Emmerson's Heart (3 page)

Her eyes opened wide
, and then a smile spread across her face, lighting it up like a wildfire on the prairie in the driest of summers during the darkest of nights. Yes! She would be mine. She would be all mine. But tonight. It was going to be tonight when I tell her how much I truly loved her and wanted to be with her. Nothing would take us apart. Not a damn thing.

“Alight, let’s get to the school before we are late.” Mom’s voice came through the kitchen
, giving me the cue to back off. When she opened the screen door, the camera was up in her hands clicking photos of my beautiful golden goddess. “You look absolutely beautiful, little girl.”

“Thanks for doing my boots, Connie.” The crimson filled her cheeks, but the pain of her past was swelling in those vibrant eyes of Emmer’s. As much as we all tried showing her days like
these weren’t about seeing how much pain we can inflict on each other, that was still there deep inside of her. At least she wasn’t waiting for it to come to that anymore. She wasn’t hiding, expecting those kinds of gifts from us like the first year she spent living under the Huck roof.

One by one, my three younger brothers walked out
, passing her with a quick hug. Marc lingered a little too long, but that wasn’t something I had to worry about. Emmer’s heart was all mine.

Watching the boys and
Mom taking Emmer down to the truck, my heart filled with so much happiness, I was afraid it would burst. Tonight. Tonight I would have her in my arms and nothing could change that.

As I stood
next to my father, my creator, I never respected a man so much in my life. Just for as proud of us as he was, to be so caring for Emmer as he was, and a great man, it was like standing next to the king of kings. How could I not respect a man who had taken in another’s daughter after enduring the past as she had just like if she were his own?

His heavy bear claw came down on my shoulder
, giving me a squeeze. None like he has ever given me one before, but I was the one to bring Emmer into his life, to give him the daughter he always wanted. I gave him that. I saved her life that one night. And if it weren’t for me, if I hadn’t left my friends at that time, she wouldn’t be alive.

“She’s simply amazing, isn’t she?” The smile spread through me, from my toes to the top of my head
, just looking at Emmerson. How could I not be simply amazed at what she had become? Each day was more to her, more than the normal person. And I swear, that girl got even smarter as the sun fell into the dusky sky.

Tipping his head, he released his hold on my shoulder and stepped off the porch.  Strong and powerful, he graced himself into the driver’s seat of his truck letting the vehicle roar to life. And of course, Emmer right between the king of kings and his queen.

And that would be Emmer and me one day. One day, I will become the king of kings just like my father and Emmerson Cogwell will be my queen right beside me. Tonight will be the first night of the rest of our lives.

I stood on the porch watching that truck head down the dirt road
and leaving a cloud of dust. I would be there today for her. If she wanted me there, I wasn’t going to miss it. I just had to think of a way to keep Ben at the ranch. Locking him in the stall wouldn’t work because he knew how to unhook the latch. And if I put a lock on that, that fool would break the damn door again. Securing him in the training corral was the best option. The fencing was high enough that he couldn’t jump and I could chain the gate close. But if he tried jumping the fence, he would surely break his leg and I couldn’t let that happen.

As I walked down to the barn, his head came up from the pail of grain
and he let out a soft nicker. Shaking my head, I patted his rump and went inside. There wasn’t any other way. I just hoped he would let me ride him. And why shouldn’t he be there for Emmer today also? He was a part of her soul, cut from the same cookie cutter. As long as I stayed by him, he wouldn’t be a problem. We would just stay in the back and watch.

Getting him saddled wasn’t the issue. The ride was. I ha
d no idea how in the world Emmer could handle him. I had a hard time fighting just to keep him from going full speed to town and I rode my whole life. This horse had one thing on his mind and he wasn’t going to be happy until he was reunited with her. And I would make sure they were never apart again.

By the time I managed to get to the school grounds, my hands and legs were sore, but I was there to see her get called up on the stage to receive her diploma. Her eyes glistened as she looked out into the crowd, catching my dad, mom, brothers, and Rob’s friends in the
chairs behind her classmates. But when they drifted up, finding me in the back with Ben, the smile brightened my world. Her arm flew as she waved, knocking her dark blue cap off, sending her diploma sailing out into the lawn, and her body damn near shoving the principal off the stage. Her arm came down on his as she went to the edge to jump off, but he stopped her, guiding her to the stairs instead. Running down the aisle, she shoved, weaved, and bobbed her way through the spectators until she came up to me. Throwing her arms around my neck, she pressed her body tight to mine. The ache hit me hard. The heat from wanting her blistered my skin. I needed her. I wanted this. I wanted her in the most extreme ways, but I had to get her back to the ceremony.

