(no subject)

[snowy_river_man]

Spur's place is a second home to Jim in many ways. It's as entangled with his history as his own homestead, and with his father dead, there is no one Jim trusts more.

Even now, knowing he's a Harrison.

Riding up the hill along the rail fence, Jim smiles as he catches sight of the ramshackle house, built between thin trees with nothing at its back but blue sky. Jessica's arms are looped loosely around his waist as they have been for hours, and Kate is close behind on her Beaut. The sun is shining, the air crisp. He finds he's looking forward to seeing Spur's face when he realizes Jessica has come for a visit.

"Spur!"

He slows his horse.

"Spur!" A brief Pause. "Spur!"

Still no answer.

"Damn," Jim mutters, coming to a stop.

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[snowy_river_man]

Jim smiles, less ill at ease than he'd been all day. He'd wanted her to know where he stood. Perhaps it's silly; he hardly has any claim to her, but he didn't want Kate to think he'd been planning a future with Jess all along and had kept that to himself.

Even friends would think that a lie of omission, surely.

"No need," he says. "It'll work out."

Given time. In any case, none of this is going to help him capture the brumbies, and that is where his heart and head truly lie.

"We should be getting back."

His eyes linger on her face before he turns again and starts up the trail to the house.

[ikissdhimbck]

She doesn't flinch, not even from that imponderable clearness in his bright eyes. The one that makes her feel like someone's seeing her, really seeing her, for the first time since she killed the sheriff and became Kissin' Kate Barlow.

She stares after the spot where he used to be for a moment, listening to brush crackle underhoof.

"Jim?"

She isn't really sure why she's calling after him, except — 

No need. It'll work out.

She turns over her shoulder, brow furrowed.

"D'you know what you really want? What's, ah — sustainable?"

[snowy_river_man]

The instant his name leaves her lips Jim pivots his horse back around on the narrow trail and murmurs a command to hold him still. His eyes hone in on Kate's with ease, searching, wondering.

Do you know what you really want?

His silence isn't indicative of hesitation, or an admission that it's complicated. It isn't representative of confusion. What he feels, what's written all over his face, is clarity, determination and an undeniable relief that the answer comes so easily.

"Yes."

He breaks into a grin, boyish and yet also very much not.

"I'll start with the brood mares in the brumbies," he says confidently.

The mares will make all the rest possible, and for the first time, Jim knows it can be done. He can do it, and he will.

Everything else he wants will come in time, God willing. Or it won't. But a man makes the effort, does all he can, proves he's worth it. For the first time, Jim is eager to prove himself for his own reasons, not because those mountain men ordered him to earn the right to call himself a mountain man.

[ikissdhimbck]

His grin is infectious, and she catches it right away. There's pride in her smile, confidence, and — maybe a little relief.

Relief to hear his answer.

Relief that he keeps his head on straight.

She tips her chin down, laughter curling in the mountain air. It's as sweet as steam from a freshly baked pie, lacking even an ounce of doubt. She knows it can be done; she knows he can do it, and he will. She brings Beaut around and catches up to him, laughter still in her eyes.

"S'a good start, I'd say. But we'd better get to it."

She makes sure their legs brush as Beaut nudges by, a tease, an encouragement, a shared joke — freedom, for the first time since finding the suspicious tracks left in the mud, to feel like it's just the two of them in all these great mountains. The ease of friendship, and the calm before a big job.

[snowy_river_man]

Jim smiles at Kate, but it's the last he looks at her before they reach the cabin. Knowing she is there is enough. He lets his eyes wander over the worn track, the familiar trees, and contemplates how much can change in no time at all.

"There's a trough just there," he tells her, gesturing to the ramshackle paddock and looping his reins around the fence. "I'll be back."

He has to tell Jess Spur is nowhere to be found.

[OOC: Continued here.]