While Gena was waiting on Johnny for lunch at the cafe, Brad joined her.  She was always happy to see him.  He was more educated than most around these parts and she enjoyed their little verbal skirmishes.  She wasn’t so happy when his sister sat down at their table.   Caroline always acted like she’d been Johnny’s girl before Gena came to town although truth to tell Johnny, who had no trouble finding girls to take out, had never paid Caroline any mind.

    Gena and Johnny didn’t have any plans; she just figured he’d be along.  Over the past few months, they’d kind of gotten in the habit of both wandering in here around noon if they were both free.  She was hungry and didn’t worry about starting to eat without him.  If he came late, she could just linger over dessert while he ate.

    About fifteen minutes into a chat with Brad, he suddenly said, “Would you like to go to the dance with me Saturday night?”

    She looked back at him with no particular surprise.  “Now Brad, you know I’ll be going to that dance with Johnny.”

    “Has he asked you?”  Brad persisted.

    “Not in particular I guess, but he will.”

    “Kind of taking you for granted isn’t he?  It’s already Wednesday.”

    “If Wednesday is late, shouldn’t you be making an effort to be selecting the lucky girl who gets to go with you.  She might have given up and decided to settle for some lesser mortal by now.”  Gena knew Brad never had a problem with girls.  He was educated, well-mannered, reasonably well off and very good looking.  Different type than Johnny, a little flashier she supposed.

    Brad persisted.  “You’re the only one I want to go with special.  What are you doing sticking with that uneducated deputy?  You can’t have anything to talk about with him.”

    Gena refused to rise to that bait.  She just answered calmly, “Watch it Brad.  You’re on shaky ground there.  Johnny’s not some kind of illiterate.  He’s not as educated as you, but he has a way of picking the right way of things.  His handle on things is just as valuable as yours in a different way.”

    “You in love with him then?”

    Gena didn’t answer.

    Brad pounced on that.  “If you were, you’d have answered ‘yes’ right away.  I’d say I shouldn’t give up yet.”

    Gena reached over and put her hand on Brad’s forearm in a gesture that was part casual affection and part warning.

    “Well, Brad, let me put it this way.  Love isn’t something you can just put a label on right away.   What’s between Johnny and me feels like love, at least to me.  But it’s delicate.  Calling it love too soon is like catching a butterfly and risking crushing its wings.  It’s better to let it get so strong that examining it won’t damage it.  You ask me in six months.  If I still feel about the Johnny the way I do now I’ll be real sure it’s love.”

    Brad looked disappointed but not defeated.  “You’d be worth waiting six months for.”

    By the time their food came, Caroline had blessedly disappeared leaving Brad and Gena to a lively conversation about the effect of the liquor lobby on women’s suffrage.

    Johnny never did show up, but Gena didn’t worry.  Sometimes Dan sent him out of town for one thing or another.  She stopped by the Marshal’s office on the way back to the law office, but no one was there.

    She worked later at the law office than she’d expected.  She broke for dinner and joined Dan at a table at the Birdcage.  Lily brought coffee and sat down with them.  “Dan, you send Johnny out of town for something?”

    “No, why?”

    “Nothing, missed him at lunch and he’s not here now.”

    “He’s over at the office finishing up something.  Said he wasn’t hungry.”

    She saw Dan and Lily cast a look at each other.

    “Come on Dan, what’s up?”

    “Gena, I’m not getting in between you and Johnny.  You have to work things out for yourselves.”  Dan was firm.

    “Work what out?  We haven’t been fighting or even had a little quarrel.”

    Lily jumped in, “Then why are you going to the dance with Brad Mitchell?  Just to teach Johnny a lesson?  He forgot to ask you far enough ahead so you want to make sure he isn’t taking you for granted?”

    Dan gave her a warning look, “Now Lily, don’t interfere.”

    Gena was bewildered.  “What are you talking about?  I’m not going anywhere with Brad.  We had lunch today while I was waiting for Johnny.  And he even asked me to the dance.  Told him I would be going with Johnny.”

    “See Dan, I told you that girl was lying.”  Lily was triumphant.

    “Lily there’s more to it than that.  Let them work it out.”

    Gena was getting exasperated.  “What girl?  Work what out?”

    Lily refused to be stilled.  “According to Dan, Caroline told Johnny that since he hadn’t bothered to ask you to the dance, that you were going to go with her brother Brad.  Now she didn’t have a ride herself, could Johnny pick her up?   He was in here after that asking me advice in a kind of round about way.  Did I think a woman would get upset at a man who maybe forgot to extend a formal invitation because he thought something was understood? If she decided to go with someone else did I think it meant she might be tired of the first man or just wanted to teach him a lesson?  I didn’t have a clue as to what he was talking about until Dan told me what Caroline said."

    “But I do know he was planning a special supper for you for before the dance.  He was asking Millie last weekend about something he could cook special and she sent him over to Hans at the hotel restaurant.  He knows you and RJ are partial to men who don’t mind invading a woman’s territory sometimes.  Maybe you should go over to the office and straighten things out.”

    Gena was pissed, a little at Caroline, more at Johnny.  “Damned if I will.  If Johnny is foolish enough to believe some ridiculous story that a known liar like Caroline tells him, knowing as he does that she’d like to cut me out, then he needs to stew in his own juice for awhile.  He’ll get his head on straight and come over here eventually.”

    Gena looked up at Dan as she spoke and saw something in his look.  “Come on Dan, what is it?”

    “You expect Johnny to have more faith in you.  Maybe you should have more faith in him.”

    “You trying to say he had some good reason to believe her other than just being a foolish soft-headed male.”  Gena found Dan’s refusal to just come out with it exasperating.

    “I didn’t say he had a good reason.”  Dan responded.

    “You mean he thought he had a good reason.  Oh all right, I give up.  Lily do you think Millie could get together a supper I could take over to the office.  Do I smell some of that lamb stew Johnny likes so much?  Some cornbread.  Maybe a pot of decent coffee.”  She glanced at Dan.  “No offense Dan.”

    “None taken.  We brew coffee for strength not flavor.”

    Twenty minutes later Gena had a tray with service for two on it.  It was heavy so Dan carried it across the street before heading off on evening rounds.  She tried to balance the tray and open the door, but the tray was too cumbersome.  So she kicked at the door.

    Johnny called from inside, “It’s not locked.”

    “My hands are full Johnny.  I’ve got supper.  Open up.”

    “I’m not hungry,” was the only answer she got.

    “Johnny how much do you want the rest of the town to hear because I’ll just keep shouting if you don’t open the door.”

    Johnny opened the door.  Then sat down at the desk without a word or glance in her direction.  She looked at him, a picture of studied casual indifference.  He didn’t carry it off very well.

    She put the tray right in front of him, pushed it over in his direction and sat down on the desk.  “I didn’t think you were the sulky type Johnny.”

    He looked up at that, a noncommittal look on his face.  But there was hurt behind the look.  He pushed the tray away.

    “You going to talk to me about what’s bothering you Johnny?”

    “Who says anything’s bothering me?”  Just the way he said it exposed the fact that there was a lot bothering him.

    “Johnny, I’m not going to play any games with you.  I was just going to let you get over the sulks on your own.  But a little misunderstanding like this can sometimes cause needless damage, so we’re going to talk.”

    She had an idea.  “Then again, maybe we should play a game.  You ever play ten questions with RJ.”

    Johnny shook his head.

    "Our family had this way of resolving things.  Each person can ask ten questions.  Any questions.  The other person has to answer truthfully.  No half truths or misleading technical truths.  The person can say they can’t answer or won’t answer but they have to have a good honest reason.  Like they promised someone else they wouldn’t tell or the answer would cause serious hurt to someone else.   If they need more questions, it’s a one to one trade."

    "So you want to start or shall I?  You can ask me a question before answering mine.  So go ahead."

    Johnny leaned back in his chair.  When he spoke it was in a rush and he didn’t quite meet her eyes as though he didn’t want to read something there he didn’t want to know.  “Are you going to the dance with Brad Mitchell  because you’re tired of me, because you think you should get to know other people  or to teach me to ask you sooner?"

    “None of those.”  She answered with no further explanation.  Then she let a little of her exasperation show.  “My turn.  Why in the hell do you think I’m going to the dance with him?  And if you don’t have a better reason than that Caroline told you so, you’re either a liar or a fool and I’m leaving.”

    “Is that part of the game?” Johnny asked.  “Insulting the person you’re asking questions of.”

    Gena couldn’t keep back a smile.  “No, it’s actually against the rules.  You get an extra question.  But you still have to answer mine.”

    “Well, I wouldn’t have believed Caroline, except I saw you with him just before.”

    “Yes, I was having lunch, waiting for you and talking to Brad.  I’ve done that before.  Never bothered you before.  Why did it bother you today?”

    “Is that one of your questions?”

    “Sure.”

    “Because you were holding his hand and looking at him like he was something awful special.”

    “That’s not true.”

    “Gena, I saw you.  What kind of truth game is this if you’re going to lie.”  Johnny looked more hurt than angry.

