Daniel Keaggy looked over at the quiet woman beside him, staring up at the stars, preoccupied with her own thoughts. Louise had been quiet all evening and had barely touched her dinner. He could tell that the afternoon had shaken her more than she was willing to admit to the others. So, anxious to erase the solemn look on her face, Danny had suggested they take a walk. "The spring air will do you good," he'd insisted. Finally, with a great deal of coaxing and assurances that she'd be back in time to get Lexi ready for bed, Danny had steered her outdoors. They made small talk while walking around the old station, Louise telling him a few stories about when the Express had been alive. Now, they sat on haybales behind the barn just enjoying the quiet evening.
He touched her shoulder gently and she jumped as if she'd forgotten he was there. Danny smiled as she turned to look at him, her eyes huge and innocent in the moonlight, her hair escaping in wisps from its undertucked braid. "Penny for your thoughts," he offered, his voice low.
She smiled sadly. "No thoughts, just memories," Lou replied.
"Good ones I hope," Danny said. There was a slight breeze in the night air which blew a particularly long strand of auburn hair across her collar. Without thinking, Danny reached out and brushed it back behind her ear, letting his fingertips caress her ear gently as they retreated. "God, you're so beautiful," he whispered.
Lou caught her breath slightly at the gesture. It had been a while since such a casual touch had sparked anything in her. Sitting there under the stars, she'd tried not to think about the fact that this was the place Kid had kissed her that first fateful time and promised to keep her secret. Actually, she'd kissed him and he'd just capitalized on the moment.
Don't think about it, she told herself harshly. Here's Danny sitting next to you giving you that look that says he wants you badly and you're thinking about Kid? Danny was a good man, not to mention good-looking and he cared about her. If he didn't he wouldn't still be there right? She'd told him that she wanted to take things slowly and so far, he'd made no demands of her. Lou knew it couldn't be easy to be so patient, but he'd been true to his word and their physical relationship hadn't progressed beyond long, gentle kisses and embraces. However, Danny's gaze was different tonight, warmer, and something inside her answered.
He kissed her at first the way he always did, as if she were china. And then suddenly, Lou was kissing him back, deepening the kiss with a fervor almost akin to desperation. Danny returned her kiss full force, their toungues entwining as things went a step further. His hands were the first to begin wandering as she sank backwards onto the haybale, drawing him with her so that he lay on top of her, her breasts crushed against his chest. He began kissing down her jaw to her neck and one hand slid up her skirt to wrap her right leg around his hip.
Lou rolled her head to one side, exposing the sensitive skin of her neck to his mouth. Panting slightly, she sighed as Danny moved up to nibble on her ear. Oh, God, it had been so long since she'd felt that particular feminine feel a woman only experienced in the arms of a man. But even as she physically enjoyed the caresses, the memories came alive again: Kid's long fingers stroking figure eight patterns over the inside of her thighs; his eyelashes trailing butterfly kisses up and down her neck to tease her; the way he'd stood shirtless in only his pants and grinned lasciviously at her, one hand on his hip, merely crooking his finger in a beckoning gesture when she'd tried to tease him from across the room.
Desperately, Lou tried to drown them out by returning Danny's caresses, but that only served to increase the images behind her tightly closed eyelids. When she felt Danny's fingers sliding up underneath her chemise to touch her bare skin, his touch felt all wrong and her mind rebelled. Lou brought her hands to his chest and pushed against him. "Danny, stop," she panted. But he didn't and as his fingers journeyed higher, she began to panic and shoved at him. "Danny, stop it! I can't do this!"
Her panicked shove landed Danny on the ground on his backside, his hair and clothes disheveled from her frenzied fingers. He stared up at her in confusion as she crossed her arms over her chest protectively, looking like she was going to sob uncontrollably any minute. Even now she looked beautiful and he wanted her so much. "What's wrong now?" he asked in agitation, running a hand through his red hair in frustration. "One minute you've got your tongue down my throat and the next you're tossin' me on the ground."
"I'm not ready for this," Lou admitted. "I'm sorry. I thought I was but I'm not."
"Coulda fooled me," Danny muttered. "Don't tell me, it's Kid right? God, Lou we've been together for months, you've known me for years and you're not ready for this?! You knew Kid all of what, six months before you jumped into his bed. He doesn't want you Louise. God only knows why, but he doesn't otherwise he'd be out here with you right now and not in town having dinner with laura Wilson. When are you gonna wake up and realize it's over between you two and move on?"
