Читать книгу Mistletoe Bride - Linda Varner - Страница 10

Humming “Blue Christmas,” the last song she’d heard inside the Clearwater Café that Thursday night, Danielle Sellica slipped behind the steering wheel of her car and set her one-more-for-the-road cup of coffee in the plastic holder designed for it.

She wrinkled her nose at the smell of old grease and cigarettes that permeated her denim jacket. Although a few minutes of fresh Colorado air would easily kill the scents, Dani didn’t get out of the car. It was already 8:30 p.m., and a one-hour drive home still lay ahead. Not that Dani minded the drive. She really didn’t. There was just so much to do before she could go to bed tonight—not the least of which was put up and decorate her Christmas tree.

A mood as blue as the Christmas of the song settled over her. Refusing to give in to it, Dani turned on the radio and quickly found a station playing something upbeat. She relished the cheerful tune, as well as the beauty of the snowflakes dancing in her headlights, for only a moment before turning the volume way up so she could sing “Holly Jolly Christmas” at the top of her voice.

It was the buzz of the car phone that brought an end to her off-key songfest some forty-five minutes later. Since only one person ever called her on the car telephonebought for emergency purposes only—Dani smiled and turned off the radio, then snatched up the receiver.

“How did you know I was in the car?” she demanded, instead of saying hello.

The familiar laughter of Jonni Lisa Maynard, a dear friend and neighbor, spilled forth. “Lucky guess.”

“Do I hear Jimmy Stewart in the background?”

“Of course. Have I ever made it through December without crying over It’s a Wonderful Life a couple of dozen times? For that matter, have you?”

It was Dani’s turn to laugh. They were both sentimental softies for sure. “No to both. Are you ready for Christmas tomorrow?”

“I’m proud to report that my presents are wrapped, my fruitcake is baked and my tree is up. How about you?”

“I’m not into fruitcakes, but my shopping, such as it is, is done.”

“What about your Christmas tree?” asked Jonni.

“The most beautiful Douglas fir in the world is in my trunk even as we speak. I’ll put it up the minute I get home.”

“And I thought I was running late! Any big plans for the holiday?”

“I’ll probably sew.”

“You mean you still haven’t finished Barbara’s wedding dress?” Jonni asked, referring to a mutual friend who planned a New Year’s Day wedding.

“Another lucky guess,” Dani told her, ruefully adding, “Would you believe she’s changed her mind about the sleeves three times?”

“I’d believe that. What I cannot believe is that you ever agreed to make it in the first place.”

“Temporary insanity?”

“Well, that beats the permanent kind, which is what I’ll be by the time Ricky goes back to school.” Ricky was Jonni’s rambunctious seven-year-old son, out of school for the holidays and already driving his mother nuts. She also had a four-year-old daughter named Pattie and was trying for a third child.

“Which reminds me—”

Thump. Thump.

A sudden sound, loud enough to make Dani abandon what she’d started to say about having presents for the children, seemed to be coming from the rear of the car. A flat? she automatically wondered with a mental sigh of dismay.

“Dani? You still there?”

“I’m here, and I’ve got a flat,” Dani replied even as she braked her car and eased off the asphalt.

“Oh, God,” Jonni exclaimed, clearly concerned. “Will you be okay?”

“Are you kidding? I can change a tire in five minutes with one hand in my pocket.” She didn’t add that she’d never had to do it on a lonely mountain road with the heavens spitting snow….

“Well, be careful. Two guys broke out of prison this morning—”

“Thanks so much for letting me know,” Dani retorted dryly, refusing to think about a prison break at Cañon City, less than fifty miles away.

“Oh, honey, I’m sorry—”

“I was teasing you. I’m not a bit scared. Now, I really have to go.”

“Please call me when you get home. I’ll worry until I hear from you.”

“I’ll call,” Dani promised, wishing her friend a Merry Christmas before hanging up.

With another sigh, this one of resignation, Dani killed the engine. After checking to see that the car was easily visible to approaching traffic, should there be any, she switched on the hazard blinkers. Flashlight in hand, Dani then got out of the car.

With purposeful strides, she walked around her vehicle, inspecting each tire in turn. There was no flat. Had she imagined that awful noise…?

