by Dawes, Casey
Jack came over to the table and said hello. “Anna, I thought you said you didn’t do skimpy?”
“This isn’t skimpy, Bossman. I’ll be back to my conservative wear tomorrow when I’m working.”
He winked and patted her shoulder. “I may have to get you to dance on the bar tonight.”
“Very funny, but it isn’t happening.” She looked around him and saw Sam glance over at the table.
“He hasn’t recognized you, yet.” Jack arched his eyebrow.
“Say one word and I’ll be very unhappy with you.”
“My lips are sealed. Have fun, Anna.”
The DJ started playing some quieter songs. It was too early in the evening to get the party music going and he announced Callie would be performing a couple of songs a little later.
After they’d finished dinner and the plates were taken away, Anna looked over at Sam again. She saw his brows crease and he glanced around, looking from table to table. He looked directly at her, turned away and then did a double take. Their eyes locked and she smiled at him.
She saw him move to the bar and say something to Jack. Then he turned and headed toward her.
“I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight,” Sam said.
“My friends invited me to join them for dinner.” She introduced him around the table and could tell he was flustered.
He leaned over her chair. “Anna, would you be willing to dance with an ex-cop, with two left feet?”
“Yes.” She started to move her chair back.
“Wait a minute. Did you really just say yes?”
She stood up and faced him. “Don’t push it, Button-boy. I don’t say yes often.”
He took her hand and led her out to the dance floor. The DJ still played soft easy music and a couple of the seniors were also out on the floor.
Sam put his hand on her waist and took her hand. They moved back and forth and were able to follow the rhythm.
“You look great tonight, Anna. I don’t think I’ve ever seen your hair down. You look gorgeous.”
“Thank you, Sam.” She looked up at him and admitted to herself that, okay, she did have some feelings for him. “You look good, too.”
“Anna, would you marry me?” he asked, with a very serious tone in his voice.
“I’ve been divorced for all of five minutes and you go and ask me to marry you?”
“Yeah, I guess that was a bit abrupt. Let’s start out small. Would you wait until I get off work and walk home with me?”
“Maybe. It is my night off and I might want to get some rest tonight.” She smiled at him.
“That’s one yes, one no and a maybe. Things are definitely looking up. Let me ask you this. Would it be okay if I kissed you?” He arched his eyebrows and waited for her answer.
“Let me think on that one. Sam, you’re not such a bad dancer. You haven’t stepped on me once.”
“Yeah? This side to side stuff doesn’t seem all that hard. If I were to try the line dancing though, I’d be tangled up in my own feet in no time.”
“Line dances aren’t all that hard. I’m sure we’ll have you stomping with the best of them before you know it.” She tilted her head and looked up into his eyes. “Yes.”
“Yes what?”
“You can kiss me. I thought about it and decided to give you another yes.”
She saw him smile and lick his bottom lip. His head came down, he placed his lips on hers and she felt calm for the first time in days. She could feel his warm breath on her face and then his fingers touched her cheek.
Anna heard cheers and whistles come from the tables and pulled back from him. She looked at her friends who stood and clapped.
“We better wait to kiss until later when we’re alone,” she said and looked up at him.
“We’re going to have a later? This evening just went to great.”
Anna went back to her friends and spent the rest of the evening with them. When Callie walked up on the stage and started to sing a quiet, heartbreaking ballad Anna went over to Sam and leaned on his arm. He looked down at her with a smile and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“I get off work in half an hour. Can I walk you home?” he asked. He put his fingers in her hair and pulled her close.
“Yeah, that would be nice.” She put her arms around his waist and gave him a hug.
“Score, another yes. It can’t get better than this.”
Anna shook her head and laughed. “You are a goof.”
He leaned his cheek down onto the side of her head and whispered. “This is beautiful song your friend is singing.”
“Yeah, all about love and romance.”
“Anna, you do know I love you, right?”
“Yep, I know. Now hush. I want to hear this song.” She looked up at him and winked.
Last Chance for Love
Book 4 - The Montana Ranch Series
Dawn Luedecke
Chapter One
“We’re going to die out here, Jess,” her friend Shelle cried as her teeth chattered and her horse sidestepped in a large gust of snow-filled wind.
“No we’re not, Shelle. Ol’ man Laughlin’s place is just over the next ridge.” At least she hoped it was. Jessica squinted into the dense white of a fall blizzard as the last light of what remained of the sun hidden above the storm clouds, began to fade. “I feel like we should be in a Jack London book right now. White Fang anyone? A little Call of the Wild?” She glanced at her friend who sat staring at her as though she was daft. “To Build a Fire…no? Okay.”
Jessica pursed her lips and kicked her horse to continue down the hill. “Only a few more minutes and we’ll be safe. Either that or we’ll be buried alive under a giant mound of frozen cloud poo.”
Shelle followed her at a careful pace. What else could they do? They had to try to get to shelter before hypothermia set in.
She crested the last ridge as dark settled over the land with a hazy yellow light in the ravine below, shining like the neon welcome sign from Mike’s pub in Livingston. Jessica urged her horse faster, but kept the pace even and careful.
