Page 38 of Midnight Escape

“Let’s go.” Danny hurried them along.

Cowboy led them to the parking lot, straight to Danny’s vehicle.

After loading the truck and tying down the easels in the bed, he had to suffer through another argument between his travel companions about who would sit in the back seat. Most arguments like that were for front seat, but he’d yet to see either of them do things normally.

Growling, Danny interrupted, “Moira, front seat. Cowboy, back seat. No arguments. Now let’s move.” More than likely he came across curt, but he wanted to get on the road.

Settled in, Cowboy leaned forward until he was between the two of them in the front.

“You sure are pretty. Now I see why Ball Park won’t let anyone near you.”

Danny reminded himself that the next physical training session in the ring, he’d call upon Cowboy, so he could take his frustration out on him.

“Ball Park?” she asked, giving her full attention to Cowboy.

In the rearview mirror, he saw Cowboy sit back and grin at him before he leaned toward Moira again. “Yeah. ‘Ball Park’ like Ball Park Franks.”

Cowboy’s happy bubble was about to take a hit and that pleased Danny.

“I don’t know who this is? Is he related to Danny?”

Danny couldn’t help but laugh and realized his mistake too late. “No, Moira. I wasn’t laughing at you. It was at Cowboy because his joke took a nosedive.”

“Nah,” he drawled. “As long as I’m talking to the pretty lady, laughing at me won’t matter.”

Danny rolled his eyes. How could women buy into this drivel? Come to think of it, Cowboy didn’t have a woman right now or he wouldn’t have come with him. As long as the man only joked with Moira, they’d be okay.

“Why Cowboy?” she asked, studying him and then pointing to his head. “Is it the cowboy hat?”

“It’s just what people call me.”

“What’s your name?” she asked.

Danny checked in the rearview mirror again because Cowboy had leaned back as if to battle some demons. His name wasn’t unusual, so Danny couldn’t understand why he didn’t share. He’d yet to understand why his friend was too chicken to say one four letter word.

“Mike. It’s Mike.”

“I like it for you. I will call you Mike.”

Danny saw Cowboy about to argue, so to keep him from saying something that might upset her, he asked, “Did you enjoy yourself?”

He liked her excited, like she was about her time at the festival. Her cheeks lightly blushing, her eyes brimming with happiness, and even her hands moving at a fast rate to get her point across.

“Yes. Luke and Laura are fun and included me in everything.”

Cowboy leaned forward again. “Tell me about this artist that was unhappy with you.”

Jerking his head to look at her, Danny heard the thunk, thunk, thunk telling him he’d driven off the edge of the roadway. Luke hadn’t mentioned there being a problem to Danny. Maybe Luke figured since he’d told Cowboy, he didn’t need to repeat the information. But then again, maybe this artist didn’t match what Danny had asked. Cowboy’s question to Moira explained where Cowboy had ended up after he’d done a search of the area.

Before she spoke, she sighed. “I think he’s been the only artist at the local festival for years. Since I sold more paintings than him, he got upset.”

“Upset how?” Cowboy and Danny asked simultaneously.

The look from her should’ve been expected. “No, we’re not crazy,” Danny said. “So answer us.”

He felt more than saw her shrug. “Mostly when I had a crowd, he’d walk over and tell them there were more at his table. Some people went over and back to my table, unhappy because they thought it was more of my work.”

“That asshole,” Cowboy said first. “Was he hostile?”

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