Thump! Thump! Thump Thump Thump! As if on cue, it came again, only louder.

Dani whirled toward the sound, which seemed to be emanating from the trunk. For the first time, she noticed that Kyle Smith, the surly teenager who’d loaded her Douglas fir in the trunk, had not tied down the lid as she’d requested, but had closed it instead.

Wondering if something besides a Christmas tree now lay inside, Dani retrieved her keys from the ignition. Had that bad-mannered young man played some sort of practical joke on her? Dani wouldn’t have been surprised. He’d made it more than plain that carrying a Christmas tree from the service station, where she’d bought it, to her car, parked behind the café next door, was beneath him. Obviously she should have supervised the task instead of heading inside the eatery for her late dinner.

Though admittedly more outraged than afraid—some poor stray dog or cat was probably trapped inside the trunk—Dani did clutch the long-handled flashlight like a club. In truth, she was fully prepared to trounce whatever she found, should it prove dangerous.

Her ring full of keys jangled against the car when she inserted the right one in the lock—

“Thank God!”

Dani squealed and leaped back at the sound of the muffled masculine voice coming from inside her trunk.

“Hey!” Thump! Thump! “I’m dying in here! Let me out!”

She could not move. She could not think. For the first time, fear shimmied up her spine. How could this be? Had Kyle somehow fallen in…?

Or was one of the escaped convicts hiding in her trunk?

“Hel-looo? Anybody there?”

Heart hammering, Dani eased the key out of the lock. Not for anything was she going to open this trunk now.

“I know you’re out there. Open up, dammit.” Thump! Thump! “Open up now!”

With a gasp, Dani spun on her heel and lunged for the driver’s side of the car. In a heartbeat, she was behind the steering wheel. In another, she was speeding back to Clearwater. Destination: the police station. More than once, Dani glanced fearfully in the rearview mirror, half expecting to find a man in a bright orange jumpsuit with a number stenciled on it sitting in the back seat.

But he was in the trunk, not the back seat.

“Omigosh!”

What seemed an eternity later, but was really only forty minutes, Dani turned on two wheels into the parking lot adjacent to the Clearwater police station.

She greeted the officer on duty, Cliff Meeks, by name-they went back a long way—then spilled her story in a rush of words. Without comment, Cliff rose from the crackedvinyl swivel chair and headed straight down the hall to the exit that opened onto the parking lot.

“You don’t even seem surprised,” Dani commented, hurrying after him.

“Nothing could surprise me tonight,” drawled the relocated Texan, an old friend of Dani’s father. She didn’t have time to question the cryptic comment before they reached her car. Silently, Dani handed him the key. Then she took cover behind his considerable girth.

Instead of opening the trunk, Cliff slapped his hand down hard on the lid. “Hey in there! Chief Cliff Meeks, Clearwater Police, speaking. I want your name, and I want it now.”

“Ryan Given. Let me out.”

“Okay, Mr. Given, I will. But you should know that I’m armed, so don’t try anything funny.”

“I swear I won’t,” came the muffled reply. “Just let me outta here.”

His expression unreadable, Cliff pulled his gun, unlocked the trunk and tossed back the lid. Inside lay a man, as expected—a wide-shouldered, broad-chested, long-legged man. Dani took quick note of his clothing—western from head to toe—before dragging her gaze away.

A cowboy. A sweet-talking, good-looking, don’t-worryyore-pretty-li’l-head-about-it cowboy. She’d be safer with an escaped convict.

This cowboy’s groan of agony drew Dani’s gaze back to him. Without sympathy, she watched as the blue-eyed wrangler untangled his feet from a length of rope and unfolded himself from the trunk. It took an assist from Cliff, who for some reason had reholstered his weapon, to get the stranger fully on his feet. Then the man sat right back down on the rim of the open trunk, touching his fingertips to the back of his head. Dani saw blood on them.

“It’s about damn time,” the ungrateful stowaway commented, glancing at his blood-smeared hand. He looked accusingly from Cliff to her and then back to Cliff. “Are we really still in Clearwater after driving around for so long?”

“That’s right,” Cliff said, coolly adding, “ID, please.”

