Above Rubies (Rockland Ranch) (43 page)

He was completely amazed when she looked up at him in wonder and asked in a soft, sweetly Dutch voice, "You'd do that for me?  Really?"

He didn't know what to say to that.  He'd never experienced anything in his life that would help him figure out what to do in this situation.  Finally, he just said, "Uh, yes.  I would.  But honestly, it's not being totally unselfish.  Without you and your grandparents, we can't leave either until we find someone else to take your place.  The army won't let trains of less than twenty wagons start out." 

He paused for a minute and then decided that being absolutely forthright was in both of their best interests.  "I give you my word to be a gentleman.  I wouldn't expect anything other than your help in getting underway.  You needn't worry."

She laughed a sweet laugh at him in the dark and said with her intriguing accent.  "Worry?  You have just taken a huge load of worry off of me!  I don't doubt that I can trust you.  I knew that the moment I saw you on the hotel boardwalk.  And I fully intend to help all the way across this great journey.  I will be glad to.  I am more grateful to you than I can say right now.  I would love to marry you to get started in the morning.  I would be thrilled!" 

For a second, he thought she was going to come right up and hug him.  Just when he felt relieved that she didn't, she actually did.  Just as quickly, she pulled back and looked up at him with a sober face.  "Tell me what you need me to do."

Still a bit shaken, he simply said, "Be ready to go into town a little before sun up.  We'll meet with the sheriff, get married and be back and ready to leave at first light."

All she did was look up at him with those wide eyes and say, “Okay."  With that, she turned around and climbed back into her wagon without a backward glance at him.  He walked away in the moonlight in a stupor.  He got clear back to his own wagon before he remembered that he'd ridden his horse to hers and he had to go back and get it.  Gathering his reins, he was turning to go when she poked her head out again. 

Feeling slightly sheepish, he said, "Sorry.  Forgot my horse."

The Outer Edge of Heaven
(excerpt
)

Luken Langston pulled his pickup truck into the parking spot in front of the bunkhouse and shut off the engine in the lavender gray light of dusk.  Opening the door and stepping out, he stretched his tired back and reached back in for his leather work gloves and the rope that lay coiled on the seat.   He slapped the rope against his dusty pant legs and boots and breathed deeply of the evening smell of river bottom and beef cows.  To some that may have been a questionable smell, but to him it was home in its purest essence and he loved it.

His stomach growled and he wondered if there was any real food in the bunkhouse fridge or if he'd have to either settle for junk, or head back up to the main house before crashing tonight.  He'd been up since four thirty that morning and was too tired to go for food, even though he'd skipped dinner.  Maybe there was some fruit left, or some milk.  Fo lived on milk, so there should be some.  Or maybe that was backward.  His boots sounded loud on the wooden porch boards as he took the two steps.

He tossed the rope onto one of the hooks inside the door of the bunkhouse, threw the gloves onto the shelf above it and reached to unbuckle his chaps.  Hanging them beside the rope on the hooks, he pulled his shirt off over his head in one single motion.  He dumped it into the laundry hamper next to his bunk as he kicked out of his boots and spurs, grabbed clean clothes from a drawer and headed for the shower. 

Thirty seconds later, he decided a hot shower was the greatest invention known to man and resolved to sleep right there under the pounding, steamy spray.  This had to be the purest form of heaven.

The need to sleep there cooled with the last of the hot water and he got out, dried off, and wrapped the towel around his hips as he stood at the sink to shave.  The aftershave he slapped on helped to wake him up enough that he decided he would go in search of real food, even if he had to go up to the house.  It had been a grueling evening. 

He usually let the hands have Sundays off except for the barest minimum of feeding chores, but this afternoon he'd had a whole herd of heifers go through a break in the fence and get into a grain field.  It had been a pain rounding them all back up, moving them alone, and then repairing the fe
nce.  The field would never be the same, at least not this year.

