If Adam wasn’t who he was, Marie would have thought he was flirting with her. She could tell the compliment was genuine and from the heart though, meant in the most appropriate way possible. She smiled softly. “Thank you, Adam. That is very nice.”
“Come on. Let’s go see if our man is in this place.”
Marie sniffed in amusement and moved to get down after Adam. He lifted one hand and helped her. She was surprised to realize she was nervous. She shouldn’t be nervous. What Jake did had nothing to do with her.
However, it did have something to do with her. More than she ever wanted to admit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SAM SPILLS THE BEANS
SAM SPILLS THE BEANS
Adam stepped to the side and let Marie go in front of him, holding out his hand to let her pass. She went inside the saloon and walked straight to the bar. Adam was close behind her. There weren’t very many people in the place. Neither of them saw Jake. Everything seemed to be peaceful and quiet.
Sam looked at them approaching. He almost looked worried to Marie. “Good evening, you two,” he said. “You looking for Jake?”
“Yeah, we are,” Adam said. “Has he been here?”
Sam nodded and Marie felt her heart plummet to her shoes. “Yeah, he was in here a couple hours ago.”
Adam frowned. “What happened? Why did he leave? Did you have to kick him out?”
Sam shook his head. “No, Adam. He didn’t cause a scene in her tonight. Big Jim tried to cause a scene, but Jake wasn’t havin’ any of it.”
“What do you mean?” Marie asked, her voice rising slightly in pitch.
Sam shrugged his shoulders. “You know Jake has a temper. He just hides it well. And he used to come in here and drink all day and most of the night and try to play cards and gamble, but he wasn’t very good at hiding what he was doing once he got pretty drunk. He hasn’t done that in a long time, though.” He added the last part quickly, seeing the troubled look on Marie’s face. “I noticed a real difference in him from the way he was when he first got to Wickenburg. He’s changed a lot.” He looked at Marie. “It’s because of you, Marie. You have changed him.”
She shook her head. “I can’t change anyone. They have to do it for themselves.”
“Then it’s because of your influence. You’ve really done something with him, Marie. You really have. You are to be commended for it.”
Marie blushed, lowering her head. “Thank you,” she mumbled. She didn’t feel like she deserved a lot of praise, but she was also aware that Jake would have been run out of town by now if it wasn’t for him staying with her.
“You know, people were more willing to give him a chance because they knew he was staying with you. They figured if you thought he was a good guy, he must be. He got a couple jobs because people overheard him saying something about you while he was in here.”
Marie raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Really?” She turned her eyes to Adam, whose lips were pulled up at the sides in the smallest smile Marie had ever seen. When he saw she was looking at him, he smiled completely, stretching his lips back.
“I know my wife has told you these things already, Marie. Don’t look so surprised.”
Marie shook her head. “I am glad that he’s doing better things for himself lately. I really am. But where is he now? And what happened with Big Jim?”
“Big Jim confronted Jake, I’m guessing. I was in the back room. When I came out, Jake was talking to him by the front door and then Jake left peacefully. I don’t know what was said, but whatever it was, Jake handled it like a real gentleman.”
Adam nodded. “That’s good to hear.”
“I gotta say it was good to see,” Sam set a glass down on the rack below him and leaned forward on the bar, his arms outstretched. “So you two are looking for him?”
“Where do you think he could have gone?” Marie asked them both at once. They looked at her without responding. They looked as confused as she did. She looked at Sam. “How many beers did he drink?”
“Just the one. And he made sure to give me some money when he came in, too. He’s been paying me off as he works.”
Marie didn’t know that Jake had been giving Sam his money. “How long has he been doing that?”
“It’s been about two weeks. I appreciate you coming in and putting money on his tab, Marie. You didn’t have to do that. It makes the change in Jake all the more noticeable.”
“He’s right,” Adam said. “You didn’t have to do that. I don’t suppose he might gone down to the other saloon, do you?”
“It closed down.”
Adam looked stunned. “You are joking me.”
“No, sir. It caught fire and had to close. I can’t believe you didn’t know that, Adam. I would have sworn you were one of the men helping to put out the flames. Thought I saw you there.”
“When was that?”
“Just at the end of the year last year.”
“Well, he isn’t there then,” Marie said, not giving Adam a chance to try remembering the burning building. Wickenburg was small. He didn’t know how he missed it. “Where will we look?”
Adam licked his lips. “Give me a beer. Get one for the lady. We’ll wait a minute and see if he returns, enjoy a beer and then go home.” He looked through the front windows. “It’s going to be dark soon and I don’t want to leave Alice alone for too long. The last time Jake went to my house, he wasn’t the best of company. I don’t want Alice dealing with that alone.”
“I’m telling you, Adam,” Sam said, holding up one hand. “He’s changed from before. And he only had one beer here. I can’t think of anywhere else he’d have some. He hasn’t bought liquor bottles from me for weeks.”
With each word, Marie’s heart beat sped up. Jake was taking control and it was amazing to watch. Sam talked as he poured beer from the barrel behind him into two clean glasses. Adam slid him two dollar bills. “Keep the change,” he said. Sam stopped talking long enough to take the dollar bills. Adam had given him a huge tip, as the beers were only five cents each.
