Chapter Twenty
He was standing completely apart from everyone, leaning against an oak tree.
He was dressed from head to foot in store-bought clothes.
Candice could not believe what she was seeing, the transformation.
A spotless, brand-new black Stetson, a white cotton shirt, red bandana, and black trousers tucked into spanking new black boots.
She looked at his face again. He was staring right at her.
The jolt took her breath away.
“Who is that?” McGraw was asking jealously.
Candice realized she was staring, and she quickly turned away, although she couldn’t stop seeing him in her mind’s eye.
She was about to tell Tim “No one,” but knew Jack’s identity would soon be known—and then Tim would think she was hiding something.
She bit her lip and found herself glancing at Jack again.
He hadn’t taken his eyes from her. She remembered his body stretched out on top of hers, his mouth hard, sucking and nipping and caressing hers, and she flamed.
“That’s Jack Savage, she said very softly.
McGraw whirled around, his eyes wide. “That breed?”
Candice had her hand on his arm, darting a nervous glance back at Jack. He had pushed himself away from the tree, watching them. “Tim, let it be. He saved my life. He has a right to be here too.”
“He sure as hell doesn’t,” Tim growled. “And I don’t like the way he’s looking at you.”
“If you make trouble, Tim,” Candice said, “I’ll never speak to you again.”
He stared, then clamped his mouth shut.
Candice led him away, trying not to look back.
Her heart was beating wildly. Why was he here?
Oh—how could he be so foolish? The High C hands would surely recognize him, even in his new clothes—and if they didn’t, Mark would, and he’d be sure to make trouble.
She gnawed on her lip and quickly looked around at the crowd.
No one was even looking at the man in black and white with the red scarf, standing by himself in the shade of the tree. But she couldn’t shake her uneasiness.
Why had he come?
“I can’t believe you’d stick up for him,” Tim said harshly.
“What? Tim, I’m so thirsty—could you please bring me some lemonade?
” She watched him stride off. Her hands were shaking.
She pulled out a linen handkerchief and blotted her face very delicately.
It was so hot. Still holding the linen to her face, she turned toward Jack and peered over the handkerchiefs white lace edge.
He didn’t smile, and he didn’t look away.
Down came the handkerchief, and Candice began biting her knuckle. He looked so lonely—and alone. So separate from the crowd of laughing friends. Not able to come any closer, watching from afar. And he was extraordinarily handsome.
Her heart twisted.
Tim returned with the lemonade, and Candice was quick to pretend to be inspecting a cut on her hand. She gave him a brilliant smile. “Thank you, Tim.” She took his arm and pulled him away.
Jack shoved his hands deeper in the pockets of his new trousers. The sun was moving, and the shadows around him were getting darker. Which was a good thing, because he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. He knew he should never have come.
All around him there was laughter and camaraderie.
It was something he had been very conscious of from the moment he’d arrived.
Just like now, alone under this tree, he was very conscious of being apart from it all.
The not-belonging was as old as he was, but the way he was feeling it today had never been so new.
Some of the women were dancing to a fiddler and a harmonica player.
Candice had been dancing in McGraw’s arms not too long ago, just the way he’d imagined, with laughter on her face, looking impossibly beautiful.
The jealousy he’d felt then, and the jealousy he was feeling now, was like a clamp around his chest.
Another man had joined her and McGraw, and they were all sharing a blanket and the shade of a tree.
Someone else, a third man, came up to her and asked her something—for a dance?
She gave him a wonderful smile while declining.
He imagined how it would feel to be on the receiving end of that smile.
Then he grew angry with himself for even thinking it, for doing this to himself, for being such a fool as to buy all these clothes and using the last of his cash. But he didn’t push away from the tree.
She was looking at him.
Jack was very much aware of his heart fluttering when she excused herself from her admirers and started walking toward him.
Perspiration gathered under the crown of his hat and beneath his arms. She couldn’t be coming this way.
She was looking at the ground, stopping to talk to a couple.
Laughing, darting him a glance, and breaking free.
She was coming to him. But it took her a small eternity.
“Hello … Mr. Savage.”
He tried to sound casual. It was hard, when he couldn’t even swallow. “Miss Candice.”
She stared at him—big navy eyes that he fell into. He shifted. “You look beautiful today.”
She blushed. “It’s just mourning gray.”
“I know.”
“I … I don’t know if you should be here.”
He felt anger, and his tone was sarcastic. “Don’t worry—I’m keeping my distance. You shouldn’t be here.”
She was wringing her hands. “I know, but …”
“But what?”
“You don’t have anyone to talk to. You haven’t even taken any food.”
“Don’t pity me.”
“I’m not!” Her eyes flashed. But, oh, she did—in a different way than she’d ever felt pity before. She longed to hold his face and smooth the lines of despair away, and make him smile. Just once, for a short time. She hadn’t been able to bear seeing him standing so alone beneath the tree.
