Saloon Girl

A New Side

CHAPTER 8 - A New Side

Cole helped me on the back of his horse and we left Jone's Valley. He didn't speak to me on the way back to camp. It was a long ride. Cole's body was tense the entire time. We stopped at the edge of the basin after the 3 hour ride and everyone but Seth went down to the camp. "You need me to stay?" He asked plainly. Cole just shook his head and then Seth followed the rest to the camp.

Cole turned his horse and took us to the cattle pasture about a mile from the basin and stopped next to the oak tree he had tied his horse to last night. He jumped down and tied his horse to the low limb and reached up for me. I slid down and looked up at him. He never said a word. Cole sat under the tree and leaned back against it. He looked so exhausted. I sat on the ground next to him and picked at a flower. We rested in silence for what seemed like forever. The bruises on my face were starting to throb from all my blood flowing to my face from anxiety.

"Why did you leave?" He asked in hurt voice. I didn't even know where to begin.

"I... um... Catherine was back... and I didn't want to be in your way." I couldn't hide the pain in my voice. He looked at me in a weird way for a moment. His brows pulled together like he was thinking.

"How do you know her?" He asked with a puzzled expression.

"I overheard your conversation with her. I don't really... know her. I saw her kiss you last night."

     Reliving that scene from last night made my heart shatter once again. I blocked it out of my mind and focused on the blue petals of the flower I held in my hand.

"Cassie. Catherine kissed me because she is an idiot. I don't care about her. She and I were never really anythin'." I had a lump in my throat. I wanted to hear that so badly, but I didn't know if he knew that and was just telling me what I wanted to hear.

"Then why did she want you to stay away from me?" I didn't really want to know. I could tell she was in love with him.

     Cole reached over and grabbed my face in his hands. "Listen to me, Cassidy. This is a long story, but I figured we'd do a lot of talkin'. That's why I brought you out here. Catherine was married to Red O'Brien. Red didn't treat her like his wife. The other men would pay Red for time with her. We knew her and knew what was going on. So Seth went to get her and came back 2 days later with Catherine and her daughter. Lilly was only 4. While they stayed with us at our camp near the Rio Grande, Lilly caught a fever and she died a week later. The word got back to Red and he sent his men to kill all of us. He blamed Seth and me. We killed every one of the men he sent. Red considers Catherine dead and he won't stop until he kills me or Seth, or you."

"Why would he kill me?"

"Let me finish." Cole pulled his hands back from my face and adjusted his hat before he finished explaining. "When things calmed down and we moved camp to the plains, Seth and Catherine had a... thing. For a while they were inseperable. Until Seth caught Catherine with John."

John? What? John is supposed to be the innocent one! Cole almost smiled at my shocked expression.

"Seth has never said another word to her, or John unless he's had to. Catherine got drunk the night Seth walked in on them and she came into my tent. She was cryin' and I didn't know what had happened. She asked if she could sleep in my tent 'cause she was afraid Seth was goin' to kill her. I could smell the whiskey and thought she was just too drunk to realize what she was sayin'. I let her have my mattress and I rolled out my sleeping bag. I went back to sleep and woke up with her in my face. She was tryin' to kiss me. I put her back on the bed, but she kept on after that so I finally took my sleepin' bag to Dr. Jack's tent and slept there. That next mornin', she swore we had slept together that night. She still believes that. Ever since, she has been in and out of trouble with the Morrison's. Every time I have to drag her out of my tent or she gets mad at one of us, she runs back to Red. He beats her and sends her back as a joke. She thinks I love her, but am just waitin' to marry her before I tell her... or some weird shit like that."

"So you don't love her? I wasn't just a replacement?" I asked in a small voice, still looking at my flower.

He pulled my face to his, "No, Cassie. I care about you, and... I think I might love you." In that moment, I knew he really did. Everything had happened so fast, and we'd hardly had time to fall in love. That being said, after I first laid eyes on him, I believed in love at first sight.

"I love you too."

He kissed me and we sat under that tree for about another hour. I told him all about my escape plan and how I had made my way out when I knew he was gone. I told him about how I made the man in the hotel promise not to tell him I was there and how John had caught me. We laughed and he told me a story about when he and Seth were little and planned to escape their ranch work. That made me laugh so hard my insides hurt.

I had never seen this side of him. I loved him so much at that moment that I thought my heart would explode. It had only been a few days, but I knew he was my soulmate. I knew he was the man that God had made me for. I didn't want to go back to camp. I wanted to stay here and just look at him. I couldn't believe that love was this easy. I had always thought you had to make yourself love someone, that was the only thing I'd ever seen. I knew my parents didn't love eachother when they first got married, so I assumed it was that way for everyone. I was so wrong.

"Why did you come find me?" I asked as I was trying to tie together two blades of grass. Cole was silent for a moment.

"I didn't want you to get hurt. I had to know you were safe, but when I saw you..." His voice faded out and he stared at the birds flying overhead before looking down at me. "I knew how much you meant to me."

"This is happenin' so fast." I smiled and left the grass fall from my fingers. "I have never loved anyone before."

The statement seemed to shock Cole. His eyes widened a little and he stared at me. "You've never had any callers?"

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "No. Paw wouldn't allow it."

"I'm glad. Otherwise, I might not have met you."

I thought about that. What if I had never met Cole? I wouldn't have someone who would ride hours away just to find me. The whole thought of Cole being an outlaw scared me a little. So did the fact that I was now staying at a camp with a gang of them, but I didn't care. Cole wasn't really an outlaw anyway. I love him and that's all that matters.