Victoria Bylin - Of Men And Angels

He grabbed her shoulders. “My God! What happened?”

“The stage crashed in a thunderstorm. There’s a lot to tell, but there are two people you have to meet first.”

William’s gaze roved to the man holding the baby. With his black eyes and black duster, he seemed more like a shadow than flesh and bone. Hard living, and only God knew what else, had etched deep lines in the young man’s face, and he had a thirsty look in his eyes.

William knew the craving when he saw it, and he felt a stab of sympathy for the young man. With his stubbled jaw and bruised face, he looked like a rounder, but the baby turned him into something else. He looked like a father, too, and William dared to hope his daughter had found a diamond in the rough.

The cowboy stepped toward Alex and she reached for the baby. Holding the infant against her breast, she nodded at the stranger.

“Papa, this is Jackson Jacob Malone. He saved my life. Twice.” Smiling, she held up the baby. “And this is Charlie.”

“Who does he belong to?”

“No one right now.”

William felt a twinge of disappointment that the cowboy wasn’t the baby’s father, and he cringed when he saw a light in his daughter’s eyes that reminded him of his wife as a younger woman.

I want another baby, Will.

Any man who had fathered a child by choice knew that look, and most of the time a woman got her way. Peeling back the white cloth shielding the baby’s head, he peered into his tiny face. “He looks brand-new.”

“He is. His mother died giving birth.”

“And his father?”

Alex shook her head. “She never said.”

William watched as the cowboy took off his hat and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. The man was ready to hightail it out of town, but someone had hammered good manners into him, and he didn’t even twitch while he waited for Alex to finish talking.

He had the air of a perfect gentleman, but William saw through him. He was polite because it had been beaten into him, and beneath his hooded gaze, William saw a man who cussed God and took comfort where he could find it.

He had known countless men like Jackson Jacob Malone over the years. He’d prayed with them and even buried a few of them when things went bad. He knew these men in his bone marrow because he had been one himself. Kindness would only make a man like Malone run, so William got tough and mean.

“This kid looks just like you, son. What lies are you telling?”

Anger rose from his black duster like smoke. “Let’s see, old man. The last woman I bedded was a whore in Glenville, and that was a lot more recent than nine months ago when Charlie here got started. Let me think….” Jake rolled his eyes skyward and twisted his lips into an insolent grin.

William saw right through the ploy. The young man wanted to shock him.

“As I recall,” Jake continued, “a sweet young thing spread her legs for me about then, but she was a blonde with big tits and the woman I just buried—”

“Stop it!” Alex glared at them both, then zeroed in on Jake. “How dare you speak like that about someone you—”

“Bedded?”

“I can ignore the language, but not the disrespect.”

William wasn’t surprised when his daughter turned on him next. “Papa, that question was out of line. You have no right to question Jake’s integrity.”

So it was already Jake and not Mr. Malone.

The young man didn’t say a word, and William, who never kept his mouth closed and only rarely regretted opening it, wasn’t at all sorry for riling him. He believed that “fight” and “flight” were God-given instincts, and Jake Malone was a fighter.

“My daughter’s right, Mr. Malone. I have a rude streak a mile wide. I owe you far more than gratitude for saving her life. She’s a treasure.” He stuck out his hand and waited for the man to take it.

William guessed he still wanted to get drunk and throw a few punches, but at the mention of Alex, Jake Malone’s eyes shimmered with a tender light. He took William’s hand with a firm grasp.

“The privilege was mine, sir.”

Alex smiled up at the cowboy, and William saw the precise moment when the fight in Jake Malone turned to flight. His eyes lingered a moment too long on her face. His mouth softened, and in his old bones William felt the young man’s longing for something pure and good.

Glancing at Charlie, the cowboy almost smiled, but instead he tipped his hat to Alex. “Miss Merritt, I wish you all the best.”

Turning on his heels, he walked way.

Alex shot after him and tugged on his sleeve. “Jake! Wait! You can’t just leave. At least stay for supper.”

Malone didn’t stop walking, and William didn’t know whether to respect him for wanting to protect Alex from the likes of himself, or if he despised the man for a lack of courage.

Either way, there was hope for Jake Malone, and once the cowboy found that out for himself he’d beat all hell out of Thomas Hunnicutt as a son-in-law. He knew where the young man was headed, and he wasn’t going anywhere as long as William had anything to say about it.

“I’ve got a bottle of twenty-year-old whiskey with your name on it, son.”

The cowboy stopped dead in his tracks. Dust billowed at Alexandra’s feet, and William prayed he hadn’t just made the biggest mistake of his life.

Pivoting on his heels, Jake locked eyes with William Merritt. The old man’s boots were planted a foot apart, and he’d crossed his arms over his chest. He felt the weight of Alex’s grip on his sleeve and glowered at her. She let go as if he had started to smell bad.

Good. He didn’t want her kindness. He wanted to get drunk and get laid, but he liked William Merritt for his rudeness, and, hell, he deserved a little consideration for saving the man’s daughter. A bottle of whiskey seemed like the least the old man could do.

