A Real Cowboy. Sarah M. Anderson

has been wonderful, and you’ve been more than kind, but I couldn’t possibly take up any more of your time.”

      “At least take some of the blondies. I insist.” Minnie was up and moving. She never let anyone leave without an extra meal.

      “I’ll get the dishes.” Hoss started clearing the table, which wasn’t like him at all.

      Before J.R. could process Hoss’s sudden reversal of his no-housework policy, he found himself sitting alone with Thalia. It’s not that he was afraid to look at her, afraid to feel the way her presence pulled on parts of him he pretended he’d forgotten existed. Wasn’t that at all. He didn’t want to give her another chance to make her case. He didn’t want to tell her no again. He’d already done it twice. Once should have been enough.

      Nice. Polite. He could feel Minnie’s eyes boring a hole in the back of his head. What the hell? He’d never see her again anyway. “What are you going to tell Levinson?”

      “I’m not sure.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her eyebrows knot together. She looked worried. For some reason, that bothered him.

      “You seem like …” Aw, hell. Was he about to pay her a compliment? “You seem like a nice person. What are you doing working for him?”

      Her gaze locked on to his, and that connection he didn’t want to feel was right there, pulling on him more and more. “I’ve found that life often takes you places you’d never thought you’d go.”

      She was doing it again, looking right into him. So what if what she said made all kinds of sense? So what if she came off as decent? So what if she was completely at ease with Minnie and Hoss?

      She didn’t belong here. She might well go back and tell Levinson all sorts of fabricated crap. He might find himself on the cover of next week’s Star, and he might find more people freezing to death on his property, trying to snap a picture of the elusive James Robert Bradley.

      “Here we are.” Saved by dessert, J.R. thought as Minnie bustled up to the table. “Now don’t try to get to Billings tonight. Here’s directions to Lloyd’s place. I’ll call him and let him know you’re on your way. And our number’s here—” she tapped on the paper “—so call me when you get there.”

      J.R. cleared his throat in the most menacing way possible. Minnie was giving out their number? When did that become a good idea? Never, that’s when.

      “I want to make sure you get there, safe and sound.” Minnie said the words to Thalia, but she shot the look of death at J.R.

      Thalia didn’t acknowledge his rudeness. Instead, she thanked Minnie and Hoss with such warmth that it felt like they were all old friends. Hoss got her coat and, doing his best impersonation of a gentleman, held it for her.

      After Thalia buttoned up, she turned to face him. J.R. was torn between not looking at her so she’d leave faster and looking at her good and long. He wasn’t going to see her again, and he certainly didn’t want to, but he knew that the memory of her strange visit would haunt him for a long time after she left. He wanted to make sure he remembered her as she was.

      “J.R.” That was all she said as she extended her hand.

      He shouldn’t shake—for his own sanity if nothing else—but if he didn’t, Minnie might stop feeding him. Suck it up, he thought. So what if she was maybe the only other woman on the planet—besides Minnie—to call him J.R. after she knew about James Robert? Didn’t matter. She was leaving and that was that. “Thalia.”

      Her skin was soft and much warmer now. A look crossed her face, almost the same as the one she’d given him when he woke her up earlier—except she was wide awake now. That look was going to stay with him. He wanted to be annoyed with it, and with her, but he couldn’t be.

      “It’s been such a pleasure meeting you.” When Minnie started talking, Thalia let go of his hand. “You’re welcome back anytime, Thalia.”

      Everyone paused, like they were waiting for him to say something gruff or rude, but J.R. held his tongue. Part of him wanted to see her again, to see if she was really like this, or if the whole evening had been an elaborate act designed to lull him into complacency.

      He wanted to see if she’d still look at him like that. Into him, like that.

      Minnie walked her to her car. Hoss watched them from the front window. But J.R. stood rooted to the spot.

      He wanted to see her again.

      He hoped like hell he never did.