High Noon: A Sweet Romance (Red Canyon Series Book 3)

by Laura Westbrook

  On the inside, Lynn thought how much of a cartoon the guy was, but on the outside, she said to her neighbor, “How impressive!”

  The man pointed to Rayleigh and said, “You there. How would you like to go visit your family out east, let’s say in Philadelphia, and not take half your natural life to get there? This is now obtainable with the railroad system.”

  “That sounds divine,” Rayleigh murmured.

  “And you, sir. How would you feel riding along in style at twenty-three miles per hour even with a two hundred and fifty thousand pound load on the drivers? Incredible.”

  “I would like that,” Jasper said in a dull tone that wouldn’t win him any acting awards.

  Lynn reminded herself to pay attention to the customer crowd, and she saw that more people were trickling in than leaving. Folks seemed to like the show just as much as the other one, which shocked her. The small crowd had even reached a layering system, where some sat in front, mostly on nearby steps or benches, while others stood behind them, where available.

  Most people were dressed in casual clothes like shorts and T-shirts. The day was slightly cooler for the season, but people still dressed lightly, with only two or three people wearing as much as jeans or pants. This made it seem all the more strange when a man in a charcoal-gray suit pants and a button-up dress shirt walked up.

  He looked completely out of place, but it helped when he unbuttoned the buttons at his wrist and rolled up his sleeves. The necktie soon followed as he loosened it. Just above his neck, though, was blocked by the branch of a lone tree standing between the two of them. His frame looked like Luke, but that couldn’t be. His first full day at his new job would be today, and it wouldn’t make any sense to come back here at all. What would he have to come back to?

  The man in the bowler hat continued prattling along, singing the praises of a train that nobody cared about. Lynn couldn’t have been less interested, but the man in the crowd had her attention. She was staring so intently that she almost missed her lines.

  “Does anyone have any questions?”

  Lynn knew it was her time to talk, but she risked one more glance behind her. In that moment, the man stepped out in front of the branch and managed to loosen his tie. It’s him.

  Luke smiled, but she wasn’t sure what or who he was smiling at. It didn’t matter. He was there. That was what mattered.

  Why in the world is he here? She wasn’t looking to question a good thing, but it still bewildered her.

  “Does anyone have any questions?” The man on stage asked a second time with more emphasis.

  “Yes,” Lynn said, then continued in a louder voice. “But is it safe? My cousin in Boston wrote to me and said trains aren’t safe. Why, a man got trampled by the wheels of one last month. A tragedy.”

  That was it. That was her moment in the spotlight. She turned to make sure he’d noticed her stellar performance. It seemed like he had. He hadn’t stopped smiling.

  “What a handsome question,” the man in the bowler hat said. “I’d love to take up the rest of your afternoon to tell you all the success stories of what safety the railway industry has accomplished, but I don’t want to take up all of your time. Rest your thoughts to know that riding a locomotive is the safest mode of transportation alive today. Just the other day, I was struck with the thought…”

  His voice faded into the background as Lynn edged to turn around again. Thoughts raced through her mind, drowning everything else out. Did Luke notice that Jasper was back? Jasper was deeper in the crowd, so she wasn’t quite sure if Luke knew he was there at all. This might be the only opportunity for Luke to see him, the only salvaged element of what she’d hoped yesterday would’ve been.

  If Luke saw him, maybe he could guess that she was the cause of it, or at least had helped to put it together. Even if so, she wasn’t exactly expecting him to swoop in with a kiss, but at least she might have made up for some of it.

  The scene continued on, allowing the man on stage to get plenty more dialogue in. He barely seemed to breathe between lines. She couldn’t imagine being around someone with that much flamboyant energy. It probably would get on her nerves before the end of day one. He struck the poster with his pointer as he flipped the next several pages, explaining each in turn.

  Finally, the scene finished with the man presenting the pitch of needing investors for the railway to pass through their fictional town. Several hands went up with enthusiasm, and thankfully, she didn’t have to be one of them. She just wanted the scene to hurry up and end. She glanced behind her in Luke’s direction.

  “Thank you!” the man said. “I’ll now meet with all the soon-to-be lucrative investors here behind the podium. Wise choice. To everyone else, thank you for listening, and we look forward to you being our future patrons.”

