With Heart by Dorothy Garlock

Author:Dorothy Garlock [Garlock, Dorothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 1999-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Riding behind the horse herd, Johnny grimaced as the bay he was on turned sharply. The animal had been trained as a cutting horse and knew without the slightest move from the man on his back that his job was to keep the herd bunched. Sore ribs and a crowded mind had kept Johnny awake most of the night.

The stock being driven back to the McCabe ranch was in two groups traveling about a mile apart. Johnny worked the horses and McCabe the steers. It was a warm, still October day. The dark sky in the west promised rain or a dust storm. Johnny hoped that it was rain lurking in the clouds.

Barker Fleming had been at the stockyard when Johnny and Keith arrived at daylight. Johnny had ignored him, but Keith had welcomed the help he offered.

“What’s he butterin’ you up for?” Johnny asked while saddling his horse.

“He thinks I’m pretty.”

“Go to hell.”

“Cheer up, son. You’ve got an extra man to help. You can sleep in the saddle all the way to Vernon.”

After Barker had caught and saddled a skittish buckskin, Keith had made the comment that he was a skilled horseman.

“Why wouldn’t he be?” Johnny had remarked sarcastically. “He’s an Indian, isn’t he?”

By midmorning, after Johnny had been in the saddle for more than four hours, he felt as if he had been kicked in the back by a steer. It was not unusual for him to be sore for a week after a rodeo. His aches and pains had not, however, kept his mind off the evening he had spent with Kathleen. He had played over in his mind every word they had exchanged, every touch. That she had returned his kiss and one time had even initiated it, was still a wonder to him. He could close his eyes and smell the lemony scent of her hair as it swept across his face and feel her soft, seeking lips beneath his.

He groaned when he thought of his blundering words, and how she had reacted when she thought that he hadn’t wanted to be with her. He had thought of himself as a man who had been around a bit after the work he had done for the Bureau with Hod Dolan, but, compared to her, he was pure backwoods. He felt like a clod when she talked about some feller named Shakespeare who made up silly verses.

Kathleen wrote stories for the newspaper and for a magazine. Hell, he’d never read a book in his life. How would she feel about him if she knew that? They had nothing in common. For all he knew she hated horses, and he loved them. She lived in town and mixed with people who talked stock market and shares and things like that. His bank was in a milk can in the barn. He and Kathleen were as different as daylight and dark. He couldn’t allow himself to fall in love with her. If he did, he could look forward to a lifetime of misery.

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