by Starla Kaye
He cursed under his breath and paced his small room. Daniel was such a damn interfering man, well–meaning or not. He’d made Caleb’s life hell, making him hide from the horde of women chasing after him. When they’d started turning their attention to Adam, he too had started making himself scarce. Except for that morning when he’d flirted with Marinda Tamberline. Why the hell had he done that? Of course he knew the answer. He’d been alarmed about kissing Faith a couple of days before. Alarmed because he finally realized how much he wanted her, physically… and more than that. So he’d acted the idiot.
Disgusted with himself, he glanced around the sparsely furnished room. His gaze landed on the saddlebags tossed in one corner containing all he’d thrown together before riding out of town. He’d made a snap decision and left his life, his brothers, and Faith behind. He’d been sure if he got far enough away that he’d start letting go of his past. All he’d come to realize was that he’d been using what had happened with Meredith as an excuse. He’d not wanted to hurt again.
He put a hand to his chest. He’d been hurting more than ever, more than when he’d learned he’d lost the woman he hadn’t loved and the baby he’d not had a chance to love. He missed Faith…everything about her, especially her smile. Although she’d smiled less frequently around him over the last couple of months, because she’d finally started giving up on him. Why then? Why had she given up after chasing him for so long?
Because she got tired of hurting, too. Yes, he knew he’d hurt her by his constant refusals to court her. He could only imagine how much she hurt–how much she hated him–after he’d kissed her and then looked to be courting Marinda. What a stupid idiot he’d been!
So what was he going to do now?
He strode over to pick up the saddlebags. It was time to go face up to the biggest mistake he’d ever made. He’d get down on his knees if necessary and beg Faith’s forgiveness. And then he would ask her to marry him.
* * *
The mercantile was closed for business until Annabelle made her way back to Dryfork and reopened it. Faith stood on shaky legs in the back room and glanced around through tear–filled eyes. She’d changed so much since her decision to come help out at the store. She’d matured, learned to handle a job and then how to manage the store when Annabelle had left to visit her sister. It hadn’t been easy moving away from home, but she was glad she’d done it. She might have some bad moments ahead, but she knew she could face the next part of her life. She could leave here and start over. She had to.
She drew in a steadying breath and moved to put the store’s ledgers in the small safe. It was the last time she would be doing it. Today would be filled with “last” moments. She’d already had her “last moment” with her parents the evening before. That had been difficult to get through, but, surprisingly, her mother had made it easier. When her father had started to demand that Faith give up the “foolish” idea of moving away, her mother had stepped in. It was the first time Faith could remember that her mother had taken a firm stand against her husband. Even more surprising, he’d grouched a bit and then backed down. In fact, he’d swept her into a rare hug, hugged so hard she’d wondered if he wouldn’t break some of her bones.
She closed the safe and sniffed back tears. She was going to miss her parents.
Another glance around the small room had her thinking about her first day here. How she’d insisted on wearing boy’s trousers and a shirt as she cleaned up the store. Adam had been outraged. Ladies don’t dress like that! That hadn’t been the first time they’d butted heads about her working at the store. But she’d honestly thought they had finally taken a turn in their relationship. Now that she was working and living next door to his shop, he had more trouble avoiding her. Actually, he’d stopped in every day at the start, annoyed he claimed for one reason or another. Yet she’d caught him watching her when he thought she wasn’t looking. She’d seen the way his eyes heated sometimes. He never gave up on fighting his attraction to her, though. Stubborn man.
Her trembling fingers reached up to touch her lips. He’d kissed her out on the boardwalk in front of anyone who might pass by. He’d kissed her with such passion that she’d have let him do anything with her after that. But all he’d done was walk away. Two days later he left town. A piece of her had died when she’d first seen the Closed sign on his shop.
