Nick walked past the barn and glanced in then back up and looked again. Jarrod was sitting, surrounded by a pile of tack, rubbing vigorously at a mud-spattered saddle.

"Afternoon big brother. Looks like you have a project going on."

Jarrod glanced up at Nick's familiar rumble.

"Well, after we talked the other day, I realized that I was voting on things I didn't necessarily know enough about, on the ranch I mean. I thought I should get more hands on as far as working knowledge. "

Nick beamed. "That's a plan, Pappy. Move over there, and I'll help you."

Nick sat nearby in companionable silence, cleaning and oiling the tack with characteristic vigor. Jarrod felt a little eddy of warmth in his chest. How long had it been since he and Nick just sat down and DID something together? Maybe that was why they had drifted so far apart; not that they had different jobs or different interests, they had just stopped spending time together. Jarrod paused to take a drink of water.

"So, Jarrod," Nick boomed. "When ya gonna marry Agatha?'

Water spewed across the saddle Jarrod was working on and he started coughing violently. It took several minutes of back slapping on Nick's part for Jarrod to catch his breath.

"Alright, so I'm guessing you hadn't really been thinking about that, yet?"

"It wasn't foremost in my mind." Jarrod growled.

"It oughta be, Pappy. She's smart. She's pretty. She's fun. She's kind."

"Meaning what? I could do worse?"

"No, meaning you're marrying up. She's a great lady. And you love her, I can tell because when you're with her and you think no one is watching you get all...soft and goopy."

"Goopy?"

"Yep. Quit dragging your feet and marry the girl, Jarrod."

Jarrod huffed in frustration.

"Everything is so easy for you, isn't it? No plans, no consideration for the fact we both work; no worries about old enemies bearing a grudge. Just leap into marriage with a happy cry!"

Nick sorted through Jarrod's hastily listed reasons before settling on the one he suspected was most likely. "This is about Hyatt, right? You know the chances that another enemy-ANY enemy- would go after you is just mouse toe sized."

"It could still happen." Jarrod said stubbornly. "Even if it doesn't than I could die and leave her alone in any number of ways."

'I can't guarantee that I'll even survive past the wedding night. Suppose there IS another angry ex-convict out for revenge. They could shoot her; they could shoot me. I could have a stroke. I could get cancer. I could fall off a horse and break my neck….." Jarrod pondered the possibilities for a moment.

Nick listened to this gloomy litany with concern. He knew that sooner or later everyone thought about death but he was dismayed at the morbid list of potential dooms his brother was rattling off. He assumed it had something to do with the truly awful murder of Beth so soon after their marriage No wonder the slug hadn't asked Agatha for her hand. Nick decided to drag Jarrod out of this mindset before he screwed up his chances with this woman.

"….I could drown in a flood."

"Shot by the Dunigan brothers." Nick suggested, slyly.

Jarrod was startled for a moment. "I could be bitten by a rattlesnake."

"Thrown in front of a team of galloping horses."

Jarrod almost smiled. "Fall down a mineshaft." He prodded back.

"Get my foot caught in a bear trap." Nick added solemnly.

"Mauled by a mountain lion."

"Die of pneumonia."

"Catch rabies from a wolf."

"Blown up by a bomb."

"Trapped in a mine by an outlaw irish man?"

"Shang-hied by a pretty lady."

"All right, All right." Jarrod was laughing so hard he wasn't sure he could talk. "Cut myself shaving and bleed to death…"

Audra walked into the yard and was struck by the strange look on Victoria's face as she stood just outside the barn door.

"Mother? Are you alright?"

"Shush." Her mother responded listening to the voices inside.

"Try this one.."

The voice from the barn was so tongue tied by coughing laughter that it was impossible to tell if it came from Jarrod or Nick.

"Tie…Tie…Tied up to a railroad track and weakened from snake bites…."

"Escaping the tracks just in time when you're mauled by a lion…."

"…and while hopping to safety, fall down a mine shaft populated by rabid wolves-"

"and bear traps.…"

This was possibly the most bizarre conversation Audra had ever heard.

"Mother, what are they talking about?"

"I don't know." Victoria answered with genuine bewilderment. She listened a moment longer. "And I'm not sure I want to."