Diana Palmer - Wyoming Fierce

She sighed, closing her eyes and smiling. Her physical anthropology class was her favorite. She was actually looking forward to that final. Her roommate, Beth Gaines, a nice girl with whom she lived in a small apartment off campus, was in the same anthropology class. They’d spent days before Bodie came home for the weekend, grilling each other on the material.

“Bones, bones, bones,” Beth groaned as she went over the dentition yet another time. “These teeth were in this primate, these teeth were in a more refined primate, this was in homo sapiens…aaaahhhhhh!” she screamed, pulling at her red hair. “I’ll never remember all this!” She glared at Bodie, who was grinning. “And I’ll never forgive you for talking me into taking this class with you! I’m a history major! Why do I need a minor in anthropology?”

“Because when I become famous and get a job at some super university as a professor, you can come and teach there with me.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “I’ll have connections! Wait and see!”

Beth sighed. Her expression was doubtful.

“Only a few more years to go,” Bodie teased.

Beth’s green eyes narrowed. “I’m not taking any more anthropology classes, period.”

Bodie had only grinned, as well. Her best friend was like herself, out of step with the world, old-fashioned and deeply religious. It was hard to be that way on a modern college campus without getting hassled by more progressive students. But Beth and Bodie stuck together and coped.

Bodie opened her eyes. She was never going to get this biology committed to memory by thinking about other things.

She frowned as music started playing. She got up to answer her cell phone, which was playing one of the Star Trek themes.

Bodie opened it. “Hello?”

There was a pause. “Bodie?”

Her heart skipped. “Yes.”

She moved to the door and pushed it shut, so she wouldn’t disturb her grandfather.

“About earlier tonight,” Cane began slowly.

“Yes?” She was beginning to sound like a broken record.

He cleared his throat. “If I said anything out of the way, I’m sorry.”

She hesitated. “You don’t remember?” she asked.

He laughed softly. “I was pretty much drunk out of my mind,” he said with a long sigh. “Honest to God, I remember getting into the truck with you. The next thing I remember is waking up with a pounding headache and so sick that I had to run to the bathroom.” He hesitated again, while Bodie’s heart fell like lead. All that, and he didn’t remember anything?

“You should stop treeing bars,” she said quietly.

“If I’m going to have memory loss like this, yes, I guess you’re right.”

“And more specifically, you should stop trying to pick up women in bars,” she said with a bite in her soft voice.

He sighed. “Right again.”

“You need to get back into therapy. Both kinds.”

There was a long hesitation.

“You’re not doing yourself or your brothers any favors by behaving like that, Cane,” she told him. “One day, paying off the damage won’t be enough and you’ll have a police record. Think how that would look in the newspaper.”

There was a sound, like a man sitting down in a leather chair. The sound leather made was no stranger to Bodie, who’d wished all her young life for a chair so fancy for her grandfather. His easy chair was cloth, faded and with torn spots that Bodie kept sewing up.

“You’re not the only person who came home from the military with problems of one sort or another,” she continued, but in a less hostile tone. “People cope. They have to.”

“I’m not coping…very well,” he confessed.

“You have to have a psychologist that you like and trust,” she said, recalling her friend Beth’s entry into therapy over a childhood incident. “I don’t think you liked your last one at all.”

“I didn’t,” he said curtly. “Smart guy, never had a pain or injury in his life, said you just had to pull yourself together like a man and face the fact that you’re crippled....”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” she exclaimed. “You should have walked right out the door!”

“I did,” he muttered. “Then everybody said I wasn’t trying because I quit therapy.”

“You should have told why you quit, and nobody would have said anything,” she shot back.

He sighed. “Yes. I guess I should have.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on the road in the morning with Big Red for that cattle show?” she asked suddenly, naming their prize bull who was on the show circuit. He’d won all sorts of awards. Cane took one of the ranch cowboys along with him on the road, to help manage the big bull who was, however, gentle as a lamb on the lead. Having another man who could help if Big Red got out of hand was a smart precaution.

“I’m headed out later, in fact. I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t abused your trust,” he added gently. “Not good policy, to alienate your only caretaker.”

“Tank or Mallory could save bars from you if they had to,” she pointed out.

“Well, yes, but not without some broken teeth. You can do it with fewer bruises.”

“Nice to know I’m useful,” she replied with a smile in her voice.

There was another pause. He didn’t like talking on the telephone. He did it reluctantly at best. “You dating anybody from that college you go to?” he asked suddenly.

Her heart jumped. “Why?”

“Just curious.”

“I’m too busy studying to run around with men,” she muttered. “I wasn’t blessed with the size brain all you Kirk boys have. I have to dig for my grades.”

“We all have degrees,” he admitted. “But we had to dig for ours, too. Well, maybe not Mallory. He’s just smart.”

“He is.”

“When do you go back to school?”

“Tomorrow morning before daylight,” she said heavily. “My first final is after lunch tomorrow. It’s finals all week.”

There was another pause. “You coming back home after you finish those?”

“Yes. I’ll be here until the first of the year, through the holidays. Granddaddy would be all alone without me. We only have each other.”

“And your stepfather,” he said, but without any warmth in his tone.

“Will Jones is not part of my family,” she bit off. “Not at all.”

“Can’t say I blame you for not claiming him,” he admitted. “None of us ever understood what your mother saw in him.”

Not for worlds would Bodie admit what her mother had said, that she knew she was dying and it was worth putting up with her new husband’s quirks because he was well-to-do and was willing to pay her medical bills and take care of Bodie. It had been a little more complicated than that. Bodie had spent the past two years getting undressed in bathrooms and locking her door at night to prevent any unwanted attention from her mother’s husband. Then when her mother died, everything had come to a head just after the funeral and she’d gone to Granddaddy’s home for good.

“There’s no accounting for taste,” Cane said.

“Truly.”

“It was money, wasn’t it?” he asked suddenly. “She was sick for a long time and couldn’t work.”

Bodie’s heart skipped. Her bow lips made a thin line. “Something like that.”

“She was proud,” he said unexpectedly. “Not the sort of person to ever ask for help.”

She didn’t reply.

“All right, I won’t pry,” he said after the silence. “So, I guess I’ll see you when you come home.”

“Yes,” she said, hesitant.

“If I said or did anything to upset you, I’m sorry,” he added. “I wish I could remember, but the whole night’s a blur. Tank said you looked a little ruffled when he drove you home.”