Lenora Worth - Cowboy Who Came For Christmas

Sophia’s pulse skidded and slid with each snowflake that fell outside her door. What if he did get snowed in and she had to deal with him for a week or so? She’d go mad. The man stared through her with those captivating eyes and made her think he could see all of her secrets. She’d get cabin fever and spill her worst sins to him. Then she might truly go to jail.

* * *

ADAN WAITED, GIVING them every opportunity to chime right in. But neither said a word. Sophia busied herself with offering more soup, but something about her demeanor worried him.

“Have you seen any strangers around here recently?”

“Just you, Mr. RangerMan,” Bettye blurted out.

His gut told him that one wasn’t lying about this, but they both had secrets about something. He could give them a description of the criminal to see how they’d react but he didn’t want to give away too much too soon. If they’d been involved with Joe Pritchard, they’d let something slip sooner or later.

“Y’all are sure making this harder than it needs to be.”

Bettye snorted a retort. “I thought Rangers could handle just about any situation.”

“I can,” he said, his frustration mounting with each breath. He watched Sophia for signs of stress or any sign that she might be willing to talk to him. “I would. I’m not worried about the storm. I’m worried about what y’all might be trying to hide.”

“We ain’t got nothing to hide,” Bettye replied. “Not from you, that is.”

He leaned his elbows against the table and gave Sophia a measured look. “Then who are you hiding from ?”

Sophia’s head snapped up. “We’re living here, trying to mind our own business. And that’s the truth.”

She got up and started clearing the dishes. Adan took that as a sign dinner—and the conversation—was over.

Adan had never had anything like this happen before. He was going to have to walk a line on this one. He couldn’t deal with having these two hauled in because the man he’d tracked to Crescent Mountain was still out there on the loose. And while they’d tried to do bodily injury to Adan, he figured it was more out of fear than any criminal intent.

Still, he’d have to make it a point to be on his best behavior and ever watchful while he was around them. They were hiding something, all right, only he couldn’t be sure they’d been involved with hiding the man he’d come looking for.

But he couldn’t leave two slightly innocent women alone if that man was out there somewhere. So he stood in front of the fire and listened to the sounds of feminine chatter and a few cryptic whispers coming from the kitchen across the room. They had never actually answered his question. After snapping that curt retort, Sophia had busied herself with the dishes. Bettye had offered him homemade fudge and coffee. The rich chocolate was now stuck in his gut and the coffee had him too warm.

Sophia finally approached him. “Bettye needs to go home, but I’m not sure she’ll be able to find the path. I thought I’d walk with her.”

She left things hanging, so he jumped right in. “I’ll walk with both of you and I’ll check her cabin.”

“And what do you plan to do after that?”

He thought he saw a plea there in her interesting dark water-blue eyes. She pushed at her rich auburn curls and stared up at him, waiting again.

“I plan to stay close by until this storm is over. I’ll figure out the rest in the morning.”

“You mean you want to stay here?”

“Do you have any other suggestions?”

She glanced at the fire, looked out the window, stared over at Bettye waiting by the back door. Then she turned back to him. “No, I don’t have any other ideas. Unless you want to stay at Bettye’s place.”

He looked at her then turned to do a quick glance at her friend. “To be honest, I’d be afraid to fall asleep with her in the next room. My head is still throbbing from that darn frying pan.”

The older woman let out a whooping laugh. “My aim is still good.”

Adan rubbed the back of his sore head. “I agree with that, at least.”

He was rewarded with a pretty smile from Sophia, followed by a firm reminder. “I’m the one with the shotgun, though, remember?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget,” he said, mirroring her grin in hopes of gaining her trust. “But I doubt I’ll sleep no matter where I stay.”

“You can sleep on the sofa,” she finally said. “I have a spare room, but it’s full of my art supplies.”

He nodded on that, saving the information to mull over later. “I won’t be a bother, I promise.”

“I know,” she said with a smile. “I always sleep with my shotgun right by the bed.”

He let out a chuckle and shook his head. “I’ve never met anyone like you two.”

Sophia didn’t give anything away with her Mona Lisa smile. “Let me get my coat and hat. Bettye lives right around the curve so it’s not a long walk, but I don’t want her to fall in the snow. It’s brutal out there tonight.”

He checked the windows, wondering what was hiding in those woods. “We’ll get her home. Think she’ll be safe?”

“She’s been living on this mountain alone since her husband died about fifteen years ago. She can take care of herself, but...if there is someone out there lurking around, I’ll be worried about her.”

His mind raced ahead as he did another visual. It was near impossible to see beyond the banks of thick white snow. “Should she stay with you, too?”

“She won’t. Bettye likes her privacy, same as me. Most of the people who live up here keep to themselves unless we plan to have a dinner or get-together. But Bettye has been a good friend to me.”

“I’ll keep watch between the two of you,” he said on a decisive note. And in the meantime, he’d try to decipher who was telling the truth and who wasn’t.

“You two gonna stand by that fire all night or are you gonna walk a feeble old woman home?”

“Coming,” Sophia called.

He watched as she wrapped her bright blue scarf around her neck and tucked it into her coat. “Oh, she also has a dog that usually tags along with her. She won’t let him out too long in this weather, so he didn’t come over here with her tonight.”

“He mighta bit you,” Bettye added. “Only he can’t see and he can’t really hear good. A lot like me, I reckon.”

“But he protects you,” Sophia said on an empathetic breath.

Bettye nodded. “Bandit’s his name. He can still bark warnings.”

“Good.” Adan took that comment as a personal warning to him. Or maybe to anyone in hiding around here.

He mulled it over and then put on his own coat and opened the door. The storm was full-blown now. Fat white flakes danced around under the porch light like bits of lost lace. The soft sound of snow hitting the woods didn’t bring him any peace. It was a bitter, unforgiving night.

And it didn’t help that a man who’d long ago given up on any decency might be somewhere out in those woods. If he was, he probably wouldn’t survive for long. And like a dangerous animal, he’d turn on anyone who encountered him or tried to stop him.

They all stood on the porch while Bettye got her bearings.

“I shoulda marked the way,” she said, squinting into the night, her flashlight beam hitting dark tree trunks and thick hedges. “I guess we’ll find our way if we hold on to each other. That’s what my Walter used to say to me. Too bad it didn’t work out for us.”

“We’ll make sure we get you home,” Sophia replied. She leaned close to Adan. “She says that no matter the weather.”

Adan took Bettye’s flashlight, pain throbbing in his temples. “Let me lead and y’all hold to each other and follow.” He waited for them to huddle behind and then turned to search them with the light. “Just shout the directions to me as we go.”