Cowboy Out of Time by J.L. Salter

Author:J.L. Salter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, sweet romance, clean romance, time travel romance, cowboy, western
Publisher: Dingbat Publishing
Published: 2022-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Sophia pulled her rocker next to me, our knees nearly touching, and spoke in a soft voice, hardly more than a whisper. “Your uncle is certainly a capable defender, and I know you’ll be careful about Syste.” She cleared her throat softly. “I like your handsome cowboy a lot, and he’s convincing in a crazy sort of way... despite me knowing that people don’t travel in time. But I want to be sure you understand how a crisis situation such as this can make two people feel, um... closer together than they might actually be.”

“Huh?”

“Those things you said about Hunt on the phone this morning.” She gestured as though she were literally pointing to the past. “Before I knew he was a hundred-some years old, I was really excited for you. But you can’t let yourself be swept off your feet by an aw shucks good ole boy who thinks he’s been living in the nineteenth century... just because he dresses the part.”

“I was a skeptic, too, at first,” I replied. “But, Sophia, this guy is genuine. And I don’t mean just that every single detail — from his long johns and boots to his bullets and money — is authentic. I mean, there’s something inside him that’s true. I actually saw it. Hunt said it was about people with Choctaw blood being able to reveal their souls. Maybe so, maybe not. But at this point I’ve stopped questioning the why and how... and I’m finally going with my instincts.”

She chose her words carefully. “Isn’t that what got you tangled up with the estimable, briefly charming Mister Snere in Tennessee?”

“No,” I smiled sadly, “that was me shrugging and going along with the inevitable momentum and expectations of others. My actual instincts at that point — and to a certain extent, I recognized them even back then — were to walk away. But I didn’t.”

“And your instincts now?”

“To hold on tight.” And I pointed toward the cowboy out by the gate.

After a long silence, Sophia patted my knee, rose from her chair, and then leaned over and lightly kissed my forehead. “Vaya con Dios.”

I stood, hugged her tightly, and then hurried off the porch before she could see the tears in my eyes.

Weston, who’d been leaning on one of the gate’s sturdy posts, clutched my elbow as I reached him. He evidently hadn’t noticed my eyes. “Rose, from way out here I missed most of your confabs with the señora over there, but it seems pretty blamed clear that this hombre is coming for you... and I’m betting on tonight.”

I hurriedly wiped my eyes. “But the date on your card is for tomorrow, the sixth,” I said, pointing toward his shirt pocket. “Doesn’t that mean I’m safe for the rest of today?”

“I’m not willing to take that chance,” he replied, clamping shut his jaw and gently tugging me through the gate remotely unlocked from the shelter’s inside panel. “From now ’til tomorrow midnight, you and me won’t be more than a foot apart.

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