The man, clearly in a temper, shook his head. “Stolen by whoever locked me in here. I’m from Tulsa, Oklahoma, staying at the Garrett Motel. My eight-year-old son is with me…back at the motel, I mean. I told him I’d just be gone a minute—”

“You left an eight-year-old child alone in a motel room?” Dani blurted out in horror. If that wasn’t typical cowboy logic!

Ryan Given never wasted so much as a glance on her. “He’s probably wondering where I—”

“Sawyer is inside the station, Mr. Given. We picked him up two hours ago at the Garrett when the clerk called to report your disappearance.”

Ryan’s jaw dropped. “Two hours ago!” He glanced at the back of his wrist as though he usually wore a watch, which he didn’t now. “What the hell time is it?”

“Ten o’clock.”

“Damn!” Ryan leaped to his feet and immediately stumbled forward as if his legs were asleep. Or was he just dazed from his head wound? Dani wondered as both she and Cliff made a grab for him.

“Whoa, fella. Better take it easy,” Cliff said.

“But Sawyer—”

“Is just finishing two quarter-pound burgers, double fries, a large cola, and a fried pie. That boy can really put it away.”

Dani felt some of the tension leave the cowboy’s body. “You fed him?”

“We fed him.” Cliff grinned. “That’s quite a youngster you’ve got there, Mr. Given. Thanks to his description, I knew that you were who you said you were the minute I saw you,” the policeman continued, words that explained the reason he’d reholstered his gun.

Ryan relaxed so completely that Dani’s shoulders dipped under the weight of his muscled arm, now stretched across them.

“Dani, can you hang around long enough to give me your version of what happened tonight?” Cliff asked.

“I guess so,” she replied somewhat grudgingly. In truth, she wanted nothing more than to hightail it back to the sanctuary of her ranch. Dani, who worked hard to make her life an endless cycle of identical days, didn’t want or appreciate the excitement fate offered her this Christmas Eve.

At that reply, Ryan Given disengaged himself from both her and Cliff. When Dani automatically put distance between them, the cowboy gave her a once-over so thorough her entire body glowed with embarrassment. His expression said that what he saw did not impress him. Dani, who shouldn’t have cared less, nonetheless bristled.

“I guess I should thank you for bringing me back to Clearwater,” Ryan said. He put his fingers to the back of his head again and winced. His comment did nothing to soothe her ruffled feathers. His discomfort evoked no compassion.

“Don’t bother. I only did it because I thought you were one of the convicts who escaped this morning.” She turned to Cliff. “Have they been caught yet?”

“No, but it’s just a matter of time. We put out an APB right after the motel clerk saw them steal Mr. Given’s truck—”

“They stole my truck?”

Cliff nodded, his own expression full of the empathy Dani lacked. “We thought they’d taken you, too, as a hostage…speaking of which, your son is anxious for your safety. Why don’t we go on inside? I’ll tell you everything I know there, and we may even be able to rustle up another hamburger or two.”

Looking a little dazed, Ryan nodded. The two men then followed Dani into the station.

A good twenty minutes passed before Cliff, Ryan and Dani finally sat down in the break room to reconstruct the night’s events. She paid for her earlier lack of pity for Ryan by now blinking back tears that resulted from the emotional, if oddly restrained, reunion she witnessed between the cowboy and the young son who obviously adored him.

Admittedly interested in Ryan’s brief tale of attack, blow to the head and subsequent awakening—bound and gagged—in the trunk of her sedan, she nonetheless gave him only half of her attention. Sawyer Given, now watching an old black-and-white television in a corner of the room, owned the other half.

For an eight-year-old, he displayed remarkable maturity, she thought, recalling how solicitous he’d been of his father. Dani was not surprised by what appeared to be a role reversal. She was quite familiar with the phenomenon, having once cared for an irresponsible single parent such as Ryan.

That the man was single, she could only assume, of course. At any rate, there was no wife-mother on the scene, and neither Ryan nor Sawyer had mentioned one. Clearly, the boy was used to seeing to dear old dad. Dani resented the injustice, one she’d experienced herself as a fifteen-year-old when her rancher father died too young and her pampered mother, Eileen, became dependent on her.

