Marie Ferrarella - Christmas Cowboy Duet

Whitney looked grudgingly at the diner. Maybe she would be lucky and not get ptomaine poisoning.

“Seems to me that this town would do a whole lot better if it just picked itself up and moved fifty miles away,” she said cynically.

“We like Forever just where it is and the way it is,” Liam informed her.

Yeah, backward and hopelessly behind the times, she thought to herself. Out loud, Whitney offered up another, less hostile description. “Old-fashioned and impossibly quaint?”

“Honest and straightforward,” he contradicted.

“Well, I guess that really puts me in my place,” she quipped.

He laughed, shaking his head. “I really doubt if anything could ever put you in your place—unless you wanted to be there,” he qualified.

Getting out of his truck, he rounded the hood and came around to her side. Opening the door for Whitney, he put his hand out as if to help her get out.

She looked down at it for a moment as if debating whether or not she should take it. Deciding that it wouldn’t hurt anything to act graciously, she wrapped her fingers around his.

“I’m sorry,” she told him.

He looked surprised by this unusual turn of events. “For?”

In for a penny, in for a pound. Wasn’t that what her mother used to say before she ran off? Whitney decided that she might as well say it.

“For acting like an ungrateful brat.” She flushed as her own label hit home. “I guess I’m a little out of my element. I’m usually the one on the receiving end of gratitude, not on the giving side.”

He wasn’t exactly sure what she was trying to say, but he knew contrition when he saw it and he had never been the kind who enjoyed making people squirm. “Hey, you just went through a harrowing experience. You’re allowed to act out a little.”

His forgiving attitude made her feel even guiltier than she already did.

Their hands were still linked and he tugged on hers just a little. “C’mon,” he coaxed. “Everything will seem a lot better after you eat something. Angel will whip up something that’ll make you feel as if you’ve died and gone to heaven.”

“Angel?” she repeated a little uncertainly.

“Miss Joan’s head cook. Woman could make a mud pie taste appetizing,” he told her with enthusiasm.

“I think I’ll pass on the mud pie, but I could go for a cheeseburger and fries.”

“Great,” he responded, drawing her into the diner. “Get ready to have the best cheeseburger and fries you’ve ever had.”

She sincerely doubted that, but she decided to play along. After all, she owed him.

Chapter Four

“So this is the little lady you saved from a watery grave, eh?”

The rather unusual greeting came from Miss Joan less than a heartbeat after Liam had walked into the diner with Whitney at his side.

As was her habit, Miss Joan, ever on top of things, seemed to appear out of nowhere and was right next to them.

Amber eyes took measure of the young stranger quickly, sweeping over her from top to toe in record time, even for Miss Joan. She noted that the young woman was struggling very hard to keep from trembling. Small wonder, Miss Joan assessed.

“You look pretty good for someone who’d just cheated death less than a few hours ago. Wet, but good,” she amended for the sake of precision.

Stunned, Whitney held on to the ends of the sheepskin jacket, unconsciously using it as a barrier between herself and the older woman. She slanted an uneasy look at Liam.

“Did you just call and tell her about the flash flood—and everything?” she added vaguely. How else could the woman have known that she almost drowned unless Liam had told her?

“Nobody has to call and tell Miss Joan anything,” Liam assured her. “She’s always just seemed to know things, usually right after they happen.”

“How?” Whitney asked. Did the woman claim to be clairvoyant?

The smile on the redheaded owner’s face was enigmatic and Whitney found it irritatingly unreadable. “I’ve got my ways,” was all Miss Joan said.

“She’s kidding, right?” Whitney asked in a hushed whisper.

Because she had turned her head away from Miss Joan and whispered her question to him, Liam felt Whitney’s warm breath feathering along the side of his neck. It caused various internal parts of him to go temporarily haywire before he was able to summon a greater degree of control. When he finally did, it allowed him to shut down the momentary aberration and function normally again.

But for just a second, it had been touch and go.

“You’ll know when Miss Joan is kidding,” he promised Whitney.

“Let me show you to a table,” Miss Joan offered. The words stopped short of being an order.

Miss Joan brought them over to a table on the side that was relatively out of the way of general foot traffic.

Once they were seated, the owner of the diner looked from Liam to his companion, as if to make a further assessment, and then asked, “So, what can I get for the hero and the rescuee?”

“I’m not a hero, Miss Joan.”

“No point in denying what everybody’s thinking, boy,” Miss Joan said. Then, looking at the young woman at the table, she confided, “He’s always been a little on the shy side, downplaying things he’s done.” Her thin lips stretched out in a smile. “But you’ll get to see that for yourself if you stay around here long enough.”

“I’m sure I would,” Whitney replied, thinking she might as well be polite and play along with what this woman was saying. “ If I were staying, but I’m not. I’m just killing a little time here before I get back on the road.”

Miss Joan smiled knowingly. “You go right ahead and do that, dear. You do that.” Her tone of voice made it clear that she knew more about the situation than either the young woman or Liam. Amber eyes shifted to Liam. “Want your usual?”

Liam grinned and nodded. He viewed the meal as comfort food. He was about due for some comfort, he thought. “Yes, please.”

“And you, honey?” Miss Joan asked, turning her gaze to Whitney.

“I’ll have a cheeseburger and fries,” she told the older woman.

“Coming right up,” Miss Joan promised as she withdrew from the table.

Whitney noted that the woman hadn’t written down either order. Lowering her voice, Whitney leaned in closer to the man who had brought her here in the first place.

“Is she always like that?” she asked once Miss Joan had withdrawn.

“Like what?” Liam asked, curious. As far as he was concerned, it was business as usual for the owner of the diner.

“Invasive,” Whitney finally said after spending a moment hunting for the right word to describe what she’d felt.

Liam turned the word over in his head, then shrugged. “I suppose so. That’s just Miss Joan being Miss Joan,” he said, then assured her, “I’ll tell you one thing. There’s nobody better to have on your side when you’ve got a problem or need a friend than Miss Joan.”

Whitney glanced over her shoulder toward the older woman. The latter was behind the counter, engaging one of her customers in conversation as she refilled his coffee cup.

Aside from the fact that the woman seemed nosy, Whitney saw nothing overly remarkable about Miss Joan. The woman certainly didn’t strike her as someone people would turn to in an emergency.

“Her? Really?” she asked Liam.

“Her. Really,” he confirmed with a hint of an amused grin.

Whitney shook her head. “I’m afraid I just can’t see it.”

“Well, you’re still an outsider so that’s understandable. You’ll have to experience it for yourself.”

Whitney laughed shortly, waving the idea away.

“I’ll pass on that, thanks. The second my car is back on solid ground, I’m out of here.” She glanced at her watch and frowned. She was really behind schedule. “I should already be on my way.”