Authors: Linda Bridey
Tags: #Romance, #Historical, #Victorian, #Western, #Historical Romance, #Westerns
Jack Samuels wiped sweat from his brow after sitting down the last pieces of firewood by the cookhouse. He’d been chopping wood for the cook stove. Hearing hoof beats coming up the lane, he moved out from behind the cookhouse to see who was arriving. His eyes widened when he saw that it was a woman wearing trousers.
He knew she must be Jamie’s friend Sammi, but he hadn’t met her yet. Smiling, he waved at her. “Hi, Sammi.”
Sammi smiled back at the handsome young man. “Hi, yourself. What’s your name?”
“Jack. I’m Dean’s oldest son,” Jack said. “You’ve caused quite a stir. Are you hungry? Lunch won’t be long.”
Sammi dismounted and said, “I could eat. Jamie says your food is great.”
Jack gave her a pleased smile. “I guess so since everyone eats it.”
“Now you’re being modest, Jack,” Sammi said.
As she came closer to him, Jack saw that Sammi was only slightly shorter than him. “You’re one tall drink of water,” he said appreciatively.
Sammi laughed. “That’s what they tell me.”
“Looks like they tell you right,” Jack said. “C’mon with me. Everyone will be over soon and then you can meet them all at once.”
Sammi followed him into the cookhouse and looked around. It was a bright place since there were several windows on either side, including the kitchen area. Sammi noticed how clean everything was and how orderly Jack kept the place.
“Nice cookhouse, Jack,” Sammi said.
Jack grinned at her compliment. “Thanks.”
“What smells so good?”
“Meatloaf,” Jack said.
Sammi sat at one of the tables near the kitchen and watched Jack work. He mashed potatoes and Sammi admired his strong arms. Corn on the cob went into a huge pot where water boiled. She was surprised at the kind of food he was making.
“Isn’t this the type of stuff you eat for supper?” she asked.
“Ha! If I don’t feed them like this at lunch, they eat twice as much at supper. This’ll stick with them longer,” Jack said. “Especially Luke and Uncle Seth. And me, too.”
“I guess that’s a good strategy,” Sammi said.
As if he’d heard his name, Seth came into the cookhouse. Spying Sammi he smiled and said, “Well, there’s our lady deputy turned bouncer.”
She smiled back at him. “Yeah, that’s me. How are you?”
“I’m good. Seems like you’ve had a busy time of it since you came to town,” Seth said as he sat down.
“I sure have,” Sammi agreed.
“You certainly made short work of Slim last night,” Seth said. “He won’t mess with you again.”
“That’s the idea,” Sammi said.
“Jack, how long ‘til we eat?” Seth asked his nephew. “I’m starving.”
Jack snorted. “You’re always hungry.”
“Look who’s talkin’.”
“I’m still growing, what’s your excuse?” Jack retorted.
Sammi laughed and Seth frowned at her. “Don’t encourage him.” Then Seth laughed. “I sounded like Dean. He’s always telling the rest of us that.”
“Pa needs to loosen up a little,” Jack said.
“Shh. You better watch your mouth, Jack before he comes in here,” Seth said.
“You know it’s true,” Jack said. “He’s wound too tight most of the time.”
Seth looked at Sammi and said, “He’s right. Dean is too serious sometimes.”
“His wife needs to work on that then,” Sammi said.
Seth burst out laughing and Jack blushed. “That’s not something I want to hear about,” Jack said.
“Sorry, Jack. I sometimes don’t think before I say something,” Sammi said.
Marcus came in and Jack said, “Out!” and pointed at the door.
“I just got here,” Marcus protested.
Sammi’s eyes widened as she got a load of Marcus in nothing but a loin cloth. She knew he was married but didn’t pass up the chance to admire him anyway.
“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, you’re not gonna eat in here when you’re almost naked. It’s creepy. Go change or you don’t eat,” Jack said adamantly.
“Fine!” Marcus yelled and went back out the door.
Seth and Sammi tried not to laugh but lost the battle. Jack had his back to them but his shoulders shook with laughter.
Soon a lot more people poured into the cookhouse. As they got seated, Seth introduced Sammi to everyone who didn’t know her.
Tessa pounced on her. “I’d love to write an article on you, Sammi.”
“On me? Why?”
Tessa’s eyes were alive with excitement as she answered. “You single-handedly saved Jake from being murdered, beat up Slim and hauled him out of the saloon and settled a squabble, too. It’s fascinating to me that a woman could do all that.”
Sammi smiled. “You call it fascinating; I call it doing my job.”
“Spoken like a true member of law enforcement,” Marcus said.
“Except I’m not,” Sammi said with a frown. “The whole deputy thing was a misunderstanding, but I gotta say that I really liked it.”
Dean said, “Sounds to me like working for Jake is a good fit. Being a bouncer is sort of like being an officer.”
“I agree,” Sammi said. “I get to bust heads and shoot people if I need to, so that’s fine with me.”
Jamie laughed. “That’s my Sammi. You should see her throw knives.”
“Oh?” Marcus said. “I’d be really interested in seeing that and I’m sure my Lakota brothers would be, too.”
“Nah, I wouldn’t want to show all of you up,” Sammi said with a challenging look at Marcus.
“Are you willing to make a bet?” Marcus asked with a grin.
