Out of the Storm (Buckhorn, Montana #1) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,26
who he was before he came here, your guess is as good as mine. He doesn’t talk much, never about himself. I get the feeling he’s been through some rough times that have left him leery of people.”
Collin swore under his breath. Maybe the man was Danny Jackson. He finished his second beer. He knew better than to have another. The car would be ready this afternoon. In the meantime, he had to make up with Kate. But all he could think about was what Lars had told him about Jon Harper. He sounded exactly like the kind of man Kate would be attracted to.
CHAPTER NINE
WHEN EARL RAY finally shoved off his stool, pulled on his coat and headed for the door, Kate tossed some money on the table and followed him out—only to collide with a solid body just outside the door.
“Sorry,” the man said in a deep, sleepy-sounding voice.
She drew back to look up at his face. She’d gotten glimpses of the man coming out of the closed Crenshaw Hotel on the edge of town. He wore a stocking cap pulled low so only his dark eyes peered out. His long hair and beard were the same color as his eyes. He wore an old army coat that looked as if it might have belonged to his father—or was something he’d picked up at a thrift store. The look on his face was so serious that he gave her a start.
“Sorry,” he mumbled again and held the door for her so she could exit.
She could see Earl Ray down the street and headed in that direction. She hadn’t gone but a few feet, though, before she heard Bessie call after her.
Earl Ray was already half a block past the next street. Having no choice, Kate turned back.
“Are you all right?” Bessie asked. “You look...startled.”
“It’s nothing. That young man—”
“Finnegan?” Bessie huffed. “Says he was hired as caretaker at the Crenshaw Hotel. Looks to me more like a bum who just needed a place to stay for the winter. With the owner dead and the place boarded up for the past two years, guess we have to take his word for it. Finnegan probably isn’t even his real name.”
Kate shifted on her feet. Bessie seemed to realize how anxious she was to get moving. “You forgot your blueberry muffins.” Bessie handed her the package. “You left so fast... Guess you’re just in a hurry to get out of town. Enjoy.” The woman wheeled back inside the warm café as someone called her name.
When Kate turned, there was no sign of Earl Ray.
She moved down the snowy sidewalk as quickly as she could. Glancing in whatever windows weren’t boarded over as she passed, she saw no sign of the older man. He wasn’t in the stores. There was no sign of him anywhere.
At the corner, she looked down the street and caught a glimpse of his red-and-black-checked coat as he turned the corner.
By the time she reached the corner, Earl Ray was entering a small house with a snowy hedge around it. She slowed to catch her breath in this silent world of falling snow. How did the residents of this town not go crazy with the snow getting deeper and deeper by the minute and the already freezing air growing colder day after day, she wondered. It felt as if the snow would never stop falling, as if it would bury the town, bury them all before winter was over.
Kate shivered as she stopped at the shoveled sidewalk that led up to Earl Ray’s door. She had no idea what she was going to say. Like Jon Harper, the man inside this house didn’t know her. Had no reason to trust her.
But that didn’t stop her as she walked up to the door and knocked. It took him a few minutes to answer. She could hear him moving around inside moments before the door opened.
He’d gotten out of his coat and boots and now stood blinking down at her in a gray flannel, plaid shirt, jeans and stocking feet. “Hello,” he said and smiled as he pushed open the storm door. “You look cold. Are you lost?”
She couldn’t help but smile at this friendly face. “Do you have a minute?”
That made him laugh. “Oh my dear, I have nothing but time. Please, come in.” He stepped back to let her enter the house.
The first thing she felt was heat, wonderfully warm heat that rushed to her cheeks. The house had