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cuffed him on the shoulder. “You’re pretty good, Montana. You sound as if she truly exists.”
    Twenty minutes later, he was beginning to wonder himself. Had he been kicked in the head so hard he hallucinated her?
    No. He damn well hadn’t hallucinated that kiss.
    Forty minutes past their appointed meeting time, he knew without a doubt that she existed. Nobody but Tess had ever made him this angry. He left Mack waiting at the swine barn while he conducted a thorough search of the fair. The woman wasn’t to be found.

    He was steaming when he returned to the pig palace. Mack obviously saw his temper on his face because he reached into his pants pocket and tugged out a white handkerchief, waving it in the air. “Don’t light into me. I’m innocent.”
    “Did you see her?”
    “The phantom wife, you mean?”
    “Don’t mess with me, Mack.”
    Mack narrowed his eyes and studied Gabe. “Well, I’ll be good and go to hell. You are serious, aren’t you? This isn’t a joke you’re pulling on me.”
    “I’m as serious as you’ve ever seen me.”
    Gravely, Mack nodded. “All right, then. What do you want to do?”
    “Find her,” Gabe replied. “It looks like she’s run off. Surprises me, though. The Tess I knew wasn’t the type to run away from her problems.”
    “Is that what you are to her, Montana? A problem?”
    Gabe ignored the question, thinking aloud. “She owns that ham-on-the-hoof that ran in the charity race. We can see if it’s scheduled for any more contests. If nothing else, the fair officials should have an address for her. Could be she lives here in Dallas, and I can track her down at home.”
    Mack’s brow furrowed as he scratched behind his ear. “She’s your wife, but you don’t know where she lives. Makes perfect sense to me.”
    Mack followed his friend into the swine barn and they split up, Mack going right and Gabe heading left in search of one of those yellow badges. A few minutes later, Mack hailed him with a whistle. “I got your answers. Such as they are,” he said when Gabe approached. “She canceled tomorrow’s race and went home.”
    Gabe spat a curse. “Where’s home?”
    “A place called Aurora Springs.”
    “Aurora Springs? Never heard of it.”
    “Neither had I,” Mack said. “I asked. It’s a speck on the map out near Eagle Gulch.”
    “Where the hell is Eagle Gulch?”
    Mack exhaled a long, loud sigh. “Damned if I know. But judging by the look in your eyes, I bet you’re fixing to find out.”

CHAPTER 3

    GABE EYED THE SMALL grouping of adobe and stone buildings snuggled up against the canyon wall and sighed with relief. This had to be Aurora Springs. Finally . Better they had named it Back-of-Beyond. To say his wife had picked an out of the way spot in which to settle was like saying Texas got a little warm in August.
    Aurora Springs was located deep in southwest Texas about a million miles from everywhere. Leaving Dallas ten days ago, Gabe had traveled south to San Antonio, then waited around to catch a westbound train for the four-hundred-mile stretch through wilderness and desert to the water-stop town of Eagle Gulch. There he left the train, bought a couple of horses, and rode north by northwest along the old Comanche War Trail to reach the tiny settlement.
    He was travel-weary, tired clear to the bone. He’d love to stagger to a bed and sleep for a couple of days. But at the same time he wanted to spur his horse and gallop into the village. He had questions galore for his runaway bride, questions he’d come hundreds of miles to ask.
    Gabe knew better than to barrel into town without first taking careful stock of his surroundings. Considering how Tess had ducked out on him in Dallas, he didn’t figure she’d be all that happy to see him now. He didn’t think she’d greet him with the business end of a gun, but he couldn’t be sure. Twelve years had passed. The Tess he’d married then might have little in common with the Tess he aimed to get