Gunsmoke:After All This Time

Part 4

As Kitty stepped into her house, she again pulled the handkerchief from her bosom and blotted her face and neck. She walked into the parlor to find Matt sitting on the couch with his eyes closed, his hat resting next to him. She went over to him and sat backwards on the arm of the couch, facing him. His breathing was steady and beads of sweat rolled down his face. Without even thinking, she brought her hand up and began dabbing at the sweat with her hanky. Matt opened his eyes and gazed at her. Even as rough as he looked at the moment, Kitty thought he was the most handsome man ever. Ever so slowly, she leaned down and kissed his lips gently and she felt him respond. She pulled away with her hand resting on his cheek. "I'm so glad you're here, Matt," she whispered to him.

"Me, too, Kitty," he responded just as softly.

"I'm sure we have a lot to talk about, but I think you need to rest first," she said as she grabbed his hand to help him stand from the couch. "You can use one of the rooms upstairs." She led the way to the staircase and Matt obediently followed, grabbing his saddlebags from where he had put them earlier. "And the washroom is at the end of the hall. There should already be some water up there."

"I really appreciate this, Kitty," he said. She always did take good care of him. Kitty smiled as she watched him climb the stairs and then walked back into the parlor. She picked up his hat, hung it on the peg by the front door, and walked into the kitchen to start dinner.

MkM

When Matt woke up later, it was dark out and something smelled good. He stretched his tired body and sat up in the large bed. He took Kitty's advice and washed up before he went to sleep, which made his nap all the more comfortable. Plus, he didn't want to dirty up her sheets. The bed was like heaven compared to the hard ground he had been sleeping on for the past two months. He swung his feet over the edge and stood, stretching one more time. The temperature had dropped considerably and it wasn't nearly as hot and muggy as it had been earlier. Before making his way downstairs, he headed to the washroom again to wash his face and check his appearance. He knew he looked mighty unkempt earlier and he wanted to look good for Kitty before he saw her again.

Matt was halfway down the stairs when he heard voices coming from the kitchen. He descended the rest of the steps and walked into the dining room where he could hear them better through the door. One of the voices was definitely Kitty's and the other was a man's. He stood near the door and listened.

"Oh, thank you, David. These are perfect."

"It was my pleasure, Kitty. The peaches will be ready after while. I'll make sure and bring some of those, too."

"Well, I'll tell you what. Why don't you come back in a day or so and I'll have an apple pie baked up for you."

"Sounds good." The voices stopped and then Matt heard the shuffling of feet. Quietly, he eased away from the door and made his way into the sitting room. He wracked his brain with who the man in the other room was and he hoped that he wasn't too late in realizing that he couldn't live without Kitty. Maybe she had already found someone else to share the rest of her life with. But she was the one who had kissed him that morning. That didn't necessarily mean what he wanted it to mean, though. There was a lot of history between them and the kiss could have simply been a familiar show of affection. God, he hoped he was wrong.

Matt waited a few more minutes before going back to the kitchen. He no longer heard the voices, so he assumed that the stranger had left out the back way. He slowly pushed open the oscillating door and his nose was again hit with a delicious, spicy scent. Kitty had made gumbo. She made it for him a few times back in Dodge and he loved it. Walking over to the stove, he lifted the lid off of the Dutch oven and looked inside at the scrumptious creation of rice, beans, shrimp, crawfish, sausage, vegetables... Kitty chose that moment to walk in from the back porch.

"Well, I see you're awake and you've found the food," she kidded. She had long since changed into a thin summer dress with short sleeves and her hair was tied back with a ribbon.

"Yeah," Matt said sheepishly as he put the lid back on the pot.

"You look much more rested," she said as she walked over to the oven and pulled out a plate of hot water cornbread. Matt's mouth was practically watering as he watched her sit it on the table and the sound of his stomach rumbling didn't go unheard. He smiled at her when he heard her chuckling. "Good thing supper is already done," she said as she gestured for him to sit down at the small table. The kitchen was where she ate most of her meals and rarely did she use the dining room.

"Anything I can do to help?" Matt offered.

"Nope, you just sit right there," she told him. Matt watched her ladle the gumbo into the bowls not fixing herself even half of the gigantic amount she fixed him.

"Thanks, Kitty," he told her when she brought the food over. She then went over to a box, decorated to match the rest of the kitchen, lifted the lid and pulled out a frothy pitcher of lemonade. "Good thing you've got that icebox for days like this," Matt said as she poured them both a glass.

"Yep. The iceman comes once every week, even in the winter," she explained, since winters in Louisiana rarely ever got snow or even below fifty degrees. Matt nodded and she watched for a few minutes as he heartily dug into his bowl. She still couldn't believe that he was here. There were so many questions she had for him, but she was afraid to ask some of them, afraid of what the answers could be.

Matt had plenty of questions as well, the foremost being if Kitty was involved with anyone or not. She only grew more beautiful as time went on and he imagined that there we many men who wanted her. They would be crazy not to. He had to admit that his brain had even taken a leave of absence for about a year there, but he hoped he wasn't too late in trying to rectify the situation.

"I thought I heard voices before I came down," he said as he reached for another piece of cornbread. He decided to get right to the point.

"Oh, that was just David. He's a friend of mine. He lives about ten miles from here and he brought me some apples from his farm. I've promised him a pie in return." Kitty decided to leave the explanation at that.

Matt figured that was explanation enough. Surely, if they were seeing each other, she would have told him.

To be continued…