A Dry Creek Courtship

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Of course, he still had to help her. Maybe he should drive out to Elmer’s place and try to talk to him there. It might be better than waiting for him to come to the hardware store anyway. He’d want to ask his questions in private, just in case Elmer did have anything interesting to say.

Elmer lived with his dog in the bunkhouse on his old ranch. When he’d retired, he’d leased the land out to the Elkton Ranch and, since his wife had died, he’d decided the main house was too big to clean and too hard to heat in the winter. Besides, Elmer, apart from that old Cadillac of his, was a simple man. The bunkhouse suited him fine.

Charley drove his pickup down the lane leading into the yard and parked it next to the Cadillac right in front of the bunkhouse. The dog started barking and Elmer came to stand in the doorway.

Charley reached over and picked up the pint jar of fresh-squeezed orange juice he’d gotten from the café on his way out of Dry Creek. He opened the door to his pickup and stepped down.

“Didn’t see you this morning so I thought you might be sick. Brought you some orange juice,” Charley said as he held up the jar.

“There was a day when you’d have brought me a bottle of whiskey if you thought I had a cold,” Elmer grumbled.

Charley smiled. “Well, we’ve changed, haven’t we?”

It seemed like a lifetime ago since he and Elmer were young and wild together. His wife’s faith had brought Charley to the Lord when he was in his thirties and he’d never regretted giving up his old habits. He wasn’t opposed to using the past to move Elmer into the right conversation, though.

“I bet the last time you really let loose was that winter in Billings,” Charley said as he handed the jar to Elmer. “Never did hear the stories of those days.”

“Man, it was something else,” Elmer said with a shake of his head.

“Oh?” Charley sat down on one of the wooden chairs that stood on the low porch to the bunkhouse.

Elmer followed him and eased himself into a chair as well. “We used to go to this place where they had wrestling. If you’ve never seen live wrestling, you’re missing something.”

“I thought you would be out painting the town red,” Charley said. “You know, wine, women and song.”

Elmer grinned. “I was a married man back then.”

So was Harold Hargrove but that didn’t stop him, Charley thought.

“You expect me to believe you all walked the straight and narrow?” Charley asked as casually as he could.

“What does it matter?” Elmer looked at him suspiciously. “It was a long time ago.”

Charley nodded. He would bet money that Elmer knew some secrets from those days, but he wasn’t going to give them up easily.

“Just curious, that’s all,” Charley said as he stood. “That car of Edith’s had me thinking of Harold. I wondered what he’d say if he knew she was still driving it.”

“He’d say she was one stubborn woman.”

“Ever wonder if our wives would have kept one of our old cars like that?” Charley asked as he leaned on the post holding up the porch roof. “If we’d died before them, I mean.”

Elmer snorted. “I know mine wouldn’t. Not even the Cadillac. She didn’t have much sentiment in her, my wife.”

“Well, life wasn’t always easy for the women around here.”

Elmer nodded. “Can’t say I don’t have some regrets when all is said and done. I wish I’d been better to her.”