Closer To You (Tales of the Sweet Magnolia Book 1) Page 9

  “I hear tell they found gold around here,” the stranger replied.

  “That’s a fact. You looking to cash in on some of that by illegal means?” Jake shot him a side glance. The old man wouldn’t have been the first, nor would he probably be the last.

  The old man chuckled. “Nah, do I look like an outlaw to you, Sheriff?”

  Jake raised a brow. He had a point. He couldn’t have been over five foot, if that. His hair was silver and he wore it in twin braids, indicative of many of the older tribesmen who lived in the Sierra Mountains. His clothing was simple, though plain, with his baggy brown pants, a plain white collared shirt and a dark brown vest. And his leathery skin, etched by deep lines from weather and age gave him an unusual wide-appeal. He peered at Jake with eyes the color of a mountain lake, and his scruffy white beard parted when he produced a friendly smile. Not exactly the kind of face you saw too often on a wanted poster. Truth of it was, Jake couldn’t pinpoint why the docile-looking man was in his jail cell. Still, looks could be deceiving, Jake silently reminded himself.

  He pushed from his chair and the squawk of old wood echoed in the silent jailhouse. In need of a good cup of stout coffee himself, he figured it wouldn’t do any harm to offer a cup to the old guy. He looked a little thin, like maybe he’d not eaten in a while. When Nate got in, he’d have him go over to the hotel and get the prisoner some breakfast. He pulled a tin cup from the nail holder on the wall and poured a cup of coffee. That should hold him until he got some food. “So how’d you land in here?”

  “Same I suspect as others that come through here. Just a might unruly.”

  “Unruly, eh?” He had a mental picture of what kind of unruly behavior the little guy could muster. Jake smiled as he handed him the tin mug. “Here, this might help take the edge off last night.”

  “Much obliged.” He took a careful sip and smacked his lips. “That’s hits the spot. Mighty fine cuppa joe, sheriff.” The old man studied Jake. “It would appear that you’ve got a lot on your mind. Anything you care to talk about? Sometime it helps to talk to a stranger ‘bout your problems.”

  Jake blinked from the man’s mesmerizing gaze. “I haven’t got any problems.” Not any he wished to discuss at any rate.

  “I can understand your denial, my friend. I’ve seen many like you in my travels.”

  Jake did a double-take. Who was this guy? “So you’re some kind of doctor, then? A medicine man?” He could see that now as a possibility in his speech and eccentric hair and clothing.

  “I’m a musician…a piano man.”

  “Is that right?” Jake’s mouth curled in a wry grin. Yeah, there were a lot of dangerous, unruly types in Deadwater.

  “I’m not the person most people see me as, Sheriff.”

  His body came to a sudden halt and Jake spun on his heel, starting at the man.

  “What did you say?”

  The old man shrugged and his long white braids shrugged with his shoulders. “Guess most folks have more to them than one side. Leastways, I’ve found it to be true. How about you? Would you say there are sides to you that no one knows about?”

  “What are you getting at?” Jake had the odd feeling this man was tapping into his thoughts.

  “No need to get riled.” The man smiled pleasantly.

  Jake sensed that “riled” was exactly what he’d hoped to achieve.

  “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do, I guess.” The old man took a sip of his coffee. “Good brew—stout, the way I like it.”

  Jake studied his prisoner, trying to remember where this conversation had gotten turned upside down.

  “I suspect the same goes for anybody—male or female. But having another side doesn’t necessarily make ‘em a bad person, now does it?” The stranger kept a steady gaze in what seemed a powerful duel of wills. An uncomfortable niggling assaulted Jake. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear the old man knew what had happened between him and Lilly. But that was absurd; Jake had never seen the strange man in town before. How could he know? It was simply coincidence, nothing more. “What’d you say your name was?” he asked.

  “Got any more of this? I need just a splash more if there’s any left.” The prisoner held his cup through the bars.

  Jake walked over, picked up the pot, and poured the man a refill, shooting him a curious glance.

