Drew (The Cowboys) by Leigh Greenwood Page B

are, what you can do. If they make you sound interesting enough, you’ll be famous.”
    “I don’t want to be famous.”
    “Then you’ll never make enough money to buy a ranch.”
    This wouldn’t be a very convincing argument if she was saving all the money she got from the bank robberies.
    But she was thinking about it He could tell from the angry look she threw him, she didn’t like it one bit. That confused him even more. If she was saving her money from the robberies and really didn’t want publicity, why was she even considering it?
    “What are they going to want me to do?”
    “To give them a demonstration.”
    “What else?”
    “They’ll want to know something about you. That bit about Jake and Isabelle adopting eleven orphans is perfect, especially after they see Zeke and Hawk.”
    “I’m not telling them about Jake and Isabelle. They’d hate it. I’m not making oddities out of Zeke and Hawk, either. They’re people, not freaks for strangers to gawk at.”
    “Then let me do the talking for you.”
    That didn’t placate her. “Why should I trust you? You’re the one who got me into this mess in the first place. Why didn’t you stay up in those stands that first night? Did seeing a woman outshoot a man needle your male pride so badly you couldn’t stand it?”
    He didn’t like letting her think he was that shallow, but it was certainly better than the truth.
    “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I thought it would be fun.”
    “You’ve caused me nothing but misery ever since.”
    The last person to say that to Cole had been his mother. He didn’t like having to add Drew to that list.
    “Well, it’s done and can’t be changed now.”
    “You’ve done it, so you deal with it.” She turned and walked away.
    “You can’t leave now,” he called after her.
    She didn’t answer, but just kept walking. He looked at the approaching reporters, calculating whether he should try to bring Drew back or disappear himself. He decided to face the reporters by himself. He’d brought them here without consulting Drew, so he had to be the one to figure out what to do next. But when he’d done that, he was going to throttle one very stubborn and frustrating female.
    He didn’t know what he’d expected this assignment to be like when he took it, but it was turning out to be unlike any other.
    “They tell us you’re Cole Benton,” one of the reporters said when he came up.
    “You got the right man.”
    “Where’s this dame you were telling us about?”
    “Any chance she’s the little lady we saw sitting with you when we came in?” another asked.
    “Yes, that’s Drew Townsend.”
    The man whistled. “If she can shoot anywhere near as good as you say, we can have every man within a hundred miles fighting for a ticket.”
    “She wouldn’t like that,” Cole said, knowing Drew would hate it. “She’s a little shy.”
    “Why?”
    “Drew is proud of her abilities, but she doesn’t want anybody making a fuss.”
    “I never met a dame in show business who wouldn’t give her left breast to get her picture in the newspaper,” one reporter said.
    “Drew is more likely to shoot the pen out of your hand for saying something she didn’t like.”
    “No woman can shoot that good.”
    “She’s even better than that,” Cole said.
    “How come?”
    It was up to him to give them a story that would interest the readers, but he didn’t want to stray too far from the truth.
    “Her parents didn’t know much about getting along in the West,” Cole said. “They’d have starved if it hadn’t been for the game Drew shot. She was too little to use a shotgun, so she used a rifle. Got to where she could shoot the head off a squirrel, quail, or a rabbit. Since she used a rifle, they didn’t have to dig buckshot out of their dinner.”
    The reporters wrote rapidly on their pads.
    “Where are her parents now?” one asked.
    “They headed west and got killed by Indians. Drew was taken in by a