Slipping on a clean pair of jeans, he walked out of the bathroom, shirtles
s and bare footed.  He was halfway to the fridge when there came a light knock and then the bunkhouse door opened.  A beautiful stranger with blonde curls and long legs stepped inside and called out for Fo.  She didn't see Luke there in the half-light and came in several more steps, calling as she came, then abruptly pulled up when she finally saw him.  Both of them were speechless for a second and then she stammered, "Oh, I'm so sorry.  I didn't know there was anyone else in here.  Please forgive me." 

The Most Important Catch
(Excerpt)

North Carolina

As their meeting with the coaches ended, Robby Robideaux stood up and moved toward his friend Jason to touch base about what time they were going to be leaving for the airport in the morning.  He absent-mindedly accepted a courier envelope a waiter held out to him, slipped a finger under the seal, and opened it as he turned back to his conversation.  “Seven forty-five?  That should be long enough to make it through security, if we only have carry-ons.  I’ll pick you up.”  He glanced down at the papers he’d pulled from the envelope, swallowed a gasp, and hurriedly shoved them back inside. 
Holy Toledo!

He looked up, hoping no one else had seen the suggestive photos of a woman with far too few clothes on that he’d pulled from the seemingly innocuous express envelope.  Geez, these things usually came in heavily perfumed pink letters or in elegantly wrapped packages and he knew not to open them, but this one had taken him by surprise.  He’d expected business correspondence this time.

Jason looked at him sympathetically, and Robby rolled his eyes and shook his head as he bent to retrieve the piece of paper he’d dropped in his hurry to hide the pictures.  What were these women thinking?  Didn’t they listen to the news at all?  Just this week there were two reports of women who had been assaulted by professional athletes.  Not that he was that kind of a guy, but these women didn’t know that.  They didn’t know him from Jack the Ripper!  Were there no nice girls left in the whole wide world? 

He checked to make sure the plain paper he was seeing didn’t feel like a photo before he turned it over.  It was a note and he would have just shoved it back in as well, except that it only said five words that literally jumped off the page at him.  “Meet me on the balcony.”

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he resisted the urge to even turn his head to glance at the balcony overlooking the main dining room where he was standing.  Even the fact that he was a 240 pound All-Pro football player didn’t stop his dread at the thought of another stalker.  He hated this!  How had she even known he was going to be meeting here?  And, what courier service had delivered this to him?

Stepping to his left where he was far enough underneath the
balcony to keep anyone above from seeing him, he set the note carefully on a table beside him, knowing it would be dusted for fingerprints, and pulled out his phone.  This meeting had been only head coaches, their staff, and a handful of the most senior players.  He glanced at his phone as he went to call security.  He never let anyone near his phone, but he still wondered if someone had managed to plant something in it again to track him and listen in on calls.  It seemed absolutely paranoid, but it had happened to him twice before.

His suspicions were confirmed when he’d no sooner asked for security than there was a disturban
ce on the balcony above him, then glass shattering and the sound of a women’s heels rushing out the back.  He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh, hoping this was just a one-time fluke.  The last thing he needed right now was another psycho female.

Illinois

As the heavy metal doors shut with a clang behind her, Kelly Campbell squinted in the brightness of the late afternoon sun.  She turned to glance at the austere tan building she had just left.  It was only a psychiatric hospital, and she was a nurse, not a patient, but sometimes that building felt more like a prison.  She took a deep breath and tried to rid her nose of the nasty institutional smell of commercial disinfectant, but even the thickness of the air here in Chicago wasn’t enough to kill that odor.

She rolled her shoulders and headed for her car, wondering if this was really all there was.  She’d spent years getting her RN and finding what she thought would be a fulfilling career, but just two months of this job was beginning to make her question if she’d made a mistake. 

At first it hadn’t been too bad.  She knew helping these mentally ill patients was a worthy work, and when one of the seemingly sharp, young doctors had started asking her out, it had been a rush.  But it was a short lived one.  Dr. Peter Holmes was handsome, and for a short while she’d thought he was completely charming, but now she was beginning to wonder.  There was something strange going on here at this facility, and it involved him.  She just hadn’t figured out what it was yet. 

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