Love me ... Again by Delka Beazer Read Free Book Online Page B

past a year.
    But he doesn’t take it. The mom walks hastily away from us, the young calf clings to her side.
    Colt follows them, careful, yet undeterred. The mom begins to jog beside her panicked young, mooing. Colt stays with them, doesn’t rush it. This goes on for forty minutes.
    I don’t hear Jett come up behind me, I jerk as he squeezes my shoulder in passing. Goes to Colt still walking beside the yearling.
    “You’re wasting time, old man,” he says quietly so he doesn’t spook the cattle.
    “No,” Colt responds in softer voice, “I can’t just snatch her child.”
    Jett laughs, there is a note of derision in his voice, “that’s bullshit Colt. If we all had your tender feelings we’d eat nothing but tofu.”
    Colt shrugs, doesn’t take his eyes off the target. Jett stalks in, grabs the calf by the neck, the calf struggles and Colt grips Jett’s hand and snarls, “easy man, what the hell’s the rush?”
    “Mom has the fire going already.”
    Colt’s snorts, steps away from the calf, “she’ll have to wait for another hour or two.”
    “What?” Jett shouts, startling both mother and calf, he points to the cattle, “It doesn’t take two hours to kill and butcher a calf.”
    Colt stalks past me and heads over to the makeshift corral the hands has stabled the horses in, “it will take me that long to get a doe for her.”
    Jett hoots with laughter, “you’re gonna hunt something when we have a thousand heads of cattle right here?”
    Colt stops and turns to look at Jett, “Yeah, got a problem with that?”
    Jett doesn’t back down, “Whatever Colt, go waste your own damn time,” he comes over to me and loosely takes my hand.
    Colt turns from the two of us and keeps walking towards the corral, his large hands are clenched into fists at his side.
    Jett groans, “He gets worse every year.” Jett looks down at me with a grin, “Colt needs a woman!”

Chapter eight
     
     
    The venison is tender, it melts on my tongue and though I’m ravenous, I eat very slowly to savor the delicate texture. Colt is sitting in front of the open pit barbeque, a simple iron grill placed over dried pinewood. He spears the last piece of grilled venison and turns around to the circle of family about the fire. I’m sitting in the middle beside Jett, Marjorie and Michael flank us.
    “No,” Marjorie backs away from the offered meat, her blank face is softened by the light of the amber fire, “if I eat another bite I’ll explode,” she laughs.
    I swallow a rueful chuckle, Marjorie had primly requested half a venison steak and eaten only a piece of that, next to Colt’s grandma who now dozes contently beside the fire, who’d packed away three thick venison steaks.
    Colt offers it around the fire, everyone including Jett waves it away.
    He has no choice but to offer it to me.
    Our eyes meet and Colt drops his gaze to the ground at my dusty boots, I hold my breath and look at the slightly charred juicy flank of steak stuck on the point of his hunting knife.
    The succulent odor of the roasted meat tickles my nose and water pools in my mouth, “I’ll take half,” I say and his eyes flick upwards, I savor the way his gaze rakes over my face, then falls to my lips which are sticky with meat juices. I rake my tongue over my lips to clean them and his eyes dart away.
    He grunts, deftly slices the meat in two and hands the larger portion to me.
    “Is it too much?” he asks while avoiding my eyes.
    A shiver runs through me as the husky timber of his voice, he seems to catch it himself and clamps his lips tightly together, regret furrows his brow, my mouth droops, I feel as if I’ve just lost something he never gave me, I pluck the meat off the knife, “It’s just the right size,” I say and pop it into my mouth.
    His eyes flare with … hunger and I watch him struggle to say what he cannot in front of his family and my fiancée but he just nods. He squats down in front of the fire, legs crossed and swiftly