The Traveling Kind Read Free Page B

against the side. With the cast holding his leg stiff, it was a struggle working the jeans to where he could get both feet through the pant legs. When he could finally stand up again, Charley pulled the Levi’s the rest of the way up.
    “What you’re saying is this guy is a drifter.” Gary continued on with the subject as he succeeded in balancing himself on the crutches long enough to fasten his pants.
    “That’s right.” She returned the scissors to their place in the bureau drawer. “I didn’t think it mattered since we wouldn’t want him to stay past summer anyway.”
    “No, it doesn’t I guess,” he agreed. “What are you going to fix for lunch?”
    Charley glanced at the clock. It was an hour before noon. “All you think about anymore is your stomach,” she chided him. “As much as you’ve been eating lately, you’re going to gain twenty pounds before you get that cast off.”
    “You try dragging this deadweight around with you—” he gestured toward the cast “—and you’ll work up an appetite, too,” he retorted.
    “During these next six weeks that you’re convalescing, why don’t you learn to cook?” Charley suggested. “That will be one less chore for me to do.”
    The sibling discussion was interrupted by footsteps on the stairs. Charley turned as Shad Russell emerged from the stairwell. His blue glance rested briefly on her, then shifted to her brother. Yet, in that second, all her senses were brought to full awareness.
    “I thought I’d take my saddle and tack to the barn, then have a look around,” Shad stated his intentions.
    “I’ll come with you and give you a rundown on our operation,” Gary volunteered, adjusting the crutches under his arms to hobble with the man. “Charley can get lunch ready while we’re gone.”
    A few minutes past noon, they sat down at the kitchen table to eat the lunch Charley had fixed. During the meal the conversation centered on ranch topics that ranged from work needing to be done to the cattle market and futures. Charley could tell her brother was impressed by the indifferent flow of knowledge that came from Shad Russell. His experience in the business was wide and far-reaching, yet it was revealed in a manner that could only be described as offhand. He had a keen and intelligent mind, able to discard ranching methods that didn’t suit their operation and discuss others that could be incorporated to improve their present system. There never was a critical comment from Shad, nor any attempt to force a suggestion on them. An idea was idly mentioned, discussed and judged on its own merits to be either considered or rejected by Gary.
    Shad Russell was becoming more and more of an enigma to Charley. He had traits she could admire in a man—his intelligence, his tact, and his quiet authority—but she never permitted herself to lose sight of the fact that he was a drifter. Today he was here, but he might be gone on the morrow.
    Dessert was a fudge cake that Charley had baked the day before, and strong black coffee. When it was consumed, Shad leaned back in his chair, stretching with the contentment of a man whose stomach is full. His dancing blue gaze swung to Charley and she watched again as a smile broke from the corners of his eyes, slashing lines in his lean bronze cheeks.
    “It’s been so long since I’ve sat down to a home-cooked meal, I had forgotten how good it can taste.”
    It was a sincere compliment with no attempt at flattery. Reaching out to her, it stroked her senses like a caress.
    All she could think of was that old adage: the. . . . way to a man’s heart is through his stomach
    Shaken by the thought, for she knew it wasn’t possible to permanently tame a wild thing—it would always revert to its old ways—she warned herself again not to become involved with a man who was only passing through her life.
    So she took his compliment and responded to it with a casual reply. “My mother was an excellent cook. I was taught by