“You know you can come in here and drink anytime you wish, Adam,” he joked, pushing the bills into his left breast shirt pocket.
Adam just grinned at him and drank a third of the beer in three gulps. Marie barely took a sip off the top. She was quite anxious to leave. She wasn’t in the mood for a beer. She wanted to go out there and look for Jake. What if he’d been hurt? What if he needed their help?
She sighed as quietly as she could, looking around the bar. She knew most of the people in the place. She was surprised to see that when she turned to look, many of them had to draw their eyes away from her and try to look like they hadn’t been staring at her.
Chances were, if they were staring at her, they were talking about her.
She felt naked and vulnerable. She hated that feeling and it bolstered the feeling that she wanted to get out of the saloon and find Jake. Adam was talking to Sam about a game of pool he’d played against Mark that hadn’t gone in his favor. They were laughing. She was annoyed by it. They were so casual about the situation when Jake was missing.
She was standing in a bar with a handful of people staring at her as if she was some kind of porcelain doll and they had to be very careful. The looks they were giving her were not unkind. They were looks of sympathy or awe. She could tell the difference easily. Both felt strange to her.
Without saying anything to disturb Adam and Sam’s conversation, Marie left the beer behind to go to the door and look out. She stepped out onto the deck and walked to the edge to step down onto the ground. She looked up and down the street, peering as far as she could see. It was nearing pure darkness, but a man was walking down the street, lighting the torches every twenty yards or so. She didn’t see anyone standing outside the buildings, at least no one that resembled Jake. She crossed the street and began walking toward the Collins’ home, taking the path she figured he would take.
In the distance, she could hear a choppin
g sound. Someone was chopping wood. It was a bit late for something like that, but Marie shrugged it off. She continued to walk, enjoying the fresh air blowing past her cheeks. It was a nice breeze, easing the heat of the day in a comfortable way. The chopping stopped for a time, and then it resumed and stopped again.
Marie approached the house where the chopping had come from. She stopped just beyond the torch that had been lit. It was still just light enough for her to see the outline of a man standing beside the house, lifting a large log of wood, carrying it a few feet and dropping it onto the pile he had made.
Marie took a step closer and then another. She was filled with wonder as she realized it was indeed Jake who had been chopping wood.
He looked up and saw her, freezing in place, with a large log of wood on his shoulder. She couldn’t see him well enough to see his facial reaction.
Jake was lost in thought. He knew he was pushing it and needed to get to Adam’s, but he had felt obligated to do this for Mrs. Patterson. The woman was getting up in years and the tree was going to fall on her house at any moment. From Jake’s assessment as he passed by on his way to Adam’s house, there was no way it would have lasted much longer. And when it came down, it would smash through the roof and probably kill anyone inside the small place.
As he was passing, Jake could hear the wood cracking at the base of the tree. It was going to split up the middle, he had no doubt. Even half of that tree would do enough damage and possibly take a life.
He’d stopped and knocked on the door. Mrs. Patterson didn’t mind talking to him. She invited him right into her home. Instead of going in, Jake asked her to step outside and he showed her what the problem was. He offered to take it down immediately. Mrs. Patterson thanked him and gave him her late husband’s ax and bow saw. Jake declined the bow saw and took the ax. It had been some time since he’d done a job this big. He had no idea how long it was going to take.
Marie would wait for him, he was sure. And if she didn’t, well, she didn’t have to. Neither of them had to answer to the other one. They weren’t obligated to reveal everything they did and everywhere they went.
He went to chopping at the tree and didn’t think of anything else until he picked up that log of wood, set it on his shoulder, turned around and saw Marie. The first emotion he felt was confusion. Then annoyance. She had come searching for him? He was embarrassed. He tossed the wood down on the pile and came over to talk to her.
“What are you doing here?” he asked in a low voice. “You do realize that I’m a grown man, don’t you?”
“I do,” Marie’s look of bewilderment eased his temper. “But you don’t have to be a child to be worried about. I only want you to be safe. I don’t want anything to happen to you again.”
Jake stepped back and inhaled loudly. He tried to convince himself that she was not trying to control him. She only meant to care for him. He looked down at her and blinked, moving toward her instead of away from her.
She looked surprised, but did not step back from him. She let him approach. He came close enough for her to feel the heat coming off his body. He looked down into her eyes.
She felt overwhelmed. Was he angry with her for coming to look for him? She didn’t understand why he would be. She was concerned about him. There wasn’t anything wrong with that. “Jake,” she said. “I don’t want you angry with me. I just wanted to know that you were all right.”
“You can see that I am. I am capable of taking care of myself. I always have. I always will.”
“But we had plans to meet at the Collins’ home. You didn’t show up. That’s why I was concerned.”
“I would have let you know if I could have. But I can’t talk to you with my mind, can I?”
“No, of course not. I wouldn’t expect that.”
“Then how would I be able to let you know that this emergency situation occurred and I needed to take care of it before coming out there for dinner?”
