The Texas Lawman's Last Stand & Hot Combat by Delores Fossen

Author:Delores Fossen [Fossen, Delores]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488034541
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

Charlie had nodded off once or twice during the night, waking with a jerk every time. Thankfully, she hadn’t pulled the trigger and blown a hole in the door, her leg or her foot.

She was up and doing laundry when Lolly padded barefoot out of her bedroom, dragging her giant teddy bear. “I’m hungry.”

“Waffles or cereal?” Charlie asked, forcing a cheerful smile to her tired face.

“Waffles,” Lolly said. “With blueberry syrup.”

“I’ll start cooking, while you get dressed.” Charlie plugged in her waffle iron, mixed the batter and had a waffle cooking in no time. She cleaned off the small dinette table that looked like a throwback to the fifties, with its speckled Formica top and chrome legs. In actuality, the table did date back to the fifties. It was one of the items of furniture that had come with the house when she’d bought it. She’d been fortunate enough to find the bright red vinyl fabric to recover the seats, making them look like new.

On a tight budget, with only one income-producing person in the family, a car payment and student loans to pay, she couldn’t afford to be extravagant.

She was rinsing fresh blueberries in the sink when a dark figure suddenly appeared in the window in front of her. Charlie jumped, her heart knocking against her ribs. She laughed when she realized it was Shadow, the stray she and Lolly had fed through the winter. Charlie was far too jumpy that morning. The messages from the night before were probably all bluster, no substance, and she’d wasted a night she could have been sleeping, worrying about nothing.

The cat rubbed her fur against the window screen. When that didn’t get enough attention, she stretched out her claws and sank them into the screen netting.

“Hey! Get down.” Charlie tapped her knuckles against the glass and the cat jumped down from the ledge. “Lolly! Shadow’s hungry and my hands are full.”

Lolly entered the room dressed in jeans, a pink T-shirt and the pink cowboy boots she loved so much. The boots had been a great find on one of their rare trips to the thrift shop in Bozeman, Montana. “I’ll get the bowl.” She started for the back door.

I’ll find you.

The message echoed in Charlie’s head and she dropped the strainer of blueberries into the sink and hurried toward her daughter. “Wait, Lolly. I’ll get the cat bowl. Tell you what, you grab a brush, and we’ll braid your hair this morning.”

Charlie waited until her daughter had left the kitchen, then she unlocked the dead bolt and glanced out at the fresh green landscape of early summer in the Rockies. The sun rose in the east and a few puffy clouds skittered across the sky. Snow still capped the higher peaks in stunning contrast to the lush greenery. How could anything be wrong on such a beautiful day?

A loud ringing made her jump and then grab for the telephone mounted on the wall beside her.

“Hello,” she said, her voice cracking, her body trembling from being startled.

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