STANDING
BETWEEN LOVE AND BETRAYAL
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The next morning Teaspoon watches Buck from the
front door of his home wondering if the Kiowa should be left alone to bear the
burden of the news that shocked all of them last evening at the Christmas Dance.
In one week Christmas Eve will be upon them along with Cody and Jane's wedding
day.
Teaspoon decides that no man should have to endure
the amount of pain that Buck has had to endure over the past few months. He
grabs his coat from the coat hook, and walks out of his home, and towards the
corrals where Buck is sitting watching a few grazing horses.
As Teaspoon walks closer to Buck he realizes that
Buck isn't aware of the fact that someone is approaching him from behind. When
he reaches Buck at the corrals, Buck is slightly startled out of his thinking
by Teaspoon's presence.
"I should reprimand you for not being more
alert. I could have been Jesse sneaking up on you."
"It doesn't matter," Buck spoke disheartened.
Teaspoon climbs up onto the corral, and sits next
to Buck. Lately since discovering Buck's true parentage, he has felt the need
to interfere more in Buck's life, and especially when Buck is hurting so badly
over Jane. "You know I don't like hearing that you're giving up on life.
It kind of makes me nervous. It starts to sounding like you may be thinking
seriously about leaving this ranch, and your family. That prospect doesn't sit
well with me," Teaspoon spoke trying to discourage any thoughts that Buck
might be having about leaving.
"I don't like the idea of running away from
life, but I can't stay here if Cody and Jane plan on living here in Rock Creek.
I can't see Jane everyday wondering what kind of life her and I could have had,"
Buck spoke his voice cracking with emotion.
"I do believe that Cody and Jane are planning
on moving on. Besides you have a family here, and responsibilities. Kid is away
at this very moment selling a few more horses to that ranch up north that you
did some business with last winter. He wouldn't be too happy when he comes home
to find out that you are leaving."
"Yeah, I know. Kid would run this ranch into
the ground inside a month."
"I was kind of thinking inside a week,"
Teaspoon spoke with a smile.
Both men laugh quietly.
Rachel watches the two men embrace from a downstairs
window of her home, and tears find their way down her cheeks.
Jane watches the two men laugh and embrace from
her upstairs bedroom window, and she gently wipes the tears from her face.
Lou had wished that Kid had sent Buck to sell their
horses up north. He promised he would be home in time for the wedding, and Christmas.
Lately she wasn't holding too much faith in any promises that her husband made
to her, and the children.
A sudden knock at Lou's back door startles her into
dropping a glass that she had been drying with a towel. The glass shatters across
the floor, and Jimmy bolts into the kitchen thinking that Lou is in danger!
Lou looks up from the floor where she had begun picking up the broken pieces
of glass to see Jimmy standing over her with a worried expression on his face.
"I thought you were in trouble," Jimmy
spoke somewhat out of breath.
He takes Lou's hand as she reaches for his and he
helps Lou up from the floor. Lou places the broken glass down on a kitchen counter.
"I was just picking up the pieces of my shattered
marriage," Lou spoke seriously.
"Kid away again?"
"This ranch, the horses, and Buck get more
of Kid's attention and time than I do."
"Well if it helps at all, I get less of Kid's
time than you do," Jimmy spoke in a joking manner.
Lou rolls her eyes at Jimmy. "Since when do
you and Kid spend time together?"
"That's just my point. Kid never has time for
me," Jimmy spoke trying to console Lou.
Jimmy takes Lou's hand and guides her out of the
kitchen and into the living room. "You need to sit down and relax,"
Jimmy spoke as he forces Lou to sit down on a chair while he takes a seat on
the sofa.
"Why is it that Kid doesn't see that I need
a husband, and not just a man that supports his family well?"
"The ranch grows larger each year, and soon
Kid and Buck will probably hire a few ranch hands to help out. But, until that
day comes Kid and Buck pretty much have to contend with all the work. At least
Kid doesn't have to be a deputy too."
Lou gets up from her chair and walks over to the
sofa where she sits down next to Jimmy. "I need a man that stays home and
tends to the things his wife needs and wants."
Jimmy is taken back by Lou's confession of wanting
and needing a man other than Kid. His own feelings over Hannah's departure have
him torn with mixed emotions on his feelings toward Lou. He would like to act
on what he has felt for her since the day they met, but she is also a married
woman, and that means something more to him than what it ever did before since
being in love with Hannah. The truth is Jimmy realized through Hannah that he
wouldn't want another man compromising Hannah while he where away at work.
Lou decides to take the matter of the pent up passion
between herself and Jimmy into her own hands. She selfishly begins to kiss Jimmy
feverishly not allowing Jimmy to make up his own mind about the passion between
them.
Jimmy can't seem to stop what is happening between
the two of them, and before he can object he finds his clothes as well as Lou's
clothes lying on a heap in front of the sofa, and the two of them engaged in
the desires of sex that have been surfacing between the two of them for quite
a long time.
Fully engaged with making love to a man makes Lou
feel totally whole again even if that man isn't her husband. She replaces her
guilt feeling with the fact that she needs a man to love her occasionally, and
if Kid doesn't want to make love to her than she knows that Jimmy will.
Feeling completely alive again Jimmy doesn't want
to stop the lovemaking that is going on between him and Louise. He knows it
is wrong, and in the morning he'll have regrets, but right now the lovemaking
feels to good to stop.
"God Lou, I want you," Jimmy spoke his
voice husky with passion.
The two entangle their bodies until they are one,
and moans of passion don't stop until morning light comes.
Lou nudges Jimmy awake to get him out of the house
before Rachel brings the children back home from staying overnight with Addison
and Daniel.
"Jimmy, you need to wake-up. Rachel will be
bringing the children home soon."
Jimmy groans, but opens his eyes to see a smiling
Louise in his arms. "I'm glad that I woke up to see you smiling."
"Why wouldn't I be smiling?"
"Last night."
"Don't you mean last night, early morning,
mid-morning, and just an hour ago. I haven't had this much activity in bed since
my wedding night to Kid."
"You don't seem to feel at all upset about
what we did."
"I'm not sorry. I have feelings too Jimmy.
I need a man once in awhile in my bed. Kid has made his choice. He is only in
our bed to sleep not make love. He's too busy making love to this ranch."
"Does that really make it alright for you to
sleep with another man?" Kid spoke tears subsiding to anger from the open
front door of his home.
NEXT
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