There was one bed.But blankets and sheets had been delivered for someone to sleep on the floor.Randall was intent on Rafe taking the bed after that first day when he’d slept for several hours; Rafe was just as intent on sleeping thereafter on the floor.He damn well didn’t want any favors from Randall.
It was the third day before they exchanged any words.
It was Rafe who initiated it.“What in the hell does he think he’s doing?”
“Russ is careful,” Randall said.“He’s discovered I’m obviously a liar.He’ll check everything before he decides what to do.You won’t find a fairer man.”
Rafe grimaced, thinking of his first encounter.He felt as if he were going crazy, waiting on someone else’s moves.He wondered whether he’d made a mistake coming here.
Randall watched him carefully.“Take care of Shea for me,” he finally said.“Take care of the Circle R.”
“I don’t want anything from you.”
“It’s not for you.I know there’s nothing I can ever do to compensate you.But do this for Shea.She so obviously loves you, and the Circle R can give you a beginning.I’ll never come back, if that’s what you want.The deed is yours.No conditions.”He gave Rafe a wry smile.“I suppose you have the money to pay the notes.”
Rafe turned away from the plea in his face.“It’s up at the valley, in a hole in the stable.I didn’t want to lose it in case the wrong people found us.But it’s yours … and Shea’s.And I might well be in prison with you.”
“I don’t think so.Russ will do his damndest for you.He’ll help you with the Circle R.”
Rafe looked at him with startled amazement.“Why?”
Randall shrugged.“After eight years I know him.He’ll feel guilty about what happened in Casey Springs.”
“I don’t want pity,” Rafe said in a voice much like a growl.
“He won’t give you any.It’s a matter of justice to him, like sending me to prison will be.He didn’t particularly care for the way you went about obtaining your justice, but he understood it, and I sure as hell don’t plan to press charges against you.I take it I’m the only one you stole from?”
Rafe nodded.
“Think about it, about the Circle R,” Randall pleaded.
“I think about Shea tied to a man who’s forever marked as a thief,” Rafe said.“She deserves more than that.”
Randall winced.“Once everyone in this valley knows what happened, they won’t give a damn.It will be a badge of honor, so to speak.A war hero unjustly treated.I’ll be the dishonorable one, the one who disappointed them.”
Rafe leaned against the wall, wishing he didn’t feel sorry for the man, but he did.A little.“They’ll forget.”
Randall shook his head.“No.I fooled them, and that’s one thing they won’t forgive.”He swallowed hard, and Rafe saw a wetness in his eyes.“I have no right to ask you, I know that, but Shea obviously loves you.Don’t let what you feel about me hurt her.People here will give you a chance once they know what happened.Take the Circle R.Make it into what it can be.”
Rafe hesitated.He didn’t want anything of Randall’s, but if what the man said was true, if the people in this valley could forget about the brand, accept him and Shea …
But what if he was wrong?What if Shea would wear the double burden of a father in prison and a husband who was an ex-convict and outlaw?
What if he did go back to prison himself?
“Just consider it,” Randall repeated.“Please.”
Rafe stood there.“I’m giving the money to Shea, all of it.She can do whatever she wants.”
“I know what she wants,” Randall said.“And she has all the signs of being as stubborn as her mother.”
“Her mother left you,” Rafe said pointedly.
“I drove her to it,” Randall said.“You’re a good man, Tyler.You always were.I think that’s why I went along with McClary.I was jealous of you.You were everything I wanted to be: brave, a natural leader, so damned honorable.You’re everything Sara wanted me to be, the kind of man I want for Shea.Even if she … never wants to see me again.”Randall’s last words were almost strangled, and he turned to the wall.
Rafe turned away to give Randall privacy.He realized how much courage it had taken for Randall to say what he said.He didn’t know, however, that he agreed with him, that he, Rafe, could ever be good for Shea.
So he was silent, wondering at the sudden empathy he felt for the man he’d hated so long.
