Coming Home to Wyoming (Peaceful Valley Series Book 1) by April Hill

pump in the kitchen. Works just like the catalogue said it would—as long as you keep the cistern filled. Come spring, I’ll have it connected to the well.”
    “Abner told me he didn’t know where you were living now. Around here, somewhere?”
    She shook her head, but didn’t elaborate.
    “What about a husband? Abner said you might have found someone you wanted to marry.”
    “That was a while ago,” she said simply, then changed the subject—as well as her tone. “I asked up at the house, and there was a woman there who told me where to find you. Abner wrote that you were seeing a woman, so, I naturally assumed that she was your wife, but when I didn’t see a ring on her finger, I figured she’d taken it off—while she was scrubbing the outhouse or slopping the hogs—something wifely like that.”
    Griff smiled. He learned a long time ago that you didn’t necessarily have to be female to recognize a catty remark when you heard it. For some reason, Elyn O’Malley had arrived here with her claws out, and ready to use them.
    “Her name’s Amelia Pomeroy. She’s not my wife, and I doubt that she’s ever scrubbed an outhouse or slopped hogs in her life.”
    Elyn smiled. “Yeah, I figured as much. So, what is she? An older cousin, maybe? Visiting from someplace where they don’t have outhouses? Or hogs?”
    “She’s a year younger than I am, and she’s not a cousin. She’s just a very nice woman I know, from town. A good friend.”
    “That’s funny,” she said with a puzzled look. “She didn’t seem all that friendly. Of course, I’m not a man, so all that powder and lip rouge was kind of wasted on me. Some people say that it does a good job of covering up the wrinkles women get when they’re getting close to fifty, though.”
    Griff grinned. “Amelia will be thirty-three on her next birthday.”
    Elyn gave him a doubtful look. “Really? I can hardly believe that you’re the same fella who once paddled my behind, just for telling a few little white lies like that one.”
    “Did I do that?” he asked cheerfully. “For nothing but a few little white lies ?”
    “Well, I may have done a couple of other things to get your feathers ruffled. I can’t remember.”
    He shook his head. “ Damn ! And after I tried my best to be sure you remembered every smack.”
    Elyn sighed. “I suppose I cussed too much, didn’t I?”
    “Like a Shanghai sailor. When you get to know her, you’ll find that Amelia’s not just nice, she’s a lady, and not the kind to lie— or to swear.”
    She smiled. “That boring, huh?”
    Griff ignored the remark. “Last time I was at Rainbow Water, Abner told me you were out on your own now, and probably not coming back? True?”
    “I couldn’t let Abner and Martha go on feeding me for the rest of my life, and have me sleeping in their loft. I figured it was time to see what I could do for myself, for a change.”
    “It shouldn’t be too hard for a pretty young lady to find herself a husband to take care of things like that.”
    She shrugged. “Not if she’s willing to take the first husband that comes along.”
    “I’m guessing you didn’t find the pickings down in Kansas too good,” he observed.
    “Most of them smelled like sheep.”
    Griff smiled. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you stay here a while—and look over the local inventory? There’re even a couple of good looking young fellas down at the bunkhouse you might like to meet. How do you feel about cowboys?”
    “They’re all right—as long as they take a bath once in a while. I’d like one who can read and write, though. And one who can recite the presidents in order, and spell all the states and continents.” She grinned. “That’s what happens when you make a girl go back to school. She starts to want things she never wanted before. If I did decide to stick around for a while, you sure I won’t be in the way?”
    “You won’t be in the way.”
    “You want to ask your woman friend