She heard the anxious voices of her friends outside in the store and forced the painful memories aside. He’d moved on and so would she. She couldn’t bear living here another day, couldn’t stand crying herself to sleep missing him. Well, that might continue for a while even living somewhere else. It was time to stop hiding out in here and go say her good–byes to her friends before she would leave on the afternoon stage.
Forcing a smile, she walked into the main room, saw her teary–eyed friends Angelica and Jennie, noted the grim faces of Daniel, Ben, and Caleb. She almost turned around.
“I swear I’m going to find that sonofabitch and wring his neck,” Daniel grumbled with a determined scowl.
His brothers echoed comments of agreement. Their fierce loyalty to her made her heart swell with love for them. They’d become dear friends to her, almost like brothers. But Adam was their brother and he deserved their loyalty even more than she did. In her heart she knew Adam was hurting about something that he couldn’t get over. She’d really wanted to help him get through it. She’d wanted to love him.
She sighed and said firmly, “He’s a good man and you need to stand behind him. He can’t help how he feels.” But oh how his not loving her hurt.
Jennie and Angelica moved to her sides and seemed to be glaring at the Braddock brothers. Faith stepped away to turn and face the women. “Don’t hold Adam’s actions against his brothers.” She hesitated. “And you’ll need to forgive him if and when he comes back.”
“Have you forgiven him for running off?” Angelica demanded. “Running away like a coward.”
“Now, Angelica,” Ben protested, though weakly.
Angelica glowered at him. “He kissed Faith and then went chasing after Marinda Tamberline.” She huffed. “Then he skipped town.”
In a weak moment, Faith had admitted to Angelica that Adam had kissed her. Evidently she hadn’t kept that slip a secret. She could feel their pity. Now she felt even worse.
Daniel inched closer and Faith watched Jennie bristle. Still he said his piece. “The man’s a damn fool, we all know it. He loves you. Has for months.”
Faith struggled to not break into more tears. “Maybe he does, but he doesn’t want to act on it. He’s made that pretty clear.” She raised her chin and looked from person to person. “Can we not talk about Adam anymore? This is my last chance to be with you all. The stage will be arriving anytime now.”
Angelica and Jennie embraced each other, sobbing.
Faith swallowed down a painful lump in her throat. Do not cry! Do not! She was going to miss them terribly. They were the sisters she’d never had.
She looked at the brothers now standing speechless and looking chagrined. They were all so handsome, but none as handsome as Adam. She memorized their faces to remember them in the long days ahead. Adam’s face was already emblazoned in her mind. She would never forget him.
“Are you sure you can’t stay until Annabelle gets back?” Jennie pleaded.
Both Jennie and Angelica had asked the same question every day since she’d heard back from Annabelle a week ago. She knew they were hoping that Adam would change his mind and come back. Her friends were hoping for a happily–ever–after moment for her, although they wouldn’t say it to her face. But she’d overheard them talking about it. Even Angelica, who had been the angriest when he’d left town, wanted things to work out for Faith and Adam. Faith had given up on the fantasy when she’d seen the Closed sign that remained even now on the barbershop.
“No. I can’t.” The words nearly didn’t make it out of her mouth. She was choked up, hurting all over.
Daniel went to his wife
and put an arm around her, drew her close to him. “She’ll be all right, Jennie.” His gaze as he glanced at Faith was still worried.
“You better send a letter now and then,” Angelica stated, her voice shaky.
Ben, too, moved closer, trying to pull Angelica against him. She pushed him away. “Not now. At the moment I’m not real happy with any of you Braddocks.”
Ben stepped away, sadness in his eyes. Faith worried about them. Angelica had so many secrets, a lot of pain buried within her. Ben had seemed to love her from the moment she’d arrived in town, but he hadn’t asked her to marry him. Faith hoped they could work out whatever was keeping them apart. She would have liked to be here when they did, liked to have stood up for her friend when they finally married.
The sounds of jangling reins, heavy hooves pounding on the dirt road, and the snorting of exhausted horses announced the arrival of the stagecoach. Faith’s whole body stiffened. Her stomach tightened, even as she felt sick at the same time.
