Choices of the Heart

by Daniels, Julia

  She sat back down on a bale of hay and crossed her legs, trying to look bored and composed, even though her insides were tied in knots. She folded her hands in her lap and closed her eyes. The boot steps were getting closer, and she knew he’d be inside in just a minute. There were no other footsteps. Where was Isabelle? Was she waiting for him inside the house, away from the hay she was allergic to?

  Chloe shook her head and decided to keep the hope alive in her heart. She looked up when she heard his footsteps stop and actually felt Reese inside the barn. With the fading light at his back, he looked like an imposing figure. He stood silently in the doorway, his legs spread wide, his hands on his hips.

  She fought the urge to run to him, to throw her arms around his neck. She didn’t know if he was there to tell her to leave or ask her to stay, but right then and there, she knew exactly what she wanted. She’d been backed against a wall, in a roundabout way, but without a doubt, life with Reese was the only thing that would bring her true happiness.

  “You wanna go in the house where there’s more light?” he asked her before he walked fully inside.

  “I’m fine out here. Hay doesn’t make me sneeze.”

  “Be nice,” he warned and sat next to her on the hay bale.

  They both sat looking straight ahead out the open door into the darkness, neither focused on anything except the breathing of the other.

  “Why did you do it?” Chloe finally asked. “Why did you ask Isabelle to marry you when I hadn’t given you an answer about Bobby?”

  “I didn’t,” he told her.

  “I came to tell you my decision and saw you two embracing on the porch.” She turned toward him. “Kissing deeply. Not just a peck for goodbye.” She stood and crossed her arms. Why was he lying to her? “You didn’t even wait for me to tell you yes or no before you moved on.”

  “It wasn’t what it looked like,” he defended his actions. “I didn’t know you were there, either.”

  “What would you have done if you had known?”

  That seemed to stump him, his jaw hung open for a minute and then he shut it. “Wouldn’t have mattered.”

  “You’re just making sure you have someone as backup, isn’t that it? If I said no, then Isabelle was on the hook.”

  “I’m not desperate enough for a woman to try to snag both you and Isabelle.” The volume of his voice was rising. “I’m not trying to get two women.”

  “Well, aren’t you?”

  “No,” he said, with a rough shake to his head. “I would be happy to explain if you’d just let me.”

  “Fine.” She sat back down on the hay bale and crossed her legs that had suddenly turned into mush. She’d felt full of bravado when she’d been on the attack, but now that the shoe was on the other foot, anxiety flowed in her veins.

  “When you left earlier we were at a stalemate,” he said. “You had no intention of staying here, and this is where my life is, where it always will be. The dream of going to the university was just that, a dream. I can’t leave here. This land is in my blood. I’m a part of it. And so is Bobby; he’s just too young to know it yet.”

  “But—”

  He held up a hand to stop her. “Let me finish, please.”

  She nodded and listened as he continued.

  “Isabelle came over in the late afternoon as she sometimes does when her mother naps. I shared with her the contents of the will and guardianship. I also told her you were planning on returning to Lincoln.”

  “But—”

  “Chloe.” He frowned. “That is where we were when you left me. I know you wanted to think it over, but I wasn’t at all convinced you would change your mind. I couldn’t be certain Bobby was important enough to you to make you stay here.”

  She remained silent, absorbing what he was saying.

  “She suggested, not me, that it would be a fine idea for her and me to marry and raise Bobby.” He chuckled. “In case you don’t remember, I’m not real confident around women, and I didn’t want to hurt her and tell her no, that I was hoping…well, that I was waiting to see what you decided to do.”

  Hoping, what? That she would stay?

  “And?”

  “And I kissed her… Because I needed to know…” He swallowed. “I needed to know if she could make me as hot as you do. If she could bring that spark to my body like you do, with just a look.”

  “And did she?”

