Maureen McKade

by A Dime Novel Hero

  Had Maggie been wrong? Could Jake be ready to settle down?

  Kit rubbed her eyes. She didn’t have to make a decision this moment, but she couldn’t keep ignoring it either. Later…

  Pasting on a smile, Kit entered the bedroom and held out the suspenders. “Here you go, Jake.”

  “Thanks.” He stood and took them from her, his fingertips brushing hers. “Could you give me a hand?”

  She seemed to approach timidly, as if afraid to touch him. Afraid of him? Or of herself? He’d have to be blind and a hundred years old not to notice her reaction to his body in the kitchen. Since he was neither, he knew his attraction to her wasn’t one-sided. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her.

  He turned around, passing the suspenders over his shoulders. She clipped the ends to his waistband as he listened to her uneven breathing. It took her longer than he thought it should, and he imagined her fingers trembling. Glancing down, he noticed his own hands weren’t exactly steady. And he was suddenly glad the trousers were too large.

  “There.” Her husky voice feathered across him.

  “Thanks,” he replied, and was surprised by his own raspy tone.

  Her gaze flitted from his face and down to his toes, and her cheeks pinkened. “At least you won’t lose them now.”

  At least, not unintentionally.

  “When do we get pie?” Johnny asked.

  “Oh, I forgot. I’ll have to get the kitchen cleaned up first,” she said, flustered.

  “We alre—”

  Jake clamped his palm over Johnny’s mouth. “We already, uh, digested our dinner.”

  Kit looked at him quizzically, then shook her head and hurried out of the bedroom.

  Jake lowered his hand.

  “Why didn’t you let me tell her?” Johnny demanded.

  “Because I want to see her face,” Jake replied. “Come on, let’s go.”

  Johnny grinned and followed Jake down the stairs. Despite the suspenders, Jake kept a firm hold on his trousers. He paused by the door.

  “Ready?” he whispered to the boy.

  Johnny nodded eagerly.

  They burst into the kitchen.

  “Surprise,” Jake exclaimed.

  Kit stood in the middle of the spotless kitchen.

  “When did you have time to clean it up?” she asked, her eyes round behind the spectacles.

  “While we were waiting for our clothes,” Johnny answered. “It was Mr. Cordell’s idea. He said it would shock your drawers off.”

  Kit’s pretty face flushed with embarrassment. “He does have a way with words, doesn’t he? How did you get the tub and barrel out?”

  “Ethan and Charlie did it,” Johnny said.

  She glanced questioningly at Jake.

  “When Ethan brought our clothes in, I asked him if he and Charlie would take care of them,” Jake explained.

  “Thank you,” Kit said sincerely.

  “You’re welcome.” Jake rubbed his palms together. “Now, where’s the pie?”

  “Give me a few minutes to put some fresh coffee on.” She turned to Johnny. “Run out and get the others.”

  The boy dashed out the back door, leaving Jake alone with Kit.

  She bustled about pumping water into the metal pot. After adding some ground coffee, she set the pot on the stove. Leaning over, she reached into the pie pantry and pulled out four tins.

  “I want to thank you for taking care of Johnny,” Kit said, as she cut into the first pie. “He adores you, Jake.”

  “I like him, too,” he said. “Reminds me of me.”

  “Oh?” she commented, her voice breathy.

  “Only Johnny’s got his mother. By the time I was his age, Ma had left Pa and me.”

  Kit’s heart clenched. “I can’t imagine leaving Johnny behind.” She met Jake’s eyes. “I’d want to crawl away and die if I couldn’t be with him.”

  “I wish my mother had felt that way.” A long-abiding sadness showed on his face. “She must’ve really hated me.”

  Kit finished slicing the last pie into fourths, then wiped her hands on her apron. “I can’t imagine a mother hating her own child. It seems so unnatural.”

  “Pa told me one time that some women weren’t made to be mothers, and that my ma was one of them.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “It was probably for the best, anyhow.”

  The solicitude and understanding in Kit’s eyes made him wonder why his mother couldn’t have been more like Kit. It was that all-consuming unconditional love that Jake had searched for all his life and never found.

