Patty's Gamble Read online

  “Archie is sweet,” Patty replied. “You can’t go wrong with him.” When she saw her pa come out of the mercantile, she rose to her feet. “I better go. I’m so excited you fancy Archie. I won’t say a word to him, but I’ll arrange for another square dance.”

  Jill stood up and stopped Patty before she could step around her. “He doesn’t have a child.”

  “None of the ranch hands do.”

  “Do you think he’ll want to marry a woman who has one?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  “Well, I know Boaz had a terrible time finding a woman who’d marry him because of his children.”

  “That’s because women do most of the work when it comes to children.” Patty’s situation was unique since her mother died, but she was well aware of how much work women did. “Archie would make a good father.”

  Giving Jill a wink, she hurried over to her father. The trip to town had proven to be far more beneficial than she ever imagined it’d be. She could think of no better match than Jill and Archie, especially after how kind Archie had been to her.

  Chapter Twelve

  The next evening, Greg sat down at the table when it was time for supper. If everything went according to plan, Patty would be running right back to her pa’s before the night was up.

  Patty came into the kitchen, carrying a couple of clean dishtowels. She paused when she saw him. After a moment, she asked, “Are you staying for supper?”

  “I thought I was, but it’s not in front of me,” Greg snapped, gesturing to the empty table in front of him.

  “Oh, well to be honest, I didn’t think you were coming in here tonight,” she replied as she placed the cloths next to the sink.

  “This is my house. I belong here.” Unlike some people. “So, where’s my supper?”

  “Coming right up!”

  Surprised by her cheerful tone, his eyebrows furrowed. Didn’t she notice the way he was talking down to her? Oh well. That was no bother. He had plenty of other tricks up his sleeve. As she rushed to grab the plates, he slouched in his chair and drummed his fingers on the table, sighing loudly. “Marv never makes me wait,” he muttered.

  “That’s because Marv feeds everyone,” she replied, “and you all need to get right back to work as soon as you’re done.”

  “That’s right. I need to get right back to work after I eat whatever slop you’re making. I hope you don’t plan to keep me waiting.”

  She turned to face him, fluttering her eyelashes in a way he thought was supposed to be adorable but only made him think there was a bug stuck in her eyes. “It might be fun to wait a little bit, if you know what I mean.”

  No. He honestly had no idea what she meant. Nor did he care to figure it out. “I want my food, woman.”

  She stopped blinking rapidly at him and turned back to the cook stove where she put the steak and potatoes on their plates. If she wasn’t expecting him, why did she insist on cooking such fancy food? Deep down, he knew the answer. Hope. She’d been hoping he would come.

  She set their plates and utensils on the table. Then she poured a cup of coffee for him. For herself, she chose milk. He waited until she sat down and took a bite of his steak before shaking his head and shoving the plate in her direction.

  “It’s not cooked well enough,” he said.

  “It’s medium well,” she replied.

  “I prefer it well-well, not medium well.”

  “Oh, alright.”

  With a smile, she picked up his plate and put the steak back in the skillet. While she cooked it, he drummed his fingers on the table again.

  She glanced over her shoulder. “It won’t be but a minute.”

  “I hope not. A man’s likely to starve to death with all this waiting.”

  Seemingly undisturbed by his irritable mood, she continued cooking it. When she was done, she put it back on his plate and set it in front of him. “There you go, sweetheart.”

  Sweetheart? This wouldn’t do. By the time this meal was over, ‘sweetheart’ was the last thing she would be calling him. He’d be lucky if she didn’t throw that skillet at his head. “It’s about time.” He grabbed the fork and poked a potato. He plopped it into his mouth and spit it out.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked, looking up from her plate.

  “I’ll say there is. These potatoes are cold.”

  “They’re warm.”

  “Maybe yours are warm, but mine are cold. Real cold. Heat them up,” he ordered, setting his hard gaze on her.