“Alice spent all day cooking the food, Jake. We waited for you to come before we ate.”
“You should have eaten. I didn’t tell you to wait on me.”
Marie felt trapped. No matter what she said, he had a rebuttal that dismissed or completely missed her point. She shook her head. “That’s not the point. Oh, Jake, I don’t want to argue with you.”
“I don’t need to be treated like a baby, Marie. I really don’t. I can take care of myself.”
Marie nodded. Tears were in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she choked out. “I’m sorry.”
She turned and hurried back toward town, anxious to get back to Adam and to be taken home or go back to their house. She heard Jake calling her name as she went, but she didn’t stop. She covered her mouth with her hands to hold in the cries and hurried as fast as she could down the lane to the Horse N Saddle.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ADAM AND JAKE TALK
ADAM AND JAKE TALK
Jake watched her leave, sighing. He would never understand what he was doing, why he wouldn’t give the woman a chance to love him. He turned back to the wood and finished what he was doing. It didn’t take more than ten minutes. When he had all the wood piled up neatly, he went inside the house to wash his hands.
“I can’t thank you enough for doing that for me, Jake. You are a fine man.” Mrs. Patterson was seated in the living room when he came out from the kitchen.
“It needed to be done, Mrs. Patterson. I’m glad I was able to do it before the thing came crashing down on your house.”
“It might have killed me,” Mrs. Patterson said. She looked like she was attempting to get up, but Jake stopped the old woman.
“Don’t get up. I know my way out. If there’s anything you need, you let me know, all right?”
She gave him a grateful smile. “Yes, thank you, young man.”
He smiled at her and left the house. Once outside, he couldn’t decide if he should go home or to Adam’s. He stood for a moment, pondering the thought. Marie was upset with him, so he thought it would be better to go to Adam’s for a while. If she was there, they would be on neutral territory and he could explain to her how he was feeling. If she wasn’t there, he could discuss it with Adam and get his opinion. Not the best way to have a reunion dinner.
As he mounted his horse and went down the path toward Adam’s house, he realized there were many reasons why Marie might have come looking for him. This dinner was important to her on many different levels. It wasn’t just about him and her wanting to know where he was and what he was doing. It was his relationship with Adam that she wanted to be repaired. For his own good. She wasn’t doing anything that would hurt him.
He sighed again. What would he do now? He hoped she wasn’t at Adam’s. Then again, he hoped she was because he liked seeing her and being around her. But to be in a relationship with a woman? Not now. It wasn’t the right time. He didn’t think he would handle it well. If something happened and they split apart, he would be devastated. He would lose his best friend and someone he knew he could count on in a pinch. No matter what.
He hated how much he wanted to be with her, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. It was obvious that she loved him with all her heart. He didn’t know how to feel about that. How could she love someone like him?
He shook his head as his horse walked down the lane. He didn’t think he would ever figure that out. To have a beautiful, available woman fall for you at the worst time in your life was a terrible thing to happen. He felt like no matter what happened, someone was going to be hurt. Probably both of them.
He would discuss it with Adam and see what he thought. Adam was wise and would have some good advice.
As he neared the house, he saw Adam and Marie were just pulling up in the coach. Adam was helping her down. Both of them looked up at him as he rose closer. Neither smiled at him. Nervousness shot through him. He didn’t know Adam had taken Marie into town. That meant both of them were looking for him.
He felt about two inches tall and wanted to
turn his horse around. However, in the end, the best thing to do would be to confront this problem head on and see if he could redeem himself with his family and his best friend.
He made it to the house and slid off his horse, throwing the reins over the hitching post. Adam had waited for him on the porch, insisting Marie go inside until he could have a talk with Jake.
Jake’s heart was pounding hard as he walked to the porch to meet up with Adam. He steeled himself for what he felt must be coming. Adam was going to be furious that Jake had made Marie cry.
“Hello, Jake,” Adam said in a low voice.
Jake nodded once at him. “Hello.”
“Sit out here and talk to me for a minute. I’m sure you know Marie is upset and I’d like to give her a chance to talk to Alice before we go in there.”
“I know. I didn’t mean to upset her.”
“You did. You really upset her. It’s not a good thing, Jake. It’s not a good thing.” Adam was shaking his head. He pulled out his pipe and lit it, taking a puff. It let off a light, sweet scent.
“I thought she was searching for me because she thinks I’m not capable of taking care of myself.”
“The way you’ve been taking care of yourself for the past few years isn’t working. You obviously needed some kind of guidance. I think that’s what you’ve gotten from Marie. You do realize what she’s done for you, don’t you?”
Jake nodded. “Of course, I do.”
“That’s good. You need to show it more. You should appreciate her. You should be taking care of her, not the other way around.”
“I know that, Adam.”
Adam shook his head. “You don’t seem to. Look, you are my cousin. You are family. Marie is also my family, even if it is not by blood. With what I know of how you typically are, according to our family, mind you, I have a tendency to fall on her side with matters. You can’t take advantage of her and hurt her without consequences.”
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