Chapter 33

He is a gentleman, isn’t he? she thought. She felt the same funny feeling inside her belly that she’d felt before and wondered what it meant.

* * * *

Sitting on a couple of hay bales, Sheriff Chase and Storm were talking.

“Why don’t you just give her to me?”

“What!” Storm yelled. “Just pass her around like a party favor? No way in hell, Chase. No way!”

“I ain’t talkin’ about that. I’m talkin’ about marriage.”

“Sheriff, she’s already married.”

“No, no,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve got that all figured out. I been talkin’ to Charley Davis, and he says we can get it annulled since it’s only been a matter of a few days. When you do, then she can marry me.”

“Somethin’ about this ain’t right.”

“But why not? She was willing to come down here to marry you, sight unseen.”

“She at least had a picture.”

“All right, but she’s seen me. She knows me. We’ve talked. I think she likes me.”

“She likes meatloaf, too, damn it, but it don’t mean she’s gonna marry it.”