At the bottom of the hill, the large dark form of a barn came into view, and she headed for the door.
Jessica slid down from her horse, Starfire, looped the reins in one hand and used her shoulder to push the large door open. Its weathered hinges squealed in protest.
Once she and Shelle were safely ensconced in the dark barn with their mounts, she turned to close the door. Jessica shoved hard to slide the door shut. When nothing happened, she adjusted her stance and pushed with her shoulder. Snow blew into the barn on a large gust of wind, landing in piles at her frozen feet.
“Dammit!” a gruff voice shouted from behind them. Jessica turned as a man rushed from the shadows at her right, and propelled her out of the way. With a kick to the bottom corner, the man angled his body for leverage and forced the large door closed. Then he turned and faced them. His white, mountain man beard was the only thing visible in the gloomy shadows of the barn. “Who the hell are you? You’re trespassing.”
“Tax audit?” Jessica followed the dumb quip with a half-cocked smile and tilt of her head. A small uncomfortable silence filled the barn. She gave an uneasy chuckle. “I’m sorry. We wouldn’t have come, except the weather—”
“I don’t like people and especially ones that make themselves at home when not invited.”
Michelle shifted closer to her horse, shielding her face behind the animal’s large head.
Jessica folded her arms. “We wouldn’t have come, but my father said if I ever found myself in trouble in the mountains, then I should come to you.”
“Who’s your father?”
“Virgil Brannon.”
The sou
nd of the man’s feet shifting in the straw-strewn ground, echoed off the stall doors. “You’re Virgil’s girl?”
“Yep.”
After a few seconds, the man stepped closer and grabbed her horse’s reins. “Go inside. I’ll take care of the horses.”
He went to grab for Michelle’s horse, but she shied away, pulling the animal’s head with her.
“Give it to him, Shelle.” Jessica urged.
With hesitation, her friend handed the knotted reins over and scurried behind Jess.
“A smaller door is to the left of where you entered. Use that one.”
“Thanks,” Jessica said and gave a smile she knew he couldn’t see in the dark. Grabbing her friend’s hand, Jessica pulled Shelle outside. The wind howled as they pushed against the force with their bodies, making way to the golden sheen of the lights in the house.
“I don’t like this,” Shelle said as she closed the door to the house, the chatter of her teeth the only other sound in the room.
“Get next to the fire,” Jessica commanded and pointed to the large blazing fireplace in the center of the back wall.
“Look at this place, Jess. It’s like he lives in the olden days. There’s only one room. Where the hell is the toilet?”
“It’s better than freezing to death outside in cloud poo,” she said in her best classic-comedian voice.
“Enough with Abbot and Costello.” Shelle sighed.
“It’s just Costello. I can’t seem to figure out Abbott.”
“Stop being weird, Jess, we don’t have time for that. We’re going to be murdered and eaten. I didn’t agree to go hunting and help you find the Bar-L’s cattle just to die a slow, cold death. Didn’t the Donner Party eat each other because of a blizzard?” She took off her coat and hung it on the peg near the door. Jessica did the same.
“He’s not going to eat us.” Jessica slid a kitchen chair close to the fireplace and pushed her friend down on it. “Now sit.”
A clamor from outside drew Jessica’s attention as the door flew open and a dog scurried in, followed by the man from the barn. Both dirty mountain dwellers shook the snow from their bodies once the door closed. The man shrugged out of his large canvas coat. He ran his hands over his face, shook the white snow from his brown beard, and turned to stare at her.
Jessica studied his features. His skin was taut, not wrinkly like the old man she’d envisioned when she heard her father speak of Ol’ man Laughlin. His Viking body filled his Carhartt pants and lumberjack shirt to perfection. Her knees weakened and she slumped into a chair next to Shelle.
She locked eyes with the frightening man and her breath failed when his crystal blue stare slid over her as she shivered in her seat. The man made her stomach feel empty, despite the sack lunch she and Shelle ate before the freak snowstorm hit.
He took two steps over to the corner of the room, grabbed a handful of blankets from the bed, and handed them to her. “You can use these to get warm.”
He glanced at Shelle as the wolf-like dog sniffed at Jessica’s feet.
“Thanks for the blankets,” Jessica sang in her imitation of Costello’s voice.
Laughlin stood tall in the center of the room and tilted his head to study her. A look of both humor and confusion showed in his eyes after her nervous impersonation. But his face remained as still as a stone statue on a cold winter morning. He didn’t move, didn’t offer to counter her awkward, one-sided attempt at repartee.
“This sounds a bit rude,” she said. “But my father just calls you Ol’ man Laughlin. What’s your first name?”
“Gage.”
“I’m Jessica and this is my friend, Shelle, short for Michelle.”
He nodded, nothing more.
She glanced around for something else to talk about and found the dog. “Who’s this?”
Shelle stiffened when the mutt turned his attention to her.
“Junction.” Gage stood still and continued to stare, his gaze calculating as he slid them from her to Shelle, and back.
