Clay tapped her hand to get her attention. “The sheriff is going to send a telegram back to Marshal Lincoln.” He spoke slowly enough that she could understand him and pointed at the telegram she still held. “That one came from Elkin. Someone will have to take it to Silver Falls once the telegraph office in Elkin receives it.”
He glanced at his watch. He needed to get to the livery stable. “As much as I’d like to stay here with you all day, I need to go to work. Maybe I can cut out early.”
The smile she gave him said she’d enjoy that. The way she licked her lips told him she was thinking of the night before. He was, too. He hadn’t stopped thinking about it since he had woken up.
The desire to lean down and kiss her was strong, but he knew he’d never leave the house if he did. He turned and grabbed his boots, slipping them on before helping her clear away their breakfast.
She followed him to the door. Once his coat was on, he set his hat on his head, and she was looking at him with a look in her eyes that made his whole body tense up. She wanted him as much as he wanted her, and despite the delay he knew it would cause, he grabbed her and kissed her breathless. The horses could wait.
Chapter 12
Daisy was looking through the book Clay had given her the week before, staring at the symbol he’d shown her the day he gave it to her. She’d finally found it, and her heart pounded as she stared at it.
It was the symbol for, I love you.
Her smile widened so big, her lips ached. Clay had told her he loved her. He’d not said the words, but he’d told her in a language she could see.
The past week had been pure bliss. They had spent every evening cuddled up on the sofa, touching and kissing. They’d not had a repeat of the night they’d bathed, and she was too afraid to ask him why. She assumed he was trying to be a gentleman about it all, and truth be known, she was glad for it. Being so familiar, while euphoric, was something she knew should wait. Their relationship was so new that it would be a mistake to take it from one to a hundred in mere days. Besides, they’d grown closer, his kisses softer, and looking at the page in the book, seeing the hand sign for I love you, she knew his feelings for her were real. He loved her.
She blinked the wetness from her eyes and looked up when the light in the room shifted. The front door was opening, but it wasn’t Clay who walked through it. It was Graham.
The moment he saw her, he smiled and said, “Hey, cutie. Miss me?”
“Graham!” She slammed the book closed and jumped from her chair in an instant. He met her halfway across the room, his arms circling her waist when she threw herself at him.
As much as she enjoyed being here with Clay, playing house as if they owned it, seeing her family made the tears she’d been holding back come. Graham stroked the back of her head, no doubt telling her to stop crying. He hated it when Rose did, and she imagined he hated her doing it too.
She looked up and wiped her face. “I’m so happy to see you.”
“Really? It doesn’t seem that way.”
She laughed and said, “They’re happy tears, I promise.”
He looked her over from head to toe. “Are you all right? The telegram the sheriff sent said bandits attacked the stagecoach.”
“It was. Clay got us away, but it took us two days of wandering through the forest the find Butte.”
She told him about the old couple Clay believed were eating people and about their hunger. When she mentioned the injured Indian they’d helped heal and that had shared his food and water with them, Graham laughed until he was red in the face and said she was making it all up. Thinking back on it, it sound too ridiculous to be true.
Graham opened his mouth to say something, but looked over her head toward Liam’s bedroom instead. He raised an eyebrow before looking down at her. “Someone is saying your name.”
“Oh! That’s Liam. This is his house.” She turned and headed for his room, letting herself in when she reached it. Liam was sitting up in bed, his head cocked to one side as if he’d been trying to hear what was going on out in the living room.
Graham followed her in. “Liam, this is my brother-in-law, Graham Hart.” She told him before turning to Graham. “And this is Liam. He owns the livery stable Clay is working at.”
Graham nodded at Liam. “It’s nice to meet you, Liam. And I’d like to thank you for looking after Daisy and Clay.”
“Oh, they’ve been taking more care of me than I of them.” He tapped his broken leg. “I’d be in an awful place if it weren’t for those two.”
Liam glanced at her and smiled before saying, “I suppose you’re here to take them home?”
“I am,” Graham said. “We were worried when Clay never came back home. My wife and her sister pestered the devil out of me until I rode to Elkin and sent a telegram. We added Josiah’s name to it so it would be sent right away. Josiah is the marshal in Silver Falls.” He glanced at Daisy. “Seems to have worked. We got word the next day that she was here.”
“Well, I hate to see you go, Daisy. It’s been a genuine pleasure having you here.” He gave her an odd look before saying, “Unless Clay has convinced you to stay with him.”
“Stay with him?” The back-and-forth conversation and having to turn her head so much had made her dizzy. Surely he didn’t just say Clay was going to stay in Butte.
He nodded. “I offered him a partnership in my livery stable.” The words struck her like lightning. He continued to speak, saying, “I’m getting too old to do the things I used to, and I have no other family to help out or leave the place to when I'm dead. Clay is a good man. Works hard, so it was a simple choice to make. Even offered him my old partner’s home to go with it.”
