by Judith Stacy
Anna’s eyes locked with his, and for a moment she thought he might kiss her again. Instead, he turned sharply and gazed toward the street. A frown settled over his face.
“What are you doing here, boy?” he asked.
A smaller version of Cade approached. Same dark hair, same blue eyes. His features were nearly identical, only softer. The boy stood almost as tall as Anna, long-limbed and skinny. She put his age at around thirteen.
She smiled. Surely this was exactly what Cade had looked like as a boy.
Instead of answering Cade’s question, the boy stepped up onto the boardwalk. “Are you Miss Kingsley? I’m Kyle— Kyle Riker. Henry’s cousin.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kyle,” she replied, realizing this boy must also be Cade’s brother.
“I’m sorry about Henry running off, and all,” Kyle said.
“I’m sure you miss your cousin,” Anna said.
“You’re staying, aren’t you?” Kyle asked. “Here, I mean. In Branford.”
Anna couldn’t resist giving Cade a defiant look. “I haven’t decided what I’ll do.”
Kyle perked up a bit. “You’ve got a house here.”
“I do?” she asked, completely taken aback.
Kyle threw Cade an accusing glare. “You didn’t tell her about the house?”
“Look, Kyle—” Cade began.
“It’s a nice house, ma’am,” Kyle said. “You can live there and work for us. All you’d have to do is cook and clean a little. You can cook whatever you want. Cade and Ben will eat anything—and so will I. You can—”
“Whoa,” Cade said. “Slow down, Kyle. We’re not—”
“No.” Kyle squared his shoulders and looked up at Cade. “She’s supposed to be Henry’s wife. Henry was our cousin. That mean she belongs to us. She’s part of our family.”
“She doesn’t—”
“I’m the one doing all the cooking now,” Kyle said, his voice rising. “And I’m tired of it. It’s too much work. Nobody should have to do that much work. We need a woman!”
Cade looked at him for a long moment, then put his hand on Kyle’s shoulder and urged him toward the opposite end of the porch. “Excuse me a minute?” Cade called to Anna.
Kyle remained on the porch; Cade moved to the ground so the two of them were closer to eye level.
Anna waited while their conference went on. Kyle did most of the talking. Cade nodded, said something that, from his expression, Anna suspected had to do with Kyle not being in school, then patted his back and sent him on his way.
He returned to where Anna waited. “Sorry about the boy.”
“You were sweet with him,” she said, genuinely surprised to see this side of Cade. “You let him speak his mind. You listened.”
“Can’t expect him to stand up and say his piece as a man if he doesn’t learn as a boy.”
“I take it you’re raising him?”
Cade paused a moment, then glanced off down the street. “Our folks went down to Texas to visit our sisters a few years back. Train derailed. We lost them both.”
The hard lines of his face softened, and Anna saw that the hurt lingered, even after so long.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “So you took on the job of raising him?”
“A job that seems like it’s never going to end,” Cade said with a tired sigh.
The urge to touch his cheek, comfort him, nearly overcame Anna. It seemed the most natural thing to do.
She decided it was wiser to change the subject.
“I wondered about the letter Henry left,” she said. “Could I see it?”
“Look, Miss Kingsley, there’s no need in rehashing this thing. What’s done is done.”
“Yes, but I’d like to know the reason,” Anna said, hoping she looked innocent. “You can understand, can’t you?”
Cade gazed off toward town. Several moments passed, just long enough to bring a pang of guilt to Anna.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have asked. It’s a painful memory for you, losing not only your cousin but a trusted employee. Forgive me for bringing it up.”
“No, it’s not that,” Cade told her. He paused another moment, as if contemplating something, then said, “The letter didn’t say much. Just that he was leaving for good.”
“Nothing about…me?”
Cade turned his gaze on her. He looked angry, though Anna wasn’t sure at what or at whom.
“He said to tell you he was sorry.”
“Did he speak to anyone about his decision?” Anna asked. “To you? Or to someone—a friend, maybe—in town?”
Another tense minute crawled by with Cade’s gaze turning even more harsh. “Look, Miss Kingsley, just let it go. Henry made his decision. And he sure as hell didn’t give any thought to you when he made it.”
“But if it weren’t for me, Henry would still be here.” Anna waved her arm toward the office. “He’d be working. Instead, you’ve been left in the lurch.”
“It’s not your fault,” Cade told her. He sounded a little angry, but Anna wasn’t sure why.
“I want to get married…someday,” Anna said softly. “I’d like to know why Henry didn’t want me.”
A flash of pain crossed Cade’s face. Anna decided it best to leave the subject alone. She turned and walked away. After a moment, Cade fell into step beside her.
“You don’t need to walk me back to town,” Anna told him. “I can take care of myself.”
“I seem to recall you shouting that at me yesterday.” His voice hardened a little. “But just because you say it doesn’t make it so.”
Annoyed now, she picked up her pace a little, which did nothing to deter Cade. He walked alongside her until she stepped up onto the boardwalk at the edge of town.
Cade caught her arm. His long fingers curled around her gently and he leaned down a little.
“Another thing,” he said. “Just because I apologized for kissing you doesn’t mean I’m sorry I did it.”