  Kit reached out and laid her slim hand on his arm, her warmth scorching Jake through his shirtsleeve. “You don’t believe that, and neither do I.” Her gaze became unfocused, as if looking at an image in her mind. “A child needs his mother.”

  Jake settled his hand over hers, enjoying the silky skin beneath his touch. “Maybe I would’ve turned out differently if I’d had mine.”

  The front door opened, and Kit drew away from Jake. Johnny entered the kitchen with the hired men following closely.

  “I got ’em, Ma,” Johnny announced.

  While Kit dished out thick slices of pie, Jake poured coffee. After everyone had eaten their fill, Kit picked up the empty plates.

  “We’d best go check on the horses,” Charlie said as he stood.

  Ethan and Two Ponies also got to their feet, and Kit walked the three men to the door. Jake and Johnny remained sitting by the table.

  “Thanks for dinner and all, Miz Thornton,” Ethan said bashfully, as he worried his hat brim in his hands.

  “You’re more than welcome,” Kit replied with a smile.

  She watched Ethan and Two Ponies walk away, the older Indian speaking to Ethan in his native language. She turned back to Charlie. “Do you need any help with the horses?”

  He shook his head. “We can take care of it. Me and Ethan’ll take turns sleepin’ in the barn in case one of the mares start foalin’.”

  “All right, but remember to come get me.”

  “Don’t we always?” Fond exasperation colored his words.

  Kit grinned ruefully. “Sorry.” She sobered, staring off into the growing dusk. “The note’s due in a couple weeks. If I don’t sell a few horses before then, I’ll lose the place.”

  “You got any buyers?” Charlie asked somberly.

  She shook her head. “Sam Roberts from Cheyenne said he was looking to buy more horses. I sent him a telegram a couple of days ago, but I haven’t heard from him yet.”

  “You got a few others that are always interested in your stock. Maybe you should wire them.”

  “I have. Nobody’s ready to buy yet.” She took a deep shuddering breath. “After all the sweat that’s gone into this place, I can’t lose it now. It’s all I have to give Johnny.”

  “You got a lot more to give to that boy than a piece of land. But I know how much this place means to you, and I ain’t gonna let anyone take it away from you.”

  Kit squeezed Charlie’s hand. “Thanks, but we might not have any choice. Hopefully things will work out.”

  “They always do,” he reassured. “ ’Night, Kit.”

  “Good night, Charlie.”

  Closing the door behind him, Kit returned to the front room. “Have you fed the animals, Johnny?”

  He shook his head, and pushed himself to his feet. “They’re probably hungry.”

  “What animals?” Jake asked curiously.

  “Orphaned and injured ones,” Kit replied. “It’s Johnny’s job to make sure they’re fed and watered every day. I check those that have been hurt and make sure they’re healing all right.”

  “You wanna help me, Mr. Cordell?” Johnny asked.

  “I’d be glad to give you a hand.” Jake glanced at Kit. “Just like I used to help your ma. Back when she was just a few years older than you, I used to help her feed her animals, too. Remember, Kit?”

  She nodded and said teasingly, “I seem to recall you bothering me when I was trying to t
ake care of them.”

  Mock indignation appeared on Jake’s face, and he turned to Johnny. “I’ll have you know your mother used to put me to work filling the water dishes and cleaning out the cages. I even helped her set a few bones.”

  “Did he really, Ma?” Johnny asked.

  Kit smiled. “Yes, he did, sweetheart—and he never complained.”

  Jake winked at Johnny. “At least, not where your ma could hear. How many animals do you have?”

  Johnny began to count them off on his fingers. “There’s Salty and Pepper—my two cats—two rabbits, a squirrel, a possum, and Jasper.” He glanced at his hands. “That makes seven all together.”

  “Who’s Jasper?”

  “A raccoon,” Kit supplied. “His leg was caught in a trap.”

  After Johnny and Jake had left the house, Kit tied an apron about her waist and washed and dried the dishes. The afternoon waned, and Kit went to check on Jake and her son. She entered the barn, closing the door behind her.