  He cleared his throat. Leave it to Chloe to put him on the spot. “Ah, no.” He shook his head. “I should have told her no, right then and there, that I didn’t want her. But I was a chicken and didn’t.” He leaned back and stretched out his legs in front of the bale. “I had no idea she would go see you. I’m sorry. I really messed things up.” After a heartbeat, he finally met her eyes. “There. Finished. Now it’s your turn.”

  She wasn’t ready to admit what she felt for him…not just yet. But she needed to say something. But what?

  “Nothing to say?”

  How long had she been silent?

  She took his hand in hers. “Which way do you want to see this go?”

  The question seemed to catch him off guard, and he choked on a laugh. “I guess what I said earlier sank in, huh? You’re thinking beyond Chloe.”

  “Something like that.” She wasn’t selfish, as he’d suggested, just stupid—too stupid to see much farther than the tip of her nose sometimes. And two years ago, she’d been pretty dumb. If only she’d thought to include him in her plans…

  He stood up and pulled her to a standing position. He drew her into his arms and bent his head just inches from her face, staring deeply into her eyes.

  “Finally, you want to know what I want.” He smiled. “Chloe Anne, I want to make love to you until the sun comes up and the cows need to be milked.” His lips found her neck and trailed lower, until he hit the special spot that always drove her wild.

  Her eyes closed on a rush of excitement, and goose bumps made the hair on her arms stand on end. “That’s just one night, Reese. What about the rest of your life?” She couldn’t let this get any further until she knew where she stood with him. This was her life they were talking about.

  She tilted her neck so he had better access and moved her hands around to his back, pulling him closer. This felt so good. Almost too good to be true.

  “I meant every night for the rest of my life.” He moved his lips from her neck and pushed the loose tendrils from the side of her face. “Once we marry, I want to sleep with you every night, raise Bobby, and make a half-dozen brothers and sisters for him.” He stopped kissing her and focused on her eyes. “Children that will know love like Ronnie and I did growing up. I want to grow this farm, make it one of the most profitable in the county. Hell, maybe even the state. That’s what I want, Chloe. That is what I have always wanted.”

  If that wasn’t a declaration, she didn’t know what was.

  “So, I guess if I decide to stay, you’ll have me?” Her hand found the back of his neck, and she pulled his lips down to meet hers. There was no gentleness in the exchange, and a heavy pressure of arousal settled itself deep in her belly.

  She pushed him back on a small pile of hay and landed next to him with a laugh. “Remember how itchy we were when we made love here that time?”

  “Yes, I do, but by God, it was worth every scratch. Every damn one.” He tumbled her onto her back and slowly eased his hand under the hem of her dress, caressing her outer thigh, his lips toying with hers.

  Her body tingled where his fingers touched, the fire in her belly making her legs weak with need. Her hands found his bottom, and she dragged him against her, slightly arching her stomach against his arousal. They fit together entirely too well.

  She reached up and pulled the shirt from the waistband of his jeans. Still kissing him with the passion that seemed never ending, never fading. She eased the buttons open one at a time until she pushed the shirt off his shoulders. She pulled back to look—to stare really—at the magnificent chest that alw
ays made her crazy.

  The muscles were so defined, felt so strong under her fingers. She leaned forward onto her knees, and he reclined onto the hay. She rested against his chest and let her mouth tease his, eventually moving to his shoulder and lower to his chest.

  A soft moan escaped his lips, and she smiled, pleased that she remembered what made his heart and body sing. His hands cupped her rear end and caressed her, trailing the length of her outer thigh, letting the hem of her dress tickle her as it trailed farther up toward her waist.

  He flipped her down in the hay and turned on his side to face her. He kissed her forehead and pulled her face into his neck. “Yes, Chloe Anne, I choose you. I will always choose you.” He pulled a stalk of straw from her hair. “Now you know all that I want. What is it that you want?”

  She chuckled softly and then cupped his face in her hands. “I want to make love to you until the sun comes up and the cows have to be milked.”

  “For just one night?” he whispered, voice thick with emotion.

