Cowboy to the Core

“Frankly, at this point, I’m not sure I do, either.”

She gave him the name of the B and B she’d booked and the directions she’d gotten on the Internet. Then she said a quick goodbye and broke their connection before he could ask more questions.

Too bad, since dozens stalked his mind. He figured there was at least a ninety-nine percent chance his being hired as a protector was connected to the fainting spell she’d experienced that morning. Judging from the look in her eyes at the time, he’d have sworn she was wrestling demons.

But what or who had her spooked? A stalker? An exlover? Someone in costume that she might not recognize until it was too late? That could present a few problems.

Nothing he couldn’t handle. He wouldn’t take his eyes off her for a second. That part would be easy.

Remembering this was a job and not a date with a beautiful, sophisticated woman might take a bit more skill.

A ROAR ROSE from the crowd as Dani entered the amphitheater. The tiers of concrete benches surrounded a dirt performance area that four partially armored knights circled on magnificent steeds. Behind them a viewing stand filled with exquisitely dressed lords and ladies. Cheers and jeers rose from the crowd as each knight and his cheerleader lady tried to drum up support for their quest.

She glanced around, looking for the girls. The sea of faces became a blur.

“Over here, Ms. Baxter.” Katie’s high-pitched voice barely carried over the din. “We saved you a seat.”

The twelve-year-old with her wild mass of red hair only partially tamed by a baseball cap was sitting on the end of a bench just a few rows up from where Dani was standing. Alone.

Unexpected anxiety rolled in Dani’s stomach. “Where’s Celeste?”

“Buying cotton candy.” Katie pointed to their left where Celeste was counting out bills to a vendor whose colorful bags of sugary sweets floated above him like balloons, each secured to his long pole.

Safe, of course. This was a family festival meant to lift the spirits, not some Halloweenish house of ancient horrors. Dani was freaking out over nothing and everything. And now she’d hired a bodyguard who’d surely think she was a certifiable nutcase.

Dani slid to the seat beside Katie. “What did I miss?”

“The introduction of the knights. We’re rooting for the one representing France. He has the best horse and the prettiest lady leading the cheers for him. But the rider from Spain has our school colors, so we’re kinda for him, too.”

Celeste rejoined them and held out the cone of blue twirled sugar for them to share. “You got here just in time, Mom. I was afraid you were going to miss the jousting. You already missed a lot of the fun.”

“I’m here now. Let the games begin.” Dani forced a carefree cheerfulness into her voice and tore off a bite-size piece of the froth. Her irritation with herself swelled.

For once Celeste was truly enjoying their day together, and Dani was the one putting a damper on the excitement.

The crowd began to cheer as the four knights returned. Each wore an armored chest piece. Jointed armor covered parts of their arms and legs as well.

The horses were draped in the same vibrant hues as their riders’ flowing tunics. One was dressed in black and silver and had a sinister air about him. The jovial air of pageantry and the crowd’s fervent reactions were truly impressive.

The knights circled the arena on the horses, waving to the spectators and pumping up the enthusiasm. One, a young blonde with a disarming smile, tended to steal the show.

“That’s the contender from France,” Celeste said when he waved in their direction.

Dani was sure the show was scripted, the winners and losers predetermined on a rotational basis, but that took little from the performance’s exuberance. The excitement arced even higher as the announcer proclaimed that the tournament was to begin.

Each of the riders pulled on helmets that looked official but still somewhat like silver pots. They waved their long, striped poles in the air as if they couldn’t wait to attack. Two riders came at each other from opposite corners, ferociously striking out with their poles as they met at midfield. As soon as they’d reached their corners, the other two followed suit.

Celeste and Katie stayed fully engrossed for the duration of the engagement. Dani quickly drifted back into her own thoughts and was relieved when only one contender remained on his horse, the jouster clad in black and silver. He was declared the winner amidst more yells and some heckling and then was toasted by the approving lords and ladies in the viewing stand.

With so many open arches providing exits, the arena cleared quickly. Dani and the girls lingered for a few minutes so that they could get an up-close look at one of the knights who’d stayed around to talk to a group of admiring females.

