Page 58 of Reckoning with the Cowboy
“Go sign, I’ll be right there. I just need to catch my breath.”
Shane studied her for a moment, clearly afraid to leave her.
“I’m sorry. I always thought Josie would officiate my wedding. This is a little overwhelming, but I’m going to be fine.” She smiled and touched his arm. “Please, just give me a moment.”
He relented and the instant he turned his back, she ran to the exit, disappeared through the velvet drapes and out the door. She didn’t know how far she’d run, winding her way through the streets until she saw a bar and ducked into it, then into the ladies’ room, where there was less noise. Once inside a stall and the door closed, she pulled out her phone and called for an Uber. Two minutes. Driver’s name was Kevin.
Her grandmother would have said she was shaking like an aspen leaf in a Montana gale. All she knew was that her heart was threatening to burst from her chest. Back in the bar, she waited by the door. The moment Kevin drove up, she ran out, jumped in and asked him to take her to the airport. She would take any flight she could get out of Vegas as quickly as possible.
As it was, there was one leaving in forty-five minutes for Bozeman, Montana. She booked the flight, paying with her credit card. Once the charge went through, she took a seat and contacted her credit card company to let them know that after the flight, she needed to cancel it. Then she contacted her bank to freeze her account.
She hadn’t realized that she’d been crying until she sat down in her seat on the plane and the lady next to her handed her a tissue. “Thank you, but I don’t want to talk about it,” she said to the woman.
“Oh, honey, you don’t have to. I know. We’ve all been there. You’re much better without whoever he or she was.”
* * *
The dinner wasthe loveliest one Josie had ever had and the most enjoyable. Cordell never mentioned the folded sheet of paper on the table next to her plate the rest of the night. They talked about the hotel, the remodel and his plans for making Dry Gulch a destination resort.
While she might be skeptical about what Dry Gulch had to offer, she had complete faith in Cordell Lander. She loved seeing his dreams come to life. Everyone in town was excited about him restoring the hotel. It had been abandoned for far too long, making it look like Dry Gulch was a dead end.
The truth was that the town had been dying. Maybe restoring the hotel would give the town a boost, she thought. At least it had already had a positive effect on the town’s people. She saw some of the residents fixing up their places, putting on a new coat of paint, hauling away junk or making a pretty wreath for their front door.
Goldie had commented on how she’d heard people saying they hoped Cordell finished the job. “They’re rooting for him,” she’d said. “Though most of them think he’s wasting his time.”
She and Cordell talked about her pro bono work. He’d asked about Big Blue and how she’d gotten it replaced without anyone knowing where it came from.
“My secret,” she said. “Everyone in town is just glad to have the horse back where it belongs. I’m sure there are some people who are suspicious of the coincidence of Big Blue turning up at the same time bad-boy Cordell Lander returned, but once they saw you unloading lumber from the back of that trailer you hauled to town, I think they changed their minds.”
He grinned. “Thanks. You’ve always gotten me out of trouble.”
“I could say the same about you.” They’d never talked about that day with Roger Grimes. “You saved my life that day.”
“Doesn’t count. I was the one who put you in jeopardy to begin with.”
“We worked pretty well as a team, though, didn’t we?” she said and he nodded solemnly. Both of them were putting the incident behind them, but it wasn’t easy. Their brush with death would always be with them, just as the memory of what they’d had to do. The one thing they didn’t talk about was Shane Wagner, purposely staying clear of that topic.
After dinner, Cordell asked her if she would like to go to a movie or go back to the hotel and swim. “Or we can go to a movie Saturday night. Whatever you would like to do.”
“I’d like to go back to the hotel.” If he’d noticed that she’d picked up the paper she’d written on earlier and put it in her purse, he hadn’t commented.
“You can come over to my room and we can watch a movie if you like,” he suggested when they reached the hotel.
“Sounds great. I brought a bottle of wine. I’ll get it out of my bag, change into something more comfortable and come right over.”
She put on a T-shirt and shorts, grabbed the bottle of wine and tapped at the door. He opened their adjoining door and took the bottle of wine from her.
“I forgot something,” she said and rushed back to her room to get the paper she’d written on earlier.
Cordell was busy getting a couple of glasses ready for the wine. He was about to open the wine when he stopped. “Josie, the seal is broken on this bottle. Did you already open it?”
She shook her head and stepped closer.
“There’s something floating down in the bottom of the wine bottle,” Cordell said. “This was in your bag at the office, right?”
She felt goose bumps ripple over her flesh. “Shane. You think he put something in it.”
“I think we should wrap it up. Max can have the lab run tests on it. Shane’s fingerprints might even still be on the bottle.”