    Gena got up and almost walked out.  She wasn’t about to be called a liar.  But she remembered what Dan said.  She did have faith in this man.  He wouldn’t lie, so he was mistaken.  She tried to figure what he was talking about and it came to her.

    “Did you walk over to the café and see me through the window?”

    “Yes.”

    “Then I know what you saw.  And Caroline saw you.  She must have seen something in your face that made her think she could take advantage.  It wasn’t what you think.  I guess I did have a look on my face like you said.  And you might have thought I was holding his hand.  But I was telling him something that brought that look on, it wasn’t about him, it was about you.  Something I didn’t want to tell you.”

    “You tell him things about me you won’t say to me?”

    “This time yes.”

    Johnny turned his face away from her.  She knew she was going to have to tell him.  But right then she would have rather grabbed his shoulders and shaken him.

    She drew up a chair and sat down opposite him at the desk.  “Put your hand here like you’re sort of fiddling with your coffee cup.”  She placed his hand on the cup so his forearm was extended toward her.  “I warn you, you’re making me tell you something, I don’t think I should.  But not telling you is going to come between us anyway.”

    She had him good and confused now.  “Look it was like this.  Brad asked me to the dance and I told him I’d be going with you, even though you hadn’t quite gotten around to asking me officially.  He started asking me some of those ‘what did I see in you’ kinds of questions.  Finally he asked me straight out if I was in love with you.”  Gena was gratified to hear Johnny’s breath catch as she said that last part.

    “When I didn’t answer right away, he took that to be a no.  So I decided to explain.  While I was doing that, I put my hand out like this.”  Gena reached over and put her hand on Johnny’s forearm.  “I told him something shouldn’t be labeled love too fast.  I said that what was between us had the trappings of love.  Then I made some fool analogy to butterflies and delicate feelings that shouldn’t be examined too early.  I told him to ask me in six months.  If I still felt about you then like I do now, then it was strong enough to be called love.  So if I had a look it was because I was talking about you.  And now you’ve forced me to tell you something I didn’t want to rush into saying.”

    Gena took a deep breath.  “So are you ready to stop sulking and start eating?”

    Johnny protested.  “I wasn’t sulking.”  He added self-righteously, “just keeping to myself while I thought things out.”  Then he said quietly, looking her in the eye finally.  “You told him you loved me?”

    “Johnny, weren’t you listening?  Men just hear what they want to, or are afraid to.   I told him I had feelings that seemed like love but I wouldn’t know for six months or so if it was the real thing.”

    “Same thing” Johnny insisted as he reached over to take her hand.

    Gena looked at the tray he’d pushed aside.  “So you ready to eat?”

    Johnny reached around and kneaded the back of his neck.  “I am hungry.  But my neck’s all knotted up.”  His hint wasn’t very subtle.

    Gena got up and went around behind him.  She massaged his neck and shoulders until she thought she had the kinks worked out.  He relaxed under her hands and tipped his head back to look at her.  She leaned over him and kissed him on the lips with her face upside down to his.  Then she twisted around until she was in his lap with her arms around his neck, kissing him.  As he always did with her, he held back.  Their lips met warmly and sweetly.  She didn’t know whether to be frustrated or grateful at the tender restraint he still showed even though it had been several months since he’d help rescue her.    She pulled away and locked her eyes blue eyes to his hazel ones, while stroking his cheek with her fingers.

    “You OK now Johnny?”

    He answered with a kiss, but looked a little shamefaced.  “I guess you think I’m a damn fool don’t you?”

    “You’re a fool, but no more than any man.  You’re only a damn fool if you told that lying little minx that you’d give her a ride to that dance.”

    Johnny buried his face in her hair and whispered, “then I’m a damn fool.”

    And that’s how they were when Dan came in from making rounds.  To give Johnny credit, he didn’t leap to his feet when Dan walked in or otherwise act like he was doing something to be ashamed of.   He kept his arm around her and just looked up.  Dan looked down on them with a rare twinkle in his eye.  “It appears you two came to some agreement.”

    Gena answered, “Yes we did Marshal.  We both agree that Johnny is a damn fool.  I’d say it’s a good thing most crime is committed by men.  If Laramie ever sees a crime spree committed by women, you’d better get yourself a new deputy because this one would be useless.”

    Then she added, “By the way, does Laramie have some ordinance against one man asking two girls to a dance?”

    Johnny was quick with the comeback to that.  “Not guilty.  As you said, I never actually asked you.”

    “So you’re taking Caroline?”

    “Never said I would.  I just said if her brother couldn’t drive her because he was taking you, I guess I could pick her up.  She kind of caught me off-guard.  So looks like I’m off the hook.”

    “So you don’t have a date at all?”

    “Guess not.  Would you be insulted if I asked you at this late date?”

    “I’ll think on it.  But I can’t make those kinds of tough decisions on an empty stomach.  Let’s get to this food.”

    Hans at the hotel restaurant had told him how to make Coq au Vin and even supplied the wine for cooking and drinking.  She got the impression Johnny had leaped on that recipe because had had bragged on taking a woman out to a fancy restaurant and ordering it.  It had some kind of sophisticated association for him.

    And actually he’d done a decent job of it.  Maybe, no one would be beating down his door to have him switch from law enforcement to restaurant work but it was quite palatable.  Trouble was, she couldn’t convince him it was supposed to taste like it did.  She’d had it before so she knew how it was supposed to taste but Johnny had a palate inexperienced with wine sauces.  He didn’t like it and was convinced she was just saying she did to make him feel better.

    As she watched Johnny fussing around, all consternated about his cooking, trying to keep his white dress shirt clean and generally looking rather less sure of himself than he did when riding a horse or using a gun, she suddenly realized there was no question but that she loved this boy, this man.  And she wouldn’t need six more months to be sure of it.

    He was rather more sure of the dessert because Hans had made it but he had a little trouble setting the brandy on fire properly.  Then he had a little trouble putting it out.  By the time he had everything pretty much under control, Gena was laughing almost uncontrollably.

    “I guess this isn’t very romantic,” Johnny offered, sounding rather flustered.

    In answer, she got up and went to him.  She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him down into his chair.  She plopped herself down on his lap.  With her right arm around his neck she turned his face toward hers with her left hand and kissed him.  This time she didn’t let him hold back.  She parted her lips and forced his lips apart with her tongue.  The kiss was intense, the first truly passionate kiss they’d exchanged.  He knew exactly what to do, but until she forced it, hadn’t felt comfortable doing it.   She was tempted right then to skip the dance and show him everything else she was ready for, but thought a little restraint was in order.  She’d take the rest of the evening giving him little signals to get him used to the idea that she was over the trauma of what had happened and was ready to react to him like a woman who desired him fully.

    So when she broke the kiss, she lightened the mood by sticking two fingers in the dessert and putting them to his lips.  He licked her fingers clean.  He then picked up a spoon and fed her some, apparently not ready to believe she’d want his fingers in her mouth.  She wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it tasted of apricot brandy and sweet custard.  She thought it might be a very tasty complement to the way she intended to end the evening.

    They walked the few blocks home in silence, holding hands.  Before going in the front door, she stopped him.  Putting both arms around his neck, she kissed him as she had earlier.  With passion.  But just in case he didn’t catch her meaning, she whispered in his ear.  “I want to make love to you Johnny.”

    He held her tight for a moment.  Then he pulled back and looked into her eyes.  Brushing her hair back with a light touch of his fingers, he said softly,  “We will soon enough.  But there’s no reason to rush it.  I swear, I can wait.  As long as you need.  Til after we’re married if you want.”

    That was the first time he’d mentioned marriage, but she’d guessed it had been on his mind before.   But it wasn’t marriage she wanted to talk about now.  “I want you now Johnny.  I’m ready now.”

    He opened the door.  And in a variation on a wedding custom, he picked her up after they crossed the threshold and carried her to his room.  Before he crossed that threshold, he asked, “Are you sure?  I swear, much as I want you, I can wait.”

    “I can’t,” was her only answer.

    He set her gently on his bed, then knelt in front of her and removed her boots.  He kicked off his own with less ceremony.  He sat beside her and kissed her, bringing her close with one arm around her shoulders.  It was Gena who pushed him until he was lying down with his head on a pillow.  She lay down beside him and alternately stroked his face and kissed it.  She put his arms around him and held him close, running her hands down his back.  They kissed, sweetly with slightly parted lips at first.  Then more passionately, so eager they were to taste everything about each other.

    When she rolled on her back and pulled him on top of her, he responded eagerly.  But as he lowered his face to kiss her yet again, she felt the weight of his body on hers.  And pure animal panic took over.   Her heart beat wildly like a trapped bird in her chest.  She couldn’t catch her breath; she was suffocating.  She just wanted to be away from him before she blacked out.  With all her strength she pushed him off her.  She did it with such violence that he ended up sprawled on the floor by the bed.  She stepped over him and ran down the hall to her own room where she closed the door behind her and leaned against it for a moment trying to catch her breath.  When she finally did, it was only so she could cry.

