He smiled; his ego puffed up. He could always count on Evie to be on his side. “After burning my bridges here, I started a business as a private investigator out in Sioux Falls.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and pressed her lips together, ducking her chin into the collar of her coat. He could only see her eyes and the accusation and hurt was clear even in the shadows, but she didn’t release his hand.
“No, I never planned to come back to Deadwood,” he said, answering the unspoken question.
“But—”
“We were kids,” he said softly. “Worse, I was the kid fromthatfamily. No one trusted my mom. No one trusted me not to turn into her.”
“I did,” she insisted. “We were supposed to make something of Cottonwood Adventures.”
The sadness in her voice wrecked him. “I know. I’m sorry, Evie.” He’d thought leaving had been hard. Sitting here, facing down her lost trust and shattered faith in him was worse. He tucked her hand back into the warm glove. “I thought I was doing the right thing, going out to make something of myself.”
To his amazement, she moved closer and rested her head on his shoulder. “I was too hurt, too young to understand that at the time.”
“And I was too self-absorbed to consider how my choices might hurt you.” He was afraid to move, afraid that any shift would break the spell and this would all be a strange snow-induced mirage. “Evie, you were indestructible.”
“Today would prove I still am.”
“True.” But it had been a close call and pure terror for him from the robbery to the SUV crashing down the hill. “In my mind, your plans and dreams were a given, with or without me around. What happened?”
“Life lessons. Business lessons.” He felt her shrug. “Who knows? Our first hires to replace you were less than ideal and Dad lost patience. Lost interest day by day after mom died. He refuses to expand, insists I go find something meaningful to do with my life.”
That surprised him. Dale Cotton had always been a source of common sense and wisdom. Then again, losing Evie would wreck him as losing his wife must have wrecked Dale.
“Cottonwood Adventures is meaningful.” He couldn’t see her doing anything else. “It’s your purpose.”
She gave a snort and a puff of vapor clouded between them. “A shame you’re the only man in my life who ever noticed that.” They cuddled in the quiet, not exactly warm but no longer freezing. The wind eased up and the fat snowflakes were falling straight to the ground rather than blowing horizontally across the opening of their small shelter.
“Cordell isn’t this patient,” he said after a few more minutes. “He would’ve followed my trail and barged in leading with bullets by now.”
“Then let’s move.” She sat up and rubbed her hands up and down her thighs.
“Are those Karl’s pants?” he asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She adjusted the collar and hood around her face. “If you sent them to the museum, we can make it to the Greenbriar Goldrush site. It isn’t too far. We can wait there for the worst of this to pass.”
She started toward the opening and he caught the hem of her coat, stopping her. If he underestimated Cordell, he wouldn’t allow her head to be the first one in the line of fire.
She looked over her shoulder, her gray eyes full of questions. Helpless to resist, he tugged her close and kissed her. She didn’t fight him off. No, she gripped his coat and pressed her body close to his.
The sudden, sweet-hot contact, the rightness of it burned through the past hurts, cauterizing those old wounds and making room for a spark of something fresh and clean. If only they were anywhere but here, dealing with a blizzard and a diamond thief who wasn’t likely to leave loose ends. He eased back, his heart pounding. The aches in his body now had nothing to do with the earlier crash.
He crept to the edge of the shelter and paused to listen before moving through. No bullets, no threatening promises from Cordell.
“We’re not done,” Evie said from behind him.
He couldn’t agree more.
9
Evie was pretty sure that kiss might be enough to keep her warm through a week of blizzard conditions without proper shelter. Wyatt hadn’t lost his touch or his ability to send her system into overdrive. Desire-infused fantasies drifted through her mind, messing with her concentration, each one better than the last.
But the pulsing, rekindled desire had to wait. She needed to focus if they were going to make the Greenbriar outpost safely. Relatively new, she doubted Wyatt even knew about it. Like the Cotton family, the Greenbriars had been around for generations, leading hikes and capitalizing on the history and natural benefits of the Black Hills.
Snow, without the constant driving wind, made the hike feel almost idyllic. Two old friends—old lovers—taking time to enjoy a quiet walk through a gorgeous snow-covered landscape. There were miracles and worlds caught between every tree and wind-driven drift.
In some places the accumulation was already above her knees. If it kept coming down and the wind kicked up again who knew how high the drifts could be. They hadn’t done anything like this since they were kids.
