That the man was single, she could only assume, of course. At any rate, there was no wife-mother on the scene, and neither Ryan nor Sawyer had mentioned one. Clearly, the boy was used to seeing to dear old dad. Dani resented the injustice, one she’d experienced herself as a fifteen-year-old when her rancher father died too young and her pampered mother, Eileen, became dependent on her.
Unbidden, scenes from the past, long suppressed, filled her head—scenes of cooking her own breakfast before school so Eileen could sleep late, scenes of nights at home alone while yet another sweet-talking man wined and dined her mother in town. Dani surfaced from the swirling eddy of memories with difficulty and only because she heard someone speak her name.
“Want to tell us your story now?” It was Cliff, and he sat with pencil poised over one of countless forms he’d undoubtedly have to fill out tonight.
“Not much to tell,” Dani replied. “I parked my car at Clearwater Café around seven o’clock—”
“In the back lot?” Cliff asked.
“Yes, the front one was full. I saw the Christmas trees at Smith’s Station next door, so I walked over there to get one before going into the café. I told Kyle—you know, Ed Smith’s youngest?—to tie down the trunk instead of locking it so the branches wouldn’t be crushed, then I went on inside the café to eat. It was awfully crowded, so I didn’t get out of there again until eight-thirty or so.”
“And you were where when you heard Mr. Given in the trunk?”
“Almost home,” Dani said with a sigh, wishing she were there now. Every muscle in her body ached with fatiguenot surprising since her Thursday had begun at 5:00 a.m. “I was talking to Jonni Maynard on that phone you insisted I buy—” she gave Cliff a smile “—when I first heard him banging around back there. I guess he’d just woke up.”
“Actually, I’d just freed my hands and was trying to get your attention,” Ryan grumbled. “I couldn’t make myself heard over your serenade.”
Dani glared at him to cover her embarrassment at being caught singing. “I turned off the radio the moment the phone rang. Why didn’t you try again then?”
“I wanted to hear what you had to say.” He shrugged. “I thought you were the one who locked me up.”
Dani huffed her opinion of that. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I hadn’t seen you, remember?”
Apparently, he could tell she wasn’t physically capable of hoisting him into the trunk. “I was referring to the radio. Didn’t you think it odd that someone who’d just mugged you would then sing Christmas carols all the way home?”
“Hell, lady, I—”
“Can’t you say a word without cursing?” She shot a meaningful glance at Sawyer, whom she considered to be at a very impressionable age.
To Dani’s surprise—she expected a “Mind your own business!”—Ryan followed her gaze. He flushed beet-red. “Sorry, ma’am. I guess I left my manners in the trunk of your car.” Looking somewhat subdued, he turned to Cliff. “Sawyer and I are in the process of moving to Wyoming, Chief Meeks. We’re going to buy ourselves a ranch there. Everything we own but one suitcase was on that truck, including our traveling cash.”
“We’ll do our best to get it back,” the chief said. “We’re beginning to get some information on the prison break now. I’ve had a phone call from a tourist who gave two guys in street clothes a ride from Cañon City to Clearwater. I’m pretty sure they were our men.”
“I’m just glad I didn’t clean out my savings account when we left Tulsa,” Ryan murmured with a shake of his head. “My boy and I’d be in a mess for sure—”
“You realize that your bank won’t be open again until Monday, don’t you?” The question fell off Dani’s tongue before she could stop it.
Ryan’s smile vanished.
“That’s three whole days away,” Dani continued. “What are you and your son going to do until then?”
“Oh, we’ll be okay,” Ryan told her, an idiotic reply if Dani had ever heard one.
How like a cowboy to play his cards close to his vest, Dani thought. Well, this time she didn’t need to peek over his shoulder to see what hand fate had dealt him. She knew. So did Cliff, if his frown was anything to go by. Dani waited for the kindhearted chief of police to invite Ryan and Sawyer home with him. Instead, he rose and motioned for her to follow him into the hall.
“How many horses are you boarding now?” he asked her when they were out of earshot of Ryan Given.
“Ten, counting mine,” she replied, wondering where on earth this was headed.
“Hmm. Running any cattle?”
“You know very well that I am.”
“Then I’ll bet you could use a little help around that place of yours…what with that big wedding of Barb’s just around the corner.”
Dani’s stomach began to knot. Surely Cliff wasn’t going to suggest—
“Why don’t you take Mr. Given and that boy of his home with you? They could help out for a while in exchange for room and board.”
Dani’s jaw dropped. This man, of all people, knew how she felt about cowboys, especially cowboys looking for homes on the range. “Are you kidding? I don’t even know this man. He could be a wife beater, a drug addict or a drunkard. He might have stolen that child in there from his mother—”
“He’s none of the above,” Cliff gruffly interjected.
“And how do you know that?”
“Motel had his truck license number. I ran a check on it and then on him.”
Dani sighed. Trust Cliff to be thorough.
“It’s destiny that’s brought him here. Destiny.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you living alone at that oversize ranch of yours, doing the work of two men.”
“I manage.”
“Now, yes. But you can’t keep it up, and you know it.”
“I knew this would happen!” Dani raged. “I should never have asked you for advice when Mick sold my timber rights to Duke Littlejohn. Now you think you can tell me how to run all my business.”
“Two heads are better than one.”
Dani sighed again. “In a crisis like that, yes. Everything is all right now—or will be once I finish that stupid wedding dress. I simply have no use for some deadbeat cowpoke and his kid.”
“He’s not a deadbeat. He’s just a little down on his luck. But forget him. Think of that boy of his…that eight-year-old boy. This is his first Christmas with his dad—”
“What?”
Cliff nodded. “I don’t know the whole story…just that Sawyer and his dad met for the first time in September. Do you really want them to spend their first Christmas together on the street?”
“So let them spend it with you and Ruth.”
“We’ve already got a houseful of her relatives or I would. You’re their only hope, Dani, girl. You, and you alone.”
“Don’t do this to me,” Dani groaned.
Cliff grinned, obviously sensing victory. “Just last week you were whining because you were going to