Cowboy from the Future (5 page)

Addy
sometimes got
feelings
about the world, telling her when something
important was about to happen.  Right now, she was getting a very strong feeling
about Cade Westin.  “Will you help me?”  She asked simply.  “I want to go
home.”

“Yes.” 
He agreed a little
too
fast.  “You
must
go back to where you came
from.”

He
was right.  The sooner she got to Yellowstone, the sooner she’d return to the
twenty-first century.  The problem was finding the geyser in this weather. 
Addy lived in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona, so she was used to wintertime being a
light dusting of snow.  The blizzard outside just seemed so
daunting
…

“In
the morning.”  She negotiated.  “I’ll leave in the morning.”

“In
the morning.”  Cade nodded like it was all settled.  “Fine.  Good.  I’m not
responsible for you and your many confusing problems, so you should just… leave.” 
He hesitated, his eyes moving over her face.  “Uh… Where will you go?”

“I’m
going to walk along I-90 and US-14 straight into Wyoming.”  If I-90 and US-14
were still there, anyhow.  According to PBS, Roman roads had lasted for a
couple thousand years, but she had a lot less faith in modern construction.  Hopefully,
there would still be
some
trace of the interstates left.  “Do you know
where any --like-- street signs might be?”

“You
plan to
walk
out?”  Cade sounded incredulous.  “In those snowdrifts?”

Addy
hesitated.  See?  The frigid weather
did
seem troubling.  He clearly
thought so, too.  “Well, maybe I can find a horse.  Do you guys still have
horses or is it all just those creepy lizards?  I’m not riding a lizard.”

“You
want to
ride
a sanbor?!”

“No,
I
want
to ride a
thoroughbred.
 
I went through an ‘equestrian phase’ in high school and took lessons on a
beautiful Arabian named Madonna.  Who names a horse Madonna, right?”  Addy
rambled when she was nervous, something her father hated.  “But anyway, I had
made up my mind to be an Olympian and horseback riding seemed like the least
exercise-y ways to do it.  Well, that and archery.  I also took archery.”

Cade
stared at her, with an inscrutable expression.

She
made a face.  “Of course, if I knew then, what I know now, I’d have learned how
to mountain climb, instead.”  A new thought occurred to her.  “Hey, I’ll
probably need supplies, too.  What should I pack for --like-- five hundred
miles of roughing it?”

Cade
kept staring.  “How in the hell do you survive?”  He finally asked, as if he
couldn’t imagine why she wasn’t dead a hundred times over.  “What do you
do
all day?”

“I’m
a website consultant for a marketing firm.  That’s how I make my living.”  Well,
that and the generous trust fund from her grandparents.  “I have a feeling you
guys don’t have a big call for that here.”

“I
do not know what that even
is
.”  He rubbed his forehead in resignation. 
“What am I supposed to do with you?  You’re going to fuck up my whole life.”

“I
fuck up everyone’s life.  Especially mine.”  She should probably lie, but she
couldn’t find the energy.  “Not even I expected
this
big a fuck up. 
But, if it was going to happen, I’m not surprised it happened to me.  My father
always said I’d die doing something stupid.  He thinks I’m a scatterbrain.” 
She gave Cade an apologetic smile.  “I’m sorry to drag you into this, though.”

His
jaw ticked.  “You do have a… uh…
protector
you can go to, right?”

Addy
frowned.  “A protector?”  She repeated blankly.  His lyrical accent made it
hard to understand some of the words, so maybe she’d misheard that.

Cade
looked frustrated with her confusion.  “
Yes
.  A man who looks out for
you.  Who sees you fed and cared for.”

“Oh. 
Oh!
”  Now she got it.  “Shit, you think I’m a
prostitute?
”  Her
mind boggled at the very idea.  “Really? 
Me?
”  She didn’t know whether
to be insulted or flattered.  “No, I don’t do that.”

