Groom Wanted (11 page)

“Well, Jake,” Leah said after four more letters that he really hadn’t heard, “I’ve been here over an hour. I’d better go get Abby and be getting home. I need to get things ready for Mr. Barrington’s arrival.”

He nodded and they stood.

Leah picked up her reticule from the table, and side by side they walked down the steps and headed to the corral.

“Abby, are you ready to go?” Leah called.

Nothing. The barnyard was quiet.

“That’s odd. Where could she be?” Leah asked.

“Don’t know.” Jake hiked a shoulder.

“Abby!” Leah hollered.

“Over here.” Abby’s voice came from the direction of the woods.

They headed that way. Abby met them halfway. Banjo followed close behind with her mouth wide open and her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth, panting.

“Have you seen Meanie?” Abby asked, puffing.

“Meanie?” Jake crossed his arms over his chest. “That ornery old goat escape again?”

“Yes. I’m really sorry, Jake,” Abby said between gasps. “When I stepped out of the pen, I held the gate close to me so she wouldn’t get out. But she rammed into my legs and knocked me down and took off running into the woods. I haven’t been able to find her anywhere.”

“It’s okay, Abby. Told you she was tricky. I’ll find her.”

“We’ll help. Then we really do need to go home,” Leah said.

Abby went one way, Leah went another and Jake another.

Within minutes he heard Leah hollering, “Give me back my reticule, you ornery brat.”

Jake glanced at the sky and rolled his eyes. “Oh, no.” He bolted toward the sound of Leah’s voice. When he got there, he saw Leah in an all-out tug-of-war with Meanie over her purse. Leah’s hair was dancing around her head as curls came scrambling out of their holdings.

“Meanie!” Jake hustled to her.

Leah’s attention flew to Jake and in the process she lost her grip on her bag. Meanie took off running with it as Leah landed on her backside in the dust. Jake darted after the goat as Leah scrambled to her feet and followed close behind them.

“Get back here!” he yelled, dodging and ducking through the trees. Suddenly, with no warning at all, his foot caught a tree root, and he tumbled to the ground. Only a half step back, Leah didn’t have time to change course and with a thud she landed right on top of him.

Their faces were mere inches from each other.

They were so close their breaths mingled.

Neither moved.

Leah’s wide eyes stared into his. She looked so cute, so disheveled and surprised. Even her lips were parted in shock.

The desire to kiss those lips barreled over him.

As if she’d read his mind, she blinked, yanking his senses back to where they belonged.

“You okay?” He shifted her off of him, careful not to hurt her.

“I’m...I’m fine.” She brushed the tousled hair from her face and the dirt from her dress. “I look like a mess, but I’m all right.”

Jake stood and helped her up. Then he brushed the pine needles out of his hair and off his arms and legs while Leah brushed them off of herself.

Her cheeks were flushed. He wondered if his were, too. For sure they would have been if he had followed through with his desire to kiss her. Thank goodness he hadn’t. Not because he didn’t want to. Leah’s outward and inward beauty, her love for the Lord and her fun, sweet, generous nature would be a temptation for any man. Including him. No, especially for him. But kissing her would have been a huge mistake.

* * *

Heat once again rose up Leah’s neck and into her cheeks at the certainty that Jake had been about to kiss her. She tried to steer her thoughts a different way as she turned the carriage for home, but they clung to her mind and her heart.

“Why’s your face so red?” Abby asked her in the carriage.

She wanted to lie but found she could not. “I’m not sure, but I think Jake was going to kiss me back there in the forest.”

“What? Are you serious?” Abby shrieked.

“Like I said, I’m not sure—but I think so.” Leah took her eyes off the horse clomping down the hard-packed road from Jake’s place and looked over at his flourishing wheat field.

“Why? What did he do?”

“Well, when I fell on top of him, our—”

“You fell on top of Jake?” Abby interrupted with a gust of surprise in her voice.

“Yes, I—”

“When? How?”

“Abby, if you’d stop interrupting me, I’d tell you.” No frustration came through, only a slight reprimand. For a brief moment, Leah’s attention went to a pair of gray partridge birds flying above them before her focus returned to Abby.

“Sorry.” Her sister didn’t look one bit sorry. That was okay— Leah knew she was excited to hear the story. And Leah was glad she could share these things with her sister. Seven years separated them, but they’d grown close over the past year.

