by Jillian Hart
“Maybe.” She plunked the pot she’d used to warm up the soup into the rinse water and gave it a good swish. “What will it take for you to dig out a flower bed, too?”
“Why, that’s an easy one. I’ll dig as many flower beds as you want. The only thing I’ll charge you is a kiss.”
“Maybe that’s too steep of a price.”
“How about a peck on the cheek, then?”
“We’ll see.” Holding back laughter, she set the pot on a dishtowel to dry. “I want to see the flower beds first.”
He laughed, brushing pieces of moss and bark from his sleeve into the box. “So, you want to see the type of work I do before payment?”
“Exactly. Got to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth. Well, in this case, my kiss’s worth.”
“Then I’ll do an exceptional job and hope for a bonus.” Dimples framed his smile as he ambled closer.
Longing tripped through her blood, maple-syrup sweet and thick with heat. Her weakness for the man had grown. The only thing she wanted was to be enfolded in his arms and kiss him in the dark of night. She wanted to rest her cheek on his chest and feel how safe it was to be held by him. But did she have that right?
“Looks like you’ve got more curtains finished.” He moved over to her sewing, which was folded neatly on the sofa cushion. “They’re real pretty. I like what you’ve done.”
“Yellow is my favorite color.” She put the pot away. “It’s like sunshine.”
“I know you’re independent and like to do things for yourself, but will you let me hang these for you? I’d like to do something for my beautiful bride.”
“I should refuse since you have a tendency to fib. Beautiful? I don’t think so.” She blushed. Austin had a bad habit of using that word to describe her, something that could not possibly be true. But it made the glow inside her shine more brightly. How could anyone not come to care about this man? What was wrong with her that she could not?
“It’s no fib. You’re beautiful to me, Willa. I’ll say that as many times as it takes for you to believe it.” He swept up the panels of curtains, hauled over a chair and parked it in front of their biggest window. He tossed the panels over his shoulder and climbed up.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do with you, Austin Dermot.” Other than wanting to keep him forever. Shaking her head, she hung up the damp dishtowel and reached for the washbasins. She looked into the soapy, soiled water and saw no answer to her dilemma there. Austin was everything she needed and she wanted to be the same for him, but that was already impossible. How did you will a broken heart to mend? What if it was too damaged to ever mend?
“Please leave those basins alone.” Austin watched her from his stance on the chair. “I’ll carry the water. And before you say it’s your job, come over here and advise me on the curtain hanging.”
“You’re hoping to distract me and empty out the basins when I’m not looking. Oh, I’m definitely wise to your ways.”
He laughed, not bothering to deny it. “Fine, take the dishwater out. But don’t say a single word if I don’t hang these curtains the way you want them.”
She blew out a sigh of resignation. Honestly, the man had a knack for getting his way. She untied her apron, hung it beside the towel and circled around the table. “All right, let’s see these curtain-hanging skills of yours.”
“Why do you say that as if you expect them to be lacking?” The humor in his smoky, familiar baritone did wonderful things to her. Things best not thought about.
He threaded her curtains onto the little rope that used to hold the limp, sad-looking sheets. The wide spread of his grin matched hers.
I’m happy, she thought. This is what happiness feels like. To be so full up that you can’t imagine it getting any better. Then it does.
“There. I don’t think I’ve got them centered.” He tugged a little, bringing the ruffles snugly together. “What you do think?”
“It’s just like I’d hoped.” This is a fairy tale, she realized, watching him climb down from the chair. This wasn’t something real enough to last.
A knock rapped on the front door, echoing through the house like a gunshot. It dragged her out of her thoughts as Austin hopped to the floor.
“It’s probably one of my brothers.” He gave the chair a shove and it slid into place at the table. “They are always coming over and bothering me. I can’t believe they waited this long. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” Her pulse galloped, thumping against her ribs as if she’d run five miles as Austin swept by her. The man affected her more every time she was close to him. She could not deny the bond she felt to him, but her silent heart sat sadly still in the center of her chest as he crossed the room and opened the door.
“Berry wanted to see Willa, so I thought we’d come on by.” Brant shouldered into the entry.
“Uncle Austin!” two little boys called out, wrenching free from their father’s grip to run toward him.
“Hey there, buddies.” The big man knelt down to wrap them both in a hug. “What have you two been up to?”
“Gettin’ muddy,” Stewart explained. “We got a big mud puddle in our yard.”
“Real big,” Arthur added.
“We splashed all through it.”
“Until I caught them in the act.” Berry swept in with a laugh and smiled to her husband, who closed the door behind her. “They were head-to-toe mud. I took my eyes off them for one minute. That was it.”
“I remember the appeal of a mud puddle.” Austin gave his nephews another hug before he stood. The boys stayed at his side. He reached down and ruffled their hair. “We have a real good mud puddle out front.”
“Really?” Stewart perked up, eyes excited.
“But I don’t reckon your ma would appreciate you playing in it.” Austin’s gentle ease with the boys tugged at Willa’s heart. He would make such a good father.
