The Reluctant Hero Read Free

back at her. “You’re looking for a hero. I’m not him. You’re gonna have to look elsewhere.”
    He heard hurried footsteps on the boardwalk. Turning his head, he saw a woman rushing toward him, two small boys in tow. He came to his feet.
    Andrea Jackson did as well. “Is that trouble coming, do you think?” she asked, and he heard the excitement laced in her voice at the prospect of witnessing him doing his job.
    He ignored her.
    The woman who was approaching him smiled. Lanetta Logan. Her husband had been a teller in the bank before the Ace in the Hole Gang arrived. Now he was merely a marker in the cemetery.
    Matt removed his hat as Lanetta stopped in front of him, still clutching the hands of her sons. Matt had been the one who’d had the unenviable task of telling her that her husband was dead and she was now a widow.
    â€œThe stagecoach will be leaving soon,” she said. “The boys and I are getting on it. I’m going to my parents’ house for a while.” She released her sons, who immediately wrapped their arms around her legs. One was three, the other five. Matt had never noticed before how much they resembled their father, even at their young ages. It was the eyes, he thought. The shape of the chin.
    Lanetta handed him a piece of paper. “Here is where we’ll be staying if you need me for anything. I don’t know how long we’ll be away, but I was hoping you’d keep an eye on the house, maybe tend the livestock. There’s just the cow and a few chickens. I’ve boarded the horses.”
    â€œI’ll be happy to do that for you. If you decide you don’t want to come back, send me a letter. I’ll load all your things onto a wagon and bring them to you.”
    Tears sprang to her eyes. “You’ve been so good to me. I can never repay you.”
    He thought he might double over from the pain of her words slamming into him. “You don’t owe me anything, darlin’. You just take care of yourself and the boys.”
    â€œThat’ll be easier to do, since you gave me the reward money that you collected on those outlaws. You didn’t have to do that, Matt. You earned that money.”
    He shook his head, his stomach knotting up. “We’ve already discussed this.”
    â€œI know. I just wish you’d kept some of it.”
    â€œI don’t need it.” Then because he didn’t want to discuss the topic any longer, he hunkered down in front of her sons. “So your ma’s taking you on a trip.”
    They bobbed their heads.
    â€œYou ever been on a stagecoach before?”
    They shook their heads.
    â€œIt’s an adventure. I want you to be real good for your ma now, ya hear?”
    They bobbed their heads again.
    He reached into his shirt pocket and withdrew a quarter. He pressed it into the pudgy hand of the older boy, closing the youngster’s fingers around it. “Have your ma take you to the general store before you leave, and you use this two bits to get some sarsaparilla sticks to eat on the journey.”
    The boy smiled.
    â€œGotta share them with your brother,” Matt said.
    â€œI will.” The boy looked down at his boots, then lifted his gaze back to Matt. “Pa ain’t coming with us.”
    Matt’s heart tightened. “I know, son.”
    â€œWish he could come, but Ma says he had to go to heaven.”
    He thought the boys were too young to understand that their father was gone forever. It was something that he’d never forget.
    â€œYeah, he did,” Matt said quietly. “He was a good man, your father.”
    The boy opened his hand, looked at the quarter, and closed his fist around it. He peered at Matt. “Can I get me some licorice instead?”
    Matt ruffled the boy’s hair. “Get yourself anything you and your brother want.”
    He was suddenly afraid the boy was going to say he wanted his father back and would