"I say we call this canning business quits for the day," Anita declared as she wiped her arm across her sweat-slicked brow.

Emma was happy to agree. With Cassandra and Lauren's help, the women had been canning apples and pears since just a little after dawn. Their hands were aching and each of them were overheated and tired of standing over the boiling water.

"We got quite a bit done today," Emma observed, taking note of the cans—well over one-hundred of them.

"I want you to know that at least one-third of these are for you and Liam," Anita stated. "You can use them to get through winter and help with your pies."

"I couldn't take them!" Emma argued. "These are all from your fruit trees."

"Yes, which you helped pick and you helped with all this canning. You've earned them," Anita assured her in a tone of voice that made it clear she was done with the conversation.

Lauren chuckled. "You oughta know better than to turn down free food."

"Yeah," Cassandra agreed. "As my daddy always says, you should never look a gift horse in the mouth."

Anita raised a brow. "Are you comparing me to a horse?"

Cassandra's cheeks flushed slightly. "No, of course not."

"I should probably be heading home. I'm sure the men are getting hungry," Emma noted, glancing at the clock on the wall.

"I'll ride with ya," Cassandra offered. "That way you're not alone. I'm sure Miss Anita is tired after working so hard all day."

Anita smiled. "I have plenty of energy left to take Emma home... unless the real reason you're so eager to ride with her is so you can once again ride back into town with Ben."

Emma smiled at the embarrassment and surprise on Cassandra's face. It was no secret to anyone around them that Ben and Cassandra had taken a liking to one another in the last few weeks.

Ben had been working quite often on the cabin additions with Liam and nearly every day Cassandra would ride out to the cabin just so that Ben would offer to accompany her back to town.

It was certainly an odd match. Cassandra cussed more than it would deemed proper a preacher's wife to do and, while Anita had finally convinced her that trousers were not proper lady attire, she had insisted on only wearing split skirts—as dresses and proper skirts made it too difficult to hop straight onto a horse's back and ride off.

But Ben didn't seem to mind Cassandra's quirks. Her lack of filter and her tendency to say whatever came to mind. As a matter of fact, those are the very things he seemed to like most about her.

"Come on, Cassandra," Emma smiled. "We better be going so Miss Anita can get her rest." She paused at the door. "Anita, if you're certain that Liam and I can have some of the cans, I'll have him come into town with me tomorrow to get them."

Anita rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm sure, sweetheart." She made a big show of stifling a yawn. "You girls should get going now. This old woman needs her beauty rest."

Lauren snorted. "Better be a long nap."

She dodged a head smack from Anita before running from the room with laughter. Anita lips twitched with a suppressed smile. "A long nap sounds pretty good to me."

"Hell, Liam, when's that woman of yours gonna get home and start some supper. I'm starved to death," Chase complained.

Liam grunted, pausing between hammer swings. "Hell, Chase, between you and Kyle, one of you must know how to cook or else you both would have starved to death by now."

Kyle chuckled. "Chase is pretty handy in a kitchen."

"Do you have an apron?" Ben spoke up. "All the good cooks wear an apron."

Liam chuckled as he went back to nailing on shingles. Liam liked Ben. The man might be a preacher, but he wasn't an uppity bastard like a lot of them. He still spoke and voiced real opinions despite his holy background and he was easy to be around.

Hell, Ben even knew about Chase and Kyle's secret. He'd figured it out pretty quickly. Chase had been worried the preacher man would judge them harshly or have them run out of town for their sinful way of life, but Ben had simply said there was far too little love in the world and if Kyle was foolish enough to tie himself down to a pain in the neck like Chase, who was he to say a word against it.

Liam chuckled at the memory. Yeah, he liked Ben.

"I could go down and start some supper," Patrick offered. "I know a thing or two about a kitchen."

"Well thank you, Patrick. That'd be damn womanly of you," Chase grinned.

Patrick simply shrugged before heading off the roof and down the ladder.

Liam wasn't quite sure what to make of the change in his father. Gone was the angry, drunk wandering man who Liam had known for nearly thirty years.

Patrick rarely drank, was no longer hot-headed and had stayed around longer than he ever had before. He cared for Emma, took care of anything Liam needed done and Liam was pretty damn sure the man had even murdered Shade Marxton to save Liam the trouble.

It was a confusing thing and Liam was having trouble figuring out just what he wanted to do... he was struggling to figure out how to open up to the man he'd barely known most of his life.

With a sigh Liam decided he'd talk to Emma about things. He'd gotten pretty damn good at opening up to his wife and she had a kind, caring spirit. She'd help him work things out.

"Well, speaking about pretty women, here come two sunshine daisies now," Kyle said, pointing toward the path from town.

Liam followed his gaze and saw Emma and Cassandra riding their way. Emma was riding the black stallion she'd named Colt. She'd taken such a liking to that stallion, and him to her, that Liam hadn't even had the heart to mention selling it.

He figured he could still make a fairly good money off Colt just by using him as a stud. He'd already had a few folks asking how much he'd charge.

"Miss Cassandra came with her," Ben quickly noted, before scrambling from the roof so quickly, Liam thought for a moment he might have disappeared into thin air.

"Did you see that?" Chase demanded. "He flew off this roof like a damn spider monkey."

Chase followed after Ben and Liam glanced at Kyle. "What the hell is a spider monkey?"

Kyle shrugged. "No idea. I don't understand half of what that man says."

Liam was about to head down the ladder himself when a flash of movement behind the approaching women caught his eyes.

Mountain lion.

And it was stalking.

What kind of mountain lion stalked two women on horseback in the middle of the day with so many other people around? Was it rabid?

Liam wasn't going to wait until it attacked his wife to find out.

He pulled his revolver and took aim, knowing from the beast's posture that he only had moments to fire before it would be on his wife—and knowing that his aim had to be perfect or else he'd be hand delivering the big cat a meal.

Emma saw him aiming the gun and she let out a gasp just as Liam pulled the trigger.

Cassandra cursed loudly and the horse she was riding let out a shrill cry before tossing Cassandra from his back and racing back down the trail toward town.

Ben raced to Cassandra and took her hand to help her to her feet as her curses filled the air. "That damned beast! Threw me right off onto my backside!" She began swatting at the dirt on the back of her skirt. "Am I real dirty, Ben? Miss Anita will kill me if I stained up my skirt. Does my backside look bad?"

She turned and pointed at her backside and Liam, even from a distance, saw a flustered Ben tug at his collar and shake his head quickly. "No, Miss Casssandra.. uh.. your backside looks just fine."

Liam slipped down the ladder and rushed to Emma just as she was getting from Colt's back. "What were you shooting at?" she demanded, her face pale. To the

Liam pointed behind her about ten yards and she clutched tightly to his arm when she saw the mountain lion. "I had no idea it was even there!"

"You don't," Liam assured her. "Until they're jumping on your back and snapping your neck."

"That thing sure was awful brave to try to attack humans in broad daylight like that," Patrick noted, stepping off the porch with a rifle in hand.

"Is it mad?" Kyle asked.

Liam shrugged. He walked to the dead creature, fully aware of Emma still holding tightly to his arm. Looking closely at the mountain lion, Liam realized just how skinny the beast was and, it appeared to have an injury to its paw.

That explained that. The cat hadn't been rabid—it had been desperate, hungry and wounded; searching for any prey it could find.

Liam looked down at his wife and knew what had to be done. The cat hadn't been rabid but it had been a wake up call. With so many dangers in the word—from mountain men to mountain lions—he needed to know Emma could protect herself.

He had to teach her to use a gun.