760 Miles by AE Lister

Author:AE Lister [Lister, AE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBT Historical Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group
Published: 2022-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

A Soft Bed in Town

“How’re you feeling this morning?” I asked Oscar while we drank our coffee by the fire.

The weather was growing cooler, and I’d woke a couple times in the night to make sure Oscar was still there and to pull him closer to keep him warm. As the sun broke o’er the horizon, I cupped my coffee mug and enjoyed the steam rising from it and the heat that seeped into my cold hands. We’d been real lucky with the weather so far, and it looked like it would be another sunny day that would warm up as it went on.

“I reckon I’ll live,” he said, giving me a sweet smile. “I slept pretty good, once I started.”

“Glad to hear it. T’was good holding you in my arms all night, making sure nothin’ got you.” I didn’t say anything for a little bit. The memories and heightened emotions of what we’d been through the previous day still lingered. “Don’t know if I’ll ever be able to let you sleep alone, after what happened yesterday.”

He gazed at me with a strange expression. “But you ain’t gonna come with me to Port Essington.”

“I know what I said.” I looked at my boots and shrugged. “That was before I almost lost you to them two.” I took another sip of my coffee and cleared my throat. “That was before I realized how much you mean to me.”

He didn’t say nothing for a minute. I glanced up to see him blink fast, like he was holding back a waterfall, and I smiled, blushing, and shrugged again. “I ain’t gonna fight it no more. I figure I’m yours and you’re mine and there ain’t nothin’ we can do about that no more except go along with it.”

“Jimmy, I—”

“That’s as long as you feel the same as I do.”

“Of course I do. I don’t wanna be parted from you. But I can’t stay in Whitehorse and help you. I gotta find my uncle. He’s the only one I have left who cares about me, ’cept for you.”

“I know it.”

He blinked hard as he tried to hold my gaze. “You mean…you’re gonna come with me all the way to Port Essington?”

“Yeah. I reckon I am.”

He swiped a trembling hand o’er his eyes and sipped his coffee, nodding quickly and grinning.

“I’m thinkin’ that maybe we can stay at a hotel for a bit before we head out. We can prob’ly be in Whitehorse in a couple of days. We can get a bath, find some other clothes or at least get these properly laundered, have a few good meals and sleep in a proper bed…along with some other things.”

“We ain’t got the money for that, do we?” Oscar said, his face twisted up in confusion at my words.

I smiled slow and patted my leather satchel. “I reckon we do now.”

His eyes went wide. “You get some money off them outlaws?”

“I did. A lot of it. More’n I’ve ever had at one time, and that’s a fact.

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