Her Cowboy Distraction(22)

Lizzy gave her a grateful smile, but she was aware of Cameron studying  her intently. "Are you sure there's nobody from your past? No  ex-boyfriend who might have tracked you here?"

"No, there are no boyfriends in my past." Both Mary and Cameron looked  at her in surprise. She shrugged with a wry grin. "What can I say? I was  totally focused on my work for years, and since my mother's death I've  been traveling around too much to pick up a boyfriend along the way."

"Until now," Mary said softly.

Lizzy felt the blush that swooped into her cheeks. "Daniel isn't my  boyfriend. He's just a nice man who is allowing me to stay at his place  for a few days." She raised her chin as if defying Mary to say anything  else about the relationship with Daniel.

Cameron released a tired sigh. "The other places you've been in your  travels …  Anyone give you problems? Can you think of anyone who might  have been angry enough with you to want to harm you?"

"I try not to make enemies wherever I go. I can't think of anyone like that. Trust me, if I thought of anyone I'd tell you."

"I just thought you might have thought of somebody since the last time I questioned you," he replied.

She shook her head with an edge of her own frustration. "I just wish I  could have turned my head enough to see who it was, or at least felt  something that might identify the person. Thank God Courtney stepped  outside when she did."

"She seems to have settled in okay at the motel," Mary said. "I have  Rusty out in his cabin, but I'm not putting any other women out there  until Candy's killer is behind bars."

"I'd like to think that if Kevin was responsible for Candy's murder  there are no other women in town who are at risk." Cameron looked back  at Lizzy. "Except the attack on you confuses everything."

"Go home, Lizzy," Mary said with a glance at her watch. "Rusty and I can finish up for the night."

"Do you mind if I take an apple?" Lizzy asked. "I want to cut it up in slices to feed to one of Daniel's horses."

"You know that's not a problem. Go get your apple," Mary replied.

Lizzy left the counter and headed for the kitchen, where Rusty was  scraping off the grill. Rusty was a big man, with copper-colored hair  and ice-blue eyes. He wasn't an unfriendly man, but he wasn't  particularly sociable, either.

"Hey, Rusty, I'm just going to grab an apple and slice it real quick," she said.

"Whatever," he replied, not turning from the grill.

She stepped into the walk-in refrigeration unit and grabbed one of the  apples from a bin, then stepped back out and grabbed a knife.

As she sliced the apple into small sections she slid a glance toward  Rusty. He was about the right height to be her attacker and his arms  were big, like the one that had wrapped around her neck.

But she and Rusty had never exchanged a cross word with each other, and  he certainly wouldn't see her as a threat to his job. She had no desire  to be a cook. It just didn't make sense that he would want her to leave  town.

As she placed the apple slices into a small baggie, she realized it  would be easy for her to speculate and see bogeymen everywhere in Grady  Gulch. There were a hundred men who were about the same height as Rusty,  and each of them was a rancher and had firm arm muscles. Picking out  her attacker from the group of men who had potential was like finding a  needle in the proverbial haystack.

"Good night, Rusty," she said as she grabbed her baggie.

"See ya later," he replied as she left the kitchen.

As she walked back into the dining area, Cameron stood. "I'm heading  out, too. I'll walk you to your car, Lizzy. Good night, Mary. I'll see  you sometime tomorrow."

"Try to get some sleep, Cameron," Mary called after him.

"I'll do my best," he replied, and then he and Lizzy stepped out the front door.

The air was warm and the night still except for the sound of their  footsteps as they walked to her car in the parking lot. "Not that it's  any of my business, but what's the deal between you and Mary?" she asked  when they'd reached her driver door.                       
       
           



       

"There is no deal between us except friendship." His frustration was  obvious in his voice. "I admire her tremendously and I think she's  stunning, but anytime I try to let her know I might be interested in  pursuing anything with her, she turns off and shuts me out."

He shrugged his broad shoulders. "Guess I'm just not her type. You'd  think after all this time I'd just give up, but sometimes she looks at  me in a way that gives me just enough hope to be patient. Matters of the  heart just seem damned complicated to me."

Lizzy smiled. "I don't stay in one place long enough to have matters of  the heart." She opened her car door. "Thanks for walking with me, and  like Mary said, go home and get some sleep."

"That's exactly where I'm headed." He raised a hand in goodbye as she closed her door and started her

engine.

She pulled out of the café parking lot and headed in the direction of  Daniel's home. Matters of the heart. This was the first time in her life  she thought her heart might be more involved than it should be with  somebody. And that was a bad thing.

She'd only hoped to pull some of the sadness out of Daniel's eyes on  that first night when she'd sat across from him in his booth. She hadn't  expected the smoky sexiness his gaze held sometimes when he looked at  her. She hadn't expected the tenderness in his touch, the protectiveness  that surged up inside him at unexpected times where she was concerned.

Mary had warned her not to break his heart, but Lizzy feared that's  exactly what was going to happen if she didn't distance herself from  him.

Making love with him had been a huge, wonderful, magical mistake. Even  now, seated in her car as she thought about being with him, her body  warmed and desire cascaded through her and she wanted to be in his arms  once again.

She couldn't let it happen again. She had to mentally and emotionally  keep the distance from him that she needed so that when it was time to  move on she could do so without looking back.

Still, as she pulled into the long driveway that led to Daniel's house  and saw the front porch light burning bright against the darkness of the  night, it felt curiously like coming home.

She got out of the car, grabbed her bag of apple slices off the  passenger seat and, instead of heading straight into the house, walked  toward the barn, where she knew Molly was stabled.

It was a gorgeous night with the moon nearly full overhead and stars  glittering like jewels in the sky. She felt a serenity of spirit as she  listened to a slight breeze rustle through the leaves of the nearby  trees, smelled the sweet green pasture grass and anticipated seeing the  gentle mare once again.

When she pulled open the barn door, the utter darkness inside the  building greeted her. Knowing there had to be a light someplace nearby,  she ran her hand along the interior wall and found a switch. When she  pushed it up, bright lights illuminated the barn.

The building was huge and the area where she stood held a variety of  farm equipment. At the other end of the barn she could see the horse  stalls, hear the soft whinnies of the animals.

She headed to that end of the barn, a layer of straw beneath her feet  muffling the sound of her footsteps. It smelled like a wonderful blend  of horse and hay and leather.

"Molly?" she said softly as she approached the stalls. "Molly, I brought you a little treat."

The first stall she passed was Dandy's, and she couldn't help but  remember how magnificent Daniel had looked on the horse's back. The  second and third stalls held horses she'd seen in the corral but didn't  know by name. Molly was in the last enclosure and greeted Lizzy with a  soft nicker.

"Hey, pretty girl. We're going for a ride in the morning, so I thought  I'd bring you a little treat. I figure it's always good to bribe a big  animal when you intend to ride on their back."

She pulled one of the apple slices out of the baggie and held it out to  Molly, who took it from her with a gentle nibble of her lips. "You're  such a sweetheart," Lizzy said as she pulled another slice from the bag.

She felt almost guilty giving Molly the apple and not the other horses,  but she wasn't sure of the others' temperament and she wasn't going to  ride any of them the next morning.

She had just given Molly the last slice of apple when the lights in the barn went off, plunging her into complete darkness.

Her heart lurched and a nervous laugh escaped her lips. "Daniel? Is that you?"

She stood frozen in place and waited for a reply, but none was  forthcoming. "Come on, this isn't funny. Turn the lights back on. I was  just giving Molly some apple slices."