  Finally! It ended. She felt ready to burst with bottled up energy. The crowd on both sides of the acting aisle started to dissipate, with the face characters expected to do so at a slower pace, melting into the street and back to business as usual.

  She glanced around, wondering who might notice if she darted out of the crowd with a purposeful walk and a target in mind. With her heart rate picking up, she struggled to take deep breaths with her chest confined by the corset. She tugged at it in a futile attempt to loosen it. With a few people in the way, she had to weave her way along without making it look like she was in a hurry. With only a little bit to go, a customer opened her mouth and seemed ready to launch into a question, and with Lynn’s luck, a lengthy one.

  “My daughter is writing a report for a school assignment. Could she ask you what life was like back then?” The woman stared straight ahead as she asked her question, and only then did Lynn notice that Rayleigh was standing just behind her.

  “It would be my pleasure,” Rayleigh said with a flourish. “Although I’m not terribly book smart for school writings and such. What would you like to know?”

  Lynn could’ve hugged her for taking the question, whether Rayleigh knew what was going on or not. Lynn didn’t let the opportunity pass her by and looped around the mother, reaching Luke, who stood leaning against the tree. His casual pose made it seem like he didn’t have a care in the world. He could’ve at least met her part way, but perhaps it was for the best that they weren’t near everyone else.

  “This way.” He tilted his head toward an alley between two nearby buildings.

  With a glance in either direction, she followed him into the narrow walkway until they were deep enough that nobody could see them anymore. The situation was growing more mysterious by the moment.

  “What are you doing here?” Lynn asked once they’d stopped moving.

  He grinned. “Do I need a reason to stop by as a paying customer and see my old friends?”

  “Well, you don’t exactly work here anymore, and today’s your first day at your new job.” She looked his fancy clothes up and down for emphasis.

  “You’ve got me there. To be honest, I didn’t come to see everyone. Just one person, really.”

  “Who’s that?” It felt like time slowed to a crawl once she said it, and everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

  “You. I came to see you. Probably not the best thing to do on my first day, but I needed to.”

  She’d wanted to hear those words for so long, but it was another thing altogether to hear them. Her hands felt a little tingly as her adrenaline kicked in. This was it. This was the moment.

  “Why would you want to see me? You haven’t been too happy with me.” Did he see Jasper just now? He had to.

  “Part of it is because I knew the performance was happening today and I wanted to see if you had any lines. Great performance, by the way.”

  She refused to blush. It wasn’t all that great. Just a general crowd scene without much blocking or rehearsal. Although, it was her first time with actual lines. Not everyone received lines.

  “And you look incredible,” he continued. “I’ve never seen you in a dress like that before�
�the whole setup and everything.”

  “Thanks,” she managed to get out.

  “Beautiful. Regal like a princess…or a queen.”

  He shifted his weight. Thankfully, the ground between these buildings was dry. “The other part is because I talked to Jasper.”

  She looked up at him. He seemed so tall and handsome right then. She felt another defining moment coming on. “When?”

  “Yesterday. Not everyone here knows how to get a hold of me, but Jasper has my number. He told me all about how you fought for him to get his job back, and he says you’re the reason why he’s here. And seeing how he’s in the performance and had a line, it seems he’s not being overlooked for parts.”

  He looked like he was about to move closer, maybe to put his arm around her, but he stopped short. “Did you do that purely to help Jasper out?”

  She wanted to say yes, but she settled with shaking her head. “To be honest, no. Not just for that. I also did it because I wanted you to not be upset with me anymore.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because I like you.” She almost clapped her hand over her mouth. She couldn’t believe it had slipped out that easily. But it was the truth, and she couldn’t exactly take it back now.

  “I like you too,” he said slowly.

  “Really?”

  “Really. I knew I liked you back when we first met, and I was excited to get to know you. It’s just…other things got in the way.”

  She looked down. “Yeah, you’re right. I think it was mainly a bad timing thing.”

  He reached out and took her hand. “That’s the thing. Bad timing can be fixed.”

  Her hand felt so perfect in his, like two puzzle pieces that had been made for each other at the factory finally snapping into place together. “How do you propose we do that?”

  “Talk to each other. Get to know each other more. Continue what we were doing before we were interrupted.”

  She smiled. “I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”

  He gave her hand a squeeze. “How about we start with dinner tomorrow night? We’ll take things one step at a time and see how it goes.”

