Until Tomorrow

by Rosanne Bittner

  He grasped her hips and helped her move, their lovemaking lasting a pleasurably long time since that first, quick act that they had both needed so desperately. Now they could take their time, and they could not get enough of each other. Cole rolled her onto her back again, surged inside of her with sweet rhythm and in circular movements that made her feel crazy with need. Cole Parker was as good in bed as he was with a gun. Finally he moved in quick thrusts that made her cry out his name, before his life again spilled into her. He groaned with his own pleasure, then wilted beside her, their bodies slick with perspiration and neither of them caring.

  Addy settled into his shoulder. “I don’t want you to go.”

  “We have no choice for now.”

  “I know.” She lay there enjoying the quiet moment, then decided she had no choice but to tell him about her earlier conversation with Grant. She raised up on one elbow and looked down at him. “I have to tell you, Grant found out about my abduction.”

  The love and happiness in Cole’s eyes turned to alarm. “What!”

  Addy sighed, laying back down and toying with the hairs on his chest. “That nosey Ethel Brown. She doesn’t like me. Apparently the night you came to me after my reception, the schoolteacher, John Withers, who then lived at Miss Ada’s, saw me go out, heard me arguing with a man. He told Ethel. She decided I knew some man here in town, and she thought she should check out my background even more. She sent a letter to the sheriff at Unionville, then showed the reply to Grant, and he questioned me about it. They thought perhaps I’d been … raped. In the eyes of someone like Ethel, I would have been too soiled to teach little children, even though it wouldn’t have been my fault.”

  She could feel his tension building. “Did Grant believe your story?”

  “I told him the same story I told the sheriff back at Unionville, and he thinks the one called Nick Coleman is dead. He seemed to believe me when I told him I wasn’t raped. I explained that the reason I told no one was because I was afraid it would affect their opinion of me, and because I had been through so much on my trip west that I just didn’t have the heart or the energy to bring it up. I didn’t want to have to explain.”

  Cole caressed her hair. “How did you explain about arguing with some man in the middle of the night?”

  “I just told him I’d gone out to relax and think and be alone when some drunken miner stumbled out of the darkness and made advances.”

  Cole grinned. “Well, a drunk did stumble out of the darkness and try to make advances.”

  Addy laughed lightly. “You weren’t drunk, and you didn’t stumble.”

  They kissed one another, then Cole stroked her hair as he spoke. “I’m glad your abduction is out in the open. Explanations have been given and this should be the end of it. Now you can concentrate on your teaching in a couple of weeks, and while you’re doing that, I’ll be working hard at getting settled, saving my money, earning some respect. A lot of people in this town like me. I think I could do well, maybe as a gunsmith. What do you think of that?”

  Addy kissed his cheek. “I think it’s a good idea. It’s wonderful to hear you have made some decisions. This all just might work, Cole. One good thing came out of Ethel Brown’s nosiness. In Sheriff Page’s reply, he said Ted Sloan and Cal Arden had been killed in another bank robbery in Missouri. There is no one left now to tell the law you aren’t dead.”

  Cole moved to rest his elbows on either side of her. He leaned down and kissed her eyes. “Then maybe we really can be free.” His eyes grew misty. “I love you, Addy Kane. I saw a little girl not long ago, about Patty’s age when she—” He closed his eyes for a moment. “It made me want a family again. If we do this right, we can be together for good. I’ll get myself established as a hard-working business owner, start inviting you out, let the public see us together as though we only met since coming here. You can begin seeing less of Grant, let him down easy. We can make it work, eventually get married. I don’t care if you want to keep teaching …” He kissed her lightly. “Except that you’ll have to take time off to have our babies.”

  Addy studied his dark, handsome eyes. Yes, he really meant it this time, but there was still the problem of how to make Grant understand she was not interested in marrying him. “It won’t be easy getting away from Grant. He told me last night that he wanted to marry me.”