Anna gazed up into those blue eyes of his and, for an instant, lost herself in their intensity. And for that instant, lost anywhere with Cade Riker seemed like a wonderful place to be.
He backed off a little, releasing Anna from his hold. She huffed indignantly—simply because she thought she should—and walked away.
At the next block, she stopped and looked back.
Cade stood on the corner, still watching her.
Chapter Five
The Bank of Branford loomed ahead and, as always, its bold yellow-and-black sign caused Cade’s steps to slow.
Paperwork. He hated it. Sorting through stacks of papers. Finding the right ledger, the correct column. Squeezing figures into tiny spaces. Making sure everything added up. He hated going to the bank, listening to that old windbag, Charles Proctor, while his tellers counted every cent—as if a nickel one way or the other made any difference.
Keeping the books, handling the money, paying the bills was the one thing—just about the only thing—Henry had been good at. And now Cade was stuck doing it.
Not that he hadn’t tried to push the job off on Ben. But his brother had fought him on it. No one on the Riker side of the family had patience for bookkeeping. Cade had tried to think of someone he could pawn the task off on, but he didn’t trust anyone outside the family.
He didn’t dare let the problems at the lumberyard become public knowledge. A few months ago business had fallen off, surprising both Cade and Ben. The lumberyard had always been on sound financial footing. Neither had seen it coming.
Cade had secured new contracts and stepped up production, but it hadn’t helped. Finances were stretched almost to the breaking point. If things didn’t improve soon, he’d have to ask Charles Proctor for a bank loan.
Cade would rather take a beating than do that.
A flash of green caught his eye. Anna? She’d had on a green dress when she’d been at the lumberyard earlier. Was that her? And where was she going all by herself?
Cade headed down the boardwalk after her.
She’d made a point of telling him she didn’t want his help, but Cade wasn’t so sure she didn’t need it. He had a responsibility to keep an eye on her, whether it suited her or not.
Cade wove through the crowd, watching Anna’s backside just up ahead. She skirted around the folks on the boardwalk. People got out of Cade’s way.
He wondered, not for the first time, why Anna had agreed to marry Henry. Why she’d come so far, left her family and friends.
At the train station yesterday, Cade had readily seen why Henry wanted to marry Anna. Aside from being pretty, fit and healthy looking, she was smart. She had spirit, too. The kind of vitality that would make for some long sultry nights in a marriage bed.
Cade grumbled under his breath as the mental image brought with it a swift and strong physical reaction.
His steps slowed when he saw Anna stop at the window of Talbot’s General Store and look at the wedding display. Was she dreaming of the wedding that wouldn’t take place?
Damn that Henry Thornton for running off, Cade thought. But he knew Henry wasn’t solely responsible for shattering Anna’s dream, and that knowledge hung like a weight around Cade’s shoulders.
He held back, wrestling with his conscience—and his desire to see Anna again. He wasn’t sure he ought to go to her, yet he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
The light breeze blew at Anna’s skirt as she stood gazing at the display window. Her head was tilted, giving her chin a jaunty angle in the late afternoon sunlight.
Cade stopped next to her and she turned, favoring him with a look from those big brown eyes. Something inside his chest grew warm, then dived low, predictably.
“Do you follow all the single women in town, Mr. Riker?” she asked, pushing her chin up a bit. “Or is it just me?”
“So far, it’s just you.”
Anna wasn’t surprised by his honesty. Nor was she surprised to find him standing next to her. As in the alley yesterday, Cade suddenly appeared. A wall of strength.
“I wish you wouldn’t feel bad about Henry leaving,” Cade said. “It wasn’t your fault.”
He sounded so sincere, so concerned that Anna couldn’t hold back her feelings. She’d walked the town for hours, thinking, trying to come to terms with what had happened. Something about Cade standing next to her made her want to confess everything.
“I didn’t love him. I was fond of him, though,” Anna said. “I suppose Henry figured that I wouldn’t make a very good wife.”
“The hell you wouldn’t.”
The depth of Cade’s voice sent a little tremor through Anna. She fought to suppress the warmth flooding her cheeks—and elsewhere.
“I don’t really know what it takes to be a good wife,” Anna said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to marry Henry.”
“Then why did you?” His words weren’t judgmental. Anna hadn’t expected they would be. Her decision to marry Henry seemed to have happened years ago now, yet her reasoning was just as strong.
“I wasn’t all that happy with my life,” Anna told him. “So I decided to build a new one for myself, and make it the way I wanted.”
Cade grinned. “I’ll bet you could do just that.”
Hearing those few words of praise touched Anna’s heart. “Maybe I was wrong to come here to Branford.” She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Cade shrugged. “You did the wrong thing by agreeing to marry a man you didn’t love. Seems to me it’s okay to admit it to yourself, decide how to do better next time, then forgive yourself and go on.”
Straightforward advice. It sounded too simple coming from Cade.
“I wish it were that easy.”
“Seems to me it could be, in your case,” Cade said. “Just don’t agree to marry a man again unless you love him.”