“That sounds like an offer I can’t refuse,” Jake said, smirking. A frown spread across Alex’s face, and he got even more irritable. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Of course not.”

But she was glaring at him as if he’d just kicked a puppy. She had no right to judge him. A man had needs. Some men had holes in their guts that made them hard and mean.

He remembered holding her when she had cried, the recoil of the rifle as he shot the snake, the curiosity and fear on her lips when he had kissed her. And it made him realize she had gotten some very wrong ideas about the man who had found her on the Colorado Plateau.

But none of those things mattered now. The angel was about to meet the real Jake Malone. And he’d be damned if he’d apologize for saying “tits.” He was about to tell her just that when Charlie let out a miserable wail and arched his back in frustration.

“He’s hungry and I’m taking him to the doctor,” Alex said, looking over her shoulder. “You can do any fool thing you want.”

She marched down the street on wobbly legs, and Jake wondered what was holding her up. If she had asked him to stay nicely, he would have stomped off, but that sassy tone was a dare he couldn’t resist.

William clapped him hard on back. “Come on, Jake. You can’t argue with Alexandra when she gets like this.”

“I know, sir. I landed on my butt once already.”

The old man grinned at him. “Now that sounds like a story I’ve got to hear.”

Pushing his hat lower on his brow, he said, “She pulled a gun on me, too.”

Alex stopped in her tracks. “You had it coming.”

“Both times?”

Her cheeks flamed. Aiming a pistol at a stranger was self-defense, but knocking him flat after the kiss had been something else altogether.

“My father doesn’t need the details.”

“Sure he does.”

His silky voice teased her like a ribbon against her skin, and her eyes flickered as she weighed her options. If she stopped him from talking, she’d have to explain things to her father herself and a simple kiss would seem like more than it was. On the other hand, she didn’t know what he was going to say.

Holding his gaze, she blinked twice against the bright sun and took a chance. “Go ahead.”

Her tangled hair swished as she turned her back, and the sight of her neck, pink and blistered by the sun, made Jake’s mouth go dry. The woman had been through hell and a man had to respect that. Clearing his throat, he remembered her too-sweet lips and tasted the urge to be truthful, and even kind.

“Well, Mr. Merritt, it all started when I heard an angel singing in the desert, and I have to say your daughter is the bravest, most levelheaded woman I’ve ever met.”

He relived finding the stagecoach, Charlotte’s blood in the sand, and the muddy gun aimed at his chest. He told William about the rain and the rattlesnake, lancing the wound, and finally the last few miles of the ride to Grand Junction. He deliberately left out kissing her, but William didn’t miss a thing.

“So how did you end up on your backside?” he asked.

Jake gave Alex a long, slow smile. Her lips came together in a frustrated line. “Let’s just say she’s not fond of my horse.”

William huffed, but Jake saw a twinkle in his eyes. They both knew it would take more than a bucking bronco to rile Alex, and a soul-deep kiss from a good-looking man qualified. Hooking his thumbs in his belt, the old man studied Alex’s straight back. His eyes narrowed to a hard squint, and Jake knew he’d have a helluva of time keeping secrets from this man.

Stopping in midstride, William wrapped his stubby fingers around Jake’s arm and squeezed. His grip was strong enough to crack nuts, and Jake found himself pinned to the spot by a white-haired giant. The look on the old man’s face chilled his bones and made him hot with anger, but he wouldn’t answer the question lurking beneath the white arch of his eyebrows. What had happened in the desert was between himself and Alex. She could tell her father any damn thing she pleased.

The old man studied him as if he were a bug on a pane of glass. Letting go of Jake’s arm, he grinned and scowled at the same time. “Well, son, for your sake I hope it was just a kiss.”

“You’ll have to ask your daughter.”

“Don’t worry. I will.”

They started walking again, and William continued as if nothing else had been said. “I can’t see any reason for you to rush off. I’ve got ten acres of peach trees, with plans to add more. There’s work here if you want it.”

Staying in Grand Junction with this crazy old man and his beautiful daughter was surefire trouble, but the bright sun was a torture to Jake’s bruised eyes. His head was pounding. He needed rest and supplies before he headed further west. “I could use a place to stay for a few days, but I’ve got business in California.”

“What takes you there?”

“Work.” It was a lie, but no one would ever know.

“You can stay here as long as you like.”

He had no intention of staying long enough to leave more than a few footprints in the dust. Staring straight ahead, he said, “I’m much obliged, but I’ll be moving on in a day or two.”

With Alex in the lead, the three of them walked down Colorado Avenue. The smell of dust and paint filled the air, and the old man pointed to a building so new Jake could smell the freshly milled pine.

William raised his voice a notch so it would carry to Alex. “Dr. Winters’s office is right there.”

She was three steps ahead of the men, but with two strides, Jake caught up with her and held the door. She thanked him with a nod, as if she had expected him to be there, and led the way into the office.