Beneath a Beating Heart Read online

  Table of Contents

  Excerpt

  Praise for Lauri Robinson

  Beneath a Beating Heart

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  A word about the author…

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  Also available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc. and other major retailers

  Her heart landed in her throat

  as he leaned forward. Liz closed her eyes and held her breath as the charged vibration between them grew stronger, and stronger.

  Tingles of anticipation washed over her.

  But there was nothing more. No pressure. No meeting of lips. No kiss.

  A wave of regret, of disappointment, of why me, why now, was so great she wobbled and grabbed the stove to hold her upright.

  As her equilibrium returned, he whispered, “Let go of the stove, Elizabeth. Hold your hand up.”

  Drawing a fortifying breath, she did so, copying how he held his up. She watched, as did he, as they both slowly brought their palms closer. Her fingers trembled. It may have been her imagination, but it was as if a halo, a faint golden light, formed around their hands as their fingertips grew so close they should be touching. Yet weren’t. Or were they? Her fingers vibrated, and heat spread up her arm.

  Their eyes met, and the smile on his face was about the most wonderful, and dangerous thing that could have ever happened to her. The heat generating at her hand, running up her arm, hit her heart, where it pooled and then spread out into a radiance that went deeper and deeper inside her.

  “Can you feel that?”

  Convinced there was something there, she nodded. “Yes, can you?”

  “Yes. It’s as powerful as ever.”

  “What is?”

  “Our love.”

  Praise for Lauri Robinson

  “Robinson’s heart-warming western style is perfect…”

  ~RT Reviews

  ~*~

  “Lauri Robinson’s flawless writing style is consistent in each of her books…”

  ~Long and Short Reviews

  Beneath a

  Beating Heart

  by

  Lauri Robinson

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Beneath a Beating Heart

  COPYRIGHT © 2018 by Lauri Robinson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by RJ Morris

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Fantasy Rose Edition, 2018

  Print ISBN 978-1-5092-2112-7

  Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-2113-4

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedication

  For Nancy.

  Here’s your ghost story—finally!

  Chapter One

  1901, Cody, Wyoming

  Rance Livingston fit the final two pieces of black stove pipe together and secured them with a few taps from the hammer before stepping back to admire his handiwork. It took up the entire wall and had set him back a fair amount, but the smile on Beth’s face when she saw the blue and white cook stove, trimmed in shiny chrome and decked out with two top warming ovens and a glass temperature gauge on the oven door, would be worth the cost of a hundred stoves. The dozen of kisses she’d bestow upon him were worth far more than years of profit. Money could never compare to the loving they’d share when she arrives home.

  In the twenty-nine years he’d walked this earth, he’d never once fancied himself a marrying man, but it had happened in a remarkably short amount of time. Along with the ring on his finger had come more love and joy than any one man should have a right to experience.

  Beth had insisted upon the ring. Said she wanted the whole world to know he was hers and would be forever. He had the same sentiments, except, to him, forever wouldn’t even be long enough.

  Smiling to himself, for there was no one else for miles around, though he really wouldn’t have cared who saw him grinning like a fool, he returned the hammer to his wooden tool box and hoisted it up by the handle to carry out to the tool shed. Hell, if he didn’t have a skip to his step. Webster had promised the stove would be here, but Rance hadn’t completely believed it would happen considering Webster’s past promises of freight arriving on time.

  The old man had come through, and just in the nick of time. Beth would return home from visiting her family in Billings today—in a few hours actually—and his heart thudded at the thought. Knowing she missed him as much as he missed her promised her homecoming would be amazing.

  After three months of marriage, he should be able to be parted from her for a few days without feeling like he was only half there. Maybe that would come in time—the ability to be separated from Beth and not miss the very dickens out of her. Perhaps after forty or fifty years of marriage. Up until then he’d go right on missing her, and loving her. That he’d do until he hit the grave, and beyond. He’d pledged forever, and meant it.

  Rance returned to the kitchen and hands on his hips admired the stove once more. He could almost see Beth standing before it, her blue eyes sparkling as she examined each little part of her surprise. The warming ovens, the water reservoir, the temperature gauge, the handle that lifted the burner plates, the fire box. He grinned again. She was going to be surprised.

  She wasn’t the type to ask for anything, and she’d probably say he shouldn’t have bought it and surprised her, all the while being tickled pink he had. He was going to love every moment of it, and in between kisses, assure her that they could afford it and that she was worth it. She was and they could. Life was good, and he couldn’t see a way for it to get better.

