Page 48 of Dead Man's Hand

Just the thought terrified him. He’d told Sadie that he loved her at the cabin, something he’d never said to another woman because he’d never felt love like that before her. Over the time they’d worked together they’d become more than colleagues. They’d become friends. It was no wonder that he’d fallen for her.

But she’d never taken him seriously. She thought he chased more women than he did. He’d let her believe it, a mistake, he realized some time into their relationship. From the beginning, she’d made it perfectly clear that it was hands-off. If he needed a reminder there was her godfather, who’d also warned him with the threat of violence not to fall in love with Sadie. Their arrangement had been strictly business.

Until Montana. Until they were snowed in at the cabin high in the mountains just before Christmas. Until they’d let their true feelings out.

Now, though, they had to decide about their future. He knew what he wanted, but he wasn’t sure Sadie would. He knew that wouldn’t be a deal breaker for him. He loved her. He’d go and do whatever she wanted. It would be hard though to leave Montana, to leave the family he’d found, especially to leave his twin. He and Ansley had bonded instantly.

As he stepped into Sadie’s room, he stopped cold when he saw the stripped bed and the woman from housekeeping readying the room for the next patient. For just an instant he thought the worst.

“She...she...tell me she didn’t...”

The woman looked up. “Leave? She checked out this morning.”

That wasn’t possible. “But she wasn’t supposed to check out until this afternoon.”

“She checked out early.”

She’d just checked out without letting him know? “Where did she go?”

The woman shrugged. “You might ask downstairs.”

He looked down at the bouquet of flowers. “That’s you, Diamond, a dollar short and a day late,” he whispered to himself as he turned around and left the room. Uncle Charley used to say that when he messed up. He’d really messed up this time.

Downstairs he inquired as to where Sadie Montclair had gone and found out that she had been trying to catch a flight to Florida. Without saying goodbye? Maybe something urgent had happened to her godfather. Otherwise... Otherwise, she’d gone home, back to Florida, back to the life she was born into. Their partnership over, she felt there was nothing keeping her in Montana?

He thought about their time together in the cabin. His chest felt hollowed out, his heart crushed. She’d said she loved him. Clearly, she’d changed her mind. Otherwise, why would she just leave without even saying goodbye?

It wasn’t like he’d asked her to stay, he reminded himself. But how could he? He not only had little to offer her, but also he’d put her life in danger and might again if she stayed with him. Wasn’t it better to let her walk away? It wasn’t like he was a prize. Why would she want to marry him?

“What are you doing?”

He recognized the voice calling to him. As he came out of the hospital, he turned to see Buck Crawford on his way in. “Shouldn’t you be on your honeymoon?” he asked Buck.

“Ansley postponed it until we knew that James and Sadie were going to be okay. Wasn’t Sadie being released this afternoon?”

“Apparently she left early. She’s gone.”

“I take it you missed her. So go after her,” Buck said.

DJ hesitated, feeling lost. “She apparently already made her decision about me.”

Buck sighed. “I’m going to give you some unsolicited advice, brother-in-law. When you find the woman who makes you doubt everything about yourself and at the same time makes you believe you’re superhuman, you hang on to her.”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure she feels the same way.”

“One way to find out,” Buck said. “Press your luck. Love is a gamble, but when you win...” He broke into a huge grin.

As he started to go inside, DJ said, “Did Ansley send you?”

His brother-in-law just laughed. “She said it’s a twin thing.”

SADIEHADPLANNEDto take a taxi home, so she was surprised when her godfather picked her up at the airport.

“Is everything all right?” she had to ask as she climbed into the back of the town car beside him.

“That’s what I want to know,” he said. “When I heard you were flying home, I was worried.”

“I’m fine. The doctor said I will have a scar but other than that...”

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