Arizona Territory Read Online Free

don’t know if God helps fornicators, but he surely sent you to me.”
    â€œYou are not disappointed?” She stood up and he grabbed a bucket of warm water to rinse her off. With the water pouring over her, she looked like a drowning urchin.
    She reached for a towel to dry herself off. “Your turn.”
    He was soon in the tub, and she used a washcloth on his back. “Now that I can see you, you are a very big man.”
    â€œDoes my size scare you?”
    â€œNo.”
    He shook his head. “Tell me why I’m not embarrassed to death with you here, and me naked, taking a bath?”
    â€œThe Mexican people have a saying, ‘What is to be, is to be.’”
    When he finished, she wore a robe and sat on the cot.
    â€œOur day is fading fast. Maybe I am a silly girl you have found. Would you find a blanket after the dance is over tonight and take me to a haystack?”
    â€œNothing is ever silly in a serious relationship.”
    â€œI don’t want you to remember taking me on a fainting couch. You are such an outdoors man, I want you to remember me when you are feeding your horses, being under the stars, going to bed on the ground.”
    â€œTell me how bad you were offended when you asked me about the horse offer?”
    â€œIf I thought for an instant that you wanted me only for my body, I would never do this. It would have broken my heart. But you didn’t know me then. I didn’t know you. I also know now what your wife knew. You are a helluva bighearted man who, if you choose me, I will have to share with the world, but in the pages between, our lives will be rich. I must tell you in the four years of my married life I never bore him a son or daughter—”
    â€œI entered my last marriage like that. Yet we were blessed with Adam.”
    â€œHis name is Adam, you said?”
    He nodded, then adjusted the small mirror on the tent pole and went to shaving. “You have your address on the card? I wrote my wife tons of letters.”
    â€œYes, mail will find me. I will feel very important, getting letters from you.”
    â€œDon’t expect poetry.”
    She laughed. ”I am still thinking about the butterfly comment you said to me.”
    He squinted in the mirror and shaved his upper lip. “Just suited the occasion.”
    â€œWhat will you do tomorrow?”
    â€œRide over to Rancho Diablo and see my nephew, JD, and his wife, Bonnie.”
    â€œHow long will you be gone?”
    â€œA day to go, a couple days to look everything over, and a day to come back. You’re welcome to come along.”
    She shook her head. “If I spent another day with you, you would never be able to get rid of me. I need to go home and be sure everything is working. It does well, but I am still the one who must run it. You understand? You have all those ranches.”
    â€œYes, I do.”
    â€œI am wearing a simple blue dress tonight—for you to unwrap later.”
    â€œFine, I am highly honored.”
    â€œNo. If you find a better woman I can always say, I had him one wonderful, sunny, warm day, down on the Santa Cruz River.” She drew a deep breath. “I feel like a dust devil who has been swept across the desert floor all day, whirling and dancing in a mad trip. May I burn candles in the chapel for your safety?”
    â€œSure, keep me in your prayers. You’ll be in mine.”
    After they finished dressing, she stood beside him, ready to go out to the festivities, and she patted his shoulder. “This has been one of the greatest days in my life, hombre .”
    â€œMine, too. I’m going to call you Liz.”
    â€œFine. I will know who is calling me. No one ever called me that in my life.” He kissed her. Strange, how wonderful things in life simply happened when least expected.

C HAPTER 3
    When he and Cole and Jesus arrived at the Diablo Ranch the next evening, he was still looking back once in a while