“I don’t expect to receive any marriage proposals anytime soon,” Anna said, smiling a little. She turned back to the window display once more. “Before I left Virginia, my father bought me the most exquisite wedding dress, the dress of my dreams. I’d like to wear it someday.”
A moment passed and Anna turned away from the window. Cade fell in step beside her as they headed toward the hotel.
“Must be hard for you seeing all this wedding business going on,” Cade said.
Nearly every store displayed something bridal. The general stores featured gift suggestions. The sign outside Birdie’s Restaurant announced a wedding special. Wedding cookies were offered by the bakery. Even the barbershop heralded a groom’s haircut and shave deal.
“Mrs. Kendall asked me to help with the wedding festival,” Anna said.
“Figures…” Cade said. “That woman is bound and determined to drag the entire town into the weddings.”
“I’d like to help,” Anna said. “If there is a wedding festival, that is. I understand there’s a problem with the fabric. What a disaster that will be if it doesn’t arrive in time.”
“Yeah, well, uh…” Cade glanced around. “I need to talk to you about something. Come over here.”
Anna hesitated as he stepped off the boardwalk into the dusky alley beside the hotel. Her heart rate picked up a little, but it wasn’t from fear. It was…
Nothing, Anna told herself. It was nothing. Where was her mind these days? She joined Cade in the alley.
“There’s a job offer on the table,” he said.
Earlier, Kyle had asked her to come work for the brothers, but Anna hadn’t taken him seriously.
Cade seemed to read her thoughts. “It’s a legitimate offer. Kyle doesn’t want to do the cooking anymore, so I have to find someone else.”
“Kyle cooks for the three of you?” Anna asked.
“Off and on, whenever we need him,” Cade said. “After my youngest sister was born, Mama had three more babies. None of them lived. You can imagine her joy when Kyle came along healthy. She held on to him a little longer than she should. Made him a bit of a mama’s boy. That’s how he learned to cook.”
“Why don’t you just hire someone in town?” Anna asked.
“There’s plenty of women who want the work,” Cade said. “Problem is those women are either nosing around for some gossip, or are husband hunting.”
“Well, I’m certainly not looking for a husband.” Anna managed a small smile. “Unless I find one I’m in love with, of course.”
Cade smiled back, sharing her confidence.
“All you’d have to do is make breakfast and supper, and clean up afterward,” he explained. “And you’d have your own place to live.”
“Henry built a house for me?”
Cade paused as if he wanted to say something, but didn’t. “It’s at the lumberyard, next to our house.”
Anna considered it. The job sounded easy enough, and would keep her from spending the money she’d brought with her on hotels and restaurants. It would help fill her time, too, until she decided what to do with herself.
“There’s something else,” Cade said, his voice hardening a bit. “If you come to work for me, you have to know that anything you see or hear is confidential. You can’t go carrying tales all over town.”
Anna was slightly miffed by his words. Did he think she knew nothing about the business world? Her own mother had been a bookkeeper. Then Anna realized that the other women who’d worked for him in the past—the husband hunters and the gossips—had probably done just that.
“You needn’t worry,” Anna assured him.
He raised his brows, as if needing more of a promise.
“It’s the first thing Miss Purtle taught at her academy,” Anna told him. She cleared her voice and quoted, remembering the schoolmistress’s words, “‘When one finds oneself in the role of employee, confidentiality is of extreme importance.’ I’ll be trustworthy. I promise.”
Cade nodded. “I guess that settles everything.”
“Not exactly,” Anna said. “Just because I work for you, don’t start thinking you are responsible for me,
or have a say in what I do. Don’t go trying to boss me around.”
“Even if I’m the boss?”
“You know what I mean. We’re simply employer and employee. Nothing more.”
Cade leaned a little closer. “You’re thinking about our kiss again, aren’t you?”
“No,” she insisted, then flushed because that’s exactly what she’d been thinking about. How could she not? Every time she was near this man that’s what came to mind.
“You said yourself we should be employer and employee,” Anna said. “So it stands to reason there should be nothing more between us. Don’t you agree?”
“No.”
She looked up at him, unsure of whether he was teasing or taking her seriously.
“Do we have a deal or not?” she asked.
Cade hesitated, then finally nodded. “We have a deal.”
“Good.” Anna offered to shake hands to seal the arrangement.
Cade’s palm slid across hers and his big fingers enveloped her whole hand. Warmth raced up Anna’s arm, stealing her breath away.
Even in the dark alley, Anna saw his expression change. His breathing deepened. He angled his body closer.
Anna’s breath quickened, too. She felt his heat holding her in place.
Cade kissed her. He covered her lips with his and blended their mouths together with an exquisite slowness that caused Anna to lean her head back and rise on her toes. Cade moaned low in his throat and deepened their kiss, caressing her with his tongue.
He pulled away but his lips hovered close to hers.
“I—I thought we agreed…” Anna began.
“You’re not my employee until tomorrow,” he whispered. Then he pulled away, escorted her to the hotel entrance and left her standing in the doorway.
Chapter Six
The chill of dawn quickened Anna’s steps as she left the Harrington Hotel and headed toward the west end of town, her satchel swaying in rhythm with her walk.
Her first day on a job. A real job. A place where she could make decisions and work as she chose.