Cade
seemed disappointed with her reaction.  “You have a husband, then?”  He looked
down at the floor and gave a snort.  “Of
course,
you have a husband. 
Your eyes do not have the look of a professional.”

Okay,
that was almost certainly an insult.  “Hey, I could be a professional.”  A lot
of guys liked bigger girls.  She’d never met one, but she’d seen it on a talk
show.  “In fact, maybe I’m lying and it
is
my profession.  Call-girling
could
totally
be my calling, for all you know.”

Cade
gave a long suffering sigh.  “So, is your husband the maypole of this
Yellowstone?”  He hesitated, searching for the correct word.  “Maypole?  Wait. 
May
be
.  May…
or
.  Is he
mayor
of Yellowstone?”

Geez,
just when she thought things couldn’t get more depressing.  “No, I don’t have a
husband who’s a mayor or a maypole.  I’m incredibly single.  My epic failures
with men cause internet dating services to shut down when they see me coming.”

Was
it her imagination or did he seem pleased by that dismal news?  “You have no
male?”  Cade put his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat.  “Are your
parents wealthy, then?  They must be, given your clothes and the odd way you
talk.”

The
odd way
she
talked?

“My
mother’s dead.  My father has money.  He lives in Palm Springs, with his sixth
wife, Mandi.”  That was the other name on the impersonally stamped Christmas
card Addy had received the year before, anyway.  Was Cade trying to make her
cry?  Because, this was really getting sad.  “We’re not close.”  Massive
understatement.  She’d disappointed him from the moment she was born and he’d
compensated by ignoring her for the past twenty-eight years.  “I told you, he
isn’t my biggest fan.  Dad’s not going to even notice I’m gone.”

Cade
didn’t seem convinced.  “Surely, you belong to
someone
.”

She
considered that for a long moment, wondering what he was up to with all these
questions.  “Hang on, are you trying to ransom me?”

“I’m
trying to find somebody who will take you off my hands.  Left to your own devices,
you’re considering just walking off into the snow!”  He made that sound like a
bad
plan.  “Someone like you
must
have a team of hired idiots standing by to
save you from yourself.”

“Someone
like me?  Meaning what?”

“Meaning
you’re lost in every possible way.  Do you not understand what it’s like out
there?”

Honestly? 
No.  What Addy knew about snow she’d learned while skiing in Vail.  And by
“skiing,” she meant “sitting by the fireplace and drinking warm cider.”  The
weather outside the hotel window looked pretty intense.

She
chewed her lower lip.  Maybe, Cade had a point.  She wanted to get home ASAP,
but
maybe
she wasn’t thinking this idea through.  That happened to her a
lot.  Addy tended to act before she considered all the consequences.

According
to her father, it was the scatterbrain thing, again.

Cade
must have seen the doubt in her expression.  “Four gods.”  He sank down on the edge
of the mattress and ran a hand through his dark hair.  “You are
utterly
helpless, aren’t you?  Have you ever had to do
anything
even halfway
practical?”

Addy
resented that.  It sounded too much like all the times she’d been written her
off as a superficial airhead, because she was a curvy girl from the country
club.  So she liked pretty clothes, and got impatient with boring details, and sometimes
forgot to pay her bills.  She wasn’t
helpless
.

“Hey,
I’m doing the best I can.”  She shot back, swiping at her eyes.  “At least, I’m
not screaming in a padded cell someplace.  Try showing up in
my
world
and see how well
yo
u do.”  Five minutes in front a computer screen and
he’d be crying like a baby.

“I
understand very little of what you say and I
still
know it’s all gibberish. 
However, my brothers dislike the idea of abandoning you to your fate and I
won’t disappoint them by letting you die.  So, you can’t go off into the snow
tomorrow.”  He leaned closer to her.  “To be clear, though, if you do
anything
to endanger my family, I will make you sorry.  Alright?”

