“What do you mean?”
Libby reached out and placed a soft hand over Meg’s, the one that clutched the books. “You’re a beautiful, hardworking woman filled with a lot of courage, Meg Thomerson. Don’t forget that. Everyone knows that you love your children, since it’s clear that you take such good care of them and work hard to provide for them.”
Meg pressed her lips together to still their trembling.
“My advice is not to look too far into the future. That can be terrifying. You just concentrate on getting better one day at a time.”
One day at a time. That seemed to be everyone’s approach to her getting better, so it must surely be the best way to approach life. They couldn’t all be wrong, could they?
* * *
Meg stopped by the bank and made her land payment and then made it a point to visit Hattie, to thank her for her continued business during her recuperation. When Meg and her companions stepped through the door of the boardinghouse, they were greeted by a lovely tune. The sheriff’s twelve-year-old daughter, Cilla, was at the upright piano, her fingers moving over the keys with a confidence and skill that could come only from hours of practice. Hattie, who owned the boardinghouse and gave piano lessons to Colt’s daughter, Cilla, sat in a nearby chair, her index finger moving through the air in time with the rhythm, nodding and smiling. She looked up when Meg, Nita and the children stepped through the pocket doors that led from the front hallway to the parlor.
“Why, hello, ladies! What a surprise,” Hattie exclaimed, getting to her feet. Cilla’s fingers stilled on the piano keys, and she turned to look at the newcomers.
Both women said their hellos and Meg’s gaze moved from Hattie to Cilla. “I’m so sorry to interrupt your lesson, Cilla. That was lovely. I don’t know anything about music, but it seems to me that you’ve come a long way in a very short time.”
“Thank you, Miss Meg,” she said with a smile. “That’s what Miss Hattie says. And you didn’t really interrupt. We’re almost finished anyway.”
“What was the song you were playing?”
“One of my pa’s favorites, ‘Lorena.’ His birthday is coming up and I wanted to surprise him, so I’ve been working really hard on it.”
“Well, he’ll be very surprised and pleased, I’m sure.”
“How about some coffee and cookies?” Hattie suggested. “Cilla brought some sugar cookies she made yesterday.”
“Oh, thank you, but I really don’t mean to intrude. I just wanted to stop by and thank you for standing by me while I’ve been on the mend.”
Hattie gave her cackling laugh. “Well, that was no problem. There’s no way I could do all that laundry myself and not be run plumb ragged.”
She held out a hand to Teddy and spoke to Meg. “Now, don’t be silly. Come on into the dining room for that coffee. Teddy here is looking very disappointed, and we can’t have that, can we, young man?”
Smiling, Teddy shook his blond head and placed his hand in hers. Meg glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. It was an hour before they were supposed to meet Ace. She knew Ace, unlike Elton, wouldn’t be upset if they were a few minutes late. He’d just go in and talk to Gabe while he waited. Meg sighed. It looked as if they had no alternative but to have cookies and coffee, not that it was a hardship in any way.
Cilla joined them, and much to Meg’s surprise, Lucy wanted the young girl to hold her. Though she looked uncomfortable, Cilla obliged, and Lucy promptly grabbed at the pink bow in Cilla’s hair. She looked taken aback, but sighed in resignation.
“I guess I may as well get used to it. I imagine my pa and Miss Allison will be having a couple of these when they get married.”
The three women broke into laughter. “I imagine they will,” Hattie said.
It felt good to laugh, Meg thought. Really good. Maybe this was one of those unexpected blessings she was supposed to look for.
“You may think you won’t like having a new baby brother or sister,” Nita told her, “but I can tell you from experience that even though they may drive you batty from time to time, there’s nothing like being the big sister. You can be a help to Allison, and that baby, whether it’s a boy or girl, will think you hung the moon and stars.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Cilla looked pleased and spent the rest of the visit playing with the two children. When it was time to go, Meg and Nita thanked their hostess for the wonderful refreshments and prepared to leave. Hattie and Cilla followed them to the door. Meg was almost to the steps when the young girl called, “I’m so glad you’re all right, Miss Meg. My brother and I have been praying for you.”
Meg felt her throat tighten. There were people who cared about her. “Thank you, Cilla. Are you looking forward to the wedding?”
“Yes, ma’am. Miss Allison is going to make me a new dress. She still has no idea who they’re going to get to take her place at school.”
“Well, personally, I think it’s silly that they won’t let married women teach!” Hattie snapped. The spinster boardinghouse owner had never been shy about speaking her mind on any topic.
“Well, maybe things will change one day,” Nita offered.
“Maybe.”
“Hattie, we’ve really enjoyed this,” Meg said. “It was good to see you again. You, too, Cilla. And I want to thank you again, Hattie, for being such a good friend and customer.”
“Oh, pshaw!” Hattie said, waving her arms as if to shoo them off the porch. She looked at Nita. “You send that good-looking boy of yours over before you go. I have some things that need to go back with you.”
Nita smiled. “I will.”
* * *
Sheriff Colt Garrett tipped back his chair, slung his booted feet onto the top of the desk and laced his fingers behind his head, his favorite pose. “So how are things going out at the Thomerson place?”
