Just One Kiss (The Dream Catcher Series-Book Two)

Other books available by this author:

Love Rules

Beyond the Dream Catcher

Better Off Without Her

Always Remember

Strictly Business

Wandering Heart

Jodi’s Journey

*Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

*Hannah’s Man

*Courting Abby

*Along Came Love

Suspicions of the Heart

Pretend Mom

Runaway Bride

Nick’s Baby

Heart of the Wild

Sweeter Than Wine

The Far Side of Lonesome

Fast Forward Love

Halloween Witness

*Series

{Also available by this author are children’s books at Smashwords.com}

Dedication:

I'd like to dedicate this book to Laura Shinn who

continually is available for assistance and comes up

with the most beautiful covers. Without people like Laura,

our jobs as writers wouldn't get done. Thanks and God Bless.

To view more of Rita Hestand’s work,

visit:
http://www.ritaphestand.com

Prologue

Somewhere in northern Arkansas

1858

“Get out of the way kid, unless you want to be filled with lead,” Lee hollered as the boy jumped down from the tree tops, the branches creaking as it swung away from him.

The bullet whizzed through the air like a locomotive gone wild, acrid smoke blazed the nostrils as the bullet blew the rope in two. Lee holstered his gun and the rope broke. The thud of the body hitting the ground seemed to startle the little boy kneeling, with crocodile tears rolling down his cheeks. Not more than five or six, with clothes too big for him, and a flop hat that covered his face from view, as he laid his head against the stillness of the body on the ground.

Silence sliced the air.

“Who is he?” Lee knew his voice was gravelly but in the pouring rain it didn’t seem to matter.

The boy barely moved, then glanced slowly over his shoulder at him, his frown set deep into his face.

“He’s my Pa, but why ask? You ain’t interested. You’re just a stranger passin’ by, a white man,” the boy cried, wiping his eyes. He rose and cast Lee an inquisitive look.

Lee’s jaw clenched and he doused his anger at the boy’s somber words. He stared silently as the boy stood gawking at him awkwardly. “I’m sorry, kid.” Lee said lowly. “Where’s the rest of your folks?”

Lee dismounted and stood over the boy.

“They’s all dead, I reckon. So…you gonna kill me?” The boy seemed to square his feet on the ground, ready for the inevitable.

“What?” Lee wasn’t sure he heard the boy right. Was the ungrateful boy trying to be rude?

“You heard me, are you gonna kill me?” The little boy faced him now bravely.

“What gave you that fool notion? I told you to move out the way, didn’t I? If I was gonna kill ya, do you think I would have warned you?” Lee grunted, angry that the boy would assume the worst of him. Considering the circumstances quickly, Lee took a different tack. But the boy interrupted his thoughts.

“You’re white; white men don’t like black men.”

“Who the hell told you that?” Lee grumbled as he bent to check the body. The man had been dead for several hours it seemed; his body was stiff and cold.

“Don’t matter, it’s the truth,” the boy cried then looked back at his pa.

Lee shook his head slowly and a slight smile lit his lips. The boy was scared stiff; he was silently shaking, but didn’t seem to realize it. “Well, in the first place you ain’t a man, and in the second…where’d you get a fool notion like that?”

“From my Pa…” he gestured to the body on the ground. “And it ain’t a fool notion, it’s the truth. And besides, they shot my brothers and hung my pa. I reckon I am the man of my family now.”

Lee silently studied the area, the tracks, the broken tree branch, and the boy’s clothes all added up to being here too long. He noted the silence of the wind and the drumming of the rain with impatience. “I reckon you are at that.”

The boy looked startled for a moment.

“Your Pa was wrong though about one thing. In the first place, you’re a little too young to qualify bein’ a man, even though you been orphaned. And in the second, I don’t care what color you are…you’re just a kid to me.” Lee shrugged.

The boy stared but didn’t say anything for a long moment, then threw back his shoulders. “You ain’t that much older than me.”

“Maybe, but I’m a man. So tell me…who did this?” Lee asked, seeing the pain register in the boy’s hooded glance.

“I don’t know. Some men rode up to our house down yonder, in the middle of the night. They drug my Pa out, pulled him up the hill and hung him.”

“What about your Ma?” Lee frowned down into the somber face.

“They took her with them…”

“Anything you can remember about them, anything at all?” Lee asked.

The boy looked at him again and stared as if thinking about the question. “…spurs…one had fancy silver spurs, won’t be forgettin’ that one. They jingled when he got off his horse.”

Lee nodded. “How many in your family? Got any…brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles…”

“I think they’s all dead, I didn’t hang around to find out. When they shot my two brothers in the back for tryin’ to run away, I decided I wasn’t gonna go down there. I followed them up here though, thinkin’ I could cut my Pa loose when they were through and he’d be alright…but he wasn’t,” the boy cried, as though remembering it. Silent tears streamed down his plump cheeks. “My knife was too dull, it wouldn’t cut the rope. I tried…I really did.” The boy burst into fresh tears. “Pa always told me to keep it sharp.”

