Promises Linger (Promise Series) (31 page)

“Can’t see the logic in trying to change a sweet little girl into a strapping boy.”

“I wasn’t sweet.”

He paused in his theft of a third bite. The fork hung, fully loaded about six inches above the potato. “Now there, darlin’, I’ve got to disagree.” She knew she was going to regret it, but she met his gaze anyway.

“You melt as sweet as honey on a man’s tongue. Gotta believe you started that way to end that way.”

She tried to protest, but all that came out was a strangled, “Asa.”

The man at the next table seemed to lean their way. She’d be mortified if she thought he’d heard what Asa had said.

Her husband was blithely unconcerned. “On this, you’ll have to take my word.”

“I’ll take your word, not because I agree, but because this conversation is highly improper.”

The glint in his eyes was devilish. “Guess that means I’ll have to prove my point in private.”

If he did, she’d probably strangle on the embarrassment.

“What happened when Millicent stepped in?” he asked as he made the last of her potato disappear.

She didn’t know whether to be offended or relieved that he’d eaten her dinner, so she answered his question instead. “She interrupted my father and told him she’d get me to eat the meal before the morning was out.”

“Did she?”

“Many times over.”

His right eyebrow kicked up. “She wasn’t satisfied with once?”

“I kept getting sick.”

“And she kept making you eat?” That was the first time she’d heard a man growl.

Elizabeth remembered the day vividly. The pain from the beating her father had given her almost crippling her when combined with the nausea inspired by the smell of meatloaf. Millicent’s desperate pleadings. Her father’s angry discovery that she’d gotten sick. His fury. Millicent’s intervention. “She didn’t have any choice.”

“Appears to me she had a hell of a lot of choices.” He slammed the napkin on the table.

She caught his hand with hers before he could slip away. “You weren’t there. I’m very grateful to her.”

He stared at her, first, like she was nuts, then in confusion and, finally understanding dawned. Of what, she didn’t want to know. Just as long as he didn’t go after Millicent with that look in his eye, she was happy.

“I love Millicent very much.”

“I can see that.” The look he shot her was a warning. “Someday, you’re going to tell me the whole of it.”

“Thank you.”

“Uh-huh.” He went back to his chicken and dumplings. “You’re racking up quite a debt for someday.”

She wasn’t worried. Someday was a long way off. A clever person could postpone someday forever. “I’m a procrastinator.”

“A what?”

“I like to put things off.”

“I guess I’ll learn to live with it.”

“I’ll try to keep it to a minimum.”

“I’d appreciate it.” He looked to the right. “Here comes Millicent. If you want her to think you ate that potato, you’d best wipe your mouth with that napkin and pretend you enjoyed it.”

As she did as he instructed, the truth hit her like a steam train, running over her defenses with blinding speed. He’d eaten the potato so Millicent wouldn’t lecture her. Just like he’d deflected her criticism. Just like he’d thrown his body over hers when the bullets had started flying. Just like he’d put Aaron on notice when his thoughtless comment had hurt.

I take care of my own.

She’d heard him say it many times. But she’d dismissed his comment as dog-in-the-manger male bragging, but—

She pulled the napkin away from her mouth. It seemed to actually matter to him that she was happy. And he was doing his best to discover what those things were and that she didn’t run into any discord. Hot on the heels of understanding came dismay. She didn’t know what to do with someone like him.

“You ate,” Millicent observed happily as she came abreast of the table.

“You added just the right amount of cinnamon,” Elizabeth commented, not willing to lie outright.

“You remember now, it’s just a pinch.”

“I’ll remember.”

“Something wrong with your meal?” Millicent turned and asked Asa. “For a man who was talking seconds, you sure are picking.”

“Nope.” He took a hearty bite. “I just got sidetracked talking to my wife.”

“You really like her that much?” She said it as if it amazed her that anything could distract a man from her chicken and dumplings.

