LITMIR.BIZ

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hers or the way he had tasted. Yet she couldn’t stop her senses from registering everything about him.

      “Because I knew we couldn’t stop,” she said in a hoarse whisper. ‘We shouldn’t be stopping now.”

      Her copper-colored hair was shoulder length and naturally curly. He pushed the wayward strands away from her cheeks and off her forehead as though she were his lover and the sweat on her face had come from their passion.

      The notion caused her to shiver inwardly, and she closed her eyes and waited for him to pull back and put a few inches of space between them.

      “Do you want Aaron to be raised an orphan?” he asked crossly.

      Her eyes drifted open to see he’d taken a seat next to her and, though he was close, his gaze was not on her. His squinted eyes were scanning the bald, jagged crags of the mountain peaks.

      “I’m not that weak,” she protested.

      Turning his gaze back to her, he silently studied her face until she felt the urge to squirm.

      “What? What are you thinking?” she dared to ask him.

      The corners of his mouth tilted up ever so slightly, and Maggie realized it was the first time he’d shown any sort of humor in her presence.

      “That you are not exactly the woman I thought you were.”

      Maggie wasn’t sure she should ask, but she did anyway. “What does that mean?”

      One of his shoulders moved with a faint shrug. “The Ketchums are a tough crew. But you’re not a Ketchum by blood.”

      She stared at him for a moment as she digested his words. “Oh. You thought—you think I’m just a rich, pampered woman.”

      “Not exactly pampered. But maybe a little soft.”

      His admission disappointed her, and that was frightening. Not since Hugh had Maggie cared whether a man regarded her highly. And it shouldn’t matter how Deputy Daniel Redwing viewed her, either.

      She swallowed as a knot of unsettled feelings gathered in her throat. “And what are you thinking now?”

      “That you have grit.”

      Her eyes met his and she felt her heart thump with unexpected gladness. “Thank you, Daniel.”

      “You’re welcome.”

      They were still staring at each other when Aaron’s voice echoed through the mountaintops.

      “Mom! Mom!”

      Both Maggie and Daniel jumped to their feet and scanned the edge of the timberline where Aaron’s voice seemed to have originated.

      “That was him, Daniel! That was Aaron!” she exclaimed with excited joy.

      “Yes. Here he comes now,” Daniel said with a quiet smile. “To your right. See?”

      A tiny whimper of relief passed her lips as she spotted her young son walking slowly out of the woods. He was leading Rusty, and from the looks of the flopping latigo he was fortunate to still have the saddle on the horse’s back.

      “Oh, thank God! Thank God!” she whispered hoarsely.

      She started to run in her son’s direction, but the ground was too rough and her legs too spongy to carry her safely. She stumbled several times before she finally managed to reach him, then, going down on her knees, she gathered the boy up in her arms.

      For long moments she held her son in a crushing embrace as tears of relief streamed down her face. In turn, Aaron clung tightly to his mother until the excitement of being found eventually caused him to stir and talk in rapid, broken phases.

      “Mom, I didn’t mean to come this far! Something happened to the girth—I fell off Rusty. And he ran away. I’ve been chasing him…for a long time. I didn’t think he’d ever stop!”

      Taking him firmly by the shoulders, Maggie held her son out in front of her. He’d managed to hang on to his straw cowboy hat, but sweat and dirt streaked his freckled face and there was a long rip down the sleeve of his shirt exposing an equally long scratch on his arm.

      “You weren’t supposed to be on Rusty,” she admonished. “You told me you were going down to the ranch yard to see Skinny!”

      Aaron ducked his head with guilt just as Daniel walked up to mother and son.

      “I know,” Aaron mumbled. “But I…I wanted to go camping. You know I did! So I filled up my saddlebags with food and tied on a bedroll. I was gonna come back tomorrow, Mom!” he reasoned, as though that made everything all right.

      Maggie groaned and rolled her eyes up to Daniel who was desperately wanting to smile but was carefully hiding it in front of the boy.

      “Oh, yeah,” Maggie pointed out wryly. “After the bears ate you and spit out your bones. Aaron—”

      “Gosh,” the child interrupted as he suddenly noticed the man standing near his mother’s shoulder. The shiny badge pinned to Daniel’s chest and the pistol strapped to his hips were enough to make Aaron’s eyes pop wide. “Am I in trouble?”

      Daniel felt inclined to answer the child’s question before Maggie had the chance. “Well, it appears as though you’re in trouble with your mother. But not with the law,” Daniel assured him.

      The boy pushed the hat back off his head, then, using the back of his hand, he wiped his brow with an exaggerated gesture. “Whew!” he exclaimed with great relief. “I thought I was gonna be arrested for running off!”

      Now that Maggie could see for herself that her son was well and truly safe, anger began to simmer where fear had once gripped her. “You’d better be glad your uncle Jess and Sheriff Perez are out of town,” Maggie told him. “Or you would be in big trouble. Deputy Redwing has been tracking you for hours! He has other deputies looking for you, too. You’ve caused all sorts of trouble for a lot of people.”

      If possible, Aaron’s blue eyes grew even wider as his gaze traveled from his mother’s stern face up to Daniel. “Gee, I didn’t know the law would come looking for me.”

      “Your mother has been very worried. Maybe you should apologize to her,” Daniel suggested.

      Aaron looked guiltily back at his mother and, with his chin sinking to his chest, he mumbled, “I’m sorry, Mom.”

      Releasing a heavy sigh, Maggie patted his back. Now was not the time for angry lectures. She was too relieved and overjoyed to have her son back safe and sound. Besides that, daylight was fading fast. They were going to have to hurry to make it back down the mountain before darkness settled in.

      “All right, son,” she said gently. “We’ll talk about it later. But right now you should thank Deputy Redwing. If it weren’t for him, you’d still be wandering around up here. Lost. You were lost, weren’t you?”

      Aaron nodded remorsefully. “Yeah. I didn’t know where the heck I was,” he admitted, then to Daniel he said, “Thank you, Deputy Redwing. I’m sorry I caused you so much trouble.”

      Even though Daniel was twenty-nine years old, he hadn’t forgotten what it was like to be a little boy full of hurt and angry defiance and then later having all that pain turn into fear.

      He patted the boy’s slender shoulder. “I’m just glad you’re all right, Aaron.”

      “You’re not mad at me?”

      Squatting, Daniel took hold of the boy’s hand. “No. But I think you need to understand that a man’s word is a very special thing. A good man doesn’t break his word. So when you tell your mother where you’re going, you need to make sure that you keep your word and do exactly what you told her. Understand?”

      “Yes, sir. I will. I promise.”

      “Good.” Daniel squeezed the boy’s hand, then rising

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