Friends and Enemies Read Online Free Page B

they won’t fall for that forever,” Jamie Sue lectured.
    â€œCan you imagine what life’s going to be like when Veronica and Patricia are sixteen?” he said.
    â€œYou’ll have solid-gray hair, Robert Fortune, just like your father.”
    â€œAnd Sammy. He’s been gray since he was twenty-five.” Robert took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We haven’t all lived in the same place since . . . since Mama died.”
    Jamie Sue stretched her arms out and could feel stiffness and pain at the base of her back after several days on the train. “I predict you’ll make a quick adjustment.”
    â€œHow about you?”
    â€œI’m looking forward to settling in. But I’ll have to get used to it,” she admitted. “I’ll be only one of many Mrs. Fortunes. Rebekah is the queen. Abby’s the one with stunning looks, . . . and Dacee June . . . well, there is no one on earth like Dacee June Fortune Toluca.”
    â€œThe whole family is defined by our relationship with Lil’ Sis, aren’t we?” Robert concurred.
    â€œYes, and I’m just not quite sure where that leaves me.” She stood and rested her hands on her lower back. “Where do I fit in?”
    Robert pulled her over toward his knees, tugged her around, then began kneading his thumbs into her lower back. “You’re my darlin’ Jamie Sue, the original heartthrob of the Black Hills. There wasn’t a prospector in ’75 who didn’t stare at that handbill of yours and dream,” Robert grinned.
    â€œThat was a long, long time ago.” She flinched. “Just a little higher.”
    â€œNot for me, it wasn’t,” he replied. “It seems like yesterday that I came through that blizzard on the prairie and you bushwhacked me. How’s that?”
    â€œBushwhacked you? You wrestled me to the ground, and we hadn’t even been introduced. Oh, yes . . . right there . . . oh my, I think I’m in heaven,” she moaned as he continued the massage.
    â€œWrestled you to the ground? You tried to bust my skull!”
    She sat on his knee as they laughed.
    â€œWe’ve been bushwhackin’ and wrestlin’ ever since, haven’t we?” He slipped his arms around her.
    She leaned her back against his chest. “Are you bragging or complaining, Robert Fortune?”
    â€œI am continually amazed that a woman of your beauty and charm ever wanted to put up with the likes of me.”
    â€œAre you trying to sweet-talk me like you do the twins?” she pressed.
    â€œDid it work?”
    â€œYes, it did.” She turned her head back and kissed his narrow, slightly chapped lips. Then she scooted over on the log next to him and surveyed the crowd until she spotted her daughters. “But I’ll never know how in the world you three Fortune boys turned out to be such smooth talkers growing up with Daddy Brazos’s rough, blunt ways.”
    â€œAh, Jamie Sue, you never knew our Mama.”
    Some of the passengers had pulled out dinner baskets and were picnicking on the hillside by the time the sheriff and his men drove up. They brought a doctor, two train officials, a buckboard wagon, and several outriders with them.
    Robert spent a half-hour explaining the entire capture scene to the lawman and officials of the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad. Soon after, the engine was stoked, the whistle sounded, and the livestock and passengers, including the Fortunes, were reloaded.
    â€œHis name is Harold McGinnis, but everyone calls him Curly Mac,” Veronica reported, her lace-up boots dancing with each word.
    Patricia bit her lower lip. “He’s almost as old as Little Frank.”
    â€œHe used to live in El Paso.”
    â€œAnd Las Cruces.”
    â€œAnd Santa Fe,” Veronica added.
    â€œAnd Durango,” Patricia blurted out.
    â€œAnd