Cowboy from the Future (11 page)

“Vol
tyn
.” 
He snapped back, stilling not looking her way.  The guy was so touchy.

“Who
cares how you pronounce it?  It’s
bullshit
that the rest of this town
ostracizes you.”  It pissed her off that anyone would treat Cade badly.  “You
can’t let them get away with that.”

“It’s
easy to live in some fantasy world of justice, when you’ve never been judged
unworthy, Adeline.  The rest of us exist here in reality, where things aren’t
so fucking fair.”

“So,
I don’t know what it’s like to be bullied?  I was the only girl not invited to
prom, you prick.  My whole life,
nobody
ever wanted me around.”

He
squinted at her, like he thought that was nonsense.  “Don’t be ridiculous. 
Anyone
would want you around.  You are…”  He stopped short and shook his head.

“I
am what?”  She prompted, because that sentence just might have an interesting
ending.

Cade
studied her for a long moment.  “Odd.”  He finished sourly.

So
much for
that
.

“Do
the ‘without you’
one, Addy.”  Deke interjected still staring out the
window.

With
or Without You
was his favorite of all the songs she
attempted.  If it were up to him, Addy would perform it on a loop.  U2 weren’t
exactly the composers that Mrs. Baines stressed during piano lessons, so Addy
was winging most of it.  Luckily, she knew all the words and that seemed to make
up for the mangled notes in Deke’s mind.  Addy didn’t completely understand the
lyrics, but they seemed to speak to him.

“She’s
played enough.”  Cade muttered, his flash of temper fading.  “It’s getting
late.”  He switched to his own language and apparently ordered everyone out.

Jacobi
sighed loudly, as his poker-Go Fish buddies tossed down their cards.  “Thanks,
brother.”  He muttered.  “I had a winning hand, too.”

“You
always
think you have a winning hand, Jake.”  Addy couldn’t stop herself
from interfering, since it was clear his brothers were useless.  “It’s why
you’re always broke.  You can’t play cards all night, every night.  It isn’t
good for you.”

Jacobi
frowned at Cade, like he wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

Addy
frowned at Cade, too, ready to argue her point.  “I want him to stop gambling.” 
She insisted.  “It’s going to ruin his life.”

Cade
watched her with a strange expression and then looked over at Jake.  “I think
Adeline’s concerned about you, Jake.”  He said quietly.  “You want to worry the
lady or do you want to quit this shit?”

Jacobi
blinked.  “Really?”  He blurted out.  “You want me to stop playing cards?”

“Yes.” 
Cade and Addy chorused.

Deke
grunted in agreement.

Jake
let out a long sigh and tossed down his cards.  “Fuck.”  He muttered and gave
in.  “
Now
what am I supposed to do at night?  The only pretty girl in
the polis is already spoken for.”

That
sleazy Manston guy glowered between them and spat out something that Addy
didn’t fully understand.  Jacobi was helping her with their language, but Manston’s
dialect was thick, mangling even the words she was beginning to recognize. 
Something about Cade closing too early these days, because he couldn’t wait to
be alone with his… tree?  Or flower, maybe?

Cade’s
response was a curt shrug and something that sounded like, “Visit another bar,
if you’re not pants.”  Judging from the context, Addy was probably mixing up
the words for “pants” and “happy,” again.  They sounded pretty much identical.

Whatever
Cade said, Manston didn’t appreciate that suggestion.  The nearest bar was at
least ten miles away and the guy liked to drink.  Infuriated, he bit off some
angry curses and stalked out, taking his rancid smell with him.  He and Cade
had some pissing contest every night and every night Manston slunk off in a
huff.  He was pretty dumb, but not dumb enough to go up against the massive
descendant of genetically engineered, possibly alien, warriors.

The
rest of the customers left at a more peaceable rate, some of them even giving
Addy respectful nods goodbye.  She waved back at them.  It was smarter to keep
her distance, but good manners wouldn’t let her snub people.

