Pretend You'll Stay (Winter Kisses Book 2) Read online

  Expressions of true horror followed. Daniel was certain now - the woman was truly the most brilliant person he had ever encountered.

  A few minutes later, she was standing in front of him. He knew he was blocking her path, but he didn’t move. Actually, it didn’t occur to him to move. His mind was completely focused on how enchanting she was. His heart was beating a little faster than normal.

  “Hello again,” she said.

  “Hello,” he said, automatically.

  “You must be Daniel Beaumont - the conductor.”

  “I must be,” he said, though truly at that moment, he was thankful she hadn’t asked him his name. There was a slight likelihood that he might not have been able to remember it.

  She smiled and he gave up on having any semblance of sanity. “I’m Madison McKivitz.”

  “I’m happy to meet you Madis…” he halted, his mind colliding with itself. Madison McKivitz? Checking his clipboard, he confirmed what he had hoped against. “Madison? I see here that you are the new brakeman?”

  “Yes, I am,” she said, with a lift of her chin.

  He scowled. “You can’t be a brakeman,” he said.

  “Why not?” she asked, her smile fading.

  He didn’t like being responsible for that. He wanted to make her smile. “Because you’re too beautiful,” he blurted.

  Her smile returned. “I didn’t realize there was physical criteria for the job.”

  “Actually, there is,” he said. “Most of our brakemen are a little more... rugged.”

  She seemed to consider that for a few seconds. “Mattie mentioned something about that, but I think I can handle whatever it is I need to do.”

  He nodded. “I have a feeling you can do just about anything you set your mind to.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Though somehow I think you’re a little reluctant about my being here.”

  “I’m not sure why you would say that. I don’t mind that you’re here.” Actually, he liked having her here, but he didn’t like having her here as a brakeman. That was a job for someone more… husky. And Madison McKivitz was anything but husky. She was an elfin princess - delicate and beautiful. And intelligent.

  “But you do mind that I’m here as a brakeman.”

  And perceptive. The train whistle interrupted his thoughts. “I’m not sure how you convinced Mattie to hire you, but until I can investigate the matter further, we’ll have to go with it. The train is about to leave and I have things to attend to.” Truly he just didn’t have the time to deal with it right now.

  He moved past her, going to the front of the train to begin collecting tickets. He sensed her watching him walk away. He felt miserable about the whole thing.

  He may be enchanted with her, but that didn’t mean she was the right person to be a brakeman. In fact, it probably meant she should not be a brakeman. Being a brakeman was dangerous work. Work he didn’t want anyone he cared about doing. She, of course, didn’t fall into that category. Not exactly. But he had a very suspicious feeling that she just could.

  Madison McKivitz was the girl of his dreams.

  Chapter Two

  Madison McKivitz jumped at the sound of the train whistle. The train was about to leave the station. She put a hand on the back of the nearest seat and braced herself.

  Daniel Beaumont was an exasperating man. Mattie, the office manager who had hired her, had raved about him. She had insisted that everyone loved Daniel. He gets along with everyone. You’ll love him.

  Granted, he was physically attractive – tall, dark, and handsome. And not at all what she thought of when she pictured a train conductor. Weren’t they all overweight, bearded men? Not Daniel. He was much too cranky though. It was as though the train belonged to him the way he seemed to care who his brakeman was. Mattie had believed in her - at least after a little persuading. So, why should he care?

  The train whistle blew again and she knew that the train would be moving soon. It had only taken her one evening to learn the whistles, hand motions, and other signals used by the train staff.

  Apparently, the other employees had a whole month of classes to learn everything. She hadn’t needed that long and she somehow had known that she wouldn’t when she applied for the job.

  “Excuse me, Miss?” an older gentleman said, requesting her attention from behind her.

  “What can I do for you?” Madison asked, with a smile on her face.

  “Is there a concession car on the train?”

  Amy’s quick orientation that morning had been enough to prepare her to answer most of the passengers’ questions. She put away her confusion and disappointment about Daniel and pointed the man toward the next car.

  Then she stationed herself at the back of the train car to begin her job of monitoring the passengers and looking out for hot boxes - smoke, sparks, or fire coming from the rails as the train passed over.

  The train had a familiar feel to it, even though this was her first day on the job. As the train left the depot and traveled through town, across intersections, she, along with the passengers, waved to those watching them pass by.

  Doubtless, it was quite a sight, seeing the authentic narrow-gauge train traveling through the modern town of Durango, Colorado - sort of like a blast from the past. Though, now, most people probably saw it as little more than an amusement park ride. Madison knew it was more. It was an honor to be here on such an historic site. It was special that it was still operational after all this time.

  Two hours later, the train was winding its way up the mountain cliffs on the way to Silverton. She was just as awed as the tourists as they gazed over the edge of the cliff to the river below. The train eased along the edge, the jagged rocky slopes the only thing between them and the rushing water of the river below. The train inched along, moving at barely a crawl. The engine worked overtime to pull its cars up the steep cliff. Cameras clicked as people snapped pictures of the river below and the train winding behind and in front of them.

