“I don’t want half.”
“What do you want?”
He crossed back toward her.
Lou stood her ground.
Emmett stopped close.
“Breakfast.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“With you.”
His voice softened.
“Tomorrow.”
Another breath.
“Next winter.”
His eyes held hers.
“When the roof leaks.”
“During bad drives.”
“When Roy becomes unbearable.”
“I heard that!” Roy shouted from inside.
Neither turned.
Emmett continued.
“When Perch finally admits he’s old.”
“Never!” came another shout.
Lou laughed through tears.
Emmett touched her cheek.
“I want to stop wondering which yard I’ll be standing in next.”
Her eyes closed briefly.
When they opened, he was still there.
“I need a ranch hand,” she whispered.
Emmett smiled.
“I know.”
Lou slipped one hand around his vest.
“And maybe a husband.”
His smile disappeared into something softer.
“Mostly?”
“Don’t push.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She kissed him.
Behind the windows came unmistakable cheering.
Lou broke away.
“I am firing everyone.”
Emmett laughed.
“You can’t afford replacements.”
She kissed him again.
They married in June.
Small ceremony.
Bitter Brush yard.
No church.
No expensive clothes.
Perch stood beside Roy.
Tomás returned for the occasion.
Ben Coyle arrived sober enough to surprise everyone.
Lou wore a pale blue dress she complained about all morning.
Emmett wore a black coat borrowed from the banker.
He hated it.
Lou enjoyed that.
Before the ceremony Perch approached Emmett.
“You know she’s difficult.”
“Yes.”
“Opinionated.”
“Yes.”
“Mean when hungry.”
“Yes.”
“Poor cook.”
Lou shouted from fifteen feet away:
“I can hear you.”
Perch smiled.
“Good hearing too.”
Emmett looked at Lou.
“I know what I’m getting.”
Perch’s expression softened.
“No.”
The old man glanced across the yard.
“You don’t.”
Emmett waited.
Perch continued.
“That’s marriage.”
Then he walked away.
Emmett laughed.
The ceremony lasted twelve minutes.
Lou cried during none of it.
She insisted.
Witnesses disagreed.
Afterward Roy handed Emmett the old bent nail mounted inside a tiny wooden frame.
Lou stared.
“You told them?”
“Perch found it.”
Perch looked innocent.
No one believed him.
They hung the nail beside the kitchen door.
It remained there for decades.
The next Winnemucca drive was different.
Bitter Brush had more riders.
Better horses.
A repaired wagon.
No Ash racing ahead.
Lou and Emmett still argued about pace.
Water.
Camp locations.
Everything.
Marriage had not cured either of personality.
Tomás once said:
“I thought married people stopped fighting.”
Perch answered:
“That is because you have never met married people.”
At Sage Hen Wells, Lou stood beside the south collector Emmett had cleared the year before.
They had rebuilt it permanently.
Stone channel.
Covered trough.
Enough water for travelers who came after.
Lou looked at him.
“You planned this?”
“Water shouldn’t depend on Ash deciding he’s generous.”
She smiled.