Tina Leonard - The Cowboy from Christmas Past

Shrugging again, he pulled his hat low over his face. She took that as a masculine sign of agreement and left to turn off the car lights before her battery died. A dead car was the last thing she needed, because she had a prickly sensation that it was time to hit the road.

The only question left was whether she took companions with her or left them to their own confused journey.

She wasn’t sure she could do that to little Rose.

Dillinger watched the woman walk out the door to go fix her automobile—or so she said. He wasn’t sure what the petite fireball was up to—maybe she thought she could make him think he was insane with that weird conversation about him flying around—but a woman like that begged for caution. Her quick, soft conversation with the man who’d come to the door worried him, and he hadn’t missed the gleam in her eyes when she glanced at Rose. If there was ever a lady looking for a baby, Auburn was it. It showed in her concern, and her careful handling and her distrust of him. He wouldn’t trust him, either, baby or not—but he could feel her longing for the infant like a man longed for peace and quiet. And she was on the run, another reason he didn’t trust her. Everybody had something to hide—he did, too—but a woman who was used to running might just decide to run with his precious bundle.

He’d looked into the eyes of thieves many a time. They carried a hungry, focused, almost desperate aura, all the while trying to fool you with their calm. He was in a strange place, with things he didn’t recognize all around him. All he knew was that he had to protect the one thing he had with him, which seemed to have brought him here, if he ever hoped to get back home again, home to his ranch and to the memories of Polly. Carefully, he wrapped up Rose’s things in a sack he found in Auburn’s kitchen, snuggled the baby in his arms and slipped out the door.

“Hey!”

He heard Auburn’s sweet-toned voice, tinged with some anxiety. She was at the elevator, not gone long enough to get to her car.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Leaving,” he said, deciding one of them had to be honest. “We’re in your way.”

“Not more than anything else,” Auburn said. “Please don’t go.”

That shocked him. He’d expected a protest from her, but not a gentle request. “We need to.”

“You don’t even know where you’re going, do you?”

He didn’t. Why admit it? “Rose and I will do fine.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, and he hardened his heart.

“You don’t really need to. We only just met you. You’re not our problem. I mean, we’re not your problem.”

She cocked her head. “You’re not a problem, really. Something’s wrong.”

The confusion in her pretty eyes was very alluring. When she wasn’t dolled up, and when she showed her soft side like this, she was quite fetching. She might not have Polly’s innocent beauty, but was enticing nonetheless. Dillinger didn’t let himself recognize the sudden stab of unwelcome attraction he felt for the woman.

“It’s better this way.” He wanted to walk past her to the elevator, to get away before Rose awakened and needed another bottle, but part of him seemed stuck to the floor.

“Hey,” Auburn said, her voice soft, “I really need you.”

His brows raised of their own accord. “Why?”

She seemed to choose her words carefully. “Protection.”

She’d already had one man visit her abode, the so-called security guard. She’d run with Dillinger from a boss named Harry. The kind of protection she needed didn’t seem to require further description. “I—No. I’m not for hire.”

She stepped closer. He could smell her fresh-washed scent, look into her pleading eyes. Automatically, he shut off the part of him that wanted to ask what protection she could possibly need.

“I need help,” she said, “and a hired gun is just what I need.”

He narrowed his gaze. “You didn’t believe me earlier when I told you who I was.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what to believe about you.”

“The sentiment is mutual.”

“I think for Rose’s sake we should travel together.”

He shook his head. “Lady, I know you want my baby, but you’ll never get her from me.”

“I don’t want to steal Rose.”

“You want something. I can feel it.”

She slowly nodded. “Yes. I do. I want you to travel with me to the next place, and be my cover.”

“I don’t even know how I got here. I don’t want to travel again, whatever that means.” Maybe she’d done it. Maybe it was her—the woman—who had pulled him forward through time, and not the baby. He desperately hoped it wasn’t Auburn who had somehow worked a magic spell to draw him to her. He could be stuck with her!

“We’ll just head west,” she said soothingly.

He’d heard that one before. Everyone always wanted to go west, for gold, for open land, for a new start.

“What are you running from?”

“An ex-fiancé. A wealthy ex-fiancé, whom I discovered has a shady past. I’m a little afraid that he’ll find me.” She took a breath. “And I’m not ready for that.”

He held Rose’s carrier tightly in one hand, her sack of belongings in the other. Had Auburn brought him here because she wanted protection from a man? Needed a husband? All he knew was that he didn’t trust this woman and her big eyes at all. “Because?”

“He’ll be embarrassed that I stood him up. And it’s worse because my family owes their livelihood to him. I’ve always enjoyed a privileged lifestyle, but I thought my parents earned their wealth on their own. The week before the wedding, I learned that they had done deals over time with my fiancé. I began to feel uncomfortably like the fatted calf. Which sounds horrible because my family loves me. But I wanted to make it on my own in the world, not belong to someone. Does that sound crazy?”

He didn’t know. Women made agreements to marry for a dozen reasons, most of them complicated, some ridiculous, but they seemed to make sense to the female mind. It was a complex issue. Polly had married him, she always said, because she couldn’t love a man who couldn’t manage her high spirits and her energy. But he hadn’t managed Polly; she’d managed him. He’d enjoyed the light of her spirit, letting it flow over him. She could have married a lot better than a gunslinger, even though he’d changed everything about himself to win Polly. Her family had never forgiven him his past, though they loved her dearly. Shame had been written all over their faces anytime they saw him. They couldn’t believe he had won their daughter’s heart.

He couldn’t believe he had, either.

But right now, this woman was standing in his way. She claimed to need him, and truthfully, he could use her, too, but only if she wasn’t planning to make off with his baby. She struck him as the type who didn’t make easy attachments, though he wasn’t sure why he felt that way. It was just a feeling he had, and he always went with his hunches. “Listen, I like traveling alone.”

She perked up. “So do I! It’s really more economical, isn’t it? You don’t have to share anything, you can go where you want to….” Her face fell. “On the other hand, it can be lonely.”

“I’m never lonely,” he fibbed. He’d been lonely on the ranch after Polly died, desperately so.

“Well, you’re brave.” She shrugged. “You and Rose can take the backseat, if you must feel alone. I’ll be in the front, and we can ignore each other.”

He didn’t think he could totally ignore her, any more than he could ignore a wasp stinging his buttocks. “How far west are you going?”