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grinned at him, and said, “How have you been? Still teaching hardheaded little know-it-alls, like I was, to ride?”
    He nodded, a twinkle in his dark eyes. “Yep. And chasing wimmen, too.” His eyebrows wriggled suggestively. “Got my eye on a comfy widow lady this time.” He smacked his lips. “By golly, but she's an armful. Demanding, too. Why, she's likely to plumb love me into my grave.” His mustache twitched. “You know that old saying, girl—there may be snow on the mountain, but there's still a fire in the furnace.”
    “A roaring fire where you're concerned,” Maria said tartly. She shook a finger at him. “I heard about you and that woman up at Shawnee Dick. You better take care, old man. Jim Madden has been keeping company with her for the past six months. And you know that Jim doesn't have red hair for nothing. Get him mad enough, and he's likely to take a scrawny old rooster like you apart—and in about ten seconds flat!”
    Acey waved a dismissing hand. “Don't you worry none. I ain't
serious
about the widow.”
    Maria snorted and rolled her eyes at Shelly. “He'll be seventy-three in June, and you'd think that at his age, he'd have learned some sense.”
    “Well at least I've got more sense than to spout gossip to the girl here on her first morning back,” he commented as he picked up his hat from the table and put it on his head with a flourish. “I got stock to see to. Don't have time to sit around and yammer.” He flashed Shelly a glance. “You grew up just fine, honey. Good to see you.” And strolled out the door with the rolling gait of a man who had spent most of his life in the saddle.
    Maria looked stricken, but Shelly laughed and put her arms around the older woman. “Nothing could make me feel more at home than listening to you two still squabbling—and about the same thing! Don't let him get you all ruffled—you know he does it on purpose.” For as long as Shelly could remember, Maria had always scolded Acey about his women, and she had suspected even then that he made up half the stories of his amatory exploits just to get a rise out of Maria. It still seemed to work.
    Maria smiled. “I know, but I can't help worrying about the old devil. He acts as if he's not a day over forty—he continues to train horses and work cattle—by himself most of the time, although a lot of the other ranchers try to keep an eye on him. He can still work rings around most men half his age, but I worry about him riding out in the hills by him-self—he just doesn't seem to realize that he is not a young man anymore. Accidents happen, and they are harder and more dangerous on someone his age. Nick volunteered to go with him last fall to gather cattle, and he came home exhausted—said Acey might be old and he might move slower these days, but he
keeps
moving. It took Nick a week to recover from the pace Acey set, and he's only thirty!”
    The conversation became more general, but it was several minutes later when both women were seated at the oak table that Acey had vacated before Shelly was finally able to ask the question that had been uppermost in her mind.
    “Why, Maria? Why did Josh do it?”
    Her dark eyes full of sadness, Maria shook her head. “I do not know,
chica.
I have asked myself that same question a dozen times, but I cannot come up with an answer.”
    “Did he seem different? Did he say anything to you that day that seemed odd, something that seemed out of place, anything that might have been a clue to what he planned to do?”
    “No. The afternoon it happened…” Her voice faltered, then picked up. “He pinched my cheek before he left for the barn to saddle his horse—you remember how he used to do. He said that he wanted to get away for a while—and that he wanted a heart attack on a plate for dinner—steak, French fries, and apple pie with ice cream for dessert.” Her eyes filled. “I cannot believe that he is gone.”
    They were silent for several minutes as they