Reb just shook his head as he finished starting a fire and removed his knife to open the tin can of beans he’d taken from his saddlebags. Jonah still hadn't returned after storming off into the woods.

                Joe and Jonah had always had a problem with their communication skills. It had driven Reb more than a little crazy five years ago and it still drove him crazy now. Back then it had been Joe refusing to tell Jonah how she really felt about him, until the very end and then being too stubborn to try to stay around and give Jonah more time. Hell the man had still been on a vengeance trip after having his judgment when it came to women proven clouded not once but twice! But had Joe been willing to stick around and fight for Jonah? Nope.

And then there was Jonah. Reb could write a book on that man’s stupidity and lack of communication skills. Telling Joe he wouldn’t, or couldn’t love her when anybody that got within a mile of the man when that woman was around could tell that Jonah had been as deep in love with her as a man could be with a woman. Jonah’s problem had been that he simply hadn’t trusted himself and he had convinced himself that love wasn’t real.           

Reb guessed he hadn’t exactly helped things always teasing Jonah about his so-called brain ailment when it came to women… But Reb hadn’t meant women like Joe… Women like Joe were different… They were the kind of women that, if he wanted something like love, a man needed to grab onto.

Now it seemed that Jonah and Joe were going to fail to communicate and set their pride aside yet again, choosing instead to glare at one another, argue, fight and create a tension so thick that a peace loving man like Reb who just liked to drink, whore and have a good time had trouble breathing.

And then there was Bart. What had that man been thinking by not telling Jonah that he had a son? Or not telling Reb so that Reb could tell Jonah.  Bart and Reb had seen each other several times over the last few years and Bart had never once mentioned that he still had contact with Joe or that he knew about Jonah and Joe having a son.

Reb sincerely hoped that Bart had a damn good reason for doing what he’d done or else he was sure that Jonah would have a bullet or two aimed straight at the skinny bastard’s ass.

                “I’m gonna go find us some meat. We need somethin’ other than jerky.” Joe stated matter of factly as she rose from the rock she’d been sitting on and wiped off her hands on her pants.

                “Can I come, mama?” Clayton asked and Reb saw the glance that Joe threw in his direction and he knew that she was wanting a bit of privacy.

                “Actually, boy, why don’t ya stay here with me awhile? I ain’t a real good cook and I need ya to make sure I don’t burn the beans. If’n there’s one thing that makes Jonah hot under that collar real quick it’s a burnt batch of beans.”

                Clayton laughed and nodded as he came to stand next to Reb beside the fire. Reb nodded at Joe who took off silently in the same direction that Jonah had taken.  Reb hoped that the two of them might be able to work through the barriers of communication between them. Hell even he could tell, with his one good eye, that they still loved one another. He just hoped they’d both be able to see it too.

                “How come ya only have one eye?” Clayton asked, bringing Reb out of his thoughts. Reb glanced down at the boy and grinned. He never had been one for young kids. He’d never really had much use for them since they couldn’t do much of anything other than talk, eat, sleep and get in the way but Clayton was different.  Reb wasn’t sure why he was different but he figured it had something to do with the boy being Gideon ‘the hawk’ Redding’s grandson and the son of Joe and Jonah.

                “It’s a long story.” Reb replied mysteriously and Clayton’s gray eyes widened.

                “I like stories.”

                Reb chuckled and squatted down, settling back on his heels. “Well then, gather round, boy and let Uncle Reb tell ya a story. If there’s one thing I know a thing or two about it’s tellin’ a story.”

                Clayton smiled and sat down on a rock beside Reb, eagerly awaiting the start of the story. “I’d been ridin’ hard for weeks, boy. I had dust under my tongue and my clothes were so stiff from sweat and dirt that they coulda stood up and walked around by theirselves without any help from me.  I rode into that one horse town, thirstier than a man stranded in the desert in July and that’s when I seen the saloon. Like a moth to a flame, I was pulled toward them double doors. My boots drug across those scarred up wooden floorboards as I stepped inside and that’s when I seen her…. The purtiest damn whore this side of the Mississippi.” 

                Reb stopped speaking when he felt Clayton tugging on his sleeve. He glanced down at the boy with irritation. “I just got started tellin’ the story, boy, and you already wanna interrupt me.”

                “I got a question.” Clayton replied with a frown and Reb sighed.

                “Well ask it.”

