Chapter 32

The Friday that Belle and Connie departed for Santa Fe, August 31, 1877, Charles Howard was finishing his last full week as a district judge. He didn’t know it at the time, but Howard’s life was about to plummet into a downward spiral of his own doing that would culminate in his death at the hands of a firing squad a few weeks in the future. How did I know this? I knew it for a fact when I had lunch with Matt Faulkner. During our meal, he informed me that Howard had ordered him to arrest two Mexican men from San Elizario, who were trying to organize a wagon convoy to gather salt from the disputed flats.

“What did you tell him?” I asked.

“I told him that organizing a convoy wasn’t a crime, and that the enforcement of his disputed claim was a matter for the civil courts. He told me to go to hell, and said he’d arrest them himself,” Faulkner replied.

I nodded and told him I agreed, then I sat there and thought about whether I should try to stop the chain of events leading to Howard’s death, or let events play themselves out as they were scheduled. In the end, I didn’t say anything to the sheriff, because I had a feeling that nothing I could do would prevent Howard from dying. Oh, I could probably delay his death or even change how it happened, but I somehow knew that the judge’s demise was written in stone. It might have been cold blooded, but in my mind, I felt Howard needed to be dead anyway, because he was one rotten SOB.

George Howard deserved the same, and I was fated to ensure it happened. My strong feeling about the historical necessity for the Howards to die made me think about my own situation. I mean if it was fruitless for me to try to prevent the Howards from dying because it was necessary for the flow of time, was it necessary that Tyler Ringo McGuinn die also? As soon as I completed whatever tasks I needed to set the future right, would I suddenly drop dead? That thought more than any other convinced me that I needed to enjoy the hell out of every day that I was given here, just in case.

I didn’t have a chance to visit Feleena that Friday. I just had too much to do, what with Belle gallivanting around in Santa Fe. It amazed me how much that woman was doing everyday as I tried to work off the list she’d given me. Taking care of Belle’s to-do list kept me from my afternoon siesta and the Toro was hopping that Friday, so by closing time, my ass was dragging.

I was off work and trudging home by one in the morning. You can bet your ass I was way more attentive during the trips between the saloon and home now. When I let myself into my room, a cute little redheaded Irish woman was already sleeping in my bed. I knew my sweetie Belle must have arranged for Molly to keep me company while she was gone. Was Belle a great woman, or what?

Belle must have left some pretty specific instructions for Molly, because at eight on Saturday morning, Molly woke me up my favorite way. I guess it was kind of appropriate when you think about it. I mean Molly came to my room and had her breakfast then I went to her kitchen and had mine. Tit for tat as they say.

That morning I stayed longer at Clem’s, as I let one of the women Mister Huang hired for the gent’s club give me a massage. Damn, she was majorly talented when it came to pounding a person’s muscles into jelly. Mister Huang said that he had already sent for another girl to replace Ling’s sister, Li Chen. Seems old Clem didn’t want his prospective bride to be kneading on other men, even if the massages were only therapeutic. I was highly disappointed by that, once I caught a gander of Li, because she was a little doll.

All relaxed and spiffed up, I walked over to Rosa’s to check on Feleena. This time Rosa immediately opened the front door of the cantina when I knocked. I stayed downstairs and visited with Rosa a few minutes. She fixed me up with a cup of coffee and told me Feleena had been hoping I’d visit her today.

That was pleasant news for me. I climbed the stairs with my coffee cup in my hand, rapped on Feleena’s door, and identified myself. Feleena told me to come on in. She was again propped up in the bed, with her back against the headboard. However, this time her hair was brushed out and she was wearing a silk dressing gown. It was obvious that she had prepared herself for my visit, based on Rosa’s earlier statement. Feleena, even with the purple and black bruises on her cheeks, was heartbreakingly beautiful. I think what did it for me was the way her eyes lit up when I walked into the room.

I bent over and kissed her forehead, then pulled my hand from behind my back and presented her with a nosegay of freshly cut daisies and daffodils. I’d stopped by the Saturday farmer’s market on the way over, and picked up the flowers.

