"You think this is just desire?" his glance intensified. "Between you and I?"
"Isn't it?"
He stood up now, not looking at her. "I guess, you have a few things to learn about me."
He turned loose of her, "It's all a matter of trust, Trudy."
"Lance… I—" but he was gone. She'd insulted him. But at least he wasn't kissing her into a passion she couldn’t control.
She'd done it now, he was mad, and she'd hurt his feelings. But how could she be sure of what they were feeling?
***
The next morning, he got up and walked through the kitchen, grabbing a biscuit and bacon, he left without a word. There was no morning kiss, no morning nothing, even the men noticed his ill mood.
All the boys shot her a sympathetic glance.
"Whatever's eating him, he'll get over, he don't hold a grudge." Rusty told the others, loud enough for her to hear.
Lance went to the barn and slammed things around for nearly an hour before George caught him. George heard the ruckus he was making and came to see what was wrong.
"Something eatin' you?" Georg
e asked.
"Women! I don't understand them! I never have and I guess I never will."
"No man does!" George chuckled.
"One writes to me," he looked over at George to get his attention. "She tells me she will marry me, then never shows up. But she wants a wedding when she gets here, and she never gets here. The other shows up, marries me, and then tells me I don't love her and should talk to the other one! Does that make sense?"
George's eyes rolled and he sat on a bale of hay. "Well, in some ways yes, some ways no." George raised a brow at him. "You did things backwards. You know that don't ya?"
"What are you talking about?" Lance yelled.
"You married the wrong girl, who turned out to be the right girl. But now she's worried about the wrong girl. I told you, you can't dangle two of them on the same string at the same time. You gotta break that string and straighten it out."
"She knows how I feel about her, but she won't share my bed. How am I supposed to handle that?"
"Cut the string and it will all work out! I'm sure of that."
"It's a lack of trust, George, plain and simple."
"Not exactly son. Trudy is right. And you are wrong!"
"Well, you're no help!" Lance took the rope off the top of the stall gate and looped it, fooling with while he talked. He didn't care to be told he was wrong. But George was usually right.
"I guess not. But look at it this way, Trudy is still here. She hasn't walked out on you. But you can't bed her until you get things straight. And she's right about that. I don't blame her there. What if you got her pregnant?"
"Oh God, she mentioned that too." Lance frowned.
"Well, it's what happens when you bed a woman."
"I love her! I'd love it if she got pregnant."
"Have you told her that?"
Lance kicked the hay around, "No!"