Marlie's Mystery Man by Doris Rangel

Author:Doris Rangel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Caid let himself out the barn door and automatically reached up to pull his hat a little farther down on his brow. The brim had an unfamiliar feel to it, mainly because it was the old straw one he’d used two summers ago.

Dammit, he wanted his good hat back. Aside from the fact it was new—well, almost new; he’d bought it for his court appearance last year—it had his jay feather.

And wasn’t that a hell of a thing, him missing that old feather like he did?

Since he’d stuck it in his hat at fifteen, he’d been teased about wearing it over the years. Had even poked fun at himself over it. Lately, he’d felt it was a sort of worn-out signature, that the feather no longer meant anything to him but a habit outgrown long ago but still retained.

Now, however, he couldn’t seem to get the damn thing out of his mind. When he’d wakened in the hospital, the first thing he’d asked for was his hat, then remembered leaving it at the hotel when he’d returned to the ranch for the papers he’d forgotten.

When the Simms woman told him it wasn’t in the room, he’d been miffed at her needless lying but not overly concerned. Yet once back at the ranch, the loss of the blamed thing had begun to haunt him.

He might never confess it to a living soul, but dammit, he just didn’t feel right without his good luck feather.

Incomplete. That was the word.

Waldo was at the stove scrambling eggs when he entered the kitchen.

“You say you met Marlie Simms?” Caid asked by way of greeting, hanging his featherless hat on the peg by the door.

“Yeah, I met her.”

“What did you think of her?”

“Nice girl. Can’t lie worth a durn, though.”

Caid sent the old man a sharp look. Now what brought that on? he wondered.

“You noticed it, too, then,” he replied dryly. “So, she lied to you?”

“Thought about it. Changed her mind.”

“And what was she thinking of lying about?”

“You,” Waldo replied laconically. “But she didn’t.”

After years with the old man, Caid knew the signs. “You’re not going to give me the details, are you?”

“Nope. No harm done. Like I said, she’s a nice girl. Carries a jay feather in her pocket.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” Waldo said.

“She told me she didn’t have my hat.”

“I didn’t say she did. I said she has a feather.”

“Yeah,” Caid said bitterly. “My feather.”

“Didn’t say that, either.”

Caid grabbed the straw hat off the peg. “I’m going into town.”

“Don’t you want some breakfast?”

“I’ll eat at The Drugstore.”

Sure enough, as soon as he walked through the double screen doors of The Drugstore, Caid spied Marlie Simms sitting at the same back table where she’d been last time.

She didn’t see him, though, but sat with her cheek resting against one fist as she studied the menu.

For a brief moment, he thought she looked kind of sad, but then he got himself in hand. The woman had his feather.

“Same list there as yesterday,” he said easily, sitting down across from her uninvited.

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