They all chuckled, and Jake thought about Randy’s remark about true friends. He shook Cole’s hand, then Pepper’s. “You boys took a chance yourselves,” he told them. “God knows most of you are probably wanted somewhere for something.” He stepped back then. “Now get back to work, all of you, or you will be out of a job!”
The men grinned and shoved each other around before returning to what they were doing before the interruption. Jake looked at Lloyd. “Damn good men,” he commented.
“They are.”
Their gazes held, both realizing the thin line they walked. “Hal was right about one thing, Lloyd. Try not to react too quickly if you see Mike Holt.”
“I won’t have any trouble reacting if he has a gun in his hand.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what worries me.” Jake sighed, looking him over lovingly. “Lloyd, if you happen to see that man and he doesn’t do anything wrong against you, you come and find me before you make any decisions. Will you do that?”
“I don’t know, Pa. It all depends on the circumstances and if Katie is with me, or if Evie is around.”
Jake put a hand on his shoulder. “You have a family that needs you. You remember that. And I’m one of them.”
Lloyd nodded.
“Jake—”
Jake turned to see Randy standing near him, her eyes showing a lingering terror. “I thought they’d come to arrest you,” she told him, suddenly bursting into tears.
Jake pulled her into his arms. “Nobody is going to arrest me,” he assured her.
Lloyd put a hand on her shoulder, and Evie also hurried up to Jake to hug him.
“Hey, I’ve got two beautiful women hugging me, and I’m covered in dirt and sweat and God knows what else,” Jake tried to joke. “This is embarrassing.”
“Daddy, I thought they would take you away!” Evie wept. “Like that day the soldiers came.”
Jake kissed her hair. “You women have to stop worrying.”
“Jake, it ain’t fair that you get to hug the two prettiest women in Colorado while the rest of us have to get back to work,” Cole shouted.
Jake gave his wife and daughter a light squeeze. “The condition I’m in, they won’t be hugging me for long. I need a bath!”
“Yeah, but I bet they smell good,” Vance yelled.
“You men get moving!” Jake shouted back, keeping his arms around both women.
He heard laughter and more shouting as things returned to normal. Jake glanced at Lloyd, who stood there looking devastated. Jake knew his son had never quite overcome the fact that he’d ridden out of his mother and Evie’s lives in anger after Jake was arrested years ago. “It’s okay, Lloyd.”
“No, it isn’t. They were alone when those soldiers came for you. I should have been there for them.”
Katie walked closer and moved an arm around Lloyd, who kept watching his mother and Evie.
“Okay, you women have to stop being so upset,” Jake told them. He gave them one more hug. “You go on home now and rest,” he told Evie. He turned to his son-in-law. “Brian, go with her. We can get along without you the rest of the day. Teresa can take Sadie and Tricia over to Lloyd’s house, and I’ll keep Little Jake busy a while longer so Evie can lie down.”
Little Jake ran up to them. “I thought they would shoot you, Grampa.”
Jake touched his shoulder. “Little Jake, you need to learn to hold your tongue when strangers come around. I should have made you apologize to the marshal for what you said. Right now you get back to the branding. Your mother is going to go home and take a nap, so when you don’t want to watch the branding anymore, you go with Teresa to Lloyd’s house, understand? And you help watch your sister and Tricia.”
The boy rubbed at his eyes and ran off to rejoin the men. Jake noticed Ben and Stephen standing nearby, both of them also looking concerned. Jake threw up his hands.
“Okay, enough! Everybody get back to what you were doing! Ben, you and Stephen go on back to the counting pen. Everything is okay now.” He took Evie’s arm and led her to Brian. “Go. That’s an order.”
“I love you, Daddy.”
“And God knows how much I love you. I don’t like you getting upset, so go.”
Evie left with Brian, and Jake turned to Lloyd and Katie. He kept an arm around Randy. “Take Randy back to the house, will you, Katie? We’ll be done in a little while.”
Lloyd gave Katie a kiss. “Go ahead. And heat some water. I’ll have a lot of dust and sweat to wash off when I get home.”
Katie squeezed his hand. She walked over to Randy. “Let’s go, Mom.”