  “You see, I’ve always believed that sometimes we get so caught up in what we want, that we sometimes can’t see what’s best for us. Does that make a lick of sense to you, Sheriff?”

  Had his father planted this guy to remind him of his responsibilities to his office after his three-day hiatus at the Sweet Magnolia? To be sure, tongues had been wagging around town about the incident. Most of the townsfolk had nodded their hellos and increased their pace, but he’d heard the muffled snickers behind his back. And although he hadn’t stepped foot in his father’s church yet, he was sure that his recuperation story had found its way, somehow to the pulpit. Though Jake considered many times going to speak to his father, there was always a better reason for him not to. Not that Jake felt what he had to say to his father would have any bearing on the preacher’s view of the Magnolia. Its residents had been the fodder for the cantankerous old preacher’s sermons for years. His father, it seemed had spent most of his clerical life driven to destroy everyone and everything connected to the Sweet Magnolia and more than once in his life, Jake had questioned his father’s vehement pointing out of its sins to the exclusion of all others.

  He returned the pot to the wood stove and was about to ask the old man how he knew so much about people for just a piano man, but was interrupted when the front door burst open and Nate Stiles stood in the entrance with an enthusiastic grin plastered on his face.

  “Sheriff? Got a minute? I just got the list for the dinner with them big wigs up in Carson City. Thought you might like to see who’s on it.” Not only had Nate been commissioned as his deputy, but had become one of Jake’s strongest supporters in his bid for Deputy Marshall. Knowing the right people, having a stellar record as sheriff, and a willingness to uphold the law was monumental in the appointment process.

  His mind still in a tangle from the cryptic conversation with the prisoner, he held out a hand and took the paper from Nate. Focused on the impressive list of dignitaries, Jake walked back to his desk and sat down. A dull ached throbbed at his temple and he kneaded it gently trying to find relief from it. These people held his future in their hands and he’d worked long and hard to get their approval. His dedication and perseverance had garnered the backing of the Mayor and his followers and they too, looked forward to claiming that one of their own had achieved the status of Deputy Marshall.

  “Mind if I have a cup of coffee, Sheriff?” Nate asked.

  He didn’t bother to look up. There were only two mugs in the jailhouse and he’d given the other to the prisoner. “Sure you can rinse out my cup, and Nate, we can let this guy go when he’s finished. Make sure you take him over to the hotel and get him a hot meal.” Jake frowned, his thoughts drifting to something the old man said. “I’m not the person you see….”

  “Um, sir?”

  Pulled from his reading, Jake raised is head to meet Nate’s and follow it to the cellblock. It was empty. Jake’s gaze shot to the where one cup hung on its hook.

  “The old man? Where’d he go?”

  “Sir? What old man?” His lanky deputy walked over to the cell and scanned the inside. “There’s no one here, Sheriff.”

  He leapt from the chair and strode to Nate’s side. “I was just talking to him…just before you came in.”

  Nathan shrugged. “I can’t say, sheriff.” He shrugged. “I just know that I haven’t made any arrests since you been out there locked up at the Magnolia. “I wasn’t ‘locked’ up. Besides, Doc gave the orders.” His deputy nodded, but hid his smile.

  Jake scanned the room, looking for some reliable evidence that he wasn’t going crazy.

  “Maybe its residual delusions fro
m your injury,” Nate offered.

  “I was shot in the ass, Nate, not my head.” Where the devil did that old man go? The barred window, too high and far too small to crawl through, was intact. It would take a stick of dynamite to free a man from this cell. “You’re sure you didn’t lock up an old guy with silver braids? He wore a vest and baggy pants— called himself a piano man?”

  Nathan eyed Jake as though he’d grown another head. “Pretty sure. I’d

  remember a guy that sounds like that.”

  “Dammit, this has been the strangest damn week. You’ve no idea.” Jake paced to his desk and then to the front door.

  “Well, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so, I heard tell that when you jumped that gunman, you whacked your noggin’ pretty hard in the fall. That’s got to jar a fella’s thoughts, don’t you suppose?”

