The Five Dollar Mail Book 3: The Road Home

36: Misfire

Cover painting by Angela Taratuta. Chapter artwork of Jesse by Laura Hollingsworth. All graphics by me.

Book 1: The Green, Book 2: Lynch's Boys, Book 3: The Road Home, and the Riders & Kickers Anthology are available on Amazon under the name Regina Shelley. So if you hate waiting for chapter posts and/or want a more polished read, the finished product is available now.

Jesse knew there was absolutely, positively no way that the galloping heartbeat inside his chest, and the quickening of his breath, had gone unnoticed by Still Water Woman. She leaned suddenly away from him, her hands fumbling, and awkwardly stood up as if she'd been burned. His skin tingled with the ghost of her touch, warm and gentle on his bare skin, and he roughly scrubbed his eyes and face with a frustrated hand.

He'd lost his head for a moment. If she hadn't pulled away...If she'd looked up at me with those warm, sad eyes of hers... He shook his head in a vain attempt to clear it, surprised by the feel of the silky fuzz sprouting on his own unshaven jaw.

I been here too long. I'm starting to forget myself. I have to do what I came back here to do and then get back to Lily. She probably thinks I'm dead by now. Surely, Still Water Woman hadn't touched him the way he had thought she had. There hadn't really been a faint flutter of her breath against his skin or a tremor in her hands. It didn't happen that way. I'm imagining it.

Maybe I'm wishing it.

"Look..." he hauled himself to his feet, addressing the back of her as she fumbled with her task. She was hastily putting her ointments away, hanging the parfleche back on the lodgepoles. "I..." He shrugged back into his stained shirt, feeling foolish. "I gotta go talk to His Horses."

She nodded, but didn't turn around. I've offended her. Great. He tried again in Lakota, embarrassed. "I am going to talk to His Horses. I will be back..." He pulled his hair out of the shirt collar and flipped the door flap open. "...if your brother does not kill me." Something he doesn't seem to need a reason for...like me getting worked up over his sister, for instance...I really gotta get some air in my face. "I don't come back..." he muttered in English, only half joking, "...that'll be why."

He squinted, dazzled by the bright sunlight after the darkness inside. His vision cleared and he recognized Two Elk standing in front of the lodge, looking him over. A faint, satisfied smirk tugged at the old man's mouth.

"Didn't think you had the balls," Two Elk said.

"It was that or let him beat me to death while the rest of you took bets on how many licks it would take."

"I'm not talking about that."

Fresh heat flooded Jesse's face. How the hell does he know...? Shitfire, old-man-in-a-dress, her hands were on me and it felt nice. It ain't like I did anything. "I gotta talk to His Horses," he said gruffly, changing the subject.