By the time they left, there were only a few other stragglers ambling through the wide center arch. They took the path that led toward the giant swings. There seemed to be more people than ever milling around the area.

An auburn-haired woman in an exquisite period ball gown pushed past them, practically knocking Dani down in her haste. She paused as if to apologize but said nothing. Instead, she stared at Dani, a look of alarm on her face.

Their eyes met, and Dani had a crushing sensation of déjà vu. “Have we met before?”

“No,” the woman answered quickly. She hurried away before Dani could say more.

“Geez,” Katie said. “That woman looks almost like you, Ms. Baxter.”

“Except she’s not as pretty,” Celeste said. “She’s too skinny, and her hair’s the wrong color.”

“You weren’t even looking at her!” Katie exclaimed. “You were watching those guys at the climbing wall. And she did so look like your mother.”

“I have that generic look,” Dani said, dismissing the comparison. “People are always saying someone looks like me.”

That wasn’t exactly true, and Dani had noticed a remarkable similarity between her and the woman. But it was the feeling that she knew her or had at least met her before that had really captured Dani’s attention.

Could she possibly be the woman from the nightmare?

The hair was close enough. The eyes could be the same color. She wasn’t sure about anything else. There hadn’t been time to get a good look at her before the woman had hurried away.

And here she was falling back into the green dress trap. Coming to this wedding had definitely been a mistake. At this rate, she was going to have a nervous breakdown before they got back to Austin.

“Let’s go get our outfits for the party and wedding now,” Celeste said. “I can’t wait to pick mine out.”

Next the costumes, then the dinner party with the ruggedly handsome cowboy along for the ride. She may as well enjoy that part, though he’d no doubt think her totally mad when she explained why she’d hired him.

She was beginning to think the same thing herself.

ELLA SOMERVILLE’S headache approached migraine status as she hurried away from the woman who looked much too much like her for comfort. It was the second time today they’d crossed paths. The first time had been this morning when the woman had fainted in the festival dress shop that Ella managed. The woman hadn’t seen her, but Ella had been there.

Fortunately, that was over quickly enough when the man in the black hat came to her rescue. Running into her the second time was even more unsettling. It was an omen, the push she needed to leave the Renaissance circuit for good.

The danger lay in getting comfortable in a routine. Predictability created risk. Even if she had to just give the trailer to Kevin, it was time to go. Things weren’t working out between them anyway, especially now that his buddy Billy Germaine had joined the jousting team.

She’d come back to the travel trailer for painkillers for the pounding in her temples, but she might just stay here now and rest for a while. She needed to get rid of the headache since she was signed on to work tonight as a server for an after-hours shindig.

Even that didn’t seem such a good idea now, but she could use the extra cash.

She pulled her keys from her pocket, then came to a quick halt when she heard Kevin’s and Billy’s voices coming from inside the trailer. Kevin sounded angry. That didn’t surprise her. She’d warned him not to get in so deep with Billy.

The guy was trouble. He reeked of it. Not to mention that he’d hit on her a few days after joining the troupe, when he knew good and well she and Kev were a couple. Not that they were married or ever would be, but they were living together.

Billy was dating a lady who worked in one of the jewelry shops now. Connie Rincon. She loved jewelry, especially if it included dragons in its design. A nice lady, way too good for Billy.

Ella tugged the floppy, feathered hat from her head with her right hand and fit the key into the lock. The door opened a few inches before she turned it. Kevin never bothered to lock it.

Billy spit out a stream of curses. Ella hesitated, listening as the conversation grew more heated. The accusations made her stomach roll. This had to be some kind of sick joke.

But, no, Kevin was growing angrier by the second. The key slipped from her shaking fingers and clattered to the threshold. The talk stopped immediately.

“Is that you, Ella?”

“It’s me, Kev. I have a headache. I didn’t have any meds with me so I came back to the trailer to get some.”

“How long have you been standing there?” Billy demanded.

“I just walked up.” Her voice faltered on the lie. She tossed her hat to an empty chair so that she could look away and avoid eye contact.

“Did you get an ear full?”