She was a fool but Elizabeth found herself holding her breath for the answer.

“Yes. I really like her.”

Millicent snorted. “Newlyweds! Not a lick of sense. Think they can live on love alone.” She motioned to a table by the window. “Just like those two over there.”

Asa obligingly looked. “You mean the table with the big man in buckskins and that lady all dressed in pink?”

“That’s the one.”

“That’s Cougar McKinnely, isn’t it?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t recognize the young lady.”

“That prissy bit of nonsense is Emily Carmichael. Ever since she found out Cougar’s got more money than God’s got little green apples, she’s been set on hooking him.”

“He doesn’t seem unhappy with the arrangement,” Asa added.

Millicent snorted in disgust. “He’s too straightforward a man to see he’s being taken for a ride.” Her scowl deepened as her thumb jerked over her shoulder in Emily’s direction. “She bats her eyes and coos, and he mistakes it for real interest.”

“You don’t think she’s serious?” Elizabeth bit her lip. She didn’t know Cougar very well. He was a half-breed, and her father hadn’t had anything good to say about him, but Cougar was the adopted son of Doc. Whenever she’d had to go to Doc for care of her wounds, Cougar had always been kind. He’d brought her soup once when her mouth had been too sore from a calf’s kick to chew. He’d stood in the pouring rain and said he knew how it felt and handed her the crock. He’d stayed. Talked. She’d been too astonished by his kindness to take precautions. Her father had come upon them, accused her of leading McKinnely on. Cougar had stood up for her. Her father had taken his fists to him despite the fact he’d been not much more than a boy.

Doc had had a lot to say about that. The sheriff had come out. In the end, her father had apologized to Doc and Cougar to stay out of jail, but he hadn’t meant it. After that, she’d done her best to stay away from Cougar McKinnely. But she hadn’t forgotten his kindness.

She looked at the couple. “I hope you’re wrong, Millicent. Cougar deserves a woman who loves him.”

She ignored the sharp glance Asa sent her way. His jealousy over Aaron was enough to handle. She wasn’t adding Cougar McKinnely to his list.

“So do I, honey,” Millicent said on a sigh, “but I’m not. You just watch those two. Cougar’s smitten, all right. He’s fallen for the girl, but she wants nothing to do with him. She practically cringes when he touches her.”

Just then, Cougar reached with a lover’s tenderness and a gentleman’s regard for protocol and laid his hand atop Emily’s. She immediately found a pretext to slip her hand free.

“That girl sure wants no part of that man,” Asa observed.

He was so positive. Elizabeth wondered with guilt how Asa felt in the wake of all the times she’d pulled back from him? Was she equally obvious?

“It’s as plain as the nose on your face,” Millicent agreed, “but Cougar can’t tell the difference between maidenly modesty and repugnance.” She shook her head. “I never thought I’d say this, but I wish that man had more of a penchant for saloon girls.”

Both Asa’s eyebrows flew up. Elizabeth couldn’t restrain a gasp.

Millicent had the grace to look embarrassed. “Well, it’s the truth! Tough as he is, mean as he had to be before Doc and Dorothy got hold of him, that boy’s been holding out for true love.”

Elizabeth looked across the room and studied Cougar more closely. Cougar McKinnely a romantic? Just then, he threw back his head and laughed at something Emily said. His long dark hair swung across his shoulders, giving his profile an exotic cast. For the life of her, she couldn’t see it. He exuded danger, confidence and life, yes, but…romance?

“I hate to start the disagreements before I get my hands on that pie,” Asa interjected, “but that’s one man I wouldn’t want to come up against in a fight. That being the case, I’m having real trouble believing he’s the sort to read poetry and sigh over true love.”

Elizabeth bit back a smile at Asa’s accurate summation. “He is awfully big and mean-looking,” she agreed.

Still, she couldn’t forget the image of a nineteen-year-old riding six miles in the rain to bring her soup.

