“I hope it’s always that way for you, Jake. I really do. I want you to succeed.”
He nodded. “I know you do.”
“Thank you for the compliments.”
He smiled. “Anytime.”
Jake had a job to do Sunday after church and told Marie to go on to the Collins’ home first and he would arrive a little later. She didn’t ask him where he needed to work, though she was tempted. She told herself it was not her business what he was doing. He was not her husband and they were not courting. Living with him didn’t give her the right to know where he was all the time. It didn’t stop her from wondering though. She worried about him when he wasn’t around.
She hated it.
Nevertheless, it was the price she would pay for loving a man who did not love her.
Jake needed to fix a railing for one of the women he’d met at the church that day. He was amused by the way the woman seemed to trap him in a corner of the church as they were leaving and ask him about it. She wanted it done that day because she was having a small get together at her house later in the evening and she would be devastated if someone was hurt by the broken railing.
“Many of my friends are elderly,” she said, as though she herself wasn’t pushing eighty. “And will need that railing to get up the steps. Will you help me, Jake? I have heard such good things about your work. I’ll pay you.”
Jake smiled at her. The last three words had him more than the rest. He thought about it quickly and nodded. He would have enough time to fix the railing and get to Adam’s. “Yes, I’ll come over in about an hour. Let me change my clothes. I don’t want to muss these.”
“Of course, of course!” she responded in an excited voice. “Thank you, Jake!”
“See you then, Mrs. Winters.” He lifted one hand and hurried out from the church.
He fixed the railing quickly. It needed to be replaced. She had what he needed and he took the old one off and put the new one on. It took him about an hour.
When he was finished, he brushed off his hands, took the handful of dollars Mrs. Winters gave him and turned back toward town. He deserved a beer for working on a Sunday. He would stop at Sam’s and get one before going to Adam’s.
He stepped up to the bar and slid several of the dollars over the counter toward Sam. “Hey, I’ve got some more to go toward my tab, Sam. Thanks for being patient with me.”
Sam grinned at him. “It’s my pleasure, Jake. I’m glad to see you doing so well. You want one or you got somewhere to be?”
“I’ll take a beer, yeah. I’ve got to get to a dinner tonight.”
“Oh yeah?”
Jake nodded, rolling his eyes. “The women. You know how they are. They wanted me and Adam to stop hating each other. So I guess we’re gonna have to.”
Sam grinned, shaking his head. “Adam don’t hate you, Jake. He worries about you.”
“That’s what Marie said, too, but I don’t see it. I don’t see how making me go back out on the street was helping me at all.”
“You were in a sad state at the time, Jake,” Sam said, pushing a cloth into a glass and spinning it around, his eyes remaining on Jake’s face. “You really think you can trust any memories you have from that time?”
Jake thought about it for a moment. Sam was right. His emotions were just as distorted as his mind when he’d first arrived at Wickenburg. He’d come for the sole purpose of getting into Adam’s home for a while and then moving on. He’d wanted time to sort his thoughts.
And look what he got instead. Marie popped into his mind. A beautiful woman with a beautiful soul.
He drank the beer in silence, thinking about things Marie had done for him. She treated him like he was worth something. He’d needed help and she had instinctively offered it. She didn’t make him ask for anything. She just wanted to be respected.
He knew he couldn’t trust the memories he had from the time of his arrival. Most of them were in a fog of drunkenness. He did remember thinking he was lucky to have broken his arm because it gave him an excuse to have a bottle of rum or whiskey at his side at all times.
He’d grown tired of that and abandoned the whiskey and the rum for occasional pleasure instead of constant. In fact, he’d abandoned the saloon almost entirely, which was a good thing, he knew. He only came in for an occasional beer and was paying off his debt to Sam as much as he could, little by little.
He tipped up the beer, draining it of its contents. He turned around on the stool to leave and found himself blocked by a large man. It was the same man who had beaten him down when he first came to Wickenburg.
“Don’t you think you need to pay the man, thief?” the man bellowed in his face.
He pulled back some and looked behind him to see if Sam was around. He wasn’t. Jake’s heart sank. He didn’t want to get in another fight. He had a few more dollars in his pocket; he could always leave it on the counter for Sam. However, he didn’t want to just leave the money. This man and his friends would take it and claim he left nothing. He wasn’t going to let them have Sam’s money.
“I’ve already paid him,” Jake replied in a calm voice. He was calm on the outside. He was raging, wanting to take it out on the man yelling in his face.
The man turned to his friends and laughed. “Did you hear that? He’s not just a cheater and a thief; he’s a liar, too!”
Jake curtailed his anger, restraining himself as much as he could. He couldn’t fight this man, especially in front of his friends. He would die. However, he couldn’t let himself go out without fighting, either. All he wanted to do at that moment was be back at Marie’s, holding her close to him, smelling her hair and laughing about something with her.
A picture swam in front of his eyes. He could see Marie, standing at the end of the porch, waving down at him, holding a tiny baby in her arms. The thought made him catch his breath.
He shook his head and stood, nearly chest to chest with the man. The big man was at least three inches taller and was much wider in the chest. Jake looked like a child in comparison, but felt like a man inside.
