Meanwhile, Sloan’s gaze tracked every small intimacy with barely disguised envy. Even if you didn’t know them, you could easily see that they were a couple. That they belonged to each other. They had their own language, all in unspoken gestures, tiny shifts of their bodies, nods of their heads.
It was what Sloan had always wanted.
He dug into his pie so that his attention didn’t make Scott and Anna uncomfortable. The three of them chatted about the farm, the town, and Reese’s plans, until Sloan had all but licked the plate clean. When he set down his fork, Scott clapped a hand on his shoulder.
“Come on out to the barn. I’ve got something to show you.”
He pushed back his chair and carried his plate over to the sink. “Thanks, Anna. That was delicious. Anytime you want to take me up on the offer to leave Scott, I’m a stone’s throw away.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said dryly before shooing him out of the kitchen.
“You’re a lucky son of a bitch,” Sloan told the older man on the way to the barn.
The corner of Scott’s mouth tipped up in a knowing grin. “Damn right I am.”
“How’d you convince that fine woman to stick by you?”
“You asking for bedroom tips, boy? You disappoint me.”
He shook his head. “Hell, if all it took was being able to give a good orgasm, I’d have a harem.”
Scott bent over at the waist and gave a hearty laugh. “You must not be good enough in that department or you wouldn’t be asking an old man for tips on how to keep a woman satisfied. You going down on her enough? You gotta take care of her before asking her to take care of you.”
“Thanks for the input.” Sloan shook his head, not sure if he wanted to know any more details about Scott and Anna’s sex life.
Inside the barn, it took a moment to adjust to the dim interior. In the third stall, one of the cows was penned up. Her head was hanging low and she had a wild look in her eyes.
As the two men approached, the cow backed away.
Sloan frowned. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s got a calf.”
His breath caught. They were down to three cows and everyone had been resigned to running out of beef. A calf could change everything for them. Birth meant growth. Foxworth was growing, which only confirmed what Sloan had already known—everything Reese had done in the past, all her plans for the future . . . it meant something. All the deaths mattered if there was another generation to reap the rewards.
After a moment, he managed to work a few words past the lump in his throat. “That’s a good sign.”
“Yup.”
“You have a good life here,” he added roughly.
Scott nodded as he dumped a treat into the pregnant cow’s bucket before walking toward the door. “I know. And trust me, I don’t take a moment of it for granted.”
“You and Anna ever wish you had some little ones running around?”
“At one time? Maybe? But this is a harsh land. Babies die. Kids die. It’s kind of a miracle that Anna and I are still standing.” Scott shrugged. “I don’t need kids. As long as I’m with her, I don’t need nothing else.”
The words rang with a sincerity that no one would dare question, but Sloan did anyway. “Even if she didn’t feel the same about you?”
Scott slanted a look that pierced through Sloan’s careful nonchalance. “Every man’s got to decide what’s enough for him. For me? I’d be satisfied if I was just in Anna’s orbit. That’d be all I needed to keep going. If she climbed up into a tree and all I got from her were the crumbs from the bread she ate, I’d gobble ’em up because they would’ve touched her mouth. Even if she didn’t love me back, I couldn’t stop loving her. That’s what I reckon love is. Why it’s so painful and so goddamned good at the same time.”
“Yeah,” was the only dumb thing Sloan could manage to say.
Scott’s shoulders suddenly went rigid. “There’s someone coming.” He pointed to a cloud of dust on the horizon that rapidly turned into Randy on a motorcycle.
When he got within shouting distance, the teenage boy bellowed, “Enforcers headed our way!”
Sloan began to run. “How many?” he demanded when he caught up to the teen.
“One truck,” Randy gasped out. He hopped off the bike and held it while Sloan swung a leg over the seat. “Davis thinks it’s the ones who were here before.”
Sloan sped off without another word.
His mouth was full of dust when he arrived at the back gate five minutes later. Davis opened it immediately to let him in.
“They here yet?” Sloan called out, catching a cloth from Davis and wiping the sweat and dust off his face.
“Yeah, but Cole is with them.”
“Are the kids safe? Bethany?”
Davis nodded. “Sent them into the cellar as soon as we saw the dust trails.”
The two men raced down the sidewalk toward the opposite end of town. At the main gate, Cole stood with a rifle slung over his shoulder, facing off with six Enforcers.
Sloan gave an inward curse when he recognized Eric. Goddamn it. The senior guard was back.
“Finally,” Eric muttered when he spotted Sloan. “Where’s Reese?”
“She went to a camp south of here to trade for some spring crop seeds. What do you need?” Sloan asked tightly.