Redwing's Lady
Stella Bagwell
HE'S WANTED HER FOR YEARS…The handsome, chiseled features of the Ute Indian gave no hint of emotion, but under his professional demeanor Deputy Daniel Redwing was riled. Wealthy widow Maggie Ketchum was out of his league, but the flaming redhead was also driving him out of his mind. How could he persuade her that they were destined to be together?Maggie had to agree that the attraction between her and Daniel was breathtakingly mutual, but the risk of loving and losing again was great–and she had her son to think about. Still, the stoic yet sizzling Redwing not only tempted her–he made her feel she was his destiny….
He was a lawman.
He faced dangerous people with guns and knives and every sort of weapon they could get their hands on. But none of them had shaken him the way that this woman did…. He desperately wanted to put his hands on her arms or shoulders—anywhere, so long as he was touching her.
“What are you thinking?” he asked quietly.
The nearness of his voice surprised her….
She whirled around and backed her hands behind her on the edge of the sink. She wanted, no, needed, for the meal to be over and for Deputy Daniel Redwing to be gone. Otherwise she would be unable to keep her eyes from straying to his lips, her senses from remembering every reckless second she’d spent in his arms…and her heart from wishing that things could be different.
Dear Reader,
It’s hot and sunny in my neck of the woods—in other words, perfect beach reading weather! And we at Silhouette Special Edition are thrilled to start off your month with the long-awaited new book in New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber’s Navy series, Navy Husband. It features a single widowed mother; her naval-phobic sister, assigned to care for her niece while her sister is in the service; and a handsome lieutenant commander who won’t take no for an answer! In this case, I definitely think you’ll find this book worth the wait….
Next, we begin our new inline series, MOST LIKELY TO…, the story of a college reunion and the about-to-be-revealed secret that is going to change everyone’s lives. In The Homecoming Hero Returns by Joan Elliott Pickart, a young man once poised for athletic stardom who chose marriage and fatherhood instead finds himself face-to-face with the road not taken. In Stella Bagwell’s next book in her MEN OF THE WEST series, Redwing’s Lady, a Native American deputy sheriff and a single mother learn they have more in common than they thought. The Father Factor by Lilian Darcy tells the story of the reunion between a hotshot big-city corporate lawyer who’s about to discover the truth about his father—and a woman with a secret of her own. If you’ve ever bought a lottery ticket, wondering, if just once, it could be possible…be sure to grab Ticket to Love by Jen Safrey, in which a pizza waitress from Long Island is sure that if she isn’t the lucky winner, it must be the handsome stranger in town. Last, new-to-Silhouette author Jessica Bird begins THE MOOREHOUSE LEGACY, a miniseries based on three siblings who own an upstate New York inn, with Beauty and the Black Sheep. In it, responsible sister Frankie Moorehouse wonders if just this once she could think of herself first as soon as she lays eyes on her temporary new chef.
So keep reading! And think of us as the dog days of August begin to set in….
Toodles,
Gail Chasan
Senior Editor
Redwing’s Lady
Stella Bagwell
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To my dear sister-in-law, Dorothy Sutmiller.
Love you!
STELLA BAGWELL
sold her first book to Silhouette in November 1985. More than fifty novels later, she still loves her job and says she isn’t completely content unless she’s writing. Recently, she and her husband of thirty years moved from the hills of Oklahoma to Seadrift, Texas, a sleepy little fishing town located on the coastal bend. Stella says the water, the tropical climate and the seabirds make it a lovely place to let her imagination soar and to put the stories in her head down on paper.
She and her husband have one son, Jason, who lives and teaches high school math in nearby Port Lavaca.
UTE LEGEND OF THE BEAR DANCE
The origin of the Bear Dance can be traced back to the fifteenth century, when the Spaniards first came upon the Utes in springtime. As the Ute legend goes, two brothers were out hunting. When they became tired and lay down to rest, one of the men noticed a bear standing upright and facing a tree. The animal was dancing and making a noise while clawing the tree. The one brother ignored the animal and went on hunting, while the other brother continued to be mesmerized by the bear. The bear taught the young man the song he was singing and the dance that went with it. He told the young man to return to his people and teach them the dance and the songs of the bear. The songs would show respect for the spirit of the bear and that respect would make his people strong.
Each spring, the Bear Dance allowed the Ute people to release their tensions. After the fourth day of great celebrating, the men and women would leave a plume on a cedar tree, which meant they could leave their troubles behind and start life anew.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter One
Deputy Daniel Redwing skidded to a stop in front of the rambling log ranch house and jumped from the pickup truck. Red dust continued to boil up from the tires, settling on his black Stetson and the khaki shirt stretched across his broad shoulders. It was late spring in northern New Mexico and already the high desert was thirsting for rain.
Maggie Ketchum was fumbling wildly with the latch of her yard gate. As he strode quickly in her direction, he noticed how the hot afternoon breeze was blowing bright red strands of her hair into her face.
He was halfway there when she finally managed to fling open the gate and rush toward him. She looked terror stricken as she exclaimed, “Deputy Redwing! What are you doing here?”
Daniel stopped short. Maybe the call had been a hoax, he thought hopefully. This was one time he wished like hell it had been. “Didn’t you telephone the sheriff’s office for help?”
Swiping a hand at her tangled hair, she nodded vigorously. “Yes! But I thought Jess was coming. I specifically asked for him!”
Daniel flared his nostrils slightly, but that was the only outward emotion he displayed at her comment. Jess Hastings was Maggie’s brother-in-law and a damn good undersheriff for San Juan County. But Daniel wasn’t inept. Or maybe she hadn’t meant to imply that at all. He tried to be fair. The woman was obviously stressed to the point of breaking. Having her brother-in-law with her at a time like this would be more of a comfort than the chief deputy of the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department.
“Sorry,” he told her. “I figured you knew Jess was out of town. He and Sheriff Perez are down in Santa Fe at an emergency management meeting.” He stepped closer. “The dispatcher said your call had something to do with Aaron missing. Have you found him yet?”
Aaron was Maggie’s nine-year-old son and the only child she’d had with Hugh Ketchum before he’d been killed in a ranching accident with a bull. This woman had already been through one tragedy in her young life. Daniel couldn’t imagine her going through two.
“No!” she wailed, then lowering her head, she pressed a hand over her eyes and muttered, “Oh God, Daniel, I don’t know what to do! I’ve looked everywhere—the ranch hands are scouring the mesa, but they haven’t found him!”
A sob stuck in her throat, but she choked it back and lifted her head to look at him with pleading blue eyes. At that moment Daniel wanted to step forward and pull her into his arms. But then, that was something he’d wanted to do with the Ketchum widow for months now—ever since he’d come to the T Bar K to investigate Noah Rider’s murder.
For several years now, he’d known of Maggie Ketchum. Every now and then he would spot Hugh’s pretty widow in town, going about the business of shopping and running errands. She was a member of the rich Ketchum family, a family that had settled in San Juan County more than sixty years ago and established the T Bar K Ranch, a range of property that took up a big hunk of northern New Mexico. Three sons and one daughter had been born to Tucker and Amelia Ketchum: Hugh, Seth, Ross and Victoria. Only the last three members of the family were living, and they co-owned the ranch, along with Maggie, who had inherited Hugh’s share after his untimely death.
Daniel had never expected to meet Maggie face-to-face. She was hardly the type of woman who moved in a county deputy’s social circle. But almost a year ago, the remains of Noah Rider, a one-time foreman of the T Bar K, had been discovered on the Ketchum property. As a result, Daniel had been handed the job of interviewing some of the family members who lived on the ranch. Maggie had been one of them. And he hadn’t been able to forget her since.
“Calm down, Maggie. We’ll find him. But first I need to ask you a few things. Let’s go to the porch—out of the sun,” he suggested.
She nodded jerkily, and he took her by the upper arm and led her through the wooden gate and across a small yard kept green by sprinklers. One end of the elevated porch was shaded by a ponderosa pine. Daniel guided her to the cooler shadows where rattan furniture was grouped in a cozy circle.
After helping her into one of the chairs, he took a seat to her right and eased his Stetson off his head.