Cade
muttered something under his breath and turned to grab a bowl of stew from the
counter behind him.  “Here.”  He set it on the bar a little harder than he
needed to.  “Stop inciting a riot and come eat something, Adeline.”  He was
always trying to feed her.  “You’re getting too skinny.  No one’s going to pay
to get you back if you’ve wasted away to bones.”

The
man was a jackass, but she did appreciate it when he said things like that.

Addy
headed over to sit across from Cade.  The seat of her barstool fell off, nearly
knocking her to the floor.  Rolling her eyes, she shoved it aside and picked a
slightly less broken one.  Damn it, how could every single chair in the place
be defective?  Cade seriously needed a new hobby, because furniture making was
just not his calling.

Balancing
on the new stool, Addy examined her dinner.  “Buffalo again?”

“Be
grateful you’re eating, at all.”  Cade wiped down the bar, while Jacobi started
cleaning off the tables.  “Providing you with three square meals a day wasn’t part
of our agreement, lady.”

“Hey,
I’ve been doing a lot of extra work around here.  I invented a wind chime today,
pal.”

“That
thing made of old spoons and broken glass?  What does it even do?  It just
hangs on the porch making noise.”

“It’s
doing
what it does.  It’s a wind chime.  It hangs on the porch and makes
noise.”

He
arched a brow.  “And you believe littering my tavern with something so
pointless is a fair trade for
food?
”

“Whine
all you want, my inventions are still way better than your carpentry.”

While
Addy was marooned in Shadow-of-the-Gods, she figured she might as well try to
bring a teeny bit of twenty-first century tech to the place.  Unfortunately, it
was much easier to live with gadgets than to actually
invent
them.  She
had no idea how to recreate most of the awesome stuff about modern
civilization.  Diet Pepsi, light bulbs, television sets, stretch denim, Hersey
Bars… all of it was a mystery.  So, she stuck to manufacturing
simpler
things.  Like wind chimes and socks.  Socks had the potential to be
huge
around here, if the marketing was in place.

“My
carpentry skills are just fine.”  Cade looked at his brothers.  “Tell her my
carpentry skills are fine.”

Deke
and Jake exchanged a sideways glance.

“Oh,
both of you shut-up.”  He glowered back over at Addy.  “At least what I build
is useful.”

“I’ve
seen you using the coat hangers I made.”  She gestured to where his jacket was
hanging on a new and improved rack.  “I doubled your storage space.”

“And
destroyed three rolls of wire.”

Yeah,
getting the hook right had been harder than she thought.  Addy made a face. 
“Who are you?  Joan Crawford?  I’m telling you, wire hangers are going to
revolutionize closets in this town.  After I’m gone, you can sell them and make
a fortune.”

Cade’s
scowl got even deeper, something about that idea pissing him off.

Addy
found his usual grumblings kind of entertaining, but she didn’t like it when he
was
really
annoyed, so she tried to compromise.  “Look, if you’re going
to be a grouch about it, add the food and repairs to Brian’s bill, okay?”

Cade
shot her a brooding look through his incredible lashes, still not mollified. 
“Brian will pay even
more
for you?  You must be very… close.”

“He’s
married, wiseass.  But, for your information, he has
plenty
of gold.  He
keeps it in big vault and he swims through it like Scrooge McDuck.”

“Mc
Duck
is the same person as Mc
Gruff
?”

“No,
silly.  One’s a duck and one’s a dog.”  Cade’s blank expression made her grin. 
Messing with the guy was only fair, considering all the unrequited lust she
experienced ogling him all day.  “Besides, I offered to help you out, with
cleaning and cooking and stuff.”  She continued.  “You told me to not to touch
anything else under penalty of death.”

“You
think I’d let you near my kitchen again, after your disastrous experiments with
‘coffee’?”

God,
flood one little room and you never heard the end of it.  “I’m trying to create
a magical elixir of life, okay?  There are bound to be some missteps in the
discovery process, but you’ll thank me when I finally figure it out.”  Addy
shook her head in irritation.  “I know how to cook.”

“Yesterday,
you asked me what
bread
was.”