As she impatiently sat in her chair, her attention on Ben and
me, I knew she was done, ready to go back to the ranch. When the graduation ended, she was right back to me along with the rest of the Hucks. Mom was dabbing her eyes, Rob and his friends were congratulating her, Will was checking out a few of Emmer’s female classmates, and my dad was silent.

“I can just ride him home.” Unzipping her gown, Emmer shed that cloth so fast, I was amazed. If she had
gotten out of that gown that quick, what would it be like the first time we would ever…No, I couldn’t think like that. Not right now. When we arrived at that position in our lives, it would happen on Emmer’s terms. Not mine. And not because I just had to have her. I will in time. She would be the last woman I ever had and the one I will love until I die. No one will ever be in Emmer’s place in my heart. No one would ever have my heart like she did. That belonged only to her.

With my dad’s approval, I handed over the reins. He knew Ben wouldn’t stay home. Not on this day. Ben was, in a weird sort of way, part of the family. He was the family dog, just in a horse’s body. Why shouldn’t he be here?

“You can ride home with me.” Emmer pressed her forehead to Ben’s with her hands spread on his thick cheeks.

“As long as you can keep him calm.” Take a chance and ride double on that beast? Hell yeah! Anyway I could get my arms around Emmer, I was going to take it now that she was graduated. And it was going to be a slow ride home
, too. I would make sure of that.

Clearing his throat,
Dad straightened his shoulders and looked at Emmer with the tears building back up in his eyes. “Go straight home. There is still plenty to do before the bonfire.”

“Will do, Jackson.” Of course that would get Emmer home. Chores were what Emmer loved, even if it meant getting dirty. Her freedom
, she called it, and knowing there was more to do back at the ranch, she would be there.

Gatherin
g the family, my dad headed them back to the truck. Stopping, he looked at me, his eyes tightening to the strong dark chocolates he pulled out in his fits of anger or temperament issues. “I will talk to you later.”

Nodding, I turned my fullest of attention back to my golden ray of sunshine. Tonight was just a few hours away and then I would make her mine for sure, the right way, properly. I would talk to her about it and see what she thought before I did anything. With Emmer, I had to take my time because I knew what she came from, what she endured in the past. And she was one I would rather take my time with, cherish
her the way she needed to be, and love her with all my heart. No rush, we had the rest of our lives.

Helping her up
on Ben’s back, she settled into the saddle and smiled down at me. My hand rested on her thigh as I just stood there taking in the sight, admiring it. That sight of her against the afternoon sun would be a picture that would never leave my mind. When her hand came down on mine, her thumb caressing the top of my hand, I almost lost it. The talk I planned on tonight just turned from seeing what and if she felt the same about me into how and what we were going to do when she went to college. There was no question in my mind now as to whether or not she felt the same. She did. She really did.

I just had to wait until tonight. And tonight would change our lives, be the beginning of something new, something so much more than we ever thought could happen.
And honestly, I had my baby brother to thank for letting her steal his lunches.

Chapter 2

****Past****

Day after day, I knew right where I would find him. Once again, he was shoving his face full of food in the loft of the barn. Every day. Every damn day. Only when he was full was when I could actually get some damn work out of him. With Marcus staying in Billings at college, I needed Will’s damn help around here. And with winter coming in early this year, we all had to bust our asses to prepare.

W
hy he was starving after school was a question I would like answered. I saw the lunches Mom was packing him. My lord—two sandwiches, the big bag of chips, and about ten cookies just to get him through the school day. Like that wasn’t enough. I’m not talking just little sandwiches either. Nope, she doubled everything on them, filling them full to accommodate his growing appetite. With what she was packing him now, he should have been ready to work when he had gotten home.

It wasn’t like my youngest brother was big
, like Marcus and I who were over six foot and over two hundred pounds. Will and Rob had taken after Mom with the shorter fame as it was. Still, when I was fourteen, I wasn’t that hungry either. There had to be something else going on. There was some reason why he was in the barn sneaking more food after school. Maybe it was those damn Andrews boys. They were nothing but trouble, always starting fights with us because of the feud between our fathers, and that one boy was probably stealing Will’s lunch just to be a jerk. 

“I need to get this stuff done. We need to get ready because it’s going to be a bad winter.” Plopping down on the square bales of hay, I kicked out my legs
as I began to feel the exhaustion hitting already. With getting up at six in the morning every morning, seven days a week, when the two got home from school the help was needed. And it was as soon as they got home from school I needed them out there in the barn and getting to chores. Not sitting in the barn stuffing their face. 

“I’ll be ready in a little bit. Just give me five minutes.”
When his eyes wouldn’t meet mine, I knew there was something going on. Being the oldest, I had to protect my brothers. That was how we were. That was how it always was. If the two younger ones needed something, we were right there. With Marc living in the city now, it left me in charge. Still, we were all pretty damn tight and shared everything, no secrets. If there was a problem, they all knew that they could come to me. This was something that Will was keeping from all of us.