  Jake glanced over his shoulder, considering the truth of Nate’s words. In which case, he had no business being back to his duties. And if he wasn’t on duty then that meant he could go talk some more to Lil and see if he could make any sense of what the hell was happening to him. He grabbed his hat and left his gun on the peg by the door. “You’re in charge, Nate, until I get back.”

  “But what about your response to this dinner?” Nate called after him. “It’ll have to wait.”

  ***

  Lil had had about all of this bizarre fantasy that she could stomach. An afternoon storm, matching her mood. It rumbled through the valley, darkening the skies. The air was thick and hot as the black clouds began to roll in, blotting out the sun. Lil fished through the trunk that held her few clothes and found her leopard print ensemble that had caused Sheriff Sloan’s eyes to fill with lust the first time he saw her. She stood for a moment, breathing once more the sweet scent of prairie grass before a rain, and then closed the window and pulled the shade. Methodically, she moved about the room returning it as best she could to the day she awoke at the Magnolia. She folded each piece of additional clothing she’d acquired since and tucked it in a trunk that she hid behind her dressing screen. There was no guarantee that her plan to return home would work, but she had to try. She plumped the red satin pillows, stopping a moment to inhale the exotic scent Jake left behind on the fabric. Perhaps this had all been a lovely dream, kept alive by her desire to win Jake’s affections, but it was clear where they stood with each other. Without hope of a future with him, what reason did she have to continue in this blissful dream-like state? It was time to let go.

  Shrugging off her robe, she draped it carefully over the end of the bed and crawled onto the mattress, sinking into the cloud-like softness of the array of pillows. A sudden panic jolted her upright and she looked around the room in a last ditch effort to capture these memories, hoping that she would be able to hold on to them. She wanted to remember each moment with Jake, knowing that they might be all she had to keep her warm when she was old. Gooseflesh rose on her skin, and she squeezed her eyes shut; her hand clasped around the amulet at the base of her throat. Her scattered thoughts found solace when she pictured Jake’s gentle eyes, the warmth of his skin against hers. If there was ever someone that could fill all her specifications of a lifelong mate, it was Jake Sloan. Her breathing slowed, her fear slipped away as she focused on his face, and she wished with her entire being that things could be different.

  ***

  “Lilly?”

  A soft whisper drew her from a deep, mindless sleep. Heavy rain sounded on the roof. Someone was shaking her shoulder. Lil fought to open her eyes having been immersed in an exquisite dream—one with her and Sheriff Sloan on a blanket beneath the desert night sky.

  “Lilly, wake up. I need to speak with you.”

  Her mind grappled with her thoughts piecing together reality and fantasy. Jake’s voice sounded so real. “Lilly, I have some things to say and you’re just going to have to hear them.” Her shoulders shook again under a pair of strong hands. “Wake up, Lil. Lord almighty woman, wake up so I can get this off my chest.”

  Lillian lifted one eyelid and focused on his face not but a few inches from hers. His breath smelled of coffee and his skin like the rain. If it was a dream, she hoped to never awaken. “What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t want to see me anymore.” Her words, even to her own ears, sounded slurred, groggy. She swallowed the dry lump in her throat. How long had she been asleep?

  “Listen, it’s Jake. I’ve been doing some thinking. And I have to tell you, some strange things have been happening to me lately that I can’t explain. But they’ve got me to thinking and well, if after I’ve had my say, you’d still like me to leave,

  I’ll abide by your request.”

  Leave? Her mind was still hazy from sleep, but she knew that to have him leave was the last thing she wanted. His soft, but quick kiss caught her off guard as much as his sudden retreat from her mouth.

  She licked her lips, cementing the taste in her mind and tried to focus on him standing at her bedside.

  “Lilly, I’ve been acting like a fool.” Jake tipped back his hat and scratched his forehead with his thumb. “I’ve been so wrapped up in this election and with trying to do what’s right for everyone else that I’ve plum forgotten how to see what’s best for me, and maybe I’ve been too blind to see that what’s best is right here in front of me.”

