"Fallin in love with you just brought me sorrow. You leave smilin' tonight but cryin' tomorrow.....What kind of fool do you think I am? I ain't fallin for you all over again. I ain't playin a game that I know I can't win. What kind of fool do you think I am?" Lee Roy Parnell 'What kind of fool'

“Jonah.” Jonah froze and felt Joe stiffen beside him as they stepped out of the diner at dusk that evening.

Jonah had almost managed to forget that Penny was even around. He and Joe had talked, danced, played poker and laughed. But now reality was back, her name was Penny and she was calling his name.

Slowly he turned to see her standing a few feet down the boardwalk, wringing her gloved hands and staring at him with wide eyes.

“What?” he asked with a sigh.

“Please, can we at least simply talk? Let’s go back into the diner and simply catch up, Jonah. It has been a long time…”

“And who’s fault is that?” Jonah demanded.

“Mine.” Penny admitted with a tip of her head. “I was a fool. Please come in and speak with me for just a while and then you can get back to your life and never have to see me again if you choose.”

Jonah looked over at Joe but she was simply staring at Penny and her face was impossible to read.

“Give me just a minute.” he said to Penny and then he turned and moved Joe down the boardwalk and out of Penny’s earshot.

“I’m just gonna talk to her for a minute, Joe. I want to hear what she has to say for herself.”

Joe shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. “Do whatever it is you need to do, Jonah.’

“I just don’t want you to be upset or jealous or…..”

Joe snorted. “I ain’t jealous of that!” she insisted. “Besides I can’t get jealous of who you talk to. We’re just friends, remember.”

Jonah felt the sting of her words and then nodded quickly to cover the pain he was feeling. She was right after all. This was just friendship. They had both agreed to it and neither had ever called it anything different.

“Alright then.” Jonah replied.

“Alright then.” Joe agreed and then she walked away quickly toward the saloon where they had left Bart and Reb before coming to dinner.

Jonah watched her go and then turned back to Penny.

“Alright then, let’s go in and talk.”

***

Joe was fuming. Beyond fuming. She was a raging inferno of pissed off. She had heard it in Jonah’s voice when he’d turned and said ‘what?’ so softly to that damn woman that he was going to give her anything she asked him for.

What was wrong with the damned man? Was he that blockheaded and stupid? Maybe Reb and Bart had been right. Maybe he did have something wrong with his damned brain that kept him from thinking straight.

Then again maybe Joe should have told him not to go talk to Penny. Or at least not sounded as okay with it as she had. She and Jonah were more than just friends, at least they were in her mind, but she’d be damned before she spouted that out while he was pining away over the woman who had left him for another man.

She went into the saloon and sat down roughly at the bar, signaling for a beer.

Just an hour or so ago she and Jonah had been in here together. Laughing, talking, dancing…. Joe just didn’t understand why he wouldn’t love her. They were good together. Damn good. She might not be a lady but she was a woman, she knew that for a fact, and Jonah had been the one to open her eyes to it.

She took a slow sip of her beer and then rolled her eyes when Bart and Reb both flopped down in the stools on either side of her.

“What ya doin’ in here? Where’s Jonah?” Reb asked with a frown. Bart chuckled.

“Yeah, we didn’t think we’d see you two again ‘til morning.”

“He’s at the diner with Penny.” Joe replied with a snort.

“What?!” Reb demanded as he nearly fell of the stool in his drunken anger.

“Yeah, you heard me.” Joe replied.

“And you left ‘em alone together!?” Bart exclaimed. “What the hell are you thinking?”

“I just gotta have faith that things’ll work out the way they was supposed to work out. If Jonah and I are meant to be than I have nothing to be worried ‘bout. If something happen ‘tween the two of ‘em then I guess he and me just never were meant for each other.”

“You’re leaving too much to chance, Joe.” Bart warned. “Go back to that damn diner and get him away from her. She’s like a drug for Jonah! You think he was bad with Scarlett? That wasn’t nothing! When it comes to Penny the man loses all reason. I mean, shit, when she left him he damn near sunk down so deep in the bottle that Reb and I couldn’t get him back out.”

“I came here to feel better not listen at you make it worse than it is.” Joe scolded as she stood up and threw the money for her beer down on the bar. “Now I’m going to the hotel, I’m tired. And y’all leave him alone at that diner. I don’t want him coming back to me just cuz y’all interrupted his time with her. If he chooses her than that’s his choice and I’ll be just fine. It’s not like I’m in love with the man or nothing.”

