open her store here?
“Jasper Gulch ain’t exactly a bustling metropolis.”
That was true. Why open a store here and not in some other small, but not-quite-so-dead town? Jasper Gulch suited Sky perfectly. But he wasn’t trying to open a business.
Somebody dropped some quarters into the jukebox. Seconds later, a tune was being belt out about short skirts and men’s shirts. Sky’s mind wandered. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing sexier in the world than a woman wearing a man’s shirt and nothing else. He’d seen Meredith that way once. She hadn’t worn his shirt for long, because he hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her. She’d reciprocated, touch for touch, coming to him so willingly, so womanly, so wantonly, he couldn’t seem to forget it.
Something bothered the back of his mind. He was pretty sure he’d hurt her when it was all over, but he was nothing if not honest. So he’d told her the truth, and the truth was, he wasn’t a forever kind of man. He’d been very clear about that. And yet she was back. Why? Sure, she wanted to be close to her niece and nephew. But she could have opened a business in Pierre, and commuted to work. Why was she really here?
He thought about the way her eyes had rested on him during that meeting. Twice. Both times she’d looked away before he’d figured out what it had meant. She hadn’t looked at anybody else that way. He knew, because he hadn’t taken his eyes off her.
Whoa.
What if she’d read more into those few hours they’d spent together than had actually been there? She was a woman, after all, and women tended to romanticize everything. What if she’d moved here because she’d convinced herself that passion was love, no matter what he’d said? What if she was saving her wiles to use on him? What if…
Sky dropped a few bills on the bar and rose blithely to his feet. He’d reached his truck when he noticed the lights on in the store across the street. Looking both ways, he strode on over, one last question, the most important question of all, running through his mind: What if he paid her a little visit and found out?
Pounding.
Meredith’s eyelashes flickered, her eyes moving back and forth beneath her closed lids. The sound came again, a distant pounding, like a fist on wood. She must have been dreaming. Yes, that was it. She was dreaming, floating in a weightless, beautiful place filled with rainbows and the purl of wind chimes and a breeze more gentle and soft on her face than anything she’d ever felt. There were no doors in this place, so the pounding must have been coming from outside her dream.
Glass rattled. Meredith jerked in her sleep. She groaned softly and whispered, “So tired.”
The rainbows dimmed slightly, but the wind chimes purled on and on. She floated close enough to the surface of her dream to realize that the other, disruptive sound had gone away. She sighed, snuggling deeper into the sofa cushions.
And then, suddenly, her eyes popped open. It took several blinks to bring the store into focus. She sat up groggily. She’d been unloading merchandise from boxes when exhaustion had overtaken her. She remembered leaning her head against the back of the sofa and closing her eyes for a moment. She glanced at her watch. Mercy, that had been an hour ago. She’d been sleeping so deeply she’d been dreaming.
Something must have awakened her.
She took a few steps toward the front of the store, peering at the door and then out the window. Other than a handful of trucks parked in front of the Crazy Horse Saloon across the street, all was quiet out on Main Street. Hugging her arms close to her body, she turned in a half-circle, thinking that she might as well call it a night and go upstairs to her apartment. She switched off one lamp. Picking up the cordless phone she’d left on a low table, she headed for the first open window.
A sound at the back of the store stopped her in her tracks.
At first she thought it might have been the mother cat, scratching at the door to go out. She glanced at the old drawer Logan had padded for the stray and her seven kittens. The babies were sleeping; the mother stood, back arched, poised for action, as if something had awakened her, too.
The doorknob rattled. Somebody was trying to get in.
The blood drained out of Meredith’s face, down her neck, seeming to pool in the pit of her stomach. Pressing her lips shut so no sound would escape, she forced herself to settle down. She’d been robbed when she’d first moved to Minneapolis. The thief had gotten everything, leaving her penniless, destitute. She was almost thirty now. She was older, wiser, and lately, too tired to start over again. Everything she had was invested in this store, all her life savings, her toil and sweat and dreams for the future were tied up in the meager furnishings on this floor.
The doorknob jiggled again. Next, she heard a scrape, as if someone was jimmying the lock. Panic rose in her throat. There was no time to run upstairs. She wished she had something to use as a weapon. She looked at the cordless phone in her hand. Wide awake now, she punched in 9-1-1, creeping stealthily toward the shadows in the back of the room where she could hide.
The door burst open before she reached her destination. It was too dark to see who the intruder was, but she could make out the shape of a man. The cat sprang straight up, streaking between the intruder’s legs. While the man was off balance, Meredith shoved an antique umbrella stand in his path. He tripped. “What the hell?”
She recognized that voice. As he fell toward her, out of the shadows and into the light, she recognized the face that went with it.
Sky’s arms flailed, but he managed to keep from falling flat on his face. “Why did you do that?”
She backed up, straightening so fast she saw stars. “I’m trying to—” her voice seemed to be coming from far away “—defend my store.” Sky’s face blurred before her eyes, and all the world with it.
She swayed. Sky swore. He scaled a low table, catching her before she could hit the floor. “Easy,” he whispered, but her eyes were closed, and she didn’t hear.
He wrapped his arms around her, trying to hold her upright. It wasn’t easy. He was the best roper in a hundred mile radius. He could rope a calf, hop off his horse, tie it up and hoist it onto his shoulder with ease. Meredith was slight, but right now, she was as limp as a rag doll, and a helluva lot harder to hold on to than a squirming, bawling, roped calf.
He swung her into his arms, staggering slightly. Keeping his feet squarely beneath them, he supported her head with his shoulder, then tried to decide what to do next.
Meredith’s eyes fluttered. What happ…? Where am…? For the second time in a matter of minutes, she opened her eyes and tried to focus. This time, she found herself staring at the harsh lines of Sky’s jaw. “What are you doing?”
“You’re ill.”
It sounded to Meredith like an accusation. She glanced down, appalled to discover that she was in his arms. “Put me down.”
“You fainted.” Again, his voice sounded harsh.
“You scared me.”
“Do you always faint when you’re frightened?”
She never had before. She wiggled to get down, but his arms only tightened.
“I’ve been working hard, maybe too hard. I think I picked