“Leave her alone,” Kev said. “She already has a headache.”

Billy crushed his empty beer can. “Women who talk too much wind up in the morgue, Ella. That’s a fact of life. Did you ever hear that saying before?”

“Sounds like beer talking to me,” she said. “You guys go ahead and visit. I’m just going to pop some pills and go back to the shop.”

“Why not take off if you’re sick?” Kev asked. “You’re the boss.”

“That’s why I can’t,” she said, looking for any excuse to get away from him and Billy. “There’s a party on the grounds tonight and four weddings tomorrow. People will need outfits for those and that translates to a busy afternoon. And don’t forget that I’m doing table duty tonight for the caterer, so I won’t be home until after that.”

“Try not to be too late,” he said. There was no hint that he suspected she’d overheard the damning conversation.

Still, it was time to move on.

DANI FELT LIKE Queen Guinevere waiting for Sir Lancelot to ride up on a white horse and steal her away as she stared into the full-length mirror. Her dress was exquisite and just a tad daring.

The girls had picked it out, though it hadn’t been their first choice. That one had been green, not anything like the gown in her nightmarish illusions, but green nonetheless. She’d vetoed it immediately.

This one was sapphire-blue, in a fabric that shimmered and picked up the light like a million dancing jewels. Her inherited, cherished pearl amulet on its golden chain added the perfect finishing touch. Grams had always claimed it had mystical powers that could save the one wearing it from any number of evil deeds.

Dani had yet to put it to the test. She planned to keep it that way.

“Wow, Ms. Baxter, you look super,” Katie exclaimed as she slipped through the door that separated their adjoining rooms.

“Thank you, Katie. I feel super.”

“Good. Celeste and I were afraid you were coming down with the flu or something when you passed out this morning.”

The flu would have been a much more credible excuse than low blood sugar, especially when Celeste knew her eating habits so well. But who could think when they’d just snapped out of a mind-numbing trance to find themselves staring into the whiskey-colored eyes of a gorgeous cowboy? The same cowboy who would show up at their door any minute now.

Dani turned her focus to Katie and her multicolored skirt topped by an embroidery-trimmed pale pink peasant blouse. “You make an adorable lady-in-waiting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with your hair up.”

“Celeste did the upsweep for me. Do you like it?”

No. Having the wild mass of red curls tied at the top of her head made the almost-teen look much too old and far more sophisticated than she was. Nonetheless…

“You look enchanting,” she said truthfully.

“Hey, Mom, I need help with this zipper. It’s stuck.”

Celeste burst through the door, the hem of her skirt pulled to her waist. Her shiny brown hair fell in straight but silky strands halfway down her back. Her attire was the same as Katie’s except her blouson was deep purple and fell over flat breasts instead of Katie’s developing ones.

Still my little girl, but not for long, Dani thought as she took over the task of freeing the metal zipper teeth from the gauzy fabric.

“Coming here is the neatest thing we’ve done in like forever,” Celeste said as the zipper pulled free and the skirt fell to her ankles. “I can’t wait to see what the entertainment is like tonight. I bet those jugglers will be part of it.”

“Yeah, they were good. I want to get my picture with them so I can show the girls at school. I bet nobody in our class has ever been to a Renaissance wedding.”

“Right, not even snobby Samantha Cotter, and she’s been everywhere.”

“But her mother is not nearly as pretty as you are, Ms. Baxter. She’d never score a date with a hot cowboy she’d just met like you did.”

“I told you it’s not a date,” Dani stressed. “Marcus was going to the party anyway, and he just offered to escort us so that we wouldn’t have to drive back alone tonight on those dark, narrow roads.”

“No, he’s hot for you,” Celeste said. “I could tell. He knows you’re fun.”

Fun? Dani felt like she’d been anything but lately. That had to change. She needed this weekend to go well, for her sake and Celeste’s. She touched the amulet at her neck and thought of Marcus and his teasing smile.

The tenseness started to ease, and her customary confidence picked up steam. They were here to celebrate with Bethany Sue, and it was foolish to keep worrying about things she could do nothing about.

