"I didn't find him in time. He'd gambled and drunk away most of your savings. I would have taken it out of his hide, but he's an old man. I couldn't strike him. Other than letting him cool his heels in jail for a few days, there was nothing I could do."
He rubbed his brow with the back of his hand. "I never should have left him laying around on my cabin floor for so long. I suspected he was starting to be more healthy than he was pretending to be, but I let it pass."
"You aren't the first person Pa ever lied to."
"I know." So much warmth in that rum-smooth voice. "You don't deserve what he did to you, Garnet."
Little sparks of affection jumped to life in her heart, beautiful flames that warmed her entire chest and radiated through her body. "It's nice to know you care."
"Of course I do. I feel responsible for you."
That warmth in her chest faded. Responsible? That's how he felt? The way an older brother felt for a sister? The way she felt for Golda? Garnet bowed her chin. Of course he didn't care for her. No man ever had, no man ever would.
Now there was no other decision to make. "I'm taking Gus up on his offer. He has a vacant cabin, and he offered me a reasonable rent. I can't continue to stay with you, now that I've secured employment and a home. I can't be beholden to you anymore."
"I see." Why did he sound disappointed?
"I've never had to depend on a man before," she explained. "And I can't continue to take advantage of you. You have allowed us to disrupt your life and eat your food and sleep in your bed."
"Why stop disrupting my life now that I've finally gotten a little used to it?" He leaned the pitchfork against the wall and crossed his iron-hard arms confidently over his broad chest "Besides, haven't I done a good job helping you out? I treated your wound. I made sure it was clean and bandaged. I saw that you and your family were safe and provided for."
"I don't know how I can ever repay you. No one person has ever done so much for me."
"And you thank me by leaving?"
I don't want to
. Garnet felt her face flame from the edge of her dress's high collar to the roots of her hair. "Gus's cabin does have a wooden floor, so it will be considerably warmer in case we are forced to stay in town through the winter."
Wyatt snorted. "So, now you're comparing other men's cabin's to mine?"
"Then you tell me what to do, what other choice I can make. What if I can't earn enough money before the snow traps us here for months on end? If that happens, we can't all share your shack. It's unfair to you and it's inappropriate for two unmarried women to live with you."
"If you pay rent, then it will take you longer to earn enough money to head home." He took a step closer. "I know the real reason you want to leave."
"You do?" Perhaps it was the nearness of him that snatched her breath from her lungs.
"You can't keep secrets, Garnet. Not with that honest face of yours." A spot of humor sparkled in his wicked dark eyes, luminous and enchanting.
Her heart hammered far too fast. It was from fatigue, no doubt. Overwork. Certainly such palpitations were not due to his standing so close. She could see the individual whiskers darkening his strong jaw. "What secrets am I hiding?"
"Certain feelings. For me."
Did it show that much? "Perhaps just a few."
"It must hurt. Feeling obligated to a man in miner's garb, a man not so different from your pa."
"You think–" She thought he had guessed her feelings. That perhaps he felt the same way about her. But he didn't. Once again she was wrong due to her silly foolish heart.
A muscle jumped along his jaw. "There are two little words civilized women like you say all the time, but I haven't heard them pass your lips lately."
"Which words?"
"You know them." Wyatt stared harder at her mouth. "Come on. Say it."
"Say what?"
"You can thank me. Go on. It won't hurt you to say it. Much."
Oh, he could be charming when he wanted to be, with that lopsided grin and twinkle in his eyes. He watched her expectantly.
"Thank you." Why such a polite phrase stuck in her throat, she couldn't say. Nor could she explain the way she felt weak and invigorated at the same time. Or how daylight around them faded bit by bit until Wyatt was all she saw, all there was in the world. The warmth lighting his black eyes and an amused grin tugging up one corner of his mouth. Why, he even had attractive lips. She had never noticed it before. Not like this. Not so that her gaze centered on them and she could not look away.
"See? It didn't kill you to thank me."
"No, I guess it didn't. I'm still alive. My heart is still beating."
His smile broadened, and it was like the sun in the sky. "Everyone needs a little help now and then. Even you, Garnet."
"But do you? Do you need help?"
The brightness of his smile faded, like the sun setting behind clouds. He shook his head. "Not me. I never need anybody."
No, of course not. Garnet could feel her heart sink back down in her chest. Wyatt Tanner, so tough, so damnably male, certainly did not need someone like her.
And neither did she need him. Hadn't she learned through the years how disastrous it was to depend on a man? Depending on Wyatt for shelter through the winter might be a very bad mistake. She had watched her own mother die of a broken heart, yearning after a man who loved nobody more than himself.
But her logic failed as she gazed up into Wyatt's eyes. She saw strength, intelligence, and warmth. A softness had ebbed into his face like mist into the night, softening the chiseled angles of his cheekbones and the line of his carved chin.
He spoke, moving his mesmerizing lips, and she could not tear her gaze away. "I haven't needed anyone for as long as I've been on my own, nearly twenty years now. I was alone until you showed up. I had peace and quiet until all your admirers started bringing their rucksacks stuffed full of dirty clothes, trying to court you."
More than humor rang in his voice, a voice that enveloped her like a hug, that made her let down her guard and feel with her heart. This time, for the first time, there was something different, something frightening and dangerous in it.
The blood roared in her ears as she watched his mouth move over more words. He leaned closer, so close she could see nothing but the deep blackness of his eyes and the small chips of chocolate-brown within, warmer than hot coffee on a cold day. "There's something you should know."
"W-what?" Goodness, his lips were so close he was almost kissing her as he spoke. She could feel the heat from his mouth hover over her own.
"I've seen Gus's cabin. There's no well and there's no privy. It's also much smaller than mine."
