She stared into the distance, her face void of emotion. “I’ll fight you on this, Cade.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Cade watched Will grab the frog, admiring the boy’s quickness. “Fight me all you want. You’re young—you need to think about remarrying and starting a family of your own. A woman with four kids isn’t going to attract a whole lot of men…with the exception of Fell and Perry Drake. If those two turn you down, you’re out of luck.”
He watched her swell with indignation. She needed an explanation as to why he wouldn’t give the kids to her. This was as good as any—a lot better than the truth.
Will ran back to them and thrust the frog in Cade’s face. “Uncle Cade, Uncle Cade, look! I caught him!”
Taking a stumbling step back, Cade dodged the slimy offering. “Don’t stick that thing in my face.”
“Put the frog back in the water,” Zoe ordered.
The boy’s disappointed expression made Cade want to let him take the frog home with him, but instead he watched them take it to the water’s edge and give it its freedom.
“How do you say no to them?” he asked.
“You have a lot to learn about children.”
Taking her by the shoulders, he forced her to look at him. “That’s why I intend to spend time with them. The kids and I are eating together tonight, either at GloriLee’s or your house. You decide.”
Zoe pulled away and kicked the dirt. “They’re burnt to a crisp, half starved, and exhausted. What they need is a vinegar bath, supper, and bed.”
Missy ran back and tugged at Zoe’s dress. “Please, we nevew eat at Glowi-Lee’s!”
“I want to eat at the café,” Will joined in. “I’m not crisp or the other thing you said!”
“We’re not ‘accosted,’” Holly blurted. Cade wanted to laugh at Holly’s mispronunciation, but he knew that if he so much as smiled, Zoe would slap him silly. “I want to eat with Uncle Cade at GloriLee’s too!”
Cade’s gaze locked with Zoe’s. Get out of this one gracefully. “You’re outnumbered, Red, so you might as well join us.”
She tossed her head. “That would be a waste of money. I have a perfectly good chicken waiting for me at home.”
He glanced at the kids and grinned. “Come on. You prefer a chicken’s company to ours?” The kids burst into giggles. Zoe didn’t.
“Before the meal’s over, a chicken’s company will look good, Cade Kolby. Have you ever eaten in public with four children?”
“No, but eating’s eating, isn’t it?” He winked at the kids. “They’re big enough to feed themselves. What’s the problem?”
“Fine,” she said. “Pick them up in an hour, and may I remind you again that my name is Zoe, not Red.”
Her sudden acquiescence made him wary. His smile faded. “Why won’t you come with us?”
“I have chores, thank you. Come along, children.”
Zoe stalked off as the youngsters hung back, trailing behind her and waving shyly to him. Cade lifted a hand and waved back. How hard could feeding four children be?
Chapter Eleven
Reeking of vinegar and smeared with baking soda paste, Cade marched his brood into GloriLee’s café a little past seven. The tiny, birdlike widow glanced up and sniffed the air.
“Who tipped over the pickle barrel?”
Cade took off his hat and held it in front of him. “You’re a sight for sore eyes, GloriLee. You’re even better looking than when I left.”
“You better believe it!”
“You got a man yet?”
“Been savin’ myself for you.”
Cade laughed. “You surely can do better than me.”
She kissed him on the cheek. “You’re too old for me anyway. I got my eye on one of the Pointer boys. He’s young enough to raise the way I want him.”
“You’re a fickle woman, GloriLee.”
Grinning, she motioned him to a large table near the front window. A vase of roses sat on a freshly ironed red-and-white checked tablecloth. The savory aroma of pot roast and baking bread drifted from the kitchen. A couple of the male diners smiled as the kids fought over chairs. The women gave Cade the cold shoulder, holding their napkins to their mouths as if they were protecting themselves from unsavory riffraff.
The children took their seats, and Cade sat down at the head of the table, admiring his newly acquired family. Despite their blistered skin and pungent odor, they were a handsome lot.
He studied the handwritten daily specials on the menu. Everything looked good. “What do you like to eat?” he asked the children.
“Peach pie,” they chorused.