  She stared at him for a moment then sweetly said, “I’d be happy to.”

  She’d be happy to? Seriously? He stared in disbelief as she placed the potatoes in the skillet and fried them again. What was wrong with her? Why wasn’t she demanding he treat her with respect?

  Once she was done, she set the plate in front of him again then sat down. Giving no indication that she minded being interrupted twice, she dug back into her meal with surprising enthusiasm. He shook his head and decided to take a drink of his coffee, which he had to grudgingly admit was better than what Marv made.

  “You know, I was thinking it might be nice to go for a horse ride together through the fields,” she said. “We could even ride the same horse like we did on Sunday.”

  He almost spit out his coffee, and in the process of trying not to, he swallowed it too soon. He coughed and pushed the cup away from him. “You call this coffee?” he blurted out. “It tastes like you mixed dirt and water together.”

  “Don’t be silly,” she said and laughed. “I did no such thing.”

  “I don’t care if you did or not. That’s how it tastes.” He wiped his tongue on his shirt sleeve then cut into the steak. He took a big bite, once again surprised it actually tasted good. But he couldn’t let her know that. He spit it on the plate and grabbed her milk and gulped it down. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The steak is burnt.”

  “Burnt?”

  “There’s no moisture in it at all. It’s like you cooked it until it was as hard as a cow pie in the middle of a hot summer day.”

  “But you wanted it cooked ‘well-well done’,” she reminded him.

  Good. Maybe now she’d get upset with him and head back to her pa. “You should know the difference between ‘well-well done’ and ‘too hard to bite’ done. Even a dog wouldn’t eat this brick.”

  She sat silently for a long moment. He couldn’t decipher the emotion that crossed her face, and that disturbed him more than he wanted to admit. It never bode well for a man when the woman was eerily quiet.

  But then a smile lit up her face and she nodded. “You’re right, Greg.”

  “What?” he dumbly asked, not sure he was hearing right.

  “I did overcook it. I was just so excited that you were here. I promise I’ll do better next time.”

  “You’ll what?”

  She stood up and took his plate. “I can make you another steak and more fried potatoes if you like.”

  Was she serious? She would go through the hassle of cooking another steak and more potatoes after how rude he was? Maybe he wanted to get rid of her, but even he couldn’t tolerate putting her through that much work. With a shake of his head, he stood up. “I’m a busy man. I’ll just eat the pigs’ slop. Even that’s better than what you serve.”

  He gestured to the table, grunted, and headed on out of the kitchen. Once he was safely out of the house, he bent down and peered through the window to see what she’d do. Instead of ranting against him or throwing something across the room, she sat back down and quietly ate her meal. Afterwards, she calmly washed the dishes as if nothing bad had happened.

  Unbelievable. Standing up, he went down the porch steps, quiet so she wouldn’t hear him. He just didn’t understand her at all. Surely, there was some way he could get rid of her. But if she would willingly take that kind of treatment, he wasn’t sure what that something could possibly be.

  ***

 
Patty waited until Greg was off the porch before she laughed. If he thought she was going to give up that easily, he had another thing coming. She was much smarter than he gave her credit for. She knew exactly what he was doing, and thanks to the ranch hands, she knew why.

  Unfortunately, she couldn’t come right out and tell Greg that she wasn’t like his mother, that she wasn’t going to leave just because the demands of living on a ranch could be hard at times. Though why he didn’t already know that since she grew up on a ranch, she couldn’t understand. Given time, however, she had no doubt he would come to his senses.

  After she cleaned the dishes, she decided to decorate the house with the curtains and rugs her father helped her pick out. But after that, she had no idea what she could do, except ask Archie what he thought of having another square dance.

  She left the house and saw that everyone was busy. In fact, most of the ranch hands were surrounding Greg in a field a good distance away. The only reason she knew one of the men out there was Greg was because of the color of the shirt he’d been wearing that day. The others were impossible to make out from where she was standing.