    He walked down the hall to her room just in time to hear her retching.   Then she was crying.  He backed away and went into the kitchen to make tea.  She would want something to clean the taste out of her mouth. And something to settle her stomach.

    He brought the teapot and two cups on a tray.  She was still crying when he knocked, but more softly.  She didn’t answer his knock.  He knocked a little louder.  “Gena, please talk to me.  I’ve brought some tea.”  He wasn’t prepared for her response.

    “Leave me alone,” she almost screamed.  “Johnny this isn’t your fault, but please go away.”

    But he couldn’t go away.  So he sat down on the floor beside her door with the tray beside him.

    And that’s where RJ found him three hours later when she came in from Texas by way of Denver.  She was headed for her own room across the hall from Gena’s when she saw him slumped against the wall, his head resting on his arms braced on his knees.  She knelt beside him on the floor and put a hand on his arm.  “Johnny,” she whispered, “Johnny, what’s wrong?”

    He hadn’t been sleeping heavily.  He lifted his head and wiped his forearm across his eyes as though there might have been tears there although in the dim hallway lamplight, she couldn’t see any.

    “I’ve ruined everything.”  She could hear real despair in his voice.  “I wanted her too much.  I knew I should wait but I wasn’t strong enough.  She thought she was ready, but I should have seen that she wasn’t.”

    RJ knew he had to be taking things onto himself that weren’t rightly his to shoulder.  Whatever had gone wrong it was not because this man had pushed anything.  She tried to reassure him.  “It’ll be alright Johnny.  She loves you.  You go to bed.  I’ll talk to her.”

    He went to his room and maybe he was exhausted enough to sleep.  She hoped so.

    RJ went into Gena’s room without knocking.  She decided not to wake her.  Instead she covered Gena with a quilt and then took off her own outer clothes and crawled between the sheets.  She’d wake when Gena did and then they would talk.

    “She’s okay Johnny.  At least she will be.  She just overestimated what she was ready for.”  RJ paused, knowing the rest would hurt him.   "I think she’s going to go to Virginia City with me for awhile.”

    “She’s leaving?  I messed things up so bad, she’s leaving Laramie?”

    “Just for a while Johnny.  I’ve been wanting her to meet Joe and the others anyway.    This just seems like a good time.  She and I, we can talk things over out on the trail alone.  It’ll work out.   We’ll be back.”  She put her arms around him, but he was tense and stiff, refusing to take comfort from her.

    “I tried to be so careful.  But last night, last night seemed so perfect.  I wanted her too much to be cautious.  I read things all wrong.  I don’t wonder she doesn’t want to be around me.”

    Gena came in just then.  She went to Johnny and put her hands on his shoulders.  “Johnny, that’s  why I need to leave for a while to think things out.  And talk things out with RJ.  You’re too willing to take things on yourself and that just makes me feel worse.  You had no fault in this, none at all.  But I can’t move to fix what’s wrong with me if doing it’s going to make you feel guilty.”  She put her arms around him and held him close but he didn’t relax.  Finally, she kissed him on the cheek  and turned away to start breakfast.

    “When you planning on leaving?”

    RJ spoke up.  “I want to rest my horses today.  We’ll leave tomorrow.  Gena can ride Ember and we’ll take it slow the first day.”

    “How long you planning to be gone?”

    “Four or five weeks.”

    The look on Johnny’s face said it might as well have been four months or four years.

    When Billy ran in with a telegram, Dan almost hoped for a prison break or reports of bank robbers headed their way.  But Billy handed the telegram to Johnny not Dan.   Johnny just stared at the envelope for a very long moment, then stuffed it in his pocket.  Dan wondered if Gena or RJ had told Johnny if they wired it would be bad news.  He couldn’t imagine what that news would be.  He’d seen the way Gena looked at Johnny, even the tender way she had kissed him good-by before she and RJ rode off for Virginia City.  What was the boy worried about?

    He wanted to urge Johnny to read the telegram, but he didn’t want to interfere.  Finally, Johnny got up.  “I guess I’ll get some lunch.  Can I bring you back something?”

    “I’ll be over in a while.”

    When Dan walked into the Birdcage, Johnny was sitting with his back to the door.  The telegram was propped unopened against a coffee cup.  Dan walked over to the bar where Lily had her eye on Johnny also.  “Has he said anything to you?”

    Lily shook her head.  He ordered lunch, took out that telegram and propped it up where it is now.  I brought him his lunch and started to ask him about it, but he looked so down, I couldn’t.  I sat down and asked him if he wanted to talk.  He claimed he just had something to think over.  He’s been staring at the telegram ever since; hasn’t touched his food.

    “Jess would probably just go over, grab the damn thing and open it for him.”  Dan said thoughtfully.

    Just then Billy’s father came in for his lunch break from the telegraph office.   As he sipped a cup of coffee at the bar, he noticed Johnny sitting morosely at the table alone.  He nudged Dan.  “Johnny doesn’t look too happy.  He must have liked being back on his own again better than I thought.”

    Dan turned to the perky little man sensing a source of information.  “What do you mean by that Bill?”

    “Well, just that every time I’ve seen him with that pretty girl of his, he seemed so happy.  I’m surprised he’s not happier that she’s coming back early.”

    “That’s what the telegram says?”  Dan smiled at Lily.

    Billy went on, “Too bad it’s a day late.  There were some wires down further along toward Virginia City.  Maybe he and Jess would have had more time to go live it up if it had come yesterday morning like it was supposed to.”

    Dan strode over to Johnny’s table, but didn’t sit down.  As Johnny looked up, Dan pointed toward the envelope on the table.  “Open it boy.”

    Johnny took the envelope in his hand but made no move to open it.

    “Johnny, did you ever stop to think it could be good news?”

    Johnny looked up at Dan with eyes that said he wanted to believe him.  “I guess you think I’m being pretty foolish?”

    “Foolish or not, you have to open it sometime.  Won’t help to keep fretting over it.”

    Reluctantly, Johnny opened the envelope and took out the folded telegram.  The transformation of the boy’s face as he read it warmed Dan through.  In fact, Johnny’s whole body changed.  He became animated, elated even.

    “Mr. Troop, can I have a couple of days off?”

    “Good news Johnny?”

    “Yes sir.”  Johnny handed Dan the telegram.  It was from RJ, not Gena.

“Arrived Virginia City Sunday noon.  By Sunday night she missed you too much to stay.  Left on the Monday morning stage.  Meet her.  RJ"

    Johnny grinned with a pure joy Dan hadn’t seen since he caught Johnny in the office with Gena on his lap.  “I’m going to back track the stage route as far as I can get before I run into her stage.”  He paused, “If it’s okay with you that is.”

    “Might as well.  You’ve been useless around here for a week..  But don’t kill your horse trying to get to the Utah border before she does.  In fact, why don’t you take the next stage to Rawlins and just stay put there.  They could always use a shotgun on board.”

    “Sure.  Or I could rent a horse there and ride toward Rock Springs.”  Johnny was bubbling with new found energy.

    “Or you could do that.”  Dan said to empty air as Johnny ran out to do God knew what.

    Johnny didn’t stop in Rawlins or rent a horse.  He rode the stage all the way through to Rock Springs, sleeping as best he could on the stage with Ranger curled up at his feet.  He didn’t dare go further since she had a day’s start on him.  In Rock Springs he got himself a hotel room and reserved a second.  He got a bath and a shave at a public bath house.  He had a change of clothes with him.  Then he went back to the depot where he was told the stage she was likely to be on was four hours out at least.  As he was pacing back and forth wondering what to do with four hours, a man of around thirty came and asked the same question he’d asked and with the same answer.  The man sat down on a bench near where Johnny was pacing.

    “Four hours,” he muttered.  “What am I going to do with four hours.”

    Johnny sat down on the bench beside him.  “You have someone on the stage?”

    “My wife and two kids.  They’ve been visiting her mother in Virginia City.   I knew I’d miss them.  I didn’t know how much.  My boy, he’s only five so he’s not much help I guess.  But I sure miss him following me around trying to help.  And I haven’t had a decent meal since my wife left.  Or a good night’s sleep either.”  He noticed Johnny’s badge.  “You waiting for a prisoner or something.”

    Johnny grinned.  “Something like that.  The girl I’m hoping to marry.”

    The man extended his hand, “I’m Ted Rollins.  I sure wish you luck with your girl. “

    “Johnny McKay,” he said as he shook the other man’s hand.  “Say are you planning to just hang around here waiting?”

    “Guess so, I’m not much of a drinker and anyway Molly would kill me if I greeted her with liquor on my breath.”

    “I’m thinking about renting a couple of horses and riding out to meet the stage.   Why don’t you ride out with me?  You can take the stage back with your family in Gena’s place and Gena  can ride with me.  Or if there are no other passengers, we can all ride back together.”

    Ted nodded.  “That would be better than waiting here.  I have a wagon and team at the livery to pick up supplies and take my family back but the horses aren’t saddle broke.  Figured the stage is more comfortable than the wagon so there wasn’t any point in driving it out to meet them.  But if your girl would like to ride in with you . . . .”

