“But if the women work all day, who—”
“Is that the town of Legend?” she asked, changing the subject.
“No, it’s a rock formation.”
“Isn’t that amazing, that it looks just like—”
“If you are from another time, not that you are, why are you here? And where did you get the picture of my family and my father’s watch? We thought they were lost.”
“Who is we?”
“My grandmother and me. She’s the only relative I have left.” He shifted his arms around her, making them just a bit tighter. “You do have an amazing ability to change the subject. What were you doing with my family’s photo?”
“I bought an old flour tin, and when I opened it, this dress was in it, and on the bottom of the tin was the packet containing the photo and the watch.”
When she said no more, he said, “Then what happened?”
“I don’t know,” Kady said quietly, not wanting to think of those horrible minutes when she wavered between two worlds. She still expected to wake up any minute and be back in her apartment. No matter what time it was, she’d call Gregory and tell him she loved him and—.
“Come on,” Cole said softly, “don’t turn coward on me now. You’re Little Miss Independent, remember? You can do everything all by yourself. Are you afraid to tell me what happened?”
His tone said he was making fun of her. “I can take care of myself, if that’s what you mean!” she said angrily.
He was chuckling. “There, that’s better.”
For a few moments they were silent. “Why did you ask me to marry you?” Kady asked.
He didn’t answer right away. “To protect you. Because I owe you. I wouldn’t he alive right now if it weren’t for you. You know, I think ol’ Harwood thought you were a ghost, coming out of the mountains in that white dress.”
“I thought you were unconscious! How did you see anything?”
“I was saving my strength.”
Twisting around in the saddle, she glared up at him. “If you were awake, then you could have helped me save you!”
“Mmmm,” was all he’d say, and Kady could see the smile he was trying to suppress.
She turned back around. “You could have crushed me when you fell off that horse.”
Instead of answering, he smoothed a curl back from her face and tucked it behind her ear.
Somehow, the simple touch of putting her hair behind her ears was more intimate than anything else he had done, and Kady frowned at it. Yes, it was definitely better to get away from this man.
Chapter 6
THE TOWN OF LEGEND WAS NOT WHAT SHE’D EXPECTED. Maybe it was her innate cynicism, but she’d expected filth and saloons. As a kid she’d believed the beautiful movie sets that showed pretty little houses with white picket fences, but as an adult she’d realized that the women in those cowboy shows had spent three hours having their hair and makeup done. And the streets were swept daily by the crew.
But as she rode into town on the horse in front of Cole, she had to change her mind, for Legend looked like something Walt Disney had created. It was clean and neat, and the people were all nicely dressed and bustling about with smiles on their faces.
They rode down one street that Cole told her was named Eternity Road, then took a left down a well-maintained, wide road named Kendal Avenue. They passed clean, tidy shops, a hotel, a freight depot, livery stable, and a huge ice cream parlor that looked like something from a Judy Garland movie. She saw only one saloon, and it looked like a place you could take the kids on Saturday night. Between the buildings were vacant lots, some of them rather prettily landscaped.
What further astonished her was that she didn’t see a gun anywhere. Not a single man was carrying a firearm. In fact, for the most part, everyone looked clean and prosperous and absolutely peaceful. Maybe it had been Cole’s story about the deaths of his family, but she’d expected Legend to be a little more, well, dangerous.
“So much for the Wild West,” she muttered, and remembered hearing that that had been a myth. If so, then Legend was proof of that myth.
“Where would you like me to drop you?” Cole asked.
“Anywhere they