Wyoming Brides

  “That’s sick, Letty.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said, carefully measuring each word. “Death, like birth, is a natural part of life. It’s sunrise and sunset, just the way the song says.”

  “Is that the reason you’re wandering among the tombstones like…like some vampire?”

  It took her several minutes to swallow a furious response. Did she need to hit this man over the head before he realized what she was trying to tell him? “Oh, Chase, that’s a mean thing to say.”

  “Do you often stroll through graveyards as if they’re park grounds?” he asked, his voice clipped. “Or is this a recent pastime?”

  “Recent,” she said, smiling at him. She hoped he understood that no matter how much he goaded her, she wasn’t going to react to his anger.

  “Then may I suggest you snap out of whatever trance you’re in and join the land of the living? There’s a whole world out there just waiting to be explored.”

  “But the world isn’t always a friendly place. Bad things happen every day. No one said life’s fair. I wish it was, believe me, but it isn’t.”

  “Stop talking like that. Wake up, Letty!” He stepped toward her as if he’d experienced a sudden urge to shake her, but if that was the case, he restrained himself.

  “I’m awake,” she returned calmly, yearning for him to understand that she loved life, but was powerless to control her own destiny. She felt a deep need to prepare him for her vulnerability to death. Now if only he’d listen.

  “It’s really very lovely here, don’t you think?” she asked. “The air is crisp and clear, and there’s the faint scent of sage mingled with the wildflowers. Can’t you smell it?”

  “No.”

  Letty ignored his lack of appreciation. “The sky is lovely today. So blue…When it’s this bright I sometimes think it’s actually going to touch the earth.” She paused, waiting for Chase to make some kind of response, but he remained resolutely silent. “Those huge white clouds resemble Spanish galleons sailing across the seas, don’t they?”

  “I suppose.”

  Her linked hands behind her back, she wandered down a short hill. Chase continued to walk with her, but the silence between them was uneasy. Just when Letty felt the courage building inside her to mention the surgery, he spoke.

  “You lied to me, Letty.”

  His words were stark. Surprised, she turned to him and met his gaze. It was oddly impassive, as if her supposed deceit didn’t matter to him, as though he’d come to expect such things from her.

  “When?” she demanded.

  “Just now. I phoned Doc Hanley’s office and they said you hadn’t so much as called. You’re a liar—on top of everything else.”

  Letty’s breath caught painfully in her throat. The words to prove him wrong burned on her lips. “You don’t have any right to check up on me.” She took a deep breath. “Nevertheless, I didn’t lie to you. I never have. But I’m not going to argue with you, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

  “Are you saying Doc Hanley’s office lied?”

  “I’m not going to discuss this. Believe what you want.” She quickened her steps as she turned and headed toward the wrought-iron gates at the cemetery entrance. He followed her until they stood next to the trucks.

  “Letty?”

  She looked at him. Anger kindled in his eyes like tiny white flames, but Letty was too hurt to appease him with an explanation. She’d wanted to reveal a deep part of herself to this man because she trusted and loved him. She couldn’t now. His accusation had ruined what she’d wanted to share.

  He reached out and clasped her shoulders. “I need to know. Did you or did you not lie to me?”

  The scorn was gone from his eyes, replaced with a pain that melted her own.

  “No…I did see a doctor, I swear to you.” She held her head at a proud angle, her gaze unwavering, but when she spoke, her voice cracked.

  His eyes drifted closed as if he didn’t know what to believe anymore. Whatever he was thinking, he didn’t say. Instead he pulled her firmly into his embrace and settled his mouth on hers.

  A tingling current traveled down her body at his touch. Letty whimpered—angry, hurt, excited, pleased.

  Still kissing her, Chase let his hands slide down to caress her back, tugging her against him. Her body was already aflame and trembling with need.

  Chase held her tightly as he slipped one hand up to tangle in her short curls. His actions were slow, hesitant, as if he was desperately trying to stop himself from kissing her.