Lou just stared at him, her eyes wide with hurt, feeling like he'd kicked her in the stomach. How could he be so callous? Her mouth moved but no sound came out. "Goddamn you," she finally whispered before dashing away toward the front of the barn. She heard him curse vulgarly and scramble after her but she ignored him as she struggled to right the buttons of her blouse.
Lou made it to the open yard between the buildings before Danny grabbed her around the waist, turning her to look at him. "Don't touch me you son of a bitch," she shouted not caring who heard as she fought off his hands. "This wasn't about Kid or you. It was about me! I thought you were my friend Daniel Keaggy. You know what happened in Denver and I thought you understood. Hell, if all I am to you is a good roll in the hay, then you can go pay for it at the saloon in town like a real man instead of butterin' me up with lies and fake promises!"
"Kitten, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that or push you. I was just frustrated," Danny said. "It's just that I love you so much and I want to be with you in every way. I thought you felt the same way."
"I don't know what I feel right now, but, if you really loved me, you'd wait 'til it was right for us," Lou insisted, her anger rising even more. "This is some twisted competition you've got with Kid isn't it?"
Danny's eyes hardened at her words. "Competition with Kid?!" he roared. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, woman! Ya'd think the man was God Almighty according to you. Kid Travis ain't much of a man in my book. Let's see, he seduces a woman and gets her with child and then just lets her walk right out of his life without a word, while he moves on to the very first skirt he sees. And his reason? Oh, he needed to get on with his life somehow even though he claims he still loved you at the time. He sure as hell couldn't have loved you all that much since he didn't even look for you when you left here!"
Unbeknownst to the two combatants, their shouts had drawn the station's occupants out to see what was going on, the argument drowning out the sound of the rider headed their way. The men all stood at the ready waiting to intervene if it went beyond shouting.
Lou's chest heaved as the pain and anger Danny's words inspired boiled over. He'd been her friend, she'd trusted him and now he'd taken that trust and thrown it back in her face. Suddenly, her small fist struck out landing a good solid hit on Keaggy's jaw. His head snapped to the side and he staggered but didn't fall.
Rachel gasped in shock. "Louise!" she cried in a voice filled with both worry and scolding.
"Holy hell!" Jimmy swore. He'd never have believed that little Lou McCloud had enough spit to take on a man twice her size in a fist fight. However amazed the former riders may have been as they watched the spectacle, they were all unprepared for what happened next.
When Danny's head came back up so did his own fist and he back handed
Louise so hard she fell to the ground. That was when he felt the
bullet pierce his shoulder.
Kid took the long way out to the station, the stars shining brightly above him as the moon lit up the prairie as if it were day. He'd always loved riding when the moon was full like this and the sky clear. It never ceased to help him put things into perspective and clear his head, which is why he was taking the long way around to the old way station.
Dinner had been delicious but strained as Laura's parents dropped thinly veiled comments throughout dinner regarding his relationship with Lou. After dinner had almost been worse. He and Laura had walked around town ending up at his rooms where she insisted on being alone together. Well, Laura's idea of what they did when alone was very different from Kid's. After prying her from him, he patiently explained his reasons for not consumating their relationship before they'd taken their vows. He never mentioned to her the awkwardness he felt when she touched him, nor the thoughts running through his head, both of which would have made the scene even more difficult than it had been. Laura raised another fuss when he let slip that he was going out to the station just to help put Lexi to bed like he had done most nights without her knowing.
"Are you going to see your son or are you really going to see your son's mother?" she'd asked him viciously. He still couldn't give her an answer even now.
Lou--she was the catalyst for everything. She was everywhere: in the town gossip, at the Wilson's dinner table, at the station, in his dreams, everywhere! Before she'd arrived, Kid had never noticed any of the myriad little things about Laura which perturbed him now. They'd been a happily engaged couple planning their wedding. All of a sudden Laura began to irritate him with her petty jealousy and insecurity, the way she went out of her way to insult Lou, the way she worried about her figure and appearance all the time. Sure, Lou had insecurities but she didn't advertise them or cling to them. She tried not to judge people without reason, but take each person on an individual basis. And Lou McCloud worry about her figure? She worked so hard that she couldn't keep weight on even if she tried. The fact that Lou had been a very physical kind of woman, her muscles lean and strong from hours in the saddle and hard work, had been one of the things Kid had loved about her. He remembered loving to just lie next to her and watch the muscles play beneath her skin as she stretched and moved in her sleep.