“Pie and what else?”
“Cream!”
He thought for a moment. “Don’t you usually eat something before having pie?”
“Chocolate cake!” Brody answered.
Cade leaned back in his chair. “Okay, cake and pie it is.” He was thinking more along the lines of the roast beef and potatoes, but they ought to know what they wanted to eat. After all, it was a special occasion.
“Peach pie, chocolate cake, and a pitcher of cream,” he told GloriLee.
The woman frowned. “Have they had their supper?”
“Not yet. We’re ordering it now.” He’d sometimes eaten sweets for dinner, and it never killed him.
“Pie and cake!” the kids chorused.
GloriLee took the order and then stuck her pencil behind her ear as she ambled off toward the kitchen, grumbling, “Zoe ain’t goin’ to like this.”
The smiles on the kids’ faces were worth a tongue-lashing. Cade laid his hat on the table. “Well, now. Tell me about yourselves. Got any pets?”
Missy’s eyes lit up. “We got a tomcat, Womeo, and Butch. He’s ouw dog. And Bud.”
“Bud? Who’s Bud?”
“Bud lives in a jar,” Will explained.
Missy solemnly nodded. “He’s a bug. He’s nice.”
Cade lifted his brows. “A nice bug that lives in a jar. Anything else?”
“Nope,” Brody answered. “Just Romeo, Butch, and Bud. I wanted a pony, but Zoe says she can’t afford to feed one more thing.”
The statement “can’t afford” disturbed him. The general store had been in the Bradshaw family for three generations and should have left Zoe well off, but from the looks of the place, she wasn’t. Her dresses were old and faded, and the furnishings were the same ones Jim’s parents had had. She was still using the old cookstove.
He temporarily set the thought aside. “What about school? What grades are you in?”
Holly volunteered, “Third. Brody’s in fifth.”
“Guess school will be starting before long.”
“I might not go back to school,” Brody announced.
Holly slapped him on the arm. “Yes, you will. Zoe’ll make you.”
Cade intervened. “You have to go to school, son. You need an education.”
Brody scooted forward in his chair. “Ma said you never finished school, and you know stuff.”
“You need to know more stuff than I do. Besides, I had to quit. My pa got sick, and I had to go to work for a farmer to put food on our table.”
Will sat up straighter. “You know plenty of stuff. Pa said you’re the best there is at shootin’ bad guys.”
“Yeah,” Brody said. “A boy at school said you shoot ’em dead. You hardly ever bring ’em in alive.”
Cade frowned, disturbed by the boy’s misconceptions. While he did what was necessary to collect a bounty, he’d always given his prey fair warning, and he’d never shot a man in the back.
Holly stared at him with eyes so like Addy’s, it was chilling. “Ma said killin’s nothin’ for a man to be proud of.”
“Your ma’s right, but there’re times when it’s necessary.”
“Ma said she prayed for you every night, prayed you’d come home and we’d all be a family again.”
“We are a family,” Brody insisted.
“Yeah,” Will said. “Can I h
old your gun?”
Cade shook his head. “No one holds my gun but me.”
GloriLee returned with a whole pie, a large cake, and a big pitcher of thick cream. “Help yourselves, young’uns. Heaven help you. You’ll all get bellyaches.”
The children proved well mannered and polite, and Cade felt an uncle’s pride as the meal progressed smoothly. He had to admit that a meal of pie, cake, and cream was a change from his usual beans and hardtack.
“I need to ask you kids something. We have to decide where you’re going to live.”
Missy’s face clouded. “We don’t want a kitten. We want to live at Zoe’s.”
Will looked up. “I want a pony, but I want to live at Zoe’s too.”
“That’s what we need to talk about,” Cade said. “If you couldn’t live at Zoe’s or the Brightons’, where would you want to live?” He studied the children’s sober looks.
“Not with Aunt Laticia,” said all four at the same time.
“What’s wrong with your Aunt Laticia?” Granted, he didn’t relish the disgruntled crone.
Brody put his fork down and stared. “She’s scary lookin’.”
Will wrinkled his nose. “And she smells funny.”