“I didn’t come here for a fight.” Jake couldn’t remember the man’s name.
“You didn’t come here for a fight?”
Jake gave him a quizzical look. “Did you?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
JAKE DOESN’T SHOW
JAKE DOESN’T SHOW
Marie sat on the couch near the window, looking around the small home. “This is a nice house, Alice,” she said.
“I didn’t know if you had been here before,” Alice said, handing her a cup of sweetened cold tea. “I thought you had.” She looked over her shoulder as Adam came through the doorway. “Adam, I can’t believe we’ve never invited Marie to our home before.”
Adam smiled at Marie. “Marie has always been a very busy woman. Hello, Marie. It’s been at least a few hours since we’ve seen you. How are you doing?”
Marie picked up on the sarcasm and smiled back, shrugging. “No different than it was then really.”
Adam looked around the room. “Is Jake not coming?”
“He had to take care of something first,” Marie hoped her voice didn’t sound as uneasy to them as it did to her.
“Oh really.” Adam’s voice was filled with doubt. The three of them shared a look.
“Where is that sweet baby?” Marie asked. “I want to hold her, if you let me.”
Alice laughed and moved to the other side of the couch where a baby bassinet held a quiet little girl. Marie giggled. “I didn’t even see her there. She is so quiet!”
“She is a very content baby,” Alice nodded, reaching into the bassinet with both hands and lifting out the baby. She was already wrapped in a soft yellow blanket. Alice tucked it in a little more and gently lowered her to Marie’s arms. “Say ‘hello’, Carrie. Say ‘hello’.”
Marie didn’t expect the seven-month-old to say anything. She pushed down the blanket and scanned the child’s content face. “My goodness,” she said. “
I do hope that if I ever have a child, she or he is as lovely as yours.” She smiled up at them. They returned it, as Alice sat down on the couch next to Marie and Adam sat in a chair by the fireplace.
“We were blessed,” Adam said. “Riley and Max were not as quiet. I can tell you that.”
The three of them laughed quietly.
“I planned on having a family with my late husband,” Marie said. “But he died before we could.”
Alice nodded. “Yes, we know. We didn’t know you well back then, but the word did get around town when all of that happened. Adam and I weren’t together yet.”
“I was with Holly. We had just had Max and Riley was due at any time. That’s why I remember when it was. We wanted to help you, but we had our family to look after.”
Marie shook her head, bouncing the baby in her arms subconsciously. “No, please don’t apologize. I got a lot of help from the community. I made it through just fine. I did want to have a baby though and I wish that I had been granted that one blessing. It would have made it easier to get through without my husband.”
“I don’t know,” Alice said, her eyes on her child. “I think if something were to happen to Adam now that we have a baby, it would hurt me more because I would have a constant reminder of what I no longer had and my child would grow up without her father. I wouldn’t like that. Not that it’s better that you don’t have a child,” Alice faltered, hoping she hadn’t said anything to hurt her friend. “I… I…”
Adam saved his wife from further stress by jumping in. “I think the pain would be tremendous either way.”
Marie and Alice looked at him. “Yes,” Marie said. “I agree with that. And you would know, wouldn’t you. You lost your wife. After you had two children with her.”
“We shouldn’t talk about such morbid topics,” Alice interjected. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“What would you like to talk about, Alice?” Adam asked.
“I am wondering where Jake is,” she responded.
Adam’s face fell and Marie stared down at the baby in her arms.
“I’m sure he will be here soon. He isn’t very late yet.” Marie’s voice was so low they barely heard her.
“But aren’t you concerned?” Alice continued. “He has been doing so well lately. I hope he doesn’t… doesn’t…”
“We don’t need to be talking about him,” Adam said. “We need to wait for him and be patient.”
“I am concerned, Alice,” Marie said. “But whatever happens with him, we can’t keep making excuses for him. He’s going to do what he wants to do. That’s the way people are.”
Alice frowned. “I don’t have a good feeling about it.”
“Where are Riley and Max?” Marie asked. “I’ll bet they are playing outside, aren’t they?”
“They are,” Adam said, nodding.
“Let’s go outside and enjoy the evening before it gets dark.”
“That’s a good idea,” Adam said.
As they stood up, Alice looked at Marie with a smile and said, “He only thinks it’s a good idea so he can go puff on that pipe of his.” She directed the next sentence at her husband, who was walking in front of her. “I don’t know why you like that thing, Adam.”
“You never complain to me about it,” Adam replied with a shrug.
“I won’t complain about it. You like it. I’m just glad you keep it outside.”
Adam turned at the door and held it open for the ladies. He looked down at Marie as she passed. “Don’t let her fool you. I bought special sweet-smelling herbs to put in it and she likes the smell. She knows she does. She just doesn’t want to admit it.”
“I heard you,” Alice said, turning to give her husband a flirty look.
He grinned at her. “I didn’t intend for you not to.”
