one hand he lifted the heavy saddle and flipped it onto the highest rail of the corral. With his other hand he took the saddle blanket, turned it over, and laid it out to dry on top of the saddle.
Bending swiftly, Whip hobbled the gelding and turned him out to graze. Sugarfoot went forward eagerly, for the margin of the river that ran within a hundred feet of Reno and Eve’s home was lush with grass.
Reno watched Whip with green eyes that missed nothing, especially the ease of his brother’s movements. Seeing Whip’s muscular grace made some of the tension in Reno loosen; he had feared that Whip had some injury or illness he was trying to conceal.
«Cal and Willy and Ethan are all right,» Reno said.
It wasn’t exactly a question, but Whip nodded.
«You’re as fit as a cougar, despite a ride that took the starch out of that tough gelding of yours,» Reno said.
Whip shrugged.
«You haven’t had bad news about any of our brothers?» Reno pressed.
«No.»
Reno waited.
Whip said nothing more.
«Well, that cinches it,» Reno said, smiling slightly. «It must be woman trouble.»
«What the hell are you talking about?» Whip asked, nettled.
«The lines around your mouth and the look in your eyes that says you’d like to kill something, and God help anyone who gives you the excuse.»
Whip flexed hands that kept wanting to become fists. He had come to talk about gold, not about a woman he shouldn’t take and couldn’t leave alone.
«Are you going to talk,» Reno asked mildly, «or would you rather fight first?»
«Hell,» Whip said in disgust. «I came here to ask a favor, not to fight you.»
«Sometimes a fightisa favor.»
Whip made a low sound that could have been a curse or laughter or both combined. Then he looked up, straight up. The sky was as deep and blue as Shannon’s eyes.
«Have you ever wanted two things,» Whip said slowly, «even though having one of them means giving up the other, and you can’t give up either one, because you really want both of them, so you keep turning in tighter and tighter circles like a dog chasing its own tail until finally you don’t know which end is up?»
Reno’s smile was oddly gentle for a man who looked as hard as he did.
«Of course I have,» Reno said softly to his brother. «It’s called being human. Stupid, but human.»
«What did you do?» Whip asked curiously.
«When you finished tearing strips off me, I figured out what was important. Then I married her.»
Whip’s mouth turned down. «I’d make a piss-poor husband. I’d always be looking over the fence and pacing like a mustang fresh off the range.»
«Still chasing sunrises?»
«I can no more help my yondering streak than you can help being left-handed and hell on wheels with that six-gun of yours,» Whip said flatly.
«Probably, but you never know.»
«What does that mean?»
«When you started yondering,» Reno said slowly, thinking as he spoke, «you were hardly more than a kid. Like me, you left home as much because our older brothers were restless — and Pa had a heavy hand with the belt on our backsides — as for any wanderlust of your own.»
«Was that it?» Whip shrugged. «It’s so long ago now, and I’ve seen so many places and done so many things since then, it’s hard to remember what started me yondering.»
«But you don’t want to give it up.»
«How do you give up your soul?» Whip asked simply, his eyes haunted.
Reno had no answer except the quick, hard embrace he gave his brother.
«Come on,» Reno said after a moment. «Eve will be fretting about what’s wrong with you. It galls me to admit that she has such poor taste, but she cares about you almost as much as she does about me.»
Whip smiled slightly. «I doubt that. But I have a real fondness for her. She has the kind of laughter and sheer courage that I admire in anyone, especially a woman. Eve is solid gold. What she ever saw in you I’ll never know.»
A crack of laughter and a slap on the shoulder was Reno’s answer. Side by side, the two brothers walked toward the house with long strides. When they reached the back door, Whip looked dubiously at his boots, and then at Reno’s.
«Something wrong?» Reno asked.
«There are parts of this world where you would be insulting your host and hostess by wearing your boots across the threshold of their home,» Whip said. «Especially boots like these and a new home like yours.»
«Eve must have been to those same places,» Reno admitted. «She leaves a pair of moccasins next to the door for me to swap for my boots.»
Reno’s smile was wry and amused at the same time. Eve’s pleasure in having a home of her own had been a keen satisfaction to him.
«What about my boots?» Whip asked. «Will she settle for stocking feet?»
«She’ll think of something. She protects this house like a tigress with only one cub.»
«Can you blame her? An orphanage like she was raised in would make a body crave a home of their own.»
Reno and Whip washed up at a small bench Reno had built at the back of the house. The water waiting for them was warm and scented with lilac.
As cheerful as the scent was, Whip couldn’t help remembering the spearmint freshness that he associated with Shannon, and the small ritual of handing him a towel and inspecting his face so carefully for any speck of lather.
Stop thinking about those beautiful blue eyes and that sweet mouth smiling up at you, Whip advised himself grimly. It isn’t fair to either one of us.
Do what you have to do.
Get Reno. Get gold.
Get out.
The thought didn’t have as much appeal as it should have.
«Well, don’t take all day,» Eve said, smiling at the men from the back doorway. «If I wait any longer to give you a hug, the biscuits will burn.»
Grinning, Reno wiped his hands on a clean rag and held out his arms. Eve stepped into them and held on hard.
«Is everything all right?» she whispered very softly against Reno’s ear.
«Nothing for us to worry about, sugar,» Reno answered with equal softness.
He felt as much as heard his wife’s sigh of relief.
«I smell burning biscuits,» Whip said blandly.
Reno released Eve, who turned immediately to Whip and held out her arms.
«They’ll be all right,» she said, «but I’m pining for a hug from my second-favorite man in the whole world.»
Whip bent slightly, gathered Eve in a big hug, and held her close.
Reno watched with an indulgent smile and no jealousy at all. He knew that his wife and brother had forged a special bond between them when both had risked their lives to dig Reno out from deep inside an ancient, dangerous mine.
With a final squeeze, Whip set Eve back on her feet.
«Come in and eat,» Eve said, smiling widely. «I can hear your stomach growling all the way from here. I’ll set your place while you change shoes. If you like, you can hang your bullwhip on one of the jacket pegs. Or you can wear it at the table. Suit yourself, so long as the hat stays here with the boots.»
Reno and Whip exchanged a silent glance of amusement when they saw the pair of large, clean socks laid