Her hand slipped to her stomach, still so small but noticeable. At least she had this baby to give him. She couldn’t make her heart feel; she didn’t know how to bring it to life. Love wasn’t a gift she could give him. But she could make him a father. Wasn’t that the bond between them? Wasn’t that why he did all this for her—because it was for the baby? That was why he gazed at her with loving affection.
“Willa.” Berry shrugged out of the coat her husband held for her and touched his arm gently in silent thanks. She tossed her boys a smile as she left them in their uncle’s care. “I copied off those patterns like I promised. Oh, I love the curtains. They brighten up the room. A serious improvement. You should have seen this place after he first built it. He had gunnysacks up before those old sheets.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Men.” She shook her head, casting a long-suffering look across the room. “They would live in a cave if they could get away with it. How are you feeling? Your color is good.”
“I’m better.” She knelt to add a bit of wood to the cook stove. “I’ll have tea water ready in a moment, unless you would like coffee?”
“Tea is perfect. I brought you something.” She reached into her reticule and pulled out several knitted garments in neat folds. Baby clothes. “I wanted to make sure I remembered the pattern right, so I sat down and knitted up these little things. That way you have something to follow if you need it and you already have a start on your preparations.”
“Oh, Berry. They’re so lovely. I can’t believe you did this.” She ran her fingertips over the exquisite garments. A little red cap and a snowy white shirt, both as soft as lamb’s wool. A pair of wee yellow socks and light blue booties knitted for the tiniest feet. A fuzzy green sweater with flawless cables and pebbled edging. “I’d never imagined my baby would have anything so fine.”
“We will help make sure you have plenty of lovely
things for him or her.” Berry set the gifts on the table so they could admire them. “Delia made the sweater. Evelyn’s making a baby afghan for you.”
“I don’t know how to thank you all.” Those words seemed inadequate. She’d never expected anything like this. Suddenly the baby seemed real.
But did her heart warm with tenderness? No, and it shamed her. She swallowed hard, wishing she could be the woman she wanted to be, the woman Austin needed her to be.
“We’re sisters now. This is what we do for each other.” Berry swirled around to grab up a hot pad and whisked the bubbling teakettle off the stove. She glanced at her sons and merriment sparkled in her eyes. “Stewart? What did I say before we stepped through the door?”
“No running.” Big blue eyes looked innocent in his round button face.
“And what were you doing?”
“Walking really, really fast.”
Both boys stood frozen in place, two little owls side by side. Willa had never seen anything as cute.
“Please walk more slowly.” Berry bit her lip to keep from laughing. They launched off at a sedate pace, chasing each other around the sofa. Joy danced in her eyes and she filled the teapot. “They keep me on my toes. You’ll see once your child arrives. What are you doing tomorrow?”
“Laundry.”
“Goodness, that will simply get in the way of the plans we’ve made for you.” Berry set the kettle on a trivet, glancing across the kitchen to check on her sons…who were now rolling on the floor laughing. “Austin can wait another day for clean shirts. We are planning a Dermot girls get-together at Evelyn’s house.”
I guess that’s me, too, she thought. She was now Willa Dermot. Funny how she’d never really thought of that before. Austin’s laughter caught her ear, pulling her gaze to the tall man standing alongside his brother watching the boys on the floor. Lamplight polished him with a flawless luster she’d never seen before. First he’d been the stranger she’d come to marry, then the man she expected the worst of and finally the husband she was getting to know.
Around his family, he shone. His confidence, his manliness and his kindness blended together and stole her breath away. She could not move, she could not blink and as for breathing…? Forget it. She could only stare at the man who poked his nose into the air.
“Hmm. I’m hungry.” He sniffed. “I’m scenting something on the wind. What could it be?”
“Quick, Arthur! Get up!” Stewart gleefully shouted, scrambling to his feet. “It’s a grizzly!”
“I see two tasty little boys.” Austin lifted his arms over his head. His fake bear roar echoed in every corner of the house. His happiness outshone the lamplight and the firelight combined as he launched at his nephews.
“Run, Arthur. Run!” Stewart squealed and grabbed his little brother’s hand. The two made a mad dash around the sofa. They stayed safely a few feet ahead of the grizzly, glancing over their shoulders to laugh and shriek and run harder.
“And what did I just tell them?” Berry rolled her eyes and dropped the tea ball into the pot. “Honestly.”
He is going to make a good father. Understanding surged through her on a deeper level, seeing once and for all her husband’s dreams. Austin slowly closed the distance between him and the boys, who shrieked in delight as he grabbed them and drew them into his brawny arms. The threesome went down together, rolling and wrestling on the floor. The boys yelped, dissolving into giggles as the grizzly tickled them. Fits of delighted resounded through the room.
It was so easy to see the future. With Austin giving little tummies a final tickle, his laughter a deep-noted harmony to the sweet, high music from their children’s giggles. In the future, it would be his sons and not his nephews that he lay down on the floor beside, claiming to be a bear too tired to eat the prey he’d captured. She could picture how this child she carried one day would leap up the way Stewart did.
