Emma's Blaze (Fires of Cricket Bend Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

forward, and tossed. The money was caught. No one breathed until the men counted the stack, nodded gravely, and made haste away from the brothers.
    Bill eased up and lowered his gun. “Someday you’re going to find yourself in a mess I won’t be around or able to get you out of.”
    “I’ve been in plenty of messes and gotten myself out just fine.”
    “Name one,” Bill challenged.
    Andrew’s head whirled around to see Bill. “You know, you’re not always right. Just because you’re oldest, and ’cause Pa likes you best, doesn’t make you better than us.”
    “Never said I was better,” Bill replied. Then he laughed. “Smarter, though…”
    He turned Orion and rode back the way he’d come. “Let’s put as much distance as we can between us and them before it gets dark,” Bill said. “We can camp, leave at first light, and catch the others by tomorrow night.”
    When the sun went down, the brothers stopped riding.
    “I’ll make a fire,” Bill announced. “See if you can scare up some dinner.”
    “You trust me not to ride off?” Andrew asked.
    “No,” Bill said. “But I’m sick and tired of being in that damn saddle, which is your fault, so you can at least go hunt to say thank you.”
    To Andrew’s credit, he returned a while later with a rabbit. Bill skinned the animal and roasted it over the fire until it was ready to eat, and they split it. Neither of them spoke for a long time.
    The silence was fine with Bill, but he knew it was eating at Andrew. His brother grew twitchy, and fidgeted. “You didn’t happen to bring a shaving razor, did you?”
    “You know damn well I didn’t.” Bill pointed to his beard. All the mens’ beards had grown in. Who had time to shave on the trail? Andrew did, but he’d always been particular and had decided to spend time each day keeping himself clean-shaven. Each night before he slept, he took out a small mirror and a raw blade and made sure no hair was out of place. He also slicked back his hair and kept it combed, while the men around him resigned themselves to looking rough. From the way Andrew rubbed his jaw. Bill knew that it was driving him crazy to have stubble.
    Some men didn’t understand priorities.
    Andrew threw a handful of dirt at the fire. “Think Pete’ll ask Helena to marry him when he gets back?”
    “I think he’s a fool if he doesn’t. She’s a good woman, and she’s sure waited for him long enough. I reckon Jess will follow not long after. He’s taken a shine to Clara Belmont.”
    Andrew nodded. “She’s about the prettiest woman back there, I figure. And the way she looks at him, like she’d like to sneak off together and find a haystack somewhere. A man’d be a fool to resist her.”
    “But of course, you’re waiting for Lily up in Abilene.”
    Andrew leaned back on his elbows. “I do not believe I am the kind of man meant to be tied to one woman for my entire life. There are so many beauties in the world, after all. I mean to sample my share before I consider settling down.”
    “What kind of woman would have a rascal like you?” Bill teased, tossing the bones of the rabbit into the fire. “She’d spend her nights alone, wondering if you’d been shot for cheating at cards.”
    “But she’d never be bored,” Andrew said. He looked around him. “No, sir. She’d never be bored like this.”
    “I appreciate you coming along,” Bill said. “I know you don’t care for this.”
    “I hate every damn minute out here.”
    What could Bill say to that?
    “I ain’t likely returning to the ranch,” Andrew continued. “There’s too much world out there to spend another minute doing chores. I mean to stay in Abilene, and move on from there. After Lily maybe there’ll be a redhead in Tuscon. I hear it’s lively there.”
    At the mention of a redhead, Bill remembered Sparrow, or whatever her real name was, back at the drive with his men. He hoped she was all right. He assumed she would be. A woman like her,