Brian sighed. “You keep that man still.”
“If there is one thing I’m sure of, it’s being able to handle Jake Harkner…at least when he’s in this house with me. And you said yourself you’d be surprised if he regained consciousness before morning.”
Jeff drank some of his coffee while Brian walked into the bedroom to get his doctor’s bag.
“Ma’am, if I may ask…how do you do it?” Jeff asked Randy. “How do you manage to put up with all this? You’re a mother, a grandmother, and wife to a man who has to be difficult to live with.”
Randy glanced at Jake’s guns lying on the table. “No one understands my husband the way I do, Jeff. No one. I know every detail about his life, including when he was a little boy. I know how he thinks and what his needs are. I know how he suffers silently on the inside. That’s how I do it.” She wiped at her eyes. “Jake has a good heart. He treats me with total devotion and respect, so no, he’s not difficult to live with. We’ve had some really bad times, a couple of them a big test of our marriage, but deep down I’ve always known how much Jake Harkner loves and needs me. And sometimes he does the sweetest things for me. That lamp cost him dearly, but he bought it for me once when we went to Denver together in those early years when we were so happy in Colorado.”
She seemed to be in another world for the moment. “And years ago, not long after we’d met and then gone our separate ways, thinking it was best because he was a wanted man…Jake rode out of my life and I headed west to find my brother who’d gone out there to look for gold. I got into some trouble—traveled with the wrong people and ended up left behind at a filthy trading post all alone. I was dying from a snakebite. The men there were…awful. I was in terrible pain, sure I was dying, and I was sick and dirty and…and one day I heard Jake’s voice, felt him lift me into his arms and promise me he’d never let me out of his sight again. I remember how gentle he was when nursing me back from death, bathing me, feeding me, keeping me warm…and never once did he take advantage of me or touch me wrongly. I knew then all I needed to know about Jake Harkner, and right then I knew it couldn’t be true he’d violated that woman when he rode with the Kennedy gang. That was one of the things he was wanted for, but I knew there had to be a mistake. Jake has done a lot of things, but never that. Never that.” She met Jeff’s eyes, and without one ounce of jealousy in her own eyes or in her words, said, “Jake adores women. He respects all women, even the prostitutes, because there were many times when women like that took him in and protected him. He was just a little boy without a mother.” She looked away. “Anyway, I fell totally, deeply, madly in love with the real Jake Harkner.”
She suddenly stiffened and drew in her breath as she wiped at her eyes. “Oh my. I’ve said way too much! Jake would have a fit if he knew I told you all that.” She forced a smile. “You come back in three or four days, Jeff. He should be awake by then, and I know he’ll want to see you. And we need to ask you a few questions before we go any farther with your idea for a book.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Randy walked over and picked up Jake’s gun belt from the sofa, then reached over and put his guns into the holsters. She carried the belt to a coatrack near the front door and hung them there. “Do you know if these are empty?”
“Yes, ma’am. Your son emptied them.”
Randy nodded. “Just making sure.”
Jeff wished he could do something for her. “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
She sighed. “People need to stop asking me that.” She turned to Jeff. “Thank you again for what you did.”
“Well, I just wish I could have done more earlier today. If I’d known how to use a gun, it might have helped.”
“Well then, Jake will have to teach you how to shoot, won’t he? If you’re going to hang around him for your book, you’d better arm yourself.”
Jeff breathed deeply against the realization she was probably right. “I never thought of that.”
Randy smiled warmly. “Young man, you’ve set up a tall order for yourself in wanting to write about Jake.”
“I suppose I have, but I’m excited about it.”
Brian came into the room then and took his hat from the rack where Jake’s guns were hanging. “Let’s go, Jeff. Randy needs to clean up and get some rest.”
“Yes, sir.” Jeff nodded to Randy. “Good night, ma’am.” He left with Brian, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. Arm himself? He’d better wire his father tomorrow and let him know this job would take a lot longer than he’d originally thought.