Chapter 14

When three days had gone by, and there was no call, Bob began to worry. It gave him time to think, though, about lots of things, not the least of them what Greasy Face had told him Dannie would want. He wished he could hear her say it ... somehow ... but he knew the old man was right. If things had been the other way around, he would have urged Dannie to find love again, and another father for Kyle, if he could.

By the time two more days had dragged on, and there was still no call, Bob resigned himself to having to deal with more loss. The sprouts of hope that had sprung up began to wilt. He told Rowdy to schedule him for something long and hard.

Rowdy had been furious that he’d missed all the excitement. When Crystal had told him all about it, he’d come to see Bob, but there hadn’t been much to talk about, at that point. It was a waiting game, and it looked like things weren’t going to go down the way Bob had begun to hope they would.

He was, in fact, in the process of digging a latrine at the line shack where, it was quite possible, he had become a father for the second time in his life, when one of the hands came tearing up on a lathered horse. Bob was digging with a shovel, the old fashioned way. There was a pile of lumber stacked nearby, brought out by wagon, that he planned to build the outhouse with when the pit was ready.

He heard the hoof beats, and recognized the urgency in them. When he saw the horse, he almost cursed.

“This had better be damned important,” he growled at the young ranch hand. “Rub that horse down right now!”

“Sorry, Boss, but Rowdy said for me to get you back to the ranch yesterday, and said I was fired if I didn’t.”

“What’s wrong?” asked Bob, stretching his back.

“Got no idea,” said the man, getting off his horse to take care of it. “He didn’t say. He just told me what I told you, and said where you’d be.”

He had to saddle Ranger. By the time he was done, the young cowboy had rubbed his mount down, and given him water, sparingly.

“You walk that horse back to the barn,” ordered Bob. He put on his hat, and mounted Ranger.

“Yessir,” said the cowboy, a little glumly.

Ranger was feeling feisty, and wanted to run, so Bob let him, for a mile or so. Then he pulled the big black down to a canter and went on. He’d gone two more miles when he saw dust up ahead.

It was Rowdy, and Dave and Linda Ronson were with him.

Both of them looked a little bedraggled, and Linda was favoring her buttocks, leaning from side to side to ease the discomfort. At least this time, she had the reins in her fingers. They stopped before Bob got to them, and Bob cantered to within yards before he pulled Ranger up.

“Didn’t expect to see you,” he said.

“I told that boy to get you back pronto,” growled Rowdy.

“He almost killed his horse trying to do just that,” said Bob.

“We owe you an apology,” said Linda Ronson suddenly.

“Beg your pardon?” Bob asked.

“We lost your number. The doctors kept wanting to do more and more tests. By the time Brenda started screaming, and we thought to call the Last Wish people to get your number again, she told them she was through with tests, and was coming back here.”

Dave Ronson took off his hat. He didn’t look mad, this time.

“I just loaded them up and we all came here,” he said. “We owe you a debt of gratitude. I’m sorry I punched you.”

“I don’t understand,” said Bob.

Linda got animated. “They don’t know why - they’ve never seen anything like this - but the doctors are all convinced that, when Brenda got pregnant, the hormones that produced started killing the tumor. It’s even smaller now, Bob! You saved our baby’s life, Bob!” She started sniffling.

Bob was thunderstruck. He had no idea how to respond.

“She’s back at the house,” said Dave. “She wants to see you.”

“She didn’t ride out with you?” Bob asked.

Rowdy snorted.

Linda looked injured. “A girl in her condition? Riding around on a horse? Bumping along? I wouldn’t hear of it!”

Bob thought about how Dannie had ridden regularly until she was seven months pregnant with Kyle. Then, the only reason she stopped was because her belly stuck out so far that it rubbed the saddle horn uncomfortably. He decided this wasn’t the time to educate Linda Ronson.

Now Bob did let Ranger run, for as long as he wanted to, which turned out to be almost all the way back. He left the Ronsons in Rowdy’s company, when they told him to go on ahead. It was pretty plain that they no longer had any objections to him ... seeing ... their daughter.

She was standing on the veranda, dressed again in a sundress.

He pulled up short, to avoid raising a cloud of dust around her. She watched, apparently placid, while he climbed down from his horse. His eyes drank her in. The sundress was held up by a strap that went around the back of her neck. The ends of that strap widened, to attach to the bodice, which supported her breasts, and showed them off at the same time. He saw the bumps of her nipples under the thin fabric.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t call you,” she said, her voice subdued. “Are you mad at me?”

Bob remembered the torment of each day that passed, while he waited for the call that never came.

“No,” he said. “I’m not mad at you.”

“I’m really pregnant,” she said. “They checked. My due date is March fifteenth. They said it was too early to tell whether it’s a boy or girl.”

“I’m glad,” said Bob, just enjoying looking at her.

“They also said that being pregnant is what made me get better.”

“I know,” he said. “Your parents told me.”

“They aren’t mad at you any more,” she said.

“I know that too.”

“Do they have a school here?” she asked.

“School?”

“You know,” she said seriously. “Teachers ... class rooms ... stuff like that.”

“I guess so,” he said. “I never really paid any attention.”

“I should probably finish school,” she said.

“Here?” he asked.

She nodded.

She seemed so sure of herself ... so confident. She fact she was going to have a baby didn’t faze her. He felt himself stiffen, inside his pants.

“What have you been doing?” she asked. “I can’t hug you and kiss you when you’re all filthy like that.” She sniffed. “You probably stink too.”

“I have to work,” he said. “It’s a ranch. There’s lots of work to be done.”

“There are other things you need to do on this ranch too,” she said. There was passion in her eyes. “But you need a shower first,” she said. She didn’t move, but her meaning was clear. Just in case, she said it out loud. “I’m very horny right now.”

“Your parents will be along pretty soon,” he said.

“I already told them I’m staying in your room tonight,” she said, as if she were only mentioning that the table cloth was cream, instead of white.

“You did, did you?” he asked, grinning.

“Uh huh,” she said. “I feel all dirty from the ride here. I think I need a shower too.”

“You don’t look dirty,” he said. “You look luscious.”

“You just want to ravish me again,” she said, her face completely serious.

“I confess,” he said, taking a step toward her. “And if you’re going to take a shower too, it doesn’t matter if I get that pretty dress all dirty.”

He swept her into his arms and kissed her hungrily. Her placid behavior vanished, and she became wild, pulling at him and grinding her body against his.

“I’m soooo horny,” she moaned, pulling him toward the door of the house.

He stopped, and she jerked as he stopped her too.

“What?” she moaned. “Come on, Bob!”

“We can’t do this if you haven’t agreed to marry me,” he said. “Are you going to marry me?”