  “Letty…” he moaned, his breath featherlight against her upturned face. “You make me want you….”

  She bowed her head. The desire she felt for him was equally ravenous.

  Chase dragged in a heavy breath and expelled it loudly. “I don’t want to feel the things I do.”

  “I know.” It was heady knowledge, and Letty took delight in it. She moved against him, craving the feel of his arms around her.

  Chase groaned. His mouth found hers once more and he kissed her tentatively, as if he didn’t really want to be touching her again, but couldn’t help himself. This increased Letty’s reckless sensation of power.

  He slid his hands up her arms and gripped her shoulders. Letty shyly moved her body against him; unfortunately the loving torment wasn’t his alone, and she halted abruptly at the intense heat that surged through her.

  A car drove past them, sounding its horn.

  Letty had forgotten that they were standing on the edge of the road. Groaning with embarrassment, she buried her face against his heaving chest. Chase’s heart felt like a hammer beating against her, matching her own excited pulse.

  “Listen to me, Letty,” he whispered.

  He held her head between his hands and gently lifted her face upward, his breath warm and moist against her own.

  “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted a woman in my life. You want me, too, don’t you?”

  For a moment she was tempted to deny everything, but she couldn’t.

  “Don’t you?” he demanded. His hands, which were holding her face, were now possessive. His eyes, which had so recently been clouded with passion, were now sharp and insistent.

  Letty opened her mouth to reply, but some part of her refused to acknowledge the truth. Her fear was that Chase would find a way to use it against her. He didn’t trust her; he’d told her that himself. Desire couldn’t be confused with love—at least not between them.

  “Don’t you?” he questioned a second time.

  Knowing he wouldn’t free her until she gave him an answer, Letty nodded once.

  The instant she did, he released her. “That’s all I wanted to know.” With that he turned and walked away.

  For the three days after her confrontation with Chase, Letty managed to avoid him. When she knew he’d be over at the house, she made a point of being elsewhere. Her thoughts were in chaos, her emotions so muddled and confused that she didn’t know what to think or feel toward him anymore.

  Apparently Chase was just as perplexed as she was, because he seemed to be avoiding her with the same fervor. Normally he stopped by the house several mornings a week. Not once since they’d met in the cemetery had he shown up for breakfast. Letty was grateful.

  She cracked three eggs in a bowl and started whipping them. Lonny was due back in the house any minute and she wanted to have his meal ready when he arrived. Since her argument with her brother, he’d gone out of his way to let her know he appreciated her presence. He appeared to regret their angry exchange as much as Letty did.

  The back door opened, and Lonny stepped inside and hung his hat on the peg next to the door. “Looks like we’re in for some rain.”

  “My garden could use it,” Letty said absently as she poured the eggs into the heated frying pan, stirring them while they cooked. “Do you want one piece of toast or two?”

  “Two.”

  She put the bread in the toaster. Her back was to her brother when she spoke. “
Do you have any plans for today?”

  “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

  She nodded. “I thought you were supposed to see the insurance adjuster about having the fender on your truck repaired.”

  “It isn’t worth the bother,” Lonny said, walking to the stove to refill his coffee cup.

  “But I thought—”

  Lonny had made such a fuss over that minuscule dent in his truck that Letty had assumed he’d want to have it fixed, if for no other reason than to irritate Joy.

  “I decided against it,” he answered shortly.

  “I see.” Letty didn’t, but that was neither here nor there. She’d given up trying to figure him out when it came to his relationship with Joy Fuller.

  “I hate it when you say that,” he muttered.

  “Say what?” Letty asked, puzzled.

  “‘I see’ in that prim voice, as if you know exactly what I’m thinking.”

  “Oh.”

  “There,” he cried, slamming down his coffee cup. “You did it again.”

  “I’m sorry, Lonny. I didn’t mean anything by it.” She dished up his eggs, buttered the toast and brought his plate to the table.

