Page 84 of Texas Glory
“Figured the sooner they finished, the sooner you could get your ladies here, get them trained.”
Tyler looked as though a good strong wind might blow him over. “What ladies?”
“Dee plans to have women managing her hotel and lady waiters serving food in the restaurant.”
“Lady waiters?” He grinned crookedly. “You wouldn’t have had to pay a bonus if you’d told the men that.”
“These are respectable women,” Dallas said, “not whores. Any man who doesn’t treat them properly will answer to me.”
“Marriageable women?” Tyler asked.
Dee glanced quickly at Dallas, then at Tyler. “They’re not coming with the express purpose to marry, but I expect a few of them might decide marriage is in order.”
“Where are they going to live?”
“In the rooms we’re putting above the restaurant.”
“Then I need to get the men back to work and get this hotel finished.”
Dee stepped forward. “Mr. Curtiss?”
He spun around. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Can I hammer a nail into place?”
“Yes, ma’am. You can do anything you want. Women waiters. Who would have thought …”
Standing back, Dallas watched as his wife confidently walked around the construction site, greeting each man individually. She hardly resembled the woman who had stood in his parlor, hesitant to pledge herself to him.
He wondered if she ever looked at the men she was coming to know and wished she had been given the opportunity to choose the man who would be her husband.
A man handed her a hammer while another gave her a nail. Two other men held a board in place. She pounded the nail into the wood, satisfaction spreading over her lovely features.
He wondered if she might have invited another man to return to her bed last night, if once with Dallas was enough; if once with another man might have never been enough.
He despised the doubts that plagued him because he would never know if given the choice, she would have chosen another.
Squatting in the tall prairie grasses, Rawley Cooper held the prairie dog close and watched as the lady walked through the skeleton of the newest building.
She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. He figured she looked like an angel—if angels existed. He harbored a lot of doubts about things like angels and heaven … and goodness. But the lady made him want to believe.
She stepped through a hole in the frame and backed up a few steps, holding her arms out, as though she couldn’t believe how big it was.
Then she turned, smiled softly, and began walking toward him.
His heart started beating so hard that he could hear it between his ears, and it hurt to take anything other than a little breath. He stood, clutching the critter close against him. It yelped and struggled to get free, but he held it tight.
“Hello, Rawley Cooper.”
She had the sweetest voice. He wished he had a hat so he could tip it at her like he’d seen some men do yesterday.
She knelt in front of him. She smelled like she’d brought a whole passel of flowers with her, but he couldn’t see that she was holding or wearing any. She took the prairie dog out of his arms. “How’s Precious?” “Fine.”
Her smile grew. “I appreciate your watching her for me.”
He wanted her to hug him the way she was hugging the prairie dog, but he knew she wouldn’t, knew no one ever would. He backed up a step. “I gotta go.”
As fast as his legs would churn, he ran toward the buildings where he could hide in the shadows.
