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Chapter Four

T hat afternoon, the group arrived in town. Bernadette thought for sure they were going to avoid towns since Blaze wasn’t all that happy about the idea of staying at a hotel, but Lucas was insistent on having a bath and some privacy with Gail. So, in the end, they ended up entering the town.

After they checked into a hotel, Lucas took Gail’s hand and told the others, “Gail and I will meet you at the restaurant across the street in an hour.”

“Don’t you want to wait until after we eat to take a bath?” Bernadette asked her brother. Growing up, he never bathed first.

“It’s alright, Bernadette,” Zeke inserted on her brother’s behalf.

“We are in town at five in the afternoon. There are a lot of people still around. You don’t need a chaperone.

” He gave Lucas a nod. “We’ll go to that mercantile we passed on the way in to gather supplies. We’ll see you and Gail in an hour.”

Lucas whisked Gail off toward their room before Gail had a chance to say anything.

Bernadette glanced between Blaze and Zeke. She wasn’t sure how she felt about being stuck with them. Yes, she was excited by the prospect of getting a chance to talk to Blaze, but Zeke was going to be with them. That didn’t exactly put things in a romantic light.

“The mercantile is that way.” Blaze pointed in the direction from which they came into town. “We don’t have much time to get items before the store closes. We also need to get more bullets and some targets while we’re here.”

At first, Bernadette thought he was talking to her, but when she noted that he was looking directly at Zeke, she realized this shopping trip was more about the two of them getting ready for the impending confrontation with Lee and Wilson.

She glanced back in the direction Lucas had taken Gail.

Why was it necessary she join Blaze and Zeke?

She’d have more fun talking to Gail about the clothes ladies wore out here than buying food and ammunition.

It might even be fun to pick out a new dress.

She couldn’t do that with these two men.

Shopping for clothes was never fun with men around.

Blaze cupped his hand under Bernadette’s elbow. A pleasant warmth swept over her, and she left the hotel with him and Zeke. Perhaps the afternoon’s excursion to the mercantile and ammunition store wasn’t going to be so terrible after all.

On their way along the dusty street, Zeke gestured to a couple of Wanted posters. “They upped the reward for Lee and Wilson. It used to be $5,000. Now it’s $10,000.”

“You aren’t capturing them for the money,” Blaze replied. “You’re doing it because it’s the right thing.”

Zeke’s eyes grew wide. “I’m not expecting to make any money. I’m a deputy.” He pointed to his badge. “Lawmen don’t take money for apprehending outlaws. We apprehend outlaws because we want to protect and serve the innocent.”

Bernadette blinked. That was surprisingly selfless of him to say. She didn’t know why, but she had expected his motives to be more self-serving since he had done all that bragging to the sheriff in the other town about helping Blaze with Bower, Big Mike, and Squiggy.

She wasn’t the only one who was surprised, for Blaze said, “Oh. I didn’t know that about lawmen.”

“Are you doing this for the money?” Zeke asked Blaze.

“Of course not. I’m doing this so more women don’t lose their husbands and so that more children don’t lose their fathers,” Blaze replied.

Zeke let out a grunt.

“You don’t like that answer?” Blaze asked.

“The answer is fine. It just came out better than what I said.” Zeke turned from her and Blaze and continued to the mercantile.

Bernadette noted the resigned tone in Zeke’s voice.

That was strange. Gail had told her that all Zeke did was brag about how much he accomplished.

God knew Bernadette wasn’t the biggest fan of Zeke.

But, just now, she sensed something about him that she didn’t think Gail had.

Disappointment. Was it possible that Zeke was disappointed with himself in some way?

Granted, he had a reason to be disappointed.

He should have done more to help Blaze at the canyon.

Perhaps he realized that, too. But if so, why did he act as if he had done more?

She didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know him well enough to figure him out.

All she knew was that she was ready to eat and have a bath before she slept in a bed.

After spending so much time outdoors, she was ready to be in a hotel room for the night.

If it were up to her, Lee and Wilson wouldn’t even be going around Arizona, causing so much terror.

She would rather be on her way to Blaze’s ranch right now.

But alas, they had yet to exchange vows.

She could understand his sense of honor but thought it might be nice if he’d mention stopping by to see a preacher or a judge while in town.

They were betrothed. Why not at least marry?

She had a feeling that if Lucas was in Blaze’s position and Gail was in hers, Lucas would take the time to marry Gail while they were in town.

Look at how eager he was to run off to spend some time alone with her.

Couldn’t Blaze marry her and then chase Lee and Wilson down?

“Why don’t you pick out a couple of things that you want?” Blaze suggested once they stepped into the mercantile. “I’ll go with Zeke to the counter. I want to see if they sell bullets here.”

Bernadette nodded and watched as he went to join Zeke. Zeke glanced in her direction, and she caught the flicker of interest in his eyes. He turned his attention to Blaze before she had a chance to react. Blaze started talking to the man behind the counter.

It seemed like Zeke had finally settled into his role of being second to Blaze. All one had to do was look at the two of them to know that Zeke couldn’t compare to Blaze. Blaze was taller, stronger, better looking, more experienced, and… Well, he was just more everything than Zeke was.

