Chapter 2
“Where’d you get the scar, handsome?” the saloon girl asked later that afternoon in Fairplay, leaning close to Conn Sullivan.
“If I told you how I got that scar, you’d think I was fibbing,” Conn said.
“Well, a little fibbing makes things fun,” the girl said. “Buy me a drink?”
Conn smiled at her. She was pretty enough, but he was done with that sort of thing.
At twenty-four, Conn was ready to clean up his act and follow in the footsteps of his twin brother, Cole.
Which would surprise everyone—except Cole.
Because Conn’s brother had always believed in him. They might look the same, right down to that big scar on both their cheeks, but they were as different as night and day.
Or at least they had been.
Oh, Cole had some deviltry in him, especially when they were kids. And there was nobody in the world Conn would rather have beside him in a fight than his brother.
But Cole was full of light. Pure, white light.
Cole had always taken the straight path. He’d listened to Pa’s preaching and taken it to heart and worked hard at whatever he did, and now, it was all paying off for him.
Conn, on the other hand, had always had a twist of Cain in him. His mind drifted during Bible reading, and he’d always been more interested in fighting and girls and breaking broncs than he was in schoolwork… or any work, for that matter.
He’d left home at sixteen. He and Cole had fought over a girl. It was the only fight they ever had.
Conn had won the fight, but Cole had gotten the girl.
So Conn decided to leave, announcing to his family that he was going to see the world.
By then, he and Cole had moved past the fight, but it had set them on different paths.
Cole offered to ride along.
Conn refused. If Cole came along, he’d talk sense into Conn.
And Conn didn’t want sense. Not at sixteen. He wanted to wallow in the world.
Which is just what he’d done.
He traveled place to place, working for different men. When he took a job, he put his back into it and worked hard, but only for a while.
Mostly, he stuck to cowboying, but he’d laid track and hunted and nearly ruined his lungs scratching away deep in a silver mine. Time and time again, he’d come up short, but through it all, he’d earned his keep honestly, sticking to the right side of the law, at least in spirit.
He never meant to become a gunman, but in the West, you didn’t have to want to be a gunman. Sometimes, all you had to want was to survive. Things happened, you survived, and suddenly, you had a reputation.
And having a reputation made the men who did want to be known come looking for you.
After several men tried and failed, the name Conn Sullivan echoed across the frontier.
Now, Conn was sick of it.
He didn’t want to be Conn Sullivan anymore. At least not the Conn Sullivan he’d become.
He wanted to settle down and work for himself for a change. Maybe even do like his brother was doing, get married and start a place.
When he’d last come off the trail, a letter from Cole had been waiting for him. It contained good news. Cole had married a wonderful young woman named Mary, and they were busy proving up a hundred and sixty acres in Colorado.
Come on out and join us, Cole had written. There’s good land adjoining ours. Grass, water, views that will knock your eyes out. Come on out, Conn. Claim the land, and we’ll make a life out here, side by side, just like we always said we would.
The letter rode inside Conn’s shirt pocket now as he leaned here, not ten miles from Cole, drinking a beer and grinning at the saloon girl. He’d thought about riding straight to the homestead, but he figured he’d have a few beers and let Cole and Mary have their supper.
“Sure, darling. I’ll buy you a drink. But I gotta shoot straight with you: I’m not looking for anything past that.”
The girl pouted a little. “Ain’t I pretty enough for you?”
“Oh, you’re plenty pretty. I’m just not looking is all.”
“You already have a sweetheart?”
“Something like that.”
“What’s her name?”
“I don’t know.”
She tilted her head a little. “You don’t know?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“No, ma’am, I am not.”
“Well, how come you don’t know this girl’s name then?”
“Because I haven’t met her yet.”
The girl scrunched up her face. “I don’t understand.”
“Well, I’ve decided to settle down. I just don’t yet know who I’ll settle down with.”
“That don’t make no sense.”
“On the contrary, darling, it makes all the sense in the world. I’ve had my share of fun. Now, I reckon it’s time to get myself cleaned up so I’ll be ready when I do meet her.”
The girl laughed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, mister, but you’re peculiar.”
Conn tipped his hat. “Thank you, ma’am.”
She laughed. “Thank you? It wasn’t meant as a compliment. I’m just saying is all. You’re cleaning yourself up before you even meet a lady to clean up for?”
“The world’s full of good women. I want to be ready when I meet the right one.”
She shook her head and stared at her reflection across the bar. “Maybe that’s not so crazy, though. In fact, maybe it’s even the most romantic thing I ever heard. Do you think I could be a good woman?”
“I don’t know. Could you?”
She frowned at her reflection, then shrugged and smiled again. “I don’t know, either. But I guess maybe I wish I could be. I guess maybe I wish some nice, handsome fella like you would come riding in here and pull me out of this place and take me to a better life.”
“Well, ma’am, I hope you get what you want.”
Her bottom lip curled a little. “But you ain’t gonna, are you? You ain’t gonna take me with you?”
“No, ma’am. I got plans on down the trail.”
She nodded. “That woman, you mean?”
“Not really. She’s the icing on the cake. I got a lot of work to do first.”
“What kind of work?”
“Homesteading.”
“Homesteading? Well, you sure fooled me, mister. You don’t look like no sodbuster.”
Conn uttered a deep laugh.
“What’s so funny?” the girl asked.
“Well, I’m on my way to visit my brother. He’s a homesteader, and he says there’s real nice ground next to his. He says he’ll help me stake the claim and prove it up.”
“I still don’t see why you laughed.”
“Because you said I don’t look like a sodbuster. But that’s just what my brother is, and we’re identical twins.”
“Oh,” she said, and then chuckled. “That is sort of funny. You sure you don’t want to spend some time together? You’re awful handsome, and I like you. I like the way you laugh. You come up to the room, I won’t charge you a dime.”
He shook his head. “I appreciate the offer, ma’am, but I say what I mean and mean what I say.”