  Alarm and anger came into Cole’s eyes. “What did you tell him?”

  “I said I couldn’t make that kind of decision now, that I was sorry, but I consider us simply friends. He didn’t like my answer, and there was a look in his eyes that frightened me a little. Grant Breckenridge doesn’t like to be crossed or turned down.” She decided not to tell him about the forced kiss. “We will have to be careful. I don’t want him angry with you, and the last thing we want is for him to suspect we already knew each other.”

  Cole frowned with concern. “I’ll have to get started on my own business, then quit my job with him, put some distance between us. While I’m doing that, you begin turning down his invitations. School will start soon. You can use that as an excuse; you’re too busy and too tired; you want to concentrate on your teaching for a while.” He sighed and lay down beside her again. “Or we could both leave Central, go to Denver or go even farther west and start over together.”

  “I thought about that, but a lot of people here have a big investment in me. I feel I owe them by doing what I came here to do. Besides that, I would have no good explanation for why I would suddenly want to depart after telling them how happy I am to have been hired, to be able to teach. Why would I leave, with no job prospects, no money to settle on my own? Grant would be very suspicious. He could even have me followed. If you also suddenly quit his employ and left, and he found us together someplace else, he’d do more investigating, I’m sure of it. You could still end up in trouble. I think staying here and taking it slow is much safer than both of us suddenly leaving Central.”

  “You’re probably right.” Cole pulled her closer. “But if we’re going to take it slow, then we’re going to have to find ways to be alone together like this.”

  She reached up and traced her fingers over his dark brows. “I love you, Cole. I don’t think I told you yet.”

  He grinned. “Oh, I think you did a pretty damn good job of showing it.”

  “Did I? Am I as good as those fancy ladies in town?”

  “Much better.” He turned and met her mouth in a warm, delicious kiss. “I’d better leave pretty quick before your neighbors wake up. One of them might see me sneaking out your back door.” In the next moment he gently pushed inside of her, both of them knowing they had to do this one more time before he would have to go. This time they made love quietly, gently, relishing every touch, every kiss, every deep thrust, glorying in the relief of having made a decision, a commitment, a promise. Their union held a beauty and fulfillment it had not held before.

  “Stay there while I wash and dress,” Cole said with a deep sigh when he finished. He walked over to the washstand, and Addy pulled the covers over herself, wanting to cry at the thought of his having to leave.

  “It will be so wonderful when we can do this and then get up together and I can cook your breakfast, when we can be together every night.”

  Cole picked up a bar of soap and poured water from a pitcher into a wash bowl. “Yeah.” He was worried. It made him uneasy to think of Grant Breckenridge investigating Addy’s abduction, asking questions, getting names. He hoped the man wouldn’t begin piecing things together—Nick Coleman, Cole Parker … a stranger comes to town at the same time as Addy, and he’s good with guns. Had the sheriff back in Illinois described any of the men? What if he got a description of Nick Coleman, tall dark, quick with guns, a scar across his forehead at the hairline? It was the damn scar that would give it away. All he could do was hope Grant wouldn’t look into it any further. He decided not to tell Addy his fears. The night had been too perfect, and he didn’t want to spoil it.

/>   He began dressing, and Addy rose and walked behind the curtain to wash, setting aside Cole’s used water and putting a clean bowl on the stand. “Don’t leave before I’m through,” she told him.

  “I won’t.”

  She hated this, couldn’t wait until they could be together this way forever. She quickly washed and then pulled on a robe. She brushed the tangles from her hair, decided to wait to dress after Cole was gone. She came out from behind the curtain to find him fully dressed, sitting on the bed and smoking. His dark eyes moved over her, and already both knew they would rather make love again.

  “Come here,” he told her.

