A Man with a Past by Mary Connealy

SIXTEEN

You found Texas Midnight?” Wyatt had barely washed up and sunk to his chair.

Molly and Win were putting a meal on the table. They’d turned the noon beef into shepherd’s pie, with meat and vegetables in a thick gravy and mashed potatoes over the top.

No one had ever cooked like this at the RHR. Ma was no hand at it. She was good enough to keep them fed, but she was working long hours with Grandpa. She’d never had time to fuss over preparing a meal.

Cheyenne had followed in her footsteps.

And Win, who’d cooked here off and on for years, was a whole lot better than Cheyenne, but she’d never made food like this.

Cheyenne told Wyatt all that had gone on. He looked under the table and saw the mama dog nursing her babies right there in the kitchen.

“And how many cows again?” he asked.

“I don’t blame you for finding it all hard to believe,” Cheyenne said. “Where do you think those deeds are, Wyatt? Where’d we put them? Or have they been stolen by your sidewinder of a pa?”

“What makes you think he took them?” Kevin stopped eating.

“The only reason I thought of Pa,” Falcon said, “is he was the only low-down coyote around. There’s no proof he did it.”

No one seemed interested in fighting to clear his name.

“There are some old papers of your pa’s, Cheyenne, your real pa, Nate Brewster, in a . . . in a chest somewhere. I think,” Wyatt said. “He didn’t exactly own land, but he might have some records and maybe Grandpa put their deeds together.”

“You can help me hunt,” Cheyenne said. “Then we’ll go in tomorrow and talk to the sheriff.”

“I can’t go.” Wyatt jabbed a thumb at Kevin. “And he can’t go. He’s been some help with the cattle. Not much, but enough I want him out there. He can at least watch after his little brother. Keep him from spooking the whole herd all the way to Denver.”

“I’m glad to try,” Kevin said.

“Falcon and I will talk to the land agent tomorrow, and to the sheriff again,” Cheyenne said. “It’s time to stop asking questions and start getting some answers.”

At that, Molly set a custard on the table and a bowl of peaches she’d found jarred in the root cellar, but she’d done something fancy to the peaches and the custard smelled like a slice of heaven. She added coffee, and it distracted them all from their planning, which was just turning into a repeat of Wyatt asking the same questions from different directions over and over.

Falcon found himself enjoying the way the family ate and talked and sometimes squabbled. He tossed a few hunks of tender roast beef to the dog, then glanced under the table to see a chunk of beef coming from the other side. He looked up and saw Cheyenne blush at being caught.

Family, it was an interesting business. He found it suited him.

Cheyenne shoved the trunk back under the big sofa in the front room. She’d forgotten it was tucked under there. This house hadn’t been dug into like this in all the years she’d lived here.

“Nothing. I’m done,” she said in exasperation. “We’re going to have to hope Gordon Spellman found what we need.”

She stood and crossed her arms, thinking of any other place she could search. The whole family had been at it for over an hour. Wyatt had even gone and looked in the barn, where they had a few things stored. Even though Grandpa would’ve never left them out there.

She and Falcon were alone in the front room. Kevin and Win had gone to bed. Molly had the kitchen clean and bread baked for morning. She’d looked in every corner of the kitchen and her room, and as Cheyenne had known, there was nothing.

Wyatt had come in from the barn and gone to sleep. Falcon had the bunkhouse to look forward to. The dog was already tucked in there with Andy.

“Let’s get some rest.” Falcon came up to her and rested one hand on her arm. “We’ll start again tomorrow. We’ll get it figured out.”

Nodding, it all caught up with her. The shock of the Sidewinder’s will that had thrown her whole life into upheaval. Long days branding. A week in the wilderness, and now the worries about the ranch deeds.

She was exhausted. But maybe, even though there was a lot to figure out, they were on the way. She let her shoulders sag with fatigue, and it brought her too close to Falcon. He wrapped his arms around her.

“Rest against me for a bit.”

