Only 04 - Only Love

Shannon, why should you get so upset at the idea that some other man—”
    A nudge from Reno’s foot under the table cut off Eve’s words.
    “Whip knows he’s being unreasonable,” Reno said. “That’s why his temper is on a hair trigger. If he needs a fight, I’ll be the one to give it to him.”
    “ Men, ” Eve said under her breath.
    Then she sighed and tried another approach.
    “Why don’t you just give her some of your own gold from that Spanish mine?” Eve asked. “Lord knows you’ve barely touched it.”
    “In her place, would you take it?” Reno asked before Whip could speak.
    “No. But I was in love with a man who was a fool for hunting gold.”
    “And Shannon,” Reno said, “is in love with a man who is a fool for yon—”
    “She doesn’t really love me!” Whip interrupted harshly.
    “Is that what she says?” Eve retorted. “Or is it what you hope?”
    “She’s never been around anyone but a snake-mean old man hunter, and a tough old hermit called Cherokee, and a bunch of young miners with the manners of rutting elks,” Whip said. “Of courseshe would think the first man who treats her decently is special.”
    “In other words, she loves you,” Eve summarized.
    Whip grimaced and said nothing.
    “Let’s see if I have this straight,” Eve said blandly. “You don’t love Shannon, but you care about her safety. She doesn’t want to be someone’s hired girl. You don’t want her to live alone in Echo Basin, and you don’t want her marrying anyone, including you. So you’ve decided to find enough gold on her claims to salve your conscience before you take off yondering again. Does that about cover it?”
    Whip’s eyelids flinched.
    Reno’s breath came out in a low rush of air. “Eve…”
    She ignored him.
    “If you were a man,” Whip began, his voice uninflected.
    “If I were a man you’d be beating the tar out of me,” Eve said. “That’s one of the reasons God made women, so that men would have to think as well as fight.”
    Whip’s expression said he would rather fight.
    Eve stood and went around the table to where Whip sat coiled and struggling within a cage of his own making. She stroked his sun-bright hair, so different from her husband’s.
    “I love you, Whip,” Eve said softly. “You and Caleb and Willow and Wolfe and Jessi. You’re the family I always wanted and thought I would never have. Be mad at me if it helps. Because I want to help you. I ache to see you so unhappy.”
    Whip closed his eyes. A visible tremor went through him. Then, slowly, his grip on the tableloosened. He looked up at Eve and gave her a smile so sad that it brought tears to her eyes.
    “You’re like Willy,” Whip said softly. “A handful of sunshine. I can’t stay mad at either of you for more than a few minutes at a time.”
    Eve touched Whip’s cheek and smiled in return.
    “What do you find in all those foreign places?” she asked softly.
    “I don’t think I can put it into words.”
    “Will you try?”
    Whip raked his fingers through his hair, then ran his fingertips over the soothing coils of the bullwhip on his shoulder. The gesture said much about his restlessness, as did the narrowness of his eyes and the bleak line of his mouth.
    “It’s exciting,” Whip said finally.
    “What is?” Eve asked. “New land? New languages? New cities? New women?”
    Frowning, Whip pulled the long lash off his shoulder and began running the supple coils through his fingers, absently probing for frayed places.
    “It’s not the women,” Whip said. “Oh, they’re pretty, all right. Some of them are as exotic as anything you can imagine. But Shannon is a lot prettier to me than any girl I’ve seen across the ocean. It’s not the kind of pretty that wears off, either. She just gets more beautiful every time I look at her.”
    Reno’s black eyebrows went up, but he said not one word. Pointing out that Reno felt the same way about Eve would only make Whip’s temper flash.
    “The languages are kind of intriguing,” Whip said after a moment. “Chinese is pure hell to get a handle on, but Portuguese isn’t, and their explorers settled some far-flung ports. Between Portuguese and English, I can get by in most places aroundAsia, so long as I don’t stray too far from the water.
    “And Portuguese and Spanish aren’t all that different, once you get the hang of how to pronounce the same words in a different way. I can go anywhere in South America and