“If you have an issue with the Andrews, you can tell me. I will have a talk with them if they are stealing your lunches.”
When wouldn’t I like to talk to the Andrews boys? There were three of them and all three of them were vicious just because of the constant feud with our fathers. Something else not one of us boys understood, but we knew enough to stay the hell out of it and not ask questions. But the sons of George Andrews had taken the feud to a whole new level, one that I was getting tired of having to solve. And it wasn’t that they were bad guys, they were just like their dad…..Stubborn and tightlipped. But I guess since their mother ran off with a boy half her age a few years ago, I couldn’t get too hard on them.

“They aren’t
; just leave it alone.” Hearing the anger from him, I knew this was something that Will had been hiding for a while and making damn sure no one knew. Hell, I was pretty sure that Mom hadn’t even known that he was grabbing more food when he got home from class. Still, he could trust me if there was something happening at school. I could talk to the Andrews boys and just let them know to stop messing with Will.

Letting my dark eyes close, I let myself relax in the warmth of the barn before I had to get up and start working more. With Rob out with my dad checking fences, we still had some time before they got back. Having Rob go out with
Dad was better, anyway. This whole food thing was getting to me already and I had to figure it out. “What’s going on, Will?”

“Nothing, okay! Just drop it!”

“I can beat the snot out of you if you would like.”

“God, just let it go.” Shoving the slapped together sandwich in his mouth, he packed his cheeks tightly. “I’m letting her steal my lunches.”

My heart jumped hard. Her? Andrews didn’t have a girl and I hadn’t heard of any girls that were bullying Will. I hadn’t seen any on the days that Rob had to stay for practice while basketball was going on. “Who; and why are you letting
her
steal your lunches?”

“I leave my bag open for her to take them.” His voice softened as his eyes studied the bread that had the lunchmeat hanging out the sides
as if he suddenly lost his appetite. Hell, he had a few seconds to slap something together and no matter what, it still looked disgusting. But this
her
and
letting her steal his lunches
was really bothering him.

“I can go and talk with her if you need me to.”

“No! She….” His eyes finally met mine as I could see something deep inside of them. With Will, it was easy to read him when he actually made eye contact with me. Will was the softest one of us brothers and the one who got in more trouble caring about others than what he needed to be doing. He was the one that turned out just like Mom. Just like her in looks and attitude. “She wouldn’t do it if she didn’t need to. Please, just don’t say anything.”

Nodding, the muscles in my chest tightened as I just looked at him. What could I say?
I wasn’t about to jump on his ass for eating if he was letting someone take his lunches who needed the food. It was more than what I ever would have done. When I was in school, my lunches were my lunches and that was it. I had a ranch to work. I needed the fuel. Call me selfish, but hey, a growing boy has to do what a growing boy needed to do. “Tell me about her.”

“I just think that her family doesn’t have much money. I picked the seat right in front of her and all I could
hear was this growling. So, one day, I went up to ask my teacher something and when I got back to my seat, my lunch was gone and the look on her face, the guilt that was there. Paul, she was practically in tears.” Letting his head hang low, he swallowed the ball of food in his mouth hard. “I just…I knew that she had taken it and I didn’t want to say anything.”

“You could have asked if she wanted to share your lunch.”

“No; I didn’t want to scare her off. If she knew that I knew, she wouldn’t come to class anymore. She was really ashamed of it. And since I’ve been letting her steal my lunches, she’s looking a little better and I’m not hearing that growling anymore.” A little smile blushed across his face as his eyes drifted over his sandwich. “She’s paying attention.”

“What class?”
A girl breaking down to stealing someone else’s lunch? Maybe this was something that Mom and Dad should know about. I knew girls and how they were. I was his age once, thinking about girls and those awkward feelings that were coming about. It could be as simple as a girl just playing Will to get his lunch or something could really be up with this girl. I could see a family not having financial means, but around here, there was a lot of help out there. There were plenty of families around that were more than willing to help someone else that were down on their luck. My parents did it before. Some people just needed a little help to get back up. But if Will was being so adamant about this girl and saying that she was looking better and paying attention with food in her belly, maybe I should just find out some more about this girl and keep an eye on her. 

“Business Ed. We have a project where we have to work together on it and Donnie keeps hounding me to partner with him, but I was thinking that if I partnered with her, then I can make sure that she gets the lunch.” Shrugging, he picked at the rest of his sandwich
; taking the meat out and sticking it into his mouth. “She’s actually kind of cute now that she’s got some color.”

