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Right then and there, Maddie realized he’d done that by loving her. He’d never told her so, just as she’d never told him. Mainly because she hadn’t known that was what it was.
Love.
Her entire being grew warm, and when she glanced down the hall, saw him still standing there, waiting for her, her heart skipped several beats. With him she was capable of everything. Anything.
Her greatest perception happened then. She didn’t have to change. Didn’t have to become someone she didn’t want to be. She didn’t mind having a man tell her what to do, either, not when they were partners. Happiness welled, and Maddie turned to Ilene. “I’d like you to come to the Empire Hotel tomorrow, around one.”
The maid frowned. “It’s Christmas Day tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“But I have to work.”
“I’ll arrange it with the mayor,” Maddie said. A lot of clout came with being a rich woman, and she was about to start using it. “One o’clock at the Empire Hotel.”
With a newfound spring in her step, Maddie walked down the hallway, and when she stopped in front of Lucky, she stretched onto her toes and kissed him, heedless of the traffic going in and out of the kitchen.
He grinned. “What was that for?”
“Because I’m lucky,” she said.
“You are?”
She nodded. “Your luck rubbed off on me. Which was what I hoped would happen the night we met.” Hooking his elbow with hers, she added, “And it did.”
“Maybe yours rubbed off on me,” he said.
She laughed. “Maybe it did.” Leaning her head against his shoulder as they walked, she said, “We make good partners, don’t we?”
“The best.”
Maddie drew a breath so full of contentment it made her lightheaded. She still had to take care of Mad Dog, see he was captured so no more girls like Ilene and her sisters were harmed, but she had now accepted that task would be easier with Lucky’s help than without it.
He stopped before entering the party area again. “What did that girl say to you?” Reaching up, he twisted a ringlet of her hair around one finger. “What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?”
The twinkle was back in his eyes, and the excitement bubbling inside her let loose a giggle. She stretched up to kiss him again. “You and I are going to talk about that,” she whispered against his lips, “right after I talk to the mayor.”
Lucky caught her by the hips when she’d have turned for the door. “The mayor? Why do I have a chilling sense I should be worried?”
She giggled. “Probably because you know me.”
He muttered a slight curse. “You don’t have your gun with you, do you?”
“Just the derringer,” she admitted. “Besides fastening up the back, this gown doesn’t have any pockets.”
“Thank God,” he muttered, though the twinkle in his eyes flashed brighter when he asked, “Where’s the derringer hid?”
Biting her lip to hold back a rather boisterous bout of giddiness, she said, “I’ll show you at the hotel.”
He groaned teasingly, and she released a full laugh. “Come on. I’ve decided I do want to learn how to dance.”
After meeting with the mayor and securing a meeting time for the following day with Ilene, Maddie gladly let Lucky lead her onto the dance floor. He was an excellent dancer and soon was whisking her about. Fully intoxicated by him and the music, she promptly refused offers to dance from other men who tapped him on the shoulder.
Delighted by the woman he knew back in Alaska, the one who wasn’t shy and purposefully adamant about what she wanted, Cole couldn’t erase the grin that sat on his face. Maddie had returned. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but his chest had never swelled with such pride as when she informed the mayor she’d be meeting with one of his household staff on the morrow and that the girl would not be docked in pay or time.
Not used to being talked to, especially by a woman, the mayor did attempt to stand his ground—insisting the next day was Christmas and all of his household staff would be needed—but Maddie shot him down as swiftly as if she had drawn her pistol.
The mayor had been left speechless, which had left Cole grinning. Maddie was more than he’d ever have imagined a woman could be, and the ring in his pocket was burning a hole in his skin. Upon leaving the hotel this afternoon, he’d passed a jewelry shop and hadn’t been able to help venturing in. He’d give it to her tonight and ask her to marry him. She was right—they made good partners. Together there wasn’t much they couldn’t tackle. Even outlaws.
