The Cowboy's Claim

She smiled and rose to her feet, as well. “It’s after midnight. You should just go home and straight to bed and start fresh in the morning.”

“You’re right, but that isn’t what I’m going to do. I’m heading back to the crime scene at Shirley’s house to see what we might have missed earlier.”

He lingered at the door, and for a moment she wanted to fall into the softness she saw in his eyes as he gazed at her. “Lock up after me and I’ll see you in the morning.” With another deep sigh, he left the café.

She locked the door and then shut off the last of the lights in the café. She walked through the kitchen and to a door that led to the area of the building she and her son called home.

There was a nice-size living room with a bedroom on each side. Matt had the bigger of the two bedrooms and at the moment was sound asleep in his bed.

She stood in his doorway and watched him, her heart expanding with love. Everything she had done, she’d done for him. Every bad thing she’d ever accomplished, every lie she’d ever told, had all been in an effort to save Matt.

And she’d succeeded. He was a happy, healthy young boy who had no memory of the first two years of his life. And for that she would forever be grateful. He didn’t suffer the kind of nightmares she did from those years. He slept peacefully, as the young and innocent should sleep.

She moved from his room across the living room to her smaller bedroom. Lately it seemed that every night her sleep was disturbed by nightmares. And recently she’d been dreaming not only about the crime that had taken place so many years before, but also about Candy’s murder. Now she had Shirley’s terrible death to add to her landscape of nightmares.

Minutes later, as she slid beneath the sheet and turned off the light next to her bed, she tried to focus on what Cameron had said to her—don’t take it personally.

She hoped that what people were speculating about Kevin Naperson was true. He’d always been the number one suspect in Candy Bailey’s murder. Maybe he’d killed Shirley to take the heat off himself, to make it look as if there was some crazy serial killer in the town offing waitresses.

Or perhaps it truly was just a strange coincidence that both murdered women worked at the café. Mary had twelve women working various shifts, both full-time and part-time, at the restaurant. Grady Gulch was a small town where many women didn’t work outside their homes.

She closed her eyes, determined to get to sleep despite everything that whirled through her head. Her flighty thoughts landed and stayed on Cameron Evans.

He’d made it clear in all kind of ways that he’d like to pursue something romantic with her. Matt adored the sheriff, and there were times Mary longed for nothing more than his big, strong arms around her, that she would love to invite him into her life, into her heart.

But the choices she had made long ago would forever keep her alone. And if by some chance Cameron discovered the truth of who she was and what she had done, he wouldn’t love her, he’d arrest her.

Chapter 3

She had a child.

The fact had haunted Nick throughout the night, and when he awakened the next morning it was with the same thought in his mind. Courtney had a baby.

When had it happened? Did the baby belong to Grant Hubert? Is that why she was living and working in Grady Gulch? So her baby could be close to his father? If that was the case, then why weren’t the two of them already married?

And just how old was the baby? How quickly did Courtney move on after Nick had left town?

What he couldn’t understand was why the idea bothered him so much. She’d been right. He had no business asking her questions about the choices she’d made after he’d left here. He’d lost the right to know anything about her personal life when he’d decided to disappear.

But knowing that didn’t stop the small pang in his heart as he thought of her having a child with another man. He was supposed to have been the father of her children.

Often when they’d spent time together in the Yates barn they’d talked about their future together. They both wanted children, a little boy first and then a girl. They’d buy a ranch and build a family. That had been their dream, but even as they’d talked about it, deep in his heart Nick had always known that it was all just foolish fantasy.

Even when she was twenty-four years old, Courtney’s parents had, for the most part, been running her life, making all the important decisions for her. Their princess daughter marrying a Benson boy and becoming a rancher’s wife had not been part of their master plan. Courtney had been so afraid of disappointing her parents, the relationship she and Nick had shared had been conducted undercover.

He shoved all thoughts of Courtney and her baby out of his mind as he drank two cups of coffee and then headed outside to see if he could make some headway on the lawn.

He reminded himself he wasn’t here to reconnect with Courtney in any way. He was here to pull Adam up from his depression and get the ranch back in good shape. That was all, and that was more than enough. Once he’d done what he’d come to do, he’d hightail it back to his own life in Texas.

The sun was already hot overhead as he walked out the front door and headed for the tractor mower. He didn’t know how long the machine had been sitting out in the elements but was pleasantly surprised when it turned over on the second attempt.

As he mowed, his thoughts whirled in a million directions. The fact that two women who worked as waitresses at the café had been murdered bothered him, especially when he got a visual image of Courtney in the familiar black Cowboy Café T-shirt and jeans that all of the waitresses wore.

It wasn’t his job to protect Courtney or any of the other women in the café. That job belonged to Sheriff Cameron Evans and his team of capable deputies. Nick just needed to mind his own business and let the sheriff do his job.

He was halfway through with the yard when Adam stepped out on the front porch, two cups of coffee in his hands. Nick shut down the tractor and joined his brother on the porch.

“Thanks,” he said as he took the spare coffee from Adam. Even though he’d had his fill of coffee earlier, this felt like an olive branch of sorts from the brother he desperately wanted to connect with.

Together the two of them eased down in the wicker chairs on the porch, and for a moment neither of them spoke but merely sipped their coffee and stared out in the distance.

“I’ll help chop up some of that brush after we finish our coffee,” Adam said after a long, slightly uncomfortable silence. “Sorry I’ve let things go.”

“I’d appreciate the help,” Nick replied.

He finished his coffee, set the empty cup on the porch and then headed back to the tractor, wondering if his brother was really going to help or would disappear back into the house to find another bottle of booze to anesthetize his pain and escape reality with.

His heart filled with hope as Adam walked off the porch and headed toward the barn. He returned a moment later with a long-handled sickle to cut down the thick brush.

The brothers worked together until just after noon, then went inside to a lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches and ice-cold lemonade. This time the silence between them wasn’t uncomfortable. It was merely the silence of two men who had worked hard and needed a few minutes to relax.

They worked throughout the afternoon and then at dinnertime showered up and headed for the café.

“You know Courtney Chambers?” Nick asked when they were in his truck.

“Sure, she’s one of the waitresses at the café,” Adam replied.

“Did you know she had a baby?” Nick’s fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel.

“Yeah, I remember somebody mentioning something about it at some point or another.”

“You know how old the kid is?”

Nick felt Adam’s gaze on him, but Nick kept his eyes carefully focused on the road. “I have no idea. Ten months or maybe a year or so. Why?”

“Just curious. She served me lunch yesterday when I showed up in town and I thought she was kind of cute.”

“Off-limits, brother. She’s from some hoity-toity family in Evanston and she’s dating Grant Hubert, a banker. I’d lay odds that the kid is his and there’s a wedding going to happen in the not-so-distant future.”

Nick didn’t even attempt to talk about the lump that suddenly appeared in his throat.

“If you plan on sticking around town for a while there are plenty of single, pretty women,” Adam said.

“Then why haven’t you found one?”

Adam gave him a dark glance. “You don’t find many available women in the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. I wouldn’t mind a drink right now.”

“Yeah, well, I would mind. Maybe it’s time to pull your nose out of the bottle and take a look around,” Nick said as he pulled into the café parking lot. “Looks busy.”