“You gonna be all right up there?” he asked.
She laughed. “I’m not one of your mom’s campers, Colt. I’m healthy as a horse. I’ll be fine.”
Colt couldn’t help it if he worried about her. He didn’t want her to fall and get hurt. Not that she appreciated his concern. He turned the football in his hands, finding the laces and placing his hands where he knew they needed to be.
“Go long!” he shouted to Huck, who had already started to run over the uneven terrain, which was dotted with clumps of buffalo grass and an occasional prickly pear cactus.
Colt threw the ball with ease and watched it fall perfectly, gently into Huck’s outstretched hands. Huck did a victory dance and spiked the ball.
“We are the greatest!” Huck shouted, holding his pointed fingers upward on either side of him in the referee’s signal for a touchdown.
They made a pretty good team, Colt conceded. About the best in the state. Both of them would likely be offered athletic scholarships to college. Huck was so rich—his father was a U.S. senator from Texas—he didn’t need a scholarship to pay for college. Colt’s family could easily afford to send him to college, too, but he kept playing football because he had heard it might help him get into the Air Force Academy.
If Huck had wanted to go to the Academy, his dad, the senator, could write a letter and get him appointed. Colt didn’t have that advantage. He would never presume on his friendship with Huck to ask for that kind of favor from Senator Duncan. So he had to find another way to make sure he got in.
Huck retrieved the ball and started walking back toward Colt and Jenny. Colt took advantage of the opportunity to have Jenny’s full attention. “He’s pretty good,” he said, knowing Huck was the one thing Jenny was always willing to discuss.
“He is, isn’t he,” she said, a worried frown forming between her brows.
“Something wrong with that?” Colt asked, leaning his elbow casually on the top rail next to Jenny’s thigh where her cutoffs ended and her flesh began. Casual. Right. His mouth was bone-dry.
“I don’t want him to go away,” she said.
He watched her face as she watched Huck. “You think football will take him away?”
“No. Huck loves football, but I think he’d be willing to attend a college somewhere close just so we could be together. Only…” Her head swiveled suddenly, and she looked him right in the eye. “You’re going to take him away.”
He swallowed hard, his hormones going into overdrive as she continued staring at him. He managed to say, “I am?”
She nodded solemnly. “He’s going to want to follow wherever you go, Colt, and I know your plans don’t include staying here in Texas. I don’t want to get left behind.”
Jenny was dirt-poor, and even if she could have gotten a scholarship to a college somewhere else—which, with her brains, she probably could—she had to stay at the Double D Ranch to help take care of her sick mother and four younger brothers.
“Huck would never leave you behind,” Colt said seriously.
“He might not have any choice. Not if he went off to fly jets somewhere with you.”
Colt felt angry, vulnerable and exposed. “How did you know about that? About me wanting to fly jets?”
She shrugged and slipped down off the top rail of the corral. “Huck and I don’t have any secrets.”
“He shouldn’t have told you,” Colt said, feeling his heart begin to thud at the closeness of her. He wanted her to step back so he could breathe, so he could think straight. Didn’t she see what she was doing to him? “That was private information,” he snapped. “It doesn’t concern you.”
Her fisted hands found her hips. “It does when Huck is thinking about going with you.”
“I never asked him to come along,” he retorted.
“Hey, you two! What’re my two favorite people arguing about?” Huck said, grinning as he stepped between them and slipped an arm around each of their shoulders. Colt stood rigid beneath his arm. Huck still had the football in one hand, and Colt knocked it to the ground.
“Ask your girlfriend,” he said, bending to retrieve the ball and pulling free of Huck’s arm. “I’ve got to go find Mac Macready. I’m supposed to throw some passes to him this morning.”
Huck left Jenny standing where she was and headed after Colt. “Macready’s really here? I mean, I heard rumors in town he was, but I wasn’t sure. You’re really going to throw some balls to him?”
“I said I was, didn’t I?” Colt stopped where he was and looked back over Huck’s shoulder to where Jenny stood abandoned. Her expression said it all.
See what I mean? You lead. Huck follows.
It wasn’t his fault. It had always been that way. If Jenny didn’t like it, she didn’t have to hang around. Colt turned back to Huck.
Huck’s sandy hair had fallen over his brow and into his eyes. His rarely combed hair, combined with his ski-slope nose and freckled cheeks and broad smile, gave him an affable appearance he deserved. Huck didn’t make enemies. He wouldn’t have hurt a fly. Colt was sure he hadn’t meant to hurt Jenny’s feelings. Huck just forgot to be thoughtful sometimes.
“What about Jenny?” Colt asked.
“Hey, Jenny,” Huck called. “You want to hang around and meet Mac Macready?”
Jenny shook her head.
“See? She’s not interested,” Huck said. “But I am.”
Colt sighed. “You want to stay?” he asked Huck.
“Does a cowboy wear spurs?” Huck replied with a lopsided grin.
They headed for the counselor’s cottage where Mac was staying, leaving Jenny behind at the corral. Colt glanced over his shoulder at her. It looked for a moment like she might follow them. Then she turned to where her horse was tied to the corral next to Huck’s, mounted up and loped the gelding in the direction of her family’s ranch.
“You shouldn’t ignore Jenny like that,” Colt said, turning back to Huck.
Huck seemed to notice suddenly that she had left. “What did I do?” He shook his head. “Women. They’re mysterious creatures, old buddy. Don’t ever try to understand them. It’s a waste of time.”
“Why did you tell her about me wanting to fly?” Colt asked.
Huck looked chagrined. “We were talking about the future and…it just came up.”
“Make sure it doesn’t come up again,” Colt said. “That’s my business, and I don’t want the whole world knowing about it.” Especially when he was afraid he wasn’t going to be able to make his dream come true.
“Jenny isn’t the whole world,” Huck argued. “She’s my girlfriend. I have to tell her things.”
