This Calder Sky (Calder Saga 3)

“I’ll tell him,” Chase promised and watched the big man amble back to the counter. He wasn’t deceived by the man’s slowness or voluminous bulk. That protruding stomach was as solid as iron. A year ago, Chase had seen him move with a swiftness unusual in a man Tucker’s size and level an obnoxious customer with a backhanded swing when the man had begun to use foul language in front of some townswomen. And he’d seen Bob Tucker hefting a whole carcass of beef like a sack of potatoes. He wasn’t a man to mess around with.

All the cowboys toed the mark in his place, or Tucker bodily threw them out. His food was the best around for miles, and the prices were reasonable, yet there was something about the man that Chase didn’t trust, but he didn’t know what it was.

At the counter, Angus O’Rourke had overheard the message Tucker had given Chase to pass on to his father. After two weeks, Angus was still brooding over the results of his confrontation with Webb Calder, growing more certain with each passing day that he had been cheated out of his just due. The sight of Chase Calder sitting in the café, virtually unpunished for the wrong he’d done Maggie, awakened the hostility in Angus. Instead of directing the heat of his anger at the one who aroused it, he unleashed it on the café owner.

“How come you’re doing business with Calder?” Angus demanded, yet keeping his voice low so he wouldn’t be overheard. “Ain’t he rich enough without you buying your beef from him? What’s wrong with some of us other small ranchers around here? You want our trade, but you’re not interested in doing business with us.”

Tucker paused in front of Angus, marble-sized eyes regarding him indifferently. “It isn’t by choice I deal with Calder. I have no more love for the man than you do. But I serve only quality beef. You other ranchers all have range-tough beef, so I have to buy from him to get decent meat.”

But it rankled Tucker because it always seemed to him that Calder acted as if he were doing him a favor selling him Calder beef. Nothing was actually said or even suggested, but Tucker knew other cattle buyers made purchases by the lot, not one steer at a time. If he hadn’t been local, it wouldn’t have been worth the time or the trouble for an outfit the size of the Triple C to bother with him. They didn’t care about his business. It would suit him fine to take it somewhere else, but no one else had the quality he demanded.

“If the only thing that will suit you is Calder beef, then buy it from me,” Angus challenged. “I bought fifty head of his stuff a couple of weeks ago.”

“Fifty head?” Tucker eyed him with skepticism. “Where’d you get the money to buy prime stock?”

“That isn’t any of your damned business.” Angus sat up straighter on the stool, offended by the question that implied he was too poor to afford Calder cattle. “Are you interested in buying my beef or not?”

“You probably bought some of his culls, but I’ll stop by your place tomorrow and take a look.” Tucker didn’t put much faith in O’Rourke’s claim to owning prime Triple C beef. “I’ll be there sometime in the morning.”

“Don’t forget to bring your money,” Angus taunted and pushed his empty cup toward the heavyset man. “Put some coffee in my cup while you’re standing there blowing hot air.”

“If there’s any hot air circulating around here, it’s probably coming from you.” Tucker picked up the cup and pivoted his massive hulk to hold it under the spigot of the coffee urn.

“Wait until tomorrow morning and we’ll see who’s full of hot air,” Angus replied smugly.

After Chase had left her, Maggie had lingered by the pickup, aware that her father was inside drinking coffee while she and Culley ran his errands. To go into the café while Chase was there would, no doubt, start her father off on another of his tirades against the Calders. Just seeing Chase would probably set him off. Maggie decided the sensible thing to do was find her brother and see if he had completed his errands. As she turned away from the café, she saw Culley trotting across the highway where the hardware store sat. She waited by the truck for him to

join her, noting the scowl on his face.

“I saw you with Calder. What did he want?” he demanded, stopping in front of her.

“He helped me carry the groceries.” There was a lilt of defiance in her voice that questioned his right to insist on an answer. “Did you get the part for the well pump?”

“It didn’t come in yet.” His answer was brisk with impatience. “The conversation you had with him—I suppose you expect me to believe that you just talked about groceries.”

“We talked about a lot of things … that aren’t any of your business,” she retorted.

His mouth thinned into an angry line. “I suppose he wants to see you again.”

“And what if he does?” Maggie challenged.

“I suppose he asked you to meet him somewhere,” Culley guessed. And he ordered, “Stay away from him, Maggie. He just wants to get in your pants again. Can’t you see that? Haven’t you figured it out from the last time?”

“Is it so impossible that he might like me?”

“He might like you, all right,” her brother conceded. “But you don’t think for one minute that he’s going to get serious, do you? You are just the daughter of a small-time rancher to him. He’ll never think you’re good enough for a Calder.”

“Who says I want him to get serious?” she flashed. “A girl likes it when a man pays attention to her, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she wants to marry him! You may be content to be the son of a small rancher with dreams that will never come true, but I’m not. I want an education, because I’m not going to live like this for the rest of my life!”

“You are my sister.” On occasions, her brother’s temper could match Maggie’s. This was one of them. “I don’t want to see you get hurt. And that’s what is going to happen if you see Chase Calder again. One day you’re going to find yourself in trouble, and he’s going to forget your name.”

“I’m not going to get in any trouble.” Maggie denied that first. “And Chase has been nice to me.”

“That’s because he still wants something. But once he’s through with you, you’ll just be dirt to him. He’s a Calder. And if you have an ounce of sense, you won’t forget that. You’ll never be anything to him except someone to roll in the grass with. Stay away from him, Maggie. Don’t prove that I’m right,” he warned and brushed past her to enter the café, as if he were afraid if he stayed longer, he would do something violent.

Maggie stared at his retreating back. She was trembling, too, from the force of her anger. She yanked open the door of the pickup and climbed into the cab. She waited in stiff silence for Culley to fetch their father so they could return to the ranch.

But her brother’s words preyed on her, clouding her thoughts.