“I didn’t say he’s a sissy boy,” Millicent growled, setting her hands on her hips. “I said he believes in true love. It’s all Doc and Dorothy’s fault, making out that there are others who believe in such a thing just because they found it.”

“Maybe he’ll figure it out for himself,” Elizabeth said hopefully.

Millicent snorted. “No way in hell that girl’s going to let onto the truth until she’s got a wedding ring on her finger.”

Asa was strangely silent. Was he thinking on the similarities between his situation and Cougar’s? Guilt and dismay washed over her in waves. She owed him better.

“Here, now, don’t eat that!” Millicent ordered, sweeping the half-eaten plate from under Asa’s nose. “It’s cold.”

“Still tastes good,” he argued around a mouthful of food.

“No one sits down to a cold meal at my table.”

“It was hot when it got here,” he pointed out.

Millicent bristled and Elizabeth wanted to laugh. She’d been on the receiving end of Asa’s humor enough to empathize.

“And I kept you gabbing, so now it’s cold,” Millicent countered his argument. “I’ll bring you a fresh plate. When you clean that, I’ll bring your pie.”

Asa groaned as she strode away. “Now I’m in a pickle.”

“Why?” Elizabeth asked, knowing full well how his plan had backfired.

“You heard her.” He shot a despondent glance at the pie on the counter. “I’ve got to clean the plate to get the pie. I might have managed to finish that plate and still had room for pie, but if she loads me down again, I’ll never make it.”

No sooner had he finished the sentence than Millicent came back with a plate groaning with the load it bore. She placed it in front of Asa with a flourish. On a “Dig in”, she was off to clean another table.

His sigh must have originated in his boot heels, it was so deep and drawn out. “I really could go for some more pie,” he said as he picked up his fork with resigned determination.

“You ate an entire pie at lunch.” Elizabeth pointed out reasonably.

A hound dog couldn’t look more mournful than Asa. “That was hours ago.”

She picked up her fork. “I suppose, in the interest of protecting your belly from another lecture, I could pitch in.”

Her offer didn’t inspire any great declarations of gratitude. “Pardon me, darlin’, but the two bites you’d manage wouldn’t make much of a dent.”

“For your information, Mr. MacIntyre, I’ve developed quite a hunger during our discussion.” She motioned with her fork for him to push the plate more to the center of the table. “You may consider yourself lucky if you get more than a bite or two.”

He pushed the plate over, but his expression was anything but confident. “Anything you say.”

A lesser woman might have taken offense. She, however, felt like laughing in the face of his hang dog expression. He’d find out for himself soon enough. She hadn’t felt this hungry in years.

She took the first bite and let it melt on her tongue. Her stomach rumbled loudly, demanding more. Her fork clashed with Asa’s. She emerged victorious. As she triumphantly brought the choice piece of chicken to her mouth, she saw the realization that she was serious dawn on his face. From then on, it was a contest made more complicated by the laughter that kept getting in the way. By the time they got to the pie, it was an effort to keep the food on the fork for the shaking of their hands and bodies.

As Elizabeth took the last bite of pie, she looked across the table. Asa was doing his level best to keep a straight face while chewing the bit of apple he’d swiped off her plate. He was failing miserably in that and his attempt to appear innocent. He caught her stare and had the gall to wink. In a heartbeat, the truth broke upon her. Hell had surely frozen over because Elizabeth Coyote MacIntyre was falling in love for the first time in her life.

Chapter Fifteen

They rode double back to the ranch. Elizabeth’s shawl was no match for the falling temperature. She’d fought a bit, but, by applying sense to her practical side, Asa had managed to get her to sit in front of him on the saddle. He’d wrapped his duster around her, and now they were both as snug as a bug in a rug. Asa grimaced as Shameless stumbled over a dip in the road. Elizabeth’s soft buttocks pressed harder against his erection. If he didn’t get a chance to adjust things soon, he was going to be permanently bent double.