  As she waited for her eyes to adjust to the relative dimness, she heard Johnny’s childish giggles and Jake’s deeper chuckles. Before Jake had returned to Chaney, Kit had not allowed herself to imagine father and son together. Now it was all she could think about. It amazed her how quickly Jake had taken to Johnny, since the man had had little contact with children in his line of work.

  Jake Cordell faced the biggest challenge of his career. Upon arriving in town, he’d had a feeling, a sixth sense, that something would happen, something he wouldn’t like, something he’d never imagined could happen.

  He checked his rugged face in the beveled mirror one last time, then slapped his Stetson on his recently trimmed hair. Adjusting the holster on his hip, he hoped he wouldn’t have to use his Colt. Its weight gave him a sense of security, and he strode out of his hotel room down to the street below. His spurs jingled with each confident step, reminding him he was the fearless bounty hunter who never flinched from danger.

  Reaching his destination, he paused, his courage floundering for a moment. Then, valiantly, he squared his broad shoulders, entered the schoolhouse, and came face to face with twenty bright-eyed, awe-filled children.

  Kit moved deeper into the barn. Spying Jake sitting on an overturned bucket, Kit stopped. Salty was leaping up to try to snag Jake’s too-short trousers to climb his leg, while Pepper had planted himself on Jake’s wide shoulder.

  Coming to his rescue, Kit tugged Salty off his leg and cuddled the small animal close to her chest.

  “Looks like you’ve got your hands full,” she said mischievously.

  Jake grimaced as Pepper bumped its tiny head against his chin. “I think they know I don’t like cats.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised. They seem to have a sixth sense about things like that. Besides, in their own way, they’re trying to convince you they’re not so bad.”

  Johnny lifted Pepper from Jake’s shoulder. Salty purred in Kit’s hands, his eyes closing, and Kit lowered herself to the hay-covered floor beside Jake.

  “Why do you still collect them?” Jake asked curiously. “I would think you’d have more than enough to keep you busy.”

  “They needed help.”

  Jake thought for a moment. “Nobody helped you when you were a child, did they?”

  Kit blinked, startled by his observation. “You helped me.”

  “I didn’t do that much, just made sure you were okay and gave you a hand with your pets once in a while,” Jake replied.

  “That was more than anybody else did.” She buried her face in the kitten’s fuzzy coat to hide the moisture in her eyes.

  Jake laid his hand on Kit’s bowed back. “If it’s any consolation, I kept an eye out for you after those boys tripped you that day.”

  She raised her head slowly and nodded. “I know.” She frowned quizzically. “I was only a chubby little girl with crooked glasses. Why would the handsomest boy in town help me?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I saw some of me in you.”

  Kit laid her palm on the kitten’s warm body, and his loud purrs vibrated against her hand. “I had a crush on you.”

  He appeared surprised, then chagrined. “I never knew.”

  “You weren’t supposed to. I would’ve been mortified.” She attempted a rueful smile. “Besides, Jake Cordell and Kit Thornton had nothing in common.”

  Jake cupped her cheek, studying her with sympathetic eyes. “Yes, they did.”

  Kit’s skin tingled beneath his caress. “What?”

  “We were both lonely.”

  Chapter 11

  Kit’s crystal-clear gaze glimmered with disbelief, then acceptance of his words. Jake wondered if she realized how telling her eyes were.

  “I never thought of you as lonely,” she said. “Everyone liked you, and you were always smiling.”

  “You can get away with a lot more if you smile.” He didn’t tell her a smile could also hide a world of hurt; he suspected she already knew.

  “Why did you go to college?”

  Jake thought a moment. He remembered the endless arguments, the angry words he’d exchanged with his father. “Because Judge Cordell ordered me to.”

  “He was your father, Jake. He only wanted what he thought was best for you.” She studied him with a probing, unsettling gaze. “Besides, if you truly didn’t want to go to college, you wouldn’t have.”

