A Pair of Second Chances (Ben Jensen Series Book 1) (24 page)

He was jumping up and down and carrying on so, Ben almost dropped the glasses.

"Let's let your Mom have a look Ok?" Ben asked and stood up to hand the glasses to Amanda.

Their fingers touched as he handed the binoculars to her, he hesitated a second, had she too? But she took the glasses and putting them to her eyes exclaimed; "Oh wow! He's beautiful!" she pulled the glasses from her eyes for a second to look at Ben, and then returning to the binoculars to look again, repeated; "Oh wow!"

"How big is he?" she asked, looking at Ben again.

He reached for the binoculars and Amanda handed them to him. Looking though them again and studying the bear for several seconds he said; "Hard to tell from this far, but he's not a small guy. He might go as much as 900 lbs or so."

Kneeling back down he gave the giggling Timmy another look, as he looked up at the boy's mother, and she held his gaze.

Ben got back to his feet; "aha, yeah, well, we should... uh... I need to get back" He gestured, poking over his shoulder with his thumb, and rubbing the back of his neck. "It's a long way back to the ranch and I should really get going."

Amanda, very quiet, took Timmy's hand with her left; "Lead the way Mr. Jensen." and then took his hand in her right.

That was the longest and the shortest walk Ben Jensen had ever taken. It scared him to death and he wanted to run, and at the same time wanted it to never end. Tangled, disjointed thoughts tumbled around in his head; "What the hell was goin' on?" and, "What the hell do you think you're doin' ya old fool! Gettin' all turned around by this gal wasn't gonna help her out at all!", were amongst the many.

But that boy, he just rattled the whole time they walked through the woods. It seemed to Ben, the way he was carrying on, that seeing that bear, nearly a half a mile away, was just about the highlight of that little guys young life.

When they got back to the Lodge Ben checked that everything had been unloaded from the truck; that he had the number to the cell phone he'd bought in Butte, and that she had his.

"Seems odd I know, that the damn things work, way out here, but the way it turns out, there's a straight shot back down the valley to a tower that's near Choteau. It's a long ways and the service isn't good, but it's there." he told Amanda.

Ready to go he climbed into his old truck, but before he could shut the door, Amanda stepped up to him, grabbed his face in both hands and planted a kiss on his lips.

Not a, kiss-your-aunt-and-say-good-bye, sort of kiss; more of a, stop your heart and make your eyes cross, hard on the lips, woman telling a man he's a man, sort of a kiss.

She leaned back, still holding his face and said; "Thank you Ben Jensen, Thank you more than I can ever say. You be safe." Then, she released her hold, backed up and closed the door.

Backing away with her right arm across her chest, hand on her shoulder, she waved slightly with her other hand and told him; "Be careful Ben." and then, as he started to back out, hollered as she ran for the Lodge; "Wait!"

Ben sat in the idling truck for a couple minutes wondering what she was doing when she came running out with a plastic grocery sack that seemed pretty full.

"What's that?" He asked. "I don't need any food, I'll eat at a cafe."

"It's the mortgage money trickster! You thought you could leave without it huh?" She laughed as she handed him the sack through the window. Before he could react she leaned in and gave him another quick kiss on the cheek. "Come Back." she whispered.

Startled again, he could only reply; "I will" as he backed up, shoved the grinding old transmission into gear and drove away.

To get home to the ranch was two hundred and sixty seven miles from Choteau to Columbus with another twenty five or so of back road thrown on top at each end. As long as the old truck kept on getting older he'd make it in maybe six hours.

He'd turn the horses back out and then run on back into Columbus to spend the night. He thought there'd be no one around just yet looking, but he also knew that one day, someone would be. Without even A.H. there to alert him to intruders, he thought it a poor idea to stay at the ranch.

First thing in the morning he'd stop in at the bank and do his best to shock a couple of years off of Ol' Linus's life.

That gave him nearly twenty four hours to come up with some sort of a story for where the money came from. He damn sure couldn't tell the truth. Maybe, a bald faced lie was the best choice. Tell 'em something they knew was a story, and knew he knew they knew. Sorta keep ever'body honest!

