The Cowboy from Christmas Past

“That’s fine. I need to be moving on myself. However, just a warning, Dillinger,” she said. “The next woman you meet is going to ask the same questions I have. Eventually, you’ll be caught.”

He laughed. He couldn’t help himself. Rose finished her bottle, so he lifted her up to his chest. She gave a satisfying, unladylike belch, which also made him laugh. “Wouldn’t that be rich? Hanged because I’m guarding a child?”

“Hanged?” Auburn frowned. “Isn’t that a little dramatic?”

He didn’t know. “I’m tired,” he finally said. Tired of being tempted by long legs and immodest thoughts about a woman who wasn’t his wife. “Rose and I thank you for your hospitality, and your help. We won’t trouble you past the morning.”

“Fine, bud. Whatever you say.” She yawned and grasped the doorknob. “I’d turn you in to the police, but I don’t want to be found right now myself. You seem like you have that baby’s best interests at heart, and enough money to take care of her, so I’m not going to ask any more questions. All I ask is that you don’t come into my room again. Okay? If you need something, you can give a shout, but no more of the lock trick. It’s kind of stalkerish.”

It was his turn to frown. “You’re not my type,” he said. “You need have no fear of anything untoward from me.”

She looked at him. “Glad we understand each other.”

They didn’t, but it wasn’t important. “Good night,” he said, and busied himself changing Rose’s diaper. It was going to be a struggle, but he’d watched Auburn change one, and the plastic tapes didn’t seem as challenging as firing a gun at a moving target. Rose wiggled and he taped her leg, so he had to start over. He tried not to fumble under Auburn’s scrutiny—he could tell the whiskey-haired woman didn’t completely trust him with the baby.

And then he felt the strangest sensation run through him, like cold on a hot summer day, and a tingling that ran all over him in the worst kind of way—as if a ghost had just walked over his grave.

HE HATED DILLINGER KENT. He was going to kill the gunslinger the second he tracked his murdering carcass down. Pierre Hartskill stood in the ranch house where Dillinger lived, eyeing the place where his sister had been trapped in a loveless marriage. A few logs in the fireplace were charred, the embers below still gray and smoldering as if Dillinger had left in a hurry. Maybe he knew Pierre was on his way to kill him. Perhaps a black angel guarded Dillinger from reaping his just desserts, forewarning him of his impending death. Pierre wasn’t afraid of the reputed gunslinger. Fear was not an option, nor was mercy.

He was going to run him down as Dillinger had Polly, and then he was going to put a bullet through him. And no angel was going to save him.

On the writing desk lay a golden earring. Pierre recognized it. Polly had worn them often, loving the feel of the tiny bells as they danced against her skin. He picked the earring up with cold-chapped fingers, and gave it a shake to hear the bells tinkle again.

And from somewhere faraway, yet loud enough to seem as if it came from this very room, Pierre heard a man cry out.

AUBURN GASPED AS THE cowboy let out a yell of surprise and suddenly went airborne. Thank heaven he’d put the baby on her pallet! He tossed around violently in the air before landing on the couch. He lay still, gasping for breath, crumpled in his long duster, his boots hanging over the edge of the sofa.

“Are you all right?” Auburn wasn’t sure if she should touch him or stay far away. Dillinger was a funny color, his face ashen, as if he might be sick any second. She’d be sick if she’d gotten tossed around like that—she didn’t even like to ride the superdizzying rides at Six Flags.

“I’m fine,” he groaned.

“You’re not fine! What the heck did you just do?” He seemed too sick to harm her, so she approached him, peering down at his prone body.

“A lady doesn’t swear,” he said, groaning again.

“And a man doesn’t fly around a room. I suggest you explain that particular magic trick before I decide to call the law on you, buddy,” she said sternly. “And don’t you dare tell me not to swear!”

He tried to sit up, but failed. “No law. Please.”

Well, she wouldn’t call the law on him—not yet—but she didn’t want him doing that weird levitation again. “Hey, do you want a drink of water?”

“Just take care of the baby,” he said quietly. And then passed out.

“Of all the nerve!” Auburn stared at both of them, sleeping like, well, babies, and a little pity slid into her heart. The man was too big to sleep on the tiny rental furniture, and he was pretty tangled up in that duster. He couldn’t be comfortable. Carefully, she tugged his legs off the sofa so that he was on his back, hanging over one edge, sure, but at least he wasn’t in a ball any longer. “You’re weird,” she told him, but he didn’t move. So she dragged the blanket and comforter off her bed and settled down on the floor beside the sofa next to the baby. “You have a scary daddy,” she told Rose, but the funny thing was, Auburn wasn’t really afraid of Dillinger anymore.

She was afraid for him.

THIRTY MINUTES LATER THE sound of knocking startled Auburn awake. If she hadn’t been deeply asleep, she might have thought twice about opening the door, but she was operating on autopilot. She woke up in a hurry when the security guard peered at her.