Without a word, the Braddock brothers each picked up one of her three satchels and headed for the door. She’d decided to have her furniture moved back to her parents’ home after she left. She’d given a lot of her clothes to Jennie and Angelica, planning to take as little as necessary with her. All of it was part of the life she was leaving behind.
Her friends rushed over and the three of them hugged each other fiercely, sobbing the entire time. Finally Faith broke away, dashed at her tears, and forced a reassuring smile. “I better get over to the stage. The driver gets pretty impatient. As soon as the horses get exchanged for fresh ones, he’ll be ready to leave.”
She moved to pick up her small reticule from the counter by the window. She was leaving. Now. It was all so final, so hard to believe. She almost couldn’t make her feet move again.
Angelica and Jennie walked to her sides and each took one of her arms. They walked together out of the store and stepped down into the road. Faith wouldn’t allow herself to look back. She wasn’t sure she could see that horrible Closed sign on Adam’s shop without breaking down.
* * *
Adam rode hard, feeling almost desperate to get back to Dryfork. Something was wrong. He felt it in his gut. But his horse nearly came up lame and he had to slow down, and then stop over night when he hadn’t planned on it. He didn’t sleep, though. Every time he closed his eyes, he thought about Faith. But he didn’t picture her in the mercantile or up in her apartment. No, he didn’t “see” her in any specific place. And that worried him.
By the time he rode into town three days later in the middle of the day, he felt an urgency that surprised him. He had to find Faith. He wouldn’t be able to breathe right again until he did.
Daniel strode out of his sheriff’s office and called out to him. “Adam, you need to get your sorry hide over here.”
Adam’s stomach knotted. His brother’s grim expression didn’t bode well. He guided his horse to the hitching rail in front of Daniel. “I’m in a hurry,” he said warily, looking across the street toward the mercantile. Everything in him tightened at the Closed sign in the store’s window. “Closed?” he asked numbly.
“Did you expect Faith to wait around for you to come to your senses?” Daniel sounded angry, hostile.
Yes, foolishly he had hoped just that. “She’s gone?”
“We all tried to change her mind, but she felt like she couldn’t stay here any longer. She left on the stage yesterday.” Daniel looked him over, his expression more concerned now. “You look terrible.”
Adam felt worse than terrible. He’d ridden almost solid since leaving Denver, slower than he would have liked, but solid. He hadn’t shaved or had a haircut since he’d left Dryfork, so he imagined how bad he looked. And he needed a bath, bad. Even he could smell himself. None of that seemed to matter now.
He slid from the horse’s back and his legs almost gave out on him. “I left Denver three days ago.” He spoke quietly, defeated. Arrived here one damn day too late.
Daniel took the horse’s reins. “I’ll get him to the livery. You go clean up, get some rest.”
“Don’t see the point in it,” Adam mumbled.
Daniel wrinkled his nose. “Well, you smell pretty bad. Look like a mangy outlaw, too. You’re gonna scare folks.”
“I don’t care.” He still couldn’t believe Faith was gone. She’d threatened to leave, but he hadn’t believed she actually would. She had family here, friends…him. All right, she didn’t know she had him.
Daniel stepped into the street, started to lead the big bay gelding away. He stopped and looked back, in challenge. “Are you giving up now? Now that you’ve come to your senses.”
“She’s made it pretty clear that she doesn’t want me anymore. Hell, she left town.” Now he was irrationally angry.
Daniel gave him a cocky grin. “Faith said much the same thing about you. That you’d made it clear you didn’t want her because you ran off.”
“I didn’t run off,” Adam protested uncomfortably. “I decided to start fresh in California.”
“Angelica was actually the one who said you ran off, like a coward, I think she said.” At Adam’s scowl, Daniel grinned again. “She was right, you know. But I’m pleased to see you didn’t quite make it to California. Pleased to see you back here to face what you’ve done to our sweet Faith.”