Ben smoked the old rig down the highway, giving it a modest amount of consideration, and keeping his speed under sixty. With only an early supper stop as he ran though Columbus going south, and grateful that no one he knew cornered him to question him about what he was up to, he was in the ranch yard by six thirty.

He found pretty much what he'd expected. The door jamb of the cabin was splintered. "Dumb Bastards" he muttered. "Didn't even try the knob. Why would anyone lock up a hole like this?" he laughed.

The horses acted restless as he walked over to the corral and crawled through the rails. There wasn't a wisp of grass left in the bunks when he looked in as he walked across the pen. He apologized to the horses as he walked through the corral to the gate on the far side. It opened into what he called his 'hill pasture', a section of lush, level creek bottom land that ran up into the foothills to the west.

Low ground that was soggy and wet in the spring with the run off, this time of year his meadow grass was tall and still green, where out on the higher range the grass had long since browned off.

"Oh quit your bellyachin'. You can't have used it up that long ago. Ya'll act like I left you standing here a week. I fed you girls two days worth, yesterday noon! You're nothing but a bunch O' hogs!"

Ben swung the gate on the back side of the corral, releasing the more than four dozen horses, counting the colts; that streamed out into the grass, the young colts bucking and kicking in their excitement.

He looked down at his boots and thanked the boss for the good fortune he'd blundered into that let him keep his horses; and then laughed at himself; What sort of a man would call getting into the lethal mess he was in, "good fortune"?

Ben watched his herd for some minutes. Satisfied that they were square and all was good, he climbed back into the pickup, and headed for Columbus.

Chapter
25

He walked into the lobby of the motel 6 in town, absent mindedly wondering where the 'escapee' from the ambush had holed up, when the clerk called out to him; "Ben Jensen! What the hell are you doin' here! Finally come to your senses?"

Ben looked up to see Eileen Davidson behind the counter. A good looking woman, she'd been after him nearly since Ellen had passed. Not that she offended him in any way, and any man would agree, her looks would stir a man's blood. It was just that she was a little too bold about it, in front of other folks, for his taste. Though, there was that one drunken night a year or so ago, when everyone in the bar agreed he was way too drunk to be allowed to drive himself home and took his keys...

"Uh... hello Eileen. I'm gettin' new carpets put down in the cabin so I thought I'd spend the night in town while all the furniture is moved out of the way!" he told her.

"Right. Takes a long time to move one bunk, a card table and two rickety chairs, don't it?" she smirked at him. "And everyone agrees cowboys are well known for interior decorating the rat hole cabins they live in."

"Don't I know it" Ben replied rolling his eyes at her. That she knew the inside of his cabin enough to tease him about it was a truth he'd never admit to anyone.

As he was signing the registration ticket and handing her the cash for his room she mentioned; "I'm off at 10:30 tonight Ben, if you'd like to go get a drink... or... maybe you'd like me to just bring one up? I know where you live" she laughed as she shook the key in her hand.

"Now you know me Eileen. Free as the wind. It just wouldn't be fair to you to go starting something, now would it?"

"A little late to be worryin' 'bout that startin' part, now ain't it?" she smirked; "And anyway, you can be 'unfair' to me any time you want to finish what you started cowboy."

Ben just looked at her, uncomfortable with her boldness. Yet, still feeling that... hunger she was good at stimulating... He turned to the door and shook his head cursing himself; "You better get a grip you damn fool. You're already in way over your head."

He opened the door to go outside and stopped to say; "I'll talk to you later Eileen. I'm a strong man, but you know, even I'm not proof against the wiles of a beautiful woman. I better run while I can!" then stepped out the door.

"Slick, you stupid old bastard. Try to be nice and end up leadin' the poor woman on. Why couldn't you just say, Not tonight Eileen. Sorry but No Eileen. I'm no good for you Eileen, you deserve better! No, you gotta go tellin' her that even you can't resist her. Stupid ass monkey that's what you are. Thinkin' with your little head, 'stead of the one between your ears, just like all those fools down the street in the bar. What the hell is wrong with you?" he cursed himself all the way to his room.