A knock at the door captured all their attention. Celeste swung it open, and there stood Marcus, dressed in hiphugging jeans, boots and his black Stetson—and looking even sexier than he had been this morning. Who’d have thought that was possible?

Their eyes met, and the temperature in the room seemed to jump a few dozen degrees. Not a date. This time she reminded herself of that fact. It did nothing to still the heated anticipation that was fast turning her insides to molten gold.

Chapter Four

Marcus struggled to keep his eyes focused straight ahead and his mind and body from drowning in unadulterated lust as he drove the meandering blacktop roads to the festival grounds. If it weren’t for the two youthful chaperones in the backseat, he might have sneaked an arm around Dani’s beautiful shoulders and let his thumb ride the stately column of her neck.

Talk about totally inappropriate behavior for a man being paid to protect.

He was beginning to wonder if some other far more trusting guy had crawled into his skin. Not that he wasn’t as susceptible as the next male when it came to getting turned on by a shapely body and a pretty face. He’d been attracted to Dani from the moment she’d sashayed by him and into the dress shop this morning. He just didn’t usually let his urges get as out of control as they were right now.

But Dani Baxter, with her sultry, Southern charm and striking Elizabethan gown, defied the odds. She had an almost mystical quality about her tonight. The effect was magnified a thousand times when she touched her long, manicured fingers to the delicate charm resting just above the swell of her breasts and their intoxicating cleavage.

He forced his concentration back to the road and tightened his grip on the steering wheel, determined to rein in his libido. If he wasn’t careful, he’d lose the instincts he’d developed as a cowboy and refined to the nth degree as a frogman.

The cowboy elements of his personality kept him sane. The SEAL qualities kept him on the fighting edge, aware of every nuance of change in his environment and the people around him.

In spite of Dani’s attempts at lightheartedness since he’d picked her up, he knew she was still dealing with the same demons he’d seen reflected in the deep cinnamon pools of her eyes this morning.

Unfortunately, merely knowing that was not enough information for him to do his job well. He planned to get a lot more facts out of her the second they were out of the girls’ earshot.

For one thing, he didn’t see Dani Baxter as the swoon-and-faint type. She seemed a lot more like a take-charge filly. Self-assured. Spunky. But something had definitely spooked her today.

By the time they reached the festival grounds, he was firmly back in his operational frogman mode, detached from emotion and ready for anything the night threw at him.

That lasted until they reached the gate, and she linked her arm with his, just as a muscle-bound king and voluptuous queen rushed toward them.

“The bride and I’m guessing the groom,” Dani murmured, and then let go of his arm to plunge into a bear hug with the queen.

They exchanged introductions all around. He liked Bethany Sue instantly. She had a naive, girlish quality about her that made her enthusiasm seem genuine.

The groom was still up for debate. His muscles knotted all the way up to his thick neck, but strength did not always equate with toughness. Marcus knew that well from his stint with the SEALs. Some of the bravest, hard-hitting frogmen he’d known were half Arnie’s size.

“I thought you said you weren’t bringing a date,” Bethany Sue said. “And then you show up with this hunky cowboy.”

“Change of plans at the last minute,” Dani replied, trying to brush off the interest. “And you said the more the merrier.”

“Absolutely. You look stunning, girlfriend. That gown is to die for.”

“I owe full credit to Celeste and Katie. They picked it out.”

“Ohmigod,” Bethany said, as if she’d just spied the girls. “You two look like confections in a candy shop. Love those shimmering skirts.”

“This is such a cool idea for a wedding,” Celeste said.

“Yeah,” Katie agreed. “Way better than just walking down a plain old church aisle.”

“The ceremony will be in a wedding chapel,” Bethany Sue said. “There are several of them right here on the grounds.”

“Wow. Perfect,” Katie said.

“This was all Arnie’s idea,” Bethany explained. “He has friends who travel the Renaissance circuit a few months out of every year. You’ll meet them later tonight. They operate a couple of concessions at the festival—one who sells antiquestyle jewelry and one who deals in knives and swords.”

