Damian was about halfway to Chicago when he decided to head back to Texas. He’d given up too easily. Nor had he used all the options available to him—guilt, moral obligation, or any number of other things he could have tried to sway Casey’s answer. He’d let that feeling of rejection send him packing with his tail between his legs. Disgusting. And if he was going to be turned down, he could at least have gotten the other things that were bothering him off his chest. There’d been no need to be diplomatic at that point.
So he left the train to find out how long a wait he’d have for the next train heading south—and came across Casey having lunch inside the depot. He was so amazed to see her there, it took him a few moments to believe it.
That couldn’t be Casey in a bright yellow traveling dress with matching bonnet, even matching shoes; it was just someone who resembled her. That was his first reaction, yet he knew it was she. His whole body coming alive with tension told him for sure.
But that meant she’d been on the train since Waco, and how could he have missed knowing that—of course he wouldn’t know. He’d made arrangements with the new porter who came with the larger parlor car, to bring him his meals in the car. He’d barely left that car since Waco, his less-than-happy frame of mind making him want to avoid people at the frequent train stops.
He approached her table slowly, still afraid it was just wishful thinking that had put her there before him. And when she glanced up at him with that inscrutable expression of hers—he now knew where she got that habit from—it was a bit more than disconcerting. No surprise on her part, no smile, no “Well, imagine running into you here,” nothing that he could grasp and deal with.
So he said simply, “You came.”
“Yes.”
And then, with less neutrality: “When were you going to let me know?”
“I wasn’t.”
He stiffened. “And why not? I thought we worked rather well together before.”
“We did some things well together, but finding Jack wasn’t one of them.”
That candid reply was so unexpected, Damian was rendered almost speechless. And she wasn’t even blushing for having more or less stated they’d been good in bed together. But she’d brought it up, and his anger was there to take quick advantage of that fact.
“Funny you should mention that, Casey. I wouldn’t have gathered you thought so, not with the way you went off in the middle of the night without saying good-bye, go to hell, or it’s been fun.”
“I thought we parted rather nicely. No words could have added to that.”
Looked at that way, she was right. It was a very nice way to part company—if both parties were desirous of parting. But when one had had other ideas…
“One of us might have had a few more things to say,” he pointed out.
“One of us had ample time to say anything that needed saying,” she shot back.
He ground his teeth together. She was right again. He was the one who had procrastinated, trying to get up the nerve to suggest they not part at all. And considering the tone they had both just taken, now wasn’t an ideal time to mention it either. And then, seeing Casey’s mother, followed by her father, walk into that small lunchroom had a way of changing the direction of his thoughts.
“You brought your parents with you?”
She followed his gaze and smiled at the couple approaching them. “Actually, we just seem to be traveling in the same direction,” she told Damian. “My mother decided she’d like to do some major shopping in Chicago. My father wasn’t about to be separated from her again, when the last separation only just ended, so he had to come along. Of course, they assure me that my deciding to go to Chicago at this time had nothing to do with their making the trip as well.”
She rolled her eyes to show how much she believed that. He wasn’t amused. He had requested her help, not that of her whole family. But he was forgetting that she’d had no intention of letting him know that she was going to hunt for Jack. That was, if she really was—that hadn’t been made clear yet either.
Damian sighed. He simply had too many things to take exception to at the moment, and now that he no longer had the privacy to do so, he might as well keep his mouth shut. Except on one point…
“Are you going to look for Jack?”
“That was my intention,” Casey replied.
“But you don’t want my assistance? Don’t even want to see the detectives’ reports?”
“You’ve already pointed out how big the city is that he’s gone to ground in. Seems to me, the only way to ferret him out is to start thinking like he does. So no, reports on your detectives’ progress won’t help me none, so I don’t need to see them.”
“I seem to recall my assistance being of some help on at least one occasion of dealing with Jack. I didn’t ask you to get involved in this again to turn you loose where I couldn’t aid you if necessary.”
She sighed. Her father, having come up in time to hear Damian’s remark, said, “Now, if I had been assured of him backing you up, Casey, I probably could have talked your mother into shopping closer to home.”
And Courtney said, almost in the same breath, “Afternoon, Mr. Rutledge. I see you finally found her. Perhaps now you can offer us the comfort of your private car for the rest of the trip.”
Damian’s jaw almost dropped. He was rendered speechless again. They wanted to travel with him, but Casey didn’t? And her father would actually trust him to protect her? What the hell had happened to reverse their attitudes toward him since he’d left Waco?
He finally found his voice to answer, though somewhat hesitantly, since he was still waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under him, proving he’d misunderstood.
“Certainly, ma’am,” he said. “It would be my pleasure to share the parlor car with the three of you.”
Casey’s lips pursed in displeasure. This obviously wasn’t her idea, nor did she care for it one little bit. Courtney smiled in acceptance, though, so apparently that settled the matter.
Chandos, of course, was noncommittal either way, his expression utterly neutral as usual. He might have just told Casey that he more or less trusted Damian to protect her, but he sure wasn’t going to verify that by word, look, or deed for Damian’s benefit.
Perhaps their opinions hadn’t changed all that much after all. He was reading more into it than was intended. And had he really offered to enclose himself in the small confines of a parlor car with Casey’s parents for several days? He had to be out of his mind.