Ruby (Come By Chance Mail Order Brides #1) - Juliet James

Author:Juliet James [James, Juliet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Squeaky Clean Western Romance
Published: 2014-08-14T22:00:00+00:00

19

It was getting near the middle of the afternoon when Matt heard a pair of horses galloping fast toward him. He looked up from the pothole he was mending on the main drive up to the house. It was Jed and Jethro Carmichael racing each other, wasting good horses like a pair of fools.

Ben and Toby were off working together at making sure the first of the log cabins would be serviceable enough to bring a bride to in the near future, and for a moment Matt wondered if the Carmichaels might have come looking for Ben to get some revenge, after the recent dust-up in the saloon.

Their race ended in near enough to a draw, and they pulled their sweating horses up hard to a full stop just a few yards from where Matt stood, working shirtless in the sun.

‘Afternoon, boys,’ he said, gauging their mood as he looked up at them from under his hat.

‘Howdy, Matt,’ said Jed as he dismounted. ‘Ben around?’

‘He’s not too far off. What’s doing?’

‘Guess he told you about what happened in town?’

‘He mentioned somethin’ about it. He gets all the fun, I reckon. Don’t suppose you’ve come all this way to let me have a turn?’

‘No, Matt,’ said Jed, holding his hands up in front of him and shaking his head slow and friendly-like. ‘We got no quarrel with you, or Ben neither. We just wanted to come by and offer our apologies to him, and let him know we’s harborin’ no grudges. Reckon I mighta had one drink too many on the day.’

‘Me too, Matt,’ called Jethro, still sitting up on his horse, which was blowing fit to bust. ‘Maybe even two too many, I reckon.’

‘That’s good o’ you boys, but from what I heard, it’s ol’ Wally you should be saving your apologies for. You coulda busted his head.’

‘We just come from Wally’s ranch, Matt. Took him over a fresh apple pie from our Ma. She said she weren’t feedin’ us no more until we said all our ’pologies to Ben and Wally both. It was darn difficult not to eat that pie on the way, we’s had no bite to eat all the day.’

‘Smart woman, your Ma. Beats me how she ended up with you two sometimes.’

‘Yessir, Matt, that’s what our Pa says, ain’t it Jethro? Reckons we both musta bin dropped on our fool heads when we was babies or somethin’.’

‘Reckon that’d just about explain it, Jed. Well, Im sure Ben will be happy to have me accept your apology, and I promise to pass it on. But just so’s you know, if it happens again, we decided you’ll have to deal with Toby and me next time, while Ben and Wally stand by and watch. And we won’t allow Toby no dinner until he’s dealt with you, and you know what he’s like about food.’

‘Sounds fair enough, Matt.’

‘Okay then, boys. We can’t have a good man like Wally getting around with a crack in his skull, he’s old enough and ugly enough just the way he is.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.