The Calamity Janes: Gina and Emma: To Catch a Thief

She paused, then added, “Now would be a good time, Rafe. You’re not getting any younger, and you could do a whole lot worse than Gina Petrillo.”

“So you’ve mentioned—more than once, as a matter of fact.”

“It bears repeating,” she said. “Bye, boss.”

“Goodbye, Lydia. Hopefully they’ll appreciate your humor in the unemployment line.”

“Your threats don’t bother me.”

“I know. I know. All those bodies,” he said and hung up. If only he could find a few of the skeletons in her closet. A woman as cheeky as Lydia was bound to have dozens of them.

* * *

If he was going to stay in Winding River, Rafe couldn’t keep wearing the same clothes, especially since the only dry cleaner in town seemed to have a quirky disregard for customer service. Whoever owned the business apparently opened when he felt like it. If he had regular hours, they weren’t posted, and Rafe had yet to see the lights on in the business.

The only clothing store in town offered Western wear. Rafe resigned himself to a new wardrobe of jeans he’d rarely have the opportunity to wear once he got back to New York. His closet was filled with practical suits and three tuxedos for all of the charity events he was duty-bound to attend because his partners’ wives served on the boards and the fund-raising committees.

He left the hotel, walked down Main Street and was about to go into the clothing store when he spotted Emma Rogers accompanied by a little girl, who looked as if she might be about six. Emma frowned when she saw him.

“Still here, Mr. O’Donnell?” Emma asked, her tone not especially friendly. “I thought you’d be long gone by now.”

“I’m afraid my business is taking longer than I’d hoped.”

Her gaze narrowed. “What exactly is your business?”

Before he could respond, Gina came darting out of the café across the street and pointedly got between them. Ignoring the two adults, she hunkered down to give the little girl a hug.

“Caitlyn Rogers, you are getting so big I hardly recognized you. How old are you now? Ten?”

The child giggled. “No, Aunt Gina, I’m only six.”

“I can’t believe it.” She leaned closer. “I think Stella has your pancakes on the griddle. Do you want to run on over there so you can get them while they’re hot?”

Caitlyn looked up at her mother. “Is it okay?”

Emma regarded Gina with amusement, then turned her attention to her daughter. “Go,” she said. When the little girl would have darted straight across the street, Emma reached out and caught her. “Hey, what do we do before crossing the street, even here in Winding River?”

Caitlyn regarded her guiltily. “Look both ways,” she said, then dutifully did just that.

“Okay then, now you can go.”

All three of them watched the child’s progress, then Gina beamed at Emma. “We should join her.”

“In a minute,” Emma said. “Rafe was just about to explain why he’s still in town.”

Gina gave him a sharp look. “Was he really?”

He grinned. “Emma was certainly hopeful that I might. In all honesty, I was heading for the store to buy some clothes.”

“You don’t look like a man who wears a lot of jeans,” Emma said. “In fact, if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say you usually wear thousand-dollar suits. I recognize the type. I go up against them in court every day. In fact, again if I were guessing, I’d say you’re either a lawyer or a stockbroker, Mr. O’Donnell. Which is it? Or are my instincts totally wrong?”

Rafe looked to Gina for some sense of what she expected him to do under the circumstances. She sighed.

“Oh, for heaven’s sakes, he’s a lawyer,” she said with no attempt to hide her exasperation. “Now that we know you have razor-sharp instincts, Emma, can we please go get some breakfast? I’m starved.”

“Not until we clear up one more thing,” Emma said, her gaze locked with Rafe’s. “Why are you hassling Gina?”

“Maybe I’m just a suitor who won’t take no for an answer,” he said, enjoying the flash of indignation in Gina’s eyes. Apparently she liked that explanation even less than the truth.

Emma’s gaze turned to Gina. “Is he?”

“He’s the most annoying man I know,” Gina said with heartfelt sincerity. “And that is all I intend to say on the subject.” She latched on to Emma’s arm. “Let’s go.”

This time her friend allowed herself to be led away, but not before pointedly meeting Rafe’s gaze. “I’m keeping an eye on you,” she warned.

Emma and half the rest of the people in Winding River, Rafe thought with resignation. Would a thief inspire that kind of protectiveness and loyalty? He needed to ask more questions about Gina, but doing so would stir up a real hornet’s nest. She might never forgive him for unfairly dragging her friends and family into this, and for reasons he didn’t care to examine too closely, that bothered him way more than it should.

* * *

“So, I was telling Mommy that I think we should live here forever and ever,” Caitlyn told Gina, her eyes shining. “Grandpa has already gotten me my own horse.”

“Grandpa ought to know better,” Emma grumbled under her breath, then smiled at her daughter. “Darling, we live in Denver. You’d miss all your friends if we moved here.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Caitlyn insisted. “I already have a lot of friends here.” Her expression brightened. “And I have cousins here. I don’t have any cousins in Denver.”

“She’s got you there,” Gina said, grinning.

“Oh, stay out of it,” Emma snapped. “I don’t see you moving back to Winding River.”

“You never know,” Gina said. Of course, if Rafe was successful in his attempts to make her part of Bobby’s scam, she might be in jail instead, but it was seeming more and more likely that she was going to have to leave New York once this mess was straightened out. Customers could be fickle. If Café Tuscany’s reputation was tarnished, they would stay away in droves. Any chance she might have of paying off the old debts would vanish.

She sighed, then realized that Emma was staring at her with a shocked expression. “What?” she asked.

“You aren’t seriously considering coming back here to live, are you?” Emma asked. “I thought you had your dream job in your dream city.”

“I do, but things could change.”

“Does this have something to do with Rafe?”

Gina nodded. “Let it alone, though, Emma. You have enough on your plate without me dumping my worries on you.”

“Hey, we’re friends. Friends can always share their troubles with each other.”

“Then why don’t you tell me why you’re wound tighter than a string on Pete Sampras’s tennis racket?”

“Too much work, too little time,” Emma said succinctly.

“Mommy is never, ever home,” Caitlyn said. “She works really, really hard.”