Page 34 of Kissing the Sheriff
“Better. You can jump off the rock.” She trotted ahead of him.
He followed quickly to catch up. She was in a good mood, her spirits lighter than before. He liked seeing her this way and hoped this brief respite helped restore her happiness. She fell into melancholy easily, he noticed, and needed something to keep her from doing so. Looked like he would be doing a lot of fishing.
They hiked up the trail for a good ten minutes and came to a huge rock partly embedded in the creek bank. Cassie didn’t hesitate to climb onto it. Conrad followed and looked at the water below. “How deep is it?” At this time of day, there was no sunlight on the water so he couldn’t see a thing.
“About eight feet. You can dive off the rock safely enough.”
“Have you?”
“Many times. My pa taught me how to swim here.”
Conrad smiled. “How marvelous.” He gazed across the creek at the pines, brush, and patches of grass. “What’s beyond those woods?”
She laughed. “More woods.”
“Oh, so swimming across and going for a walk isn’t advisable?”
“No. Who knows what you’ll run into? We have our share of bears and mountain lions around here. In fact, the bears like the apples and visit the orchards at night around this time. It’s one of the reasons Captain Stanley takes the apples straight to Virginia City to sell them – we can’t leave the baskets lying about. A couple of years ago he left the baskets in the back of his wagon and a bear got into them.”
“My word.” He looked downstream. “Should Billy be by himself?”
“We should head back.” She climbed down.
He did the same and they headed back the way they came. When they reached Billy, he was whistling and holding all three poles.
“Time to go, chap.” Conrad began putting dishes into the basket.
“Awww, do we have to?” Billy whined.
“It will be dark soon and your mother will worry.” He put the napkins in next then took the glasses and silverware Cassie handed him. Once everything was cleaned up, they gathered the poles and headed back to town.
The evening air was cool and sweet smelling. Dust, grass, water, pine all made for a pleasant aroma. Conrad hoped he never forgot it. Soon the sweet smell of apples reached them, and they knew they were almost back. He took a deep breath and realized he didn’t want the evening to end.
“I should head home,” Cassie said when the bank and a few other buildings came into view.
Conrad looked into her eyes. “This was nice. We should do it again.”
She took a step back and smiled. “Perhaps.” She turned and started for home.
Conrad sighed as she walked away. He wanted to walk with her but needed to take Billy home. He turned to the boy. “Ready?”
Billy looked past him at Cassie, then smiled. “Ready.”
Conrad studied him. The boy wore a knowing smile, but what did he know? He shrugged and steered Billy toward home.
CHAPTEREIGHT
Cassie walked home smiling. If she were smart, she’d stop. She had no business enjoying herself so much. Conrad would be leaving along with the rest of the Darlings, with the exception of perhaps Sterling. Even that remained to be seen.
She ran her hand along the Featherstones’ picket fence and didn’t care if the couple saw her from their front porch. They often sat there in the evenings. Francis smoked his pipe while Agnes watched for anything she could gossip about.
“Cassie!”
Like now. She turned to face the Featherstone house and, sure enough, the two were seated in their wicker chairs sipping coffee. “Yes, Agnes?”
“Come here.” Agnes stood and went to the porch steps. “Where have you been?”
“Why, were you looking for me?”