  How she wished she could hop on a horse and ride out there to be a part of the action. But it wasn’t a woman’s place to meddle in men’s affairs, so she made do with going to the barn and seeing if Archie happened to be there.

  Not surprising, the barn was empty except for the horse Greg was having Boaz train. She went over to it and stroked its nose. “You’re not a bad steed,” she whispered as it nuzzled her hand. With a smile, she reached up and stroked its neck. “In fact, you’re a fine animal. I can see why Greg wants to keep you, even if you do give him a hard time. You have excellent breeding.”

  Had her horse not been in the pasture, she was sure it would have raised a hearty protest at all the attention she was giving the steed. On impulse, she went over to a sack hanging nearby on the wall and pulled out an apple. She returned to the horse and gave it the treat.

  “You want to hear something?” she asked as she continued to rub its neck. “Your owner is the one who needs training.” The horse snorted, and she laughed. “I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. He’s convincing himself that he’s better off without a wife. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous?”

  The horse let out a slight neigh in response.

  “You’re right. It’s the most absurd thing I’ve heard, too. But I won’t let that deter me. I got more than one trick up my sleeve. You don’t give up on someone when you know deep down, they really want to be with you.”

  The sound of a couple approaching horses caught her attention. She stopped petting the horse and listened. From the tone of their voices, she guessed something serious was going on.

  They probably wouldn’t tell her what that something was either. Most men had the silly notion of trying to protect women by not telling them any bad news. Greg was probably one of them. Finding the ladder, she climbed it and settled along the hay in the loft, making sure no one saw her.

  A few seconds later, she heard Archie say, “But who would want to take the cattle?”

  “Someone who wants money,” came Randy’s reply.

  “Well, it’s downright wrong for a man to do that,” Archie said.

  “Some men don’t care about right or wrong. They only care about getting what they want, no matter who gets hurt.”

  “I’ll tell you one thing. This man, or group of men, won’t be getting away with it. As soon as we figure out who’s stealing from the herd, we’ll have the marshal on his case so fast, he’ll be hollering like a little girl.”

  Patty rolled her eyes at the analogy. Not all women were weak or saw it fit to cry when things got rough. But there was no sense in telling them that. They’d only believe what they wanted to. She scooted to the edge of the loft in time to see Archie pulling the saddle off his horse.

  “We need to talk to Marv about getting some coffee for tonight,” Randy said.

  “Yep,” Archie agreed as he put the saddle away. “It wouldn’t do to fall asleep if that lowlife comes back.”

  Randy led the horse into the stall then grabbed hay to feed it. “It’s just our luck that Herb gets out of spending the night in the fields.”

  “Well, he’s a married man now. He has to get home to his wife.”

  “Lucky dog. He gets to spend the night in bed with a woman while we have to spend the night outside on the hard ground.”

  “If Greg was smart, he’d take tonight to do the same,” Archie said as he helped Randy feed the horses. “There’s no reason why he should be giving Patty a hard time.”

  Patty felt her face warm with pleasure. Archie was such a sweetheart.

  “After all the grief he’s given her, he should spend the night in the field,” Randy said. “It’d serve him right.”

  “To be fair, he did offer,” Marv said as he came into the barn with two bedrolls and two sacks. “Here’s the things you’ll need to get through the night.”

  “Thank, Marv,” Randy replied as they collected the items.

  “Maybe we ought to tell Patty some things she can do to get Greg to take a more active interest in her,” Archie said, tipping his hat back. “She seemed interested the other day when we were talking to Herb about how he gets to enjoy the bedroom.”

  “No doing,” Randy replied. “She’s a woman. It doesn’t seem right to tell her such things.”

  “Granted,” Archie began, “Greg should be doing it, but he won’t. She needs to use her feminine wiles to get his attention. You know, bat her eyelashes, let him glimpse her cleavage, show him some leg, brush against him—”

  “You think Greg’s going to give in if she does all that?” Randy asked.