Marcus listened to the rest of the conversation, hoping for verbal clues as to what had led to Dani’s hiring him for the evening. He probably came across as less than attentive, but he was absorbing a dozen things at once.

The chatter. The setup for tonight’s dinner and entertainment. The lighting. The location of security cameras. Pockets of darkness. Basically, he wanted a blueprint in his mind of any and everything that would affect his providing protection for Dani and the girls.

When Arnie and Bethany Sue moved on to a group of new arrivals, he maneuvered Dani and the girls toward a face-painting booth set up near the tables and chairs circling a portable dance floor.

“Did I hear someone in the backseat of the truck on the way over say they wanted body art to complete their costume?”

The girls jumped and squealed their agreement. Who knew teenage girls squealed so much?

Once they’d chosen their designs, Marcus tugged Dani aside. “I’d be able to do my job a lot better if I had some facts.”

The expression on her face changed to one of pure dread. He put a hand to her shoulder and then pulled it away too quickly. Just touching her had some kind of bewitching effect on him, and he needed his head clear for this.

Dani fingered the pendant. “What if I said I just called you because I wanted to see you again?”

“I’d be damned flattered and a sight more gullible than I am if I believed you.”

She nodded, a look of resolution finally settling in her haunted eyes. “Okay, and if you charge me double for wasting your time, I’ll fully understand.”

DANI HAD DELIBERATED all afternoon on exactly how much she should confess to Marcus. She’d told no one in her adult life that her grandmother was clairvoyant. The only person she still had any contact with who knew about her inherited curse was Bethany Sue, and she had been sworn to secrecy years ago.

Under no circumstances did she ever intend for her daughter to find out about her psychic gifts—which was why she couldn’t even consider telling Marcus the whole truth. If she breathed a word of her fears that this morning’s episode might possibly have been a psychic vision, it would let her paranormal skeletons out of the closet to rattle their bones around Celeste.

Plus, he’d dismiss her as a kook.

That left Dani only one realistic alternative. She pulled the note from her pocket, smoothed it with her fingertips and handed it to him.

“Someone at the festival gave me this. It’s probably nothing, but it frightened me when I read it. That’s when I decided to call you.”

He grimaced as he studied the note. “Did you see the person who delivered it?”

“Yes. It was a young teenage boy, but he was just the messenger. All he could tell me about the man who gave it to him was that he was wearing a blue polo shirt.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes, but when I was shopping earlier today, I noticed a man in a blue knit shirt staring at me. Well, I didn’t exactly see him, but I saw his reflection in the mirror. When I turned to see if I knew him, he ducked out of sight. It might not have even been the same man, but I found the possibility a bit disturbing. Hence my call to you.”

“Do you have any idea who the dark knight refers to?”

“Not even a clue. The only people I know here besides you and the girls are Bethany Sue and Arnie, and I only just met him.” For that matter she‘d just met Marcus, as well.

“There are no shortage of knight wannabes milling around us tonight,” Marcus noted.

“It was probably from someone just getting into the spirit of the festival,” she said.

“Or hitting on you, though sending a note like this is an odd way to score points.”

“I’m thinking it could have been a case of mistaken identity. There is someone else at the festival today who looks a lot like me. The two of us practically collided when I was leaving the jousting arena.”

“Is this the first threat or warning of this nature you’ve received?”

“Absolutely.”

“And the first time you’ve noticed that man was this morning?”

“Yes. And that was before I fainted, so that can’t be why he was staring at me—if he was actually staring at me.”

“I know you said you’re not seriously involved with anyone, but what about your nonserious love life?”

“That’s pretty much a draw between Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman and George Clooney. As yet, they haven’t participated. ”

“No stalkers?”

“Not since college.”

“What about someone you may have dumped who didn’t take it well?”

“I haven’t been in any serious relationships since my ex.”

“And he’s totally out of your life now?”

“Except for a few guest appearances as Celeste’s father, and he avoids those unless it suits him.”

“Then you don’t know of anyone who’d have reason to harm you?”

“No.” Which made her hiring him sound all the more ridiculous. “I probably overreacted,” she admitted. “I should never have called you.”