  Madison alternated between watching for hot boxes and watching the tourists leaning out the edge of the open gondola car.

  “How is everything going?” a now familiar voice asked in her ear.

  She turned her head and looked up into Daniel’s clear green eyes. “It’s spectacular,” she said.

  “Is this your first trip up?” he asked.

  “Yes, actually it is. I didn’t have time for this part of the training.”

  “I see.”

  “I can do this,” she said.

  He nodded silently.

  “What is your concern about me?” she asked when he didn’t respond.

  He seemed to consider that. “I have several,” he said, finally. “First of all, a brakeman works closely with the conductor.”

  “And?”

  “And, well, it seems to me that I should have had some say in who was hired.”

  “You don’t like me,” she said.

  “I like you fine,” he said with a crooked smile. “That isn’t the issue. It’s just there are only six of us on this train out here in the middle of the wilderness and if something goes wrong, we need to know each other. We need to know each other’s limitations and strengths. I just don’t know anything about you.”

  “I don’t know anything about you either and I’m not panicking.”

  He pressed his hand against the side of his head. “But you’ve never even been on this train - ever. I’ve ridden this train hundreds - no thousands - of times.”

  “I have to start somewhere.”

  “You could have started as a concession worker.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “I don’t belong behind a counter.”

  “Madison McKivitz - you are a mystery.”

  “Indeed, I am,” she readily agreed. “And you are a worry-wart.”

  “I think my cause for concern is legitimate.”

  “Well. We can agree to disagree for the moment. In the meantime, we can work on getting to know each
other. Unless, you expect us to go through some kind of encounter group for it to be official.”

  He laughed reluctantly. “No, I don’t think it has to be official.” Then he shrugged in resignation. “I suppose we’ll just have to see how it goes. There is something else you should know though.”

  “Tell me,” she said, crossing her arms. This man was impossible. She couldn’t see why he was so adamant about her not being here. There had been a need and she had filled it. She saw no reason why he would think she wouldn’t follow through with her responsibilities and expectations.

  “This job can be dangerous. You never know what’s going to happen up here. It’s not that I don’t think you can do it. For one, I doubt you have the physical strength to handle it if something does happen and second, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  She felt her defenses going up. She was being discriminated upon for her gender. This felt familiar. When she was a senior in high school, her math teacher had sent Johnny Matthews to state rally in math, knowing that Madison had been better qualified. Madison had told him so, too. She’d been quietly vindicated when Johnny hadn’t even placed.

  More at hand, though, just because she was a girl didn’t mean she couldn’t do whatever it was that needed to be done. “First of all,” she said, in a voice that was sure to set him in his place. “I can do anything a man can do outside of father a baby. And second, you have no place to be concerned about my safety. I work with you. You aren’t my father and you aren’t my brother and you’re not my boss. And even if you were one of those, you would have no right to judge my abilities.” Her face flushed, she turned on her heel and walked across the platform to the next train car.

  She stood at the window, staring at the river passing by below, taking slow, deep breathes to calm her racing pulse. That man didn’t know her and he had no right to make assumptions. She would do her job and she would do it well.

  She had other options for jobs in Durango. But, somehow, the train had called to her. She had felt an inexplicable connection with it when she had heard the whistle while taking a walk along the main street of the little town.

  And apparently her timing had been perfect. The former brakeman - also a female, by the way, - had just eloped and left them short one staff member. It had taken some convincing, but once she had learned all the whistle codes and hand signals overnight, Mattie had been convinced. In fact, Madison thought in retrospect, she had seemed a little too excited about making sure she started right away.

  She would have to give that some further thought. In fact, when the train got back to the station, she just might have a word with Mattie about the conductor’s attitude. There was such a thing as harassment and there were laws to protect people like her. No one had to put up with a hostile workplace.

  “Excuse me,” an older woman said, getting her attention. “Can you tell me how much longer we have before we get to Silverton?”

  Madison checked her watch and did a quick mental calculation. “About forty minutes,” she said.

  “Thank you so much,” the woman said. “Say, can I tell you something?”

  “Sure. What is it?”

  “I have to apologize for overhearing your conversation back there.”

  “There’s no need to apologize. It’s our fault for having the discussion in a public place.”

  “It’s none of my business, but I think you were right about what you said back there.”

  “Thank you.”

  “But I do think, just from what was said, that your boyfriend genuinely cares about you and I don’t think he meant any disrespect. I’m sure this is a dangerous job.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I just assumed he was because you aren’t wearing a ring. If he were my husband, I would listen to what he’s saying. Because not all of our husbands care enough about us to speak up.”

  “He’s not my husband,” Madison said, feeling her face flush.

  “No? Well, not yet anyway.”

  Madison’s jaw dropped.

  “Anyway, it’s none of my business. But whatever your relationship is, I can tell he really cares about you.”

  “Thank you,” Madison said, mostly to herself, because the woman was already walking away. Why would anyone think she was married to that man? She didn’t even know him.

