The Cowboys pregnant fiance

Chapter 8

The minute Cody was off of work the next day he raced the sunset to get to Sherilyn's knowing that she would be done with her shift by now.

She had given him the key to the backyard gate yesterday before he'd left probably because he'd looked so defeated at not having found anything.

"It's to early to give up." she said "Just come back here tomorrow whether i am here or not."

He'd thanked her wondering how much deeper he could dig along the fence line before he infringed on her actual garden. He didn't want to start up rooting every single herb so he decided that tonight he would concentrate his effort outside the fence because it was still close to where she'd unearthed the journal.

By the time night fell with the stars shining down on him he'd turned over a lot of ground outside her picket fence and he'd attracted some attention from some of Sherilyn's neighbors, although no one had come out and asked him what he was doing. If they did he was prepared to give them a story about hearing there were arrowheads out here or what have you. For all they knew it could be a quirky hobby of his.

He stood leaning on his shovel surveying all the open land that ran from the condo complex to a play ground off yonder.

Was it possible that there were Curtis Tyler artifacts scattered from here to there instead of inside her property?

He flexed his gloved hands which had gotten tight but he was damned if he was going to give up yet.

A voice floated to him in the darkness. "Remember the gopher in Caddy shack?"

He hadn't expected to feel like a ten alarm was raging in his gut just at the sound of Sherilyn's voice, but there it was.

He tried not to show how she affected him as he stripped off his gloves and tucked them into his back pocket. "What about gophers?"

Handing him a big ceramic mug with steam curling from it she said. "The one in that movie wasn't your ordinary digger. He was pretty much the super hero of gophers. You could of given him a run for his money though," She gestured toward the upset earth around them.

"If I had a dime for every hole I've made during the past two days..." he said as the aroma of hot cocoa in filtered his senses. He hadn't realized until now how good it would taste here in the mild chill of the night. Even if winter was generally kind in this area of Florida the darkness still had a bite to it tonight.

He propped his shovel against the fence. She blew at her drink cupping her mug with both hands. She was wearing a long coat over her waitress uniform telling him that she had come straight home from the diner.

"Long shift today?" he asked

"No, I hung around for a short time after work ended. Vicky Jackson came in."

"Wonderful. So there is reporters sniffing around again."

"Sure enough. She and David just wont give up on the Curtis story. Even getting married during the middle of it all hasn't stopped them from chasing down more leads. I think they will be on it until they've solved all Curtis's mysteries."

"Sorry you are involved in all this. They know I eat at the diner and they think I confide in you about Curtis."

It seems as if she were about to launch into her own investigation about the reasons he was so obsessed with the man, but she held back.

"I am sure you are right." she said. "But Vicky is so nice and casual about chatting me up. Not that I had anything to report to her."

Sherilyn started to walk, and he followed without really even thinking about it. It could of been the stars above. It could of been her perfume.