Watching his slow, purposeful movements caused Maggie to erupt with impatience. “We’re wasting time sitting here like this!” she argued. “We need to be out looking! And I still would have been searching if I hadn’t taken the time to come here to the house to call the sheriff’s department!”
Seeing she was on the verge of becoming hysterical, Daniel reached for her hand and gripped it tightly. “Look, Maggie, it doesn’t do any good to run about searching here and there without any sort of direction or reason.”
She stared at him with wild blue eyes. “That’s easy for you to say! You don’t have a child! You don’t know what it’s like to think he might—”
“Stop it, Maggie!” he interrupted roughly. “If you want to find Aaron you’ve got to get a grip on yourself and help me. Do you understand?”
His sternness seemed to get through to her, and her shoulders sagged as she nodded dutifully. “Yes. I’m sorry, Deputy Redwing. It’s just that I’m so worried and—”
He squeezed her hand. “You called me Daniel a minute ago,” he said gently. “Why don’t you keep it that way? And there would be something wrong with you if you weren’t worried. So now that we understand each other, tell me when Aaron went missing.”
She drew in a deep, shuddering breath, then released it. “I don’t know.”
“Okay,” he said, then started over again. “When was the last time you saw your son?”
“About eleven-thirty. He finished his lunch and then asked me if he could go down to the ranch yard to visit with Skinny. I gave him permission and told him to be back home by one.”
Skinny was the oldest ranch hand on the T Bar K. Somewhere in his seventies, the man had worked for the Ketchum family for as long as he and everyone else on the ranch could remember. The old cowboy was good at telling tall tales, and all the kids loved him. Daniel figured it wasn’t unusual for Aaron to go for a daily visit with Skinny.
Glancing at his wristwatch, he noticed it was nearly three. “Does Skinny know when Aaron left the ranch yard?”
She shook her head. “He says that Aaron never showed up. So I can only assume that for some reason or other he never went there.”
The T Bar K Ranch was an enormous property of more than a hundred thousand acres with the ranch house and working headquarters nestled among the foothills of the San Juan Mountains. The nearest neighbors lived miles away, and since none of them had children, Daniel doubted very much that Aaron had headed to any one of the bordering properties, but there was always a remote chance.
“Do you think someone might have picked him up…and…and kidnapped him?” Maggie stammered out the fearful thought that had been going around in her head all afternoon.
No doubt about it, the Ketchums were a rich family, Daniel thought. They’d be able to pay a huge ransom to get one of their own back into the family fold. But Daniel didn’t believe any such evil thing had happened, and he quickly shook his head to allay Maggie’s fears.
“No. The only strangers who come here on the ranch are cattle or horse buyers—not perverts out to kidnap a little boy.”
She gripped his hand and leaned toward him as though she needed to be closer to make him understand her fears. Daniel could have told her he was already feeling her pain. It radiated from her eyes and emanated from the rigid lines of her body.
“But how can you be so sure? Noah Rider was murdered on this place, and nobody knew it for a long time! And even then—”
“Maggie!” he gently scolded. “Forget about all that. It’s in the past. Noah was killed by an old acquaintance—Rube Dawson. He was a blackmailer who didn’t want to lose his illicit income. Rube’s serving his time in prison, and that crime has nothing to do with Aaron. Now tell me, were you and your son getting along all right at lunchtime? Was he angry at you about anything in the past few days?”
Going still, she looked him directly in the eye. “You think he’s run away.”
Daniel nodded, and as soon as he did, he could see tears flood her blue eyes. The sight cut him right through the heart.
“Maybe.”
She looked away from him and swallowed hard. “Aaron didn’t seem to be upset at lunch,” she said in a strained voice. “He seemed fine. But he was angry with me yesterday. I wouldn’t allow him to go on a weekend camping trip with a group of boys.”
“Why?”
She frowned. “What does that have to do with anything? It won’t tell us where Aaron is.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” he said smoothly. “Right now I need every bit of information to go on. And I mean everything,” he repeated firmly.
Once again she breathed deeply and tried to brace herself against the swell of terror washing over her. “All right. I didn’t allow Aaron to go because the trip was going to be with a group of teenagers. And since Aaron is only nine, I didn’t really want him to be exposed to the language and behavior that would be going on behind the chaperones’ backs.”
“He’s got to hear it sometime.”
Maggie grimaced. “Yes. But I’d rather it be later. So I told him he couldn’t go and to forget about it. Of course he came back with the usual things that kids say when they’re angry. That I was mean to him. That I didn’t want him to have any fun. That I wouldn’t let him do anything because I—”
She suddenly stopped, and her eyes fell to their coupled hands. Daniel wondered if she was noticing the stark difference between their skins. His, dark copper-brown; hers, milk-white. Daniel was a Ute Indian, from the Weeminuche band, something he didn’t much think about—until he was with this woman.
“Because you what?” he prodded.
Her head shook slightly back and forth. “Because I was too scared—that I was afraid he would be killed in an accident—like his father.”
Whether that was true or not didn’t matter at the moment, Daniel decided. Aaron obviously believed his mother was overprotective, and he figured the boy had lashed out at her by disappearing.
“We’ll find him, Maggie.” Rising from the chair, he helped her to her feet. “Did you see him when he left the house to go down to the ranch yard?”
“No. I heard the back door slam. I didn’t bother to look. I was busy in the kitchen.”
Daniel frowned. “You say the back door? If he were going to walk down the road to the ranch yard, the front door would have made more sense. Would you take me around to the back of the house so I can have a look around there?”
“Certainly,” she said, and motioned for him to follow her.
Daniel remained a few steps behind her as they walked off the porch and around one end of the log house. Although he was absorbing the surroundings as they walked, he also couldn’t help but notice the slight sway of Maggie Ketchum’s hips. She was wearing a pair of faded Levi’s that molded to her bottom like the seat of a worn saddle. A pale pink T-shirt outlined breasts that were rounded and full and jiggled ever so slightly as she walked. She was a voluptuous woman. The kind that men wanted in their arms and their bed.
He couldn’t deny that he’d wanted her from the very first time he’d met her. But he’d carefully kept his attraction to himself. Daniel didn’t get involved with women. Not in a serious way. After watching his mother go through the misery and degradation of being deserted by his father, Daniel didn’t want any part of marriage or the responsibility that went with it.
But even if he hadn’t been soured by Robert Redwing’s behavior, even if he decided he had what it took to be a husband and father, he was smart enough to know that Maggie Ketchum was way out of his reach. She rubbed shoulders with the well-to-do. She could have most any man she wanted. There was no way she would ever want a Ute Indian, who’d grown up hard on the reservation and now lived modestly on a deputy’s income.
“There’s nothing back here, really,” Maggie said, swinging her arm toward a wooden deck furnished with a group of redwood lawn furniture.
Pulling his thoughts back to the moment, Daniel glanced briefly at the back door of the house and the deck that was obviously used for family gatherings. He was more interested in the small gate that opened into a thick stand of ponderosa pine.
“Where does that trail go?” Daniel asked her.
Maggie glanced toward the quiet path that was cushioned by a thick layer of yellow pine needles.
“Oh, it goes for about a hundred yards, then dips down to a meadow where we pasture a few horses. A mare that I ride on occasion, her colt, then Aaron’s gelding, Rusty, and then another gelding.”
“Does Aaron ever go down to the meadow?”
“Sure. He goes there a lot. To visit the horses. And it’s also his job in the evening to feed them their grain. This trail ends at a small barn. That’s where we keep our saddles and tack. Aaron plays around there at times. But I went as far as the barn and called for him. He wasn’t there.”
Her voice trembled as she answered his questions. As Daniel watched her swallow and struggle to compose herself, it was like having a knife stuck in his chest, and the blade just kept twisting and turning. The reaction to her pain was enough in itself to scare the hell out of him.
He didn’t really know Maggie Ketchum all that well. He’d talked to her three, four, maybe five times on the telephone during the Rider investigation. Also, during those long weeks, he’d had two rather lengthy interviews with her. But even those visits had not given him much insight into the beautiful woman behind the sad blue eyes. Yet from the very first time he’d seen her, he’d felt an overwhelming attraction that had only grown over the past few months.
