Line of Fire. Julie Leto
the meeting to order. He, his brother, Clayt, and their friend, Wyatt McCully, had been instrumental in placing the original ad in the local papers luring women to Jasper Gulch. All three of them were married now, Luke and Wyatt to the first two women who’d moved here, and Clayt, to Jasper Gulch’s own Melody McCully. The remaining sixty-some bachelors had done a lot of bellyaching about that, but then, a lot of those local boys did a lot of bellyaching about just about everything.
The meeting went surprisingly fast. It wasn’t because the fine folks of Jasper Gulch were especially agreeable tonight. Sky had seen more than one man’s face turn red beneath the tan line where a dusty Stetson normally sat. They were on their best behavior. Sky suspected it had to do with their readiness to bring on the main attraction.
He wondered what they would do if the rumor that Meredith was going to be here tonight turned out to be false. Sky happened to glance over his shoulder. The meeting went on around him, but he didn’t participate. The Jasper Gulch grapevine was batting a thousand, as usual. Meredith stood near the door, looking straight ahead, her throat convulsing as if she were nervous. It was strange, because his first impression of her hadn’t been of a shy woman. His first impression had been of an enchantress who knew her own mind, what she liked and what she wanted. She’d wanted him. Being wanted by a woman like her had been a heady sensation. A dangerous, heady sensation.
Luke pounded the table with his gavel again. “Before we adjourn, Jayne Stryker has somebody she’d like you all to meet.”
“Finally.”
“It’s about time.”
“I’ll say.”
Chairs creaked as the majority of the men sat up straighter. A few hardy paunches were sucked in, belts were adjusted, and everyone generally tried hard to look casual. As far as Sky was concerned, they tried a little too hard.
Jayne strolled to the front of the room. The woman had a walk that could stop traffic and a mouth that could, and had, singed the hairs of a good many of the local boys’ ears. “Folks,” she said, smiling wryly, fully aware that her quick wit and business savvy were exactly what this town needed. “It’s nice to see so many people who care about their community.” And then she launched into a lengthy update on the progress she was making setting up a mail-order catalog business in the old five-and-dime building. The members of the Ladies Aid Society listened with rapt attention. The boys fidgeted like the congregation on Palm Sunday.
Sky glanced at Meredith, and saw that she was shaking her head and smiling at Jayne as if they shared a private joke. With a wink and a slight movement of her head that prompted Meredith to stroll toward the front of the room, Jayne said, “Everybody, this is Meredith Warner, Logan and Olivia’s aunt. I’m sure all of you have heard she’s opening an antique slash furniture store in town. I invited her to stop by tonight to tell you a little about it. I hope you don’t mind staying a few minutes longer.”
Mind? It was what the men were here for.
Meredith turned to face the crowd. She wet her lips, a serious mistake, unless it had been her intention to jump-start the men’s fantasies.
“As Jayne said, I’m nearly ready to open my furniture, antiques and home furnishings store two doors down. I’m excited about that, but to tell you the truth, standing up here talking about it makes me nervous.”
“Imagine us naked,” one of the younger bachelors murmured just loud enough for her to hear.
“Oh, no,” she said, staring Ben Jacobs down. “I’m not going there. Nobody is going to imagine anybody naked.”
She glanced around the room sternly, as if to make her point. Sky wondered if he’d imagined that her gaze had settled on him for an instant longer than on anybody else. He wasn’t imagining the change in the beating rhythm of his heart.
“As I was saying. I’ve worked in several different fields in order to make ends meet over the years. That’s the funny thing about not knowing what you want to be when you grow up. You learn a lot about life and hone a lot of different skills in your quest to find your niche. Until moving here, I spent four years working as an interior designer for a large store in Minneapolis. Before that I was a seam-stress, an upholsterer and a painter—of houses, not art—although to me, every house is its own work of art.”
So, Sky thought, she was a midwesterner. That explained her accent. He wondered where she’d acquired her class, because that kind of poise didn’t come from any one place or from doing odd jobs like sewing or painting.
The fan in the corner stirred her hair. There wasn’t a man in the room who wasn’t mesmerized by the movement of those silky tresses, the style of her trim, ankle-length skirt, and the fit of her sleeveless blouse. And no matter what she said, Sky doubted there was a man in the place who wasn’t imagining what she would look like out of it. She wasn’t buxom, but she had curves in all the right places, curves he’d memorized with his hands, and lips and…
“…and I’m hoping to hire an apprentice or two to help me with the reupholstering and sewing.”
Chairs creaked as a dozen hands shot into the air. The sudden hubbub drew Sky from his daydream.
Meredith had relaxed, as if enjoying the easy camaraderie with the people of Jasper Gulch. “Sorry,” she said. “I’d prefer to interview women.”
“Now ain’t that a little prejudiced?” Ben Jacobs asked playfully.
“Mertyl?” Jayne Stryker sputtered, stepping closer to Meredith. “Raise two fingers like this.” When the little gray-haired lady had done so, Jayne said, “Now whack Ben upside the head with them for me, would you, please?”
There was a distinctive slap, followed by a pitifully unconvincing “Ow,” followed by a roomful of grins.
“The purpose of Meredith’s and my endeavors,” Jayne said, brown eyes flashing, “is to create new jobs for our local girls, so that they might have options other than becoming a rancher’s wife right out of high school or moving to the city where there are better job prospects. Now, does anybody have a question for Meredith?”
“Are you married?”
“I mean concerning her store,” Jayne insisted. “You’re living in the apartment over the store, aren’t you?”
“What’s your phone number?”
Jayne threw up her hands.
“Care to see a show with me?”
“How about dinner?”
The questions rang out from every corner of the room with dizzying speed, making it difficult for Meredith to know which one to address first. The ad had said the bachelors of Jasper Gulch were shy but willing. An updated version would have to say they were more willing than shy. Still, they were delightful.
Before she’d opened her mouth to let them down easy, an old man whose thumbs were hooked in his suspenders exclaimed, “You boys can be a little more original than that. Why, you asked Jillian and Lisa those same dang questions at a meeting just like this one three years ago.”
“I’ve got one,” Ben Jacobs exclaimed as he scooted as far away from Mertyl Gentry as he could get. “Forget dating and marry me.”
“A public marriage proposal has been done, too,” Luke Carson said, tapping his palm with the gavel.
“You all remember what happened the night Wes Stryker went down on one knee and asked Louetta Graham to be his wife,” old Doc Masey declared. “Wes didn’t fare so well.”
They all shook their heads forlornly, all except Wes and Louetta, who were now both happily married, only not to each other.
“Listen,” Meredith said, holding up one hand. “I didn’t come to Jasper Gulch in answer to your advertisement.”
“You didn’t?”
She shook her head. “I came here because this is where my niece