Feleena made a big fuss over the flowers and sent me right back downstairs for something to put them in. When I returned with a vase, she carefully arranged the flowers in it and I sat it on the table by her bed.

“That was such a sweet surprise, Tyler. No one has ever given me flowers before,” she gushed.

“I don’t know why it would be such a big surprise, Feleena, you certainly know how much I care about you by now,” I replied.

She regarded me seriously for a moment, then gave me a sad little smile.

“You say that, yet you have all these other women,” she said ruefully.

I shrugged off her tone of voice and gave her an honest answer.

“Yes, I do, but that doesn’t affect the way I feel about you. It’s possible to love more than one person at a time, Feleena, the women in my life and I are living proof of that. You have a place with us, and I think you’d fit right in.”

Feleena had a bunch of questions about how our group relationship worked, and why there wasn’t any jealousy or bickering. The idea of everyone in the relationship being equal partners in it was completely alien to her. I answered her questions candidly and told her we were still working out the limits of our group as we went along.

She was very curious about the other women being together with each other, but I didn’t volunteer any information in that regard. All I told her was that no one was forced to do anything they didn’t want to do.

It was enjoyable spending time with this Feleena, but I still had things to do and people to see, so I stood up and told her I’d see her tomorrow. She said she’d like that very much. I was all set to kiss her cheek and head out, when she grabbed my hand.

“You’ve told me a number of times that you are attracted to me, but you’ve never even tried to kiss me,” she complained.

I fixed that oversight right then by pressing my lips gently to hers. Her lip was pretty much healed, but I still didn’t want to chance hurting her. What I intended to be a sweet but short kiss, became anything but, as Feleena moaned into my mouth and thrust her dainty little tongue between my lips. After about a minute, I reluctantly broke the kiss and stood up. Feleena eyed the bulge in the front of my pants and smiled in satisfaction.

“I’ll see you and your friend tomorrow, Señor Abogado,” she teased.

I took care of a couple of things at the new club before heading back to my room for my afternoon siesta. One of the items I worked on was meeting with the liquor distributor. The man assured me that he’d be able to supply me with a better quality product than the saloons used, because he had a partner in Austin that dealt in higher end spirits. He took my initial order and said he’d have it filled by Wednesday afternoon. That worked for me, because it was two days before our grand opening on Friday, the seventh of September.

Another item on my list was meeting with the Happy Hombres. I was happy as hell when they dragged in five other musicians with them. Four of the new men were going to be the Toro’s new house band. The final man was joining the hombres as a second horn player, to give them a fuller sound for the bigger venue. All I could think of was how good that second horn was going to sound on ‘Ring of Fire’.

I accidentally gave the new group its name when I asked the Hombres to have the new cats play a few licks. The leader of the new group’s eyes lit up at my innocent request.

“Sí señor, the Nuevo Gatos will be happy to play for you,” he said.

The new guys weren’t half bad, and would do okay down at the Toro. I asked them to play a set with us at the Toro that evening to help them get acclimated.

I was home in my cool dark room by two that afternoon. By two oh five, a naked Molly Dean was snuggled up against me. It was a tough life I lived, eh?

Sunday was uneventful, save for the teasing that Maria and Miranda gave me anytime no one was looking. By now, even when their parents were around, the two of them flirted with me. I was leery of them doing that at first, especially around Hector, but he didn’t seem to mind all that much. I asked Anna about that when we had a minute or two alone.

“Maria is grown now, Tyler, and capable of making her own decisions. Hector is a good and strong man, but he knows how it is with us Lopez women. He knows Maria is going to do pretty much as she wants, and he is glad that she seems to want those things with you. We all, Hector included, know what a good man you are.”

Damned if that last little bit didn’t almost choke me up. I grabbed Anna and gave her a big old hug for saying it. She felt just as good in my arms as she used to, and since she was a Lopez, she caused me to immediately become erect. I backed away from her quickly, embarrassed at my dick’s lack of restraint. Anna didn’t seem to mind my misbehaving johnson at all, as she just laughed and gave me ‘the look.’