  With that thought warming his insides, he collected his hat and headed for the barn to complete the morning chores before it was time to hitch up the buggy and head into Cody in order to collect Beth from the railroad station. The morning sun was big and bright and already casting down heat that was intense for May. Beth would appreciate the shade of the buggy’s awning, and he’d appreciate the privacy. There was no way he’d be able to resist stealing a kiss or two on the way home.

  The smile on his face slipped away as a chill tickled his spine. He spun around, toward the house. Seeing just the empty porch, he turned and scanned the barn, the yard, the hills.

  There was no sign of anyone, anywhere.

  He could have sworn he heard Beth shout his name. Call for him. He took off his hat and shielded the sunlight with his hand. After gazing down the long and vacant road for a time, he put his hat back on. It must have
just been the wind.

  Thinking he’d heard her voice hung within him the next few hours, making him lonelier than the past five days put together. He felt empty without her, and that made it hard to concentrate on the horses, the chores.

  A nagging sensation still hung with him a few hours later. He’d just hitched up the buggy when approaching hoofbeats had him walking around the barn instead of toward the house. The rider was approaching fast, and he waited, watched, until the single horse traveled beneath the overhead board he’d erected after burning the name Rocking L deep in the wood. Beth had said the sign was beautiful, and that it would make her smile every time she returned home. It made him smile every time he looked at it.

  He wasn’t smiling. Recognizing the rider, a quiver vibrated up his spine and caused a frown. Although they’d been friends for several years, the sheriff rarely traveled out to the ranch in the middle of the day. “What are you doing out this way?” he shouted as the man rode closer.

  Cliff Dixon nodded as he pulled his horse to a stop and didn’t say a word while dismounting, which had Rance’s nerves picking up on an eerie undercurrent. An even stronger chill than before coiled around his spine.

  “What are you doing here, Cliff?” There better not have been a bank robbery or some such dastardly deed. He couldn’t ride posse, not with Beth returning today.

  Cliff took off his hat, looking in every direction except directly ahead. “There’s been an accident, Rance.”

  His nerves kicked in, drumming a fast and erratic beat beneath his skin. “What type of accident?”

  “A train accident,” Cliff said. “Shortly after it left Billings this morning.”

  Rance’s entire being turned cold, except for the ball of fire that landed in his throat. Sucking in air through his nose and refusing to think the worse, he asked, “Was anyone hurt?”

  Cliff nodded and then turned to face him. His eyes were glistening, and red. “There were no survivors. There was a storm. The bridge collapsed, and Beth—”

  “No.” Rance grit his teeth together, refusing to listen any further. “No,” was all his thick throat would let out as his teeth clenched against the fiery tightening deep in his chest.

  “I’m sorry, Rance,” Cliff said. “So, so, sorry.”

  Chapter Two

  2018, Billings, Montana

  Liz Baxter slipped on her sunglasses against the bright summer sun with one hand and slid her cell phone into the cup holder with the other. This would be the longest drive she’d taken the Mustang since purchasing it more than two years ago, and that in itself felt good. She felt good. Right. A hundred miles wasn’t a major road trip, but for someone who’d only left Billings a handful of times, it was significant.

  “Call me—”

  The ringing of her cell phone interrupted what the woman standing outside her car had been saying. Liz punched the decline button and grinned out the driver’s window. “I’ll call you when I arrive.”

  Vivi Anne lifted a finely drawn on brow. “Someday you’re going to have to answer that thing.”

  “When someone worth answering calls, I will,” Liz said.

  “Your old boss again?”

  “Yes. Dusty’s been hired by the new company that took over Cell One and wants to hire me back.” A hint of guilt twisted her stomach, but as always, she told herself she didn’t care.

  “You worked there a long time.”

  “Only because I believe customers should get what they pay for.” Which didn’t mean she cared, only that she was honest. Even when it came to Mrs. O’Toole who called the first of every month, mainly just to share the latest escapades of her cat. A brief thought of calling Mrs. O’Toole had formed while cleaning out her desk, but company policies forbade it, which was best for everyone.

  Vivi Anne grinned. “Maybe it’s not just a job he’s trying to offer you.”

  As much as Liz enjoyed working for Vivi Anne at the antique store, and enjoyed the friendship they had, she wasn’t open to Vivi Anne’s other vocation. At least not in that sense. “He’s not my long-lost soul mate so get off that track right now.”

  Vivi Anne shrugged. “The universe gives back what we put out there, whether we’re conscious of it or not. Sometimes we may not even know who or what we’re looking for. It’s based at a time and place our minds don’t recall, but our hearts do.”

  The tiniest of tingles zipped just beneath the surface of Liz’s skin, an anticipation of sorts, and it had nothing to do with her old boss. “Your matchmaking skills are lost on me. I worked with Dusty Wayne for almost seven years. Trust me; I’m not searching for the likes of him.” With a grin, she added, “I’m not going back to work at Cell One. Ever. But I am going to Cody, Wyoming.” She started her car. “And I’ll call you when I arrive.”

