Give Me A Texan

she’s planning on staying.”

“You reading a crystal ball or tea leaves?”

“I know that when a person decides to end something for good they pack up and leave. So Lucy isn’t finished.”

“Never looked at it that way.”

“Give her a few more days and she’ll beg you to come back.”

Come daylight, after Payton got through, Joe would be out of the doghouse one way or another. He’d had it. Someone would listen to reason or else.

“Reckon I ain’t got nothing but time.”

“Then you can cart this lamb back where you got it.”

Joe’s eyes widened. “Can you be a good friend and do that? I don’t feel so hot.”

“Skin your own stinking skunks, don’t look at me.”

“Will you do it if I promise to lay off the foolishness?”

Payton wouldn’t fall for that trick. “No.”

“I can’t leave tonight. Mr. Sanborn wants to see me after supper. Probably wants a tally of the branding. After the business part is done he’ll want to play poker. You know how he gets being cooped up with womenfolk all day.”

“Get one of the others to cart the thing back then. It’s not my problem.”

“Are you forgetting how I saved your life when you first hired on? You owe me.”

Payton’s mind drifted back to winter and the blizzard that wiped out a third of the herd. He’d ridden with the men to try to get a bunch of cattle out of the icy creek bed down in a draw before they froze to death. Domino lost his footing on the ice and went down. The horse was all right, only scared. He got up and ran, leaving Payton buried in the snow with an injured leg. Payton thought for sure he’d freeze to death before someone found him. And he would have if not for Joe, who scoured the drifts looking for him.

Yeah, he owed a debt for sure. But enough to take a bullet?

“I shouldn’t, but seeing how down on your uppers you are with Lucinda and all I guess I could take pity this once. Need I ask where you got it?”

“Nope. Amanda Lemmons will be less than thrilled to see you. I sort of borrowed it.”

“Figured as much.” If the Navajo was still there, Payton might find himself losing his hair. He didn’t relish returning to the scene of the crime. Surely, the woman wouldn’t be too mad though since he’d be wagging the dumb lamb home.

Domino gave him a walleyed stare when Payton lifted the saddle and slung it again on the horse’s back. He draped the bellowing sheep across his lap and set out.

Twilight fell by the time he crossed onto Amanda’s ranch, and it got darker still before he saw the glow from the adobe’s windows. It seemed welcoming if a body didn’t know better. Unease twisted his gut. The pitch black was eerily still.

Payton figured on quietly putting the lamb into the fold with the rest of the scrubby clan and leaving with no one the wiser. Only the noisy ball of fluff had other ideas. The blessed animal evidently got a whiff of its mother because Payton never heard such a ruckus from a small mouth. Then the collie started barking as if the world had come to an end and he had to alert everyone. Payton let loose a string of cussing.

The hellacious racket outside the house aroused pinpricks in places Amanda didn’t know they could crawl-like her brain and her heart. Something or someone was out there. Her feet hit the floor. She grabbed the shotgun and burst out the door to see a spotted appaloosa standing near the pen. Atop the animal sat the silhouette of a man bold as could be. A lamb draped across the saddle bellowed its head off.

The dirty, rotten thief! And he had the audacity to linger even after she’d caught him.

Fury swept past reason. With a squeeze of the trigger, orange flame spat from the killing end and sent hot lead whistling past the interloper’s ear.

“Move and I’ll make you regret it, mister.”

The scoundrel’s hands lifted. “This isn’t how it looks.”

Amanda stepped closer. Recognizing the proud profile of the man who had seemed to have integrity riddled the strength she wrapped around her. Payton McCord had shown her quiet respect. He’d even done the unimaginable- made her question her hardened opinion of cowmen. And now he was taking her lifeblood. A firm clench of her jaw stilled its trembling.

Damn McCord! Why did he have to go and prove again how easily someone with an honest twinkle in his eye and sinful way with words could take her in?

“From where I stand I see a sheep-thiever. That lamb didn’t hop up there on your lap by itself.”

“Confound it, I’m returning the darn thing.” Danger rumbling in Payton’s throat said he wasn’t a man to cross, but she was too busy trying to salvage her pride to heed.

“A likely story.” He could’ve thought of a better lie. Disappointment and tears blurred the figure. Her palm tightened around the stock of the rifle.

“I’m not used to being falsely accused. Why would I want one miserable little piece of mutton? Ask yourself.”

“Retribution for the hat? Or a reason more ominous. You work for Henry Sanborn. He wants my land. Maybe he hired you to take the sheep one at a time? That way I wouldn’t miss them until too many had disappeared. I don’t care. I caught you red-handed.”

“Put down the damn rifle before it goes off again. I can explain.”

She waved the weapon toward the fold. “Leave the animal where you found it and get off my property.”

Payton slid to the ground with the lamb in his arms. Fraser nipped at his pant legs as he marched to the stone sheepfold and gently returned it to its mother.

“I’m sorry you think I’d harm you.” He swung into the saddle. “Good night, ma’am.”

Just like that? She was supposed to let him go free? He’d moseyed by and killed her dream with no thought of recompense. Amanda meant to exact something. Making sense of the turmoil would be nice. Short of that, she’d take snapping on the leg irons that her father had pilfered off a convict wagon and feeding him mutton until he puked. That’d even the score.

She raised the rifle barrels. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting the hell out of here.”

“You owe me that explanation and I will have it.”

“That’s great. Now you’re going to shoot me to keep me from leaving?” He didn’t appear afraid, resting an elbow on the saddle horn. “Make up your mind. You want me to stay or go? I can’t do both.”

Amanda’s knees sagged. Which order did she want him to obey when she didn’t know herself? She propped the Winchester against the side of the house. It didn’t make much difference. Nothing did. She still lost whether she trusted or not. How much could a body take? The futility of it all was too much.

“Do whatever suits you. Take the whole darn flock if you want. Be doing me a favor. I’m tired of trying to make something from nothing.”

She barely noticed that his boots made little noise when he climbed back down, or that he covered the space between them in a few long strides, until the deep timbre of his voice cut through the everlasting misery that wore like a second skin.

“You don’t mean that. Owning land has meaning. I don’t know why you chose this life, but you can’t quit swimming in the middle of the stream.” He touched her cheek with a calloused thumb, the warmth melting the edges of ice layering her heart.

“I’d prefer drowning over this slow, torturous death.”

“Nothing worthwhile comes easy. You have far too much courage to give up. I’ve never met anyone with more grit.”

With a shaky breath, she brushed a weary hand across her eyes. “You make it sound simple. Want to come inside? Looks like you can use some cider. I know I can.”

Payton shifted his weight. “This isn’t an ambush is it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I only shoot buzzards.” And thieves who plundered her good sense, she vowed silently. Amanda resisted the thought of the striking figure being in either category.