  She blinked away the fog in her brain. This sudden change of heart, while flattering made her more curious as to what precipitated it. “Jake, slow down and once more from the top.” Lilly pushed her hair back from her face and leaned up on her elbows.

  “Why are you dressed like that?” He pointed at her attire. “Are you expecting a guest?”

  Admittedly from his perspective and given the way she was dressed, it was not strange that he would jump to that conclusion. Still, he’d all but relinquished any reason that she should bother to answer him. However, judging from the grave concern puckering his handsome face, Lil chose to offer the truth. “I was trying to get back.”

  “Where to?” He sat down on the edge of the bed bracing his arm on the other side of her hip, his gaze intent.

  She swallowed, not knowing if he would understand her answer, but it was the truth. “Home.”

  He searched her eyes. “You mean back to this place in the…the future?” So he had been listening.

  She nodded.

  A slight smile curled the corner of his lip. “Looks like you might have missed the stagecoach.”

  Lilly sighed. “Go ahead. I know you think it sounds ridiculous, but I can’t help that.” Her shoulders slumped in frustration. She couldn’t understand what possible glitch had occurred in the cosmos that would keep her in the past. She dared not toy with the hope that maybe fate was giving her, or perhaps Jake, chance to get things right. “What was it you needed, Sheriff?

  “That’s Jake,” he corrected with a crook of his brow and a wicked grin.

  Lil’s heart lurched. Her body responding in a rush of tingles. She had to keep her head if she didn’t want to lose her heart. That, she told herself might be a foregone conclusion. “What is it you needed to tell me, Jake?” She held his gaze when she spoke his name and satisfaction flickered in his eyes.

  For a moment he just stared at her and then stood, folding his arms over his chest, regarding her as a teacher might look upon a student. “Well, I’ve decided that there are some things that just defy explanation.”

  Surprised by his sudden shift in thinking, she agreed. “I’d have to say you’re right about that. And there comes a time when you have to say what’s inside you.”

  Jake nodded. I’m doing my best to find a way to speak my mind.” He seemed truly nervous, about whatever it was, eyeing her with uncertainty.

  She pushed herself upright, proving that he had her attention. His, however, was resting on her bare flesh. Lil grabbed one of the pillows and covered up her midsection. “Better?”

  “Yeah, thanks,” he admitted shaking his head as though to clear his thoughts. “This isn’t easy for me. I’ve ne
ver done this before…spoken my mind to a woman and,” he glanced at her, “I doubt there will ever be anyone else that I say this to.”

  A slow thud began in Lil’s chest. She swallowed hard, waiting, watching as he paced the floor apparently working at getting his thoughts together. “Whatever it is, just say it,” she urged, hoping that it would be what she wanted to hear and not another drawn out explanation of why they couldn’t be together. Lil wanted to shake the liver out of him but tried to remain patient.

  He parked his butt on the vanity and she let out a sigh of relief. “What’s troubling you?” Lil found it difficult to catch her breath, anticipating the various things he might have to say. She wanted to hear that his feelings matched hers, that his or her profession didn’t matter and that he loved her, as she did him, just the way he was. A gasp caught in her throat at the sudden realization, the truth of why she felt queasy and couldn’t sleep at night…she’d fallen in love.

  “Listen, it’s like this, Lil. I l-l-lo—” His tongue seemed stuck on the word. Lil waited, mentally coaxing the word from his lips.

  “Lillian,” he spoke in a business-like tone. “I have a fierce affection for you.” Close enough. Lillian dropped her gaze to the bed and smiled softly.

  “Just…um, what level of fierce would you say that is?”

  “Plum fierce.”

  Lil suppressed a smile and met his heated gaze. “Then I suppose that it’s okay for me to tell you that the feeling is somewhat mutual.”

  His expression clouded. “Somewhat? What the hell …?”

  She held up her hands in defense. “Okay, maybe seriously plum.” His shoulders eased, his mouth widened with a sexy grin.

  “You really couldn’t tell? Do you think that I could…well, do the things I’ve done with you with just any man?”