“I am. See if they are,” Sammi said.
“You can ask them yourself. I’ll take you to the camp whenever you want,” Marcus said.
“I’d love that. Jamie’s told me all about Black Dog and He Who’s Slow,” Sammi said and everyone laughed.
Marcus said, “You’d better not call them that to their faces until they know you better.”
Seth said, “Yeah, well if He Who Runs doesn’t stop picking on my bad leg, I’m gonna shoot him.”
Sammi said, “What?”
Seth said, “Once they get to know you a little better, they like to play pranks and wrestle with you. I don’t mind wrestling, but the last thing I need is to break that again.”
Marcus said, “I’ll talk to him again.”
Seth nodded. “Ok. So watch yourself, Sammi. They’ll get you when you least expect it. They come up behind you and you never know they’re there.”
“I can handle myself,” Sammi said.
Dean said, “Not against them. Not the way they fight. It’s not like you and I would fight. They’re sneaky and tricky.”
Marcus laughed. “There wasn’t anything sneaky about the day I kicked your ass. Tricky, yes, but not sneaky.”
Seth and Luke snickered and Dean gave them annoyed looks.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Sammi said.
“All right. Come and get it,” Jack said.
Sammi stayed seated until everyone else had their plates and then got hers. Seth took a huge bit of meatloaf. He chewed and swallowed. “Jack, that’s some fine meatloaf.”
“How would you know?” Dean said. “You barely tasted it.”
Seth ignored his brother and said, “So what did the Sheriff say about you working for Jake, Sammi?”
She shrugged. “He didn’t have a problem with it. We have an understanding.”
Jamie winked at Sammi, “I’ll just bet you do. How are things going with him, anyway?”
Sammi could have kicked Jamie when everyone turned to stare at her. “Um, fine,” she answered and sent Jamie an angry look.
Marcus watched the byplay between the two women and smiled, “You answered Mitch’s ad didn’t you?”
Sammi smiled even though she was annoyed with Jamie. “Yeah. I did.”
Seth chuckled. “No wonder you liked playing deputy so much.”
Sammi kicked him under the table.
“Ouch!” Seth jumped and banged his knee into the bottom of the table which was twice as painful. “Damn it.”
Sammi gave him a sweet smile and asked, “Was that your bad leg?”
“No,” Seth said giving her a scowl.
“Darn,” Sammi said which amused the rest of the gang.
Seth rubbed his leg and said, “Dang, you’re strong.”
“You had it coming,” Sammi said and took another bite of mashed potatoes.
Tessa said, “We had no idea that it was Mitch who had placed the advertisement. We knew that Marcus had another client, but he wouldn’t tell us who it was. Spoil sport.”
Marcus smiled. “I was sworn to secrecy. It wasn’t my place to say anything, nosey.”
Tessa threw kernel of corn at him.
“Mama!” Jack objected. “Don’t start that. You know what’ll happen. I have everything cleaned.”
“My apologies, Jack,” Tessa said.
“Ok. You’re forgiven,” Jack said.
Tessa noticed Dean watching her with a smile. “What?” she said.
“Nothing.”
Tessa narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t you say it.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Dean said.
“You didn’t have to,” Tessa said.
Jamie said, “Sammi, next to Seth, Tessa is the nosiest person I’ve ever met.”
“I am not,” Tessa said. “I’m merely curious.”
Luke laughed. “Yeah, ok.”
“Why are you picking on me?” Tessa asked.
“Because I can,” Luke answered as he sopped up gravy with a biscuit.
Sammi got a kick out of all of them. And since they were harassing each other, it distracted them from asking questions she didn’t want to answer. She smiled, but it wasn’t because of their antics. Sammi was thinking about what had happened between her and Mitch the previous night.
She began getting a little warm as she thought about his hands on her body and kissing him. Sammi had teased him about his gentlemanly side, but she liked it. He was also a good listener. She still couldn’t believe that she’d told Mitch the secret she’d carried with her ever since it happened. Not even her very best friends knew and she’d been friends with them for around five years. Yet she’d told Mitch after only knowing him a couple of days.
Mitch’s statement about her knowing she could trust him came back to her and she saw that he was right. Maybe it was because he was a sheriff or maybe it was just the way he looked at her with those warm brown eyes of his. Sammi didn’t know, but she did feel safe with Mitch.
Jamie nudged Sammi. “Hey, I’m talking to you.”
“Oh. Sorry,” Sammi said.
Dean said, “She’s thinkin’ about her lawman.”
Sammi laughed, “No, Grandpa, actually I was thinking about where I can buy a rifle. Mitch was going to take me to a shop but hasn’t gotten around to it yet. What did you say, Jamie?”
“I said that you have to come see our house,” Jamie repeated.
“I know. I’ll bet it’s beautiful,” Sammi said.
Luke nodded. “We’re enjoying it. We had a lot of help getting it done.”
Jamie kissed his cheek and said, “Yes. We are.”
Luke smiled.
Seth finished his meal and got up. “Well, I’d better go relieve my wife so she can come eat. Jack, thanks as always. Sammi good to see you again. You take care.”
“You, too, Seth,” Sammi said.
Jamie said, “Sammi, come with me and meet all the kids. Then Claire can come over, too.”
“Ok. ‘Bye, everyone,” Sammi said and followed Jamie from the cookhouse.