“What about the horses?” he asked. “Did you see all of them?”
“No. At the back of the meadow there’s another grove of trees. When it’s hot, the horses are usually back there for shade. But I didn’t look, I took it for granted that they were there.”
Daniel glanced down at her feet to see she was wearing a pair of sandals. “Maybe you’d better go change your shoes to something sturdier. I think we need to walk down to the meadow and take a look.”
“All right. But what…what are you thinking? Do you think he’s left on one of the horses?”
“If I were still a little boy and I wanted to run away, that’s how I’d do it.” Taking her by the shoulder, he turned her toward the house. “Get ready. I’m going to go use the radio to call in more help. I’ll meet you back here in a couple of minutes.”
Nodding, she ran toward the house. Daniel hurried back to his vehicle to radio the sheriff’s department back in Aztec.
A few minutes later he found Maggie waiting for him by the gate. She was wearing a pair of cowboy boots and had a crumpled straw hat on her head. He was glad to see she was composed enough to think of shielding herself from the elements.
“Three more officers are coming. They’re going to comb the outer perimeters of the ranch, just in case he decided to go to a neighbor’s place,” Daniel told her.
Unlatching the wooden gate, he ushered her through. As they walked single file down the winding trail with Maggie in the lead, she said, “I just can’t believe Aaron could be so spiteful. He’s never given me any sort of problem. Not about obeying me…not with school…not anything.”
“Maybe this time he was more hurt than you realized,” Daniel suggested.
She didn’t reply. But Daniel could see her hand swiping the region of her eyes. The sight touched him, and as they hurried down the trail, he prayed the boy would show up soon.
When they reached the barn, they could see the horses grazing some two hundred yards away in a far corner of the meadow. It took Maggie only a moment to scan the herd and announce that Aaron’s horse, Rusty, was not among them.
“Let’s see if his saddle is missing, too,” Daniel suggested.
Maggie raced into the barn and jerked opened a wooden door to a small room where several saddles hung from ropes attached to the rafters. Bridles, bits, spurs, reins and other riding paraphernalia hung in neat rows along the walls. A stack of folded blankets and saddle pads filled one end of a crudely made counter running along the back wall of the small room.
“His saddle is gone,” Maggie grimly announced. She went over to the stack of blankets and ran her hands along the folds. “So are his favorite blankets. Dear God, he’s taken off on horseback! By himself!”
The idea that he’d gone off alone without her permission stunned Maggie, and all she could do was stare in disbelief at Deputy Redwing.
“Well, better that than going down to the county road and trying to hitch a ride with a stranger,” Daniel told her.
He walked out of the barn and looked down at the hard-packed earth. There were very few discernable tracks, but as he moved out away from the structure, the soil became looser and he eventually spotted small boot tracks accompanied by a set of four matching horseshoes.
Careful to stay out of his way, Maggie followed a few steps behind him and tried to keep her tears at bay. She was more than frightened now, she was angry that her son could have done something so defiant and hurtful.
“It looks like he mounted up here and rode off toward the north,” Daniel declared after a few moments. “Is there anything in that direction he might be going to? Like a cabin?”
Maggie shook her head. “No. There’re only more mountains in that direction. Ross Ketchum, my brother-in-law, runs a few cattle up there in the dead of summer when the grass is on, but other than that there’s nothing.”
Daniel glanced up at the sun. “Aaron probably left when he told you he was going to see Skinny. That means he’s been gone for hours. On a horse, he could have gotten far.”
Maggie closed her eyes for a brief, painful second. “I know,” she said hoarsely. “What are we going to do?”
“I think the best thing we can do is to saddle up a couple of your horses and try to follow his tracks. Are you up to it?”
The question prompted her to look at him. She’d only met Daniel Redwing a few months ago and she still wasn’t sure whether she liked the man or not. He had a spare way of talking that often left her trying to read his mind, and when he looked at her with those dark-brown eyes of his, she felt very unsettled, almost feverish. But he was a good lawman. She’d heard Jess, her brother-in-law, praise him many times and right now her son’s well-being depended on the man.
“Of course!” she answered. “But do you think we can catch up to him before dark?”
“Hopefully. If not, we’ll get dogs and lights. We’ll find him one way or the other, Maggie. Trust me.”
Yes, she had to trust him. Right now he was the best hope she had of finding her runaway son.
Daniel quickly whistled up the horses, and in a matter of minutes they had saddled two mounts and were headed north into the mountains. Maggie was careful to ride a few steps behind the deputy as he leaned over in the saddle and scoured the ground for any signs of Rusty’s tracks.
Most of the time the imprints were faint, and a few times they disappeared altogether, but somehow Daniel seemed to anticipate the route her son had taken and would manage to pick up the signs again.
As they climbed higher into the rough mountains, Maggie grew even more frightened for her son’s safety. Especially with the sun dipping lower and lower in the western sky.
They continued to push the horses up the steep grade, and Maggie voiced her fears to Daniel. “There’re bears up here, Daniel. If Aaron runs onto a cub and the mother is around, he’ll—” She couldn’t finish. The image was too gruesome to speak aloud.
“Bears are usually frightened by horses. I wouldn’t worry about them too much.”
She knew his words were meant to comfort, but they did little to relieve her fears. Deputy Redwing didn’t have a wife or children. He didn’t know what it was like to lose a spouse. Aaron was all she had. Now that Hugh was gone, he was the only thing she lived for. If something happened to him, she didn’t think she would want to go on, or even could go on.
Up ahead of her, Daniel suddenly pulled his horse to a stop and held up his hand in a gesture for her to stop.
Maggie pulled on the mare’s reins. “What’s wrong? Have the tracks disappeared?”
“No. Something happened here. I need to get down and take a look.”
Fear rose like bile in Maggie’s throat, but she tried her best to swallow it down. “What do you mean something happened?”
Daniel climbed out of the saddle and Maggie quickly did the same. Keeping a tight hold on the mare’s reins, she stood, waiting for him to explain. Instead he ignored her question as he stepped away from her and the horses and began to examine a nearby spot on the ground.
As she watched him squat on one knee and brush at the fallen leaves, she gritted her teeth and tried to be patient. But after a few more moments of silence, she said, “I hate to sound critical, but this isn’t the Wild West anymore. Indian scouts and trackers have been replaced with technology.”
Rising to his feet, he gave her a brief glance before he walked to another spot and carefully studied the ground. “Is that so?”
Her throat was unbearably dry, and she swallowed uselessly as she swiped a hand against her sweaty brow. “You know that it’s so.”
He came back to stand a few steps from her. Maggie breathed deeply through her nostrils as she studied his striking bronze features: the high cheekbones, the hawkish nose, the wide forehead and the strong squared jaws. He had to be somewhere near thirty, but when she looked into his eyes she saw a much older man, a man with all sorts of thoughts and secrets and dreams.
“Maggie, this land—these mountains have not changed in a hundred, even two hundred years. The horse your son is riding is still the same as the ones that outlaws and cowboys rode when New Mexico was still just a territory. Tell me, please, how technology is going to help out here, right now?”
Pink color tinged her cheeks. “Well, there are all sorts of things…like a helicopter.”
Daniel shook his head. “I’ve already thought of a chopper. The forest is too thick, they’d never get a look through the canopy of trees.”
“He might come out in the open,” she suggested hopefully.
“He might. But I doubt it. Your son is on foot now. His horse has bolted.”
She stared at him, not wanting to believe him, but very afraid he was right.
“Look, Daniel, I know that some Native Americans believe in visions. My sister-in-law, Bella, has a godmother who often ‘sees’ things, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re capable of it.”
The curve of his hard lips pressed into a thin line, and Maggie knew that she had offended him, but she couldn’t help it. Now was not the time to use Indian folklore. Her son’s life was at stake!
“I am a Ute. I’m personally not gifted enough to see things beyond my sight. But I can track most anything. There are signs on the ground here that tell me many things. They can’t be ignored.”
His firm, clipped words struck her like stones, and tears pooled in her eyes. She was ashamed that she had offended this man, and she was also very, very frightened. The combination was more than enough to make her break into sobs.