“You left your car lights on,” he said. “Thought you might want to know.” His gaze widened as he caught sight of the cowboy on her sofa and the baby on the floor.

“Yes, thank you,” Auburn said, hastily trying to close the door. “I’ll take care of it right now.”

He was mentally cataloging the strange scene in her living room. This was trouble, since she didn’t want any details left behind for an ex-fiancé, who surely had people looking for her. “Thank you,” she said again, more curtly this time, and closed the door.

Locking it, she took a deep breath. Closed her eyes. Wondered why simply running out on a bad idea like a wedding had to be so worrying. She should never have said yes in the first place, should never have allowed her parents to make her feel that she had to find her Prince Charming.

“What are you afraid of?” Dillinger asked, and Auburn jumped.

“I’m not afraid of anything,” she said, grabbing her keys from her purse. “What makes you say such a silly thing?”

He sat up, shrugged. “Just seems that I’m not the only one with secrets.”

“No, but you are the only one who can make himself spin around in the air.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

She gazed at him. “Don’t you remember?”

“Remember what?”

She circled a finger in the air. “Your levitation trick.”

He gave her a strange look, as if he figured she was crazy. “I’ve been asleep on the sofa.”

He didn’t remember. Chills ran over Auburn’s skin. Yet she hadn’t imagined it. “I’m going to go turn off my car lights. Then you and I should probably talk.”

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.

Chapter Three

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?”

“I was thinking New Mexico,” she said, her tone breezy. “But you can choose, if you like.”

“I don’t really care,” he said with a growl, stopping himself from saying, but if you try to take my baby, I’ll find you. “One condition,” he said.

“What?”

He took a long, hard look at her, trying to see inside her soul. He had pretty good success with reading people; if you didn’t have that sixth sense, you could wind up dead. “No more mothering this baby.”

She drew herself up, clearly hurt. “Fine, cowboy. You can take care of that child all by your little old self.”

“Good.”

“Fine.” She swept past him on the stairwell. “Let me grab my things. I don’t have much, and I’m paid up through the month here.”

Now was his moment to take off, get away from her and her spell. But she piqued his curiosity in the worst way. What if she was somehow instrumental to his existence in this century? He had to find the key to getting himself sent back. “How do you pay by the month at a place like this?”

“By understanding the travel industry. Anyway, you let me handle the arrangements, cowboy. You mind the angel.”

Fine. He didn’t really want to know any more about her than he had to, anyway.

Only her traveling secret, and she’d just now given herself away. Auburn understood the travel industry, both in this dimension and some others.

He felt pretty smart at figuring her out so easily.

MEN COULD BE IDIOTS. Auburn tried not to swear under her breath as she tossed her Louis Vuitton luggage into the trunk of her car, annoyed that Dillinger had tried to leave her high and dry. Steal his baby? Hah! She wasn’t completely certain that was Dillinger’s child, but he’d turned bearlike, protective of his cub.

She wouldn’t touch his silly old baby, if he was going to be such an ass about it. “Get in the back,” she told him crossly, “and strap that carrier in correctly, please.”

She sounded bossy and she knew it, but he complied, fumbling a bit with the straps before correctly tightening the baby backward in the seat. Auburn smiled a little at Rose, stiffening when she caught Dillinger looking at her. “You’re getting better at that,” she said airily.

“Like you’re an expert at it, yourself.”

Turning on the car engine, she said, “I was trying to give you a compliment. Obviously, you’re the kind of man whose ego won’t let you accept one gracefully.”

“Probably.” The rearview mirror showed him gazing with interest at the buildings downtown as they passed, not paying a whole lot of attention to her as she drove from the city. Auburn picked the highway marked West and pressed the pedal as hard as the speed limit would allow.

THIS WAS LIKE A magic carpet ride, or a train that could go full-speed across the country. Dillinger was fascinated by the way Auburn flew past the cars and signs on the highway. It was amazing! There were things overhead she called airplanes—he didn’t let on that he had barely heard of flying machines—and so much to see that his head was whirling. She was the reason he was here, he was positive.

He had to convince her to send him and Rose back. They were not suited for living like this. First, he had to return Rose to her rightful mother, even if it meant helping them financially. He felt certain no mother would abandon a baby on his porch unless the woman was destitute.

The only thing he couldn’t understand was why the mother had chosen his porch. He was miles from town. He had a bad reputation. He didn’t darken the doorway of a church. And this was no frontier baby. Her clothes were store-bought. Her socks were knit of the finest lace and cotton, not rough country socks made for warmth and work, like his. Rose should be placed with a family of wealth, not stay with him, if he couldn’t manage to find her birth mother. He knew it was imperative that he get the baby home as fast as possible.

What if he could talk Auburn into taking him and Rose back home to the ranch, and going with them? She said she needed to hide away. She’d be safe at his ranch. No one would ever find her there.

