"Kid?"
"What do you want Lou?"
"We need to talk."
Kid turned around to face her. He leaned against the newly-mended corral fence and coolly asked, "About what?"
Lou sighed. She knew that Kid wasn’t going to make this conversation easy for her.
"About my run to St. Joe. While I was there I met this man and …"
"That’s what you want to talk to me about! For heaven’s sake Lou, I knew you were jealous about Samantha, but I would have thought that you’d have more tact then to throw the fact that you met somebody else into my face!"
Kid tried to brush past Lou to walk back to the bunkhouse, but she grabbed his arm as he went past her.
"Kid, I can’t believe you don’t know me better than that. I do not want to rub the fact that I met somebody else in your face. He’s dead anyway Kid, so you don’t have to be jealous."
Lou noticed Kid tensing up when she said that he was acting jealous, so she quickly continued.
"What I wanted to tell you was … well …"
"Lou, do you think you could just spit it out. I have chores to do."
Lou took a deep breath.
"I’m pregnant."
Kid just looked at her and then shook his head and smiled.
"I’m sorry, I thought you just said that you were pregnant."
"Kid, that is what I just said."
"Lou, Lou what are you talking about. How do you know that you’re pregnant?"
"Kid, you remember how sick I was before I left on my last run."
Kid nodded
"It was morning sickness. I’m positive. I saw a doctor. I’m three months along already."
"Is it mine?"
"I don’t believe you would even ask me that question," Lou yelled angrily. "Of course it’s yours. How many people do you think I’ve made love to!"
"Ok, Lou, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. But, I can’t believe this. I’m going to be a father."
Kid sat down on the fence as he tried to fathom what that meant. Lou just stood there and watched as a myriad of emotions passed over his face. The emotion that lingered there at the end was doubt and a little fear. He then asked Lou the same question that she had asked him not to long before.
"What are we going to do now?"
"I don’t know Kid. What do you want to do? Do you still love me?"
"Louise! I never ever stopped loving you."
"But, … What about Samantha?"
"Samantha meant nothing to me Lou. I felt that since I had no chance with you, I should at least try to get on with my life."
"You didn’t love her?"
"She was a wonderful woman, but I didn’t love her. How could I when she wasn’t you."
Lou smiled and took Kid in her arms. They then shared a kiss that made all of their previous problems disappear.
Lou giggled, "Well, I suppose you’re going to have to make an honest woman out of me now, Kid."
"Louise."
Kid’s voice shook as he asked Lou a question she’d already heard two times from him.
"Louise, nothing would make me happier than if you would agree to be my wife."
Lou smiled and nodded.
"Yes, Kid. Yes."
Kid smiled, but then his face fell as he thought about how much money it cost to support a family and how fast the Pony Express was becoming obsolete. Lou knew what Kid was thinking about and decided to play with him for a few minutes.
"Kid, if you’re thinking about money, it’ll be fine. I can just hire myself out to cook for other families or something along those lines."
Lou tried to hide her grin as Kid contemplated the fate of those poor souls who would be eating her cooking.
"I’m just fooling around Kid. There is something else I have to tell you."
"For heavens sake, Lou. I’m not sure that I can handle any more of your surprises today. Isn’t telling me that I’m going to be a Daddy shock enough?"
Lou smiled and said, "I think you’re going to be happy about this one though."
She then continued to tell him about Jonathan and the incredible gift he had given her. At the end of her story, Kid sat there very quietly. Lou knew that it would be hard for him to let her support the family, even through such a way as Jonathan’s will.
"Kid the ranch is a great opportunity. It’s really something that we’d be good at. It would be a lot of hard work on both our parts, but most of it’s going to be on you until this baby is born."
Kid smiled lovingly at Lou and said that he would love to continue to build up a horse ranch such as the one that Jonathan has left her in his will. Lou smiled as she heard this and felt, for the first time in a long while, that everything was going to be alright.
Lou and Kid started to kiss passionately by the corral when Cody and Buck came up behind them.
"Well, I guess that means they’re together again, huh Cody."
"I guess so Buck," Cody said as he began to whistle at the happy couple.
Kid stopped kissing Lou, grabbed a handful of mud up off the ground and chucked it at Cody. Cody started at him in shock.
"Look at what you did Kid. You got mud all over my new shirt."
Lou smiled at Cody’s unfeigned annoyance.
"Really Kid, now Cody’s shirt doesn’t match his pants anymore. Maybe this will help." Lou said as she too picked up a handful of mud and tossed it at Cody.
It didn’t take long for all four of the pony express riders to begin throwing mud at one another. Soon it was a free-for-all. Teaspoon and Rachael, who had heard the shouting, watched from a safe distance.
"I think it’s all going to be alright now Rachael,".
"I think you just might be right, Teaspoon Hunter."
Rachael laughed as she and Teaspoon began to walk towards the house.
"Cody sure is going to be mad when I ring the dinner bell and don’t let him in to eat until he’s cleaned himself up."
Teaspoon laughed as he saw the truth in Rachael’s statement.
"True. Very true Rachael."
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