                 A line formed between Clayton’s eyebrows. “What’s a whore?”

                Reb’s blue eye widened. “Damnation boy!” he exclaimed. “What the devil is wrong with yer mama and Bart? Ain’t they taught ya a damn thing?”

                Clayton shook his head. “They ain’t taught me nuttin’ ‘bout whores. What are they?”

                Reb grinned and laid his arms across his knees. “You just stick with me, boy. I’ll teach you all the important things in life that yer mama seems to have left out.” 

***       

                Joe was mad at herself when she saw Jonah’s silhouette in the setting sun in the distance. Why did she care about him and the hurt she had seen on his face all day? Why did she want to defend her reasons behind telling Clayton his father was dead? She didn’t owe Jonah a damned thing after what he’d done but for some reason she was chasing after him anyhow.

                “What do you want, Joe?” Jonah’s voice surprised Joe and caused her to jump. She hadn’t thought that the man had been aware of her approach.

                “To talk to you, I reckon.” She replied, coming to a stop beside him. Neither of them looked at each other as they gazed out over the valley beneath the ridge they were standing on. Joe cursed the way her heart picked up speed simply by standing beside Jonah. He was just as handsome, broad and able bodied as he had been years ago and she found herself wanting him just as badly as she had always wanted him before….. Which, only served to prove that her brain must be turning to mush.

                “Why did you tell the boy I was dead, Joe?” Jonah finally asked, his voice low and barely audible… Joe could hear the pain in it and it both angered and saddened her.

                “I had to.” She replied, feigning indifference as she shrugged. Joe glanced over and up at Jonah’s face and watched his throat bob up and down as he swallowed hard.

                “Why? Why would you hate me so bad? I never had a pa worth a damn, Joe, you knew that. Why would you make me be the same kind of pa to Clayton?”

                “Come off it, Jonah!” Joe spat. “Don’t go pretendin’ now that you actually give a hell what happens to me and that boy. Ya had no use fer us back then and so we ain’t got no use fer you now.”

                “Why are you so damned mad at me?!” Jonah demanded as he turned to face her and threw his hands in the air. “You left me, Joe.”

                “Yeah and you made it more than clear that ya didn’t want or need me or that boy so stop tryin’ to play the hero now.”

                “When did I ever say I didn’t want that boy?” Jonah demanded. “And when did I ever say I didn’t want you? I seem to recall asking you not to leave me!”

                “I needed more than you was willin’ to give to me, Jonah.”

                “Ya should have stuck around, Joe.” Jonah grumbled accusingly. “My head was a mess back then when it came to love and so I guess I just didn’t recognize it at the time…. I did love you, Joe, and I would have done anything, anything,  for you.”

                “Except be a father to our son?” Joe spat. She was tired of his innocent act and trying to make her look like the villain. Jonah was the one who had abandoned she and Clayton. It was Jonah’s fault that the work had all fallen on her shoulders while raising the boy.

                “What the devil are you talking about?!” Jonah demanded, his voice becoming louder as it was clear from the anger in his gray eyes that he was nearing his breaking point. “I didn’t even know I had a son!”

                “Yes you did!” Joe exclaimed, her voice rising to match the tone of his own as she stood toe to toe with the man. “Ya just chose to forget we existed and spent your life doin’ nothin’ but havin’ fun and bein’ free!”

                “Is that honestly what you think I’ve been doing?  Damn you, Joe. Damn you for lying to that boy. Damn you for lying right now and trying to make yourself sound like less of a monster for hiding that boy from me. “

                Joe lost control of her temper then and her arm shot out, her fist catching Jonah hard in his jaw. Jonah’s head snapped back and his eyes were narrowed when he looked back at her.

                “I thought I knew you, Joe. I thought I could trust you. I thought that we, what we had, meant something… I guess I was wrong.”  

                Joe swallowed hard and nodded as she tossed her stiff hair over her shoulder. “Yeah. Yeah I guess we was both wrong.”

                Jonah just stared hard at her for several more moments and then he turned and walked away back toward camp.

                Joe felt tears building behind her eyes but worked hard to blink them back down and  not allow them to fall. She had a promise to herself that she intended to keep. Jonah Winchester wouldn’t get any more of her tears.

***

                Jonah kicked everything in sight as he walked back to camp.

                Trees? Kicked.

                Clumps of grass? Kicked.

                Rock? Kicked and regretted.

