Give My All to Jessie (Third in Outlaw Series)

Chapter Thirty-two

Chapter Thirty-Two

Armed with a book by some man named Edgar Allan Poe and the beginnings of an apology, Jessie stepped into the gun shop.

It was clear that Langley didn't notice her and she frowned when she realized he was simply sitting at a table toward the back playing Five Finger. Jessie felt worry for him grow. He seemed to be in a daze and not paying a bit of attention to what he was doing. What if the man cut off a finger?

"Langley?"

His hand jerked and the knife sunk deep into the skin between his fingers. "Shit!" he bellowed as he leapt to his feet and shook his hand violently.

Jessie tossed the book onto the workbench and rushed to him, yanking out her bandana as she went. She took his hand in hers before he could argue, wrapped the cloth around his hand and tied it tight.

"Are you okay?" she asked, looking up into his blue eyes.

Suddenly the room, which had felt just fine moments ago, didn't seem to have enough air. The heat became nearly unbearable. Yesterday she'd dealt with his coldness but there was nothing cold about the look in Langley's eyes just now as he stared down at her.

His every emotion was in his eyes and his expression and perfectly plain for Jessie to see. She saw the passion, confusion, hurt and sense of betrayal, but above all those things, she saw his love. Langley still loved her.

"I'm just fine, Jessie," he said gently as he pulled his hand away. "I'm tougher than I look." He shook his head. "What are you doing here?"

Jessie took off her hat and tossed it aside before shaking out her hair. "I'm here to talk to you, of course."

Langley grabbed his knife from the table and slid it back into the holster on his leg. "We already talked."

"No, we didn't," Jessie countered, crossing her arms over her chest. "I tried to talk and you shut me out...." She raised her hands. "Not that I blame you! After what I did, I reckon I deserve for you to hate me."

"I don't hate you," Langley whispered, his voice thick.

Jessie let out a long breath and figured the time had come to get down to business. "You know about my family, Langley. I told you almost everything but I never did tell you what my mom always said to me. Love wasn't for people like us. That what she used to say all the time. Over and over. She always said love was too fragile and we were the type of people who broke things."

Jessie's voice broke and her first instinct was to fight the tears and hide the weakness. Jessie fought against that. This was Langley and she could trust him.

"Jessie...."

She held up her hand. "Let me finish. I love you. I was attracted to you the first time I ever saw you. Remember when you calmed my brain addled horse down when you and your uncle first came to the camp? Of course the fact that I wanted to know more about you scared me damn near to death so I high-tailed it out of that camp as quick as I could. Then you found me shot up in Harper. I fell for you hard and I fell fast. But I just kept hearing my mother's words and I kept remembering the way her and my father were toward one another. I just figured that's how we would be. No matter how good it seemed, I figured we were bound to turn sour and so that's why I left. But you chased me..."

Langley's lips curved in the smallest hint of a smile. "And you opened up to me after that."

"Yes I did. Then all of that nonsense happened with Billy and once again my fears took over and I left again."