Slow Hand (Hot Cowboy Nights, #1)(16)

She gnawed her lip. “I don’t know.” She’d be a fool to spend any more time alone with him, but being truthful with herself, she didn’t really want to be by herself in a strange place either.

“It’s not a problem,” he insisted. “They’re already aware I may be bringing a guest.”

Wade’s offer seemed genuine. When Nikki weighed her options, she found she really had none. It would be pointless to stay in town when she still had no money and no transportation. Stifling the frantic neon flash in her brain, she replied, “If you’re really certain about this…”

“Yeah. There’s nothing to entertain you in Virginia City.”

“What about that ten-cent tour you promised me?”

“Oh that? I guess it slipped my mind. I’ll make it up to you when we come back through. Tell you what, I’m feeling generous. I’ll throw in Nevada City for free.”





Chapter 5


“How far is it to Sheridan?” she asked.

“About twenty miles. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“Ready? What do you mean?”

“Have you ever seen a dead body before?”

She licked her lips. “I’ve been to a few funerals.”

“This isn’t the same. It’s not like a viewing in a casket. He hasn’t been embalmed and the body will be in a refrigerated holding area. It’s not going to be a pretty sight. Although there should be minimal decomposition, you need to prepare yourself.”

She swallowed hard but it did nothing to alleviate the sudden dryness in her throat.

He turned toward her, placing his large warm hand on her knee. “I just want to be sure you understand that. Are you sure you want to go through with it?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I need to do this.”

“All right then.” He released his hand from her leg with a nod and then started the engine.

They drove to Sheridan in silence. Wade threw her occasional assessing glances, but seemed to understand she needed the quiet to compose herself. When they arrived, she hopped out of the truck before he could even open his door.

“Don’t you want me to go with you?” he asked.

His offer took her aback more than she wanted to admit, but she had to do this alone. She was strong enough to handle it. “No, I don’t think so,” she said. “You didn’t even know him, after all.”

The smile left his eyes. “I’m not offering for him, Nicole. I’m offering for you.”

Nikki didn’t know how to respond to that. She could deal with the flirty cowboy, but this sudden protective turn threw her for a real loop. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Just seems like the right thing to me.”

Oh, that was all. She deflated. He was just being the gentleman his Southern-bred mama raised him to be. “That’s kind of you, but I’m really OK. I shouldn’t be long.”

*

The moment Nikki entered the morgue, she realized she wasn’t ready at all. Although Wade had tried to warn her, nothing could have prepared her for the reality. It was so cold her teeth chattered, and the sickly sweet smell of decay drifted faintly through the air. Her head reeled and her stomach churned, as nausea and lightheadedness dueled for supremacy. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to faint or puke, but when the attendant opened the drawer to reveal the body, she forgot everything else.

Time suspended as she gazed upon a grim, blue-tinged replica of the father she once knew. His hair had thinned and receded and his body was at least thirty pounds heavier than she remembered. Her gaze focused on his face, wrinkled around his eyes and more deeply grooved around his mouth. Set in harsh lines, it was nothing like the smiling face she recalled in her memories. Desperate to replace this ghoulish version with the father she remembered, Nikki closed her eyes and dug into the deep recesses of her mind.

Although the memories had grown a bit hazy over twenty some years, she recalled his warm hazel eyes beneath the battered straw Stetson, the faded jeans, and the pointy-toed boots that he always wore…and his big, slightly gap-toothed smile. All of these things she associated with the happiest years of her childhood—before the bad times got worse. Before the divorce. Before he disappeared from her life for good.

Even in those early days when it was just the three of them, life was an emotional roller coaster. She remembered weeks at a time with him gone. Her mother’s tantrums and fits of depression. The good times when he’d come home sober, tossing Nikki into the air and calling her Sweet Pea. And the frequent bad times he came home staggering and reeking of booze.

Arguments always followed. Accusations and curses were screamed back and forth. Four-letter words that Nikki was too young to comprehend tainted the air. More often than not, there’d be shattered glass or holes punched in the walls. Nikki would huddle out of sight and pretend to be invisible while the storms raged. Once or twice she’d even seen the flashing blue lights of a police car, but the aftermath was always the same. Noises of another sort altogether—from behind a locked bedroom door.

Her existence virtually forgotten, Nikki would retreat to her own room. The routine was pretty much the same until the night she woke up to a trailer filled with smoke—the night they’d lost everything.