“The dog’s name is Junction?” Jessica asked when his eyes stopped on her face. Her stomach fluttered at his scrutinizing stare. She wasn’t one to accurately read people’s thoughts from their expressions, but she swore his showed curiosity and longing. Maybe it was a desire to be rid of his newfound company, but she suspected he yearned for companionship of the human kind. She could be wrong, though. Her stomach slid to her throat at the thought. She battled with a quip, itching to ease its way past her tongue. Finally, she gave in to her habit and drawled, “Meet me at the Junction of lonely and snowed in. Am I right? Ouch, Shelle,” she hissed when her friend elbowed her in the rib cage. Gage simply raised his head and curved one side of his thick, beard-shrouded mouth up in a hesitant half-smile. How long had it been since he’d interacted with anyone—especially of the opposite sex?
Jessica patted Junction’s grey fur. “Thanks for taking us in. We were looking for strays up near Tumble Creek when the blizzard started. The weatherman said it was supposed to be sunny today. They usually get it wrong, though.”
Silence filled the room.
Jessica searched the room while pursing her lips to one side. The bed with a trunk at the foot sat to the right of the door. Shelves with clothes and toiletries lined the wall above. A small kitchen table stood in the center of the room, and a wood burning cook stove sat near a water basin, opposite the bed. Rustic and quaint. Straight out of a western movie.
Gage took a chair at the table.
“Cozy place you got here,” Jessica said to him and snuggled deeper into the blankets.
She glanced at Shelle, silently pleading for her friend to help draw out a conversation from the silent man. Motionless, her friend stared at the flames with slight terror in her saucer round eyes.
Oh never mind. She was obviously alone in her quest to spark a conversation.
“Our cell phones don’t get reception up here in the mountains. Do you have a phone so we can call someone?” she asked.
As though she just remembered it, Shelle took the pink cell phone out of her pocket and checked it.
“No phone,” Gage answered. Like before, his voice was gruff, but a silken tone eased its way into his timbre. He stood and picked up a blue speckled tin coffee pot off the top of the cook stove and poured a cup, raising it in a silent question to her.
She nodded and he brought her the steaming cup.
“Thank you,” she said, and took a sip. The bitter coffee ran down her throat to settle hard in her stomach. She lowered the cup to her lap trying not to choke on the vile substance.
He lifted a mug toward Shelle. She shook her head, staring once more at the flames. Once he poured himself a healthy dose, he returned to his chair. “Your father shouldn’t let you out alone in the mountains.”
Surprised, Jessica couldn’t help but let her eyes widen at his sudden desire to speak. “My father doesn’t know I’m here. I’m working at a friend’s ranch right now. The Bar-L. Have you heard of it?”
He shook his head.
She swore crickets chirped in the corner as silence filled the room again. Damn tough crickets to be out in a blizzard, she thought, laughing to herself as she imagined Jiminy Cricket shimmying under the door in a large winter coat.
“Do you know how long the weather will hold up like this?”
He shrugged.
“We’ve had a bad lot of weather already, and it’s only the first week in November,” she stated, hoping someone else would carry on the conversation. When he once again didn’t respond, she sighed and watched her friend pat the dog’s head. “Junction sure is a pretty dog. Is he a Malamute?”
“Wolf.”
Michelle yanked her hand to her chest and shrank away from the animal.
“Wolf,” Jessica repeated, nerv
ously impressed. The animal sniffed at her knees. She ran her fingers over the soft fur and sang in a deep, throaty voice, “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf—”
Silence stretched once more as Jiminy Cricket played chess in the corner.
Shelle rolled her eyes and yawned, staring into the flames, her cheeks red from the mixture of freezing cold weather and hot fire.
Gabe’s chair scraped against the wooden floorboard. He stepped to the side of the seat. “You can have the bed.”
“Are you sure? We can take the floor. There are two of us.”
“You shouldn’t be too big. I’m sure you’ll fit.”
“Gee, thanks,” Jessica teased.
“I didn’t mean…” He reached out as if to pull the words back into his mouth.
She chuckled. “I was joking.”
He nodded and dropped his hands to his side.
“Thank you.” Jessica stood and pulled her friend to her feet. “You really don’t have to give us the bed, though. We’re used to sleeping on the ground.”
“Take it,” he commanded.
She nodded and glanced quickly at her friend. Shelle’s eyes pleaded for her to intervene and she crossed her legs.
Nodding an understanding, Jessica asked the question her friend was obviously dying to know. “Do you have a bathroom?”
“Outhouse is out back.”
Shelle’s eyes widened.
“We’ll brave it.” Jessica nodded encouragement and turned toward the door.
They quickly pulled on their jackets, and then hurried out into the violent wind, only to cram into the small outhouse, away from the piercing cold snow.
“Why do you think he hides away up here?” she asked Shelle. The dim light from the house shone through the moon slit carved into the door as her friend did her business.
“I don’t know, and I don’t really care. I just want to go home where I can use a bathroom like a normal person.”