Why can't I get her out of my head?!
Kid was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of angry voices coming from the nearing waystation as he approached. Getting nearer, he made out the figures standing in the circle of light cast by the porch lanterns as Danny and Lou. The others were gathered on the bunkhouse porch watching the confrontation. Kid grew more concerned the closer he got, his blood boiling as he saw Lou's blouse was half unbuttoned and Danny's clothes were askew. He'd just come up to the corral when he saw Lou slug Danny in the jaw, her right cross landing hard and true. Kid was close enough to see the dangerous light in Keaggy's eyes and read his intentions.
"Lou!" he shouted in warning. His pistol cleared the holster even as the tall man's head came up, the gun going off in time with the sound of Danny hitting Lou. Kid watched in satisfaction as the bullet found its home in Danny's shoulder and the man fell to the ground beside Louise's prone body.
In a flash, Kid was off Katy's back and grabbing Danny none too gently by his shirtfront. He shoved the wounded man backwards toward the bunkhouse and held him up against a porch post, his face mere inches from Keaggy's. "What the hell do you think you're doin' touchin' her like that?" he growled.
"It's no business of yours, Travis," Danny spit out, unwisely.
Kid growled again, reaching for Keaggy's throat.
Lou sat up gingerly, tasting blood in her mouth from Danny's hit. She thought she'd heard a gunshot, but couldn't be sure. Her head was killing her but fear overcame the pain as she saw Kid at Danny's throat, blood staining the sleeve of the redhead's white shirt. Lou scrambled to her feet wondering why no one was doing anything. A second later, she pushed up between the two men shoving Kid backwards with all her might, breaking the chokehold. "That's enough!" she yelled.
Kid staggered backwards from Lou's shove and glared at her as she stood between him and her abuser. He moved to continue the fight and she came up to stand under his nose. "Lou, get outta the way," he insisted.
"No, this ain't got nothin' to do with you, Kid," Lou said, her eyes narrowing. "Just bud out!"
Danny groaned and slumped to the ground, his shoulder feeling like it was on fire. Lou turned around at the sound, staring in horror at the blood stains stemming from the wound. She knew how lucky Danny was to still be alive considering Kid's accuracy. Her eyes were wide as she confronted Kid. "You shot him?" she asked in a small voice.
"He hit you!" Kid shouted defensively. "Looks like that ain't all he did either." He looked at the horror in her eyes and suddenly felt more than a little foolish. "Maybe I overreacted a little," Kid muttered peevishly, "but what'd ya want me to do? Let him force himself on you?!"
"Overreacted?!" Lou exclaimed, shoving at him again in her anger. "Ain't that the understatement of the year? YOU SHOT HIM!!" Her brown eyes glared death at him and a little part of her was gratified to see him hold his hands up nervously almost as if he were trying to placate her. "Who says he was forcin' himself on me? Maybe I was forcin' myself on him! Either way it don't matter to you. If I wanna let him strip me naked and paint me blue he can and you can't say a word to the contrary. You got no claims on me, Kid!"
Kid stood there for a moment wracking his brain for something to respond with, without dwelling on the image she'd painted. "Oh, yeah? Well, that...that is my baby in there and I don't want that bastard anywhere near him," he ground out between clenched jaws.
"I should never have come back," she said. Lou turned on her heel and began to walk away. How dare he make demands as if he were her husband or something! If she hadn't been thinking about him none of this would've happened.
She got two steps away when Kid grabbed her elbow and dragged her around to face him. "Don't walk away from me!" he said angrily. "But then that's what you're good at ain't it?"
"Don't you dare touch me!" Lou shot back viciously. Suddenly a wave of dizziness washed over her and her knees gave out.
Kid caught her as she swayed, holding her up. The anger abated in an instant, replaced by concern. Maybe she was hurt worse than she looked. "Lou?" he called. When she didn't respond, he swung her limp form up in his arms. She was conscious but barely. That was when he saw the blood matting the hair at the side of her head. Lou must've hit her head when she fell, Kid decided.
Lou felt herself lifted up into his arms and knew she should protest somehow, but the words failed her. She leaned her heavy feeling head against his shoulder as the dizziness continued to assault her. "So dizzy...." she mumbled.
"I gotcha, sweetheart," Kid replied heading toward the bunkhouse with her. He smiled slightly when she buried her face in the crook of his neck. "Let's get you inside and layin' down, okay?"
