Only 04 - Only Love

Chinese fighting tricks than they had expected the bullwhip.”
    Shannon made an odd sound. “If you had seen Whip move, you wouldn’t have worried about him. He had them down and out cold before I could blink.”
    “All the same, big brother,” Willow muttered, “one of these days you’re going to bite off more than you can chew all by yourself.”
    “He already did,” Shannon said, “in a place called Grizzly Meadow.”
    Caleb turned swiftly toward Shannon. His uncanny speed had been one of the first things she had noticed about him. She had thought no man could be quicker with his hands than Whip, but she no longer doubted that Caleb was faster.
    “What happened?” Caleb asked Shannon.
    “Whip took on a grizzly with a bullwhip.”
    Caleb turned on Whip. “A grizzly? Judas Priest! I thought you had better sense!”
    “It wasn’t exactly my idea,” Whip said wryly. “I was having a bath quiet as you please, and then Prettyface went on the warpath and I turned around and there that damned bear was reared up on his hind legs. All I had was the bullwhip, so I used it.”
    “You drove off a grizzly with a bullwhip?” Caleb asked, astonished.
    “No. Shannon came running up and shoved her rusty old shotgun—”
    “My shotgun is cleaner than your bullwhip,” Shannon cut in.
    “—up against the grizzly’s heart and let him have it with both barrels,” Whip said, ignoring her interruption. “Killed him deader than a stone.”
    Caleb looked back at Shannon with new interest in his odd, whiskey-colored eyes.
    “That took a lot of courage,” Caleb said.
    “Courage?” Shannon asked, and laughed curtly. “I was plain scared, but I’m such a bad shot I knew I had to get in close to do anything useful. Just wounding the grizzly would have been the death of us all.”
    “So you ran right up and blew that grizzly tokingdom come,” Caleb said, watching her with unblinking amber eyes.
    Shannon looked at Caleb rather warily.
    “Are you going to yell at me too?” she asked.
    Caleb smiled, making his black mustache shift and gleam in the lantern light.
    It struck Shannon that in a dark, hard kind of way, Caleb was every bit as good-looking as Whip.
    “Is that what Whip did?” Caleb asked. “Yell at you?”
    “Yes.”
    “No,” Whip said simultaneously. “I merely pointed out that Shannon was a triple-dyed idiot for racing in where she had no business and nearly getting herself killed. Prettyface and I about had that grizzly on the run.”
    Caleb snorted. “Did the grizzly know it?”
    Whip shot his friend a hard look and then concentrated on demolishing the pile of biscuits on his plate. It still bothered him that Shannon had risked her life for him and never once had hinted that he owed her anything for it. Not even so much as a thank-you or a hug.
    Instead of thanking her, he had yelled at her. That bothered him, too.
    No surprise there, Whip thought sardonically. Everything about that girl bothers me.
    “If my brother doesn’t have the manners to thank you,” Willow said, “I do. You’re welcome to come to our ranch anytime, and to stay for as long as you like.”
    “Amen,” Caleb said. “Much as I hate to admit it, I’d miss the sound of Whip’s flute calling up the dawn when he comes visiting.”
    “And just who accused me of stampeding the cattle with my ‘spirit pipes’?” Whip asked instantly, grateful for the change of subject.
    “Must have been Wolfe,” Caleb said.
    “Huh,” was all Whip said.
    Shannon hid her smile. She also tried to hide her longing as she glanced sideways at Whip. She doubted that she was successful.
    She had quickly learned that not much got past Caleb’s amber eyes.
    After everyone had eaten, Caleb and Whip went out to check on the ranch animals. Willow went about her chores, which Shannon insisted on doing alongside her.
    The first day set the pattern for the days that followed. Shannon worked as Willow did, whether it was cooking or sewing or cleaning. When Willow protested that Shannon was doing too much, Shannon simply laughed and said it was much easier than what she would be doing if she was in Echo Basin.
    After supper on the fourth day that Shannon and Whip had been at the ranch, Willow coaxed Caleb to get out his harmonica and play some of her favorite songs.
    Soon the haunting strains of a waltz were floating through the house. Lanterns glowed in shades of sun-bright gold throughout the main room of the house, softening everything