Unbidden, scenes from the past, long suppressed, filled her head—scenes of cooking her own breakfast before school so Eileen could sleep late, scenes of nights at home alone while yet another sweet-talking man wined and dined her mother in town. Dani surfaced from the swirling eddy of memories with difficulty and only because she heard someone speak her name.

“Want to tell us your story now?” It was Cliff, and he sat with pencil poised over one of countless forms he’d undoubtedly have to fill out tonight.

“Not much to tell,” Dani replied. “I parked my car at Clearwater Café around seven o’clock—”

“In the back lot?” Cliff asked.

“Yes, the front one was full. I saw the Christmas trees at Smith’s Station next door, so I walked over there to get one before going into the café. I told Kyle—you know, Ed Smith’s youngest?—to tie down the trunk instead of locking it so the branches wouldn’t be crushed, then I went on inside the café to eat. It was awfully crowded, so I didn’t get out of there again until eight-thirty or so.”

“And you were where when you heard Mr. Given in the trunk?”

“Almost home,” Dani said with a sigh, wishing she were there now. Every muscle in her body ached with fatiguenot surprising since her Thursday had begun at 5:00 a.m. “I was talking to Jonni Maynard on that phone you insisted I buy—” she gave Cliff a smile “—when I first heard him banging around back there. I guess he’d just woke up.”

“Actually, I’d just freed my hands and was trying to get your attention,” Ryan grumbled. “I couldn’t make myself heard over your serenade.”

Dani glared at him to cover her embarrassment at being caught singing. “I turned off the radio the moment the phone rang. Why didn’t you try again then?”

“I wanted to hear what you had to say.” He shrugged. “I thought you were the one who locked me up.”

Dani huffed her opinion of that. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I hadn’t seen you, remember?”

Apparently, he could tell she wasn’t physically capable of hoisting him into the trunk. “I was referring to the radio. Didn’t you think it odd that someone who’d just mugged you would then sing Christmas carols all the way home?”

“Hell, lady, I—”

“Can’t you say a word without cursing?” She shot a meaningful glance at Sawyer, whom she considered to be at a very impressionable age.

To Dani’s surprise—she expected a “Mind your own business!”—Ryan followed her gaze. He flushed beet-red. “Sorry, ma’am. I guess I left my manners in the trunk of your car.” Looking somewhat subdued, he turned to Cliff. “Sawyer and I are in the process of moving to Wyoming, Chief Meeks. We’re going to buy ourselves a ranch there. Everything we own but one suitcase was on that truck, including our traveling cash.”

“We’ll do our best to get it back,” the chief said. “We’re beginning to get some information on the prison break now. I’ve had a phone call from a tourist who gave two guys in street clothes a ride from Cañon City to Clearwater. I’m pretty sure they were our men.”

“I’m just glad I didn’t clean out my savings account when we left Tulsa,” Ryan murmured with a shake of his head. “My boy and I’d be in a mess for sure—”

“You realize that your bank won’t be open again until Monday, don’t you?” The question fell off Dani’s tongue before she could stop it.

Ryan’s smile vanished.

“That’s three whole days away,” Dani continued. “What are you and your son going to do until then?”

“Oh, we’ll be okay,” Ryan told her, an idiotic reply if Dani had ever heard one.

How like a cowboy to play his cards close to his vest, Dani thought. Well, this time she didn’t need to peek over his shoulder to see what hand fate had dealt him. She knew. So did Cliff, if his frown was anything to go by. Dani waited for the kindhearted chief of police to invite Ryan and Sawyer home with him. Instead, he rose and motioned for her to follow him into the hall.

“How many horses are you boarding now?” he asked her when they were out of earshot of Ryan Given.

“Ten, counting mine,” she replied, wondering where on earth this was headed.

“Hmm. Running any cattle?”

“You know very well that I am.”

“Then I’ll bet you could use a little help around that place of yours…what with that big wedding of Barb’s just around the corner.”

Dani’s stomach began to knot. Surely Cliff wasn’t going to suggest—

“Why don’t you take Mr. Given and that boy of his home with you? They could help out for a while in exchange for room and board.”

Dani’s jaw dropped. This man, of all people, knew how she felt about cowboys, especially cowboys looking for homes on the range. “Are you kidding? I don’t even know this man. He could be a wife beater, a drug addict or a drunkard. He might have stolen that child in there from his mother—”

“He’s none of the above,” Cliff gruffly interjected.

