Free Dances Naked by Dani Haviland

to make a joke. He took off his hat and pulled out the small fishing lure with the twisted line att ached to it. “Fishy. I eat fish: fish for breakfast, fish for lunch , and fish for dessert after I’ve had my fish for supper!
    Smack! Grant didn’t think much of Marty’s wit and used the back of his hand to tell him so.
    Marty was knocked f or a loop, literally, landing face down in the dirt with the backhanded slap. He rolled over cautiously; making sure his knife was still hidden and hadn’t been revealed in the unexpected assault. Marty rubbed his jaw and asked , “Now what’d you go and do that for? I’ll share the fish. I mean, if you and your wife are hungry, I’ll see what I can scare up. Although, it might be more lucrative if we waited until sundown.”
    “She’s not my wife— she’s my stupid sister,” Grant snorted. “And what in the hell is Luke ruh tive?”
    “Oh, it’s just a Scottish word that means you catch more fish when the sun isn’t high,” Marty answered, making sure he didn’t smile at his lame fabrication. The man was obviously unschooled on top of being short tempered. Hopefully , he’d just take the boots and horse and leave— leave him with his life. Marty suddenly panicked at the thought of dying.
    “Well, I don’t speak Scottish and I don’t like to eat fish. But, I will take this hat and the hook and line. She can catch fish for herself. I’ll eat this,” he said as he pulled out a fat tortilla wrapped sandwich from his pocket and waved it around, showing off his bounty.
    “You said all the food was gone, Grant,” hollered Rachel as she made her way back up from the creek, stomping her bare feet angrily.
    “I lied,” Grant sneered then took a big bite of the ham and cheese fare. He tossed the hat he had taken from Marty down to her. “Here, there’s a hook and line on it; go catch yourself a fish. Oh, and you can keep the hat. I still like this one best,” he said as he tapped the dusty crown of his black silk edged tricorner hat. “It always looked better on me than Atholl anyhow.
    Rachel huffed in disgust but took the hat and carefully pulled out the hook. “Come on, Junior, we’ll have better luck with a hook, I promise.” She looked over at Marty, trying to decide if she should give him back his hat or not , then glanced up at the high noon sky. She would probably look odd wearing a man’s hat but Grant had taken hers and she didn’t want it back after what he had done to it. “Hey, it’s softer than the leaves and I had the runs from the food that those Pomeroys fed me. Yo u can wash it out in the creek— it’ll be as good as ever.
    Rachel settled the hat that was one size too big on her head and caught Marty’s eye. She didn’t dare speak to him but lowered her eyes, saying , ‘I’m sorry but I need it , ’ with her expression. Marty bit back t he words, ‘It looks cute on you . ’ She wouldn’t have understood his odd sense of humor and her brother would probably use the uninvited conversation with his sister as an excuse to hit him again. Instead, Marty bent his head and prayed silently that he would get out of this predicament with his life. He just wanted to go home. He glanced up to heaven and added silently, ‘A nd in one piece would be nice, too, Lord.’
    “Hurry up and catch your fish. We should be able to make New Bern in two days if you don’t…”
    “Oh, keep your pants on,” Rachel answered sassily, cutting off his admonishment. She wrapped up the hook and line and stuck it back on the hat brim. “They won’t be biting until later, anyhow. Let me have a couple of bites of that sandwich and then we can leave.”
    “Gettin’ a bit chatty in your old age there, aren’t you?” Grant barked back, twirling his knife haft between thumb and index finger menacingly . “Here, I saved you a bite,” he said , and threw the last bit of sandwich at her, intentionally tossing it short so it landed in the dirt.
    Rachel glared at