  He glanced at her apologetically when she set his breakfast in front of him, picked up his fork, then hesitated. “If I turn in a claim against Joy, her insurance rates will go up. Right?”

  Letty would’ve thought that would be the least of her brother’s concerns. “That’s true. She’d probably be willing to pay you something instead. Come to think of it, didn’t she offer you fifty dollars to forget the whole thing?”

  Lonny’s eyes flared briefly. “Yes, she did.”

  “I’m sure Joy would be happy to give you the money if you’d prefer to handle the situation that way. She wants to be as fair as she can. After all, she admitted from the first that the accident was her fault.”

  “What else could she do?”

  Letty didn’t respond.

  “I don’t dare contact her, though,” Lonny said, his voice low.

  As she sat down across from him, Letty saw that he hadn’t taken a single bite of his eggs. “Why not?”

  He sighed and looked away, clearly uncomfortable. “The last time I tried to call her she hung up.”

  “You shouldn’t have blamed her for our argument. That was a ridiculous thing to do. Ridiculous and unfair.”

  A lengthy pause followed. “I know,” Lonny admitted. “I was lashing out at her because I was furious with myself. I was feeling bad enough about saying the things I did to you. Then I found out you fainted soon afterward and I felt like a real jerk. The truth is, I had every intention of apologizing when I got back to the house. But you were upstairs sleeping and Chase was sitting here, madder than anything. He nearly flayed me alive. I guess I was looking for a scapegoat, and since Joy was indirectly involved, I called her.”

  “Joy wasn’t involved at all! Directly or indirectly. You just wanted an excuse to call her.”

  He didn’t acknowledge Letty’s last comment, but said, “I wish I hadn’t done it.”

  “Not only that,” she went on as though he hadn’t spoken, “Chase had no right to be angry with you.”

  “Well, he thought he did.” Lonny paused. “Sometimes I wonder about you and Chase. You two have been avoiding each other all week. I mention your name and he gets defensive. I mention him to you and you change the subject. The fact is, I thought that once you got home and settled down, you and Chase might get married.”

  At those words, Letty did exactly what Lonny said she would. She changed the subject. “Since you won’t be taking the truck in for body work, someone needs to tell Joy. Would you like me to talk to her for you?”

  Lonny shrugged. “I suppose.”

  “What do you want me to say?”

  Lonny shrugged again. “I don’t know. I guess you can say I’m willing to drop the whole insurance thing. She doesn’t need to worry about giving me that fifty dollars, either—I don’t want her money.”

  Letty ran one finger along the rim of her coffee cup. “Anything else?”

  Her brother hesitated. “I guess it wouldn’t do any harm to tell her I said I might’ve overreacted just a bit the day of the accident, and being the sensitive kind of guy I am, I regret how I behaved.…This, of course, all depends on how receptive she is to my apology.”

  “Naturally,” Letty said, feigning a sympathetic look. “But I’m sure Joy will accept your apology.” Letty wasn’t at all certain that was true, but she wanted to reassure her brother, who was making great leaps in improving his attitude toward her friend.

  Digging his fork into his scrambled eggs, Lonny snorted softly. “Now that’s something I doubt. Knowing that woman the way I do, I’ll bet Joy Fuller demands an apology written in blood. But this is the best she’s going to get. You tell her that for me, will you?”

  “Be glad to,” Letty said.

  Lonny took a huge bite of his breakfast, as if he’d suddenly realized how hungry he was. He picked up a piece of toast with one hand and waved it at Letty. “You might even tell her I think she does a good job at church with the organ. But play that part by ear, if you know what I mean. Don’t make it sound like I’m buttering her up for anything.”

  “Right.”

  “Do you want the truck today?”

  “Please.” Letty had another doctor’s appointment and was leading up to that request herself.