  Addy walked closer. He untied the robe, pulled it open, kissed the little valleys between her thighs and that secret place that belonged to Cole Parker now. No man had ever been so intimate with her. “You smell good.” He kissed her belly. Addy leaned over and offered her breasts, and he sucked on them gently, massaged them lovingly. Their mouths met in a wet, delicious kiss, and Cole moved his hands over her nakedness. He pulled her onto his lap, kissing her hungrily again. He left her mouth and kissed her throat. “I’d better go before we end up in bed all over again,” he told her. “We—”

  Someone knocked at her front door then, and Addy straightened in surprise. She jumped up and closed and tied her robe. “Who on earth—”

  “Shut the bedroom door and go answer it,” Cole told her. “But first to go the kitchen and get my hat and throw it in here. I left it on the table last night.” Their eyes held in alarm.

  Addy turned and ran into the kitchen, picking up his hat and tossing it into the bedroom. Cole closed the door while Addy walked to the front door to ask who was there.

  “It’s me, Hester,” came the reply. “Something has happened I thought you should know about. We aren’t sure whether to celebrate or be sorry.”

  Addy frowned in wonder. “I’m not dressed, Hester. I was just taking a sink bath.”

  “It’s just me, dear. I’ll only be a minute. I’m sorry to disturb you this way, but the entire town is in a tizzy.”

  Addy glanced back at her bedroom door. Everything seemed in order. She just hoped she didn’t look too flushed herself. At least she had already washed. She opened the door, and Hester stepped inside, seeming embarrassed at seeing Addy so “undone.”

  “I’m so sorry, dear, but an awful thing has happened. Last night, what with all the celebrating and drinking, a few men got into some kind of row over at the Hard Luck saloon and they ended up shooting at each other. One bullet went astray and hit Sassy Dillon. They say she’s dying!”

  Addy drew in her breath, glancing at the bedroom door. “Sassy?” She thought about the day Sassy had come to her to tell her she should make up her mind to be Cole’s woman. She had only been trying to help, was apparently a good friend to Cole. “Who shot her?”

  “No one knows for sure, and one of the men in the shootout is dead, the other dying. It could have been either one of them. Some folks say that if that gunman who works for her, Cole Parker, that man Grant allowed you one dance with last night, had been there, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. He wasn’t there, and no one is sure where he went, or where he is now. He isn’t at the rooming house where he lives. They’re looking all over for him, because apparently Sassy Dillon is asking to see him before she dies.”

  “Oh, my. I wonder where Mr. Parker could be.”

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure they’ll find him. In the meantime, we women are having a gathering at my house in two hours to discuss this. Sassy was well liked by all the miners, of course. Funerals for such women are often quite large in towns like this. We want to decide whether or not we should buy flowers out of Denver to be thrown on her grave. She was, of course, a most shameful woman, but if she dies, she will become one of Central’s most colorful figures. By putting flowers at her grave we can show that we were not hateful or trying to hurt Sassy Dillon as a person. We simply wanted the practice of prostitution to end.” Hester patted Addy’s arm. “You get dressed and come up to the house, dear.”

  “I will.”

  “Did you have a good time last night? You and Grant make such a handsome couple, you know.”

  Addy glanced at the bedroom door again. “I had a very good time last night.” Poor Cole. He was close to Sassy. He must be going crazy with the need to get to her … and suffering guilt over her death. Could he have stopped it? After what happened to Patty, thinking he should have been able to help her, this would be very hard on him.

  She thanked Hester, who finally left. She closed the door, and Cole opened the bedroom door and stepped out. “You heard?” she asked. He came closer, and Addy could see tears in his eyes. “Cole, you are not to blame for anyone’s death, not even Patty’s. I hope you don’t blame me for this … for keeping you here last night.”

  He shook his head. “How could I blame you for that? That’s the most happiness I’ve know for a long time, but we have a lot of waiting to do if we’re ever going to be able to be together for good.” He pulled her into his arms, and Addy felt his grief. “She was a good woman, Addy. There were things about her you didn’t know, and there were reasons why she ended up living like she did. She never really had a choice.”

  “But why—”

  “I’ll explain later.” He leaned down and kissed her gently.