    As they walked toward the livery, Johnny got another thought.  “Why don’t we see if the hotel restaurant will make us up a fancy picnic.  They’ll be a  stopover somewhere soon after we catch up and we can all get together and share it.  Plus your kids may want something on the stage.”

    “Well, the boy will.  The baby is still nursing.  Least she was when they left.  Might do you good for your girl to see a happy married couple.”

    The mood changed abruptly when they came around a bend to see a fallen tree blocking the road ahead a few hundred yards.  Ted saw a chore that would leave them hot and sweaty when the stage came upon them.  As they got closer, Johnny saw more.  He maneuvered his horse to shoulder Ted's off the road as he quietly urged him to take cover.

    Under cover of the trees at the side of the road, Johnny pointed.  "That tree was cut.  Probably to stop the stage."

    "What do we do?"  asked Ted deferring to Johnny's experience.

    "We have to find the men who blacked the road and warn the stage.  We didn't get fired on coming up on it so there's a good chance there's no one watching the road this side of the tree.  But they can't be letting anyone make it around the tree going in the direction where they might meet up with the stage and give warning.  Someone must be up on that bluff, ready to pick off anyone who makes it by the road block.  And someone would be here to pick off the driver if he's able to stop the coach."

    Ted paled at that.  "If?"

    "The coach will be coming around a blind curve there.  If they're moving fast, the horses could hit the tree, try to jump it or turn abruptly.  None a good option, especially if they head toward that 12 foot drop down to the creek."

    Johnny considered the situation, then decided.  "I'm going to work my way around until I can get the drop on whoever is up there on the bluff.  He might even be the only one.  One man with a rifle could take the stage by surprise.  But the size of that tree makes me think there was more than one.  Course, I've never done any timber work."

    Ted had.  "A good strong man with good equipment could have had that tree across the road in less than half an hour.  The way it was growing on that slope it would naturally have fallen that way."

    Ted pulled his rifle out of his saddle scabbard.  "I'll go with you."

    Johnny shook his head.  "We've got to make sure someone makes it out of here to warn the stage.  When you hear gunfire, you squeeze past and head down the road as fast as you can and don't stop until you meet the stage.  Keep as low as you can over your horse for the first quarter mile."

    "What if you're hit?"

    "Then it's all the more important for you to get through.  Even if you see that I've gotten a man or taken a bullet, get moving while the gunfire is a distraction.  We don't know how many there are.  Keep the coach at least half a mile from here until I get to you.  If you don't see me within the hour.  Get them to turn around and get the law from the next town back."

    Ted looked at him skeptically, but nodded a reluctant agreement.  "Regardless of what happens, I'll be back,"  he assured Johnny.

    "You just make sure Gena is ok.  And make sure she doesn't come back here with you.   She might try.  Promise me you won't let her."

    Ted nodded.  Johnny pulled his badge off his coat.  "Here put this on so the driver doesn't think you're trying to hold up the stage when you stop them.  And make sure he sees you're not holding a weapon."

    Johnny tied up his horse, grabbed his rifle and headed up the drainage under the tree cover with his dog at his heels.

    There was a man with a rifle on the bluff pretty much where Johnny had expected him to be.  He didn't see any indication of anyone else and Ranger gave him no sign.  He crept as close as he could without being heard.  When a loose rock dislodged under his foot, the man started to turn around.  "Drop the rifle before you turn around." Johnny ordered.

    The man should have listened.  Instead he raised the rifle as he spun toward the sound of Johnny's voice.  Johnny got off his shot first and followed it with two more.  The man took an involuntary dive down to the road.  Johnny hunkered down and waited to see if the gunfire brought any answering fire from anywhere else.  He was gratified to hear a fast horse go by on the road. Ted had followed instructions.

    He kept under cover and scouted around.  He didn't find any evidence of anyone else.  More importantly, Ranger didn't either.  With the help of the little dog, he backtracked the man who'd been on the bluff, he found a small wagon drawn by one horse.  There was a timber saw and some other equipment in it.  He drove it down to the road and stowed the man's body in it.  No point in Ted's boy seeing it.  Then he wondered whether he should start working on getting the tree out of the road or go meet the stage.  He decided on the latter.  The tree could be seen well within stopping distance from the side they had come in on and Ted would have warned anyone coming the other way.  He didn't want Gena or Ted to worry about him.

    He left the horse and wagon by the tree.  Maybe if he was lucky someone would come from the other direction and start work on moving it.  He rode his rented horse in the direction Ted had taken.

    "What makes you think there are others?"  As she spoke, she got close and what she saw turned her heart to ice.  He had on Johnny's badge.  Not just a badge like his.  It was his.  She knew every nick and scratch on that badge.  The man had a rifle on the horse but no revolver.  He must be trying to appear harmless while he led them into a trap.

    She pulled out her revolver.  "Get off that horse mister.  You go near the rifle and I'll put a bullet through your heart."

    The stage driver was astonished.  "What are you doing miss?  This man is a lawman.  He was trying to warn us about a tree across the road ahead and some possible stage robbers."

    Gena didn't take her eyes off the man with Johnny's badge.  "Get off the horse."  Then to the driver, "This man isn't a lawman.  He stole that badge from a man who'd never give it up without a fight."

    The man got off the horse and put his hands in the air.  "Are you Gena?" he asked in a slightly shaky voice.  "Johnny gave me his badge so the driver wouldn't mistake me for a hold-up man.  He stayed behind to find the men who put the tree across the road.  I promised I'd come back after I warned the stage."

    He craned his neck to look in the stage.  "My wife and kids were supposed to be on this stage."  He started to take a step toward the stage.

    "Don't move another inch mister."

    "He didn't.  But he called out, "Molly, are you there?"

    Molly flew out of the stage at the sound of his voice and threw herself in his arms.  She turned to see Gena with the gun still pointed at him.  "Why are you pointing that gun at Ted?"

    "This is your husband?  What's he doing here?"

    Ted answered.  "Johnny and I met at the depot.  Neither of us fancied a four hour wait, so we rented a couple of horses and rode out to meet you.  Good thing we did.  But if you'll put the gun down, I need to get back.  He got one man as I rode off, but I don't want to leave him alone in case there are others."

    Gena relaxed a little but wasn't going to take any chances.  She put the gun back in her pocket, but kept her hand on it.  Ted turned anxiously to Molly.  "Where's the kids?"

    She quickly assured him, "Danny  is holding the baby in the coach.  Gena must have thought we were being held up."

    As Ted walked toward the coach, Gena leaped on his horse and took off.  Ted made a grab but got nothing but air.  He looked up at the driver.  "Can we catch her?  That was the one thing I promised, that I wouldn't let her go back there.  Johnny says to keep the coach a half mile back from the site until he makes sure it's clear.   I can show you where to stop.  Then I guess I'll go in on foot.  Damn.  He said she might try to go back with me.  Didn't think she'd be so fast to go on her own."

    Ted hurriedly helped Molly back into the coach, then climbed up beside the driver to direct him.

    Gena rode full gallop for ten minutes until she saw a rider ahead.  She slowed until she saw it was Johnny.  Then she rode full bore until she pulled up next to him.  He looked to be unhurt.  They just looked at each other for a minute.  Then he reached out and took her hand.  He said with a mixture of pride and dismay.  "I asked him to keep you there.  What was he thinking?"

    She smiled.  "He couldn't do much at gun point."

    You didn't put a gun on him to get his horse?"  Johnny would not believe she’d gone that far.

    "He had your badge" she said simply.

    I gave him that to . . . ."

    Yeah, he told me.  And then Molly told me who he was.  I 99% believed him.  But I had to be sure.  But don't worry.  I didn't shoot him.  He turned his back to check on the kids, so I grabbed the horse.  From what Molly’s told me about him he’s a good man but nothing with a gun.  I didn't figure he could shoot a rifle as well as I can."

    "What am I going to do with you?"  Johnny said in mock despair.

    She reached out and touched his cheek.  "Five days out on the trail with RJ and I've got some real good ideas."

    Johnny's stomach gave a little lurch as he grasped her meaning.

    The stage wasn't far behind Gena.   As they watched it approach, Johnny asked her, “How in the hell did you know he had on my badge?  It’s not like is says Laramie on it or anything”

    “Wouldn’t you recognize it?”

    “Maybe, if I was looking for it because I knew it was missing.  But you didn’t know mine was missing.  You didn’t even know I was in this half of Wyoming.”

    “Your badge is very distinctive.  Part of that little ball on the bottom point was shot off when RJ put it on that dummy when you rode on that posse together.  There’s that gouge between “Deputy” and “Marshal” where that piece of granite rick-o-shayed off it when you went after the Barnetts.  And there’s that scratch I tried to polish out that you got diving over that boulder to take cover when those kids started shooting at you.”

    Johnny listened to this description with mild astonishment.  He also got a warm feeling from knowing she paid that much attention to something most people wouldn’t have noticed at all.  He was glad now he hadn’t taken the Marshal up on his offer to replace it.