  “Wouldn’t you?” Archie pointed out.

  “It’s true she’s a looker,” Marv agreed, “but you underestimate Greg. When he sets his mind on something, no one can change it.”

  “I bet Patty can.”

  Greg came into the barn, and Patty couldn’t recall a time when she’d seen him more upset. He hadn’t looked like that even when he married her—and that was saying something.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” Greg muttered. “You got any ideas who it could be?”

  Marv shrugged. “It could be anyone in the area.”

  Realizing they were talking about the cattle rustler, Patty wondered if anyone would suggest the possibility that the culprit might even be one of the ranch hands.

  But they didn’t. Instead, they talked about possible men in town they suspected as being up to no good. Patty couldn’t help but think it had to be Lyle. He seemed like the sort who’d stoop to such things. She didn’t know how they could miss it when it was so blatantly obvious.

  “Well whoever it is, we’ll catch him,” Greg said.

  “Yep,” Archie agreed. “Sooner or later, thieves make a mistake.”

  “They’d better make one fast,” Greg muttered.

  Marv nodded his agreement. “No one wants to see their things taken, especially not something as expensive as cattle.”

  Seeing that Greg, Marv, and Randy all had their backs turned to her, Patty got up on her knees and waved her hand to get Archie’s attention. As she hoped, he glanced up at her then blinked in surprise.

  “Um,” Archie began, quickly turning his gaze back to the men. “Randy and I ought to head right on out to the pasture, and there’s something I need to tend to real quick. I’ll be right out with you, Randy.”

  “I told you I didn’t mind doing it,” Greg said.

  “You got a pretty wife waiting for you,” Archie glanced back up at her, “somewhere.” He cleared his throat. “Now, go on and finish up making sure the fences are secure, so you can get to her.”

  “I’m so angry about the rustler I won’t even argue with you,” Greg muttered as he left.

  Patty waited for Randy and Marv to leave before she hurried down the ladder.

  “What on earth...?” Archie called out as she reache
d the bottom step. “How long have you been up there?”

  “Not long,” she said.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “I have some good news.”

  “I hope it’s not that you’ve fallen in love with me and want to leave Greg. I might find you pretty and all, but my first loyalty is to him.”

  Catching the teasing tone in his voice, she smiled. “I’d never leave Greg. You know that. No, what I have to talk to you about is having another square dance. Do you remember the ladies who came out here?”

  “Sure do. If it weren’t for them, the evening wouldn’t have been any fun.”

  “Well, as it turns out,” Patty said with a very pleased smile on her face as she clasped her hands behind her back, “one of them has taken a liking to you.”

  “No kidding?” he asked, a spark of interest in his voice.

  “No kidding.”

  He smiled but then frowned. “She was single, wasn’t she?”

  Patty giggled. “Of course, she was. I wouldn’t tell you it was good news if she wasn’t. But I promised her I wouldn’t say which one she was. She was rather shy about admitting it.”

  “I love a good mystery.” He clapped his hands together and grinned. “I’ll have to pay close attention to all the single young ladies you bring back.”

  “That’s what I was thinking. Then you two can get a better chance to know each other. Do a little talking and a little dancing. What do you think?”

  “I say it’s a good idea. Heck, it’s better than good. It’s the best one I heard all day, and I’m not just saying that because I’ll get a chance to figure out who likes me.”

  Noting the large grin on his face, she chuckled. “Just be yourself, Archie, and I’m sure things will become obvious.”

  “I hope so. At any rate, it’ll be fun figuring out who it is. You know, I was dreading spending the night outside on the hard, cold, lumpy ground. But I’m not anymore. Not when I know a woman actually wants to be with me and isn’t twice my age.”

  “Twice your age?”

  “It’s not a pretty story. Her husband wouldn’t have been happy if he’d known. Don’t worry. Nothing happened.”