Page 68 of Repentance and Absolution

He put his hands on his hips. “Well, ain’t you somethin’.” He stood up straighter then and tipped the brim of his hat forward. When he spoke, his voice was low and lazy.

“Hello, my name’s Jimmy Downing, and I grew up in the wilderness and ran with outlaws and now I’m the sharpest shooter in the West. Nobody can match me.”

I couldn’t help smiling, and Irene laughed outright as Clarence chuckled.

“Oh, you got him down,” Irene said. “That’s Jimmy, sure enough.”

I hoped they were joking.

Then I saw a smile under that tipped-down brim and sure enough, Oscar peeked at me from underneath it with so much mischief in his gaze that I coulda bottled and sold it.

“That’s very amusin’.”

“Ain’t it?” Oscar grinned and shucked off his boots, then walked o’er and flung himself onto my lap. I had to move the bridle I was working on and grumbled a bit as I made room.

“Maybe I ain’t as good a shot as you, Jimmy, but I reckon I’ll learn to be if I keep practicing.”

“Hmm. Maybe.”

“Awe, Jimmy. Come on and kiss me.”

I felt the heat in my cheeks as Clarence cleared his throat and Irene giggled.

“Not in front of everyone.”

“What? Why?” Oscar said, as if he couldn’t make any sense of it. “’Tis only Clarence and Irene.”

“He’s right, Jimmy,” Irene said. “We don’t care what the two of you do together in front of us, so long as you keep your trousers on.” She looked deliberately at Oscar. “Both of you.”

“Well, hell, you ain’t no fun, Irene.” Oscar stuck his tongue out at her, and Irene did the same. They were two peas in a pod, for certain.

“Jimmy and I were just discussing the wedding,” Irene said.

“Oh yeah? Well, there ain’t gonna be one if he don’t kiss me…right now.”

“Fine.”

I rolled my eyes, then cupped Oscar’s chin and planted my lips on his, forcing his mouth open and giving him what he’d asked for, and more. When we pulled apart, he stared at me with an expression of surprise so comical that I had to laugh.

“What? That’s what you wanted, right?”

He wiped his lips with the back of his trembling hand as he nodded. “Um, Jimmy, you reckon there’s some things we need to attend to at our place this afternoon?”

I blinked. I knew just what things he was referring to, and I supposed we probablydidneed to attend to them.

I cleared my throat. “Oh. Yeah, that’s true. I oughta— I mean, we need to—”

“The wedding?” Irene said, her hands on her hips and eyes raised, though I could see the amusement on her face.

“And I need my settee back, if you don’t mind,” Clarence said, moving stiffly into the room as Oscar and I scrambled to get up.

“Irene, could we maybe talk about the wedding tomorrow?” Oscar pleaded. I could see he was eager to be alone with me, and that made me a little desperate, too.

Irene rolled her eyes. “Fine. Go and have your fun. Clarence and I will pretend we don’t know exactly what you’re doing over there.”

My mouth dropped open, and Oscar looked shocked.

“B-but…how c-can you—?” Oscar stuttered.