    The stage pulled up beside them and by sheer force of will, Johnny got her to give Ted his horse back and get in the coach.  The first thing Ted did was hand Johnny back his badge.

    "The next time you think to keep someone safe with the power of this badge, think again."  But Ted was grinning.  "That's quite a woman you have there.  She's either going to make you the happiest man on God's earth or make your life a living hell.  I guess I'll have to spend some time with her when she's not thinking I killed you to tell for sure."

    Johnny had no answer for that observation, but he guessed both characterizations had some truth to them.

    With the help of the wagon horse and harness, the equipment in the wagon and Ted's experience clearing his land, they made short work of clearing the road.  When they rode back to the stage, they found everyone, including the driver, had eaten lunch from the food they'd left.  Luckily there hadn't been any other passengers; Molly and Gena managed to save enough for them.
 

    Johnny and Gena ended up riding back in the wagon with the rented horses tied behind.  She didn't seem squimish about the body covered with canvas in the back although she didn't look at it.

    Once the stage was out of sight, she made him pull up.  Holding his head in her hands she kissed him.  Kissed him like any normal woman who dearly loved the man she was kissing.  He responded cautiously, but she didn't complain.

    "I'm glad you came back.  I know we can work this out between us.  We'll just take things real easy."   He held her hand to his cheek for a moment, kissed the palm, then started them moving again. As they drove on she sat close to him on the seat and occasionally rested her head on her shoulder or her hand on his knee.

    "I came back because I think I've resolved things, with RJ's help."

    "You want to tell me about it?"  Johnny still had a funny feeling about RJ advising Gena on how to handle him or leastways how to handle herself around him.  Somehow it wasn't natural.  But if talking things over with her sister had brought Gena back so soon, he couldn't complain.  "I wish you could have worked things out with my help."

    "Believe me Johnny, you wouldn't have wanted to be with RJ and me the last few days.  There were things only another woman could explain to me about being with a man."

    "But you've been married?  And you loved him.  I'm sure he loved you.  Surely you know as much about being with a man as most women know."

    I did love him, very much.  And he loved me.  But Ian's passion was for things of the intellect.  He loved me for my ability to understand his work, at least as well as anyone did.  More than his male friends except a few colleagues at the university.  But Ian wasn't a man of physical passion.  He was fifteen years older than I, but my understanding was that even as a young man his passion was his work.  Anyway, I missed what I barely understood.  I was never neglected because I made myself part of his work.  But I knew there was something missing for me.  I craved physical affection.  The kind of affection that comes so natural for you."

    "Anyway, there's a few things we have to get straight.  The main reason I thought I needed to get away from you was because I couldn't see dealing with my problem with someone as sensitive as you, someone so willing to take blame where it doesn't belong.  So that's my first rule.  You must never apologize.  If something you do makes me flinch because it brings to mind what they did to me, then just do something else.  Just go on without thinking it was your fault."

    "But Gena, you didn't just flinch that night.  You ran away and locked yourself in your room.  And threw-up and cried."

    "And threw you on the floor."

    "And that."

    "Well RJ figured how I can avoid that kind of reaction."

    "She did, did she.  Are you going to let me in on it?"

    "Yes, but not now."  And from then on, she refused to talk about anything more than Molly's kids, RJ's friends in Virginia City,  and what had happened in Laramie since she'd left.
 

        Their first stop in Rock Springs was the sheriff's office.  The sheriff  recognized the man in the wagon from a wanted poster.  The stage had gotten in ahead of them and the driver told everyone in earshot how two lovesick men couldn't wait for their women at the depot and so had prevented a robbery and worse.  When Ted and his family met them at the sheriff's office, they were trailed by a newspaper man with a camera.  When  the reporter found the would-be robber was a wanted outlaw, he saw a big story.

    Johnny saw how excited Ted's boy was with all the hoopla so he didn't mind posing with Gena and Ted's family.  He wouldn't let them take any of himself alone or just with Gena.  He wanted to make sure if they used a picture, the boy was in it.  He and Ted even held the boy up between them so they couldn't crop him out.

    Before they could leave, a man from the stage depot came in and told them he'd reserved two suites for them at the best hotel in town and left word with the hotel restaurant that they were to have anything they wanted.  When Ted saw the looks on the faces of his wife and boy, he didn't have the heart to head straight for home as he'd planned.

    As Johnny finally left the office after signing some paperwork, the sheriff had one final word.  "You know son, you were out of your jurisdiction out there.  You really weren't working for the law when you killed that buzzard."

    "Is that a problem sheriff?"  Johnny was puzzled.

    "Not a problem.  But it means you can collect the reward the stage company had on him.  Young man like you starting out with a girl like that.  Probably planning marriage unless you’re more a fool than you look.  A thousand dollars could come in mighty handy."

    Johnny smiled, but felt a little uneasy about a reward.  "Could I split it with Ted?  I know it would come in real handy for him too.  And I couldn't have handled things alone."

    Yours to do what you want with.  I'll send a wire tonight and get authorization.  You could have the money tomorrow morning if you'll wait until the bank opens.  I don't expect you're in too much of a hurry to get back to Laramie.  At least if I had that pretty girl with me, I wouldn't rush back.  Have yourself a fancy breakfast on the stage company and then come collect your money."

    Each suite was actually just two adjoining rooms, but way more than Johnny was used to on the road.   After bathing and changing clothes, they all met for dinner.  They took one look at the hotel's main dining room and immediately knew they wouldn't be comfortable there.   Even without a restless five-year-old and a baby, it would have been too formal for them.  Only Gena had any experience in such places.  But there was a less formal café on the other side of the hotel, and the stage company's credit was good there too.  Even the café was grand as far as the boy was concerned and he was thrilled when they actually let him order from items his mother read off a printed menu.

    Molly couldn’t get over the luck that had brought the two men to interrupt the stage robber’s plan.  But despite her pride in him, Gena gently chided Johnny, “What were you thinking coming all this way just to meet the stage?  I can’t believe the Marshal let you do anything so foolish.”

    Molly leaned forward and said to Johnny in a loud whisper they could all hear.  “If she thought it was so foolish, I wonder why she started looking for you the minute we left Utah.”

    They agreed to meet at the cafe for breakfast.  Ted would have left at the crack of dawn, but Johnny told him about the reward.  Ted was reluctant to take any of it but Johnny persuaded him that as a deputy marshal he didn't feel quite right about taking a reward and would only take a share if Ted did.  So Ted agreed to stay in Rock Springs until after the bank opened.  They said good night in the hallway that separated their suites.  Ted was carrying his sleepy boy in his arms as they went in to bed.  Johnny looked after him with something like envy or maybe anticipation of what he hoped for his own future.

    He said good night to Gena at the adjoining door between their rooms, which she insisted they leave ajar.  He was a little disappointed when she only kissed him on the cheek, but was not about the press for more.  They’d sneaked Ranger upstairs with them, but Johnny drew the line at letting him jump on the bed.  He sternly pointed to a rug at the foot of the bed and the dog reluctantly curled up on it.

    Johnny crawled between the smoothest sheets he'd ever felt in his life.  And rested his head on the softest pillow.  But he could have been bedded down in a bedroll with his head resting on his saddle on the hard ground and he wouldn't have cared.  He would have been happy anywhere right now.  Nothing could make him happier than having her come back to Laramie with him.

    At least that's what he thought until fifteen minutes later when she slid into bed beside him.

    Johnny didn't move toward her although he wanted to.  He wasn’t sure how to react.  Her presence was a little overwhelming and it worried him as much as it pleased him.  "It's too soon.  You don't have to push this.  I already told you I can wait."

    "Maybe I can't," she answered.

    That's exactly what you said last time," he reminded her.  He wanted to touch her in some kind of reassuring way but was shy about doing it.  "Look don't be thinking I'm being some kind of saint here.  You scared the hell out of me last time.  Maybe I need to go slow."

    "Johnny, I swear I know what to do this time.  What happened last time was because I was ignorant."

    "What happened last time was because of what those men did to you.  You've got bad memories to get rid of.  That'll take time.  It could get worse if we go too fast."

    "I won't feel healed until I get this behind me."  Gena insisted.  "Just let me tell you what I want."  She sat up and took his hand, holding it in both of hers.  "All I knew last time was that I wanted to make love to you.  The only way I knew how was to just have you on top of me.  And I guess I wasn’t ready for that.   I just panicked.  But that's the only way I know how to make love.

     "How could that be?"  Johnny was slightly incredulous.

    "You think because I was married, I know anything about making love?  I've only been with one man in my life."  She paused and Johnny knew she was thinking about the four men, all deservedly dead and had decided they didn't count.  "And I already told you that Ian was not a physically passionate man.  And we made love only that one way.  You think that's unusual?"

    "I guess not," he said hesitantly.  Johnny thought about what he'd heard some men say about making love to their wives.  And what Annie from the Cheyenne Palace had said about how predictable men were.  If married men wanted something different from her, it was likely because they never did anything different with their wives.