Drawing in a deep, shaky breath, she wiped her eyes with the back of her arm and fought off the urge to simply collapse. “I…I’m sorry, Daniel. Please…tell me. Tell me what you believe is going on with my son.”
His brown hand wrapped around her upper arm, and without a word he led her over to the two areas he’d inspected a few moments earlier. “See, your son was standing here. There’re the imprints of his boot heels. His horse was here beside him. You can see the tracks of the gelding’s shoes where he stood. But then, here the ground is scraped where the hooves dug deep. The horse was spooked or agitated and took off at a gallop up the mountain.”
Yes. Now that he’d shown her, she could see the story, too. “You’re right,” she replied as her mind whirled with possibilities, none of which was pleasant. “But couldn’t Aaron have mounted up before the horse ran away? How do you know he’s on foot?”
“Because the boot heels follow the horses tracks. See there?”
He pointed to a dim trail winding through the trees. The horse’s hoof prints were visible to her, but not her son’s. Yet she didn’t argue with the deputy. She’d already learned her lesson about that.
“No. But I’ll take your word for it.” She turned her gaze on his face and suddenly she was acutely aware of his fingers pressed around her arm. He was standing only inches away and she could feel heat radiating from his body and the callused skin of his hand against her flesh. His dark face gleamed with sweat, which had also soaked a V shape on the chest of his khaki shirt. His arms and shoulders and thighs were all heavily muscled, and she instinctively knew that he was a strong man. Both physically and mentally. The fact helped to reassure her confidence in his ability as a lawman.
Concern darkened Daniel’s brown eyes as they flicked over her face, and then slowly he reached a hand up to her cheek and pushed back a loose strand of red hair.
“You look very tired, Maggie. Why don’t you stay here and let me ride on?”
She somehow managed to find the strength to straighten her shoulders. “No. You might need me.”
He didn’t say anything, but his fingers continued to rest against her cheek. His eyes probed deeply into hers.
Maggie couldn’t speak. She felt herself being drawn to him. And though she tried to stop the forward motion of her body, she stepped into his arms, anyway.
He seemed to understand that she needed human contact and that she was longing for a pair of strong arms to hold her. He drew her deeper into the circle of his arms and, with one hand against the back of her hair, pressed her head against his shoulder.
“Oh, Daniel,” she said with a broken sob, “I’m so scared.”
“Don’t. Don’t cry, Maggie,” he murmured. “Everything is going to be fine. Aaron is a strong boy, and he’s comfortable with the outdoors.”
The fabric beneath her cheek smelled of sun and wind and a faint musky scent that was utterly masculine and uniquely his. She drew it into her nostrils as her hands clung to his strong back.
“But…he’s…he’s still going up the mountain!” she exclaimed brokenly.
His hand slid up and down her back in a slow, soothing movement. “He has to be getting tired. He’ll stop soon. And then we’ll catch up with him.”
She didn’t make any sort of reply. She couldn’t. Her throat was too choked with a jumble of emotions that weren’t all to do with her missing son. Dear God, she prayed frantically, what was happening to her? Her son was somewhere in these mountains, alone and probably lost. How could she let her mind slip, even for a few seconds, to this man?
Guilt rushed through her like a shocking downpour of cold rain. “We, uh, we’d better be going,” she stammered as she quickly lifted her head and backed away from him.
To her dismay, he caught her by the hand and prevented her from moving completely away from him.
“Not until I know that you’re all right,” he said.
A frantic wail bubbled up in her throat to nearly choke her, and she stared at him as though he’d just lost his senses. “All right? All right! Are you crazy? How could I be? My son is missing! These mountains go for miles and miles! There’s nothing up here but wilderness—maybe a few mountain goats, elk and, God forbid, bear! Tell me, Daniel, am I supposed to be okay with that?”
He caught her by the shoulder, and though he didn’t shake her, his fingers pressed firmly enough into her flesh to catch her attention.
“You’re staying here. I’m going on alone,” he said flatly.
Her mouth popped open to form a shocked circle. “Why?”
His face was grim, unmoving. “You’re becoming hysterical. You’ll be no good to me or Aaron like this.”
Releasing his hold on her, he gathered up the gelding’s reins and stuck his boot in the stirrup, but Maggie managed to grab him by the arm before he could swing himself up in the saddle.
“What are you, inhuman?” she demanded.
Lowering his boot back to the ground, he looked down at her, his features rigid except for one lone muscle ticking in his jaw. “I’m a lawman,” he said in a clipped tone. “It’s my job to keep a cool head.”
“What about a cool heart?” she taunted.
For the past hours while he’d been in this woman’s presence, he’d been fighting with himself to be a gentleman. Maggie was a lady. And he’d been telling himself it would only complicate things if he allowed himself to touch her the way he’d often dreamed about touching her. But her taunt had changed all that. He was no longer a gentleman. He was just a man.
Maggie continued to stand her ground, to wait for his answer, but it didn’t come in the way of words. Suddenly his hands were on her shoulders, her breasts were crushed against his chest and her lips were captured beneath his.
Chapter Two
“Wh-what was…that for?” Maggie stammered breathlessly once he finally released her.
As Daniel looked at her, he realized he’d never seen a more erotic woman. Nor had he ever wanted one the way he wanted Maggie Ketchum. Her breasts were heaving and her lips were red and moist from his kiss. If circumstances were different, he’d kiss her all over again. And again. If she’d let him.
“To tell you I’m not just a lawman, Maggie. I’m a man, too. I can lose my cool. If that’s what you want.”
She’d never had a man speak to her in such a spare, blunt fashion. But then she’d never had a man kiss her like Daniel Redwing had kissed her, either.
“No,” she quickly answered, then, glancing awkwardly away from him, she added in a subdued tone, “No. I want to find my son.”
“Then mount up. And stay behind me,” he ordered sharply.
Like a squaw walking behind her brave, thought Maggie furiously.
Trembling from head to toe, she gathered up the mare’s reins and somehow managed to climb into the saddle. As she nudged the mare up the side of the mountain, she still couldn’t believe the deputy had actually kissed her. Nor could she believe how she’d responded to him. Her body was still on fire and she knew her cheeks had to be crimson.
Instinctively her gaze was drawn to his back and the broad shoulders hidden beneath the taut khaki fabric. Did the man go around kissing every woman who needed the aid of a lawman? Forget that question, she scolded herself. The real question was, why had she ever fallen into the man’s arms in the first place? Sure, she was upset. But there’d been plenty of times since Hugh’s death that she’d been upset. And during those times she’d never so much as touched a man, much less kissed one.
Forget it, Maggie. You’re under extreme stress. Besides, nothing matters now except finding Aaron.
As the horses climbed, the ground grew rougher. Several times her mare slipped, but managed to gather herself before she went to her knees. Thankfully Maggie was an experienced rider. Otherwise she might have fallen into the gorge far below to their left.
“The timberline is just ahead.” Daniel tossed the announcement over his shoulder. “We’ll stop there and let the horses blow. Once we get in the open, we might be able to catch a glimpse of Aaron or, at least, his horse.”
Nodding, she followed Daniel to a spot on the mountain where the fir trees ended and huge, magnificent boulders protruded from the bald, grassy slopes.
Pulling the mare to a stop next to Daniel’s mount, Maggie scoured the mountainside for any sign of her son. “I don’t see anything. Not even any goats.”
“His horse has been here. And not long ago.”
Her heart leaping with hope, her gaze darted to Daniel’s face to see his attention was focused on horse tracks surrounding one of the nearby boulders.
“What about Aaron?” she rushed the question at him. “Do you see his tracks?”
Frowning faintly, he said, “I’m not sure. Let’s get down for a few minutes. The horses need to rest. They’ve had a hard, fast climb.”
Maggie didn’t protest. Even though she knew the waning daylight was precious, she was exhausted. Once she slid from the saddle and stood on the ground, her legs would barely hold her upright. Along with her misbehaving legs, her head was whirling at a nauseating speed.
Gripping the stirrup, she prayed for the rushing sound in her ears to stop and for the power to stand upright.
“Maggie?” Daniel asked softly. “Are you ill?”