  “For always, Reese.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “I never imagined it would be this grand, Reese. Did you?” Chloe spun in a circle, feeling like a foolish, naïve tourist as they walked down Michigan Avenue in the heart of Chicago.

  “No, I sure didn’t. A person could get lost on this street alone.” He clamped onto her hand tighter as they weaved around passing couples and women with shopping bags.

  Stepping off the train in the brand-new Union Station took Chloe’s breath away. The huge, awesome building, with sound echoing off the walls, the people, the smells and all the chaos was far more unnerving than working in a busy hospital and unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

  They’d hired a ride to their hotel, The Allerton, dropped off their luggage and had soon left their fancy suite to investigate Chicago at large, on their way to the attorney’s office. Did she look like a newlywed, snuggling close to her dapper-looking husband? She stopped outside a woman’s clothing store and gawked at the beautiful garments hanging in the window.

  “Can we go inside?” she asked with a smile. “Just for a minute?”

  “Suit yourself.” He nodded toward the door. “I’ll wait for you out here.”

  “Uh-uh. No smoking. You promised,” she reminded him and grabbed his hand to drag him inside.

  “Promises, promises,” he muttered but followed her anyway.

  “Oh, my.” She glanced around the huge store and felt for sure she’d be catching flies with her jaw askew. “Look at all the beautiful things, Reese.”

  She heard him whistling behind her as they meandered through the racks of clothing. Someone sat at the grand piano in the center of the store, playing soothing background music. There were other women shopping, but they were quiet, as if in a library.

  Chloe paused when she came up on a shimmery, paper-thin, orchid-colored, chiffon dress, with silver lace overlay. The magazines she’d read said these three-piece ensembles would be all the rage in the fall. If they all looked as lovely as this one, she had no doubt the flappers would take to the style. Just a touch, that’s all she wanted. But the fabric was so smooth, so seductive, she couldn’t stop from running it over her arm. She sighed with pure pleasure and wondered what it would feel like against her body.

  She turned back to Reese and caught his lopsided grin. He flipped his hat in his hands and sighed. “Run and try it on, Chloe Anne.”

  She giggled and snagged her size from the rack. A sales clerk happily led her off and helped her escape from the dress she was wearing. Once the dress was on, the clerk returned with a matching, bell-shaped, Cloche-style hat with silver flowers pinned near the brim. Chloe stepped in front of the floor-length mirror and sighed. She’d never worn anything so lovely. The jewelry she already wore complemented the neckline. She spun and spun till the fabric caressed her legs.

  A whistle caught her attention, and she met Reese’s eye in the mirror. “Like it, huh?”

  “You’re beautiful.”

  She was humbled by the look in his eye. “Thank you. It’s the dress. I believe it would make anyone feel special.”

  He flipped open his pocket watch, and she knew what he was thinking. They were in Chicago for business, not to waste time on frivolity. The attorney was waiting on them, had serious business for them to attend to.

  “I’ll change back out of it.”

  As she walked by him, back to the dressing rooms, he took her hand. “I’m sorry, Chloe. Maybe someday.”

  She nodded and smiled, disappointed. Were she single, she would have considered it. But a twenty-dollar price tag was awfully steep for a dress she’d find very few occasions to wear in Broken Bow.

  “I’ll wait for you near the piano.”

  ~*~

  The attorney’s office was posh but comfortable. The man, Richard Jones, was running behind schedule, so his assistant seated Reese and Chloe in the waiting room with coffee and the newspaper.

  “I miss Bobby.” Chloe took a small sip of coffee and leaned back on the chair, crossing her legs.

  “I’m sure he’s getting on just fine with the folks.”

  Reese was amazed how fast and easy it had all been. The confrontation between Isabelle and Chloe at the barn had happened only five days earlier. Since then, he and Chloe had gotten married and traveled the same day to Chicago to take care of the final business to settle Ronnie and Daisy’s estate.