    Or maybe you thought because I look so much like my sister, I'd be more like her."

    But you are like her.  You're so much like her."

    "How?"

    "Well, the first thing I ever saw you do was stick a knife in a man who was threatening us.  And today you held a man at gunpoint and took his horse because you were worried about me.  You're every bit as tough as she is.  So I know if you give yourself time, you'll come out of this."

    "And I want to start tonight.  It will be all right if you just do what I say, I promise."

    She took the hand she was holding and kissed it.  "You just lie there like that.  Just clasp both hands behind your head like you do when you're resting on a picnic blanket watching the clouds go by."

    Johnny thought of the picnic they'd gone on only a few weeks ago.  That’s exactly what he had done, laid back and watched the clouds.  But half the time he’d been watching her.  He could do that here.

    "RJ promised me that you would be okay with taking things real easy for awhile.  Just lie back and don’t react to me.  Just let me get the feel of things so to speak.  Later, after we get home, when I feel more comfortable, she says you know all kinds of ways to make love that don’t involve a man being on top.”

    Johnny was glad she couldn’t see his face clearly in the dark room because he must be blushing.  “No, she knew all kinds of ways and I just went along for the ride.”  Johnny immediately regretted his words.  It was one thing for Gena to know about his relationship with RJ.  It was quite another for him to talk about it.

    She was somehow aware of his chagrin.  “Johnny you can’t be worried about me knowing about RJ.  Did it bother you that she probably learned half what she knows from Chad?”

    Johnny thought a minute, then decided to be honest.  “Actually it did bother me some.  I never felt I could measure up to him.  He got too much of a head start.”

    “So you must think RJ got too much of a headstart on me?”

    Johnny figured hadn’t thought far enough ahead on that one.  And then she started touching him and he stopped thinking at all.

    At first she just sat next to him sort of leaning over him.  She ran her hands over his bare chest and shoulders and then down his arms.  She leaned in to kiss him on the lips but didn’t stop there long.  She stretched out next to him and kissed his neck and shoulders.  She worked her way down his chest until she got to the point just below his ribs where she had removed the bullet.  She brushed the scar gently with her fingers then with her lips and tongue.  As her mouth lingered there, her hand moved farther down.  And suddenly it was just as hard for him to stay still as it had been when she’d probed for that bullet months ago.

    She was doing no more than lightly stroking him through the long johns he had left on to sleep in, but his reaction was immediate and more than he could control.  He had to protest, “You can’t touch me there and expect me not to react.”

    “I’d be disappointed not to get that kind of reaction,” she assured him.  “You just keep the rest of your sweet self still.”

    She continued to stroke him until he was hard beneath the cloth that separated her hand from his skin.  She soon removed that barrier, undoing the buttons slowing and carefully as though it was a delicate silk garment.  When all the buttons were undone, she gently slid her hand inside and slid it down the length of him.   She cradled him in her fingers while she ran her thumb over the top of the shaft down to the tip.  She ran her thumb around the tip, exploring it, testing his reaction to her touch.  His stomach and thigh muscles tightened with his effort not to move.

    She tortured him with her gentle stroking for a few more moments, then she grasped him more firmly and started moving her hand on him in a way that ensured he would come in a few strokes unless he held back.  And there was no reason to hold back.  He simply closed his eyes and went with it.

    When it was over, she curled up next to him and rested her head on his chest.   “Can you be satisfied with just that for a little while?”

    He put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.  “For as long as you want.”

    But as he tried to sleep, he realized he wouldn’t be satisfied with that.  It would be hard to continue long with something so one-sided.

    He drifted off for a little while but woke up as he realized she was restless in his arms.  He didn’t know why he knew; she wasn’t moving around but he knew she wasn’t sleeping.

    “Wasn’t as easy for you as you thought?” he asked softly.

    “No, but not for the reason you think.”

    “Then why?”

    “I’d forgotten one of the biggest reasons I wanted to be with you in the first place.”

    “Which is?”

    She sat up and took one of his hands.  “Let me put it this way, I have it on good authority that you know how to touch a woman in just the right places.  I don’t think I can sleep until you show me.”

    RJ again. He hoped could live up to her kind of advance billing.  He sat up and put two pillows behind him.  He leaned back against them and pulled her up until she was resting against him with the back of her head against his shoulder. He kissed her ear and whispered, “Don’ t be afraid to show me what feels good.”

    He put this hand under her nightgown and reached between her legs.   As he touched her, she spread her legs to show him he could touch her anywhere.  When his fingers reached just the right spot, she sighed.  “Yes, right there.”  As he moved his fingers on her, her whole body moved against him.  Finally she urged him, “Faster.”  For just a moment he teased  her by not complying.  But when she made a second demand, he did as she asked.

    Only moments later she twisted out of his grasp, turning until she was prone on top of him.  She put both arms around him and rested her head against his neck.  “That was so nice, “ she mumbled, and before he could answer, she was asleep.

    While Ted and Johnny went to see sheriff about the reward, Molly and Gena walked down to the newspaper office with the baby.  Danny insisted on staying with his father.  They hoped the early edition of the paper would be out and that they’d printed a picture that included Danny.  It was and it did.

    The news was slow enough that their story was on the front page.  The story was a little romanticized, but on the whole not bad.  Johnny had deliberately made it sound as though Ted had raced to the stage just in time to stop it from plunging off a cliff.  He knew Ted was not the kind of man who would want a lie told to make him look heroic but a little exaggeration wouldn’t hurt.  And the reporter had exaggerated Johnny’s “gun battle” with the robber all on his own; Johnny had told him only the bare facts.

    Gena bought six copies of the paper.  She gave two to Molly, suggesting she keep one for Danny.  She hid one away so Johnny wouldn’t be able to destroy them all if a fit of modesty came over him.  She would send one to Chad, leave one around the office for Dan to see and another for Lily to show the customers at the Birdcage.  Johnny would be in for some ribbing, but she knew it would be nice for him also.  He spent a lot of time in Dan’s shadow.

    They finally made their good-byes and got on the stage for Rawlins.  She had a ticket through to Laramie and they wouldn’t take any money from Johnny.  In fact, the stationmaster told them he’d wired ahead and gotten them two rooms in the best hotel in Rawlins.  He told the driver to make sure he told his relief driver to drop them off right in front and make sure they got the rooms no matter how late it was.

    There were three other passengers so they didn’t have any privacy to talk in the coach.  Gena whispered in his ear after they boarded.  “They’re being so nice I’d hate to tell them that I’ll never ride the stage again unless you’re with me armed to the teeth.”

    Johnny glanced down toward her boot where she’d stashed the revolver again.  “I’ll be happy to back you up anytime.”

    It turned into a long day and a good part of the night on the road.   They had brought food with them from the hotel and had a dinner break at a relay station.  By the time they got to Rawlins they didn’t know what they needed more, to stretch their cramped muscles or crawl into bed.   They opted for bed.  Gena didn’t even make a pretext of going into her own room.  She just crawled in next to Johnny.  And he was tired enough that he wasn’t even disappointed when she simply curled up close to him and fell asleep with her hand in his.

    Dan stood up as they came over to the desk.  Gena went around and kissed him.  She always did that, imitating her sister’s insistence that Dan accept this display of affection that he rarely initiated.  Dan said dryly to Johnny, “Heard you had some excitement.  I guess it’s a good thing you finally opened that telegram.”

    Only then did Johnny see the newspaper.  Gena read his expression as a mixture of pride and discomfort.

    Dan didn’t say much.  “I’d better watch out or the stage company will be wanting to hire you away from here and I’ll be needing a new deputy.”  Then he added, “but until that happens, glad to have you back.”  He said almost as an afterthought, “both of you.”   When Ranger jumped up on the desk, he amended, “the three of you.  Now get home and get some sleep.  I’ll expect you first thing in the morning.”

    They walked back, hand and hand, both saddlebags slung over Johnny’s shoulder, Ranger cavorting around them.  The house was warm as though Angela had kept the woodstove going during the day.  There was a pot of water on the stove that was still warm.  Plenty for washing.  The fire was out though, so Johnny built it up again.  He was going to build one in her room, but she stopped him.  “No need tonight.  I’ll just wash up in here while you build a fire in your room.”

    So one night he was sleeping in the room next to the jail on the same kind of bunk the prisoners slept on and the next night he was sleeping in big soft bed in a two-story house with eight bedrooms, a private bath house and a housekeeper.  She even cooked when one of Aaron’s friends dropped by on the way to or from some place or another.  She’d started cooking for him when he’d moved in, but he hadn’t felt right about that.   Johnny liked the company that dropped by from time to time, usually a couple a month.  Of course, there were still many times when he slept in the room in the jail – when there was a prisoner or it was likely he’d be needed quickly.

    He’d just finished building up the fire when Gena came in dressed in her nightgown.  “I left some warm water for you.  I’ll warm up the bed while you get washed up.”