  Liz put the car in drive and waved as she pulled out of the parking lot. She buried all thoughts of Cell One as excitement pumped through her veins. Maybe someday she’d be like those two guys on TV who drove around the countryside searching small towns and old junkyards for forgotten treasures.

  Traffic was minimal, even on the interstate, and became practically non-existence when she exited onto the highway that went south into Wyoming. A few miles later, she approached the railroad crossing where her parents had died. She’d been on this road a couple of times since that night twenty years ago, but had never stopped, never wanted to, until today.

  She pulled the car to the side of the road. The tracks were no longer used. The white and black crossing bars little more than piles of rubbish on both sides of the roads. If the crossing bars had been present years ago, they might have saved her parents’ lives. It had been storming fiercely, and her father must not have seen or heard the train coming with all the hail and lightning.

  Liz climbed out of the car and crossed the ditch to see where the railroad bridge met land. Grass grew over the ties and rotting boards hung sporadically amongst the huge trellises that supported the bridge over the river far below. The bank was steep, and from what she’d been told, their car careened down it, into the water. She couldn’t remember any of it, nor anything about her parents. The only memory she did recall, which was very, very faint, was of horses. Lots of them.

  Or perhaps those recollections were nothing more than childhood fantasies.

  The authorities had searched far and wide for relatives but had come up empty-handed. The story was her father worked for a construction company out of North Dakota, and they’d only been in Montana a short time. Liz and her mother had been the only family the company knew about, and in all the years since, no one else had ever surfaced, certainly no relatives with horses. Years of searching had provided nothing more than a birth certificate. Other than that piece of paper stating she’d been born in Missouri on August 8, 1990, Elizabeth Ann Baxter may never have existed.

  Liz stood there for several minutes, as if waiting for something. Anything. A memory. A sign. Nothing came. Not even a car on the highway.

  As her gaze settled on the brown, murky water, a faint and faraway sense said there was more beneath that water than anyone could fathom.

  Shaking off a shiver, she returned to her car and drove forward over the tracks. Long ago she’d accepted her rather non-existence past, and her life. Nothing had changed. No reason to start wishing things were different.

  Instead she should be grateful for all she had. For the journey she was on this very moment. If not for Vivi Anne, Liz had no idea what she’d been doing right now. Selling tacos at the Taco Hut would have been an option, she supposed. That made her grin, and she turned on the radio. Her own laugh echoed inside the car as a ballad of country roads taking someone home came through the speakers.

  “Vivi Anne’s favorite singer. Fitting, don’t you think, Esmeralda?” It was a silly name, but as soon as she’d seen the car, that was the name that had come to her. Turning up the volume on the radio, she sang along to the words about the radio reminding of a home far away.

  The song ended,
but her smile didn’t. All in all, she was glad she’d met Vivi Anne and was glad to be on her way to Cody. All that felt right.

  She rolled into Cody before noon and took a scenic drive down the main street, catching a brief glimpse of all the shops catering to tourists and the historical buildings, before getting back on the highway and taking it to the edge of town where the old west village sat. If she hadn’t been looking for it, she might have driven past. There was only one faded sign for the area that looked more like a ghost town than a tourist attraction.

  Parking next to the fence that surrounded the dozen or more old log cabins, she noted another faded sign indicating the attraction was open daily, nine months out of the year.

  There was another log cabin, larger than the others and not inside the fence. She assumed that was Buzz’s residence. Vivi Anne said he lived on site and was the only employee of the village. Since it was during open hours, she walked through the entrance gate and into the building marked office and gift shop.

  “Hello,” an old man greeted. “You must be Liz. Vivi Anne’s friend. I just hung up with her.”

  The building was old, made of square, chinked logs. “Then there’s no reason for me to call and say I made it. Yes, I’m Liz. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “You, too,” Buzz answered, making his way around the long glass counter with the aid of a knobby tri-colored cane. “I’ve left a message on Lou’s cell phone, just waiting to hear back so I can send you on out to the ranch.”

  Assuming Lou was the land owner, she took a brief glance at the usual tourist knick-knacks of colored shot glasses, key chains, spoons, and thimbles. “So,” she said, having seen enough. “How do you know Vivi Anne?”

  Buzz settled on a chair near the door. “Met her a long time ago, she was friends with one of my daughters. I couldn’t believe it when she stopped in this spring. Glad she moved out this way.”

  “Does your daughter live around here, too?”

  He shook his head. “Dolly passed on some time ago. Same year as my wife. Cancer took them both. Damn stuff.”