Joe headed quickly for the swinging doors but not quickly enough to keep from hearing Reb mutter, “Yes you are.”

Joe made her way toward the hotel, going the long way down a back road to avoid walking past the diner where Jonah and Penny were talking.

Sure Joe could go in that diner, fists clenched and drag Jonah away from Penny. Or she could go to a dress shop, get all trussed up and show Jonah that she could be every bit the lady that Penny was, but Joe wasn’t going to do either of those things.

She was who she was. She was what she was. She wasn’t going to change that for anyone. Not even Jonah. He would either choose her like she was or he wouldn’t and either way Joe would be fine. She was tough. Her pa hadn’t raised her to be any other way.

***

“How have you been, Jonah?” Penny asked once they were seated in back corner of the busy diner.

“I’ve been good, Penny. How about yourself?” Jonah asked as he looked around him awkwardly.

It didn’t feel right to be here with her like this. He kept looking out the window for Joe and hoping she’d come bursting in here but why would she? She had said herself that they were only friends.

“I’ve not been so good.” Penny replied as she picked at the cloth napkin beside her cup of tea the server had brought out to her.

“Where’s your banker?” Jonah asked and Penny nodded and met his gaze.

“I wondered when you’d ask about him.” she replied quietly. Her icy eyes were sad when she added, “He’s gone.”

Jonah couldn’t find an ounce of sympathy no matter how hard he seemed to dig for it.

“What did you do? Leave him for a congressman?” Penny’s eyes flashed with that icy temper he knew so well. Had he really ever been foolish enough to fall for the lie of her sweetness. Truly she had been a terror. Nothing he had ever done for her or given her had ever been enough. She had always asked for more and more and more and Jonah had constantly been striving to please her and failing miserably.

That’s why he liked being with Joe. He didn’t have to be anything more than what he was and Joe didn’t ask him for things that he couldn’t give her…..Jonah shook his head when he realized the direction his thoughts had taken. The same direction they always took when he allowed them to wonder… Straight to Joe.

“He left me actually.” Penny admitted before picking up her tea cup and placing it to her lips. Jonah remembered how those lips had once felt on his own but instead of being aroused by the thought, he was disgusted that he had ever fallen for her and her obvious sexuality. “For a bureaucrats daughter. Apparently she had more to offer to him than I did.”

Jonah shrugged and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Hurts don’t it?”

“Yes.” Penny replied and then Jonah frowned when tears filled her eyes. “I’m so so terribly sorry for what I did to you, Jonah!” she gasped. Jonah fidgeted in his seat. Damn tears. He hated women’s tears. They did something strange to his insides and made him feel as if he had to do something to make the tears stop.

“Uh.. don’t cry now, Penny.” he pleaded as he looked at the many eyes watching them. He reached out to pat her hand and she clutched onto his wrist and met his gaze.

“Please tell me that you’ll forgive me for what I did. I was a fool and I never, never, should have hurt you the way that I did.”

Jonah wanted to tell her to shove it up her ass but then he realized that that anger he felt wasn’t really directed at her, it was directed at himself for believing her, falling for her, wasting two years of his life on her.

“Sure, Penny.” he said as he tried to pull his hand away from her. “Sure I forgive you.”

Penny’s blue eyes lit up and the bright smile she gave him made her appear sweet and innocent.

“Oh thank you, Jonah! You won’t regret this. I’ll be good to you this time, my love. I realize now what a fool I was to ever let you go. You were the best thing I ever had…..”

“Now wait a damn minute,” Jonah interrupted as he yanked his arm from her grasp and shook his head. “I said I was willing to forgive you, I never said a word about us being together again.”

Penny’s face fell and she sat up abruptly. “What?”

“I don’t want you back, Penny. You or any other woman like you.”

Penny sneered. “Don’t tell me that’s why you’re with that horrid thing I saw you with earlier. Jonah, that could never satisfy you. Remember? I know what your body likes.”

Jonah chuckled. “You must think I’m a bigger fool than even I think I am.” he said with a shake of his head. “I wouldn’t take you back if you were the last woman on the planet. I loved you, Penny. I would have given you the moon and the stars if you’d a asked me for them and you came damn close to asking for them. I worked my ass off to give you everything you ever wanted and you told me that you loved me too. Then here comes this rich banker and you get him falling at your feet and you leave me without so much as a goodbye. Why in the hell would I take you back now?”

