Now Call was faced with how to respond. The truth had generally served him well so he decided to continue in that vein. “If you’d thrown yourself at me, I would have been flattered, Laurel. Taken aback some, but flattered. I would have welcomed your attention. You were not alone in wanting...” He hesitated, searching for the right word,and settled on the one she had used. “More.I did. I still do. But my experience counts for something, and I had to use it to call a halt because I was being unfair to you. It occurred to me that I was taking advantage.”
“You weren’t.”
“Hmm. You say that now. The moment’s past. You don’t know that you’d be thinking that way if the outcome at the falls had been different.”
Shaking her head almost imperceptibly, Laurel frowned. “I don’t understand you.”
“What don’t you understand?”
“You grew up in a brothel. Your mother was a—”
“Whore,” he finished for her when she snapped her mouth shut. “You can say it. What does that have to do with anything?”
“I don’t know. I suppose I thought you wouldn’t have, um, wouldn’t have—”
“Scruples?”
She nodded. “Something like that. It sounds dreadful when I hear you say it.”
“Not as appalling as you thinking it.”
“I’m sure.”
Call used a forefinger to tip his hat back as he regarded her candidly. “Growing up around whores was not what I think you imagine. Respect for women was bred in my bones. My mother made sure of it, and over the years, there were dozens of women I called aunt who did the same. So, yeah, I have scruples, Laurel. I’ve been known to take advantage at the card table, take advantage on the draw, take advantage of a cheat, but I never take advantage of a woman.”
“That means the women you’ve known know as much as you.”
“I’m not sure I’d put it that way, but that’s the gist of it. That’s why you’re safe around me.”
“I bet I wouldn’t be if I got some experience.”
Call’s eyes widened fractionally. He felt as if he’d been gut punched. “What?”
She didn’t respond to that. Instead, she asked, “How much experience would I have to get exactly?”
“Laurel.”
“I mean it, Call. I’m not interested in you courting me. I’m not looking for a marriage proposal. I don’t have a need to be a wife. And there is no danger of falling in love with you. Are you hearing me?”
“Does Rooster know you were going to say all this when you chased me down?” He saw a muscle twitch in her cheek as she clamped her jaw closed. “Yes,” he said. “I heard what you said to him.”
“Good. I need you to hear this as well. Since meeting you, I’ve come to realize that I have a hankering to know what I don’t know now. I’d rather know it because I’m learning it from you, but if your scruples forbid, then I’ll learn it elsewhere. I need you to tell me how much I need to know firsthand so you won’t feel as if you’re taking advantage. I figured you for my first, but now I’m thinking you’ll be last.”
“Jesus,” Call said under his breath. He lifted his hat, raked his hair with his fingers, and settled the hat back on his head. “Jesus. Who else knows you’re a lunatic?”
Disappointed, Laurel asked, “Is that it? Is that all you have to say?”
“I’m catching my breath.” Behind him in the distance, Call could hear the faint rumblings of the stagecoach and the echo of Jed Holloway’s shouted commands. He didn’t hear his name. He doubted they were aware that he was no longer following them. When they figured it out, they would not be returning for him. The stage had a schedule and he was not their responsibility.
Laurel stroked Abby’s neck, waiting for Call to say something of consequence. She could have told him that she was catching her breath as well, but it was more important to her that he sit with silence and sort out what she’d said. She wasnota lunatic.
“We cannot continue this conversation here and now,” Call said. He waved an arm to indicate the yawning gulfon one side and the granite wall on the other. “Look at where we are, Laurel.”
“I know where we are. I rode Abby hard to get here.”
“Take her home,” he said. “Take yourself home. I promise you that I’ll seriously consider what you’ve said, and I need to know that you’ll do the same. I’m not saying that you don’t know your own mind, and I—”
Laurel interrupted, “You said I was out of my mind.”
