Do Not Forsake Me(69)

She frowned. “Please tell me you really did make all that up.”

He got up. “No, ma’am. I’ll just let you always wonder.”

Randy put her hands over her face. “Oh my God.”





Eighteen


Jeff walked behind Jake and Randy, watching and listening as numerous townspeople stopped Jake and asked how he was doing. It was the pied piper all over again, people following him down the street, some close, some at a distance.

The morning was cool, and Jake wore his wide-brimmed hat and a duster over denim pants and a blue shirt with the leather vest, his badge hidden under the duster. He wore both of those famous guns and kept an arm around Randy as they walked.

“Jake! By God, other than needing to gain a little weight, you’re looking well!” The greeting came from the same man who’d urged Jake to come into church that Sunday morning Jeff sat on the steps.

“He shouldn’t be up walking around, Cletus,” Randy answered as Jake shook the man’s hand.

“Well, I’m glad he’s trying,” Cletus answered.

Jake thanked him as more people commented on his health.

Jake kept insisting he was fine, but he walked with a limp that suggested a good deal of pain. Jeff sensed something else—something amiss. Maybe it was just the fact that Marty Bryant was on the loose again…or maybe the fact that they were going to see Peter Brown…or maybe something Jeff didn’t know about.

All the way to the restaurant, more people followed, both men and women, asking questions, greeting Jake and Randy both. For several days after the shoot-out, the Guthrie newspaper had been filled with different versions of the event, some making Jake out to be an emotionless murderer who killed men as easily as shooting a rabbit. Jeff decided that was probably true when it came to men threatening his family. Some stories showed Jake as the hero of the day, saving the entire town of Guthrie from peril and tragedy. When papers arrived from other towns, stories of the shoot-out were in those too, some grossly exaggerated.

Jeff had also read stories about Marty Bryant’s escape and the murders that took place. Rumors abounded over where Bryant might be now and what his intentions were.

They went inside a restaurant called Sadie’s and sat down at a table. A woman of perhaps twenty waited on them. “Glad to see you’re all right, Jake,” she said, leaning a bit too far over to pour his coffee. One too many buttons were open on her blouse. After pouring his coffee, she turned to Randy, giving her a look that told Randy the girl thought she could seduce Jake anytime she wanted. “Coffee, Mrs. Harkner?”

Randy, who Jeff thought looked incredibly beautiful this morning in a soft green dress and a matching velvet hat that drew the green from her eyes, smiled kindly to her. “Why don’t you just pour some coffee for Jeff here, Mary Ann. You can first pour it down your blouse, and then you can lean over even farther than you just did for my husband and let it spill out of your cleavage into his cup.”

Jeff could not control his laughter at the remark, and Mary Ann straightened and lost her smile. “I’ll get you a cup,” she told Jeff, turning and walking away with a deliberate flounce.

Jeff glanced at Jake, who was obviously struggling not to laugh out loud. Finally Jake couldn’t help a soft burst of laughter. “Randy, your jealousy is as green as that dress,” he told her.

Randy removed her gloves, eyeing her husband with a sly grin of her own. “The girl couldn’t have been more obvious. She might as well have stripped right in front of you.”

“I’m sure Jeff wouldn’t have objected.” Jeff and Jake both laughed again. “And you think I’m the mean one?” Jake added to Jeff. “Get this woman’s dander up and watch the claws come out. She can handle a rifle and handle me. That says a lot.”

A different waitress came out then with an extra two cups, one for Randy and one for Jeff. She was slightly older and smiled with genuine friendliness. “Mary Ann says she doesn’t want to wait on you anymore. What did you say to that girl, Jake?”

She poured the coffee.

“Right away you blame me?”

“Well, I know how you can be with words at times, Jake Harkner,” Sadie joked. “I also just happened to see her waiting on you.”

“Then you’d better ask what my wife said to her.” Jake was still grinning and Jeff nearly spit out his first sip of coffee in a need to laugh more.

Sadie gave Randy a sly grin. “I think I have a good idea. And I told Mary Ann to button up that blouse or go home. I don’t need my waitresses flaunting themselves around like saloon girls.”