Cowboy Who Came For Christmas (Harlequin Romance) (8 page)

“I... I read about you in Mama’s journals,” Melissa replied, tears streaming down her face. “She said y’all used to come here when she was little. I had to come and see if I could find you.”

Bettye bobbed her head, stray grayish-white hair floating around her face in lacy waves. “I’m so glad you did, too. I thought I was seeing a ghost but...you’re real.”

“I am,” Melissa said. She leaned back to wipe at her eyes. “Can I stay for a while?”

Bettye smiled and patted Melissa’s face. “Honey, you can stay as long as you want. Let’s get you inside outta this cold.”

They turned to head up the steps of Bettye’s cabin.

Adan glanced over at Sophia. “I guess we should give them some time alone.”

Sophia nodded, her appreciation for his thoughtfulness rising above the aggravation of having to deal with him. “Yes, I think that’d be best. We can catch up with Bettye later.”

“And I need to ask Melissa some more questions.” He started toward her cabin. “What a morning. What else is gonna happen on this dang mountain?”

Sophia didn’t know how to answer. She wished she could open up to Adan and tell him the truth. But that truth might net her a long stay in jail. She couldn’t risk that. She wouldn’t risk that or getting all of her friends in trouble, either.

She gazed over at him. “I don’t know. What’s your plan on trying to find Joe Pritchard?”

Adan turned and did a scan of the woods. “I don’t know whether to wait him out or search the entire area.” He let out another grunt. “He’s either dead by now or long gone.”

“You don’t like failing, do you?”

Adan glared at her with a comical shocked expression, as if he’d never heard that question before. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re like a bulldog searching for a lost bone.”

“The man is a wanted criminal so, yes, I intend to do my job no matter how many people around here try to stop me.”

“What makes you think we’re trying to stop you?”

He shook his head. “Are you serious? I get stonewalled at every turn.”

Sophia pointed toward Bettye’s cabin. “You honestly believe that girl had anything to do with...you not finding Pritchard?”

“She showed up right after he did—or maybe even when he did,” Adan retorted. “I’m just putting two and two together.”

“You’re just being paranoid.”

“I’m being smart,” he replied. “And you’d be wise to help me instead of hindering me.”

She would be wise to do that, yes. But Sophia wasn’t ready to give up yet. She didn’t want to involve herself in this. She wanted to run inside her cabin and lock the door and hold her gun close. But if she wanted to get Adan off her back so she could get on with her life, she’d have to help him search for Joe. Or at least get him out of her way long enough for her to come up with a solution for this whole mess.

“There’s a small stream and waterfall down the path a way. We could search there. I’d think if he survived last night, he’d be looking for water this morning. Or he’d at least follow the stream back down to town, right?”

“Have you had experience with this sort of thing?” Adan asked, his gaze making her get all tingly and exposed.

“No, just assuming,” she retorted. “Did I assume wrong?”

“No, you guessed right. That’s exactly what a criminal would likely try.”

Sophia didn’t like that statement. “Does that make me a criminal?”

His gaze danced over her face with a questioning intensity. “I don’t know. You tell me.”

Sophia’s disappointment must have shown on her face. When she turned to go inside her cabin, Adan reached for her and tugged her back around. “Hey, I need to quit ribbing you, I guess.”

“Is that what you’d call this—you accusing me and doubting me at every turn? You’re just having fun at my expense?”

“I’m trying hard to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

“I appreciate that,” she said, her eyes moving over his warm hand on her coat sleeve. “But you sure do have a funny way of doing things.”

He let go and smiled. “I’ll try to trust you more,” he said on a soft note. “And sooner or later, you’ll have to try trusting me.”

Sophia had to turn away. His eyes told her the truth. He really did want to trust in her. And he might be beginning to like her.

But he’d be so wrong to do that. She wasn’t trustworthy at all. Not when she had to lie to him at every turn.

Maybe she was just as criminal as Joe Pritchard after all.

CHAPTER EIGHT

S
HE
WAS
WAY
too quiet.