Addy
wasn’t particularly terrified.  “Alright?”  Staring into his extraordinary
eyes, she didn’t believe for one second that he’d hurt her.  Cade was one of
the good guys.  And the man clearly loved his little brothers.  She’d always
wished she had siblings.  Seeing the Westins together downstairs had made her
envious of their bond.  If one of
them
was stranded in the future,
someone at home would be looking for them.

“So,
now we must come up with a plan.”  He continued.  “A workable, practical,
not
stupid plan.”

Addy
perked up at the implication that Cade was going to help her figure this out. 
Asshole or not, he seemed semi-smart and he knew this place way better than she
did.  “Like what?”

“If
no one is coming on their own, we must summon them.”

“It’s
a pretty far distance.”  She hedged.  If she told him she was from the past,
she had a feeling Cade would toss her out on her ass for being a crazy person. 
Better to let him think it was just miles separating her from home.

“I
don’t care how far it is. 
Somebody
must be willing to travel here to
collect you.  Look at you!”  He swept a hand up and down her plus-sized body. 
“You are clearly loved.  Who will give
everything
to get you back?”

Addy
racked her brain for a moment.  She had friends, but did she know anyone who
would give
everything
to get her back?  Not really.  Regardless of what
he thought, she wasn’t loved.  Not by anyone.  Jesus, she really
was
going
to cry.  She needed to tell Cade
something,
though.  “Well, there’s Brian.”

“Brian?”

“My
boss.  I’m the best consultant he has,” (No, she wasn’t.), “so he’ll be really
hunting for me.”  Not that he’d ever,
ever
find her, but he’d probably
look for a couple of days before hiring someone else.

Cade
nodded in relief.  “Good.  We’ll send a message to Brian.  Where is he?”

“Yellowstone.” 
Unless he’d already given up and gone back to Arizona, which was very possible. 
“It’s to the west, a long way from here.”

Cade
shook his head, the stunning angles of his face set in a frown.  Did the guy
know how to smile?  It was a shame, because he probably would’ve looked even more
spectacular if he tried.  “The western pass is blocked with snow.  It won’t
clear until spring.”

Wonderful. 
Addy had no idea what month it was in this time period, but she could tell it
was still very, very winter.  “How long until spring?  A couple weeks?”

“Two
months.  Give or take.”

“Two
months?!
”  She gaped at him.  “I’m stuck in this town for two
months?
”

He
seemed to take offense at her tone.  “Would you prefer to camp out in forest?”

“I’d
prefer to be in my heated condo.  Barring that, I’d at least like to stay someplace
where the bed has more than three legs.”

“I
built that bed.”

She
hesitated, unsure if he was messing with her.  “You’re kidding.”

“No. 
I’m a carpenter, in my spare time.  I made all the furniture.”

She
looked around at the lopsided, rickety decor.  “You don’t have a lot of spare
time, do you?”

Cade
didn’t appreciate her decorating critique.  “If you are so unhappy, leave the
same way you arrived.  However you got here, just go
back
and this mess
will be over.”

Addy
gave a slightly crazed laugh.  “I’d love to.  Believe me.  I have no idea what
I’m doing here or how to reverse it, though.  I fell and hit my head.”

“You
injured your brain?  Well, that explains much.”

Addy
decided to ignore that.  “When I opened my eyes I was face down in a pile of
snow.”  She shook her head.  “I need to go back to the last place I remember
being, which is Yellowstone.”

Cade
thought that over for a long moment.  “So, when spring comes you will get a
message to Brian in this Yellowstone?  That’s your plan?”

Jesus,
spring sounded super far away.  Addy didn’t have much of a choice, though. 
Somehow, she had to get back to Wyoming and that meant staying put until the
western pass opened.  “Yeah.”  She lied.  “When the snow melts, I’ll pony
express a letter to Brian, okay?  I
really
think it’ll work.”

“What
is a pony express?”

“It’s
like email on a horse.”  She ignored Cade’s suspicious frown and pressed
onward.  “So, you’ll let me stay here until spring and it’s all settled then.”

“What?
 Four gods, you’re not staying
here
.  There are other places in the
polis, where you’d be…”