“We want to live with Zoe and you,” Holly said. “You’re our ma’s brother. Ma always said Zoe was like her sister, so that makes her your sister too. Ma said brothers and sisters stick together.”
Cade cleared his throat. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
“Why not?” Will asked. “Do you have to go shoot bad guys again?”
“I might, but not until we get you settled.” He glanced at Brody when the child reached for a third piece of cake.
Licking his fork, Brody said, “Pass the cream, please.”
“If you have to go shoot bad guys,” Missy said, blinking heavy eyelids, “why can’t we stay with Zoe?”
The sun, the swimming, and the long day were taking their toll on the little ones. Red was right. The kids needed a bed as much as they needed supper.
Will yawned. “Did you shoot that bad guy that shooted Zoe’s husband?”
Cade avoided the boy’s question and changed the subject. “Finish your supper, Will. You’re getting sleepy. Look at your little sister. She’s already asleep—oh! She’s fallen into her pie.” Springing to his feet, he grabbed Missy and lifted her head from her plate, pulling peaches out of her hair.
“Uh-oh.” Brody pushed back from the table and doubled over. “My belly hurts.”
“Mine, too.” Will groaned. “And my skin’s on fire!”
GloriLee rushed over to help as the children’s moans increased. Cade was aware of unhappy expressions on the other diners’ faces as the complaints escalated. “These young’uns are in pitiful shape. They need a hefty dose of castor oil and then their beds.” Still grumbling, GloriLee wiped Missy’s peach-covered face with a dishcloth. “Law, feeding these babies cake, pie, and cream. Kolby, where’s your brain? You’re gonna kill ’em.”
Cade frowned, stepping around the table to check on Holly. “Are you all right?”
She got up slowly, her face pasty white, her balance unsteady. She shook her head. “I feel kinda sick.”
He hoped there were enough bushes along the way home to accommodate his poor judgment. Pie, cake, and cream. He should have known better.
“I’ll take them home,” he told GloriLee.
Shaking her head, she said, “I’m glad I’m not the one to take them back to Zoe in this condition.”
He lifted Missy into his arms and took hold of Holly’s hand, trying to herd Brody and Will ahead of him as he left the café. Outside a clap of thunder rattled the sidewalk seconds before the heavens opened.
Glancing up, he frowned. Man alive. A stiff wind whipped the treetops and sent tumbleweeds bouncing haphazardly across Main Street.
Walt Mews shouted hello to him as he locked the barbershop door and then made a dash for the livery stable, holding a Police Gazette over his head.
Cade glanced toward the land office as Woodall Thompson consulted his watch and closed the upstairs window.
Jagged lightning lit up Ben Pointer’s metal weather vane as Brody broke for the bushes, Will close on his heels.
Whimpering, Missy buried her face in Cade’s neck. Using his hat as a shield, he covered her head, and then he pulled Holly close and wrapped one side of his vest around her head and shoulders.
“I don’t feel good, Uncle Cade,” Holly moaned.
“I know, honey. I’ll take you home as soon as the boys,” he glanced at the bushes, “finish up.”
Missy snuggled closer, her breath sweet against his face. “I don’t want the lightning to get me.”
“I’ll protect you, sweetheart. Nothing’s going to happen to you while Uncle Cade is here.”
He winced as the rain fell harder. Looking up, he released a noisy breath. Is this your way of setting me back on the path of righteousness?
Within seconds he was drenched to the bone, and so were the children. They turned piteous eyes on him, their lips quivering. Their noses were sunburned, they were worn out, and their bellies ached. It didn’t take a crystal ball to tell him he wasn’t cut out for fatherhood.
And the worst was yet to come. He still had to face the redhead.
Chapter Twelve
You ordered rain? You got rain.” Cade’s voice broke through the downpour.
Zoe held the lamp higher and stared at the sopping assemblage standing at her back door. Cade held Missy in one arm, and Holly’s head was tucked under his vest on the other side. Brody and Will were green around the gills, and there wasn’t a dry thread to be seen on any of them. Water streamed off Cade’s hat brim onto Will’s head. Blinking, the boy swiped at the running stream.