“Okay, so, I spotted Meanie near the cottonwood trees on Jake’s property. You know the ones I’m talking about, don’t you?”

Abby nodded, blinking, waiting expectantly.

Leah held her chuckle inside at seeing her sister like that.

“And?” Abby dragged the word out.

“Well, as soon as I reached for her halter, she snatched my reticule from me. I yelled at her to give it back. I’m surprised you didn’t hear me.”

“How could I? I was the opposite direction from you. Who cares about that, anyway? Keep going.”

“Well, Jake heard me. He came right away. Meanie took off running. Jake ran after her, and I ran after Jake. He tripped on something. I think a tree root, or something, I’m not sure. Anyway, doesn’t matter what he tripped on. Whatever it was, he fell and I landed on top of him.” The memory burned through her like wind whipping embers into a blaze. “It was so weird. His face was so close, Abbs, and he had this look on his face….”

“Ooooh. How romantic. Then what happened?” Her sparkling blue eyes stared expectantly at Leah.

Leah jerked her head from side to side. “You’ve been reading too many romance novels. Jake and I, we’re not like that.”

“But you could be.” Was that hope on her sister’s face?

“No, Abbs. We can’t. I’m leaving, remember? And besides, I don’t feel that way about him, and I know he doesn’t feel that way about me.”

“But he was going to kiss you.”

“No.” The more she thought about it, the more she talked herself out of it. “I said I thought he was going to kiss me, but I must be wrong. Jake doesn’t think about me like that.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because.” She studied Abby’s eyes a moment. “Look. If I tell you something, you have to promise not to say anything to anyone, okay?”

“You always ask me that. Do I ever?” Abby questioned her with not only her words, but also her looks.

“No. No, you don’t. And I appreciate it more than you will ever know.” She smiled at Abby. “A few months back, Jake asked me to marry him.”

“What?” Abby’s brows darted upward. “You’re kidding? What did you say?”

“I said no.”

“No.” Abby’s face scrunched. “Why?”

“You know why. Besides, he said it would be a marriage of convenience between two friends.”

“Ouch.”

“Ouch is right. But that’s okay. It wasn’t right—he and I. And now, with me leaving, I’m just glad I don’t love Jake in that way or it would be too hard to move if I did.”

“Do you think he loves you, Lee-Lee?”

Leah frowned. “Why would you ask that? I just told you his proposal was one of convenience, not love.”

“Yes, well, you also said you thought he wanted to kiss you. And you two do spend a lot of time together.”

“Yes, we do spend a lot of time together because we enjoy each other’s company.”

Abby’s eyes brightened.

“As friends, Abbynormal, as friends. It’s nice having a male friend. They’re more rational and not so emotional. And Jake is easy to talk to. He says the same thing about me. As for him wanting to kiss me, well, perhaps I imagined it. Because as soon as I looked at his mouth, he couldn’t get away from me fast enough. He jumped up and brushed himself off, and I had a hard time keeping up with him on the way to the barn.”

Was the thought of kissing her that repulsive to him? The idea of him kissing her wasn’t to Leah. How strange was that? She’d never thought about Jake kissing her before. Or what it would be like. Until this very moment.
Sweet twinkling stars above
. Her eyes widened on the thought. Not good. Not good at all. She swallowed hard and clicked on the lines. “Giddyup, Lambie.”

Minutes later they rode into the ranch yard. “Uh-oh,” Abby said.

Leah’s gaze trailed toward the direction Abby was looking. She was so busy thinking about what had happened earlier, she didn’t see her brothers standing in front of the barn with their arms crossed. For Michael to leave Selina’s side, whatever they were up to could not be good. “‘Uh-oh’ is right. Mother must have told them about my plans.”

Chin up, she guided Lambie toward the front of the barn, but before she could get close, her brothers were next to the phaeton.

Jesse grabbed the lines near her horse’s bit and stopped her.

Haydon was the first to get to her. “We need to talk.” He offered Leah a hand down, but it didn’t feel very helpful.

“Hello to you, too.” One glance at Haydon’s face said he wasn’t amused.

By that time, Jess and Michael had joined him like a wall in front of her.