  Taken aback by her matter-of-fact comment, Jake kept his face impassive as he shrugged. “Hell, maybe I thought he’d finally notice me.” A harsh laugh escaped him. “He was killed right after I graduated, before I could find out.”

  She curled her long slender fingers around his forearm. “You always had his respect and love, Jake.”

  The conviction in her tone unbalanced him. “If that’s true, why didn’t he tell me?”

  “He wasn’t a man prone to flowery words. He probably thought you knew how he felt.”

  Knowing he shouldn’t, but unable to stop himself, Jake covered her hand with his. “I knew what he thought of me, all right.”

  The lantern’s subdued arc softened her features, blunting her wire-rimmed spectacles. Her concern, like a candle’s glow, swirled around him, encompassing him. He thought of his nightmares, filled with violence, and shuddered. “You don’t know what kind of man I am, the things I’ve seen and done—things you can’t even imagine.”

  She shook her head. “I know more than you think. When you’re on the outside looking in, you watch everything, all the time wondering what made you so different from everybody else. And you learn a lot about people.”

  Sadness reflected in her eyes as she gazed at him, her deceptively delicate chin tilted upward as if daring him to shut her out, too. Strong yet fragile, bold yet tentative, a mother yet an innocent. Kit Thornton was a bundle of contradictions that both intrigued and irritated Jake.

  Unlike other women, she refused to take him at face value, and the chance that she’d find the man beneath the facade disturbed him. The real Jake Cordell was no legend, no herald of justice, and definitely no gentleman.

  “Do you know why it took me six years to hunt down my father’s murderer?” Jake asked.

  Kit shook her head.

  “Because I was afraid I’d fail. My father would’ve tracked him down in a month or two. I took six years. The whole time I could feel my father standing over me, judging me.”

  “But what about all the other outlaws you brought in?”

  “Whenever I lost Ross’s trail, I would concentrate on a different bounty. Then I’d hear my father’s voice, telling me I’d never amount to anything, and I’d get back to looking for Ross.”

  The white kitten in Kit’s lap climbed up to perch on her shoulder. Jake reached forward to lift it down, but she stilled his motion with a shake of her head. “Maybe it wasn’t your father’s voice, but your own,” she said softly. She gazed up at him, a few pieces of straw scattered across her lap and in her flaxen hair. “Why do you really want the ranch, Jake?”<
br />
  “I told you—to raise horses,” he replied irritably.

  She shook her head. “If that were the reason, you could buy another place and do the same thing. Your father’s gone, Jake. You don’t have to prove anything to him; it’s only yourself you have to prove something to.”

  Unwilling to examine her words too closely, Jake said, “You don’t understand.” He glanced over at Johnny, who dangled a string in front of a playful Pepper, then looked back at Kit. “Who was Johnny’s father?” he asked in a low voice.

  Defensiveness sprang to her features. “Why do you want to know?”

  He shrugged. “Curiosity, mainly. You don’t seem the type to put the horse before the carriage.”

  Her wariness eased, replaced by a twinkling of humor. “Or to give the milk without selling the cow?”

  Jake felt unaccountably embarrassed. “Something like that.”

  She stared at her son, who sat on the straw-littered floor out of earshot. Affection glowed in her face as she turned back to Jake. “I adopted him.”

  The unexpected answer shocked Jake. By the love that she showered on the boy, Jake hadn’t even considered they might not be blood kin.

  “What happened?” Jake managed to ask.

  “His mother died shortly after he was born. There was no other family, so I took him in.” She paused, absently petting the mewling kitten curled around the back of her neck. “Johnny doesn’t know. Someday when he’s old enough to understand, I’ll tell him.”

  “So he’s just another stray?”

  She stabbed him with a piercing look. “Even though I didn’t bring him into this world, Johnny is my son.”

  He held up his hands, palms out in surrender. “Sorry. Anyone ever tell you you’re too soft-hearted, Kit?”

  Anger changed her eyes to a stormy gray. “You make caring for someone sound like a curse.”

  “No, not a curse, more like a millstone around your neck.”

  Her defensiveness slid away. “Loving someone isn’t a burden, it’s a blessing.”