A Woman's Touch

everything I had to give a woman.“
    She nodded. „And it wasn’t very much, was it?“
    „Damn you, Rebecca.“ He reached for her, his fingers tightening around her arms. „What are you trying to do to me?“
    „Nothing, Kyle,“ she said wearily. „I’m just taking myself out of the cross fire. You and Glen do whatever you want with that land. Have your showdown at high noon right out there on Main Street in front of Cully’s Tavern. I don’t care who wins. The important thing is that it’s now just between the two of you. The women of my family are no longer involved.“
    She stepped around him and walked resolutely toward the motel. It was time to leave.
    „You can’t walk away from me,“ Kyle yelled furiously. „I’m not through with you yet.“ But she didn’t turn around.

    Kyle watched her go, his hands flexing into frustrated fists at his sides. „Damn you, Becky,“ he whispered. „You can’t walk away from me. I won’t let you.“
    The door of the cafe swung open. Darla stood on the threshold. She glanced at the retreating figure of Rebecca and then she looked at Kyle. Her eyes no longer held mischief, but rather a deeply contemplative expression.
    „My, my,“ she said quietly. „Looks like the new town marshal has just made the streets safe for peaceful folk once more. And now she’s going to ride off into the sunset in the best tradition of heroic western lawmen. Or should that be law-women? We’ll all stand around wondering who she was and where she’s headed next.“
    „This isn’t a joke, Darla.“
    „No,“ she agreed. „It’s not. But I think it just might be the end of a really dumb feud that’s gone on far too long and involved too many innocent bystanders. Glen is waiting for you inside. I’ve given him my opinion on the subject of what to do with that land. Now it’s up to you two.“
    Kyle said nothing as she came down the steps. When she was right in front of him she looked up at him and smiled.
    „You know something, Kyle? I forgot to thank you.“
    „For what?“ he asked suspiciously.
    „For letting me go so easily when I broke our engagement four years ago. Oh, I know you put up a token protest.
    You had to, because there was a Ballard involved and therefore your ego took a bruising. And as a general principle Stockbridges never let go of anything without a serious argument. But even when you showed up at the wedding and created that awful scene, I still knew I was lucky.“
    „Lucky to get away from me?“ He turned his head to watch Rebecca disappear behind a row of parked cars in the motel lot.
    „Uh-huh. You could have made things much more difficult for me,“ Darla said thoughtfully. „In fact, if you had really wanted me, really loved me, I don’t think I would have gotten free at all. But, who knows? Maybe if you had really loved me, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave in the first place.“ She smiled as he looked back at her with a glowering frown. „It will be interesting to see how easily you let Rebecca go.“
    Kyle caught her arm as she went past him. „Whatever else happens, Rebecca isn’t getting away from me. You go tell her that.“
    „What are you going to do?“
    „I’ve got business to attend to.“ He released her, jammed his hat down over his eyes and went up the steps and back into the cafe.
    Glen Ballard lounged in the booth, finishing off the French fries his wife hadn’t eaten. For some reason it struck Kyle as odd to see Ballard calmly eating his wife’s leftover fries. It seemed like such an ordinary, mundane, husbandly thing for an enemy to do.
    It occurred to Kyle that although he’d been raised in the same small community as Ballard there was a hell of a lot he didn’t know about the man. Enemies tended to have a very narrow perspective on each other.
    Kyle dropped into the booth across from his lifelong opponent.
    Ballard grinned faintly. „This town is going to have enough gossip to last for the next ten years. Imagine a Ballard and a Stockbridge sitting down to have lunch together.“
    „This isn’t exactly a luncheon meeting.“
    „We’re eating, aren’t we? Here comes your hamburger, now.“
    Kyle glanced up in annoyance as Jan set the platter in front of him. The young woman looked nervous. She removed herself immediately and skittered back toward the kitchen.
    „What the hell’s wrong with her?“ Kyle muttered.
    Glen munched another French fry. „I think she’s jittery now that the women