“So it is her?” Penny snapped. “I’ll kill her for taking what was mine!”

This made Jonah laugh out loud as he stood up. “I think we’re done here. I said what I wanted to say. You said what you wanted to say. I don’t see any reason why we ever need to speak again.” He walked past her but then turned and put his hand on her shoulder.

He felt her stiffen beneath his touch and he smiled and put his lips close to her ear.

“Word of warning, dear heart. I would steer clear of Joe. She’s a hell of a lot more woman than you are and I’m afraid you’d get hurt.”

Jonah could practically hear Penny’s jaw popping as she fougth to keep from screaming at him in a public place.

When Jonah stepped out onto the darkening streets he took a deep breath. In one way he felt lighter now after meeting back up with Penny. He might just be able to forgive himself for making such a fool of himself over her now that he had finally told her off… But Scarlett…Telling Penny off had him wanting to at least do the same to that bitch.

He couldn’t give up on trying to find her just yet. He had to give it just a little more time.

***

Joe tossed her gun on the bed and growled as she began to pace. If she cleaned the damn thing any more she was going to take the polish right off of it! And her knife hadn’t been this sharp in years.

This waiting around business was a bunch of shit. She wasn’t the type of woman to wait around and hope her man would show up. She was going to go down to that diner and drag his ass out of it!

Joe headed for the door but then stopped in her tracks when a knock sounded on it.

“Who is it?” she asked, more out of habit than anything. She recognized Jonah’s knock after hearing so many times.

“Jonah.”

Joe’s heart lightened but then she told it to calm the hell down. Just because he was here didn’t mean anything. Maybe he was just here to tell her goodbye. There was no point getting her hopes up.

“Come on in then, Jonah.”

The door opened and Jonah stepped in before closing it behind him. He didn’t waste a single second before walking across the floor, taking her in his arms and kissing her tenderly, before wrapping Joe in a hug that made her heart ache with love for him.

“What the devil was that for?” she asked after he pulled away. Jonah sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed and Joe sat beside him.

“Just wanted to, I guess.” he replied and then he raised his brow as he saw her gun on the bed. “You cleaned it?”

Joe shrugged. “Yeah. It was getting a bit dull.”

“I went to the saloon looking for you but Bart and Reb said you’d come back here. They were pretty damn drunk but they seemed mad at me…. You told them I’d gone to talk to Penny didn’t you?”

“They asked where ya was and I told ‘em. Ya never said it was a secret.” Joe reminded him. Jonah sighed.

“No, I didn’t.”

Joe picked at the blanket and then asked very nonchalantly, “So how did the talk go?” She hoped it had only been a talk.

“Good.” Jonah replied with a far off look as he stared at the wall. Joe didn’t like how that sounded. Had it been good for Penny or good for her?

“Well dammit don’t keep me in suspense all night!”

Jonah chuckled. “It’s strange.” he admitted. “After she left I would have given anything to have her back and today I could have.”

Ya could have? So ya told her no?” Joe asked, trying her best to not act as if her heart depended on his answer.

Jonah nodded. “She left me for the banker, someone better than me. The banker left her for someone better than her. She begged me to give her another chance but I told her no and it’s because I’ve found something better.”

“What’s that?” Joe asked, meeting his gaze. She could tell there was something he wanted to say. His gray eyes were intense as they stared back at her and then quite suddenly he looked away and shrugged one shoulder.

“Freedom. Peace of mind. Not having to be something I’m not every single day just to please somebody else.”

Joe swallowed hard. Not quite the answer she’d been hoping was coming but at least he had turned the woman down and come back to Joe. That was a start.

“What did you come back here for? Were you feeling bad?”

“Naw.” Joe replied with a shrug. “Ya can only drink so much whiskey and play so much poker ‘fore ya need a break.”

“I believe Bart and Reb need to learn that lesson.” Jonah replied with a chuckle.

“So, are ya tired?” Joe asked with a wink and Jonah shook his head, his gray eyes suddenly hungry.

“Not a bit.”

“Good.” Joe replied as she moved herself over onto his lap, straddling his waist and pulling off his hat. She tossed the hat across the room and smiled. “Me neither.”