Although Adan had only known Sophia for twenty-four hours or so, he knew enough to wonder what was going through her mind. Back there on the road, he’d sensed a need from her to say more, to finally open up to him. Maybe if he backed off and made her feel safe and comfortable, she’d let him into her pretty head. Right now the tension between them radiated enough to melt the ice on the trees outside.

But that tension wasn’t all about hunting a criminal or Adan catching her in a lie. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was attracted to the woman. She was voluptuous and cute and just quirky enough to be enticing. And just enticing enough to be dangerous. But so far, she’d been helpful in getting him around this curving, rock-clustered mountain.

By the time they returned to her cabin, the afternoon sun was high and the snow was changing into a messy slush. But according to the only two channels available to watch on the tiny television, more snow was on the way tonight and the temperature would go back below freezing. With a windchill of around ten degrees. Not good for anyone.

That meant the mountain road would ice over again. Not that that mattered too much to him now—his truck wasn’t going anywhere until he could get his tires fixed. And by that time, Joe Pritchard would be long gone.

Unless someone on this mountain was hiding him.

Adan glanced over at Sophia again, thinking she sure didn’t act like a woman who was hiding a wanted felon. But then, he’d learned that people could put on a good show when they were desperate and being chased by the law. After her initial reaction to that wanted poster, Sophia had managed to settle down and get back to being perky and cute.

Which only made him doubt her even more. There was a definite desperation to her laugh, a hint of worry in her tone, a shade of hidden urgency in her every move. She’d been frightened when they’d found his tires flat and spooked when the girl had popped up in his truck.

Had she been expecting someone else to be in that truck?

Hard to gauge, since they hadn’t had time to talk about things after finding Melissa there.

Thinking of the girl, he tried his phone. “I have two bars. I’m doing a trace on Melissa Curtis.”

Sophia turned from getting lunch together. “Are you sure that’s wise?”

“Uh...she’s a teenager who hitched a ride with a stranger from Hot Springs in the worst snowstorm of the winter. What’s
not
wrong with that picture?”

“I see your point,” she replied before she turned away. “I just think it will do Bettye good to have her here for a while.”

“Well, with this weather she’ll likely be here for a couple of days at least.”

“Good,” Sophia said, her tone full of pep.

Okay, so at this moment, she seemed perfectly normal. Adan watched her while he waited for someone in Austin to answer. It was close to Christmas, so maybe she loved having company for the holidays. Even sorry on-the-run criminal types? Even him?

His phone went dead before he could get through, so he gave up and decided to study Sophia.

She looked right at home in her colorful kitchen. The blue cabinets matched the blue in her long, bulky sweater and complimented her vivid eyes, while the bright pink-and-red tablecloth matched her captivating blush.

And when had he turned into a poetic sap?

Better to focus on what was going on in her mind than what was happening with her curvy, becoming body.

It had been a while since he’d been intrigued by a woman. This one could either be a saint or a criminal.

Which only made things more interesting.

Adan didn’t get all tangled up in messy relationships—not since Helena had left him high and dry with a baby girl. And he never would have been able to raise Gaylen without his parents there to help out.

No, sir. His job was a day-into-night kind of deal, with lots of hours on the road, away from home. He’d already missed out on so much in his daughter’s life. He didn’t want to add a love affair to that and disappoint yet another ready-to-settle-down woman. And he couldn’t add to Gaylen’s disappointment by parading a bevy of would-be stepmoms in and out of her life.

Not a problem with this one.

She bristled like a porky-pine if he looked at her wrong.

But it might be nice to soften that rigid stance.

He needed to remember that as far as he could tell this particular woman certainly didn’t seem to be the settling down type. Sophia obviously had made a life for herself here on Crescent Mountain, but he wanted to get out this afternoon and talk to some of the neighbors to see just how settled she really was. Or how settled any of them really were.

Crescent Mountain was an eclectic, strange little community that could easily harbor vagabonds and criminals right along with artists and creative free spirits.

“What are you thinking over there, Ranger-Man?”

Adan blinked and glanced up to find Sophia standing at the table. A pot of steaming soup sat on a big trivet and the scent of bread wafted toward his hungry nostrils.

