Baily's Irish Dream: Baily's Irish Dream / Czech Mate. Stephanie Doyle

might be the very sort she would fall for. For some unfathomable reason, she wanted to cry.

      The meal was over, but Baily wasn’t ready to retire back to their small room where the beds practically touched. Instead she had a better idea for the evening’s entertainment. “How about a gunfight?”

      “You’re not still on the room thing, are you?” he asked a little worriedly. Pistols at fifty paces over a motel room seemed drastic, but he didn’t put it past her.

      “No, silly, it’s a tourist attraction. Like a reenactment of a real-life shoot-out. Two men face each other at dusk and stare down the barrel of a gun aimed at each other’s heart. Neither one knows if they’re going to live or die. It’s all very intense.” Baily’s face was flushed with excitement at the thought of actually being able to see a real-life gun battle. A real-life fake one, that is.

      “And very dramatic,” Daniel added. “You’ve seen too many movies.”

      “That’s the point! This will be like watching a movie only live.” Daniel knew he wouldn’t be able to squelch her enthusiasm so he didn’t try. Besides, watching her watch the gunfight would be like watching her watch Old Faithful. For that it would be worth the price of admission.

      The two left the restaurant in search of the attraction. They didn’t need to walk far. The gunfight was held in the center of town, which, Baily insisted, was the only place to hold it.

      Jackson Hole, despite its chic shops and expensive restaurants that catered to the skiers, still maintained an authentic Western atmosphere. All of the storefronts were faced in a dark wood and since the main street was framed by a large wooden boardwalk one could imagine horses tied to the posts out front. The effect was nineteenth-century Wyoming, and it attracted tourists during the summer as well as the winter season.

      Finding a place to watch the event wasn’t easy. Daniel managed to squirm his way up to the front, dragging Baily with him. He wanted her to have a front-row view. She would enjoy the show best that way, and he would enjoy watching her best that way, as well.

      The actors came out and faced each other from across the street at a distance of about twenty yards or so. One began saying that the town wasn’t big enough for the two of them. The other replied he was sorry that the other man was going to have to die. The cliché dialogue continued for a few minutes. Then they both fell silent. The crowd noise fell to a hush. Baily reached over, grabbed Daniel’s hand, and squeezed it hard. It was becoming a pattern. Daniel understood that Baily was the type of person who couldn’t keep her excitement to herself. She needed to share what she felt. Apparently, she did that through touch. Daniel couldn’t help but imagine what kind of lover she would be. Then he abruptly dismissed that thought from his mind. It was not going to happen. Not as long as Harold was in the way.

      Suddenly the man from the left drew his gun, and then the man from the right did the same. There were several loud popping noises after which they both fell dead. A man in a dark suit and a tall hat came out to measure the bodies.

      “The undertaker,” Baily whispered in case Daniel hadn’t already figured that out.

      The undertaker dropped sheets over the two men, essentially ending the play, and the crowd erupted in thunderous applause. Then the two men under the sheets stood to take their bows. Daniel thought it rather anticlimactic.

      “They should have stayed dead until everybody left,” Daniel complained like a kid who was disappointed to learn that there was no Santa Claus. They headed back to their motel, enjoying the fresh air and the view of the mountains in the distance.

      “You’re being unrealistic. They would have had to stay under those sheets too long. Besides, they deserved to take their bows just like any other actor,” Baily said, answering his compliant, but her mind was elsewhere. Now that the gunfight was over there was nothing to prevent them from returning to their tiny room. Maybe it had gotten bigger in the past few hours.

      They reached the door of their motel room. Both were clearly reluctant to go inside. “If this were a date,” Baily noted, “this is where I would say thank you for a lovely evening.”

      “It was a nice night, wasn’t it?” Daniel seemed slightly stunned. He couldn’t recall a date when he’d had as much simple fun. Innocent pleasure. This must be what it felt like to be a boy on a first date. Daniel was sure he must have felt this way before. If he had, it was too long ago to remember. This night, however, he didn’t think he would ever forget.

      It was almost perfect. Almost. “You know if this were a date,” Daniel continued, “and you did have a nice time like you said you did, it wouldn’t be such a horrible thing if I asked for a kiss. Would it?”

      “Daniel, I already told you that I can’t—” Baily started.

      Daniel put two fingers against her lips to stop her excuses. “One kiss, Red. One kiss, then we’ll call it quits, go to bed, and never bring any of this up again.”

      She couldn’t refuse him one kiss. She couldn’t refuse herself one kiss, either. Tilting her head slightly, she allowed him to press his lips against hers. First he was gentle, tugging at her lips with his own. Then he was playful, darting his tongue out to caress her lips and the seam between them. Then he was bold, pushing his body against hers until her back was pressed against the door and her arms had no place to go except around him. His tongue plunged into her mouth, conquering her with his intensity.

      She tasted him and he was wonderful. She knew he tasted her, as well, and groaned with the thought of it. Baily could only hope that she was as pleasing to him as he was to her. Every good intention she ever had was about to fly out the window because she couldn’t remember the name of the person she was having those good intentions for.

      Daniel chose that moment to end the kiss. He practically had to rip his lips off hers. For a moment they looked at each other and felt their chests beat against each other as their lungs struggled for breath. Baily wanted to tell him to forget Howard, or Harold, or whatever his name was and take her right there against the door hard and fast and so deep that she would never forget it.

      Instead she said, “Wow.”

      “Yeah, wow,” Daniel repeated. Then he backed off, leaving her arms empty. “A deal’s a deal.” He took the key from her hand, opened the door, and went inside.

      Numb, Baily could only stare at the open door.

      5

      “ARE YOU ASLEEP?” The soft question filled the dark room. Even Miss Roosevelt, who was sleeping soundly on Daniel’s chest, pricked up her ears.

      “No,” he replied with resignation. How the hell was he supposed to sleep with a cat on his chest and a woman’s soft lips on his mind? He told himself a hundred times that he could have taken her, should have taken her. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her. Her lips said as much even if her words did not. But he had done the right thing. He’d let her go and denied both of them what could have been the sexual experience of their lives. Why had he done that?

      “You were a real gentlemen earlier,” she said somewhat forlornly.

      “Thanks.”

      It wasn’t necessarily a compliment. She had rather hoped that he would have proven to be an absolute cad. She would have been seduced against her will, forced to make love with the man, and it would have been beyond her control. No guilt. All pleasure.

      Instead he’d gone and ruined everything by listening to her.

      Baily smiled at her own silly thoughts. Daniel wasn’t to blame; she was. She was the one who put up the hands-off sign. At the time, she had meant every word of it. It was only when he’d started kissing her that things had gotten a little hazy. Fortunately, he’d had the willpower to break away before things had gotten out of hand. And it was fortunate, she told herself firmly. She was too close to reaching her goal and fulfilling her dream of creating a family to be thwarted by something as trivial and transient as desire.