  Lonny stood up and carried his plate to the sink. “I’ll talk to you this afternoon, then.” He put on his hat, adjusted it a couple of times, then turned to Letty and smiled. “You might follow your own advice, you know.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You and Chase. I don’t know what’s going on, but I have a feeling that a word or two from you would patch everything up. Since I’m doing the honorable thing with Joy, I’d think you could do the same with Chase.”

  With that announcement he was gone.

  Letty sat at the table, both hands around the warm coffee mug, while she mulled over Lonny’s suggestion. She didn’t know what to say to Chase, or how to talk to him anymore.

  More than a week had passed since Chase had seen Letty. Each day his mood worsened. Each day he grew more irritable and short-tempered. Even Firepower, who had always sensed his mood and adjusted his own temperament, seemed to be losing patience with him. Chase didn’t blame the gelding; he was getting to the point where he hated himself.

  Something had to be done.

  The day Chase had found Letty wandering through the cemetery, he’d been driving around looking for her. She’d promised him on Sunday that she’d see Doc Hanley. Somehow, he hadn’t believed she’d do it. Chase had been furious when he discovered she hadn’t seen the doctor. It’d taken him close to an hour to locate Letty. When he did, he’d had to exercise considerable restraint not to blast her for her lack of common sense. She’d fainted, for crying out loud! A healthy person didn’t just up and faint. Something was wrong.

  But before Chase could say a word, Letty had started in with that macabre conversation about death and dying. His temper hadn’t improved with her choice of subject matter. The old Letty had been too full of life even to contemplate death. It was only afterward, when she was in his arms, that Chase discovered the vibrant woman he’d always known. Only when he was kissing her that she seemed to snap out of whatever trance she was in.

  It was as though Letty was half-alive these days. She met his taunts with a smile, refused to argue with him even when he provoked her. Nothing had brought a response from her, with the exception of his kisses.

  Chase couldn’t take any more of this. He was going to talk to her and find out what had happened to change her from the lively, spirited woman he used to know. And he didn’t plan to leave until he had an answer.

  When he pulled into the yard, Cricket was the only one he saw. The child was sitting on the porch steps, looking bored and unhappy. She brightened as soon as he came into view.

 
“Chase!” she called and jumped to her feet.

  She ran toward him with an eagerness that grabbed his heart. He didn’t know why Cricket liked him so much. He’d done nothing to deserve her devotion. She was so pleased, so excited, whenever she saw him that her warm welcome couldn’t help but make him feel…good.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” she told him cheerfully.

  “Hello, Cricket. It’s nice to see you, too.”

  She slipped her small hand into his and smiled up at him. “It’s been ages and ages since you came over to see us. I missed you a whole bunch.”

  “I know.”

  “Where’ve you been all this time? Mommy said I wasn’t supposed to ask Uncle Lonny about you anymore, but I was afraid I wouldn’t see you again. You weren’t in church on Sunday.”

  “I’ve been…busy.”

  The child sighed. “That’s what Mommy said.” Then, as though suddenly remembering something important, Cricket tore into the house, returning a moment later with a picture that had been colored in with the utmost care. “This is from my book. I made it for you,” she announced proudly. “It’s a picture of a horsey.”

  “Thank you, sweetheart.” He examined the picture, then carefully folded it and put it in his shirt pocket.

  “I made it ’cause you’re my friend and you let me ride Firepower.”

  He patted her head. “Where’s your mother?”

  “She had to go to Rock Springs.”

  “Who’s watching you?”

  Cricket pouted. “Uncle Lonny, but he’s not very good at it. He fell asleep in front of the TV, and when I changed the channel, he got mad and told me to leave it ’cause he was watching it. But he had his eyes closed. How can you watch TV with your eyes closed?”

  She didn’t seem to expect an answer, but plopped herself down and braced her elbows on her knees, her small hands framing her face.

  Chase sat down next to her. “Is that why you’re sitting out here all by yourself?”

  Cricket nodded. “Mommy says I’ll have lots of friends to play with when I go to kindergarten, but that’s not for months and months.”