Redemption

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“Why would you send a cowboy to make that long trip into town now when we can just wait until Bliss gets back and she can make out her grocery list? It’s about time for the supply trip anyway. We can take out two birds with one stone,” Colt explained to his boss the next morning.

“That won’t work. You know how she always insists on going on the supply trips,” Sherman objected.

“Not when she has a new husband to see to,” Colt said, speaking the very words searing a pain into his gut.

Sherman looked up at him from his place at the head of the table in the main house at the ranch. He thought a moment, and Colt held his breath.

“I guess you have a point,” he finally admitted.

Colt silently released the breath he had been holding captive and resisted a smile of triumph. “Also,” he said. “I think it would be best if I went on that trip. I know what Bliss wants, and I think I should get the supplies since I’ll be heading up the whole thing. I can take Dawson with me when he gets back.”

Sherman seemed to like that idea. “That’s not a bad point. I supposed I can spare you for a week or so. You’ll have to wait until Bliss gets back and give her a few days to get the list together.”

Colt nodded. “Absolutely.”

“Good. Now get to work,” Sherman told him.

Colt spun on his heel and walked down the hall toward the front door. He swung open the oak door and walked out onto the front porch. As he walked toward the bunkhouse containing his office, he pumped his fist and smiled.

“Smith, ain’t you supposed to be out with the herd this morning?” he called out to one of the cowboys walking lazily around the barn.

The man nodded and walked off to the barn to gather his horse.

Colt walked with a little pep in his step. He had actually worked it out for Miss Steele to get to a real doctor. She might even remember why she had come to Arizona in the first place.

You did good, Kidd. You actually did good.

*****

Two days passed and Colt was beginning to dread Bliss returning home. She was expected any day now. He don’t know how he would react to seeing her smiling face again as she looked up at Clint. He had tried to set aside his feelings of hurt and be happy for them, but he hadn’t succeeded so far. Every time she saw her smile at Clint, jealously washed over him and he couldn’t shake it. How was it that he could grow up with Bliss, and yet she had known Clint only a few months when they were married. It made no sense.

Miss Steele hadn’t improved much. She was able to remember things for a longer time, but she was still confused a lot of times. Doc continued to stay at the line shack with them in order to keep an eye on her. Colt hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to her, or even see her, since that one night when she had awakened him. While part of him wanted to talk to her. To get to know her the small bit that he could in her current state, another part of him wanted to stay as far away as possible. Something about her - maybe the uncertainty - screamed for him to take caution. Something steered him away and he couldn’t put his finger on it.

He sat at his desk, his feet propped up on the edge of his desk and a pencil in his mouth, shifting through some papers that needed sorted out into their respective piles. It was around quitting time, but he needed to get through the last stack of papers so that he would have them finished.

Suddenly, whoops and yells came from outside. Colt jerked up from his seat and took the pencil from his mouth, walking to the small window that faced the main house. As soon as the scene registered in his mind, his heart sank and his gut turned to iron.