Ask No Tomorrows (7 page)

“‘
Course you will, you’re not gonna let me fight this thing
alone.” Riley whipped about with a smile on her lips. “You’re too
much of a gentleman to do that.”

“
Gentleman? I’ve been called a lot of things, but not that.
Look, Riley, I’m a black man and black men and white
women…well…it’s not a good idea if you intend to live.”

Nodog whined
and eyed them.

“
You’ll do just fine by yourself.” Sam winked at the dog. Nodog
flopped his tail. “You seem perfectly capable of taking care of
yourself, Riley. So go on, take my horse, and get yourself to
Dallas,” Sam instructed, trying to push her into some
action.

“
Why you fightin’ this so hard, Sam?”

“
Fightin’ what so hard?” He whipped about to face
her.

“
Me!”

“‘
Cause I don’t want to get my fool head blown off, that’s why,”
Sam admitted. “Unlike you, I’m partial to my life.”

“
Is
that the only reason?” Riley’s voice softened and she
smiled.

“
Leave it alone, Riley.” Sam gestured with his
hands.

“
I
knew it. And I feel the same way, Sam…” Riley came closer now.
“Just as curious as you are about it.”

Sam felt
cornered. “Look Riley, it ain’t gonna work. So let’s don’t even
consider…”

“
Consider what? That we’re attracted to each other…” Riley’s
smile broadened as she stood very close. “It’s the truth, the gosh
awful truth. My daddy would turn over in his grave, but that’s just
the way it is sometimes. You can’t fight nature.”

On one hand he
wanted to haul her into his arms and kiss the devil out of her, and
on the other hand he wanted to get on his horse and ride as fast
and as hard as he could away from her. She was trouble no matter
how he looked at it.

“
There is absolutely nothing natural about you and me. We’ll
not talk of that ever again, understood?” he asked.

“
Not until you’re more comfortable with the idea at least,”
Riley said.

“
Comfortable? I’ll never be comfortable with that,” Sam
rasped.

“
But it’s there, isn’t it Sam…” she whispered, her finger
reaching up to touch his lips.

“
Stop that.” He moved away.

“
Maybe if you kissed me once, we’d get the curiosity of it out
of our way and could forget it,” Riley tempted.

For a minute
he stared at her long and hard, his glance falling on her pink
lips. If he shocked her enough would she shut up about it? If he
pursued her would she run?

“
Maybe we couldn’t…” he muttered.

“
Couldn’t what?”

“
Forget it.” He swallowed hard.

“
Wanna find out?” she murmured.

“
No, now mount up and let’s get out of here,” Sam instructed.
“Wait…there is a way…come here.”

She walked
closer to him.

“
We
put that hair up and keep it up, dirty your face a little and keep
those clothes about you, you could pass for a boy. We could even
cut that hair off like a boy.”

“
That’s a dandy idea, Sam…” She smiled up at him. “I knew you’d
come up with somethin’. Must be those Indians you were raised with.
Thanks Sam…” And before he knew what she was up to she tiptoed and
kissed him lightly on the cheek.

Sam stood rock
still and let the softness of her spill over him. For only a moment
he let the kiss linger, then he jerked her away none to
gently.

She smiled. “I
knew it. You liked it.”

“
Don’t ever do that again…” He grabbed her arms and shook her a
minute. She stared up at him with startled eyes.

“
But why not Sam…you’d never make such a fuss unless you liked
it.”

For a split
second he wanted to haul her back into his arms and finish what she
started, but good sense prevailed. “Because from now on you are a
boy. It’s for your own good, you understand?”

She seemed to
think about that and smiled. “Alright.”

She braided
her hair and then shoved it under her hat as he smeared dirt on her
face. When her eyes clouded with tears he backed off, not saying a
word.

She mounted
and looked down into his big frown. “You’re sweet on me Sam, and I
know it, and one day we’ll just have to put it to the test.” Riley
smiled at him, still holding the tears back.

“
Well, this ain’t gonna be the day.” He turned away and refused
her the privilege of seeing his smile.

“
Maybe not, but it’s gonna happen Sam, and you know it as well
as I do…” she boasted. “Well, are you comin’ or not?”

“
I
want to put Nodog up in your lap for a while; he needs to heal good
before he tries to walk very far.”

“
Good idea.”

He turned to
look at her and gritted his teeth. Then he hauled Nodog to her lap
and mounted himself up in the saddle behind her. His arms went
around her instantly and he felt her indrawn breath. He smelled the
sweet lilac of her hair, felt the heat rising between them and
tried not to think about what kissing her would do to him, but it
was impossible. She’d barely touched her lips to his cheek and he
knew he wanted more. But he was the man, the one in charge and he
had to keep his distance, somehow. Once the idea was planted, he
couldn’t quite get it out of his mind. It would be pure misery
riding with her anywhere, he decided as he took the reins from her
hands and headed east.

She relaxed
against him, fitting herself closer and leaning her head almost on
his shoulder. He stopped. If anyone spotted them now they’d have no
trouble at all figuring out she was a woman, in his
arms.

Unfortunately
he was right, it was pure agony being this close with his arms
around her and feeling her body moving in a rhythm with his and the
horse. He quickly jumped down.

“
What’s wrong?” she asked.

“
I’ll ride the front, you just hold on.” He grimaced. “Better
yet, I’ll just walk a while. With Nodog in my lap there just isn’t
room.”

She smiled
sweetly. “Just a matter of time,” she said under her
breath.

“
You flirt with all men so outrageously?” he asked.

“
As
a matter of fact, I don’t flirt at all. Just seems to come natural
with you though.” She chuckled.

“
I
ought to marry you for the money, myself…” Sam grumbled.