Cade shifted Missy on his hip. “Are you going to make us stand out here all night? We’re not getting any drier.”
Hurriedly sliding a rag rug to the door with her foot, Zoe unlatched the screen. “Wipe your feet.” Cade brushed by her and carried Missy into the kitchen. The other kids followed, quickly wiping their shoes on the rug.
“If you’ll excuse me?” Cade turned and walked back out the door and threw up on Zoe’s rosebush. Supper hadn’t set real well with him, either.
“It’s stowming, Zoe. I was scawed, but Uncle Cade didn’t let anything happen to me,” Missy informed her.
Zoe set down the lamp and led the little girl to the sink. She started to peel off her wet clothes.
“Holly, help Will. Brody, get out of your wet things and put them in the sink.”
Instead of doing as she was asked, Holly sank to the nearest chair and laid her head on the table. “I don’t feel so good.”
“Me, either,” Brody seconded.
Will didn’t have to say a word. Zoe could see he was sick as a dog. Cade walked back into the kitchen. “What did you feed these children?”
“Supper.”
Exasperated, Zoe plucked a slice of peach from Missy’s wet hair. “What’s this?”
“Supper.”
Will groaned. “We ate peach pie and chocolate cake.”
“And cream,” Brody added. “A great big pitcher of it.”
“Oh, Cade!” A vein throbbed in Zoe’s temple as she watched him lift Missy to the counter and strip off her wet shoes and stockings. What would happen if he took a notion to assume full responsibility for them?
Missy reached up to Cade, holding out her arms. He bent toward her, and she kissed him on the cheek. Cade’s expression softened and he kissed her back.
“We had a good time, didn’t we, Uncle Cade?”
“A very good time.”
“You can call me Sunflowew. That’s what Pa called me.”
He hesitated and then obliged. “All right. Sunflower it is.”
Zoe brushed by him on her way to wring out the wet clothing. He knew it irked her that even though he wasn’t pa material, the children took to him like flies to molasses.
He trailed h
er to the sink. “I’m sorry. I made a mistake feeding them all those sweets. I wasn’t thinking—but it was a special occasion.”
Rinsing peach juice out of Missy’s dress, Zoe grumbled, “Anyone with a lick of sense knows you don’t feed kids peach pie, chocolate cake, and cream.”
“It’s not going to kill them to eat what they want once in a while.”
“Oh, no? Look at them. They look half dead to me.”
He glanced at the children. “Have you forgotten the time Addy and I got into Pa’s communion wine?”
“No. Have you forgotten that you thought you were going die?”
“That’s my point. We didn’t. And I learned my lesson.” And his stomach hurt too.
She turned to face him. “What? Not to drink half a bottle of wine?”
“No. Not to let you catch me.”
She wrung out Missy’s dress and hung it near the cookstove to dry. “Haven’t you got somewhere to go?”
“As a matter of fact, I don’t. I haven’t been to the jail since this morning, but I can tell you that bunk is floating in water.”
“Too bad.”
“Yes, it is. I’m not sleeping there.”
“Then go over to Pop’s. It’d serve him right for not fixing that leaky roof months ago.”
She shooed the children to the bedroom for their nightclothes, and then she bent over to pick up wet towels, bumping into a broad wall of warm chest.
Cade smiled as she slid up his length, her senses simmering.
“Will you kindly get out of my way?”
“Can’t. Room’s too small. No place to go.” He tweaked her nose and she shrugged away.
“Cade—”
“I don’t want to stay with Pop. He might be contagious.”
“Gluttony is not contagious.”
Brody came out of the bedroom buttoning his nightshirt. “He can sleep with me and Will.”
Will jumped up and down. “Yeah! That would be fun!”
“I’ll fix you breakfast, Uncle Cade,” Holly offered. “I can cook eggs almost as good as Ma.”
Missy ran into the kitchen and latched onto her uncle’s leg. “I want you to sleep with me and Zoe so we won’t be scawed of the stowm.”
A Kiss for Cade Page 7