Abby was at Leah’s side in an instant. Two against three was better than one against three at least.

“What’s this we hear about you placing an ad in
the
New York Times
for a husband?”

Leah darted a glance at Abby, who looked pale as a dandelion seed. “Mother didn’t waste any time, did she?”

“Never mind that,” Haydon cut in. “I can’t believe you did something like that without talking it over with us.”

“What?” Leah bobbed her head forward with a tilt and scrunched her face. “Are you serious? I’m not a child anymore. I’m twenty-four years old and more than capable of making my own decisions.”

“You might be twenty-four, but you’re still our sister and under our protective care. There’s no way I’m letting my little sister marry a complete stranger. I can’t believe you did this. That you would go behind our backs like this.” Haydon raised his cowboy hat and shoved his fingers through his blond hair. “Why, Leah? Why?” Nothing but concern filled his voice and eyes.

“Haydon—” Michael laid his hand on their oldest brother’s shoulder “—we’re all upset about this. But, we need to remember, we got wives like this, too.”

“I don’t care. This is our sister we’re talking about here.”

“Well, Rainee and Selina were someone’s sister, too,” Michael said as if he had all the calm in the world.

“Rainee’s brother doesn’t count,” Haydon counteracted with a grunt.

“True, but Selina’s does. Her brothers loved her as much as we love Leah.”

Leah’s heart melted at those words. They really did love and care about her.

Haydon stared at Michael, then looked over at Leah. She saw tender love for her along with confusion. She could tell he was torn, that a battle was going on inside him. Finally, he said, “Leah, would you promise one thing?”

“What’s that?” Leah pushed away a strand of hair that had breezed across her eyes.

“If we don’t feel right about this guy, would you take our advice and not marry him?” Up until this moment her brother Jess had been silent. “That’s all we ask, Lee. We’ll all be praying about this to see what God has to say about it. Fair enough?”

“I
did
pray about it, and I have peace about my decision.”

“No offense, Leah, but you women let your emotions rule you,” Haydon said, clearly wishing he could put a stop to it and that be that. “Besides, we’re on the outside looking in. So would you trust us to pray about this and heed whatever God shows us?”

She glanced up at Haydon. As the oldest this had to be hard on him. He’d been the one to step in, to try to take her father’s place when he’d died. This had to be killing him. A ghost she’d rather not deal with floated just behind his eyes. “Okay.”

“Wise decision, Lee-Lee,” Abby interjected.

“Hey, whose side are you on?”

“Both, of course.” Abby wrinkled her nose at her, then smiled.

So much for secrets. She turned her attention to other pressing matters. “Oh, while everyone is here, I want to talk to you guys about something. What do you think of Mother and Mr. Barker’s relationship? Did she tell you that she was interested in pursuing a serious relationship with him?”

Haydon was the first to respond. “She did.”

“And? What do you think about that?”

“We—” Haydon pointed at Jess and Michael “—think it’s great.”

Leah crossed her arms, not terribly happy with the answer. “You do? But what about Father?”

“What about him?” Jess asked.

She came uncoiled. “What do you mean ‘what about him’? Am I the only one this bothers?”

“Leah.” Michael put his arm around her shoulder and tucked her next to his side, a move that made her all the more angry. He glanced down at her. “Look, I know it’s hard for you to think about Mother with anyone but Father. It is for all of us.”

“It is?” She brightened, no longer feeling alone in her guilt-ridden thoughts.

“But...”

Her heart sank back into the abyss it dwelled in where her father was concerned.

“Father’s gone. And he has been for a long time. We all see how lonely Mother is. We thought her and Mr. Svenson would get together until he decided to go back East. His leaving was hard on her. But now she seems happy again. Mr. Barker is obviously the one who is making her that way. He’s a good Christian man who will take good care of her.”

Leah looked away, annoyed to be the only one who was upset, and feeling guilty at the same time.

“It’ll be okay, sis. You’ll see.” Jess tried to reassure her, too.

She couldn’t even nod. Her heart was torn. She knew Michael was right, but that didn’t make it any easier. The only good thing about any of it was that she wouldn’t be there to see her mother with another man. It would hurt too much.

Michael gave her a squeeze before releasing her. “Now, we need to talk about what to do with this fellow who’s coming. When’s he supposed to get here?”