He relaxed. She smiled, but he didn’t return it. His eyes searched hers unwaveringly. It made her skin tingle and flush. “Would you—would you like me to get you some food?”
“I’ve eaten.” Then he added, “Thank you.”
Candice bit her lip. The fiddler was playing, and they were all talked out. But she didn’t want to leave him, not just yet. They stood in an awkward silence for a few minutes more.
“You’re a good dancer,” Jack said unexpectedly His mind was on McGraw. He wanted to ask her what their relationship was.
She smiled radiantly. “Do you want to dance?”
He went stiff. His heart was beating too hard. For a minute he couldn’t say a thing. Then: “I don’t know how.”
Her face fell, but only for a moment. She reached out and took his hand. “I’ll teach you,” she said.
When he didn’t answer she moved closer, taking one of his hands and putting it on her tiny waist. She took his other hand in hers. Jack was assaulted by the fragrance of her, the feel and closeness of her. It was almost too much.
“It’s very easy,” she said, smiling.
“I might step on your feet.”
“I don’t mind. I hope those handsome new boots don’t hurt your toes.”
“They don’t,” he lied. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered—except her.
“Two steps and a skip,” Candice said. “Follow me. One-two-skip!”
He was worse than a lumbering ox, filled with self-consciousness and unable to think about much, other than her. He took two steps and a skip; she laughed. It wasn’t laughter at his effort, but a happy tinkle of sound. One, two, skip … one, two, skip … Jack kept his eyes on his feet.
“You’re doing wonderfully,” Candice said, looking at his brow as he bent his head to watch his steps. “But you don’t need to look at your feet. Look at me.”
He did.
And he promptly stepped on her foot.
“Oh!”
“I’m sorry,” he said, freezing and feeling like a fool.
“No, no, you won’t get out of it that easily,” she said, urging him back into the dance. “One, two, skip!”
He followed her lead perfectly for two sets, and she laughed, watching the small area of exposed skin on his throat, between the bandana and the shirt. He looked up suddenly, smiling. Candice stared.
It was the first time she’d ever seen him smile, and it was devastating.
“Is something wrong?” His smile was gone.
“No, I—” She stopped when she saw him look over her shoulder. He dropped her hands and stepped to the side, away from her. Candice turned to see Mark pell-melling his way toward them, his face red with fury, and McGraw behind him—trailed by Luke and a few other men. Her heart constricted.
“I’ll kill him!” Mark shouted, breaking into a run.
Without thinking, Candice leapt between them, her hands coming up to Mark’s chest. He was so angry he threw her violently off, and she sprawled onto her face in the dust. That was all Jack needed.
Before Mark could even haul off with a punch, Jack landed a bone-cracking right to his jaw—sending him reeling backward onto the ground. He stood, waiting. Candice struggled to her feet, her petticoats twisted and entangled, hampering her. “No! Stop it! Please!”
Mark got to his feet slowly, murderously.
Luke grabbed him from behind and spun him away. “Get over here, Candice,” he ordered.
His tone was so hard and authoritative, she moved to him immediately. He pulled her behind him and to the side. “Luke, we were only—”
“I’ve seen, everyone’s seen,” Luke said calmly. “Mister, I think you’d better get on that horse and ride out.”
“What’s going on?” Someone was whispering amid a flurry of excited murmurs. Candice looked around, stunned and dismayed to see that everyone had gathered around.
“Candice and the breed,” someone said.
Candice went red and looked at Jack. He was expressionless. But the crowd was changing fast, the sounds going from stunned to angry. Someone shouted, “He touched her, he dies!”
“Yeah!” roared a few men, McGraw among them.
Candice turned. “No! No—we were only dancing—”
“Dancing?” Henderson shouted incredulously. “You’d dance with him?”
Candice lifted her chin.
“Everyone calm down,” her father said, stepping beside Luke. He turned to Jack. “Ride on, boy. Now.
Candice gnawed her knuckles, watching as Jack turned, not even looking at her, and strode away.
She watched him mount the stallion. When she looked back it was without hearing the heated arguments between her father and some of the other men.
Finally everyone dispersed, a few men vowing to teach him a lesson if he ever tried to come around again.
Candice was precariously close to tears.
“You all right?” Luke asked with concern, his voice low.
She nodded, her eyes filling.
Luke grabbed her. “Did he hurt you?”
“No!” she cried, twisting away, furious with him, furious with everyone.
“Candice,” her father said, “I absolutely forbid you to go near that man again. Do you understand?”
She stared. “Pop—he’s not some rabid dog, he’s—”
“You are forbidden to go near him. Is that clear?”
She ducked her head. “Yes.”
Shortly after that, the Carters left.