This fic is intended for mature readers due to the vivid depiction of a consensual adult relationship. The setting is First Season, post-“The Preacher”, screenplay by John Dunkel, story by John Meston, original airdate June 16, 1956. The locations/events in this fanfiction bear absolutely no resemblance to actual Kansas geography or meteorological activity.
“Decided?” she asked around a mouthful of cold biscuit.
From where he sat on the ground, Matt posed, “Are you gonna keep the ranch?” He washed his lunch down with a swig from his battered canteen, offering it to Kitty, then eyed her pointedly. “Or sell it?”
Beneath a shady grove of cottonwoods, the two riding companions were taking a well-deserved respite from the noonday sun on the bank of the Arkansas River, which they’d been following for the better part of half a day.
“Well, Matt,” Kitty asked as she took a long, thirsty draw from his canteen and handed it back, brushing the crumbs from her black broadcloth skirt. “What do you think I should do?” She hated to think of just selling outright the ranch that her aunt and uncle had worked a lifetime to acquire, but what on earth would she be able to do with it? She couldn’t run a ranch. She hoped she could find a nice family to buy it, someone who would cherish it the way her uncle had and make their own lifetime of memories living out on the Kansas prairie.
Matt’s mouth popped open. “Golly, Kitty, that’s up to you. I can’t very well tell you what to do with your own property.”
“I know,” she smiled and patted the log next to her. Matt dusted off the seat of his pants and parked himself beside Kitty.
“Can I tell you a secret?” she smiled, plucking a yellow wildflower from the ground at her feet and holding it to her nose.
“A secret, huh?” he said as he extracted a fuzzy piece of cottonwood blossom from her hair, just so that he would have an excuse to touch her. The charming little freckles the harsh prairie sun had brought out on her face beneath those bewitching bright blue eyes were mesmerizing him at the moment, and he was having a hard time concentrating on her words. “Yeah, tell me a secret, Kitty…”
“Bill Pence has made me a business offer.” She reached out tentative fingers to brush lightly against his injured cheek. “Does your jaw still hurt?”
While the dappled sunlight shone in her fiery red hair, she tilted her heavily lashed eyes up towards him, and his breath caught in his throat at her utter loveliness. The corners of her lips turned up in a tiny smile that completed his devastation.
“No, it doesn’t hurt, Kitty. Well, not too much, anyway.” He rubbed his jaw and repeated distractedly, “A business offer?”
She brushed the petals of her little yellow flower against her face, savoring the feel against her skin, flushed pink from the warmth of the fine spring day. “He thinks I’m smart, Matt, and that I have a good head for business.”
Matt snapped out of his reverie. “You are smart, Kitty. What has he offered you?”
“He says he’ll sell me half-interest in the Long Branch, if I’ll help him run the place. Bill says right now, he never has any time to do anything but work, and that I’d be helping him out a lot.”
“Whoa, Kitty, you a business owner?” Matt looked incredulous. “Where would you get that kind of money?” He regretted the words as soon as they came out of his mouth. The all-too-steady stream of men climbing the stairs to her bedroom provided the largest portion of her income, he was sure. It broke his heart, and he had to turn his back and just walk away whenever he chanced upon it. But walking away didn’t make it go away. It ate at his gut continually.
“What’s the matter with me being a business owner?” she declared, her eyes widening.
“Nothing, Kitty!” Matt backpedaled, alarmed by the pretty pout he saw overtaking her face. He impulsively grabbed her hand. “I think you would make a fine business partner. The idea just took me by surprise is all.”
Pleasure bubbled up inside her chest as she gazed down at their entwined hands. She continued quietly, “If I sell my uncle’s ranch, I should have almost enough money saved to take Bill up on his offer.” Not for the first time, she felt overwhelmed at the generosity of her uncle’s posthumous gift to her. She gave an involuntary shiver contemplating the serendipity of their chance meeting in the Long Branch two weeks ago, and the significant changes in her life that would come as a result.
Matt brightened. “That’s wonderful, Kitty. I’ll be mighty proud of you.” He squeezed her hand more tightly and her stomach did a little flip.
Tilting her eyes up at him again, she added slowly, “And that means, I wouldn’t be forced to do the same kind of work that I’ve always done…”
He looked confused for a moment, but then his clear blue eyes widened nearly imperceptibly and his cheeks flushed ever-so-slightly.
She warmly squeezed his fingers and stood, reluctantly extricating her hand from his while she smiled at his dazed, happy expression. “Don’t you think we’d better get back on the trail, Marshal Dillon? I thought I heard thunder rumbling up ahead, and I have a ranch to sell.”
Matt loped happily after her like a pup, hanging her bag back on her saddle and offering, “Can I help you up, Miss Russell?” Gracing him with a dazzling smile, she braced her hands on his broad shoulders while he wrapped his around her slim waist.
But to her very great surprise, Matt Dillon leaned down quick as a wink and brushed his full lips against hers, sweet and soft as a butterfly’s wings. It was so fleeting that she gave a tiny gasp, and just as quickly, it was over. He looked just as startled as she was. Then his strong arms were lifting her effortlessly into her sidesaddle, and the warmth of his big hands went clear through her boot leather as he helped her hook her foot in the stirrup.
He sprang onto Buck’s saddle and grinned at her boyishly. “You ready to ride? I sure hope it doesn’t rain.”
tbc
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