Should Have Been Her Child. Stella Bagwell

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      Alice smiled with affection as she took in the sight of her grandson and great-granddaughter. “She’s really starting to string her words together now. But Pa had to scold her for saying a curse word today.”

      Jess chuckled. “Now I wonder where she might have heard such a thing?” he asked as he carefully rose from the rocker with the toddler still cradled in his arms.

      “Pa said it was from me,” Alice said. “But we both know I’ve never said a bad word in my life.”

      “Only if you were by yourself or with someone else,” Jess joked.

      Alice’s laughter followed him as he carried his daughter down a narrow hallway and into a small bedroom situated next to his.

      After placing her in a white, wooden crib, he made certain she was covered against the night chill, then headed back through the old house to the kitchen.

      Even though the hour was late and Will had gone to bed two hours earlier, his grandmother was there waiting for him.

      “You didn’t have to wait for me, Ma. I can fend for myself,” he assured her. But already she’d placed his plate of food on the table, along with silverware and a tall glass of iced tea.

      Waving away his words, she sank down in the chair next to him and pushed a hand through her gray hair.

      “I’ll go to bed in a minute. I wanted to ask you what happened today out at the T Bar K.”

      Shaking black pepper over the food, Jess paused to look at her. “News sure does travel fast for us to be living fifteen miles from town. It’s not like you to be gossiping on the telephone.”

      “Who has time for the damn telephone? I went into Aztec for a few things at the grocery. Ed mentioned it when I checked out.”

      Jess shoveled a bite of black beans into his mouth. “What makes you think I know anything about it?”

      She made a face at him. “You’re the undersheriff,” she said proudly. “If anything of importance happens around here, you’re gonna know it.”

      With a wry shake of his head, Jess said, “A body was discovered on T Bar K range.”

      “I’ve heard that much.”

      He chewed a forkful of rice spiced with chili peppers. “There’s not much more to tell. We’ll have to wait and see what the coroner uncovers.”

      Alice sighed. “I guess…what I was really wondering was…if you saw Victoria while you were at the ranch.”

      He glanced up to see his grandmother regarding him with quiet concern. Since he’d returned from Texas, she’d not brought up the subject of Victoria. Not that there was anything to bring up. That part of his life had been over for years now. He’d already married and lost a wife since Victoria had turned her back on him.

      “Why would you want to know that?” he hedged.

      Impatient now, she asked, “Well, did you?”

      His gaze slipped back to his plate. “Yeah. I questioned her.”

      Surprise crossed her wrinkled face. “Questioned her? Why?”

      “Ma,” he said tiredly, “it’s my job.”

      Moments passed as Jess continued to eat.

      Finally, Alice asked, “So was she…glad to see you?”

      Jess gripped his fork as he thought about the impulsive kiss he’d exchanged with Victoria. For a few seconds her lips had said she was glad to have him close again. But her words had conveyed something altogether different. And Jess wasn’t ever going to repeat the mistake of allowing her body to rule his thinking.

      “No person is ever glad to see a lawman, Ma. Unless they’re in trouble and need help.”

      Rising from her chair, Alice crossed to a large gas range and turned the flame under a red granite coffeepot.

      “Did you ever stop to think Victoria fits that bill?”

      He snorted. “Victoria is a Ketchum. They have money and power. And now that she’s a practicing physician, she has even more money to buy herself out of anything.”

      Alice shot him a disgusted look as she pulled a mug down from a pine cupboard. “I’m not talking about trouble with the law, Jess.”

      His fork paused in midair as he glanced at his grandmother. “What are you talking about, Ma?”

      She poured the coffee, then placed it next to his right hand. “I think you need to figure that out for yourself.”

      Jess realized there wasn’t any point asking her what she meant by that comment. She was already on her way out of the kitchen. And even if she hadn’t been headed to bed, she wouldn’t have explained. She’d always liked to let him stew in his own juices.

      Well, it won’t work this time, Ma, Jess said to himself. Victoria Ketchum was a bad memory from his past. And if she was in any sort of trouble, she’d have to look elsewhere for help. He wasn’t about to become involved with the woman again. And from her reaction to him earlier this evening, she wasn’t about to let him.

      He finished his meal and the last of his coffee. After rinsing the dishes, he walked down to the barn. On the south side of the building two horses milled about in separate lots. Normally at this time of year the horses were loose and running the range, feasting on new spring grasses. Pa had kept the horses penned for more than a week now, waiting for Jess to find time to help him with roundup.

      At seventy-one, Will was still spry and healthy and a better cowhand than most men thirty years younger. Jess didn’t want to think about the time his grandfather would no longer be able to pitch hay, build fences or brand cattle. As for riding a horse, the old man would be happy to die in the saddle.

      Jess checked the watering troughs and feed buckets hanging on the rail fence even though he knew Will had already seen to the horses’ needs. He was simply making the rounds, satisfying the lawman inside of him that all was well.

      In the morning, he would tell Pa to give him two or three more days and then he’d help him hit the brush. Since there was only the two of them, it would take at least three days of hard riding to scour the mountains and arroyos around the ranch for stray Hastings cattle.

      They didn’t have a bunkhouse full of cowboys to do the work for them. But even if he had those resources, Will wouldn’t want it that way. Like Jess, the old man was a proud loner. He didn’t want anyone doing his job for him. Yet he welcomed Jess’s companionship and helping hand, because Jess was family. And someday all of this would be his grandson’s.

      For the past four years Jess’s help in keeping the Hastings ranch going had been in the form of money. A part of the salary he’d earned with the border patrol. And if Katrina’s mother hadn’t been killed in a car accident, he supposed he would have still been in El Paso.

      Sighing wearily, he lifted the felt hat from his head and scraped his fingers through thick waves flattened against his skull.

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