  “Just as long as it’s not cafeteria food.”

  He laughed. Whenever he did, his eyes looked even more blue. “You’re on. Anything other than that.”

  She figured she had another ten minutes or so until anyone might figure out that she wasn’t working. When it finally came time for him to head back to his desk job, she hated for it to end, but he’d already been gone longer than he probably should have. They both pushed the envelope to spend that last few minutes together, simply talking about everything and nothing.

  It hardly felt real, finally having his attention again, his conversation, his smile. There had been a few bumps in the road, but the destination made it all worth it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “And how would you like that prepared?” the waiter asked, glancing up from his order book.

  Lynn placed the wineglass down onto the tablecloth. “Medium rare, please.”

  “And for you, sir?”

  “I’ll do the same,” Luke said. “Medium rare.”

  The waiter collected the menus. “Very good. Your appetizer will be out shortly.”

  Lynn adjusted the way the dress she wore lay across her legs. It was warmer out that day, so it fit right in with the weather. “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”

  “Don’t you like it?”

  She swept her gaze across the view. The patio seating area of the restaurant butted close to a small canyon, a chasm that looked like a giant had split the ground with an ax head. The way the dying light of the evening struck the side of it featured all the different layers and colors of the soil before disappearing into the depths. It was a perfect example of raw, untamed Arizona beauty.

  “Of course I like it. It’s just so…much.” In truth, it was the nicest restaurant she’d ever been to. When a girl’s norm for eating out was bar food and burger joints, dinner with wineglasses and tablecloths was a world apart. They’d had to drive forty-five minutes out of Red Canyon to get to the place, but she enjoyed it. It gave them a chance to talk the entire way there.

  “It’s good to have nice things now and then,” Luke said. “Especially when there’s such lovely company.”

  “I’ve heard about this place before. I think it was in the newspaper when it first opened. With rave reviews, of course. Have you been here before?”

  “No, I haven’t. I guess I was waiting for a special occasion. After dinner, we could go down to the observation area down by the edge. I heard they have the whole area lit up at night.”

  “That would be fun. I’m up for that.”

  She buried her face in her wineglass and took another sip. It tasted far more bitter than the beers she was used to, but it was nice in its own way. She doubted they even served the brand of beer she usually drank. Trying new things certainly didn’t hurt.

  “You look beautiful by the way. I like that dress on you. Is it new?”

  Actually, it was. She had purchased it specifically for that date. She went with a light blue color to match his eyes. “Thank you. It is. I’m glad you like it.”

  As she placed the burgundy colored napkin in her lap, she had to adjust her dress again. She wasn’t used to having a napkin in her lap, much less the dress along with it. But at least she’d gotten practice lately with being a face character and wearing everything Vanessa had put her in.

  He didn’t look too shabby himself. He wore a khaki-colored sports jacket that matched well with his dark pants. His short hair was just long enough to be combed in a striking way, unlike how he usually wore it. Admittedly, wearing a hat destroyed any hairdo in seconds, and he’d worn one every day at the park. He was well put-together and handsome with still a hint of that Old West sheriff in there somewhere.

  She noticed him admiring her again, and she returned the smile. Maybe wearing dresses wasn’t so bad, after all.

  Want to start another series? Check out the blurb below and then click here to start reading.

  Here’s the summary for All That Glitters: A Sweet Romance, book one in the Manhattan Lights Series:

  * * *

  What happens when you fall for your boss even when you shouldn’t?

  Stacey Moore just got laid off from her retail job and needs rent money or else she’ll be living on the streets of New York City. Desperate, she applies to work at a jewelry store which caters to wealthy clients even though she knows nothing about jewelry and hates snobby people.

  Blake Tomlinson, the owner, gives her a break and hires her despite her wretched interview. He’s kind, smart, and handsome—everything Stacey ever wanted in a man. The only problem is the co-owner, Lori Tomlinson, who makes Cinderella’s step-mom look like a saint. Although he has no ring on his finger and the two owners don’t act married, she’s terrified of making assumptions and has nobody else to ask.

  She has no idea whether she’s heading into a disaster or the worst misunderstanding ever. Or both.

  If you enjoy sweet romance stories with happily ever afters, no cliffhangers, and a big city setting, then you’ll love this first installment in Laura Westbrook’s heartwarming series.

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