Lenora Worth - Cowboy Who Came For Christmas

“I’m not sure,” she said, a plea in the words. “I don’t know him and I didn’t help him, Adan. I’ve...never seen that man on Crescent Mountain.”

She turned and walked to the table and stared down at the grizzly face on the white paper. “I... I don’t know him and I don’t know why someone would leave this on my door.”

Adan put his hands on his hips and watched as she paced from window to window. For someone who repeatedly said she didn’t know this man, Sophia sure seemed nervous and agitated. She’d just said she’d never seen the man in the picture here on the mountain. But had she seen him or known him before?

She was lying through her pretty white teeth.

And Adan wasn’t leaving here until he found out the truth.

CHAPTER FOUR

ADAN STEPPED BACK and took a breath, his eyes watching Sophia with a big-cat precision. “Sit down.”

Sophia did as he told her, too weak and afraid to do anything else. No gun could protect her from the trail of lies she’d had to tell. But she’d stall as long as she could.

She had to protect Bettye and the others. She’d brought this trouble on all of them when she’d shown up on the mountain late one night, scared and in shock. The cluster of people who’d become her neighbors had helped her without asking too many questions, and she didn’t want to pull them into any kind of trouble with the law.

What if it’s him? Sophia’s stomach roiled each time she glanced at that sketch. What if you don’t have a choice?

Adan went to the stove and turned up the heat on the kettle, then searched through the cabinets until he’d found the tea bags.

She watched him, amazed. “How did you know...?”

His chuckle was quiet and sure. “My mama always makes hot tea when she’s upset.”

Sophia latched onto that tidbit, a wistfulness filling her soul. She ached for a family of her own but for now, Bettye and her other neighbors would have to do. “Your mama and you—are you close?”

He turned and gave her a quick glance. “Yep. I’m close to both my parents. They live in Austin, not far from my house. They help me take care of my daughter, Gaylen.”

So he was married. Good. Sophia could put yet another wall between them. And she could let go of that sizzle of attraction that seemed to spark her back to life each time he touched her.

“Where’s your wife?” She’d asked it before she could think it through. “I mean, won’t she be wondering where you are?”

He didn’t turn around, but his hand went still on the teakettle. “She’s gone.”

So much for trying to focus on the positive. So did that mean he was still married and his wife had left? Or did that mean his wife was dead? Sophia refused to ask.

“She left when Gaylen was eight months old,” he finally said. “I’m a divorced single father.”

Sophia’s heart went out to him and his little girl, but she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by saying that. “So you’re a single father who chases criminals in the snow.”

“Yep.” He opened a tea bag and dropped it into a big floral mug. “And I need to be done with this and home by Christmas Eve.”

Sophia hoped that would happen. “You think you’ll find him around here?”

“I think so. He’s here for a reason, but he’d have to hunker down tonight or risk freezing to death.”

She decided to feel Adan out and get a few details in the process. “I wonder why he decided to come to Crescent Mountain.”

Adan left that statement out there floating on the air between them along with the scent of chamomile tea. Finally he said, “I wonder that, too.” He brought her the tea, his gaze sweeping over her face. “It sure would make my job easier if you’d just tell me the truth.”

Sophia didn’t know what to say to that. She wanted to shout that yes, she knew who Joe Pritchard was but...she thought he was dead. She thought he would never hurt her again. So how could that possibly be him out there?

But she couldn’t find her voice. She couldn’t speak his name. So she sat there and watched Adan while he watched her drink the herbal tea and she hoped against hope that Joe wasn’t on this mountain.

But Adan didn’t pressure her anymore. He pulled out his cell phone and tried to make a call. “No bars,” he finally said, frowning down at his phone. “Guess the storm is messing with the reception.”

“We never have good reception up here,” Sophia told him. “It comes and goes even on good days. If we have important calls to make, we go down into town and sit on a bench or do our business in the Crescent Diner. They have free Wi-Fi there.”

“I see.” He tapped his phone and put it away. “I wanted to check in with my parents and tell Gaylen good-night.”

He sat for a moment, his gaze on his phone. Sophia chanced a glance when he put it on the table and saw a picture of a pretty blond-headed little girl. His daughter?

Before she could ask, Adan picked the phone back up and started tapping away.

“Notes to myself,” he said by way of an explanation. “So I won’t forget the chronological order of things.”

Sophia couldn’t believe her world had shifted within the space of an hour. The Christmas decorations Bettye had helped her make and put on the tree now held a garish shimmer that only reminded her of other Christmases she’d rather not remember. Days and nights that had involved overly decorated rooms and expensive catered dinners. And a facade that crumbled like dry bricks.

Sophia didn’t miss that kind of fake holiday. Nor did she miss the disconnected misery of growing up moving from pillar to post and sometimes living with strangers.

She’d looked forward to a quiet Christmas on the mountain with real people who cared about her. She’d planned on baking all kinds of goodies for her friends over the next week or so before they all celebrated with a Christmas Eve get-together.

But all of that had changed. Now, she had one very good-looking, very serious man questioning and doubting her and one very dangerous, very angry man out there possibly searching for her. Tonight they’d both found her. Would there be a battle between them? She got the impression that Adan Harrison wouldn’t give up until he had Joe Pritchard in custody. But would he give up on questioning her? No doubt on that one, either.

She sank down on an old side chair and grabbed a turquoise-colored chenille throw and held it tight to her chest. She didn’t realize she was shivering until Adan bent in front of her and lifted the blanket from her. With slow, deliberate gestures, he carefully took the throw and tucked it over her lap and around her sweater leggings and old cowboy boots.

Sophia didn’t like men touching her, but this gentle giant did it in a way that made her want to cling to his hand and thank him. His eyes held no malice, no intentions other than to bring her comfort. When was the last time a man had been this kind to her? Especially a man who’d seen the business end of her shotgun?

“There,” he said, his eyes going a gentle burnished brown. Then he turned to a side table. “Here’s your tea.”

She nodded her head, still not used to this kind of reaction from a man. Or her reaction to that man. “Thank you.”

His gaze stumbled over her heated skin. “You don’t look so hot.”

She almost smiled at that. “Well, I wasn’t exactly expecting company tonight.”

He sank back on a stool made out of old floorboards and straightened the embroidered yellow cushion. “And I wasn’t exactly expecting to show up on your porch.”

She forced a smile. “Funny how life works, huh?”

He nodded. “Ready to talk now?”

Sophia looked down at the frayed threads of the secondhand throw. “About what?”