She was drawing in slow, deep breaths in an effort to clear her head when his hand came against her back. His touch jolted her like an electrical current and the fire zapped her with a spurt of strength.
“No,” she murmured. Then glancing up at him, she added, “I…I’m just really, really tired, that’s all.”
As he studied her weary face, his dark features remained stoic. Maggie wondered if he wanted to say, I told you to stay behind. But he didn’t say anything of the sort. Instead he slid his arm around the back of her waist and clamped a steadying hand around her upper arm.
“Come over here and sit down,” he instructed.
He helped her over to one of the boulders, and after she was sitting comfortably, he went over to his horse and slipped a canteen of water from the saddle horn.
Back at her side, he took off the lid and silently handed the insulated container to her. After she’d taken several long sips, he took the canteen and poured some of the cool water onto his handkerchief.
With one hand he reached up and pushed the straw hat from her head. With the other, he used the moist handkerchief to wipe her heated face.
“You’re hot and dehydrated,” he said grimly. “Why didn’t you tell me you were feeling weak?”
His hands were big, yet extremely gentle as they touched her cheeks and chin, her neck and then her forehead. Maggie tried not to breathe in the scent of him. Tried not to think about the way his lips had felt against hers or the way he had tasted. Yet she couldn’t stop her senses from registering everything about him.
“Because I knew we couldn’t stop,” she said in a hoarse whisper. ‘We shouldn’t be stopping now.”
Her copper-colored hair was shoulder length and naturally curly. He pushed the wayward strands away from her cheeks and off her forehead as though she were his lover and the sweat on her face had come from their passion.
The notion caused her to shiver inwardly, and she closed her eyes and waited for him to pull back and put a few inches of space between them.
“Do you want Aaron to be raised an orphan?” he asked crossly.
Her eyes drifted open to see he’d taken a seat next to her and, though he was close, his gaze was not on her. His squinted eyes were scanning the bald, jagged crags of the mountain peaks.
“I’m not that weak,” she protested.
Turning his gaze back to her, he silently studied her face until she felt the urge to squirm.
“What? What are you thinking?” she dared to ask him.
The corners of his mouth tilted up ever so slightly, and Maggie realized it was the first time he’d shown any sort of humor in her presence.
“That you are not exactly the woman I thought you were.”
Maggie wasn’t sure she should ask, but she did anyway. “What does that mean?”
One of his shoulders moved with a faint shrug. “The Ketchums are a tough crew. But you’re not a Ketchum by blood.”
She stared at him for a moment as she digested his words. “Oh. You thought—you think I’m just a rich, pampered woman.”
“Not exactly pampered. But maybe a little soft.”
His admission disappointed her, and that was frightening. Not since Hugh had Maggie cared whether a man regarded her highly. And it shouldn’t matter how Deputy Daniel Redwing viewed her, either.
She swallowed as a knot of unsettled feelings gathered in her throat. “And what are you thinking now?”
“That you have grit.”
Her eyes met his and she felt her heart thump with unexpected gladness. “Thank you, Daniel.”
“You’re welcome.”
They were still staring at each other when Aaron’s voice echoed through the mountaintops.
“Mom! Mom!”
Both Maggie and Daniel jumped to their feet and scanned the edge of the timberline where Aaron’s voice seemed to have originated.
“That was him, Daniel! That was Aaron!” she exclaimed with excited joy.
“Yes. Here he comes now,” Daniel said with a quiet smile. “To your right. See?”
A tiny whimper of relief passed her lips as she spotted her young son walking slowly out of the woods. He was leading Rusty, and from the looks of the flopping latigo he was fortunate to still have the saddle on the horse’s back.
“Oh, thank God! Thank God!” she whispered hoarsely.
She started to run in her son’s direction, but the ground was too rough and her legs too spongy to carry her safely. She stumbled several times before she finally managed to reach him, then, going down on her knees, she gathered the boy up in her arms.
For long moments she held her son in a crushing embrace as tears of relief streamed down her face. In turn, Aaron clung tightly to his mother until the excitement of being found eventually caused him to stir and talk in rapid, broken phases.
“Mom, I didn’t mean to come this far! Something happened to the girth—I fell off Rusty. And he ran away. I’ve been chasing him…for a long time. I didn’t think he’d ever stop!”
Taking him firmly by the shoulders, Maggie held her son out in front of her. He’d managed to hang on to his straw cowboy hat, but sweat and dirt streaked his freckled face and there was a long rip down the sleeve of his shirt exposing an equally long scratch on his arm.
“You weren’t supposed to be on Rusty,” she admonished. “You told me you were going down to the ranch yard to see Skinny!”
Aaron ducked his head with guilt just as Daniel walked up to mother and son.
“I know,” Aaron mumbled. “But I…I wanted to go camping. You know I did! So I filled up my saddlebags with food and tied on a bedroll. I was gonna come back tomorrow, Mom!” he reasoned, as though that made everything all right.
Maggie groaned and rolled her eyes up to Daniel who was desperately wanting to smile but was carefully hiding it in front of the boy.
“Oh, yeah,” Maggie pointed out wryly. “After the bears ate you and spit out your bones. Aaron—”
“Gosh,” the child interrupted as he suddenly noticed the man standing near his mother’s shoulder. The shiny badge pinned to Daniel’s chest and the pistol strapped to his hips were enough to make Aaron’s eyes pop wide. “Am I in trouble?”
Daniel felt inclined to answer the child’s question before Maggie had the chance. “Well, it appears as though you’re in trouble with your mother. But not with the law,” Daniel assured him.
The boy pushed the hat back off his head, then, using the back of his hand, he wiped his brow with an exaggerated gesture. “Whew!” he exclaimed with great relief. “I thought I was gonna be arrested for running off!”
Now that Maggie could see for herself that her son was well and truly safe, anger began to simmer where fear had once gripped her. “You’d better be glad your uncle Jess and Sheriff Perez are out of town,” Maggie told him. “Or you would be in big trouble. Deputy Redwing has been tracking you for hours! He has other deputies looking for you, too. You’ve caused all sorts of trouble for a lot of people.”
If possible, Aaron’s blue eyes grew even wider as his gaze traveled from his mother’s stern face up to Daniel. “Gee, I didn’t know the law would come looking for me.”
“Your mother has been very worried. Maybe you should apologize to her,” Daniel suggested.
Aaron looked guiltily back at his mother and, with his chin sinking to his chest, he mumbled, “I’m sorry, Mom.”
Releasing a heavy sigh, Maggie patted his back. Now was not the time for angry lectures. She was too relieved and overjoyed to have her son back safe and sound. Besides that, daylight was fading fast. They were going to have to hurry to make it back down the mountain before darkness settled in.
“All right, son,” she said gently. “We’ll talk about it later. But right now you should thank Deputy Redwing. If it weren’t for him, you’d still be wandering around up here. Lost. You were lost, weren’t you?”
Aaron nodded remorsefully. “Yeah. I didn’t know where the heck I was,” he admitted, then to Daniel he said, “Thank you, Deputy Redwing. I’m sorry I caused you so much trouble.”
Even though Daniel was twenty-nine years old, he hadn’t forgotten what it was like to be a little boy full of hurt and angry defiance and then later having all that pain turn into fear.
He patted the boy’s slender shoulder. “I’m just glad you’re all right, Aaron.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
Squatting, Daniel took hold of the boy’s hand. “No. But I think you need to understand that a man’s word is a very special thing. A good man doesn’t break his word. So when you tell your mother where you’re going, you need to make sure that you keep your word and do exactly what you told her. Understand?”
“Yes, sir. I will. I promise.”
“Good.” Daniel squeezed the boy’s hand, then rising back to his full height, he glanced at Maggie to see a watery sheen in her eyes. “We’d better be going,” he told her. “Dark is going to catch us.”
Nodding, she said, “I’ll go get mounted up. Can Aaron ride behind you? It looks like his cinch has just about had it.”
“I’ll be glad to have Aaron ride behind me,” Daniel said.
The ride back down the mountain wasn’t nearly as hurried as the trek upward had been. Aaron sat on the skirt of Daniel’s saddle and kept his small arms wrapped tightly around the deputy’s waist. At first the child was quiet and seemingly content just to be out of immediate trouble. But after a while the adventure of the moment caught up with him and he began to chatter with his rescuer.