  Good grief. Who would want to be married to Daniel Beaumont? Anyway, for all she knew, he was already unhappily married.

  Either way, she was definitely not interested. And she had hot boxes to watch for.

  She walked straight to a different car - one where the passengers hadn’t overheard her conversation with Daniel - her “boyfriend.”

  What was the world coming to?

  The very idea got her blood boiling again.

  As she passed through one of the enclosed coaches, she almost didn’t see Daniel kneeling next to a little girl, about eight years old.

  “It’s nothing to be worried about,” he was saying. “A lot of people get elevation sickness when they go up in the mountains.”

  The girl’s eyes widened. “Elevation sickness? Will I die from it?”

  “No,” Daniel assured her. “It’s temporary. I promise. When you get back down out of the mountains, you’ll feel just fine.”

  “What about in the meantime?”

  “In the meantime, you just have to make sure you don’t move around too much.”

  “What if I do?”

  “You’ll just feel a little faint.”

  “I’ll faint?”

  “Probably not, but you’ll feel like you’re going to. Your mom and dad can buy you some medicine in Silverton and then you won’t feel so sick to your stomach,” he said, glancing at the worried parents sitting behind her. They nodded.

  “Ok,” she said, nodding, and sitting back, closed her eyes.

  “If you need anything, you just have one of your parents find me and let me know, okay?”

  She nodded.

  Madison looked away and kept walking. All right, maybe he wasn’t all bad. He seemed truly concerned about the child. It still didn’t mean she wanted people thinking they were a couple.

  As she pushed open the train car door, she paused and looked back over her shoulder to see Daniel watching her leave. He was looking at her with an intense expression that she couldn’t quite fathom. Her heart gave a little skip and her hands trembled on the doorknob. There was only one thought that shot through her mind.

  Daniel was indeed a handsome man.

  Chapter Three

  Shortly after they arrived in the little town of Silverton, Daniel walked from the depot to the town, went to the Grill as usual, and ordered a burger and fries with a coke.

  “Can I get anything else for you, Hon?” the buxom waitress dressed in western garb asked as she handed him his basket of food.

  “Just some ketchup,” he said, absently.

  “Are you sure there’s nothing else?”

  “No, I think I’m good.”

  “You look a little tired,” she said. Maybe you could use a back rub.”

  Daniel looked up at her then and smiled thinly. “No thanks, Trixie.”

  “Well, you let Trixie know if you change your mind,” she said, with a big wink.

  “I’m ok. Thanks for the offer,” he said.

  Trixie propositioned him at least once a week. For the most part, he ignored her. He could get his lunch somewhere else, but the Grill made the best hamburgers in Silverton. Better than anyplace, even in Durango, for that matter.

  He took his ketchup from Trixie and went to sit on the steps of the boardwalk to eat.

  Another reason he liked to eat at the Grill was that he could watch the train from here. In a little bit, the second train would be coming up, and then, before he left to head back, there would be all four trains lined up on the tracks. To Daniel, it was a beautiful site. Then, he would take his train and head south, back to civilization. He was always a little sad on the trip
back. The trip up was bright and full of anticipation. Everyone was excited with the novelty. Then, on the way back, everyone was tired and pleasantly wiped out. Some of the tourists would take the option of riding the bus back down, though for the life of him, Daniel had never understood that. Why would anyone want to ride a bus when they could ride the train? Sure, it was faster, but why bother to go on vacation if you were just going to rush through things? Just stay at home, Daniel always wanted to tell them. Of course, he didn’t. Part of his job was to keep the tourists happy.

  About halfway through his lunch, he saw her. Madison was sitting inside the train. He couldn’t tell what she was doing, but he assumed she must have brought her lunch in that monstrous bag she brought with her.

  He felt a little sorry for her, sitting there on the train eating alone. Then, he remembered that he was also eating alone. Well, at least he got off the train. He wondered what had brought her here to work. Why did a girl like her choose to work on a dirty train? She should have worked in an office somewhere, typing with well-manicured nails and wearing her nice clothes. The clothes she had on would be ruined after being subjected to all the smut and grime of the train.

  Maybe she was in trouble and was hiding from someone. He’d seen that before. The train was a good place to hide if a person was trying to get away from someone - like maybe an abusive ex-husband or boyfriend. He found himself involuntarily glancing around. The thought of some madman coming around gave him some pause. They were isolated on the train. He hoped Mattie had had the presence of mind to run a background check on her - just in case.

  He felt a little guilty thinking such thoughts about her. Even though he’d just met her, he wanted her to be safe. He wanted to protect her from whatever had caused her to run here - and he was fairly certain, now that he thought about it, that something, or more likely someone had run her here to hide.

  Well, hell, he thought, finishing his last french fry. Maybe he should just let her stay. At least with her here, he could keep an eye on her. He sure didn’t mind looking at her anyway.

  As he tossed his garbage in the trash can, he found that not only could he not keep his eyes away from her, he also could not keep his legs from walking toward her.