You’re not exactly keeping me in silk and silver, and she’s a nice enough lady. A little sad about the eyes, if you ask me, but not so much that you think she’s about to burst into tears if you look at her sideways.”
“Huh.”
That was enough of a prompt for Rose to go on. “I never heard anything that wasn’t gossip and speculation because Miss Bailey likes to keep to herself, but my girls spin a good tale about her pining away. They’re fanciful in that regard, especially on a slow day.”
“Is that right?”
Rose ignored that. “Anyway, if you came around more, I might not like seein’ you go, but the way it is now, it’d be all right if you put your hat in the ring for Miss Bailey’s affections. She’s not going to stop making dresses just because she gets married, so I’m thinkin’ that’ll be all right, too. And she does keep me in silk and silver, though, God knows, I pay a pretty price for it.”
“You’re the best-dressed woman in Reidsville,” Wyatt said. “Probably in Colorado.”
She laughed. “When I’m wearing clothes.”
“There’s nothing wrong with your birthday suit, but Miss Bailey does right by you.”
Rose thought it was an odd thing for him to say. Not the first, but the second. She’d never have guessed his watchful, predatory eyes noticed the cut of a woman’s gown or the color of her threads. “You’re a peculiar sort of fellow, aren’t you, Wyatt?”
Though only one side of his mouth lifted, what he offered his companion was most definitely a grin. “I never thought about it.”
“Well, I’m telling you, you are. I’ve known you, what? Five years?”
“Something like that.”
She simply shook her head. “Peculiar.” Before she could elaborate, she saw Rachel Bailey step out of the telegraph office. “Oh, there she is.”
“Mmm.”
“Looks like her packages came.”
“Looks like.”
“She’s juggling an armful. Might be she could use an extra pair of hands.”
“Might be she should have taken Artie up on his offer to help her.”
“Now, how do you know he offered to tote those home for her?”
“He always offers. She always refuses.”
Rose gave him another sideways glance. “You been askin’ after her.”
Wyatt didn’t confirm or deny her claim.
Sighing softly, Rose changed the subject. “I hope she’s got the peacock-blue sateen in one of those. That’s for me.”
“I thought it might be.”
“Adele’s been waiting for the Belgian lace. She’s been pining for that trim on a nightgown since Miss Bailey showed her a sample.”
“She sews for your girls, too?”
“Sure she does. Pays to have them lookin’ real nice. Like I said, if you dropped in more than once in a blue moon, you probably would have realized it. Where have you been anyway?”
“Around.”
“Not in town, not so folks have seen you much. You leave that no-account Beatty boy in charge. What do you suppose he’d do if there was trouble?”
“Same as me. And you shouldn’t call him that.”
Rose rolled her eyes at his rebuke. “Why not? You do. Everyone does.”
“Everyone else doesn’t say it with the same mean edge that you do.”
“I’m sure you misheard. Is it all right with you if I call him a boy?”
Wyatt drew back and regarded Rose with interest. “Are you sweet on him?”
“Sweet on him? Didn’t I just say he was a boy?”
“He’s twenty-seven. Seems about the right age for a man.”
“No man as far as I can tell, and my girls have been wonderin’ the same. We’re thinkin’ he’s sweet on you, Wyatt Cooper, and that explains why he never visits us.”
Wyatt considered all the responses he could make to the particulars of that statement. “Well,” he said slowly, “I suppose that’s a compliment. Will’s a real fine-looking young man.”
“You’ve only got five years on him, Wyatt.”
“But a lot more time in the saddle.”
“That’s what I mean. No one doubted you were a man at twenty-seven. Will’s still got pink in his cheeks and green behind his ears.”
Wyatt settled his hip against the rail and folded his arms across his chest. “Will does all right for himself, Rose. He likes Denver women just fine.”
“Denver women?” Her dark eyebrows arched dramatically. “Whores, you mean. What’s he doin’, goin’ to Denver? What’s wrong with my girls?”
“Did I say he was bedding whores?”
“There’s no respectable women in Denver that aren’t married. Is he seeing a married woman?”
“No.”
“Ha! Then he’s bedding down in the tenderloin.”
Wyatt laughed. “Is it losing his business that bothers you or something else? Maybe I was wrong about you not having a jealous bone.”
Rose’s mouth flattened. “As if I’d give him the time of day.”
“Maybe not, but you’d wind his clock.”
Pushing away from the rail, Rose spun around and jerked her chin in the direction of the departing Rachel Bailey. “Shouldn’t you be trailing after her skirts?”
Having riled her sufficiently to make his point, he merely gave her his laziest half grin. “I know where she’s going.”
Rose fingered Wyatt’s suspender from his waist to his shoulder. In case the gesture wasn’t obvious to him, she offered a coy come-on. “What about me? Do you know where I’m going?”
“I have a pretty good idea.”
She abandoned the suspender strap in favor of taking a fistful of his shirttail. “Why don’t we see if you’re right?”
Offering no resistance, Wyatt allowed Rose to lead him back inside her fancy house and into her fancier bed. They were satisfied, as they always were, to make good use of each other.
Rachel Bailey dropped one of
