Page 45 of Love’s Silver Bullet

Laughter filled the tent as everyone took their seats. Bill shook his napkin out and placed it on his lap as he studied Jake through a hard squint. “Sharpshooting is the lifeblood of this show, son, so I’d still be interested in seeing you shoot.”

“So would I, actually,” Morgan said with a friendly smile that Jake suspected was anything but. “How about a challenge, Jake, just between you and me? After all, I’m fairly good with a gun and have won an award or two myself before Uncle Bill took me on, so what do you say?”

“Yes sirree, Bob!” Buffalo Bill pounded on the table with a loud hoot, while everyone else cheered in agreement.

Jake hesitated, gaze flicking to where Sheridan sat pretty as a picture, excitement sparkling in those blue eyes as she pressed her hands to her chin in prayer mode. “Come on, Jake—it’ll be fun, please?” she said with a slope of her brows, as if imploring him to agree.

“Do it, Jake!” Giggling, Shaylee shook his arm back and forth while all the others spurred him on as well.

Morgan leaned back and idly hooked an arm over Sheridan’s chair, his eyes challenging Jake to far more than a shoot-out. “Unless, of course,” he said with a polite smile, “you’re afraid you won’t win …”

Jake stared him down while several of Bill’s “Western Girls,” as he referred to them, dressed in fringed leather skirts, boots, and vests, arrived to fill water glasses and tote platters of meat and vegetables piled high. No, he wasn’t afraid he wouldn’t win because he already knew he wouldn’t.

At least not in the only challenge Jake cared about—Sheridan. Because he wouldn’t allow himself to go there. And as sure as the tic in his jaw, he wouldn’t allow the dandy to go there either. Ignoring everyone’s prodding, his jaw hardened in resolve as he delivered a smile to the dandy every bit as strained as his own, giving a slight nod of his head. “You’re on.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Finish him off, Jake. Mouth pressed tight, Finn watched Jake raise his rifle just as Buffalo Bill hurled three coins in the air. Jake’s body was a blur while he blasted all three in easy succession, unleashing a slow bleed of relief from Finn’s lips and a loud roar of shrieks and cheers from his family.

Thatta boy, he thought with a wide grin, applauding like crazy. He couldn’t be prouder if Jake were his own son and the truth was, sometimes Finn felt like he was, the two of them bonded by a painful past. He had no doubt whatsoever Jake was one of the best shots in Nevada, but for some reason tonight, a win had been particularly important to Finn.

Some reason? He watched while Clay Morgan extended a hand of congratulations, the smile on his face as stiff as Jake’s when the two men shook. Finn’s gaze flicked to where Sheridan stood with hands clasped to her chest, glowing more than the stupid candles on the table. He didn’t know if her dreamy-eyed look was because of the truly enjoyable evening, pride over Jake whooping Bill’s dandy nephew, or the dandy nephew himself. His jaw hardened. But it was definitely the last one that worried Finn the most, given what Blaze had told him this morning.

“What?” Finn had sat straight up in his cordovan leather chair after Blaze entered his study this morning before church, spilling the beans about Clay Morgan. “What do you mean we have a problem?”

“I mean,” Blaze had said after quietly closing the door behind him, “that Clay Morgan is trouble. On the day of the Wild West show, Jake saw him drooling all over Sheridan when she and Maggie went to the privy. Then the night of Sheridan’s graduation barbecue, Maggie and I had it out because I found out they invited the dandy to come when she knows how we feel about men sniffing around Sheridan.”

Finn’s eyes narrowed. “Thus the invitation to dinner tonight for the entire family.”

“Yep.” Blaze slanted back in the chair with a clasp of hands on his stomach, elbows stiff on the arms of the chair. “Both Jake and I were suspicious of him from the get-go, but now that we know he’s got his eye on Sheridan, well, we just wanted you to know because he appears to be a real dandy, and a sneaky one at that.”

Finn kneaded the bridge of his nose, surprised he hadn’t seen it himself, either at the barbecue or at the dinner. But then Clay seemed a sociable man, dividing his attention equally among everyone. Finn usually had an innate sense about people—and men, in particular—but if Blaze’s suspicions were true, it seemed for once his gut had failed him. He hated to admit it, but he supposed he’d been bedazzled like everyone else by the prospect of dining with Buffalo Bill Cody himself, never even considering that his nephew, in town for mere weeks, could pose any jeopardy.

“Yeah, sneaky,” Finn said with a lengthy sigh way too weary for this early in the morning. But that’s what Sheridan did to him these days, exhausted his energy worrying about keeping his promise to his sister. A promise of importance, not only because it had been his sister’s dying wish, but one that Finn believed in as well—deeply. Sheridan’s infatuation with love and marriage had never bothered him before until now, when she was way too vulnerable to girlish dreams that could turn into a woman’s nightmare.

Like Peg.

Thoughts of his sister, Peg, produced an immediate ache, reminding him she was a woman who’d suffered and died too soon, something neither she nor Finn wanted for her daughters. Especially Sheridan, Finn mused, who was so much like her mother, blinded by the idea of falling in love, never seeing the pitfalls that could take her down. Well, Finn could see them clearly enough for them both, and he’d make darn good and sure Sheridan steered clear until she was older and ready to handle them.

No question the girl was smart as a whip in academics, her grades putting even Blaze and Dash to shame, but when it came to the real world? He frowned as Clay Morgan’s easy smile and smooth manner suddenly popped into his thoughts, reminding him how the handsome dandy had beguiled all the ladies, including Libby and her mother Maeve. He seriously doubted if a book-smart innocent like Sheridan would ever be able to handle a man like that.

“Well, it’s been a mighty fine evening, Mayor McShane,” Bill said with a hearty clap on Finn’s back, jolting his thoughts back to the present. He tossed a glance at Jake, who wore a sheepish smile as Finn’s family surrounded him, dispensing lots of hugs and slaps on the shoulder. “I’d keep an eye on that one if I were you, Mayor, so I don’t steal him away.” He offered Finn a handshake. “Hope we can do this again the next time the show’s in Virginia City.”

“Count on it, Bill,” Finn said with a firm grip, “but next time at my ranch, where I can hopefully return your warm hospitality.”

And Sheridan is away at school.

Handshakes and hugs ensued as Finn and his family took their leave, waving and shouting their goodbyes on the way to their wagon and carriage. Finn helped both Libby and Maeve up into his phaeton to take Libby’s parents home first while Blaze helped Maggie, Sheridan and Shaylee into the double-bench rig along with Dash and Jake to head on home.

Libby gently touched Finn’s arm as he took the reins. “Sorry, Finn,” she whispered, “but I think Mother and I should use the privy before we head out given all the sarsaparilla we drank tonight. Do you mind?”

“Capital idea, Libby.” Aiden quickly jumped back down to help his wife do the same.

“No problem, darlin’,” Finn said as he lifted her from the carriage. He glanced over at the others in the wagon when Aiden and the ladies left. “See you back at the ranch after a visit to the privy.” He shook his head while the wagon pulled away, smiling at all the shrieking and giggling coming from Shaylee and Sheridan as Dash and Jake clowned around.

“Excuse me, Mayor McShane?”

Finn turned around, body tensing as Clay Morgan approached with the same easy smile with which he had charmed everyone. He took his Stetson off. “Thank you for coming tonight,” he said, nervously twirling the hat with his fingers. “I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is getting to know upstanding town folk such as you and your family, sir, especially after being on the road for so long, away from our own families.”