Lee nodded once more. “He was right, but don’t fret so, boy, when it’s your time there ain’t nothing you can do to change it. How come they didn’t kill you?” Lee asked, his voice almost hoarse now.

“‘Cause I was hid out, down by the creek, fishin’ when they came…they never saw me…”

Lee sized the situation up in his mind and nodded.

He looked at the body on the ground, then up at the tree where they had hung him. “How long you been here boy?” Lee asked when he stared down at the body.

“Since last night I guess…”

“We best be diggin’ a grave then…?” Lee’s voice trailed off, not waiting to see if there would be more tears.

The boy nodded, wiping at his eyes. Lee ignored the sorrow buried deep in his own heart for the boy. It wouldn’t do the boy any good to see how he felt about it, so he squashed his own emotions. At times like these, it was best to be firm. The best thing he could do was take care of the boy. He cleared his throat and glanced at the body once more.

He took the shovel from off the back of his horse and while it poured rain, he dug a grave, and put the dead man in it. The ground was soft as it had rained steady for a couple of days. Satisfied he’d done right by the boy’s pa, he piled rocks on top of the grave in a fashion and nodded.

“It ain’t the best grave I’ve ever dug, but it will do. Lord, we give him unto you…” Lee said looking up at the darkened sky.

“You believe in God?” the boy asked, his face screwed up in puzzlement.

“‘Course I do, I’m no heathen. Don’t you?”

The boy studied him long and hard. “Dunno, I prayed they wouldn’t kill him, but they did.”

Lee nodded. “It was his time, boy, nothin’ you could do about that.”

“You ain’t like what my Pa said white men were like…”

“I sure ain’t like the ones that did this…” Lee remarked under his breath.

The constant rain made a lonely sound, and Lee felt that familiar lonely feeling in his heart every time he looked at the sad little boy. He wished there was something he could say or do for the kid, but there simply was nothing to make him more comfortable.

The boy stood there staring at the grave for a long while as Lee put his shovel up and mounted once more. His saddle creaked and the boy looked up at him again.

“Well, I reckon you better come with me, then, boy.”

“Come with you?” the boy looked surprised, shocked even.

“Lest you want to starve and die out here by yourself.” Lee leaned forward in the saddle and held out his arm for the boy to climb up.

“You gonna kill me?” the boy looked at him with a mixture of shock and fright.

“Now why would I want to kill you?” Lee smiled sadly. “Just waste of a good bullet.”

“Don’t know…but ‘spect you will.” The kid dried his eyes and stood squaring himself off against Lee.

“Well, you ‘spected wrong. Now, come on, boy, let’s get out of this weather,” Lee directed. “We’ll make camp down in the valley and head out for a town in the morning. It’s rainin’ too hard to make much time in this weather.”

He held out his hand once more to the kid. The kid stared at it for a moment, then grabbed it and lifted himself behind him on the horse. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Folks called me Samuel, friends call me Sam. Sam Tanner,” he mumbled.

“Well, Sam Tanner, pleased to meet ya,” Lee said and was about to move away when he heard a noise coming from the bushes. He whirled his horse about. There in the bushes were two eyes staring out at him.

“Who’s in there? Come out now. Don’t have time for this,” Lee fussed gruffly.

The bushes made a swishing sound and out came a Negro girl. She couldn’t have been over fourteen or fifteen. She was barefoot, and her dress looked a size or two too big for her as it drooped in places where the rain had plastered it against her bronze skin. In fact, her whole body was silhouetted in the rain. His practiced male glance did a long slow slide up and down her, assessing.

The fragile pain mirrored in her gaze as their eyes met for the first time, sent a spear straight for Lee’s heart. Lee stared so long she blushed and moved out of the brush.

Lee couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Who are you?”

He didn’t mean to snap at her nor stare so long, but the shocking awareness awkwardly passing between them had him off guard.

It was that excuse for a dress she was wearing for one thing. Her dress plastered against her in the rain, making Lee gasp as he quickly noticed how she was just bursting into womanhood; her body mirrored a silent perfection. Her hips rounded just a tad, her young breasts peeked hard against the dress, but her expression held him spellbound for a moment; provocative, the toss of her head, the turn of her nose, and the peak of a smile on her beautiful full lips tempted Lee to react like a man.

Never had anyone so young turned his head.

“I’m Sam’s sister,” she explained hotly, hostility rising in her answer.

Lee grumbled under his breath. Just what he needed. Not only a little snot nosed kid, but a girl…now what was he supposed to do?

“Hattie,” Sam cried, seeing her clearly now as he peaked around Lee. Without thought he jumped down and rushed to her side, hugging her. The girl curled her arms around Sam tightly.