Behind the two of them, Maggie carefully guided her mare down the rough trail and listened to the mostly one-sided conversation. Aaron had never been a bashful child, but she had to admit that she was surprised by her son’s openness with Daniel Redwing. As far as she knew, Aaron had only met the man those two times he’d come to the house to interview her during the probe into Noah Rider’s murder. Apparently there was something about the deputy that had gained her son’s trust. Or maybe the fact that Daniel was a deputy explained Aaron’s friendliness, she thought suddenly. Aaron was simply dazzled to be carried down the mountain by an honest-to-goodness lawman.
Just as she’d been dazzled to be kissed by one? Don’t even think about it, she quickly scolded herself. That had been just a momentary lapse of her senses because she’d been so upset over Aaron. She didn’t go around impulsively kissing men she hardly knew! Since Hugh’s death, she hadn’t kissed any man. Period. She hadn’t wanted to.
On the way down the mountain, Daniel was able to pick up one of the deputies on his walkie-talkie and inform him that Aaron had been found and to spread the word among the other deputies and the ranch hands who were out searching.
Darkness had settled in by the time the three of them rode up to the little barn. While Daniel and Maggie worked to unsaddle the horses, Aaron’s eyes darted from one long shadow to the next.
“Gosh, I guess I am glad I wasn’t up there on the mountain in the dark. I thought I wanted to camp out by myself. But there might be mountain lions up there. Do you think they’re up there, Daniel?” Aaron asked him as Daniel carried one of the three saddles into the tack room.
“Probably. I’ve heard several men talk about sighting them. And my grandfather used to hunt the big cats up in the southern mountains of Colorado. That’s not that far away from us.”
Standing close to Daniel’s hip, Aaron looked up at him with childlike fascination. “Is your grandfather an Indian, too?”
“Yes, he’s Ute. He lives on the Ute Mountain Reservation in Colorado. His name is Joe SilverBear.”
“Does he hunt with a bow and arrow like the Indians used to a long time ago?”
Daniel’s lips curved with amusement. “Sometimes. But he’s getting older now. He doesn’t hunt as much as he used to.”
Aaron turned toward his mother. “Wow! Did you hear that, Mom? Daniel says there’s big cats on the T Bar K!”
“Yes, I heard.” Maggie stepped into the tack room carrying a handful of bridles. “That’s one reason you’d better not ever try this camping thing again, young man,” she added sternly.
Daniel fastened the saddle to the swinging loop of rope, then reached for the breast collar Aaron was holding. As he hung the piece of leather and mohair roping on a nearby peg, he said, “Aaron, if you really want to go camping that badly, maybe your mother will let me take you some time. Do you like to fish?”
At first, Aaron was so surprised by the deputy’s suggestion he could only stare at him with wide, wonder-filled eyes. Then he looked at his mother and the words began to burst excitedly past his lips. “Mom! Did you hear that? Daniel said he’d take me camping! And fishing!” His eyes sparkled as he looked back at Daniel. “I love to fish and I’m good at it, too! Once I caught two trout at one time!”
Daniel actually chuckled. “Sounds like you’ve already learned how to tell fishing stories.”
“That’s not a story! That’s the truth,” Aaron insisted, then turned pleading eyes on his mother. “Mom, can I go? Can I?”
Maggie thoughtfully began to hang the bridles in their usual places along the wall. She didn’t know what to make of this new development. A few minutes ago she’d been feeling a little guilty because she’d refused to allow Aaron to go on the camping trip with the boys’ club in town. She hadn’t realized just how upset she’d made him. But that didn’t mean she wanted her son to go on such a personal outing with Daniel Redwing. She hardly knew the man. And she didn’t even want to try to imagine what his motive in this might be. Still, she was reluctant to upset Aaron all over again. And she certainly didn’t want to offend Daniel after he’d gone to such lengths to find her son.
“I’m sure Deputy Redwing has very little time away from his job. It might be a while before he could take you camping,” she gently warned.
“That doesn’t matter. Just, can I go?”
“We’ll see,” she said, using the vague promise to pacify him for the moment. “Right now I want you to run ahead and get in the shower. I’ll be along shortly to fix supper.”
Aaron looked anxiously over at Daniel. “Are you leaving soon?”
Daniel reached out and patted the boy’s shoulder. “I’ll stop by the house to say goodbye.”
The child’s eyes suddenly lit with anticipation. “Okay!”
He leaped through the doorway of the building and took off at a dead run up the trail to the house. Turning toward Daniel, Maggie shook her head in a hopeless gesture.
“I’m so sorry about all this, Daniel. I’ve caused you and the department so much trouble. Thank God you didn’t have helicopters out looking.”
“I’m just glad we found him safe and sound. You were very lucky. I guess you know that.”
Nodding, she suddenly felt as if the darkness was swallowing them up, cocooning them in the little barn. With Aaron gone they were totally alone, a fact that Maggie couldn’t push from her mind.
“Yes,” she murmured. “All the way down the mountain I kept thinking of the hundreds of things that could have happened to Aaron. And I kept thinking, too, that maybe—well, if something had happened to him, it would have been my fault. I guess I should have allowed him to go on the camping trip. It certainly wouldn’t have been as harmful as what might have happened today.”
Frowning, Daniel stepped over to where she stood. “Look, Maggie, you were right earlier. I don’t have any children. I can’t tell you or anyone how they should raise their kid. But I believe you can’t allow a child to have his own way all the time just to keep him from running away. That isn’t any sort of discipline.”
Her gaze dropped to the toes of her boots. “No. You’re right. But I feel so guilty.” She lifted her eyes back to his. “I’m sure you’ve already guessed that Aaron doesn’t have a whole lot of male companionship. Oh, there’s Skinny and the other ranch hands and there are his uncles, Ross and Jess, and their cousin Linc, but he doesn’t get to spend any serious, intimate time with any of them. They’re all so busy, and I guess none of them ever stop to think that Aaron misses having a father.”
“Does Aaron remember his father?”
Shaking her head, Maggie turned and began to straighten the bridles she’d hung on the wall. “No. Aaron was too small to remember anything when Hugh was killed. Sometimes I think that’s the worst part about it. I have my memories to hold on to, but Aaron doesn’t have anything. He doesn’t even know what it’s like to have a father.”
Daniel placed his palm upon her shoulder because he wanted to comfort her and because standing so close to her made it impossible for him not to lay a hand on her in some way.
“Neither do I,” he admitted quietly. “But I made it. So will Aaron.”
Quickly she turned to face him. Her eyes were wide with surprise, her lips parted. “You…you didn’t have a father?”
Oh, yes, he’d had a father, Daniel thought bitterly. At least for a brief time. Not that there’d been anything fatherly about Robert Redwing. The only thing he’d had to do with Daniel was to sire him. While Daniel was still a young boy the man had left his son and his wife, Pelipa, and headed south to Arizona. He’d become a drunk and a thief and served several stints in the state penitentiary before he’d eventually died in a car wreck while trying to evade the police. Yes, he’d had a father for a few brief years of his life. But he didn’t want to tell Maggie Ketchum about a man who’d brought pain and shame to his family.
Instead of responding to her question, Daniel nudged her toward the door. “It’s late. I’ve got to get back to the department and do some paperwork before I go home.”
He obviously didn’t want to answer, and Maggie respected his privacy by not pushing him. Even so, she realized she wanted to know more about this man. And that in itself was a scary idea. For seven long years her heart, her body, had been dormant. Men had tried to spark her interest, but she’d felt nothing toward any of them. Mostly because she hadn’t wanted to feel anything. Not with Hugh still living in her heart. And now this man, this dark, handsome Ute had come along and stirred up all kinds of emotions in her.
“Of course. Let’s get to the house,” she said, wondering why she suddenly felt the urge to cry.
Quickly, before she could make a fool of herself, she started out the door only to have his hand wrap around her arm and tug her back inside the small, dimly lit building. Maggie looked up at him, her brows arched, her heart pounding.