Rachel wouldn't let the others leave Danny outside, so they'd reluctantly helped him into the bunkhouse to dress the not-so-serious wound. None were too anxious to get between Kid and Lou at that moment anyway. She looked up worriedly to see Kid carrying Louise's slight form in his arms, a rueful smile on his face. "My God, what happened now?" Rachel asked.
Rachel's startled cry alerted her husband who turned his attention from the inside the bunkhouse to the man coming toward them with his burden. "Louise, sweetheart, can ya hear me?" Teaspoon asked, brushing a few fallen tendrils of hair out of her face to see her response. Lou nodded slightly and he sighed. "She's awake at least. What happned, son?"
"One minute she was yellin' at me like ya saw and the next she's fallin' over," Kid replied.
Teaspoon and Rachel followed him into the bunkhouse which was a veritable den of chaos. Lexi had been awakened by the gunshot and now screamed in fear while Noah hurried out the door to fetch the doctor from town and the others took their time digging Kid's bullet from Danny's arm.
Kid gently placed Lou on one of the lower bunks. He pulled off her shoes and tucked the blankets around her before moving away so Rachel could look at her.
Lou's jaw was already bruising and blood trickled from the slight gash in her cheek. She moaned as Rachel cleaned the cut and the spot where she'd hit her head.
Buck and Jimmy were tending to Danny and being none too gentle about it from the painful groans coming from the injured man. Getting frustrated, Jimmy tightened his grip on the wounded man's arm as Buck tied off the bandage with a jerk.
"I don't wanna hear another word outta you, Keaggy," Jimmy snarled. "I got half a mind to finish the job Kid started anyways, so I'd just shut up if I was you." Wisely, Danny gritted his jaw to keep the pain sound in.
Louise felt the burn of the soap, water, and alcohol Rachel was using to clean her wounds even through the fog that had filled her head. The room was spinning even though she knew she was lying down and she held her eyes tightly closed. She couldn't make out any of the conversations buzzing around her but Lou did hear the unmistakable sound of one of Lexi's full blown howls, loud enough to wake the dead in three states. She struggled to rise straining against the gentle hands trying to restrain her.
"Oh, no you don't young lady," Rachel said in a no business tone. "You're gonna lie right there."
The baby was still crying and, Louise felt sympathetic tears begin in her own eyes. He had to be so scared after hearing the gunfire. She opened her eyes slowly, amazed to see that the room had stopped its whirlwind motion and stretched out her hand for the baby Theresa held across the room. "Mama's here, baby," Lou murmured.
Theresa was trying to shush the wailing baby, but he wanted nothing of her and continued howling, adding to the confusion. Tessa tried bouncing the baby on her hip but it did no good. Ike tried to divert the little one's attention with one of his wooden rattles which didn't work. He wouldn't take a bottle either and kept crying, his little reddened face turning in Kid's direction where he was helping Rachel work. "You want Daddy, Lexi?" Tessa asked him with much more patience than a normal eleven-year-old. "Okay let's go see Daddy." She walked across the room, pointing at Kid as she murmured to the little boy. "See, there's Daddy."
As they approached, Kid pushed the night's incidents behind him, his heart instantly calming and gentling in the presence of his son, knowing that the baby would just pick up on his anger. "Hey, what's the matter, little guy?" he asked, keeping his voice level and soothing as he took his son from Tessa. "Mama can't hold you right now, but can I? Will you let me hold you, hmm?"
Lexi snuggled his head beneath Kid's chin, a thumb finding it's way into his little mouth as his cries turned to whimpers and then hiccups. Kid rubbed his back gently and sat at the foot of the bunk Lou rested on. "Ah, there's Daddy's good boy," he cooed, a proud smile lighting up his eyes. "Tell Mama, 'See we can do this,' huh, Alex?"
However, Louise had already passed into full unconsciousness and Kid cast a worried glance at Rachel. "We shouldn't be lettin' her sleep if she's got a concussion, should we?" he asked.
"I'm pretty sure it's not a concussion, Kid," Rachel soothed. "I just had Noah go after Doc just to be sure she won't need stitches or anythin'."
Teaspoon looked around the room as the confusion died down. He
glared at both Danny and Kid. "Now that everyone's calmed down a
bit and we don't have to worry 'bout anyone else bleedin' all over the
place," he said sarcastically, "Keaggy, Kid, outside now!"