She gave a slight shake of her head then picked up a basket and started to make her way through the store.

“Do you think we’re making a mistake by stopping in town for the night?” Zeke whispered to Blaze as the owner of the shop went to the back of the store to get bullets for them.

“You’re not ready to confront men like Lee and Wilson,” Blaze replied. “We can use this time to work on target practice.”

“I’m competent with a gun. You even said so when you had me practice earlier.”

“You’re competent when you’re relaxed. This evening, we’re going to practice while you’re faced with difficult situations.”

Zeke’s eyebrows furrowed. “What kind of difficult situations?”

“I can’t let you know what those are.” When Zeke frowned, Blaze added, “If you know what to expect, we’ll lose the element of surprise, and we need that element to help strengthen your skills.

We have no idea what to expect when we catch up to Lee and Wilson.

We have to get you ready for as much as we can.

I just hope we aren’t making a mistake by spending the night in town. ”

“It’s important to Lucas that he gets to spend some time alone with Gail,” Zeke replied.

Though Blaze offered a nod, Zeke got the impression he didn’t agree with him.

If Zeke had just married a lovely young woman, he would want to spend as much time alone with her as possible, and the best place to do that was in a hotel room.

He drummed his fingers on the counter. Did he dare ask the question pressing on his mind?

He gave a quick look in Bernadette’s direction.

She picked up a comb and put it in the basket.

He had no chance with her. As much as he wanted to think he did, he didn’t.

Women like Bernadette picked men like Blaze.

It pained him to no end whenever he thought of Blaze marrying Bernadette, but the sooner he knew when the wedding was going to take place, the sooner he could deal with it.

“Are you going to marry Bernadette while we’re in town?” he asked.

Blaze, who had turned his attention to the satchels hanging on the wall nearby, shook his head. “There isn’t time.”

Zeke’s eyes grew wide. It was ridiculous that Blaze didn’t think he had time to marry Bernadette when Lucas and Gail had time to be alone in their hotel room. Zeke knew for a fact that preachers could rush a wedding ceremony.

His ma and pa were married in under five minutes.

Zeke’s grandparents had not approved the union and were close to stopping them.

If he recalled right, the preacher only had time to state the basics about staying together for “better and poorer no matter what” before his ma’s father came bounding up the steps of the preacher’s house.

But the preacher had announced they were husband and wife right at the exact moment when her father opened the door.

The rest of their relatives came flooding into the house after that, and after the preacher managed to calm everyone down, he gave everyone something to eat.

It was a good thing, too, because during the meal, they realized the families had been feuding over something that neither side was responsible for.

It turned out to be another family who had swindled both of them.

His ma used to laugh about it whenever she told him the story.

“I think we should get you a satchel,” Blaze told Zeke, interrupting his thoughts.

Zeke forced his attention on Blaze. “I don’t want another satchel. The one I have belonged to my pa.”

“But the seams holding it together are coming apart.”

Zeke studied the satchel attached to his bedroll. “My ma will sew that when I get back to Flagstaff.”

Blaze seemed as if he wanted to argue, but then he relented. “Is that the only thing you have left of your pa?”

“No, but it’s the one thing I can carry around with me.”

Blaze took another look at it. “I suppose I can stitch it up.”

“But my ma takes care of that.”

“She can do it in the future. We should take care of that now. You don’t want to risk things slipping out of it while we’re searching for outlaws.”

As much as Zeke hated to admit it, Blaze was right.

While Blaze would do the stitching differently from his ma, Zeke couldn’t afford to lose his shaving kit, his bullets, and the picture of his parents that’d been taken only a year after their marriage.

His ma had been expecting him at the time, so, in a way, he was in the picture, too.

“Alright, go on and take it.” Zeke turned his back so Blaze could untie the satchel from his bedroll. “But please be careful with it.”

“I will.” Blaze smiled at him. “I can appreciate the love you have for your parents. You’re fortunate that at least your ma is still around.”

Zeke nodded. Yes, he was fortunate. He never took that for granted.

The owner of the store came out with a box of bullets for Blaze’s gun and a box for Zeke’s gun. “Will there be anything else?”

Blaze gestured to Bernadette, who was putting something into the basket. “Just whatever she brings up here.” Blaze left the counter and went over to her.

Zeke still couldn’t understand why Blaze wasn’t making arrangements to marry her.

When he and Blaze asked Lucas and Gail to come along on this trip, he had hoped that Bernadette might change her mind about marrying Blaze.

In his mind, he had this image of her deciding to marry him because she’d be impressed with how much he did for others and because she enjoyed talking to him.

It had been a fool’s fantasy. He should have known that.

No one compared to Blaze. Blaze was perfect.

Zeke just wanted to get the wedding between Blaze and Bernadette over with so he’d stop holding on to that sliver of hope that she might, for whatever strange reason, pick him.

He released his breath then selected some candy to add to the purchase.

Even if things looked bleak, he could still enjoy a sweet treat.