“Maggie, before we go…I wanted to—” He let out a heavy breath, dropped his hand from her arm, then caught hold of her again. “I don’t know how to say this. I just wanted you to know…earlier today—in the mountains when I kissed you—I wasn’t trying to insult you.”
Her breath came soft and fast as she tried to search his face in the waning light. “I never thought you were.”
His fingers tightened ever so slightly on her arm. “I don’t go around kissing women like that. You, uh, well, you got me off track there for a moment or two.”
She tried to smile, to ease the crackling tension between them. “I’m flattered that an older woman like me could distract you, Deputy Redwing.”
His fingers eased to slide slowly up her arm and onto her shoulder. Once they reached her hair, he twined the curly strands around his fingers. Maggie shivered inwardly at the intimate contact.
“You look very young to me.”
“I’m nearly thirty-four,” she replied.
“And I’m twenty-nine.”
Up until this moment Maggie had stood motionless, but now she unconsciously edged closer to him. “So tell me why a healthy twenty-nine-year-old man doesn’t go around kissing women?”
His lips formed a wry line. She made kissing sound like such a normal, simple thing for him to do. But he’d never viewed the act as simple. Getting that intimate with a woman was something he mostly tried to avoid. As much as he liked the feel of a soft female in his arms, he didn’t want to give himself a chance to get that close, to need or want anyone the way his mother had wanted and pined for his father. Yet when he stood here so close to Maggie, everything but her seemed to leave his mind.
“Because I haven’t found a woman I’ve wanted to kiss,” he answered quietly. “Until now.”
She drew in a sharp, sudden breath. “What kind of line is that?”
Suddenly both his hands were on her shoulders, and he was drawing her forward, circling her body with his strong arms. The air rushed out of her lungs as she planted her palms against his broad chest.
“It isn’t a line, Maggie. I’ve wanted to do this from the very first time I saw you.”
“Daniel—”
His hand lifted to her cheek where he rubbed a gentle, enticing circle. “Say my name again,” he whispered. “It sounds so good coming from your lips.”
She was trembling, shaking with a need that left her voice hoarse, her mind whirling. “Daniel, I…”
With a soft groan he bent his head, and anything else she might have said was swallowed up by the probing search of his lips.
This time their kiss was different. This time the fear for her child’s safety wasn’t racing through her mind. This time there was nothing standing between them. Not even a breathing space.
At some point during the embrace, he pulled her tightly against him, and Maggie groaned as her full breasts pressed against his chest, her hips aligned with his. Mindlessly her arms slipped around his waist, her mouth opened in hungry response.
For the next few moments Maggie allowed herself the rich pleasure of being in Daniel’s arms, of having his hard, warm lips roam recklessly over hers, having his hands touch her with love.
Love? Love!
The one word racing through her mind was enough to make Maggie rip herself from his embrace and back away as though he were one of those mountain lions his grandfather hunted and she was the prey.
“Maggie…” he began in a perplexed voice.
He stepped forward only to have her hold up a hand to ward him off.
“Don’t, Daniel,” she pleaded hoarsely. “Please don’t touch me again.”
He stood still, his hands dropping to his sides. “Why?”
She groaned and then made a lunge for the door. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I’m just not ready for this,” she mumbled in a choked voice.
“Maggie!”
Ignoring his call, she stepped out of the little barn and hurried up the trail to the house. Her legs were weak and wobbly, and several times she almost fell upon the dark, winding path. But she stumbled on, determined to put as much space between herself and Daniel as she could before he decided to follow.
Thankfully, the lights from the house eventually flickered through the pine trees, and, breathing a sigh of relief, she slowed her pace. When she entered the back door, she could hear Aaron’s shower click off. Knowing the child would soon be dressed and heading to the kitchen to eat, Maggie hurried to her own private bathroom and began to splash cold water on her heated face.
After a few moments her cheeks began to cool and her senses calm somewhat. As she washed her hands, she stared in stunned horror at her disheveled image in the mirror.
Maggie had never been a vain person. It didn’t matter to her if her hair got mussed or her face smudged. There were far more important things in life than trying to look perfect. So she was hardly shaken by the fact that her hair was tangled, her shirt dirty and snagged with a three-corner tear on the shoulder. It was the dark desire shadowing her eyes, her swollen lips and the excited color on her cheeks that totally stunned her.
Dear God, she looked like a woman who’d been making love to a man!
Chapter Three
“Mom! Where are you?”
“I’m coming.” Tossing down the towel, Maggie drew in a deep breath and hurried out to the kitchen.
When she entered the room, Aaron was pouring himself a glass of milk, and thankfully, as he chugged it down, he seemed not to notice that there was anything amiss about his mother.
“It’s so late that supper will have to be soup and a sandwich,” she told him as she began to pull plates and bowls from the cabinet.
“Okay. Can I have bologna and mustard?”
“You may.”
By the time she’d gathered the dishes together, she’d managed to focus her attention on the task of preparing a light supper. But before she started, she walked over to where her son was standing by the cabinet counter and put her forefinger beneath his chin.
Tilting his face upward for inspection, she examined his spiky, wet hair, his neck and ears and finally the bramble scratch on his arm.
Aaron began to squirm impatiently. “I’m clean, Mom. And I’m okay.”
“You have a bruise on your cheek and a scratch on your arm. We’ll deal with the scratch after you eat,” she promised, then with a weary sigh she patted his wet head. “We’re lucky that’s the only thing that happened to you.”
Satisfied that her son was clean and all in one piece, she opened the pantry and took two cans of vegetable soup from a shelf. As she emptied the contents into the saucepan, Aaron plopped down in a chair at the breakfast table and thoughtfully watched his mother’s jerky movements.
“Are you really, really mad at me?” he asked in a cowed voice.
She glanced at her son as she stirred water into the soup. Since Aaron had never done anything nearly as serious as running away, she really didn’t have a clue as to how she would punish him. And right now, dealing with his misbehavior was only a part of her problems.
“I’m not sure what I am, Aaron. I was very scared when I couldn’t find you.”
His expression was remorseful, but not nearly enough to suit Maggie.
“Well, Mom, you should have known I wouldn’t get hurt,” he said with just enough cockiness to warrant a glare from his mother.
“How did I know that, young man?”
“Well, you know that I can ride Rusty better than anybody on the ranch. Even Skinny,” he boasted.
“Is that why you fell off?” Maggie asked as she placed the pan of soup onto the gas burner.
Clearly insulted, Aaron exclaimed, “Aw, Mom! I—”
Before he could finish, a knock sounded on the kitchen door. Maggie opened her mouth to tell Aaron to answer it, but she was wasting her time. Aaron shot out of the chair like a bullet and raced to the door.
“Mom! It’s Daniel!” he shouted as though she were deaf.
“Don’t just stand there looking at him. Let him in,” she instructed her son.
Aaron flung the door wide. “You can come in, Daniel.”
“Thank you, Aaron.” With his hat in his hand, he stepped into the kitchen and glanced toward the other side of the room, where Maggie was stirring something on the gas range.
“Mom’s fixing soup,” Aaron explained. “You can stay and eat, too. If you’d like. We have plenty of bologna.”
“Aaron! Please!” Maggie scolded softly.
Aaron shot his mother a perplexed look. “Well, he can, can’t he? I thought we’re always supposed to share with company.”
Turning away from the stove, she glanced at her son before turning a strained smile on Daniel. “Sorry,” she apologized. “He doesn’t understand that bologna isn’t something you offer a guest.”
As Daniel looked at her, one corner of his mouth lifted into a faint grin, and Maggie felt her heart skip into a rapid dance against her rib cage. It wasn’t right that the man looked so good to her—too good, in fact.
“I don’t know why not,” Daniel told her. “I think it’s pretty tasty stuff.”
Maggie released a breath of air she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Then why don’t you wash your hands here at the sink and I’ll have everything on the table in just a few minutes.”
He moved farther into the room with Aaron glued to his side.
“I wasn’t hinting to be fed supper,” he said, unable to pull his eyes away from her.
Jolted by the fact that he was so near to her again, she turned back to the soup. “I know you weren’t. But you’re welcome to join us. Offering you a sandwich is the least I can do after all you’ve done for me and Aaron.”