“Everything’s going well,” Ace said with a slow nod.
“Rachel says things are looking good out there.”
“Meg has been helping me with some cleanup and repairs. It does look a lot better.” He frowned. “I can’t believe Elton let the place go the way he did.”
“Elton had bigger fish to fry,” Colt noted with a dry smile. “How are you and Meg getting along? She was in a pretty sorry state when we found her, and she wasn’t too happy about the idea of having you help her on the farm.”
Ace leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, resting one ankle on the other knee. “When I first got there, she was like a cornered wild animal—scared and distrustful. She cringed away from me every time I got near her, but lately, she isn’t so jumpy. I think she knows I’m no threat.”
“That is improvement.”
Without any warning, an image of Meg from the night before drifted through Ace’s mind. She hadn’t drawn away from him then, and she hadn’t been the least bit jumpy.
“What?”
Colt’s sharp question brought Ace’s thoughts back to the present. He glared at his friend, who was looking at him with a knowing smile. “What?” he echoed.
Colt’s grin broadened. “You had a sappy look on your face for a minute there.”
“Sappy look?”
“Yeah. Like you’re thinking about something that makes you ridiculously happy.” The tough sheriff actually blushed. “The only reason I recognized it is because I’ve gotten pretty used to seeing it staring back at me in the mirror every morning when I’m thinking about Allison.”
Ace knew exactly where Colt was going with the conversation. “Let me assure you, I wasn’t thinking about Allison,” he quipped back, determined not to let his friend interrogate him the way he did his prisoners.
“Come on, Ace. Tell me what’s going on with you and the Widow Thomerson. I’ve suspected for a long time that you
were smitten, and now I have no doubts.”
“You need to mind your own business,” Ace cautioned.
Colt hadn’t gained his reputation as one of the best lawmen in several counties by giving up. “As a concerned friend, it is my business. So what’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
Ace glared at Colt for several seconds, and seeing that familiar determination in his tawny eyes, he exhaled a loud breath. “I’m in trouble.”
“How so?” Colt asked with a satisfied smile.
“As crazy as it sounds, I think she’s starting to...care for me.”
Colt lowered his chair and rested his forearms on the desktop. “Why do you think that, and why would it be a problem? I know you had to deny how you felt as long as Elton was in the picture, but he’s gone. There’s nothing to stand in the way of you courting her if that’s what you both want.”
Ace didn’t say anything for a moment. He wasn’t used to having anyone to confide in, but he knew that Colt had suffered in the past, just like everyone else. Maybe telling another man his concerns would help him get a different perspective on things.
Instead of easing into the subject, Ace plunged headfirst. “I kissed her last night, and she let me.”
“I’d say that’s a pretty fair indicator that she’s interested,” Colt said with a lift of his sun-bleached eyebrows. “I thought that was what you’d hoped for.”
Ace leaped to his feet and paced the small room. “It was, but I didn’t expect it to happen.”
“I see,” Colt said, but the confusion on his face said that he didn’t see at all. “So if you care for her and she’s learning to trust a man again and seems to care for you, why are you so upset?”
“Because she’s been hurt so badly by Elton, and I’m the first man to come along who’s shown her the way a woman should be treated, and I’m afraid that whatever she thinks she feels is only gratitude.”
“Well, I have no way of knowing how she feels, but I do know that love will tie you in knots,” Colt said with a sage nod. “It will make you weigh every word either of you has ever said and think of all the ways those words might be taken another way. When you’re in love, you don’t know which way is up.”
“Who said anything about love?” Ace snapped.
“What else could we possibly be talking about?” Colt replied. “The only thing I can tell you is that time will tell you both if what she feels is real love or not.”
The conversation hung in the air for a few minutes as both men digested it. “Why couldn’t I have fallen for a pretty Cherokee girl?” Ace asked finally. “Life would have been a lot simpler.”
“What do you mean?”
“I grew up in a mixed-race family. I know what it’s like to see a father devastated about the way his wife and son were treated. I know firsthand how hard it can be for a kid torn between two cultures. If I truly love someone, wouldn’t it be wrong to put her or any kids we may have through that?”
“If you haven’t asked your mother if she would change anything, maybe you should,” Colt suggested. “I’d also say that the decision isn’t all up to you. The lady has a say in it, too.”
* * *
Meg watched Ace striding down the covered sidewalk; he was looking neither to the left nor the right. Her heart skipped a little beat at what a magnificent portrait of self-confidence and dignity he made in his Levi’s and chambray shirt. No one would ever suspect that he’d once been a tormented man who questioned his very existence in the world.
More than anything she’d wanted in a long time, she wanted to run to him and have him envelop her in his strength and calm, knowing that he would protect her from any harm that came her way.
Just then, he saw her standing there watching him. He seemed to pause midstride for just an instant, as if he were acutely aware of her. Even from a distance, the intensity radiating from him was like a bolt of lightning to her senses. In that moment, she knew that whether or not it was too soon, she loved him. Now and forever.
The muscle in his jaw was knotted, and there was no smile of welcome on his face. Nothing gave the slightest hint that he felt the same except the sudden heat in his light blue eyes. A need blazed there that he was unable to hide, even with his many years of impassiveness to lean on.
