Hunting Down the Horseman. B.J. Daniels
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that, given she was a runaway.”
“I know.” Eve could hear Bridger’s reservations. Once they’d found out that Constance Small was probably a runaway, he seemed to back off in the search.
She couldn’t blame him. It did feel hopeless. Even if Eve lucked out and found the woman, she’d probably wish she hadn’t.
“So? Did Laci have her baby?” she asked, changing the subject.
Bridger’s expression quickly shifted from a frown to a broad smile. “She sure did. Jack Bridger Duvall.”
“Laci beat her sister and got the name Jack?” Eve laughed. The two sisters had both wanted the name Jack from the time they’d found out they were both carrying boys. They’d agreed that whoever gave birth first got the name.
“Laney went with Jake,” Bridger said with a shake of his head. “Sisters.”
Eve smiled. “I know you brought photographs. Come on, let’s see ‘em.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” he said pulling his chair closer to her as he dug out his digital camera.
Eve pushed away the papers with the names of the women who could possibly have given birth to her and her brother, wishing she was more like Bridger. He’d moved on. Why couldn’t she?
Chapter Three
“Excuse me, can you tell me who that woman is?” Jud Corbett asked the elderly woman standing next to him. “The one in red.”
The Old Town Whitehorse Community Center was packed tonight, the country-western band made up of oldtimers who cranked out songs that took Jud back to his youth in Texas.
A smile curled the elderly woman’s lips as she glanced across the dance floor, then up at him. “They’re the Bailey girls—Eve, Faith and McKenna. Faith is the one in red. Pretty, isn’t she?”
“Very,” Jud said. “Faith Bailey, huh?” He liked the sound of her name.
The woman beside him cut her eyes to him, her smile knowing. “So why don’t you ask her to dance?”
He chuckled. Dancing with him would be the last thing Faith Bailey wanted to do. “That’s a good idea.”
“Yes, it was in my day, too,” the elderly woman said sagely.
Jud moved across the worn wooden dance floor toward Faith, who was flanked on each side by her sisters. After dinner tonight, he’d opted not to stay at the ranch but drive back to his trailer on location to be ready for an early shoot in the morning. At least that had been his excuse to escape the tension at the ranch.
As he was driving through Old Town Whitehorse, he’d seen all the rigs parked around the community center. Slowing, he’d heard the old-time country band. He’d bet himself that the band members wouldn’t be a day under seventy—and that his trick-riding cowgirl would be there.
He’d parked and walked back to the community center to find he’d been right on both counts.
As he crossed the dance floor toward Faith Bailey now, he realized she’d already seen him and was trying to look anywhere but at him. Clearly, if she’d had somewhere to run in the crowd of people, she would have.
“Hello again,” he said, tipping his Stetson as he stopped directly in front of her.
Seeing that she was trapped, her blue eyes flashed like hot flames. “I’m sorry. Do I know you?”
“I would have sworn we’d crossed paths before,” he said and grinned. It had bothered him why she’d been practicing her stunts so far away from her ranch house.
But from the imploring look she was giving him now, he’d wager that she hadn’t wanted anyone to see her doing the stunts. Was it possible that not even her sisters knew?
“I guess I could be wrong,” he said in a slow Southern drawl. “Why don’t we dance and see if we can sort it out? Unless you’d like to discuss it here,” he added quickly when he saw she was about to decline.
Her cheeks flushed with heat, those big blue eyes hurling daggers at him. “If you insist.”
“I do.” He took her hand and drew her to him.
The band had broken into a cowboy jitterbug. He swung her away from her sisters and deeper into the other dancers on the floor.
She was a good dancer, staying with him, matching any move he made even though anger still blazed in her eyes. She apparently didn’t like being blackmailed into dancing with him. Talking over the band was out of the question, which was fine since he was enjoying dancing with her and had a bad feeling where their conversation would go.
He swung her around, catching her around her slim waist, their gazes meeting, hers challenging. He liked everything about her, from the fire in her eyes to the arrogant tilt of her chin and the easy, confident way she moved. Faith Bailey was apparently just as home on a dance floor as she was on a horse.
And she wasn’t about to let him get the better of her.
He smiled, thoroughly enjoying himself. He was sorry when the song ended and she started to pull away. He drew her back as the band went right into a slow dance.
“So, Faith Bailey,” Jud said as he pulled her close, breathing the words at her ear. “Why is it you don’t want anyone to know about your trick riding?”
She tensed in his arms. Drawing back slowly, her gaze a furious slit, she said, “Blackmail will only get you so far, Mr. Corbett.”
He chuckled. “Come on, why the secrecy? You’re good. Damned good. Why hide your talent?”
“We’re not all like you, Mr. Corbett,” she said. “Some of us have no need to be in the spotlight.”
“Jud. Mr. Corbett is my father.” His grin broadened. “And you and I are more alike than you think. I recognized myself in you the moment I saw you riding across the prairie. You love trick riding, and don’t tell me you don’t like an audience after that stunt you pulled earlier today. So what are you afraid of?”
“Nothing,” she said too quickly, and he knew he’d hit a nerve. The song ended. “Thank you for the dance.” She tried to pull free, but he held her a moment longer.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered, his gaze locked with hers. “I’ll keep your secret.”
He’d expected relief in her expression. But instead her eyes narrowed, making it clear she didn’t like the fact that it was something else they shared.
As he released her and she disappeared into the crowd on the dance floor, all Jud could think about was seeing her again.
FAITH TRIED to still the trembling in her limbs. She went straight to the punch table and downed a glass. Dancing with Jud Corbett had shaken her badly. She feared there was some truth in what he’d said about them being alike.
A man like that could confuse a woman. Not Faith Bailey, who wasn’t susceptible to him. But she pitied other women, who she realized could be easily mesmerized by his good looks and easygoing charm.
She shook off those thoughts, reminding herself that she was furious with him for blackmailing her into dancing with him. A man like that, well, he wasn’t one she wanted knowing her secret. Not just about the trick riding.
But another secret, one she’d kept hidden from even herself until she’d opened her eyes and seen Jud Corbett leaning over her earlier today.
Faith now feared Jud Corbett knew her most secret desire.
She shivered, feeling exposed and more vulnerable than she’d ever felt. How was it possible that a man she’d only danced with could know her so well?
“I wondered where you had gone off to,” McKenna said, joining her. “That was one of the Corbett brothers you just