Staring at her for a few more moments, Daniel wondered why she didn’t want to look at him, why she had run from him after kissing him so deeply, so sweetly. It didn’t make sense to him. But then, Daniel didn’t know much about the way a woman’s mind worked.
Even though he’d often dreamed of how it might be to have a family, a real family that stayed together and loved each other through thick and thin, he’d never actually pictured himself in the role of husband or father. A man had to know about a thing before he could be good at it, and Daniel had been taught very little about love. Especially from a father who’d lacked any sort of morals, decency or human kindness.
“Come on, Daniel.” Aaron grabbed his forearm and urged him toward an open doorway to their right. “I’ll show you where the mudroom is. It’s easier to wash your hands in there.”
The two males entered the small utility area and as Daniel washed his hands at a deep galvanized sink, Aaron sidled up to him and said, “I’m worried about Mom. She’s acting strange. Like she’s sick or something. Do you think me running off has made her sick?”
Daniel glanced through the open doorway of the mudroom. From this position, he could see Maggie standing at the gas range. Her shoulders were slumped, her head slightly bent. She had to be exhausted, he thought. He was certainly feeling the long ride and he was accustomed to straddling a horse. Yet he figured her quietness had nothing to do with her fatigue. She was upset with him because he’d kissed her. And probably even with herself because she’d kissed him back.
Glancing down at the boy’s troubled face, he said gently, “No. I don’t believe your mother is ill. I think she’s very tired. You put her through the wringer, you know. You should be a little ashamed of yourself.”
Grimacing, Aaron hung his head. “Yeah. I guess I am,” he mumbled contritely, then suddenly his head jerked up and he shot Daniel a bright smile. “But I’ll make it up to her. I’ll do all sorts of chores and she won’t even have to ask me! Just watch!”
Aaron dashed out of the mudroom and over to his mother. By the time Daniel joined them, the boy was busy placing plates and utensils on the table.
“Is there something I can do?” Daniel offered as he stood beside her at the range.
Maggie darted a glance up at him, then quickly turned her attention back to the boiling soup. His nearness made her tremble as though there were an earthquake inside her, and she deeply resented the fact that he had such a powerful effect on her. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. She wasn’t supposed to be feeling anything for this man.
“No. I think everything is ready. Go ahead and take a seat.”
He put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?” he asked in a low voice.
Without looking at him, she said stiffly, “Yes. Yes, I’m fine.”
Daniel glanced around to see that Aaron was still at the table and out of earshot. “Maggie, about that kiss—”
“I’m not going to talk about that!” she interrupted in a rushed hush. “Not here! Not now!”
Frowning thoughtfully, Daniel studied her bent head. “When?”
Her head jerked up, and she stared at him in dazed wonder. “Never! That’s over—and it won’t happen again!”
She reached up and switched off the burner beneath the pan of soup. Daniel dropped his hand, but he didn’t move away.
“Never say never, Maggie Ketchum.”
Something like fear filled her blue eyes. “It’s time to eat,” she said hoarsely.
Picking up the soup, she carried the pot over to the table and began to fill the three bowls that Aaron had set out. The boy was obviously thrilled to have Daniel share the simple meal with them and he made a big issue of showing Daniel where to sit and fetching him a cold soda from the refrigerator.
Once they were eating, Aaron dominated the conversation and Maggie was relieved. She didn’t want Daniel to have a chance to turn his attention to her. It was hard enough on her nerves just having him sit across the table from her, much less having him talk to her. Especially when he’d already said more to her than he should have. And done more than he should have, she thought wretchedly.
Halfway through the meal, the telephone rang and Maggie went to answer the portable instrument sitting on the end of the cabinet. The caller was her sister-in-law, Victoria. While she assured Aaron’s aunt that her nephew was safe and sound except for a scratch and a bruise, she covertly watched her son and Daniel at the kitchen table. The two of them were talking with easy familiarity as though they were old buddies or even relatives. The notion was unsettling. It wouldn’t do for her son to get close to this man. Not when she planned on making a swift and permanent break with him after tonight.
“That was your aunt Victoria,” Maggie said to Aaron, once she returned to the table. “She was getting ready to come over here to check you out, but I told her you only had a scratch and a bruise.”
Aaron swallowed down a mouthful of potato chips before he said to Daniel, “Aunt Victoria is a doctor. She’s just had a baby. He’s a boy, but he’s too little to play with. He still drinks from a bottle and he wets his pants. Ugh!”
Daniel smiled fondly. “Yes, I’ve met little Samuel.”
Aaron looked at him with surprise, then dawning. “Oh, I forgot. You work with Uncle Jess.”
“That’s right.”
“See, Mom, Daniel has a badge just like Uncle Jess’s.” The boy reached over and nearly touched the shiny, oval emblem pinned to Daniel’s khaki uniform. “It says San Juan County, New Mexico, on it. That’s where we live. And Daniel is the law all over this land.”
“Daniel isn’t the law, he enforces the law,” Maggie corrected him.
Aaron scowled at his mother. “I know that. He can put handcuffs on people and take them to jail.”
And that ability was obviously impressive to a nine-year-old boy, Maggie realized.
“He has a Colt .45, too,” Aaron went on with enthusiasm. “That’s the kind of pistol he likes to carry—just like in the Old West—like Blackjack Ketchum toted. And he was our kin!”
Maggie stared at her son, unwilling to believe the stuff that was rolling out of his mouth. “Aaron! You have no idea what sort of gun Blackjack Ketchum used! And he certainly wasn’t our relative! Where did you hear such a thing?” she demanded.
“Well, Skinny told me about the gun. And the kids at school tell me all the time that Blackjack was my kinfolk. And he might be, Mom. You don’t know,” he argued.
Daniel chuckled, and Maggie lifted a helpless gaze toward the ceiling.
“Eat your sandwich,” she ordered Aaron, then seeing Daniel had finished the food on his plate, Maggie asked, “Would you care for coffee and a piece of pound cake?”
Daniel figured she was more than ready for him to leave, but he was going to deliberately ignore her wishes. After tonight he probably wouldn’t get the opportunity to share this sort of time with her or Aaron. He had to make the most of these moments.
“Sounds good.”
“What about me?” Aaron chimed in. “Can’t I have cake, too?”
“Cake, but no coffee,” Maggie told him as she rose from the table. “And then you’re going straight to bed.”
Aaron’s freckled nose wrinkled up with disappointment. “Aw, heck, I want to talk to Daniel some more.”
“I’m sure Daniel is all talked out by you.”
Daniel glanced over to where Maggie stood at the cabinet, but she had her gaze focused on the long loaf of cake she was slicing.
“Aaron hasn’t talked me out. But I do have to be leaving soon,” he announced.
“How come?” Aaron asked with frank innocence. “Don’t you want to stay and talk to Mom a little more?”
“Aaron!” Maggie sternly warned.
Daniel could hardly keep from flashing a grin at his new little buddy. “I can’t think of anything I’d like to do better. But I have work to finish tonight. Maybe I’ll get to talk to her another time,” he said just as she was placing the plate of cake in front of him.
Pausing at his shoulder, Maggie looked down at him. The warm suggestive signals in his brown eyes seemed to arc straight into her, flooding her limbs with heat and her cheeks with color.
Nervously she wiped her sweaty palms down the front of her thighs. “Uh…do you want cream with your coffee?”
“No. Black is fine.”
She served Aaron his dessert, then went back to her seat and tried to pour all of her attention into the piece of cake in front of her. But she could hardly choke down more than two bites. She wanted—no, she needed for the meal to be over and for Deputy Daniel Redwing to be gone. Otherwise, she would be unable to keep her eyes from straying to his lips and her senses from remembering every reckless second she’d spent in his arms.
Glancing down the table, she noticed Aaron’s eyelids were beginning to droop and the movement of his fork was growing slower and slower. The long, traumatic day was catching up to him, and now he was about to fall asleep right in his plate.
“Aaron, I really think you’re too sleepy to finish your cake. Why don’t you say good-night to Daniel and go to bed,” she gently suggested.
His mother’s voice stirred Aaron from his sleepy stupor and he lay down his fork and climbed out of his chair.
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