    A few minutes later, he was back.  He had on a seldom worn robe RJ had given him which he kept hung in the little bath house in back.  He hadn’t felt comfortable presuming to come to bed naked and  he wasn’t going to keep on the underwear he’d had on for the past two nights.  But as he slipped into bed with it on, Gena immediately pulled it off.  “You won’t be needing that,” she said definitely.

    He lay back as he had that first night.  This time when she leaned in to kiss him, she lingered there.  Her lips parted, her tongue sweetly explored his mouth.  He was surprised at how difficult it was to fully respond without using his hands to hold her close.  It was strangely awkward.  But he kept his hands off her as it seemed to make it easier for her.

    Soon she was running her hands over him.  He felt better this time knowing she would let him give her pleasure when she finished.  It was much easier to lie back and enjoy her hands on him when he was sure he could reciprocate.

    She was bolder this time.  As she moved her hands down his body, there was no clothing to slow her down.  She touched him lightly but it took nothing at all to make him hard and erect.  Then she surprised him by straddling him, her knees on either side of his lower thighs.

    She surprised him even more when she pulled off her nightgown so that in the dim firelight he could see her bare breasts for the first time.  He had thought it would be easy to simply lay back and not touch her.  But now he ached to hold them in his hands, stroke them with his fingers and then put them to his mouth.  It was almost unbearable.   But he wouldn’t do anything that might startle her.  The thought of her flinching at his touch was enough to keep his hands safely behind his head.

    She touched him again, but just briefly, as though checking to make sure he was still aroused.  Little chance that would have changed, he thought.  Then she shifted on top of him.  He was afraid she was going to rush into trying to put him inside her and almost started to push her away.  But she merely settled on top of him and then slowly started to move her hips against him.

    He realized she was pleasuring herself by rubbing herself against his erection.  In doing so she stretched out and brought her breasts so much closer to his face that he had to close his eyes or he most surely would have reached for them.  And now he had to concentrate on not reaching climax until she had hers but staying close enough that it would happen just after.  He wouldn’t have thought that just her rubbing against him would have been so exhilarating.  But it was so intimate and yet so restrained.  It would have been more certain for him if he could have put his hands on her hips and placed her just so.  But there was a certain excitement in having no control and no responsibility.

    Soon he was so close he willed her to let him know she had gotten what she needed.  But she kept moving against him, breathing harder now but showing no signs of being close to completion.  Finally, despite every effort, he could hold back no longer.  It was as though a dam burst.  But a few heartbeats later she collapsed against him.  He realized she must have been holding back for him.

    “I never knew it could be so nice,” she said as she brought her breathing under control and nuzzled his neck.  She lay full length on top of him and finally he felt comfortable to put his arms around her.  Before he had pulled the quilt fully around them, she was asleep, peacefully asleep.

    Gena also knew, because he had shared it with her, that Johnny’s dominent feeling about the Rock Springs incident was now lingering fear over the “what-ifs”.   What if he hadn’t opened the telegram until the next day?  What if the lines from Virginia City had stayed down another day?  What if he’d stayed in Rawlins instead of going through to Rock Springs?  What if the Marshal had needed him to stay in town?   What if Ted had talked him into waiting for the stage in a saloon?  Those “what ifs” were preying on his mind.  He’d even trotted them out in front of Dan.  Gena had walked into the office and heard the end of that conversation.  Dan was saying, “don’t you think you should be thankful that you did get there when you did instead of fretting about what would have happened if you hadn’t?

    Dan shook his head and said to Gena.  “Even when things go right, people have to borrow trouble supposing on what if things had gone wrong.  God help Johnny if something goes really wrong and there are a dozen insignificant decisions he could have made differently.”

    Johnny got up and put his arm around Gena.  “Maybe I never came so close to losing something so important before.”   With that Johnny kissed her on the cheek and left to take some papers to Judge Trager.

    They both looked after him as he took a few long energetic strides and swung around a post as he jumped off the walkway into the street.  Dan followed him across the street with his eyes and said almost to himself.  “I would have waited here for you.”  Gena guessed this was the closest Dan would ever get to admitting there were times when he envied those instincts of Johnny’s which gave him the emotional spontaneity to ride more than half way across Wyoming from eagerness to be with a woman a couple of days early.

    RJ had been adamant “Make sure it’s fixed first.  I’m betting it will be.  But if there’s even the smallest chance you can’t be the wife he deserves, you have the obligation to wait.  He loves you and he thinks he would be happy with you even if you could never fully give yourself to him physically.  But not only is Johnny a very physically passionate and affectionate man, he’d eventually start blaming himself if you couldn’t respond to him.  And he’s loyal to the core.   Once he makes a commitment to a woman it will be for life.  Chad and even Jess wouldn’t stay in marriages that were making them miserable, but I’m afraid Johnny would.”

    Gena had promised and would stick to it.  She was sure it wouldn’t take long.  They couldn’t get married until RJ got back anyway.  And she was headed for Laredo from Virginia City before she headed back to Laramie.

    Their first week back in Laramie was sweet.  Every night was better than the last.   Each time she increased the intimacy of their contact, it made her more confident that there would be no roadblocks.  She might have moved it along even faster if Johnny hadn’t done his best to slow her down.  On their seventh night, he’d taken her in his arms in front of the fireplace in his room and tried to tell her she didn’t have to push so much.  She didn’t have to make love to him every night.  He would be happy just to go to sleep knowing she was there beside him.

    She’d looked up at him in mock apology.  “Oh, Johnny, I’m so sorry.  I’ve been so thoughtless.  I’d forgotten the kind of physical limitations men have.  I’ve been wearing you out and not letting you get enough sleep.  I’ll make a pact.  I’ll sleep in my own room two nights out of every week so you can get some rest.”

    Johnny hadn’t been quite sure at first that she was putting him on.  “I don’t want you to sleep anywhere but next to me.  I just don’t want you to feel that I’ll be frustrated if you don’t make love to me every night.”

    She’d looked at him as innocently as she could.  “Are you getting tired of me Johnny?”  Before he could answer, she added, “because I’d be frustrated if I was next to you in bed and you didn’t make love to me.”

    He’d finally been sure she was teasing.  He gave her an “I give up” kind of look and carried her to his bed.  She was fierce with him that night.  She kissed him hard and grabbed him by the hair until he kissed hard back.  When she went over his body with her mouth she used her teeth as much as her tongue as an accompaniment.  Not enough to hurt him, but to punctuate her mood.  And she finally decided to do something she never would have thought to do on her own.  Something RJ had explained to her, had encouraged her to do if should thought she could be comfortable with it.

    She stroked his penis and made it hard in her hand, never a time-consuming process.  Then she ran her tongue down the shaft and around the tip.  She was rewarded when he caught his breath whether in pleasure or surprise, she wasn’t sure.  She continued to lick the hard shaft, occasionally teasing the head until she finally put him fully in her mouth.  She worked her mouth up and down on him rhythmically finding a primitive gratification in the licking and sucking that she hadn’t imagined when her sister had tried to explain that the pleasure would not all be his.  But she didn’t want him to come in her mouth.  She knew she wasn’t ready for that but wasn’t sure she would know just the right moment to back off and finish him with her hand.

    But he took care of that for her.  Although his tightly tensed muscles and his ragged breathing suggested he was lost in his pleasure, he lifted her head away from him with his hand, as he whispered in a husky voice, “I can’t hold back.”  She had barely gripped him with her hand when he came with a shudder that coursed through his whole body.

    She lay with her head on his belly until his breathing slowed.  Then she lay in his arms with her head on his shoulder while he pleasured her with his hand.  He told her he’d like to do for her what she’d just done for him, but she wasn’t ready for that.

    The next night she decided to make things special, to push things a little further.  She built a fire in the bath house.  She heated enough water to fill one of the big copper tubs.  She cooked two chickens for supper.  One was fried the way Millie said Johnny liked it, the way his mother had made it in Kansas.  The other she cooked using the recipe Johnny had gotten from Hans for Coq au Vin.  She even went to the hotel restaurant and got some of the same sherry Hans had given Johnny to use.  She was determined that it would taste exactly as his had so he’d know his had been made properly.

    By the time Johnny came home it was late.  The Marshal had told him to take a couple of hours for supper but he had to go back.  A senator was coming in on the midnight train and they should both be there with the crowd which would be gathered to listen to his speech.  Gena had set up supper next to the fire in the bath house.  The chicken was cut in strips on two plates keeping warm on a little table by the tub close to the fire.

    Johnny was confused at first but caught on fast enough when she started unbuttoning his clothes.  “You think I need a bath before I meet the senator?”

    “Sure, if that’s the best way to get you to take your clothes off.”

    She started to unbutton her own clothes and encouraged him to help.  When they were both naked, she pulled him into the tub which smelled of jasmine bath salts and lavender soap.  She knew he would only do what she gave him permission to do so she put a cloth in one of his hands and soap in the other.  Then she guided his hands to her breasts.  He got the idea.  He rubbed soap on the cloth and then used it gently all over her body, starting with her breasts.  When he’d finished, she did the same for him.  Then she knelt in front of him with her knees on either side of his hips.  She put her hands on his shoulders and stretched up in front of him until her breasts were so close to his mouth he knew what she was telling him to do.