  “I’m so sorry, Cole. What will you tell them about where you’ve been?”

  He sighed, wiping quickly at his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe that I was tired and turned in at the rooming house before anybody else was through partying and left early this morning to go walking alone. I didn’t bring Shadow up here because I didn’t want anyone to see my horse tied anywhere nearby. They’ve probably already checked the stables to see if he was there.” He sighed, kissing the top of her head. “I’ll take the long way around getting back down to town, make sure nobody sees me in this area.”

  Their eyes met, and both felt an uneasiness that made them anxious. Could this really work after all? Was it all just a dream? “We can do this, Addy,” he said, determination in his eyes. “You have to believe that. I’m sorry I have to leave, and doubly sorry I have to leave to go to a woman like Sassy, but she’s been a good friend.”

  “I know. She came here once to talk to me, told me I should be with you.”

  Cole frowned. “She did that? And you let her in?”

  Addy nodded, and tears formed in her eyes. “Tell her thank you for me—for caring, for keeping our secret.”

  Cole kissed her once more. “I hate leaving you, but I can’t help blaming myself for this. I’ve got to get to her.”

  “I know.”

  He turned away, and Addy watched him walk to the kitchen, open the back door slowly. He looked back at her once more, and her heart hurt at the anguish in his eyes. He left, and Addy walked into the bedroom and stared at the bed, feeling an ache in her heart, and an odd premonition that the happiness they had shared last night might never be found again. She lay down on the bed, could still smell his manly scent on a pillow, in the covers, in the room … on her body. She curled up, wrapped the covers around her, wishing it was Cole’s arms instead.

  Twenty-Six

  Cole waited for the doctor to test Sassy’s heartbeat once more. She lay in her own room, her eyes closed, her breathing labored, each breath mingled with moans of pain. His heart fell when he saw the look in Dr. Jonesboro’s eyes. The man shook his head and walked up to Cole, taking his arm and leading him outside the door. At the bottom of the stairs the main room of the saloon was packed with men waiting to see if Sassy Dillon would live or die.

  “I give her very little time,” the doctor told Cole. “A few hours at the most. The bullet entered the abdomen, probably tore through the colon in so many places it would be impossible to fix such a thing. She’ll die of infection, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t even find the damn bullet. Some fancy doctor in a big hospital back East might be able
to help her, but I can’t.” He sighed. “I don’t have the equipment or the expertise to fix such a thing. She’s in a lot of pain, and she’s been asking for you.”

  Cole nodded. “I heard. I went out for an early walk, and when I came back half the miners in Central started shouting at me to get to the Hard Luck.”

  “Well, I’ve done all I can do for now. Go on in and see her before it’s too late.”

  Cole looked into the room again, removed his hat and went inside. He bent over Sassy, grasping the head rail with one hand and taking one of her hands in the other. “Sassy? It’s me, Cole.”

  She opened her eyes, gripped his hand tightly when pain ripped through her belly again. “Cole,” she said weakly. “I was afraid … you wouldn’t get here in time. Where were you … last night?”

  “I’m sorry, Sassy.” His eyes misted. “I feel like this is my fault.”

  “No,” she groaned. “Not your fault. The way I live … it was bound to happen I should die … a violent death. I don’t … blame you. I can only blame myself. I only asked … where you were because I hope … you were with that schoolteacher … where you belong.”

  Cole grinned through tears. “Don’t you tell a soul.”

  Sassy managed a wry smile of her own. “You devil. All night?”

  Cole nodded. “All night.”

  “She gonna marry you?”

  “She is.”

  She gripped his hand tighter again. “Lucky woman.” She breathed deeply against pain before continuing. “Now I know I’m doing the right thing. I … have to tell you something.”

  “What is it?”

  She swallowed against tears. “First, my Elizabeth … promise me you won’t … leave the area. Promise me you’ll see that … she’s taken care of … if something happens to her father.”