Sierra's Homecoming by Linda Lael Miller

manner.
    â€œNo,” Doss agreed. “But there are other folks around. A man could get his mail at the post office every day, instead of waiting a week for it to come by wagon, and take a meal in a restaurant now and again. And I’ll admit that library is an enticement, small as it is.” He thought fondly of the books lining the study walls back at the ranch house. He’d read all of them, at one time or another, and most several times. He’d borrowed from his uncle Kade’s collection, and his ma sent him a regular supply from Texas. Just the same, he couldn’t get enough of the damn things.
    â€œMa’s been talking about heading back to Montana,” Tobias blurted, but he didn’t look at Doss when he spoke. Just kept his eyes on the close-clipped mane of that old mule. “If she tries to make me go, I’ll run away.”
    Doss swallowed. He knew Hannah thought about moving in with the homefolks, of course, but hearing it said out loud made him feel as if he’d not only been thrown from his horse, but stomped on, too. “Where would you go?” he asked, when he thought he could get the words out easy. He wasn’t entirely successful. “If you ran off, I mean?”
    Tobias turned in the saddle to look him full in the face. “I’d hide up in the hills somewhere,” he said, with the conviction of innocence. “Maybe that canyon where Kade and Mandy faced down those outlaws.”
    Doss suppressed a smile. He’d grown up on that story himself, and to this day, he wondered how much of it was fact and how much was legend. Mandy was a sharpshooter, and she’d given Annie Oakley a run for her money, in her time. Kade had been the town marshal, with an office in Indian Rock back then, so maybe it had happened just the way his pa and uncles related it.
    â€œMighty cold up there,” he told the boy mildly. “Just a cave for shelter, and where would you get food?”
    Tobias’s shoulders slumped a little, under all that wool Hannah had swaddled him in. If the kid took a spill from the mule, he’d probably bounce. “I could hunt,” he said. “Pa taught me how to shoot.”
    â€œMcKettricks,” Doss replied, “don’t run away.”
    Tobias scowled at him. “They don’t live in Missoula, either.”
    Doss chuckled, in spite of the heavy feeling that had settled over his heart after he and Hannah had made love and stayed there ever since. Gabe was dead, but it still felt as if he’d betrayed him. “They live in all sorts of places,” Doss said. “You know that.”
    â€œI won’t go, anyhow,” Tobias said.
    Doss cleared his throat. “Maybe you won’t have to.”
    That got the boy’s full attention. His eyes were full of questions.
    â€œI wonder what you’d say if I married your ma.”
    Tobias looked as though he’d swallowed a lantern with the wick burning. “I’d like that,” he said. “I’d like that a lot! ”
    Too bad Hannah wasn’t as keen on the prospect as her son. “I thought you might not care for the idea,” Doss confessed. “My being your pa’s brother and all.”
    â€œPa would be glad,” Tobias said. “I know he would.”
    Secretly, Doss knew it, too. Gabe had been a practical man, and he’d have wanted all of them to get on with their lives.
    Doss’s eyes smarted something fierce, all of a sudden, and he had to pull his hat brim down. Look away for a few moments.
    Take care of Hannah and my boy, Gabe had said. Promise me, Doss.
    â€œDid Ma say she’d hitch up with you?” Tobias asked, frowning so that his face crinkled comically. “Last night I said she ought to, and she said it wouldn’t be right.”
    Doss stood in the stirrups to stretch his legs. “Things can change,” he said cautiously. “Even in a night.”
    â€œDo you love