When the other riders had thought that enough time had passed for Kid to have finished reading Lou's letter, they silently decided that Noah would be the one to ask the question they all wanted to hear. With a quick glance at the others, Noah asked,
"What does the letter say Kid?"
The sound of Noah's deep voice in the quiet bunkhouse startled Kid out of his prolonged reverie. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts, then looked over at Noah. The fierce, determined expression on Kid's face was one they all knew well. It was a look that they had seen on their fellow rider's face many times before, often when Lou had been in danger or when Kid had decided that the female rider needed protecting. None of them could recall exactly how many times that look, and Kid's sense of honor had gotten him into hot water with the female rider. Each knew that what Lou wanted most was to be accepted and loved for the capable person that she was instead of some helpless female who needed a man to protect her.
All of them knew how important it was for Lou to be treated equally. Since her ma died had died and she had left the orphanage where her younger siblings were located, Lou had been on her own. The independence that she had required during those years on her own was very important to her and had come to her at a high cost. It wasn't going to be easy for her to give that independence up, no matter who it was for. Unfortunately for Lou, it didn't appear that Kid was any more willing to give up his belief that a woman needed to be taken care of. It was going to be pretty interesting to see who was going to come out the winner in this contest of wills.
Noah quickly hid the smile that appeared on his face, Buck covered his and Ike tried to school his features into a look of seriousness. Cody, unfortunately, got a quick mental picture of Kid astride Katie galloping across the open countryside with a furious Lou bound and gagged on the seat behind him. The image was so sudden and so strong that he couldn't stop the laughter from bubbling up inside of him and spilling out of his mouth.
The other riders' heads swirled toward him in astonishment! They knew Cody had a knack for finding the humor in any situation, but this was ridiculous!
Kid leveled a look at Cody that clearly stated that he didn't find anything the least bit funny in the fact that Lou had left Rock Creek. "What's so funny, Cody?" he asked, his voice laced with anger.
"Nothing," Cody said quickly, the humor draining from his face.
"Lighten up Kid. Isn't this what you wanted? Are you satisfied? You've done everything you could to make Lou miserable the past few months! Not only have you made Lou's life unbearable in the past few months, now you've succeeded in chasing her out of Rock Creek! Congratulations!" Jimmy's words were dripping with angry sarcasm.
Anger swept through Kid at Jimmy's words. He didn't need Jimmy to remind him of whose fault it was that Lou had left Rock Creek. He knew whose it was. It was his. He wasn't about to admit that to Jimmy though. If Jimmy had stayed out of Lou and his business a long time ago, maybe things would have already been patched up between him and Lou a long time ago. All he knew was he wasn't about to sit here and take any more guff off of Jimmy than he had to.
"Why can't you ever learn to stay out of anyone else's business? For a man who doesn't like it when someone interferes in his business, you sure have a knack for interfering where you're not wanted! Why don't you stick to things you're good at! Like shooting cans, making trouble and killing people!" Kid spat angrily.
The moment the last sentence was out of his mouth, Kid regretted them. A collective gasp arose from the other riders as Jimmy's face paled for a fraction of a moment. Then his gray eyes turned to liquid gray metal as he leveled a look at Kid that had been known to frighten some of the more renowned gunfighters. Kid didn't flinch under the gaze that Jimmy shot his way. Jimmy and Kid stared at each other, neither wavering under the other's heated gaze.
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