Page 9 of Stranded on the Prairie
"You’re taking me for tea?" she laughs, and I nod.
"Like a date?”
"Like a what?"
She bites her lip slightly, eyeing me.
"Nothing. Come on, I want to try this tea..."
We head into the saloon, where Hines has some cool sweet tea waiting for anyone who doesn’t want to touch a drop of alcohol so early in the morning – I order us a couple of servings, and watch as she lifts the cup to her lips and takes a long sip.
"Oh, that’s actually really good," she remarks, as though surprised.
"You thought it wouldn’t be?”
"I didn’t say that," she shoots back, a note of amusement in her voice. "It’s just...it’s delicious, that’s all. Take the compliment, alright?”
I can’t help but grin back at her. She’s got a real attitude on her, the kind I can tell will have gotten her into trouble – hell, maybe things are different where she’s from and she doesn’t have to watch her mouth as much as she does here, I don’t know.
But I like it.
I like the way she speaks to me, like she’s got nothing to fear, and, as we work our way through the tea together, she casts her gaze around the saloon, which is already creaking with people.
"So, you going to introduce me?" she asks, as she looks around the room.
"To who?”
"Anyone," she replies. "You’ve lived here a while, right? You must know a few of these people..."
I follow her gaze around the room. Not like she’s wrong, but I have no great urge to go shaking hands and playing nice with them. A few of these men, they’re from families of the girls I turned down the chance to marry, and I’ve no doubt they’ll still hold it against me given half the chance.
"Go on," she urges me, tapping my leg with her foot beneath the table as though to spur me onward. "If I’m stuck here, then I’m going to have to get to know people, right?"
"That how you feel?” I reply. "Stuck here?”
But, before she can respond, I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn around – to find myself faced by none other than Bobby Bates. My shoulders tense.
I know his family well, better than I’d care to admit. My father, when he was alive, at least, had plenty of run-ins withthem and the trouble they caused over the years, as willing as they were to take whatever they thought they were owed without second thought.
"Granger," he slurs to me, his tongue heavy with booze. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were slummin’ it out in the woods..."
I remove his hand from my shoulder – I can feel a few people looking in our direction, perhaps away of the kind of relationship that my family has always had with men like him.
"Slumming it?" Riley cuts in, before I can stop her. "You think he’s slumming it out there? Shit, his cabin’s nicer than anywhere I’ve seen down here-"
"And who’s this?" Bobby asks, as his gaze roves to her, looking her up and down with a leering smile on his face. "Think I would have remembered a pretty little thing like her..."
"Back off, Bobby," I warn him through gritted teeth. He turns to me, a brow cocked.
"And what you doing to do if I-"
Before he can finish what he is saying, I take a swing for him. My fist connects with his jaw in a sickening crack, sending him sprawling out across the bar, and the people who were content with just looking suddenly spring into action. Riley’s lips part in shock, but before she can say anything else to land us in trouble, I catch her arm.
"C’mon," I mutter. "Let’s get out of here."
"But I-"
"The outlaws’ll hear about this!” A voice cuts in. I don’t care to find out where it comes from. I duck my head low and make for the door, my hand wound around hers, pulling her along with me like it’s the most important thing in the world right now.