    And it felt as good as she thought it would.  His mouth was hungry but gentle as he tasted every inch of her breasts.   He held her close with his hands on her back.  He used his tongue to make both nipples hard and erect in turn.  She ran her fingers through his hair as she held his head close to her chest so he would not stop until she was ready to let him.

    When she did release him, she was ready for more.  She’d hoped she’d be ready.  She hadn’t been sure.   With her knees still on either side of his hips, she lowered herself on him, trying to position herself for him to get inside her, She moved close and with her arms around his neck she whispered.  “Can you do it this way?  Can you get inside me?  Please.”  He hadn’t been inside her before and she knew he would be hesitant.  So knowing that she would be clumsy, but wanting to show him she was determined, she took his penis in her hand and attempted to guide him into her.

    He put his hand over hers as though to stop her.  But after a moment, he put one arm around her back to support her.  With the other he guided his penis until  the tip had barely penetrated her.  He moved his hand to her bottom and gently pushed her against him so that he moved inside her very gradually.  When he was only halfway in he stopped and started stroking her just above the spot he had entered, just at the spot where she felt all her pleasure.  She moved against him as he stroked her, giving him full access and at the same time moving him further inside her.   She intended to have him come first but she couldn’t resist the rhythm of his hand.  She hoped he was taking pleasure in the movement of her body but ishe was not doing it for him.  When she finally came, she pressed herself up against him so tight he had to stop.  He was still hard inside her.   She put his hand back on her bottom and whispered.  “Show me how to move.”

    He moved her on top of him.  She tried to help, to move as he wanted, to move vigorously so he could see she was not afraid.  At the end, she almost slammed herself against him.  Water sloshed out of the tub until he finally stilled all motion by holding her tight against him.  She kissed his neck and shoulders as much to reassure him as to continue their lovemaking.

    “You’re all right?”  he half asked, half stated.

    She assured him, “I was ready.”  She put her mouth  to his and then backed away a little.  She ran her thumb around his lips.  “You’d better eat something.  You’ll get hungry out there waiting for the train.”

    She stood up.  She needed to straighten out her knees.  But before he could stand, she sat down again and wrapping her legs around his hips and pushing him to lean back in the slanted tub.  She pulled the little table with the food on it closer to the tub.  She picked up a strip of the fried chicken and fed it to him.  He ate it all then sucked on each finger that had held it.  She fed him several more of the pieces.   She could tell he really had been hungry.  “I’m sorry, I should have let you eat first.”

    “I can always take some of that with me or pick something up at the Birdcage.”  He grinned at her.  “Can’t say that about the other.”

    Then he touched his finger to her lips.  “Aren’t you going to eat?”

    “Sure I made another kind for myself.  I’m afraid fried chicken isn’t my favorite.”

    “So what’ve you got here.  He picked up one of the strips of the chicken in the wine sauce and took a little nibble.

    “Yuck, you can’t make this any better than I can.”

    She laughed at him.  “I told you, it’s supposed to taste that way.”  She grabbed a piece and ate it.  “You farm boys just don’t know how to appreciate sophisticated cuisine.”  She added sweetly, “even when you cook it yourself.”

    Johnny finished off more than half a chicken. Poor boy, he’d really been hungry.  Gena ate a big enough portion of hers to convince Johnny that his previous attempt at haute cuisine hadn’t been a failure after all.

    But It was Saturday night, a night when a lot of men would be looking for action – whiskey, women, fighting, sometimes killing.  It was always Johnny’s longest night and not a night for her to be planning anything.  In fact she’d made a point of asking for nothing from him on those nights.  They’d have supper at the Birdcage with Dan and Lily.  Then he’d walk her home during evening rounds.  He didn’t like her to be out on the streets on a Saturday night and she saw no reason to worry him.  She’d sit up reading until he came in, sometimes as late as 2 or 3 a.m.  The late hours, combined with breaking up fights, picking up drunks, toting the worse miscreants off to the jail and generally keeping a lid on things, left him tired on those nights.

    The first time he’d come home so late and found her waiting, he’d assumed she’d wanted to make love.  And why wouldn’t he?  She wanted him every night.  But she could see the fatigue in his face and in the way he carried his body.   So she just helped him off with his boots and then his clothes and had him lie down on the bed.  Starting with his neck and shoulders and working her way down to the small of his back, she massaged every muscle until he was so relaxed he could do nothing but fall asleep.  She lay down beside him, kissed his shoulder and fell asleep beside him, touching him no more than with her hand on his out-stretched forearm.

    Sundays had become something else.  Although the law didn’t take Sundays off, when he’d had a late Saturday, Dan didn’t expect Johnny in the office until late Sunday afternoon.  Or maybe it wasn’t just the late night.  Maybe it was Dan’s way of acknowledging Johnny had something important in his life that was not attached to the Marshal’s office.

    That first Sunday, she’d made sure the windows were covered so the sunlight wouldn’t wake them early.  He probably slept longer into the morning than he ever had in his life.  He said later it was because any time he half woke up, he could feel her there beside him.  That let him go back to sleep again because it felt so good to be there with her.  They’d gotten up for a breakfast that was more like lunch.  Then they’d gone back to bed and hoped the Marshal wouldn’t send anyone over to say he needed Johnny at the office.   They had taken everything slow that Sunday.  That was the first time she’d taken his hands and put them on her breasts.   Another step and another thing she could no longer do without.

    By this fourth Sunday together they’d established a little ritual.  She took a bath almost every morning.  On Sundays he joined her.  Then they spent whatever there was left of the morning in bed.  This morning she intended to cross that final barrier.

    She was still half wet from the tub when he picked her up and tossed her on his bed.  He threw himself down beside her and started to kiss the errant drops of water where they lingered on her body.  As he worked his way down from her shoulders and breasts past her ribcage to her stomach he was careful never to press any of his weight on her body.  He followed his path to her inner thighs.  He touched her between her legs with his thumb, moving it on her in a way that she wanted him to continue.  But she sensed he wanted something more.  He continued to kiss her thighs as he touched her and she understood.

    She spread her legs apart to let him know she wanted him.  He moved a little and put his tongue where his thumb had been.   And it was so good.  Why hadn’t she let him do this before?  She almost couldn’t stand it the pleasure was so intense.  He started slowly, just working his tongue around that sweet spot.  And as she responded he moved faster and her response heightened.  She spread her legs wider and he moved his tongue faster and deeper until she climaxed so fiercely she almost hit him pushing him away from a place that had become so sensitive she couldn’t have him touch it.

    She apologized immediately but he laughed.  He knew the cause of her reaction and he was happy he’d been able to get her there.

    For awhile he just lay on his side beside her, running his fingers around her breasts almost idly.  Not trying for any effect on himself or her.  He must have known she would be too sensitive for a while for him to hurry to take his own pleasure with her.  But in a few minutes, she was ready and she let him know it.

    She ran her hand up his flank and over his hip.   She stroked his penis that was half hard as though waiting.   It became fully hard as she touched it.  Then she surprised him by pulling him on top of her.  She opened her legs underneath him, inviting him to make love to her this way.  He tried to shift his weight off her.  He leaned his weight on his forearms placed just above her shoulders and kissed her.  She returned his kiss, but with her arms around his back, she forced him to lie with his weight on her.  She reached down and guided him inside her even as she felt a warning flutter rise in her stomach.   Even as she pushed him deeper inside with her hand on his lower back she felt the panic rise in her throat.  She refused to acknowledge it.  She tried to concentrate on his erection inside her, matching his rhythm to take her pleasure with his.  She kept telling herself it was Johnny, no one to hurt her.  She tried to ignore the blind fear that was causing her heart to race.

    But Johnny didn’t ignore the stiffening of Gena’s whole body as the fear took over.  He rolled onto his back, taking her with him so that she ended up on top of him.  He didn’t try to continue moving inside her.   He gently stroked her hair, as he spoke to her in a soothing voice, the voice she’d heard him use on a spooked horse.  ‘Gena, it’s alright.  No one’s here to hurt you.  Just breath deep.”

    She wouldn’t be soothed. She couldn’t stop a few sobs from escaping but she managed not to cry full force.  “Johnny, I was sure I was ready this time. There’s not a tiny piece of me that thinks I have anything to fear from you.  I want so bad for this to be finished.  Why couldn’t I stop the fear from taking over?  I want to be a whole woman for you.”

    “Gena, I know it’s important for you to get rid of this fear.  But don’t think making love that way is important to me in the least.  If we never made love that way it wouldn’t make any difference.  We tried that way tonight because you wanted to not because I needed to.”

    She took a deep breath.  “Well one thing’s improved anyway.”  She kissed him on the neck.  “You’re not apologizing.”

    Johnny laughed a little at that.  “Lets talk about this later.  Lying here naked in bed with you is not the best circumstance for having a rational discussion.  Maybe it’s time to get dressed.”

    But she wouldn’t have any of that.  Johnny didn’t know it, but one of the