As wrong as it was, Adam wanted to find sweet Faith and turn her over his knee. He wanted to spank her good for leaving him. She should have waited for him. Yes, it was irrational thinking, but he didn’t care.
He met Daniel’s amused gaze. “What the hell do you see funny about any of this?”
“It’s hard to say, but I just do. The mighty, I’m–never–falling–in–love–again Adam Braddock has to eat his words.” He chuckled. “And you’re going to have to do some riding to catch up with that stage.”
Adam wasn’t sure he could find the strength to get on another horse. But he knew he would. He headed for his barbershop. “I’m going to shave and get rid of this layer of dirt. Grab a meal and a night’s rest. I don’t figure I would make it another ten miles the way I am now.”
Daniel called out to him, “She’s headed for Kansas City.”
“I’ll catch up to her long before then.” Once he got his strength back he’d go after the woman he loved.
* * *
“Are you sure about this, Miss?” The stage driver set the last of Faith’s three bags down in the dirt. “I thought you were headed to Kansas City.”
Faith looked at the stage stop basically in the middle of nowhere, just over a day’s ride from Dryfork. They had pulled in to change horses and she’d made a sudden decision. She’d been thinking about it ever since she’d sat down on the stage yesterday. “I’ve changed my mind.”
The grizzled–looking man shook his head. “Well, the next stage headed back to Dryfork should come through here in a couple of days. Tom and his wife will watch after you until then. They’re good folks.”
They had already agreed to let her stay in one of their few rooms for guests from the passing stages. She’d felt comfortable with them, but she was anxious for the next stage. “I’ll be fine.”
Tom led fresh horses up and the driver went to help him. She picked up two of her bags and carried them to the porch of the weather–worn looking house. As she went back for the last satchel, she felt a tremble of anticipation pass through her. She didn’t know what it meant. All that mattered was that she knew in her gut she needed to go back to Dryfork. She was not giving up on Adam Braddock. If she had to, she would track the scoundrel down all the way to California. He needed her. He was just too stubborn to realize it.
* * *
Adam didn’t want to stop at the stage stop, but his horse was about worn out. He was pretty sure the stage headed east would have passed through here yesterday. He planned to leave his horse and borrow or buy, if need be, another horse and head out again as soon as possible.
“What are you doing here?”
“Adam Braddock, I’m talking to you.”
Everything in him wanted to run to her, sweep her into his arms, and kiss the hell out of her. But he tamped down that need. Instead he faced her, trying to frown, but feeling a smile slipping into place. She looked so pretty, so hopeful, and she was fighting tears.
That had him moving swiftly to where she stood on the edge of the porch. “Thought you were headed to Kansas City.”
To his surprise, she thrust up her chin. “I changed my mind.”
His heart pounded. He couldn’t ever remember feeling such a rush of need. “So where were you planning to go now?”
“To track you down.” She fidgeted with the side of her long black skirt, but she held her shoulders back. “You need me.”
He just gaped at her for a minute. The man near his age that ran this stage stop walked from around the side of the house. But he glanced from Adam to Faith and decided to go back the way he’d come. Good.
Adam couldn’t hold back a grin and walked directly in front of Faith. “Yes, I do.”
He watched her blink in confusion. Then she said shakily, “You’re admitting it?” Tears slid down her face. “You…you came after me.”
“Had to since I’m planning on making you my wife.” He reached up to thumb away the tears. Her skin was so soft and she smelled good, too.
She slapped his hand away. “That’s not much of a proposal.”
He chuckled and then grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her against him. “The best you’re going to get until after I burn your butt.”
She froze and looked up at him with widened eyes. “You want to spank me? Why?”
He held her tight to him with one arm and swatted her bottom with the other. She couldn’t have felt it much through the layers of clothing. “For giving up on me.”