"You don't think I should rent his cabin?"
Wyatt's upper lip brushed hers once. "No. It has a canvas roof and would be very drafty come winter."
"
Your
cabin has a canvas roof." How her mouth tingled with small fire-hot sparks.
"Not for long." His upper lip brushed hers again. Such sweetness. "Perhaps it would be better for you if you stay." Both his upper and bottom lips brushed hers as he spoke.
Tingling heat skidded across the sensitive skin of her mouth. Garnet had never felt anything so incredible in her entire life.
"Say yes," he whispered, right before nibbling her lips.
Exploding dynamite could not have surprised her more. She was all sensation, all aching want for his lips on hers, warm and tender and so brief he pulled away before she could even believe he had kissed her. Before her heart kicked and the fire in her veins ignited and she wanted nothing more than another kiss, but a longer one this time, one that would last forever and a day.
Something danced in those black eyes of his. Something like excitement and desire and downright amusement all mixed together in a heady brew. She knew, because that's how she felt.
What was happening to her? Her heart cracked a little bit. What was this powerful wildfire of excitement she felt for Wyatt? She had never experienced the like before. Was it infatuation? She was being foolish, wasn't she? Was she putting herself on the same path her mother had taken, allowing herself to give her affections to a man who loved no one more than a gamble? Wyatt was a miner dreaming of riches but living in complete squalor. He'd left a perfectly good job with the law to dig for gold. He was just as shiftless as Pa.
She gazed up into Wyatt's face. A strong man, but a man nonetheless. He could break her heart as easily as Pa had broken Ma's. How could she stay? How could she leave? And worse, was he just playing with her affections? She could not forget what Golda had said. Could not deny that Wyatt was lonely, too.
Garnet touched her lips. The tingling had faded but the memory of his kiss remained.
* * *
Wyatt couldn't sleep, so he wandered outside into the night. The stable was peaceable enough, just him and his horse, but he couldn't get a certain female out of his mind. The taste of her kiss, the warm velvet brush of her lips, the way she'd put her fingertips to her mouth afterward haunted him. No, tormented him. Because he wanted to do that again.
And that just went to show how daft he was. He was in this town for only one reason–to find his brother's killer. He didn't belong here, wouldn't stay here. What would happen then? One of his leads would pan out, he would arrest the murderer and head home, back to his job, back to his life. Garnet could be stuck here if the snows came early, with her own set of admirers and her cleaning business.
Her very successful cleaning business. At least four dozen shirts and trousers flapped on the makeshift clothesline in the breeze, with more heaped high inside the cabin, waiting to be washed. This influx of visitors was interfering with his investigation. He couldn't leave her unguarded to hunt down his leads.
Before this, his best information had often come from the taverns, over whiskey and poker and tongues made careless by alcohol. Instead of working tonight, he was here, sitting guard in the dark of night, troubled by a little tiny kiss he'd given a woman.
Not just any woman. No, Garnet was by far unlike any female he'd ever met. Porcelain-fine skin. A silken luxury of ebony hair. That spark of integrity in intelligent blue-green eyes. And a will the size of a mountain.
He heard the sound. The creaking of soft leather as the cabin door swung open. Turning, he waited, listening to her familiar shuffle. Her leg was almost fully healed, he realized with some satisfaction. She wasn't limping at all.
"Don't shoot," she teased. Light from a sickle moon glowed silver on her white wrapper. A small ruffle from her nightgown peeked out from underneath.
"You're in luck. I didn't even draw on you."
She moved with a regal grace. With the way the sheen of starlight cloaked her in silhouette, she looked like a fabled queen of old.
Wyatt shook his head. Apparently he had been drinking too much whiskey.
He recapped the bottle and set it aside. "I hope you know I'm missing out on my poker game tonight."
"Don't tell me you're a gambler, too." She halted with a small wobble before him. "Whiskey and cards." She sighed. "I guess that's a prospector's life."
"Not always. Not if there's better company to be had." Wyatt gestured to the dusty earth beside him. "I haven't always had a woman living with me before this. Come join me."
"I couldn't sleep either." A pleasant, light scent of roses filled the air as she settled on the ground beside him. "I miss home. I miss my house and my garden. And the harvest ... oh, I hope it went well. I left Ruby's husband in charge of the farm."
She scrubbed her face with her hands, clearly worried. Wyatt leaned his back against a large boulder. "What kind of farm?"
"We grow apples. Ma inherited the land from her family. Pa was never much of a provider, he was always drifting." She faced him, and only the faint ethereal light from the thin slivered moon separated each of them from the night. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Do you stay in one spot for the length of a season, or are you always moving on?"
He didn't like to talk about himself. First, it was the surest way to blow a cover. And besides, he never trusted anyone that much. His life was no one's business. And he opened his mouth intending to say so. "I was in the cavalry for ten years."
The words popped out of his mouth of their own volition, betraying how lonely he was, how drawn to this tender, steely-willed woman.
"The cavalry?"
"I got out years ago. I landed myself a job as a deputy in a few small towns and later as a sheriff in a fairly big town not far from here. I don't like to remember that time."
"Is that when you had that divorce?" She whispered the last word. Not with judgment, but with a need so raw in her voice, it frightened him.
"Yes." Wyatt felt his chest squeeze tight.
"Have you thought about settling down again?" So soft, those words.
"No." It was the truth, he realized. He had a fine enough home in Bannack, where he worked for the county judge, and a job he liked. But his heart, it was wandering, as restless and wild as the night wind. He doubted any woman could tame it, could make him trust in love and forever again. "Did I scare you tonight? I mean, after so many marriage proposals, my kiss might have been unwanted."