“Well, since I can’t get a call out of here to save my life, I was just going over the particulars of finding Joe Pritchard. This weather has seriously aided and abetted that criminal.” He gave the soup an appreciate sniff. “That is, if he’s even still hanging around.”

Her face went as neutral as the beige dish towel in her hand. “What’s your next plan of action? After you eat this late lunch I fixed?”

Adan had a moment where he thought his next plan of action would be to walk across the room and kiss the cook. But he blinked that notion right out of his thick skull.

“I’m going back out there to look for signs that he’s been here. To track him until I find him.”

“You mean you might not be back here tonight?”

Adan pulled out a chair for her and smiled down at her. “Missing me again, darlin’?”

Something sizzled between them with all the power of a loose electrical wire.

They both stood back in surprise.

“I’m sorry,” he said, silently kicking himself. “That was highly inappropriate.”

She plopped into her chair and started dipping soup. “I will miss you. I’ll miss that accusing tone you use and that questioning look in your eyes.”

Adan took in her words while he watched soup splatter all around the plate underneath his bowl. “I make you uncomfortable. I’ve never been a ladies’ man, but I have tried to be professional and courteous around women.”

“I appreciate good manners, but I don’t appreciate everything else you’ve done.” She tore into a corn bread muffin and then meticulously dropped little pieces in her vegetable soup. “I feel like a prisoner in my own home.”

“Fine,” he retorted. “I’ll bunk on the porch or go back and sleep in my truck.”

Her eyes widened, her gaze hitting on him with what could have been a fierce concern. “You’ll freeze to death.”

Adan let out a grin. “Ah, so you do care.”

She stirred her soup. “Only because I’m a decent, kind person who would never leave anyone out in the cold.”

Adan picked up on the flicker of something dark behind that statement. Still wondering what she needed to say but couldn’t, he leaned up in his chair. “Then I’ll ask Bettye to host me, or better yet, I’ll ask one of your other neighbors.”

“No, you can’t do that!”

The tone of that declaration had his antenna up. “And why not?”

“You don’t need to bother them. I have room, and other than Jacob and Bettye, most of them are...couples.”

“Well, I’ll share with Jacob, then. Two bachelors trying to figure out women. That’ll sure fill the time.”

“Just shut up and eat. You’ll stay right here with me. And that’s final.”

Adan grinned again in spite of his doubts. Maybe she liked him a little bit after all. Or she wanted to monitor him all the time. “You sure are bossy.”

She tossed back a wave of hair. “Well, I’ve been my own boss for a long time now.”

He leaned in, elbows on the table. “Want to tell me about that?”

“Not particularly.”

She ate her soup in silence for a moment. “On second thought, I guess you do need to know a few things about me.” She shrugged. “If it’ll get you off my back.”

Seeing the touch of pain in her eyes, he nodded. “I’m listening.”

“I...grew up in Waco. In a not-so-great part of town. My father left us when I was young and my mother drank herself to sleep every night.” She put down her spoon and held her hands on the table. “I went from family members to foster homes and then back with my mom, over and over, so I learned how to be the responsible one. But no one taught me how to trust or how to judge. So I fell in with a bad crowd. Just so...”

“Just so?” Adan prompted.

“That’s enough for now,” she replied, a faraway look in her eyes. “You can stay here as long as you want. But don’t try to figure me out or analyze me.”

She dug back into her soup and shoved a big spoonful in her mouth so she wasn’t able to speak. Adan followed suit and tried to taste the warm, homemade concoction.

But he couldn’t stop thinking about how her lips would taste.

Adan watched as she slipped out of her chair and dumped the remains of her soup in the trash. Since he’d lost his appetite, too, he tried to finish his soup, but the chunky meat and spicy vegetables seemed to clog his throat.

She’d said she’d never learned to trust.

But he had to wonder who had hurt this woman to the point that she couldn’t open up and tell the truth, for her own sake. What was she afraid of?

* * *

A
DAN
HADN
’
T
FORCED
her to go out with him this time. But Sophia kept her guard up, watching until he’d gone on up the hill before she ran over to Bettye’s cabin. She’d have to put that moment they’d shared there by the dining table out of her mind while she warned the others to stay quiet.

