Love’s Sweet Revenge(98)

She glanced at the door when she heard it being unlocked.

“Jake?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He quietly came inside and closed the door. “Ben and Stephen are with Jeff, and Little Jake is with Brian and Evie. I left Katie with Lloyd. He’s sleeping pretty hard, so she should be all right.”

He set the key aside and walked over to the bed and sat on it to remove his boots. He grimaced as he began wiggling his feet out of them. “I ache everywhere. Thank God Lloyd can do most things on his own now.”

Randy watched his every movement, wondering if this was her last night to see and touch him. She watched as he jerked off his boots. She loved his arms, still so strong and hard. She studied his broad chest when he removed his shirt and a sleeveless undershirt, noticed how flat and hard his stomach still was when he rose to unbuckle his belt and remove his denim pants and his socks. Unlike most men his age, there was nothing soft about him. He was as hard as a rock, and sometimes he liked to pretend he was hard on the inside, like he was doing now. It terrified her that he could go to prison. He’d nearly died from beatings and pneumonia those four years he did time, and he was younger then. When he was wild and free and working the ranch, he was in his own element, but the poor food and medical care of prison life could kill a man his age.

“I appreciate what Peter is doing,” he told her as he finished stripping to his long johns, “but we both know the real reason he’s doing it. You’d fit right in at that palace of a home he owns back in Chicago. When I think about the kind of life you could have had—”

“All I want is a big log home in the foothills of the Rockies,” Randy interrupted, “and a big, strong man taking care of it all—a man who can handle himself in any situation and protect and defend me and his family, a man who needs nothing more in life than me and his family.”

Jake looked away, rising and laying his clothes over a chair. He walked to the window. “I know I’m not an easy man to live with, Randy.”

“Jake, don’t try to sell me on what a good life I could have without you. I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to make what might happen tomorrow easier on me.”

He stood there quietly, studying the streets below, lit up by gaslights. “I’m still not sure it’s good for the boys to be at the hearing,” he said then, obviously trying to avoid the inevitable.

Small talk, Randy thought. He was going for small talk. Casual, I’m okay talk.

“They are going to hear things tomorrow maybe they shouldn’t hear,” he added. “Peter wants them there, says it will impress the judge to see the family, but I hate for those boys to hear what that prosecutor will say about me and my past.”

“They know about your past,” Randy reminded him. “Nothing will surprise them. And I think Peter is right. We have a beautiful family, and the judge should see that. And when he sees how those boys look at their grandfather with so much love, it will give him reason to pause in deciding what to do about you.”

“Maybe. Who knows? I’m just worried what it will do to the boys if I’m hauled away right in front of them.”

“I have to believe you won’t be, or I’ll go crazy.”

“Yeah, well, my biggest hope is Evie. She’s praying for me. If God doesn’t listen to her, then there is no God.” He sighed deeply. “What I hate most about tomorrow is Evie will be there, too. What happened at Dune Hollow is sure to come up, and that’s not good for her or the boys.” He glanced at Randy, his gaze raking over her brushed-out hair and the silk robe she wore. “You look extra beautiful tonight.”

Randy struggled not to break down in front of him, but it was becoming impossible. “Probably because…because you think this could be our last night together for a while.” Her lips quivered, and a tear slipped down her cheek. She looked away, feeling sick inside, wanting to stay strong for him. “They sent up your suit, cleaned and pressed.”

“Good.” The room hung strangely quiet for an awkward moment. “I’m not sure how Brian and Evie are going to keep Little Jake in line tomorrow,” Jake finally commented.

Randy felt as though both of them were just searching for a way to avoid the terror. If the judge wanted to be truly famous and felt it was time to rid the “new” West of its “old” outlaws, he could sentence Jake to be hung.

“He’s so full of energy,” Jake continued. “I’m worried he’ll fidget around and distract things and irritate the judge. Nobody can control that kid.”