Other than brief greetings, no one spoke. Nita seemed acutely aware of the tension between them, yet wisely stayed quiet. They loaded everyone into the wagon and set out for Jackson’s Grove, where the folks of Wolf Creek had all their major events, like the spring picnic, the box-lunch auction, the ice-cream social and the fall harvest celebration, which would be coming up in two more weeks.
Ace drove through the slight trail that wove through the tall grasses toward the grove of trees. A hawk dipped and soared in the cloudless cerulean sky, riding the shifting currents of air as it searched out its midday meal. Sun-dappled shade welcomed them as he pulled the wagon beneath the trees.
Ace tied the horses to a sapling and rounded the wagon to lift Meg down. Their gazes met, hers questioning, his once more unreadable. Suppressing a sigh, she leaned forward, placing her palms on his chambray-covered shoulders. His hands went to her middle, and she realized with a bit of a start that even though she’d put on a couple of pounds, she’d lost so much weight during her recovery that he could almost span her waist with his big hands.
Just weeks ago, she would have stiffened at his touch and thought of what hands that size could do to a woman. But this was Ace. Instead of tensing up as she once would have, she smiled at him and murmured a soft “thank you.”
The spell binding them shattered, and they set about unloading their picnic. Nita instructed the children to stay in the back while she spread a quilt beneath a peeling, white-barked sycamore tree whose golden leaves rustled in the gentle autumn wind. Then she and Ace lifted them from the wagon. Soon they were seated in a circle, plates in their laps, enjoying Nita’s fried chicken, biscuits and dewberry jam, and the wedge of red-rind cheese and cold sarsaparillas she had purchased at the mercantile.
Ace tied a dish towel around Lucy’s neck and coaxed her into tasting the cheese. The minute it hit her tongue, she made a terrible face, shuddered and promptly spit it out. She looked at him as if to ask why he’d done something so terrible to her and said, “Nasky.” Nasty. The word Meg always used to deter Lucy from putting things into her mouth that she shouldn’t.
Everyone laughed, which of course Lucy loved. She joined in, clapping her tiny hands in glee. The poignancy of the moment filled Meg with both joy and sorrow. This was what a real family should be like. Parents and grandparents together, enjoying each other, enjoying the life God had given them.
She knew suddenly that of all the things she could wish to have in the future, this was what she wanted, what she and her little family needed. She dipped her head and blinked fast and hard to hold back her tears. Families should not have fathers who attacked and robbed people and tried to kill them, or mothers who tried to smooth over outbursts of rage and blame and bore the brunt of misplaced anger. “Are you all right?” Ace asked in a low voice.
It had been a good day. She would not let memories of the past ruin it. She raised her head and smiled at him, knowing that her eyes were shining with tears. “I’m fine.”
She broke off a piece of buttery biscuit and put it in Lucy’s mouth. As she munched happily, Ace pulled all the meat, gristle and the tiny, sharp bone from a chicken leg and handed the large bone to her.
Ace had promised Teddy that he would let him fish for a while. With their stomachs full, he took the cane fishing pole from the rear of the wagon and led the boy to the nearby creek. Meg helped Nita pack up the picnic items in the now-familiar basket. Lucy was rubbing her eyes, and Meg decided to try to let her have a short nap before they drove the short distance back to town for their promise
d treat at Ellie’s.
Nita decided to try her hand at fishing and left Meg and Lucy alone. Wearing a contented smile and marveling at what a wonderful day it had been, she stretched out next to her baby daughter and began to sing “Froggie Went a-Courtin’” in a hushed tone. Lucy was asleep by the end of the third verse. A gentle breeze tickled the leaves overhead, and stippled sunlight danced across Lucy’s plump cheeks. Smiling and running a finger along their sweet curves, Meg closed her eyes...
* * *
She knew she was dreaming because she was looking down on herself as she lay in her bed, sleeping. The spot next to her was empty. How long had he been gone this time? Would he come tonight? She tossed restlessly, and the Meg watching moaned as her chest tightened in anxiety.
From somewhere far away, she heard laughter. She felt the presence of someone next to her and knew her husband had come home. Something grazed her face, and she clenched her eyes tight and swatted at it, even knowing that her protests would anger him.
“Meg.”
The timbre of his voice was deep, melodic. Soothing. Nothing at all like Elton’s voice. Once again, she felt the brush of something against her skin and reached out to slap it away. She didn’t want to open her eyes and look at him.
“Wake up, Meg.”
This time the voice penetrated the veil of sleep cloaking her. It wasn’t Elton’s. Her eyes flew open and she found herself staring into a familiar blue gaze. Ace was next to her on the quilt, propped up on one hand. In his other he held a stalk of wild wheat that had turned golden brown. As she looked up at him and tried to get her bearings, he tickled her beneath her chin with the piece of wheat.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.
“Trying to wake you. You’ve been asleep for almost two hours.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, no!” she cried and then glanced over at the sleeping baby to see if she’d awakened her.
Wolf Creek Widow (Wolf Creek, Arkansas Book 4) Page 17