“That
stuff was
not
bread.  Trust me.  I took classes at Le Cordon Bleu.” 
That was during her “chef phase.”  She’d quit when her clothes all got too
tight.  Another in the long list of Addy’s partially attained skills.  When was
she ever going to find something that clicked?

He
snorted.  “Perhaps you can cook Why o’ Ming foods, like snicker doodles and the
chocolate.  Here, I doubt you’d know how to make anything beyond porrvand.”

Jacobi
chuckled at that.

Addy
had no idea what porrvand even was, but she had a feeling “making it” was the
equivalent of boiling water.  “Fine, Cade.  Be a jerk.  You’re the one missing
out on my awards winning meringues.”  She ate a spoonful of the buffalo stew,
which wasn’t so bad all things considered.  And she was pretty sure buffalo was
low in fat, so points for sensible eating, too.  “What’s got you in such a
lousy mood, anyway?  Did a victim escape your alien dungeon?”

“Don’t
be an idiot.”  He glanced at her and amusement sparked in his eyes.  “No one
escapes my dungeon.”

She
grinned at that smartass remark.  Cade’s rare flashes of humor always caught
her off guard.  One of these days he was actually going to smile and it would
blow her mind.  “But you
do
finally admit you’re an alien, right?  You
might as well come clean, because I’ve suspected it all along.”

“If
I was an alien, you wouldn’t be wandering around, driving me crazy.  I’d have
you safely locked up somewhere.”  Cade slapped a small glass bottle on the bar
top, not meeting her gaze.  “Oh, by the way, here.”  He announced in a
suspiciously casual tone.  “This is for you.”

Addy
blinked in surprise.  “What is it?”

“Paint. 
For your nails.”  He gestured towards her ruined manicure.  “Your color is chipping
off, so I got you some more.”

Addy’s
eyes slowly traveled back up to his averted face.  “You bought me a gift?”  She
whispered.  Tears welled and she sniffed them back.  No one had bought her a real
present since her mother died.  “Why?”

“I
thought you would like it.”  He shrugged, flashing her another quick look
through his lashes.  “You have pretty hands.”

Her
mouth curved at his discomfort.  “Are you
sure
you aren’t flirting with
me?  That sounds kind of like cowboyish flirting.”

Cade
focused on his cleaning like it was brain surgery.  “Buying it was just a
random impulse.”  He grumbled.

“Do
they even sell fancy stuff like that around here?”  Jake taunted with a gleeful
smile.  He might still feel guilty, but that didn’t stop him from being a
little brother.  “Seems like that paint is something you’d have to special order. 
Can you
randomly
special order something?”

“Yeah
and how’d you even get into the store to buy it, Cade?”  Deke chimed in. 
“Aren’t Voltyn banned from everyplace, unless they’re spending
a lot
of
money?  How much did that shit cost you?”

Cade
snarled something menacing at his siblings.

…And
Addy realized that nothing would ever be quite the same for her.  Cade Westin
changed everything, just by being his grouchy, awkward, reluctantly sweet self. 
She smiled at him and knew there would never be another man in
any
timeline who compared to this one.

“You
didn’t have to go through so much trouble for me.”  She told him.  “Really. 
I’m…”

He
shot her a fuming look.  “Do you want the paint or not, lady?”

Addy
grabbed the jar before he could ungive it.  “I want it.”  She hugged it close
to her chest.  “Thank you, Cade.”

He
grunted, not wanting to talk about it anymore.

Too
bad for him, Addy did.  “Is this why you’re in a lousy mood?  Were you nervous
I wouldn’t like it?  Because I
love
it.”  She had no idea what nail
polish was made of in the future or what color he’d bought, but it didn’t
matter.  It was… perfect.  She slipped it into her pocket, rubbing her fingers
over the small bottle like a talisman.

“I’m
not fucking nervous.”  He snapped.  “And I’m
not
in a lousy mood.  This
is the same mood I’m always in.”

“No,
it’s even more lousy than usual.  If it’s not nerves, something else must have
happened.  Whatever it is, I
sure
you’re going to blame me for it, so
you might as well tell me.”