run off and left him every other night for all we know—in fact, Terry may have to walk home, which will take considerably longer than a week …”

She interrupted abruptly.

“Does this rambling diatribe have a point?”

He gave her that
aggravating
grin he used so well.

“The point is that you treated him downright heartlessly after he went through so much just to see you and recite poetry to you and give you one more chance to marry him.”

“No,” she said sarcastically, “
as usual
, you
have got it wrong. Terry knew when he rode out here that my refusal of his proposal was final, that my feelings for him were not of that kind. He wanted more pictures to remember me by and to say another farewell.”

“Sounds foolish to me,” Cole said conversationally, glancing around at the land that lay ahead. “Looks like he’d either bust a gut trying to persuade you to change your mind or stay home and tend to business. This’s a busy time of year on a ranch.”

“I
told
you, he doesn’t work at anything but his poetry and photography. Besides their ranch, his family owns the Colorado Queen gold mine and most of three counties.”

“Well, then,” he said, nodding judiciously, “how come you’re letting him get away?”

Her anger grew.

“That is
precisely
what I would expect from you,” she said, furious now. “So I strike you as a greedy, insincere, shallow person who can be
bought?
”

Her obvious rage didn’t cause him to turn a hair.

“Now, now, no need to get yourself in a lather. I wasn’t necessarily talking about
you
, personally.”

“It certainly sounded as if you were when you used the phrase ‘I don’t know why
you
let him get away.’ ”

“More accurately, I was speaking of women in general.”

“Ah!” she cried. “Just as I thought!”

“Then why did you take it as personal?”

“Never mind,” she said, flapping her hand at him impatiently. “I’d be curious to know why you have such a low opinion of women in general.”

“Experience.”

“You think most women are so mercenary they’d use money as a reason to marry?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think it—I’ve
seen
it. I’ve seen many a good man shot out of the saddle when that saddle’s about all he owned.”

“You don’t know what really happened with any man and woman if you weren’t there.”

“I
was
there.”

She stared at him, amazed.

“You were in love? You asked a woman to marry you?”

He frowned at her.

“How come you look so surprised?”

“You … well, you don’t seem the domestic type to me.”

“Back then I was too young to know better.”

She knew she was still staring rudely, but she couldn’t help herself.

“Who was she?”

“Heck of it is,” he said, laughing a little, “she was a rich girl. She didn’t
need
my money.”

“Maybe she broke it off because you were a Ranger and she wouldn’t let herself love you because you might get killed.”

He eyed her suspiciously.

“How’d you know I was a Ranger then?”

She smiled.

“I guessed.”

“You’re right. But Mary knew that and we were all set to tie the knot and her folks were askin’ me over to supper right along until they ran into somebody who set ‘em straight about which family of McCords I was from.”

“Were the other McCords wealthy?”

He gave that definite little nod.

“Yep. The Circle M McCords owned the biggest part of the county we lived in. Once the Lassiters learned they’d jumped to the wrong conclusion about who was my daddy—and my mother—I never saw Mary again.”

“Well, then!” Aurora said triumphantly. “Your sweetheart wasn’t a gold digger, her family was a bunch of snobs.”

“My mother being Chickasaw likely had something to do with it, too,” he said, “but from what I knew of her papa, he would never have let that worry him any if I’d been heir to the Circle M Land and Cattle Company.”

“But that’s her
papa
, don’t you see? You’ve taken a low opinion of all women when the real greedy one in this deal is a man.”

“She let him get away with it, didn’t she? She could’ve run away and come to me.”

The pain from so long ago shimmered fresh and new in his voice. Angry as she was with him, Aurora ached to comfort him.

“She swore she loved me,” Cole said, “and I, young fool that I was, believed her.”

“How old were you?” she said softly.

“Eighteen,” he said. “Two years a Ranger
and tough as whit-leather. But she flat broke my heart.”

Aurora’s heart broke, too, right then, for the boy he had been.

And she fell in love with that boy. He might be a hard man now, he might be just like all the other men she’d ever known, her father included, who were selfish and unsentimental and considered themselves the boss of all women, but long ago, when he had been a boy of eighteen, Cole McCord had truly loved a woman.

But that was then and this was now. And what did she care, anyhow?

He straightened in the saddle and put his heels down, speeding up a little.

“Turns out the old man was doing her a favor, though,” he said harshly, “and she was smart to listen to him. I would’ve been nothing but bad for her.”

“That’s not true!” Aurora cried, even though she would’ve agreed with him only a few minutes earlier. “She made a terrible mistake.”

Cole threw her a startled, sideways glance, smooched to his horse, and moved on out. Her horse kept pace.

“Seems to me that’s a pretty strong statement for you to make about a man you hardly know,” he said.

“I know you … some,” she said, seeing the mysterious shadows in his eyes again.

“You think you do.”

“You really loved her,” she said, “I know
that much. And that could never have been bad for her.”

“Aurora,” he said solemnly, “you don’t have the slightest notion of what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, I do. You’re a good man, Cole, and you loved her, so what more could she want?”

“I’m a good man with a
gun
. That’s why you hired me, so let it go at that.”

