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“Well you can say good-bye here and now!” Slade turned his fury on Natalie “Back in high school, everybody knew you were doing it with hiain—”
“Stop it, Slade!” Natalie exploded “Don’t be an idiot! We weren’t even alone! Lute was there the whole tio in and ask him”
Beau saw the big man pause, as if hesitant to call his wife’s bluff Then Slade took a fir to the house to say hello to all those fine folks together”
“Not now” She twisted away fro to my car I’ll see you at home”
“No, you don’t” His big fist locked around her arain “They saw me arrive alone I want them to see that you’re with me now”
This tiue She walked beside her husband across the ht, her small chin thrust forward, her dark curls ruffled by the breeze as he marched her toward the ranch house
Beau watched the to his jacket He hadn’t planned to stir up old memories or cause trouble between Natalie and her husband Yet co to the barn with her had done just that
Turning away, Beau gazed ard, to the escarp bed of the canyon A golden eagle, riding an updraft, soared above the Caprock where the high plain began The scene was one of peace and beauty But the tension in Beau’s gut wouldn’t go away Holding Natalie in his arer had the right to feel
Inside the barn, Lute Fletcher smiled to himself and pushed the shovel under the last bit of dirty straw and manure A man would have to be damned near deaf not to overhear every word of the confrontation that had just taken place right outside the barn door—just as he would have to be damned near blind not to see the near embrace between Beau Tyler and Slade Haskell’s wife And Lute Fletcher was far fro deaf or blind
As he tossed the shovelful of debris onto the mound already in the wheelbarrow, he wondered if that little scene he had witnessed between Beau and Natalie et hiraces, because he sure as hell was tired of ust with the job at hand, Lute let go of the shovel, letting it fall against the stall’s wooden partition instead of propping it up It clattered onto the cees of the barn door opening again
Figuring it was Beau Tyler co back in, Lute reached for the wheelbarrow handles It wasn’t Beau alked in, but Lute’s older cousin Sky Fletcher Lute ran a ski the crisp white shirt he wore tucked into a pair of dark, belted jeans, a silver and turquoise bolo tie around his neck A dressy, tan Stetson covered ht-black hair
Sharp blue eyes briefly locked their attention on Lute “I thought you’d be finished in here by now,” Sky stated even as he angled toward the stall with the pregnant mare inside it
“Almost” Lute couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice over being stuck with such a menial task “That lady vet was just here checkin’ on the mare”
“I know I spoke to her outside”
The longer he looked at Sky in his clean clothes, knowing how much his own srew—until it spilled out “Don’t see why I gotta work on the day the big boss got buried”