But did he want the opinionated woman in his home, where Polly had brought him such warmth and contentment?

For Rose’s sake, he could do it.

He’d opened his mouth to broach the question, when suddenly he felt himself being jerked against the seat belt.

PIERRE TOSSED THE EARRING across the room. He’d fallen asleep in a chair in Dillinger’s den, and had awakened annoyed that the man hadn’t yet returned. The snow outside was piling up, making a mess of the dirt road. If he wasn’t careful, he’d get snowed in and trapped here for God only knew how long. Anger built inside him. He felt outsmarted by the gunslinger, and he hated it. Maybe the man had planned to be gone for weeks, months.

Pierre felt bad for throwing his sister’s earring. He picked up the delicate bauble again, giving it one last shake. His heart heavy, he vowed to return next week, when Dillinger might be home and the snow and ice not threatening to encase the house in a chilly tomb. Why the man chose to live out here when he could have lived in town was puzzling, but he’d had Polly all to himself this way. A beautiful flower like his sister hadn’t deserved to wilt out here in the uncivilized wilderness.

Pierre put the earring back on the writing desk, staring at it for a long time, tempted to take the trinket with him. Maybe the charcoal drawing of his sister would ease the ache in his heart more. But no, it didn’t truly capture the fire Polly had possessed.

He left everything just as it had been, so the gunslinger would never suspect someone had been waiting here, planning to kill him.

Chapter Four

Dillinger tried not to gasp as his body strained against the seat belt. It was as if he were being jerked by a strong, invisible hand trying to tear him from the car. Only the straps kept him restrained.

“Is something wrong?” Auburn asked, staring at him in the rearview mirror.

“No,” he said, grinding out the word.

She checked the road, then glanced back to his reflection. “Are you sure? You don’t look good.”

He unhooked the belt, relieved when the pressure subsided.

“You have to wear that,” Auburn said. “It’s against the law not to wear a seat belt.”

He grimaced at the pain in his stomach and across his chest. “Do you think that’s a strange thing to tell a gunslinger?” He checked the belt again. This time it was acting as it should. Maybe the thing had malfunctioned. Maybe there hadn’t been anything supernatural trying to drag him from this car.

“You know, about that gunslinger business, maybe we should figure out some other livelihood for you, when people ask what you do,” Auburn said, her voice bright.

“Why? Who’s going to care?”

She shook her head. “No one, most likely. But if anyone asks, why don’t you tell them you work for…I don’t know.” Her gaze lit on him in the mirror again. “You can say you’re an unemployed model.”

He laughed. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, just say you’re a ranch owner.”

“I am.”

“You are?”

She sounded so shocked that he frowned. “I told you. I own a ranch outside of Christmas River.”

“But I looked that up. There’s no such town.”

“Care to place a wager on that?”

“No.”

She could be quite the shrew. He tried to relax in the magic vehicle, which had a material top that she said pulled back to let in sunshine and fresh air and the feeling of freedom.

“You felt it, didn’t you?”

She’d caught him off guard. “Felt what?”

Auburn moved one finger in the air in a slow circle. “If you hadn’t been wearing that seat belt, you would have gone airborne again.”

Polly wouldn’t have hounded him so. This woman had no qualms about doing it. “The contraption simply malfunctioned.”

“You felt it, and now you know I was telling you the truth.”

He didn’t care. He was so sleepy all he could do was send a fast glance at Rose to make certain she was still happy and nestled in her carrier. Fear suddenly hit his gut. “Do me a favor,” he said, fighting to keep his eyelids open. “If something happens to me, take care of Rose.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” Auburn said, trying to sound soothing. “You just have a bad habit of levitating.”

“Promise,” he insisted.

“I’m not really cut out for taking care of a baby. I’ve got problems of my own.”

He couldn’t argue with her any longer. Unconsciousness pulled at him, forbidding him to stay awake, as much as he would have enjoyed telling her that he’d never seen a woman so cut out to be a mother.

Except maybe Polly.

And that worried him, too. He fell asleep, his soul tortured by thoughts of what might have been and what should have been.

WHAT WOULD IT HURT to swing by this place he called Christmas River? Maybe the answers to his problem were there. Auburn punched “Christmas” into her GPS system. They weren’t far from a town called Christy River—maybe he was confused from all the whirling around he engaged in. It was just a fast detour from where they planned to go, but they certainly had no schedule and nowhere definitive to be. Going to such a remote place might even help her put some distance between her and her fiancé. The cowboy wouldn’t awaken, not for a while, so she couldn’t ask him, but she had a feeling he’d be happy to get home.

She knew something was wrong with him, knew he knew it, too. He didn’t want to admit his fear, but for a man who claimed to routinely face down killers, what was bugging him now appeared to be bigger than anything he’d dealt with before.