                Nothing about what had happened with Joe made any sense. Why did the woman seem convinced that he had known about Clayton? Why did she think that he had turned his back on them both?

                Jonah would never have turned his back on his son or the mother of his child… Hell it had only taken him a matter of weeks after losing Joe to realize that he did indeed love her but by then it had been too late and he hadn’t had any way of finding her.

                His life had been hell. Whiskey, roaming, gunfights, fistfights, brawls and an aching loneliness so damn deep it had nearly killed him, while most days making him wish it would. He had used meaningless whores just to try to ease some of the pain and put an end to the loneliness but both had only increased  when none of those women had even begun to compare to Joe or what he had shared with her.

                He felt as if he’d never even known the woman at all and yet she still heated his blood, made his heart pound and his hands itch to touch that soft skin and feminine body that he remembered so well. That body was burned into his brain and no other body had been able to compare.

                He longed to see her smile though she had yet to do so…. Instead she appeared sad, nearly as sad as he knew he always seemed. But if the last five years had been so hard on her, wasn’t that her own fault? Why then did he feel so bone deep guilty?

                Jonah stepped into camp, the woods growing steadily darker around them and he saw Reb and Clayton beside the fire, appearing deep in conversation.

                “Jonah!”  Clayton exclaimed when he looked up and saw Jonah enter camp. Jonah smiled, something that it seemed he had to do every time he saw his son, and waited expectantly for Clayton to reach him as the boy ran over.

                “What’s got you so keyed up, boy?” Jonah asked, ruffling the child’s thick blond hair.

                “Jonah, have you ever spent time with a whore?” The boy asked as he practically bounced with excitement.

                Jonah was sure his eyes nearly fell out of their sockets as they widened and he quickly turned his attention over to Reb who was snickering and sampling the beans he’d had heating over the fire.

                “What exactly do you know about whores, Clayton?” Jonah demanded as he looked back down at his son.

                “They’re ladies who’ll spend time with ya if ya pay ‘em some money. I got a couple coins saved up. Do ya think I could get one to play with me?”

                Jonah tried to swallow but became choked, causing him to break down in a fit of coughing that stole his breath. “Play?” he managed to gasp and Clayton nodded as he patted Jonah on the back.

                “Yeah, ya know, mama don’t have no time to play with me since she’s always so busy workin’ and I was wonderin’ if one of them whores would play with me.”

                “And who told you about whores?”

                “Uncle Reb.”

                “Uncle Reb?” Jonah asked, raising a brow and looking at the one eyed bastard who was now doubled over beside the fire and laughing silently as he smacked his knee.

                “Yep. He’s been tellin’ me all kinds of stories ‘bout shootin men’s heads off, playin’ with whores and borrowin’ money off generous folks on stagecoaches at night.”

                Jonah shook his head and crouched down to look his son in the eyes. “Your Uncle Reb ain’t gonna do anything but get you in trouble, boy. His stories are just a bunch of hot air that he’s gotta let go of sometimes to keep his head from blowing.” Clayton laughed at the image that created. “And you’d do well to not mention his stories, or whores, in front of your mama.”

                “Yes, sir.” Clayton replied with a nod. Jonah smiled, ruffled his hair again and then quickly closed the distance between himself and Reb. Reb held up a spoonful of beans.

                “Want some?”

                “Whores, Reb? Really?” Jonah grumbled and Reb grinned.

                “Well hell, Jonah, I didn’t tell him what they really did, just that they’d spend time with ya.”

                “And the generous folks on the stagecoaches?” Jonah asked and this time Reb laughed out loud.

                “The boy needs to know these things. They’re important lessons in his education. That’s what’s wrong with the world these days. A lack o’education in the important things.”

                Jonah just shook his head and rubbed at the back of his neck.

                “So did you and the lady talk?” Reb asked.

                “Fought’s more like it.” Jonah replied with a snort.

                “See what y’all need is communication skills.” Reb informed him and Jonah shook his head.

                “Don’t worry about what I need.” He scolded. “If you want to keep that one eye you got left, you had better stop telling that boy stories like that. I’m sure Joe would be happy to whoop you good and proper.”

                Reb chuckled. “I ain’t scared of her.” He stated and then he grinned sheepishly. “ Besides, she’s got a bum leg just now so I could get away from her.”

                “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Reb.” Jonah stated as he stared off into the distance. “She ain’t the kind of woman you can get away from.”