Carla Cassidy - Guardian Cowboy

She approached the booth. “You getting ready to leave?”

“It’s about that time,” he replied. “I know tomorrow is your night off and I was wondering if you’d be interested in eating dinner at the café with me again.”

“I’d love to. But, before you leave, there’s something I really need to tell you and it might make you renege on your offer.” Dread and tension once again pressed tightly in her chest.

He frowned and set his hat back down on the seat. “And what would that be?”

She sucked in a deep breath and then released it.

“We didn’t sleep together the other night. I mean, we slept together, but we didn’t have sex.”

His frown deepened and a dark wariness jumped into his eyes. “What are you talking about? I was there.”

“Well, you mostly weren’t there,” she replied. She stared down at the booth table, unable to meet his gaze as she continued. “You were passed out, like you usually are at the end of a Saturday night. It was kind of a joke, but I also wanted to show you how vulnerable you are when you get in that state. It frightens me for you.”

When her words were met with a weighty silence, she finally looked up. Anger. It was written in the darkness of his eyes, in the grim slash of his lips. Every line in his face appeared sharper and his shoulders were stiff.

“Did everyone have a good laugh at my expense?” he asked, the words clipped and curt.

“It wasn’t like that,” she quickly protested. “I didn’t do it for my own humor, although I will admit it was kind of funny seeing your reaction when you woke up in my bed the next morning.”

Her words did nothing to soften any of the hardness in his gaze. He leaned over, grabbed his hat once again and worked the brim between his fingers.

“Sawyer, I’ll admit something else,” she continued hurriedly. “I told you I had a crush on you and I meant it. It’s the truth. I didn’t like the idea of you being passed out to the point that you could become a victim. You could get beaten up or robbed when you’re in that state. You could be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous woman.” The words tumbled out of her in a desperate rush to take his anger away.

“So, you decided to be the unscrupulous woman?”

The press of tears burned at her eyes. This was going so much worse than she’d ever thought it would. “I’m sorry. I should have never done it.”

“Yeah, you got that right.” He got up from the booth, slapped his hat on his head and walked away from her toward the door.

She watched him go until he disappeared from her sight. So much for a romance with Sawyer Quincy. She’d be lucky if he ever spoke to her again.

* * *

Sawyer stepped out into the cool night, the air a welcome relief to the hot anger that coursed through him. He wasn’t just ticked off at Janis. He was also irritated with his friends, who had obviously been in on the whole thing all along.

Geez, he’d been so worried and had felt so guilty when he’d believed he’d had sex with Janis and had no memory of it. The whole reason he’d invited her out to dinner the next night was that he’d thought they’d been intimate.

But you enjoyed having dinner with her, a small voice whispered in his head. And he’d enjoyed her company since then. Still, he couldn’t believe what she had done to him.

He leaned against the front bumper of his truck, let out a deep sigh and stared up the street. Bitterroot shut down early on weeknights and there wasn’t a soul on the street except him.

And why was he still there? Why wasn’t he already in his truck and driving home?

He had to admit, the whole thing had given him a wake-up call he’d needed for a long time about his drinking. On that same Saturday morning he’d gone to speak to Cassie about the possibility of him becoming foreman once Brody Booth stopped working on the Holiday Ranch.

Brody had found love with Mandy and they now lived on a big spread. Everyone knew he was just biding his time before quitting the Holiday place.

For the first time in his life, Sawyer had wanted to step up and take on additional responsibility, but Cassie had turned him down. She’d said something to the effect that she didn’t believe the other men respected him enough to follow his lead.

That night he’d carried a bitter disappointment with him to the bar and he’d tried to drink it away. He’d guzzled his beer down with purpose and, like usual, he hadn’t remembered anything after the first couple of beers.

Cassie refusing to consider him for the foreman’s job coupled with believing he had made love to a woman while drunk and having no knowledge of it had made him rethink his drinking.

Hell, he didn’t even enjoy it that much. Before he could get a nice little buzz going, he always passed out. Was it really possible Janis had a genuine concern about him?

She didn’t appear to be the type of woman who would do something like that just for grins and giggles. Maybe she really had done it because she cared about him.

At the moment he was too confused to do anything but head home and get a good night’s sleep. He’d figure out how he felt about Janis tomorrow.

He climbed into his truck and instantly spied a piece of paper tucked beneath his windshield wiper.

“What now?” he muttered. He rolled down his window, reached out to grab the paper and then turned on the dome light.

Stay away from her.

Printed in bold, black letters, the words stared up at him. His heart had been racing with anger but it instantly quieted. He looked up and down the street once again, but there was still nobody to see.

As he looked at the note once again, his heart began to beat more quickly. What in the hell? There was no question in his mind that the “her” was Janis.

What was going on? Was this the same work as the person who had spray-painted the back of the bar? If that was the case, he had serious doubts the culprit was Zeke Osmond.

Then who? Did Janis have another boyfriend? Somebody she’d been seeing that Sawyer knew nothing about? Did she maybe have an ex-boyfriend who might be ticked that Sawyer was moving in on what he still thought of as his territory?

The anger he’d felt toward Janis slowly ebbed away. He liked her and he wanted to pursue a relationship with her to see where it led. The note only made him more determined to not stay away from her.

He sat in his truck and thought about everything until it was closing time. Once the bar went dark, he pulled around to the back, got out of his truck and knocked on her door.

She answered immediately, surprise on her features. “Sawyer,” she said and opened the door wider to allow him inside.

“We need to talk,” he said.

Her gaze searched his face. “I was afraid you’d never want to talk to me again.” She motioned him toward the chair. When he was seated, she sank down on the edge of the bed.

“I was definitely angry with you,” he admitted.

“I know.” She seemed miserable with her shoulders slumped slightly forward and her expressive eyes radiating despair.

“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn’t fool me out of any meanness.”

“Oh, Sawyer, being mean to you wasn’t ever a thought in my head.”

“Then I think it best if we put all that behind us and we start over.”

“Really?” Her eyes instantly lightened and relief was evident on her pretty face. “I’d like that a lot.”

“And now there’s something else I want to talk to you about. Are you seeing somebody else?”

Once again she looked at him in surprise. “Heavens, no.”

“Is there an ex-boyfriend lurking around who has been trying to get back together with you?”

“The last boyfriend I had was over two years ago. He didn’t even live in Bitterroot and I heard through the grapevine that he got married two months ago. Why are you asking me these questions?”