Once inside, he put his gear bag on the bed and stripped down to take a long hot shower. After he'd shaved and put on clean clothes he felt so much better he thought he'd take a walk. He hadn't done that, just walked down the street, since before... yeah, it had been a long time.

Ben was about to walk out of the room when he glanced back and saw the grocery bag on the bed beside his gear bag. He walked back to the bed and stuffed the money sack, under the clothes in his bag, zipped it closed before he dropped it on the floor and kicked it under the bed with his foot. A little more satisfied, he went back to the door, and stepped outside for his walk.

Just up the street, in the middle of the next block was the bar he frequented when he was in town. What the hell he thought. I'm a free man, and I'm not drivin' anywhere he smirked to himself; and hell, I've not had a drop of anything but coffee in near on to a week! Feeling in his pocket, he felt the thick roll he'd recently acquired. "And, I'm flush to boot!" With that decided, Ben strode off, walking in the odd, wobbling gait of a bowlegged horseman.

A couple minutes later he pulled the door open and stepped inside Mickey's, a run of the mill, standard, Montana Honky Tonk. Half a dozen locals sat at the long bar nursing their beers. A well equipped waitress hunting tips, in shorts and a too tight tank top was waiting on the few tables that held patrons this early in the evening. The brunette haired beauty was careful to make sure she bent over just far enough, each time she wiped off a table, or set down a drink, that her scoop necked top teased her customers sufficiently enough to generate improved tips.

Ben smiled as he stepped up and took his usual place beside the waitress station at the end of the bar.

The brunette came by with her tray and an order from two tables for their latest round of drinks.

"Hey Ben, where you been hiding yourself?" She patted his thigh. "People were starting to claim you'd got religion!"

"Really? Whatever fool would say a thing like that, don't know me too good do they?" Ben laughed. "I just been busy out to the ranch is all. You know how it is... damn bankers wantin' to get paid an' all." Ben joked.

"Tell me about it Honey. Money's so tight around my place I've almost come to sellin' myself!" she teased.

Ben teased back; "Well when you do get there Darlin', count me in! I'll be your first customer!"

"The Hell you say!" she told him with her hand on his leg again; "I could never charge an old friend like you. Yours is on the house Babe!" She gave his leg a squeeze, picked up her tray, winked at him and then swung her hips across the barroom, promoting her assets in pursuit of yet more tips.

Ben watched her walk away and let the air out in a long slow breath. Damn! What the hell is gettin' into women lately? He chuckled at how life can seem to change in an instant and took his first sip of a cool beer in a while.

He enjoyed his beer, and the one that came after that. The local band playing in the corner of the dance floor wasn't half bad, and the risque' banter with Emily... well... any man that claimed that wasn't a pleasure was either queer or a liar. The woman was a pleasure to be around.

"Funny" he thought. She was a bit younger then Eileen, ten years or more he guessed. And the banter was just as, invigorating... "Yeah" he thought... "that's the word, Invigorating!" But, with Emily, it was somehow different. She didn't do her teasing with him, in earshot of other folks. "Classier" he thought. "She's a classier, somehow more private woman."

He watched her flex her knees and do her stooping, to a thirsty table of Cowboys and their dates, and then watched the dates punching cowboys shoulders when she walked away, with every male eye at the table glued on her retreating, backside.

"Yup" Ben grinned to himself; "Classier, and more private."

Emily had been standing at the waitress station waiting on another order of drinks just passing the time with him, when Ben finished off the last of his second beer and stood up.

"Well, you're kinda quiet tonight, and hell Ben, you're still sober! Be the first time you drove back to the ranch like that in a while!" she teased.

"Better than that! I'm not driving anywhere, I'm walking!" He exclaimed, rattling the room key he held up. "Takin' off for a bit early in the morning, so I'm stayin' in town tonight. Besides," he said, sounding more serious; "A grown man can't stay drunk forever, can he?!"

"Well damn Ben, 'bout time! You are lookin' the best I've seen you in a long while. Good for you! Don't stay a stranger fella." She gave him a hug, picked up her tray and told him; "Get on out of here if you're not gonna drink. Toby only wants payin' customers litterin' this dump!" then walked off toward the back of the bar.