Free Tall, Dark, and Texan by JODI THOMAS

letters from him that she’d treasured had been addressed to Eli. She made a point to mention that Eli sometimes shared a few lines of Teagen’s letters.
    She wished she could call them her letters. She wished she could tell him they had been her own private treasure. A hundred nights, when loneliness kept her awake, she’d tiptoed to her desk in the corner of the bookstore and lit one lamp so she could read his words, his thoughts, his dreams.
    As they moved closer to the campfire lights, Jessie noticed they both lowered their voices. In a funny way even out here in the open, she felt very much alone with Teagen.
    “Is it all right to ask how you felt today?” He broke the silence.
    “I feel fine. And you’ll be happy to know that I ate like a pig all day.”
    His arm squeezed slightly. “I can tell you’re getting fatter.”
    “Martha made apple pancakes, applesauce, and apple pie today. Tomorrow she promised more cinnamon apples.” She shifted slightly so she could face him. “The big excitement of the afternoon was one of the hens had chicks hatch out. The girls loved it. By the time the birds were all out of their shells, Rose had tried to name every one. It took me an hour to convince her she couldn’t bring them in the house.”
    Their faces were so close she could feel his breath on her cheek. Suddenly she became very much aware that their bodies touched from shoulder to leg. She knew she should turn away. This wasn’t proper to be so close to a man she barely knew. But it felt so right. He felt so warm.
    The memory of what life had been like with Eli invaded her thoughts. They’d been married over a year before he came to her bed in the attic. He hadn’t said a word. He pulled her covers away, lifted her nightgown to her waist, and lowered his body on top of her. Jessie closed her eyes and shivered with the cold until it was over. When he left, he hadn’t pulled her gown back or returned the covers, but Jessie didn’t care. She lay shaking until the cold numbed her body and she no longer felt the pain. Eli never spoke of what had happened. He set a pattern of climbing the stairs once or twice a month. In all those years, through winters and summers, Jessie never felt anything but cold when he touched her.
    “There’s the night guard.” Teagen turned loose of her for a moment while he waved.
    A man with very few clothes on stood and waved back. Teagen reined the horse so they circled the camp. Firelight made the place seem enchanted. The tepees glowed in the night, and tiny embers drifted into the sky as if dancing toward the stars.
    “How many are here?”
    “A dozen men and a few women. Most of these braves are young and unmarried. Once married, their wives travel with them until too many children keep them back at the main camp.
    “This is more a holiday for them than work. My grandfather knows I’ll cut a couple of head of cattle out of my herd for them to take home.”
    “How long will they stay?”
    “A week maybe. By then the men I’ve hired should be here. We’ll just wake up one morning, and they’ll be gone, tents and all.”
    They circled the camp twice. One couple sat talking by a fire, another man seemed to be checking the line of horses, but most of the men must have retired for the night.
    “Martha says you’re half-Apache,” she whispered.
    “Yeah, but I don’t feel it like Travis and Tobin do. Maybe because before I was twelve I stepped into my father’s role. I even grew into his clothes. The Apache are my mother’s people. Both my brothers spent time at the camps, but I never had the time. There was always too much to do here.”
    No sadness or regret lingered in his words. Teagen had simply done what he had to do, but she couldn’t help but wonder: if he’d been allowed to be a boy for a few summers longer, would he be a different man? Eli had always been treated like a child by his parents, and he’d crumbled into a bottle. Teagen had grown up too fast, and