  The wedding had been fast and private, with only his parents and Bobby as witnesses. There was no time to wait to have the banns read by the priest. They decided to wait until they returned from Chicago for a priest’s blessing, letting the judge marry them, instead. It hadn’t been the marriage of their dreams, but Reese knew there would be time to make up for that. He wouldn’t travel with her unless she was his wife.

  “Did I tell you?” he asked. “Ronnie would have been my best man. I wrote to him when he was overseas to tell him I planned to marry you and expected him to come back alive so he could stand with me.”

  “Was I even sixteen yet?” she asked with a smile.

  “You may have just turned sixteen.” He smiled. He’d wanted her forever, it seemed. “I have always felt old, Chloe. My future was planned from the cradle. You fit in the picture early on, and I could never get the image out of my head.”

  She looked away quickly, but he thought he saw tears in her eyes. He knew she regretted leaving him; she’d apologized every day since their roll in the hay.

  “I wanted Daisy to be there, of course.” She sniffed but didn’t look at him. “I hope they were looking down on us, looking over our union and blessing it.”

  He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I’m certain they were. I lost my best friend,” he whispered.

  “So did I.” She nodded. “But I lost mine two years ago…not two weeks ago.”

  Her watery eyes locked on his, and he understood then that she had possibly suffered as much as he had with their separation. He wanted to tell her how he felt, but he couldn’t, not in the attorney’s office. He rested his arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him. She reached forward and picked up a magazine to page through as they waited for Mr. Jones.

  He would tell her more about his heart when they were able to put all this behind them, when they arrived back home. Chloe was still not even moved into his house. Her belongings were in Lincoln at the boarding house she shared with three other young ladies and the nurse matron who oversaw their wellbeing and monitored their behavior. Chloe had telegrammed the hospital to resign, and then sent a letter to the matron of her boardinghouse, asking to have her items packed and put in storage. With the money sent with Bobby and the will, they could afford the packing, and then she wouldn’t need to go to Lincoln for anything, a fact that eased his mind considerably.

  He worried what life would be like when reality settled in, back on the farm, without the excitement and chaos they’d been through. He watched her paging through a Good Housekeeping magazine an
d wondered if she would stay forever, or if she’d get bored and up and leave him. Could he trust her with his heart? He didn’t think he was ready just yet, no matter how happy she’d made him by becoming his wife.

  “Mr. Lloyd?” A booming voice stole his attention from Chloe and toward a stout, bulky man standing in the doorway of the waiting room.

  “Yes!” Reese pulled his arm from around Chloe and stood.

  “I’m Richard Jones,” the man said and held out his hand toward Reese. “I’m sorry to keep you folks waiting.”

  “No trouble.” Reese drew Chloe to his side. “This is my wife…” He paused, still getting used to calling her that. “Chloe.”

  “Ah, so you two are married! Well, I wish you both all the very best in life!” Richard shook their hands again. “Won’t you follow me? The paperwork is back in my office.”

  He led them down a long hallway with doors on both sides. A few of them were open, and Reese glanced inside, impressed by the ornate, expensive-looking furnishings.

  “When I sat down with Ronnie and Daisy and set up this paperwork, you weren’t married yet. They both were rather convinced you would be in time; it seems they were right.” He smiled kindly at them. “My wife and I have been married almost thirty years,” Jones continued. “When you find the good ones, you keep them.” He winked at Chloe and stopped short outside a door. He turned sideways and motioned them inside.

  The room was large, with dark wood paneling on the walls and a long table in the middle that could easily sit twelve. Thick books lined one wall, and a counter with pastries and a coffee carafe sitting on it was on the opposite wall. The windows looked directly out onto the street, and Mr. Jones was fast to pull the curtains to avoid the distraction.

  “Have a seat, please.”

  Paperwork lay on the table. Reese and Chloe sat where the attorney pointed.

  “I’m not certain if the holdings of your family came as a surprise or not, but it’s my duty to review them all with you.”

  “Certainly,” Reese answered.