Tonight We Dance

Chapter 1 – Marching to a New Drummer

I rode back into Little Bend, Texas, almost six months to the day since I'd gone tearing out of town to try and save my brother's life. He was in Hobbs, New Mexico waiting to stand trial for the murder of a man he didn't kill, and I was at home getting ready to tell the woman that I'd fallen in love with, just that. So many things had happened since then, and I had no idea what direction my life had decided to go in.

The best thing – I'd gone and played detective and found the real murderer in New Mexico, and when I rode out of the little town, Bret rode right along next to me. Then we had to rush to Kansas City, Kansas, where Brother Bret's woman, Pinkerton Detective Ginny Malone, was playing her version of dress-up; posing as Sammi Jo Withers at Diamond Lil's. I'm glad we weren't involved in that one – it was complicated. When Malone was finally done with it, her and Bret decided the best way to make sure I got back to Little Bend was to take me there themselves. So that's what we did.

Of course, nothing in my life ever goes quite as planned, and, as I said before, it was six months before I saw familiar surroundings. Bret and Ginny had ridden straight home to Uncle Ben's house, and I had gone on to the town proper, which was the last place I'd seen the woman in my life, Doralice Donovan.

I guess I better explain all the people involved before it gets any more complicated. There's Beauregard, the patriarch of our branch of the family, and his younger brother Bentley. I don't know how many years difference there are between Beauregard (Pappy) and Uncle Bentley. I'm not sure anybody cares.

Pappy had two sons, Bret (Brother Bret) and Bart (that's me!) and we're seventeen months apart. Uncle Ben had one son, Beau (named for Pappy) and he's somewhere in between me and Bret. Also, living in the house full time is Lily Mae Connors, who long ago ceased being Ben's housekeeper and became a member of the family. She's more surrogate momma than anything to Bret, Beau, and me.

At any time you might also find Captain Ginny Malone, when she's in town, Doralice Donovan, when I need her there, and various animals. Those would include Misses Melody, the cat with who knows how many kittens and her good friend Gracie the hound.

You can see why I rode into Little Bend instead of Uncle Ben's house (which he laughingly refers to as 'the mansion' because of its size). The most I had to contend with there were the aforementioned Doralice, her mother Maude Donovan who owned Maude's, the biggest and brightest saloon in the town limits, and her mother's fiancé, Cristian de la Torres, also her attorney. The odds were in my favor.

Of course, the only one I REALLY cared about at this exact moment was Doralice, the aqua-eyed blonde that had taken her time and stolen my heart. I'd sent her a telegram when we originally arrived in Kansas City and led her to believe I'd be home sooner rather than later . . . then there were various communications from Dodge City, Dumas, Texas and finally from Amarillo. I got an answer from Amarillo, but I wasn't sure if she was lonely or angry. Or a little of both.

It was dark by the time I arrived, and I headed to Maude's. There was a new bartender at the bar, and I stopped and asked after the lovely Miss Donovan and was told she was 'indisposed' and I should come back tomorrow. Of course, that wasn't about to stop me from locating my lady love and I marched, past his protests, straight into her office. I wish I hadn't.

There was my beautiful woman, wearing a spectacular pink ball gown, in the arms of another man.

XXXXXXXX

I stopped dead in my tracks and stood absolutely still for I don't-know-how-long. The man was a bit older, and a bit taller, and I felt my heart begin to slowly break into a million pieces. He wasn't even good looking, with a droopy little mustache and thinning hair on top, but none of that mattered. He had my woman in his arms.

I heard her gasp, and I fled; turned tail and ran like a coward. Right straight into Maude's office I went; she was doing the books and having a snifter of brandy, and I grabbed what was left of her snifter and drank it down without even flinching.

"Bart!" Maudie exclaimed as I crashed into the chair in front of her desk. "What are you . . . my God, you're as white as a ghost!" She pulled another glass from her desk and filled it, then handed the full glass to me. Without hesitation I drained the second glass; hoping that was enough to make me stop shaking. "What happened? When did you get back? Did you . . . oh, goodness gracious, I bet you walked in on Doralice and her lesson, didn't you?" She poured the third glass, only about half full this time, and put it in my empty hand. "I'm so sorry, didn't Randy at the bar warn you she was busy?"

I nodded and gurgled something, that was about all I could do right now. Maude reached across the desk and took my hands in hers, sitting the now-empty glass on the desktop and making some kind of clucking noises. "It's not what you think, honey. It was a surprise, for you. So she could dance with you at my wedding to Cristian. She's been taking dance lessons from Aaron Miller – that's who she's in there with now. Oh, Bart, if either of us had known you'd be here tonight . . . do you want another brandy, honey?"

I shook my head 'no.' "It's really . . . she's not . . . I mean . . . dance lessons? She doesn't know how to dance?" I never should have shaken my head, or gulped the brandy, or any of the other things that tied my stomach in knots . . . because as sure as can be, I spent the next five minutes bent over Maude's chamber pot, making an utter fool out of myself. Maude rubbed my back and murmured words of encouragement, neither of which did a thing to comfort my insides. The only thing I could be grateful for was my hasty exit from Doralice's office, before I had a chance to make a complete ass of myself. And then I didn't even have that.

Maude's door opened and there my lady stood, watching in horror as I wretched my insides out, her own mother trying her best to make me feel more like a man and less like a child. Just as my stomach began to settle down, my emotions started to heave and roll. I was torn between crying and dying of embarrassment. How did I get into this mess?