She couldn’t resist letting him bear her weight for just a moment. She thought of the puppy. With her head resting on Falcon’s strong chest, she let a faint smile curve her lips.

The moment between them stretched, then it became something more than a moment. She raised her head at the same time he did, and their lips almost touched by accident.

“Patsy,” he whispered.

She jumped away from him. “What?”

A bucket of ice water couldn’t have cleared Cheyenne’s head any faster.

Falcon stumbled back. His eyes wide. She saw the knowledge in them. He knew what he’d said.

He didn’t say it again, but he didn’t try to pretend those words hadn’t come from his mouth.

“You.” She jabbed a finger at his chest. If it had been a bullet, she’d’ve shot him in the heart. Which sounded real good right now. “You . . . are married.”

Falcon’s jaw clenched so tight she thought she heard his teeth creak.

He didn’t deny it. “I-I just . . . I don’t think so.”

He put space between them, when they’d been so close. He rammed his fingers deep into his hair.

She saw the pain. It came when he was trying to remember. How could she feel compassion for him and want to clobber him at the same time?

“Patsy. Who is that?” he asked.

“You’re the one who said her name.”

Falcon didn’t respond.

At last she was able to say, “I believe you when you say you don’t know. But if you left a wife back down the trail . . .”

The anger of it, the hurt. The wanting. She turned to get out of here, get away from him.

“Cheyenne, wait!”

She turned as she reached the door. Only after she’d obeyed him, did she realize she was doing it. She fought down the urge to go kick him. Truth was, she wanted to kick herself for trusting him.

For obeying that cracked-whip voice.

But here she was, stopped in place by his command and staring at him. An odd urge to cry swept through her at his rugged good looks. His gentle confusion. His pain. Even guilt. She saw all of that. Maybe he did have a wife, and even without remembering her, he felt guilty on a very deep level.

And maybe his memory had hidden her, and the way he’d held Cheyenne close hadn’t been meant as any disrespect. But he’d come out here without her, hadn’t he? He’d never said a word about a wife. Kevin had brought his family along. If Falcon had a wife and he hadn’t brought her, then he had abandoned her. Just like the Sidewinder.

She fought back tears. They didn’t fall, and no sob escaped, but she was crying inside in a way that reached to her heart.

She hated that she wanted to do such a foolish thing as cry. She hated that he’d made her yearn and care and want.

“I’m sorry.”

A sorry excuse for a man.

“I’m sorry I spoke another woman’s name. But who is she?”

“A woman you left behind, I’d say.”

His jaw clenched tighter, nodding as if he had to force his head to move up and down. “You’re right to be furious. I can’t . . . that is, we can’t be . . . well, we can’t be . . . close to each other. Not until I remember.” He came closer to her right after he said they couldn’t be close. And she didn’t run.

He was absolutely right. Cheyenne’s heart, previously neatly frozen and safe, was now aching.

“I do know one thing, Cheyenne. If I’m a polecat like my pa, then losing my memory might be for the best.”

“Why? So you can abandon a wife, maybe children, with a clear conscience?”

“No, because if I’m a low-down sidewinder of a man, then today I can become someone new. The thought of abandoning a family is sickening. I can’t believe I have it in me to do such a thing. Talking of it makes me ashamed to the bottoms of my feet. If that’s who I was, then that’s not who I will be anymore.”

He came toe-to-toe with her. He reached up that rough, gentle hand and caressed her cheek with two knuckles. “From this moment on, I am going to be a decent, godly man. No matter how beautiful the woman is. And no matter how my head is full of you when it comes to thoughts of a woman.”

He meant it. She could see it plain as day. But then he had no idea of the kind of man he was. Nothing he said now would hold when his memory returned.

“From this day forward, I intend to be a better man than my pa, and that means nothing passes betwixt the two of us until I know for certain I’m free.”

It was a noble promise. She wished him luck keeping it. Then she left the room on the silent vow that free or not, men couldn’t be trusted. And that was what she needed to remember.