“What’s so funny?”
“You are your father’s daughter. Always trying to figure out what people need, what’s going to bring them here, keep them here.”
“With cattle no longer being driven to the slaughter yards, towns are fading away. I don’t want Leighton to be one of them.”
“Do you ever think about leaving?”
“No. If I left, I’d be like you. Eventually I’d come back.”
“You could go away for a short while, just to see some of the sights.”
She smiled over at him. “I have your postcards.”
“It’s not the same, Faith. Standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon... it just takes your breath. Everywhere I went, I’d see something and wish you were there to see it with me.”
Knowing he’d thought about her while he was away touched her deeply. A part of her wished she’d been with him. When she’d awoken the morning after they’d kissed, in spite of her aching head and roiling stomach, she’d believed that something significant had changed between them, that more than their hearts had connected, that their souls had merged. She’d been filled with the promise of love and happiness. Until she’d discovered he was gone.
She’d been devastated by the news that he’d decided to move on, away from Leighton, away from her. Her pride had taken a blow, her heart a punch. He’d been a constant in her life—and he hadn’t even bothered to say good-bye. She couldn’t help but believe that her kissing him had prompted his departure. Hadn’t he told her it never should have happened?
But Cole Berringer had been more than willing to kiss her, so she’d compounded the first mistake with a second one, welcoming his courting of her. He’d spoken with her father, and Dallas had given Cole permission to visit with her in a nonbusinesslike manner. In his arms, she’d thought she might be able to forget about Rawley Cooper—but he’d always been there at the back of her mind, at the edge of her heart.
She watched the lantern light bobbing along over the ground with his strides. “So you thought about me while you were gone?”
“Every day.”
She’d thought about him nearly every minute. “Why didn’t you write to me?”
“I don’t know.” Regret laced his voice. “To be honest, I don’t even know any longer why I left.”
A peacefulness settled over her to have Rawley at her side. She was careful to keep enough distance between them that their hands wouldn’t touch, but it seemed his path wasn’t as straight as hers because every now and then his knuckles glided over hers, and a shiver of unexpected longing coursed through her. It had been ages since she’d found joy in the presence of a man, but it seemed natural to inhale Rawley’s scent and draw comfort from it. She had an urge to bury her nose against the soft flesh at his neck, feel the bristles along the underside of his jaw scraping along her forehead, catching on her hair.
The silence eased in around them, and she drew comfort from that as well, from acknowledging that with him, the quiet void didn’t need to be filled with forced conversation.
With a laugh, she quickened her pace. She could see the outline of the trees, hear the rush of the water. The river cut a serpentine path along the Leigh property. Farther down, her father had battled with her mother’s family over the rights to the water. Peace had come with an arranged marriage, and love had soon followed. She never tired of listening to her parents’ story. It had always given her hope that she’d find her own love. It had taken her a long while to understand everyone’s story was different, and not all of them ended happily.
At the edge of the river, she dropped the quilts to the ground. “Who’s going first?”
“Ladies always go first. Dallas taught me that.”
“No peeking!” she called out as she hurried over to the bushes lining the bank.
“I’m a gentleman,” he yelled back at her.
Strange, she thought as she began stripping down to her chemise and drawers, that she was doing something she’d never expected to do again—be comfortable with very few clothes on in the presence of a man. They said time healed all wounds. Perhaps after six years, hers were finally starting to cease their festering.
Chapter Eleven
What the hell had he been thinking to suggest this? He heard the bushes rustling and fought hard not to think about exactly what was causing that swishing of cloth hitting foliage. Instead he contemplated how much work needed to be done and how he was going to stay out on the range tomorrow, repairing fencing and moving cattle to areas with more grass and water, until he was dog-tired, too bone-weary to even offer to escort Faith home.
He didn’t know how it was possible that his feelings for her had deepened but they had. Watching her giving orders to the men and standing up to them had increased his respect and admiration for her. He’d fallen in love with a girl who had captured his heart because of her sweetness, but she had grown into a woman made of steel and spunk—but still the sweetness was there. He saw it when she interacted with her daughter, noticed it when she exhibited tenderness toward her parents. She was curious about the world but rooted to the land—the same land that spoke to something deep within his soul.
While traveling he’d worked a series of odd jobs, had always felt untethered until he took the foreman’s position in Wyoming—but still something had been missing. And that something was here: Faith.
The splash of water yanked him out of his reveries. Setting the lantern on a nearby rock, he laid out the quilts so they’d be waiting for them when they emerged from the water. After loosening a couple of buttons, he pulled his shirt over his head. He removed his gun belt—he’d put it on before leaving the house, never comfortable being without it—and set it carefully at the corner of one of the quilts. His boots soon joined it.
He walked to the edge of the river, the water lapping at his toes. In one quick but smooth movement, he shucked his Levi’s, tossed them onto a nearby bush, and dove into the flowing stream. When he burst through to the surface, Faith was only a few feet away, treading water. Most cowboys couldn’t swim, but Dallas had made sure Rawley learned how. When taking cattle across a river, a man never knew if an errant steer or a sudden gush of rushing water might knock him from his horse. Heading north, Rawley had encountered riverbanks lined with crosses.
And of course anything Rawley could do, Faith was determined to match.
