Free Brighter than Gold (Western Rebels Book 1) by Cynthia Wright

evening, Adams. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. At six.”
    Jack longed to utter an exclamation of protest but forced a smile instead as he backed toward the door. “Yes, sir. Good night, sir—and thank you.”
    * * *
    The scene at the dinner table was comfortable and homey, unnervingly so, as far as Katie was concerned. As she ladled fricassee of rabbit with baby carrots and potatoes onto a platter, she cast a sidelong glance at Jack and her father, who were cozily discussing Columbia’s current petition for incorporation. Brian launched into an explanation of his position on the issue, and Jack leaned back in his chair, listening with an affectionate smile. He looked completely at ease and content. Freshly washed, he’d rolled up his sleeves to display handsome brown forearms, and droplets of water still clung to the hair that curled at the back of his neck. Unbidden, the memory of her fingers in Jack’s hair rose up to torment Katie. She wished she could scour the feel of it from her hands, erase the pleasure of it from her mind, and was reminded of Lady Macbeth.
    When she set the platter on the table, Brian asked, “Are there any more of those biscuits from breakfast, darlin’?”
    “I’ll get them,” Jack said, rising. “You sit down, Miss MacKenzie. You’ve done enough work for one day.”
    Unable to meet his smiling eyes, Katie nodded and obeyed. When Jack passed next to her, she breathed in his clean scent and felt her cheeks grow warm.
    “Are you feelin’ all right, Katie?” Brian inquired, peering at her in the soft lamplight. “You look a bit out of sorts.”
    “No, no, I’m fine. A little tired, perhaps. It’s been a busy day.”
    MacKenzie sniffed the fricassee appreciatively, then served himself. Jack offered Katie a biscuit which she took without looking at him.
    “I see your braid has been restored,” he observed.
    “Yes.” Katie spread jam on her biscuit with painstaking care.
    “That reminds me!” Brian boomed suddenly, startling them both. “How could I have forgotten? I saw Victoria Barnstaple on my way home and she told me the wildest tale! Sometimes I swear that woman’s a secret tippler. She said that the two of you were kissing in the middle of Main Street today, with, as she put it, ‘shocking enthusiasm,’ and that Katie’s hair was all unbound, flowing down her back!”
    Katie choked on her bite of biscuit while Jack grinned at his host. “What did you reply, MacKenzie?”
    “Why, I just laughed and told her that I’d outgrown fairy stories forty-odd years ago!”
    “Well... Mrs. Barnstaple wasn’t completely inaccurate,” Jack said carefully. “We weren’t in the middle of Main Street, but I suppose that, to the casual observer, it might have appeared that we were kissing.” Katie’s eyes flew up to meet his, and he offered her a reassuring smile. “Your daughter very selflessly agreed to pretend to kiss me so that Miss Chelstrom, whom you will recall meeting earlier today, would believe that I was no longer romantically available. Miss MacKenzie did me a great favor and I am now deeply in her debt.”
    “Oh.” Brian swallowed some gravy-drenched rabbit and tried to make sense of what he had just heard. “So it was all an act... not a real kiss, then, hmm? I suppose you were just kissin’ Katie’s chin or thereabouts, and it looked like the real thing, right?”
    “Something like that,” Jack confirmed with a sober nod. “And, as I said, it was a great sacrifice for your daughter to suffer my touch at all, considering the way she feels about me. You should be proud that she possesses such generosity of spirit.”
    “Now, Jack, I’m sure my Katie bears you no ill will, and after all, she’s aware of my fondness for you. No doubt she did it in part because she knew it would please me, isn’t that so, lass?”
    Both men were looking at her, forks poised over their plates. Katie wanted to scream. “If you don’t mind, Papa, I’d rather forget the