The smoldering heat in his ever-changing golden-brown eyes when he’d called her
darlin’
had burned her worse than any encounter she’d ever had with a hot stove. Sophia couldn’t chance that kind of heat ever again. That kind of feeling only ignited a raging fire that led to regret and to getting burned all over again.

“What’s all the commotion?” Bettye asked when she opened the door after Sophia had pounded against it with all her might.

“He’s out of the house for a while,” Sophia gushed as she pushed through the door. “We can talk.”

Bettye put a finger to her lips. “Okay, but Melissa is asleep in the other room.” She glanced at the closed bedroom door. “Or leastways she was.”

Sophia hadn’t even considered Melissa being here when she’d sprinted across the woods. She was getting sloppy about being careful and it was all Adan’s fault. How could she possibly stay ahead of a Texas Ranger?

“Honey, settle down,” Bettye said, pulling Sophia into the kitchen. “Do you need some chamomile tea with wild honey?”

“No,” Sophia said. “I need that Ranger to quit asking me about Joe Pritchard. I can’t relate with his need for justice right now.”

“So this Joe Pritchard is the man you thought you killed, right?”

Sophia had never heard it put quite that way but she trusted Bettye with her life. “Yes.”

“Well, now you
can
relate to something with the Ranger,” Bettye said on a pragmatic twist. “Apparently, Joe ain’t really dead and you got a good man staying in your house. That works for everyone, right?”

“No, not right,” Sophia replied, wishing the matchmaking glow would leave Bettye’s face. “I tried to kill Joe and then I hid his car on this mountain. That means Adan could haul my butt in for attempted murder and for stealing a vehicle.”

She’d never told Bettye the rest of the story and she wasn’t about to now, either. Bettye knew too much already. Adan might brand her friend as an accomplice.

“But he won’t,” Bettye said in a low whisper. “He likes you way too much for that to happen.”

“He might like me, but he likes his job a lot more and he’s obviously good at it. It’s only a matter of time before he figures things out, and then I’ll have to go back to Texas.”

“Figures out what?”

Both Bettye and Sophia jumped at the sound of Melissa’s voice coming from the hallway around the corner. The girl stood all bleary-eyed and curious against the kitchen wall.

“Hey, honey,” Bettye said as she hobbled over to Melissa and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Are you hungry?”

“Granny, you fed me four pancakes and a lot of bacon,” Melissa replied, her arms wrapping against one of Bettye’s old flannel shirts. “I’m fine.”

“How about something warm to drink. Hot chocolate for everyone.”

“Okay, yes, hot chocolate,” Melissa said as she moved into the kitchen, her bright Christmas socks padding against the old, battered wooden floor. “Then will y’all tell me what’s up with that wicked good-looking Ranger and what you’re both trying to hide from him?”

Sophia nodded. “Only if you come clean on how you wound up in Adan’s truck.”

Melissa’s mouth formed an O and then she shrugged. “Okay, deal. ’Cause I think I know exactly who he’s looking for.”

* * *

A
DAN
STOOD
BEHIND
a tree and watched as Sophia hotfooted it over to her friend Bettye’s cabin. What was so all-fired important that she’d had to wait for him to leave?

Comparing notes, maybe? On him, since they’d tried to hold him hostage? Or maybe on Joe Pritchard, since that poster of his face had obviously upset Sophia? Or maybe plotting right along with Melissa about what they needed to do next?

He wasn’t surprised about any of this, but he was disappointed that Sophia wouldn’t level with him. If she’d helped Joe Pritchard escape, it would be bad but not the end of the world. Maybe the man had held her at gunpoint and forced her to help and she was just too scared to squeal on him.

Or maybe she knew Joe Pritchard and had willingly helped him get away.

Adan had hurried back to his truck earlier to get all of his notes on this man’s rap sheet. He’d go over those and his phone notes later when it got too dark and too blasted cold to hunt anyone. He’d checked the truck from front to back but nothing other than the deflated tires had stood out. No signs of anyone moving through the woods around the vehicle that he could tell, either. Had Pritchard decided to get away while he could?