Montana Sky

managed, and pressed a hand to her aching side. “As soon as I can stand up, they’re all going.”
    “Can’t say I’ll miss them.” Tess wiped her streaming eyes. “But what the hell are we going to do with them?”
    “Burn them, bury them, give them away.” Willa moved her shoulders. “Whatever.” She took a cleansing breath andpushed herself to her feet. “Clean sweep,” she announced, and hauled up a mounted elk’s head.
    They carted them out—elk, moose, deer, sheep, bear. There were stuffed birds, mounted fish, lonely antlers. As the pile in front of the porch began to build, the men wandered over to make a fascinated and baffled audience.
    “Mind if we ask what you ladies are doing?” As unofficial liaison, Jim stepped forward.
    “Spring cleaning,” Willa told him. “You think Wood can fire up the backhoe and dig a hole big enough to dump these in, give them a decent burial?”
    “You’re just going to dump them in a hole?” Shocked, Jim turned back as the men began to mumble. It took only a few minutes in a huddle to come to an agreement. This time Jim cleared his throat. “Maybe we could have a few for down to the bunkhouse and thereabouts. It’s a shame just to bury ’em. That buck there’d look fine over the fireplace. And Mr. Mercy, he put store by that bear.”
    “Take what you want,” Willa said.
    “Can I have the cat, Will?” Billy hunkered down to admire it. “I sure would appreciate it. He’s a beauty.”
    “Take what you want,” she repeated, and shook her head as the men began to argue, debate, and lay claim.
    “Now you’ve done it.” Ham moseyed over while four of the men muscled the bear into the back of a rig. “I’m going to have that damn ugly bastard staring at me every morning and every night. They’ll be storing what don’t fit on the walls in one of the outbuildings, too, mark my words.”
    “Better there than in my house.” Willa cocked her head. “I thought you liked that bear, Ham. You were with him when he took it down.”
    “Yeah, I was with him. Don’t mean I harbor an affection for it. Jesus. Billy, you’re going to break that rack you keep that up. Have a care, for God’s sake. Be hanging their hats from it,” he muttered as he stalked over to supervise.
    “Damn idiot cowboys.”
    “Now everybody’s happy,” Tess observed.
    “Yep. Library’s next.”
    “I can give you an hour.” Tess glanced at her watch. “Then I’ve got to get ready. I’ve got a hot date.”
    She had some new lingerie, delivered just that afternoon from Victoria’s Secret. She wondered how long it would take Nate to get her out of it.
    Not long, she speculated. Not long at all.
    She let her thoughts circle back to Will. “And isn’t this the night for you and Ben to take in your weekly picture show?” she said with her tongue in her cheek.
    “I guess it is.”
    “Lily’s fixing a fancy dinner for Adam tonight.”
    Distracted, Willa glanced back. “Oh?”
    “Well, it’s sort of the anniversary of when we first . . . first,” Lily finished, and blushed.
    She’d gotten a delivery from Victoria’s Secret too.
    “And it’s Bess’s night off.” Casually, Tess studied her nails. Evicting wildlife had been tough on her manicure. “I heard she was going down to Ennis to spend the night with her gossipmate Maude Wiggins. Since I’m planning on staying at Nate’s, you’ll have the house all to yourself.”
    “Oh, you shouldn’t be alone,” Lily jumped in. “I can—”
    “Lily.” Tess rolled her eyes. “She won’t be alone unless she’s incredibly slow or incredibly stupid or just plain stubborn. A quick woman, a smart one, a flexible one, would get herself all polished and perfumed and suggest a quiet evening in.”
    “Ben would think I’d lost my mind if I got all dressed up, then said I wanted to stay in.”
    “Wanna bet?”
    At Tess’s slow smile, Willa felt her own lips curving. “Things are too complicated now. I’ve got too much on my mind to be thinking of wrestling with Ben.”
    “When aren’t things complicated?” Tess took Willa’s arms, turned her face-to-face. “Do you want him or not? Yes or no.”
    Willa thought of the flutter that had been in her stomach all day. Because he’d been on her mind. “Yes.”
    Tess nodded. “Now?”
    “Yeah.” Willa let out a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding. “Now.”
    “Then leave the rest of the spring cleaning for tomorrow. It’ll take Lily and me at least