“
Mm…now there’s a thought.” She laughed. “If we were married we
could…”

“
I’m beginning to think Harry is right, you
are
crazy,” Sam muttered.

“
That’s the meanest thing you ever said to me, Sam.”

Sam glanced up
at her. “Instead of diggin’ your heels in at me, maybe you ought to
be thinking about what you’re gonna say to them lawyers. And start
acting like a boy, Riley. At least you got a name that sounds more
like a boy than a girl. You just remember who you are and what you
are and everything will be okay.”

The light in
her eyes went out and she nodded. “You’re right Sam.” She looked at
Nodog. “Nodog, Sam is a hard man to figure, but I got plenty of
time.”

Nodog licked
her hand and wagged his tail against the saddle horn as he snuggled
against her.

Chapter Five

Sam glanced at
Riley out of the corner of his eye; she’d been silent for a long
while now and he wasn’t sure why.

They’d
traveled by night, and Sam walked alongside her and the horse for a
long while. Halfway through the night, Nodog had enough of riding
and jumped down. He sniffed the trial, and then left a weaving
trail alongside of Sam.

“
Why you so quiet?” he finally asked, unable to tolerate her
silence.

“
Been wonderin’,” she answered.

“
Oh, what?” Sam asked, not looking at her now.

“
How do I go about being a boy?” she asked. “I mean, it ain’t
natural, and I couldn’t do much of a job for my father when he
expected it. So tell me…how do I go about it?”

Sam shrugged.
He peered up at her and nodded. “Well, let’s see. You shouldn’t
ought to smile too much. Boy’s growin’ into manhood don’t smile
much, they take life too seriously. And…you should learn to spit,
boys are always spitting…”

“
Spitting?” She sounded a little shocked. “Really? I never
noticed. But okay, I can spit.”

“
Let’s see.” He stopped the horse.

She spit down
at the ground. It splattered everywhere.

“
Nah…that ain’t no way to spit. You gather it in your mouth
with your tongue and aim it and spit hard, so it don’t splatter,
more like your aimin’ to hit somethin’ with it,” Sam said and
demonstrated.

She shrugged.
“Okay…yeah, I can do that.”

“
Try it,” he offered.

She slathered
it and looked at the ground, and aimed it at a rock. She hit it,
and Sam laughed out loud. “That was pretty good.”

“
You do it enough.” She shook her head. “What about up here?”
She raised her hand to her breast. “Not that I got that much to
hide, mind you, but it could become noticeable.”

Sam looked
away. “We’ll do something about that as soon as we can. It ain’t
like it’s real noticeable anyway. In the meantime, keep your shirt
loose, so it’s not a problem.”

“
Oh…okay…And exactly how is my being a boy gonna benefit me or
us?” she asked, as Sam put Nodog in her lap. “Well, anyone sees you
with me, I can explain it easier. They hung your pa from a tree and
I found you, wandering around on the prairie. People can accept
such stories. But they’d never accept a white woman travelin’ with
a black man. For any reason.”

“
Good point. That’s good thinking, Sam. Okay. I understand it
now.”

Satisfied, she
didn’t speak again for a long while.

Sam glanced up
at her and noticed she was nearly asleep in the saddle.

With a long
sigh, he got up behind her and held onto her as they moved at a
steady gait most of the night. He had time now to ponder why he was
doing this. How’d he get so tangled up with a white woman? Had he
completely lost his mind? He’d prided himself with using his head
most of the time, but this wasn’t a good idea and he knew it.
Still, she needed help. Unlike him, she had no training on taking
care of herself in a survival situation.

Nodog caught
scent of something and trailed off the beaten path for a while,
coming back with a whine.

“
Okay, have it your way, you stubborn dog.” Sam
laughed.

Nodog ran
ahead of them now. Sam smiled.

Sam knew the
reason he was helping Riley: she was just so darn vulnerable. Not
like most white women he knew either. She put no stock in color,
that was certain, and unusual. She lacked a certain amount of
confidence in herself, too. Why he didn’t know, she was nice
looking, he particularly liked her small frame and long dark hair,
and especially her angel eyes. Her smile and eyes was like peeking
into heaven, and even Sam couldn’t deny that. He’d never seen such
beautiful eyes as hers. She was also smart in some ways and a
little too gullible in other ways to be on her own.

He wondered
about her father and the mother she never spoke of.

It was times
like these that he realized exactly how many people he had as a
child to depend on. Grateful for Lee coming into his life, and
appreciative of Chase Rivers, he’d had a mountain of people
teaching him the things that would someday help him become a man.
And seeing his nature clearly, Burning Tree, the Shaman of the
tribe had taken Sam under his wing to teach him many more things;
like how to heal himself with the earth’s gifts, how to find food
when there was none, how to outwit his foe when he was outnumbered.
Sam had been a good student too. Being the only black man in the
tribe, he knew he might someday need all these things to
survive.

But Riley was
a mystery to him. This girl seemed so alone. He wondered why, but
he didn’t want her going it alone. There were bad people in the
world and they would eat her alive.

He wondered if
she got the ranch back, could she manage to keep it? How could they
have just taken it over from her? What kind of people was she
dealing with? Although, when he thought of George and John, he
realized they were part snake, and about as low down as a man could
get. He didn’t blame her for being scared, but still helping her
wasn’t going to be easy.

Chase Rivers
warned Sam not to fall prey for the weak, but Sam had a natural
soft heart and he couldn’t change that. Even though he’d been
laughed at many times for taking in poor creatures, he couldn’t let
them die. He’d been the one to take the stray wolf that was
crippled into the camp. Nursing it back to health, it had become
his constant companion. Lee kept trying to tell him he would never
stay, but Nodog did stay. Although Nodog healed, he never once left
Sam, the man who nurtured him back to health. He glanced down at
Nodog now, happily scouting out the distance for him.