Free Outlaw Carson by Tara Janzen

to the dog,
scratching him behind the ears. “Stay close to her, Mancos. Guard
her well, and if the need arises, call for me. Can you do
that?”
    The dog answered with a series of rumbling
howls, bringing a grin to Kit’s face.
    “Good dog.”
    Inside the house, Kristine scrambled to her
feet. What were they doing out there? Trying to wake half the
mountain?
    In her haste, she knocked over her coffee
cup and barely saved one of his manuscripts from a soaking. She
threw half a dozen tissues on the floor and turned back to the
door, when the phone rang.
    She hesitated for a moment before curiosity
won out.
    “Hello?” she said into the receiver.
    “Kris, it’s John.” The voice sounded through
the whole room, and she eyed the phone, wondering which button to
push to get it off of the speaker.
    Rudeness, not ignorance, compelled her to
ask, “John who?” when she knew darn well John who.
    “Garraty.”
    She had all kinds of buttons to choose from,
direct-dial buttons, hold buttons, on-off buttons, a battery-dead
button that wasn’t really a button at all, and a couple of other
miscellaneous buttons and switches. She pushed one and the line
went dead. It was a solution of sorts, but not for long.
    The phone rang again.
    “Hello?”
    “Okay, okay. You’ve made your point.”
    “I’m not trying to make a point, Dr.
Garraty. I’m trying to—” She pushed another button and was blessed
with silence.
    The phone rang once more. She knew it was
him. It had to be. But maybe it was someone else, like her mother.
It might even be her sister. She hadn’t talked to Sarah all
week.
    “Hello?”
    “Dammit, Kris. If you hang up on me again,
I’ll just come up there.”
    It was him.
    “I didn’t hang up on you,” she said. “I’ve
got a problem with the speaker phone.” A problem she didn’t dare
have again, not with the possibility of him driving up there
hanging over her head.
    “Well, quite fooling with it and I’ll bet
you don’t have any more problems.”
    He was so smart, she thought sourly. Smart
enough to dump her, smart enough to cause a scandal that had almost
torn her family apart. He’d not only dumped her, he’d dumped her
for her own cousin, and worse yet, he’d gotten said cousin pregnant
while he’d still been engaged to Kristine. There had been so much
finger counting that year, her relatives had almost worn themselves
out. She had to put up with him and his brood at Christmas and the
Fourth of July. She certainly didn’t like having to put up with him
in her own home, not even on long distance.
    “What do you want?” she asked. It came out
as “waddyawant,” with hardly a break and not even a whisper of
politeness.
    “I’m calling to see how you’re doing.”
    He was so thoughtful, she mused, glaring at
the phone. Thoughtful enough to mortify her right out of her
assistant professorship at the University of Colorado. She’d
stupidly resigned in a fit of outraged pride and had been fighting
ever since to make up the lost ground.
    “I’m fine,” she said. “How’s Lisa?” Low
blow, Kristine, she told herself. Really tacky. She swore she
wouldn’t do it again.
    “Everybody’s fine. Lisa and the kids are
looking forward to the picnic on the Fourth. She’s got a new potato
salad everybody’s going to go crazy over.”
    “No doubt,” Kristine said without even half
the possible sarcasm. He was so proud of Lisa’s salads. He could
have had brilliance, but he’d settled for potato salad—and great
sex, if two kids in four years and another on the way was any
indication.
    “But I didn’t call to talk about potato
salad,” he said.
    “Thank you.” A touch of sarcasm slipped
in.
    “I called to talk about Carson.”
    Playing dumb didn’t come easily to her, but
she stretched herself. “Carson who?”
    “Kit Carson. I know he’s here in Colorado,
and I don’t think you should get involved.”
    Well, well, she thought, imagine that. John
Garraty a day late and a dollar