They found a fine place for the nooning, better than any they’d had since the drive began. It was a large, open meadow, bounded on two sides by tree-covered hills, with a narrow, rushing river running through it. Aurora’s heart lifted as soon as they came around the bend in the trail and saw it—it was a homey little nook set beside the endless trail.

“
I
know! Let’s have a picnic!” she said as soon as they rode to the edge of it. “In fact, let’s stay the night and not travel this afternoon. Oh, Cole, wouldn’t that be fun? Everybody’s tired.”

She turned to see Cole grinning at her.

“Speak for yourself,” he said. “I’m good for forty more miles at least.”

“We can rest our horses,” she said, frowning at him because of the way he was looking at her. “You and I can ride our favorites again tomorrow.”

“
My
horse doesn’t need to rest,” he said.

“
What?
Why are you smiling at me as if you’re humoring me or something?”

“I am. You’re like a little kid sometimes.”

“Because I want to have a picnic? You’d do better to be a little more fun-loving yourself.”

He cocked his head as if to concede that point, still smiling at her as if she were a precocious ten-year-old.

“And you don’t need to be bragging on that rangy nag you’re so fond of riding,” she said. “My Shy Boy can leave him to eat dust any old day of the week.”

He gave her a narrow-eyed stare.

“Be careful,” he said. “Watch that busy tongue of yours or it’ll get you in trouble.”

“I’m not worried. I challenge you to a horse race.”

He shook his head.

“See what I mean? Can’t even wait for the others to get here for the picnic to start, just
like
a little kid. Or …”

He fixed the most infuriating grin on his face.

“… or are you afraid for the whole crew to see Shy Boy get beat?”

“All right. Now you’ve done it. We’ll go back and guide the others in and as soon as the herd’s here, I will run that broomtail of yours right into the ground. Shy Boy can beat him by no less than two lengths.”

“You’re gonna get calluses from patting your own back,” he said. “Border and I’ll help you out by leaving you so far behind you’ll have time to think about it.”

They exchanged playful insults all the way back to Cookie’s and Nate’s wagons. Then, after giving them directions to the pretty valley, they
headed back to it again with Cole scouting both sides of the trail in long semicircles. He never got out of sight of Aurora, though, and she liked that.

Until she thought about it and realized how much she was relying on him.
That
was why she got those feelings of connection to him sometimes.
That
was why she needed to learn to shoot for herself and become more independent, so by the time they reached her new home she’d be feeling disconnected from him. Thank goodness, he wasn’t riding right beside her and talking to her all the time.

Cookie and Nate weren’t far behind when they rode for the second time into the expanse of green grass cut in two by the silver river. The place soon looked like the coziest, most beautiful camp in the world, with the wagons placed on opposite ends of the flat and the coffee making over the fire. Newt came in with the remuda, and the herd followed.

With so much grass and water close at hand, the cattle settled in swiftly, even though they weren’t particularly tired and had been driven only slightly more than half their usual distance for a day. As soon as they’d eaten the meal Cookie hastily prepared, the men immediately fell into the spirit of the holiday.

“We’re celebrating that we’ll cross into New Mexico Territory tomorrow,” Aurora told them, as the first ones finished eating.

“And we’ll put our hearts into it, too,” Monte called back, as he threw his dishes into the
wreck pan. “No telling when we’ll have any more time off.”

“First event of the day!” Cole shouted, throwing his in, too. “Our trail boss has challenged me to a horse race.”

Cheers greeted that information, and everyone started gathering around, looking from Cole to Aurora and back again with big grins.

“Which horses?” Frank shouted.

“My bay roan and her sorrel.”

“Shy Boy will win,” Aurora said. “You boys all know how fast he is.”

“What you don’t know is that my horse is a running fool with no quit in him,” Cole said. “Put your money on me if you don’t want to lose it.”

“Don’t listen to him, men,” Aurora shouted. “I’d hate to see half of you broke before you even draw your pay.”

“Border Crossing got his name because he carried me across the Rio Grande ahead of a whole passel of Federales,” Cole said. “He’s saved my bacon more times than I can count. Think about it, boys.”

Aurora started for her horse, Cole strode toward his. At Shy Boy’s head, she turned, and they looked at each other while the crew stopped wagering to watch and listen.

“From that tree over there until a hoof splashes in the water?” she called loudly. “Loser gets dunked in the river?”

Loud cheers from the crew approved the plan.

Cole cocked his head and looked her over, and her mount, as if he’d never seen them before. His dark eyes took on a wicked glint.

“You’re on!”

“On the count of three!” Cookie yelled, and hurried to station himself at the starting line.

Once there, with Cole and Aurora mounted and trotting to him, he shouted again.

“Monte. You and Frank. Stand at the finish line in case there’s any question.”

“Better get out of your boots,” Cole yelled, loud enough for everyone to hear, while he grinned at Aurora.

He lifted one foot and then the other to pull his off and drop them, spurs clinking, to the ground.

“Take a deep breath, too, Aurora, ‘cause I’m fixing to hold every inch of you under the water. I’m glad you thought about that dunking business—makes the race even more interestin’.”