Gretta laughed again. “I like you, Jake Harkner. How many men would stand half dressed in front of a prostitute and talk about how beautiful their wives are?”
Jake lit a cigarette. “I would. I had my share of prostitutes a long time ago, Gretta. Then my wife came along and showed me a man only needs one good woman—although right now she’s probably still a bit peeved at me.”
“Is that so? Well, I find it hard to believe that any woman, wife or not, could stay mad at you for long.”
Jake sobered. “Yeah, well, believe me, I’m not always easy to live with.”
“Oh, I have no doubt about that.” Gretta leaned against the doorjamb. “Let’s see…you were running from the law when you two first met, and I’m betting you were an ornery sonofabitch back then, and the last thing you wanted was a woman hanging around—a good woman, that is. You preferred the kind you could take to bed and leave the next morning, only that wife of yours wouldn’t let go. And then there were all those shoot-outs and then prison and then putting up with the dangers of you being a U.S. Marshal.” Her gaze grew sincere. “She must be quite some woman.”
Jake leaned against the other side of the doorjamb, also sobering. “They don’t come any better.”
“So, why is she peeved at you?”
Jake turned and picked up the shirt he’d worn into the store. Gretta noticed the scars at the back of his shoulders where the skin was exposed from the sleeveless undershirt. From his father’s beatings, she thought. The man had quite a storied past—had killed his own father. She could tell there were likely a lot worse unseen scars under the shirt.
“Someone insulted her, and I beat the hell out of him,” Jake answered Gretta. “Then I yelled at her for the first time in our almost-thirty years together. I left afterward and stayed away a couple of nights because I don’t like being around my wife and family when I’m that angry. She’s not happy that I didn’t stay and talk to her.” He pulled on his blue cotton shirt. “Let alone yelling at her like I did.” He sighed. “It’s been quite a while since I was that mad, and she worries about me when I kind of turn into the old Jake, if you know what I mean.” He took another drag on the cigarette, then laid it in an ashtray provided in the dressing room.
“I can guess,” Gretta answered. “And it’s easier for you to talk to somebody like me than to her when you’re that way.”
Jake nodded. “You must have read that book pretty close to know so much about me.”
“You’re an intriguing man, Mr. Jake Harkner. What did that man you beat on say about your wife?”
He looked at her darkly. “He called her my personal whore. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“There are a lot of women like you that I respect, but Randy Hayes Harkner is no whore and doesn’t deserve to be called one in the way that man said it. It hurt her bad, and I should have stayed and talked to her, but that remark made me feel like I didn’t deserve to touch her at all.”
“And you think women like me are the only kind you have any business being with.”
He picked up the cigarette and drew on it again. “Sometimes.” He grinned. “But I’ll be damned if I can keep my hands off of her. She’s got me tied to railroad tracks with a train coming, and I just lay there and don’t even try to get loose.”
“And you’d let that train run right over you if it meant never hurting her again.”
“I would.”
“Lucky woman.”
Jake shook his head. “I’m the lucky one.” He studied his cigarette a moment. “She changed my life years ago, but changing the real me isn’t so easy. Some things are just beat into you until…” He looked Gretta over. “Here we are—just now met—and I’m talking to you about things that are none of your business.”
Gretta put a hand on his arm. “Honey, I’ll just bet that wife of yours never stays mad at you for long.”
Jake couldn’t help a smile. “Generally not.”
She stepped closer, patting his cheek. “Of course not. You reek of sex, Jake Harkner, and she just can’t resist that.”
“Reek?”
“Reek. Sex just oozes from every pore of your body.”
Jake laughed. “I’ve never heard it put quite that way.”
Gretta looked him over again. “You damn well know it’s true. And I would give my right arm to find out what you’re like in bed.”
“Ma’am, you pose a mighty strong temptation,” Jake answered with a grin. “I appreciate the offer, and I appreciate the talk, but I have a wife waiting for me in a room at the Brown Palace.”