“I’m not tuckered out,” he said and crawled on Austin’s chest, ready to wrestle some more. “Look, Pa! I caught a grizzly.”
“Me, too,” Arthur chimed in, apparently not one to be left out of the fun as he leaped into the fray.
Footsteps knelled close by, drawing Willa out of her thoughts, but nothing could drag her attention away from the man with the little boys. A man who had waited so long to be a father. Not waited, she realized, for that was the wrong word.
He had hungered. He longed to be a pa more than anything. Her hand slid to her stomach where her child lay. Austin’s child now and the reason he cared for her.
“Are you going to do something about that?” Berry asked, amused, as her husband drew her to his side. “They are going to be too wound up to go to sleep tonight.”
“Either that, or they’ll be worn out and drop off like two little logs,” Brant quipped. “I’m an optimist. I don’t suppose any of that tea is for me.”
“Perhaps I can be persuaded to give you a cup.” Berry leaned into her husband’s embrace, tipping her face up to smile at him. Love resonated in her gaze with unmistakable strength.
Austin’s words came back to her, what he’d told her on the second evening of their marriage. Happy marriages run in my family. It’s a family trait.
She’d never wanted anything more.
* * *
“Fun evening, huh?” Austin hung the hearth shovel on its hook. The happiness from Brant’s family visit lingered in the air, and contentment filled him. Although night had closed in with its chill, it was not freezing.
“I had a great time.” Willa sat on the couch with knitting needles in hand, the toes of two tiny socks taking shape in shades of green. “I’ve been invited to Evelyn’s house tomorrow. We’re knitting and sewing baby things.”
“Sounds like just what you need.” Emotion that had built up through the evening threatened to brim over now. He ambled toward her, his boots echoing in the open-beamed ceiling overhead. “My sisters-in-law seem to adore you. You fit right in with them.”
“I don’t know about that, but they’ve been so nice. Did you see the things they knitted for the baby?”
“Yep. I’m not surprised. You are very welcome in this family. We’ve all been waiting a long time for you.” He loved looking at her like this, luminous and radiant, her shadows forgotten.
“I just got lucky,” she said, putting down her knitting. “Very lucky.”
She had no idea what it meant to him when she held out her hand. He took her slender, elegant fingers in his to help her up from the sofa. Her rose scent suffused him and he breathed it in. His soul silenced at her smile. The look of caring in her eyes did not waver.
Love thundered through him. He pulled her into his arms and she came willingly, walking beside him. Their hearts beat in synchrony as he stopped to turn out the last lamp and open their bedroom door. His gaze trailed to their bed, and at least he could hope that the night would soon come when she would turn to him and accept him into her arms. A night where he could show her how much he loved her and make them truly man and wife.
Desire for her stormed through him, but he knew this wasn’t the night. He turned up the lamplight and released her hand. “I’ll fetch wash water while you change.”
“Thank you, Austin. I’m more tired than I realized.”
“You’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep.” He couldn’t help tracing the pad of his thumb along the line of her jaw. Tenderness wasn’t what he felt, not any longer. It had transformed into an infinitely more tender emotion and a dozen times stronger as he traced the outline of her full and lush bottom lip. He felt her tremble not from fear this time, but from the intimacy growing between them, an intimacy that glinted true blue in her eyes full of caring.
She cared for him. Overwhelmed, he lowered his mouth to hers in a brief kiss. She was soft satin and sweet woman and he wanted more. His blood sang with need
but he broke the kiss, wanting what was best for her. Exhaustion bruised the skin beneath her eyes. She’d had a long day but a good one. That’s what he wanted to give her. Good days for the rest of her life.
“I’ll be right back.” He hated letting go of her. He grabbed the empty pitcher and strode from the room, begrudging every step that took her farther and farther from his sight. As he filled the pitcher from the stove’s reservoir in the dark kitchen, his ears picked up her movements. The rustle of clothes, the pad of her feet, the squeak of the wardrobe’s door.
The future hovered all around him, so close he felt as if he could almost touch it. He’d built this house for the family he would have one day. He could almost hear their children’s laughter in the air as he headed back to Willa’s side.
She stood in her snowy white nightgown brushing her long, sleek hair that fell like ebony silk down her back. He set the pitcher next to its matching basin and left her to her ministrations. By the time he’d stepped out of his clothes and finished at the basin, she was in bed, breathing softly.
But not asleep yet, he realized as he slipped between the sheets. She rolled to face him, a sleepy smile lovely on her dear face.
“I hope you have a clean work shirt for tomorrow,” she told him, her voice tantalizing in the dark. “Berry said you had to make do one more day.”
“Luckily, I have lots of shirts. I should be okay.”
“Good, because I forgot to check when I was hanging up my clothes.” She yawned.
“Come here.” He held out his arms and nothing could be more inviting or wonderful. Settling against him was the most marvelous thing she could imagine and the comfort she needed.
“Good night.” His words filled her, becoming a wish.
“Good night.” There had to be a way to bring her heart to life. She wanted to love him and be all that he needed. She laid her cheek against his chest and fell asleep listening to the steady beat of his heart, glad to be close to him.