She laughed and shook her head, taking a seat on one of the porch rocking chairs. Marie sat in another, still holding the silent baby in her hands. Adam sat on the top step of the porch and took out his pipe, as Alice had predicted. As soon as they saw it, the ladies started laughing. He made a barking sound to them as he was lighting it, only making them laugh harder.
“It is a very nice night, Marie. I’m glad we came out here.” Alice looked out at the clear sky. “It rained so hard yesterday and the day before. I thought we were in monsoon season early. I wouldn’t like that. I have too much to take care of to be walking through the rain all the time.”
“I don’t want the rain to come too soon either,” Adam said. “It costs me business. People stay inside when it’s raining like that.”
Marie couldn’t help looking down the path to town, wondering where Jake was. She wanted and expected to see him riding up at any moment. However, he never came. The day wore on and the sun began to set.
Alice had spent most of the afternoon going in and coming out of the house as she prepared dinner. Adam and Marie kept up a conversation, avoiding talking about what they were thinking. Riley and Max entertained them with a lively game of tag in the front yard.
“The food smells absolutely delicious, Alice,” Marie said, smiling up at her friend as she came out from the house. “Jake says he likes my cooking. Do you go by recipes?”
“I have recipes that my mother left for me,” Alice nodded. “But I have come up with some of my own that have proven to be great favorites of my family.”
“I’d like to look at your recipes. I’m always looking for something new to try.”
“There’s no truth in the saying that there’s no new way to cook something. There is always a way to make something taste different than it did the last time you cooked it. For instance, tonight I made a chicken for dinner. I used a rosemary base and added some other herbs and spices that I know taste good with that.
At one point, Adam got up, went inside and retrieved a deck of cards. “Care for a game while we wait for Jake?” he said.
When the women agreed to a game of Gin Rummy the three of them sat around the porch table, dragging the chairs around so that they were all facing it. Marie was less experienced at the game. Alice showed her some mercy, but Adam didn’t. He laughed heartily every time he won the round. It didn’t bother either woman. They just looked at each other with smiles and rolled their eyes. He saw what they were doing, but it didn’t stop him from enjoying his wins.
“At least when he doesn’t win, he doesn’t pout and sulk like a child,” Marie said with a laugh.
Alice and Adam both laughed with her. “That is true, Marie,” Alice nodded. “So true. I’ve played a few rounds with Max and I wouldn’t recommend it. He’s a sore loser.”
After five rounds of cards, Jake still had not arrived.
“Well, we have a choice to make,” Adam said when the hour had grown late. “We can either go in and eat the food Alice has been cooking all day or we can go find him, bring him back here and eat with him.” He looked at Marie. “You make the decision.”
Marie frowned. “Me? Why do I have to make the decision?”
“Because he’s your man.”
“He’s not my man. I’m not going to marry him. I have never even kissed the man!”
Adam shrugged. “All right. You’ve made the decision then. If he’s not your man, why should you go in search of him? He can do what he wants, right?”
“But what if something has happened to him?” Marie asked without thinking.
Adam smiled at her. “Then he is your man.”
“Stop it, Adam. You’re annoying her, can’t you see?” Alice chided her husband. “She obviously loves him. Everyone knows it. She can’t even deny it, can you, Marie?”
Marie pursed her lips. “I refuse to say it.”
“I know you do,” Alice nodded, turning her eyes to her husband. “Adam, go and find him. I’ll stay here with Marie and the children.”
“No,” Marie shook her head. “I want to go, too. If he just sees Adam, he might think he is in trouble. I’ll be able to calm him down if he’s gotten into troubl
e.”
Alice nodded. “You are right. If you’re going to go, go now before it gets too late and it’s too hard to see.”
“We only have about an hour of daylight left. Come along, Marie. We’ll take the carriage.”
Adam set up the carriage as quickly as possible and they headed toward town. Adam had the horses running at a fast pace and they would not have missed if Jake was on his way to their house. There was only one path to the Collins’ house and they were on it.
“I know you are worried about him, Marie. I am, too. But remember, he has been on his own for a long time. He’s going to do what he wants to.”
“I am worried,” Marie confirmed. Her hands were gripped firmly together in her lap and her eyes searched the road in front of them for Jake’s horse. She hoped beyond hope that she would see him. “Where are we going first? The saloon?”
Adam nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s the most logical place to look, don’t you?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, I do.”
They rode in tense silence the rest of the way to town and stopped in front of the Horse N Saddle. Marie grabbed his arm before he got out of the buggy. “If he isn’t here, what do you think the chances are that he would be at the other saloon?”
Adam grunted. “If he isn’t here, I don’t know where to look and I’m not looking anywhere else. He can fend for himself. Don’t tell me if he comes home drunk and belligerent. I don’t want to know.”
“We can’t give up on him, Adam,” Marie said in a pleading voice.
Adam shook his head, leaning over to put his hand on her clasped ones. “There comes a time when you have to let go, Marie. You have to let loved ones make their mistakes. We can’t control what anyone does but ourselves.”
Marie nodded. “I know. I wish I had control. I really do!”
Adam chuckled. “If you had that kind of power, I think the world would be a beautiful place.” He squeezed her hands and let go. “You’d make it that way.”
Saved By An Angel Page 14