Little Red: An Everland Ever After Tale by Caroline Lee

Author:Caroline Lee [Lee, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-03-28T04:00:00+00:00

Hank—Thank you for getting me home again. It’s so wonderful to be with my family again, but I am tired. Tomorrow’s train arrives after 4. Can I meet you at the Inn at noon, and invite you to lunch with my family? Yours, R

Lunch? Hank resisted the urge to crush the paper. The gunslinger could be here as early as tomorrow at four in the afternoon, and she wanted to invite him to lunch? He stared down at the loopy handwriting, remembering what she’d said about wanting to be a teacher.

Yours, R.

Was she really his? For how long? Until he left? She probably expected him to dump her and run once he got his money, but he couldn’t. There was something inside of him, some visceral need, that insisted he couldn’t leave until he knew she was safe.

He snorted and folded the message to shove into his pocket. Red was always getting into trouble with her recklessness; she might not ever be really safe. Did that mean he was going to have to stay with her always?

“She said I should help get you a room at the Inn, if you want.” Micah was back to looking surly, and Hank wasn’t known for his patience.

“What’d I do to you, kid? What crawled up your pants and bit you?”

“Don’t call me kid.” He was probably in his early twenties, just about Red’s age.

“Fair enough. But you going to tell me why you’re so tetchy with me?”

“Rojita’s… not herself.”

“How would you know that?” Hank meant since she hadn’t been home in so long, but Micah misunderstood, and bristled.

“Because she’s my sister.”

“No, she ain’t.” At this point, Hank was just riling the younger man because it was so easy. Like he’d done with Red.

“She might as well be. I met her when I was five, and she watched out for me. She’s nervous for some reason, and I figure you’ve got something to do with that.”

Hank shrugged, and flicked a glance at Max. “You’re right.” He knew both of them were sizing him up, trying to protect Red from danger and heartache. Same as him, only he wasn’t doing so hot so far. “But I ain’t the cause.” He reached down to pick up his saddlebags and rifle. “Fact is, I’ve been trying to keep her safe.”

The other two shared a glance, and then Max shrugged. “Well, I trust him. He’s considering taking the Sheriff position, you know.”

Hank scowled when Micah’s brows rose in admiration, but he didn’t want to waste time explaining that he wasn’t planning on being in this crazy town too long. “How about one of you point me towards this Inn?”

“I’ll do better than that.” Max was grinning—of course—when he slapped Hank on the back. “I’ll escort you there myself, friend.”

And as Hank followed Max out of the church, he figured the trouble was that the other man actually meant it. He was almost sure that he didn’t want to be friends with this cheerful, sociable fellow… right? He wasn’t planning on staying in Everland; wasn’t planning on making friends.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.