“And how do you know that?”

“Motel had his truck license number. I ran a check on it and then on him.”

Dani sighed. Trust Cliff to be thorough.

“It’s destiny that’s brought him here. Destiny.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you living alone at that oversize ranch of yours, doing the work of two men.”

“I manage.”

“Now, yes. But you can’t keep it up, and you know it.”

“I knew this would happen!” Dani raged. “I should never have asked you for advice when Mick sold my timber rights to Duke Littlejohn. Now you think you can tell me how to run all my business.”

“Two heads are better than one.”

Dani sighed again. “In a crisis like that, yes. Everything is all right now—or will be once I finish that stupid wedding dress. I simply have no use for some deadbeat cowpoke and his kid.”

“He’s not a deadbeat. He’s just a little down on his luck. But forget him. Think of that boy of his…that eight-year-old boy. This is his first Christmas with his dad—”

“What?”

Cliff nodded. “I don’t know the whole story…just that Sawyer and his dad met for the first time in September. Do you really want them to spend their first Christmas together on the street?”

“So let them spend it with you and Ruth.”

“We’ve already got a houseful of her relatives or I would. You’re their only hope, Dani, girl. You, and you alone.”

“Don’t do this to me,” Dani groaned.

Cliff grinned, obviously sensing victory. “Just last week you were whining because you were going to be alone for the holidays. These guys’ll be company for you—company for Christmas—not to mention help when you need it most. Come on, honey. What do you say?”

“I say a cowboy is absolutely the last thing I wanted for Christmas,” Dani muttered as she turned abruptly on her heel and stalked back into the lounge. “Cliff seems to think you might be interested in working for room and board for a few days until you get your finances in order,” she said to Ryan.

“You mean, you’re looking for a hand?” he asked, perking right up.

“I haven’t advertised, if that’s what you’re asking,” she answered candidly. “I usually don’t need help around the place. Right now, though, I have another project going on…a wedding…and I could use a little assistance.”

Ryan sat in silence for a moment before he spoke. “When I left Oklahoma, I swore that the next ranch I worked on would be my own. Obviously that’s going to have to wait. I appreciate your job offer, and I accept.” Ryan stuck out his right hand, which she took after a moment’s hesitation. Firmly he shook it. “Thanks, um, I don’t believe I heard your last name.”

“Sellica,” she told him.

“Miss Sellica,” Cliff added, a clarification that earned him a dirty look from Dani.

“But not for long…?” Ryan looked from one to the other of them, as though waiting for them to explain something.

For a second, Dani couldn’t imagine what, then she figured it out. “The wedding I’m involved with is a friend’s, not mine. I’m sewing her dress, which has to be ready by December thirty-first. I’ve had to neglect my ranch work while working on it.”

“And now that we’ve settled that,” Cliff said a little too heartily, “why don’t the three of you hit the road? By the time you get to Dani’s, it’ll be half past Christmas.”

“Damn!” Ryan blurted out, the next instant intercepting Dani’s glare. “I mean darn. Sawyer’s present was in the back of my truck with everything else.”

“I have a remote-control race car you can give him,” Dani said quickly, without thought, as she glanced at the young boy watching TV on the other side of the room. When Ryan looked at her in surprise, she realized what she’d said. Shrugging, she explained, “I bought it for the son of a friend.”

“I’ll pay you back.” Clearly, Ryan was not comfortable accepting charity.

In spite of everything, Dani sympathized. Independent recognized independent. “Of course,” she agreed. “Now, if we just had the Christmas tree your convicts stole from my trunk.”

“They’re not my convicts,” Ryan muttered.

The sudden glint in his eye, coupled with the set of his chiseled jawline, startled her and hinted that there were other sides to Ryan Given than the side she now saw. Dani felt her stomach knot with uncertainty and something very like fear, the results of her dealings with another mystery cowboy not so long ago.

Swallowing hard, she vowed that this one would take his mysteries with him when he left on Monday. How could she be so sure? Because she would take no chances this time. Not for a moment would she let down her guard.

And because she would not, when Ryan and his son moved on, her ranch, her land, her money, and, most important, her just-repaired heart would still be intact.