If that girl was that sickly over being starved, maybe this was something that needed to be looked in
to. If a child was that ghastly looking and so hungry they weren’t paying any attention in class, wouldn’t a teacher notice?

An annoying ache pinched my side. My gut tightened as I looked over his haphazard sandwich.
Something about this girl wasn’t right. Maybe Will was just over exaggerating. Being a teen in high school, hormones had a way of forcing you to think you see something that you really don’t. It could be that he just liked this girl and didn’t want to admit to it.  

“No one talks to her. They all pick on her and talk bad about her. I feel bad. I mean, she doesn’t have anything that looks new or clothes that
don’t
have stains on them.” Guilt pooled into his cheeks as he tossed the rest of the sandwich aside. “I tell them to stop, but they just pick on me instead, but I don’t mind. I can take it. I just feel bad for her.”

At least he wasn’t like the other kids in his class that
were picking on her. Apparently, her family didn’t have the money like the others and were just making ends meet. There wasn’t anything funny about a family that hadn’t the means to eat. Still, the families here helped one another. Just one word and the family would get the little bit of help they needed just to get started. It wasn’t like any of us didn’t have things we could go without. In my closet alone, I bet I had ten pairs of jeans I hadn’t touched in years and a few with tags still on them.

“I like her. I try to talk to her, but when I do, i
t’s like she just wants to cry.”

“Well, just keep being nice to her and if you think that she needs your lunches, let her take them. If there’s anything else that you notice about her, you better tell me.”

“Like what?”

“If she has strange bruises on her or anything that you don’t think is right. Don’t you dare hide anything like that.” Managing to get to my feet, I ran a hand through my dark brown hair
while letting everything sink in. This was a lot to take and I could see why Will was letting her steal his lunch. That was something I didn’t want to do anything about, but still, that wasn’t any reason to steal. I hoped that was all that was wrong with the family, the lack of food, but something inside me clenched tightly.

“I was going to see if she wants to be my partner for the project. Do you think that
Mom and Dad would hound her if she were to come here to work on it?”

“They might question
you
about her, but I don’t think that they would question her.” Perhaps that would be a great idea. Having the girl come around could be for the best. If this went beyond just a family that hadn’t the means to afford sufficient food, then my parents would be able to take a step in. Who knows? Maybe the family was just down on some luck and having her become friends with Will could get her parents friends with our parents and we could help them out. If it was just food, we had plenty and my parents would be more than willing to help out another family.

Still, just something about what Will said about the girl was nagging me. If she was that sickly being hungry, what if something else was going on? There had been a few new families that moved into our smaller town, but the joys of living in a small town were that people talked. Something would have been said if there was something strange about this family. How could something such as a hungry family go unnoticed?

Nodding, he gathered his garbage and shoved it into the bag making damn sure he had all his garbage. “I think that I am going to. Maybe she would like to have a good home cooked meal. I’m sure that Mom wouldn’t mind the extra company.”

“You’re a good kid, Will. Next time, just come to me and talk to me.” Walking out, I sucked in a deep breath
. I could feel the temperature dropping. If we had enough time to prepare for this winter, I would be shocked. It was bad enough that we had a lot to do in order to prepare for this winter that was approaching fast and early, but now I had the thought of that damn girl in my mind. Like I really needed that on top of all the shuffling of the cows, fencing that needed to be fixed, and the hay that needed to be shifted that still had to be done before it just got too damn cold.

“Are you going to talk to
Mom about this?”

“Nope, but just keep me informed. Like I said, if you notice anything different, you better tell me right
away.” I swallowed hard. Man, we were damn lucky to have what we had. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to go without food, to have to go through school that hungry every day, or to be that desperate as to steal another kid’s lunch. Hearing that, seeing how good my brother was being to this girl, made me proud to be related. Our parents were the best, raised the best kids there were, and we needed to remember that the next time that we got mad at them.

Getting down into the horse barn, my stomach knotted and twisted.
I was damn glad that Will was cared enough to partner up with this girl and work with her on the project. He may not see anything that would send alarms, but we could. And I know that Mom and Dad could pick it out in a heartbeat if there was something other than the lack of money going on with this girl.

If he could get her here, get her comfortable with us, if there was something going on, she could come to us for help. And if she didn’t, we could make sure something happened to where she could get the help she needed.

And knowing myself, I could help keep an eye on things in town. If I was able to see what her parents were like, I could keep an eye on them and see if there was anything that didn’t look right there. Just because we lived in a small town didn’t mean that bad things didn’t happen. Some things have gone unnoticed before, but then again, some people were damn good at hiding. And that one new family that came in at the start of this school year, no one knew them, talked to them, or talked about them. They were certainly ones who kept to themselves.