Loving Linsey (32 page)

“She told me—she tells me everything.”

He gave a snort of disdain. “Obviously not everything.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

He looked down at the hand clutching his sleeve, then into emerald eyes that had been haunting his every waking and sleeping moments for months. This farce had gone on long enough. “Ask your sister.”

Addie stood by the window, staring out the pane at the smithy across the way, where a single light burned from within.

Yearning seized her with fierce claws, tightening around her heart and lungs until she could scarcely breathe.

Oren
, her soul called.

As if he'd heard it, he appeared in the wide doorway. The glow of street lamps gathered around his powerful frame, caressing him in a
way that Addie longed to. Perhaps she should feel shame for wanting him, especially after the way she had rejected him for Daniel, but the only emotion she felt right now was despair.

When his gaze didn't veer from the hotel, she wondered if he knew she stood inside, watching him through the window. Did he ever think about her? Did he ever long for her as she longed for him?

Before she succumbed to second thoughts, Addie moved through the crowd and pushed herself out the door. Oren stilled, then slowly straightened. Heart thumping, breath quickening, she stood on her side of the lane; he stood on his.

For a long time, neither moved. The air between them swirled with longing and pain and wistful desire.

Then, Addie took one step. And another. Off the boardwalk, across the packed road where wind kicked up dust at her feet.

She didn't stop until she stood a heartbeat away from the man she'd come to love more than life itself.

She wanted to say
I'm sorry. I love you. Please, forgive me.

But the words locked in her throat.

And then, he turned away.

Addie closed her eyes and let her head fall back as grief flooded through every vessel in her body. Through teary eyes she stared at the platinum moon. It looked as desolate as she felt. She'd finally found the man who made her feel strong and cherished. Who made her
toes curl and her heart thump. Who made each day something to treasure, and not something to endure.

And he wanted nothing to do with her.

No
—she'd not let him walk away from her. All her life, she'd allowed others to fight her battles for her, to shelter her, to rule her every thought and action.

Not this time.

“Oren.”

He stopped in the center of the smithy, his body as stiff as the iron nails he made in his forge and fire.

With a sigh, he turned to face her. “What are you doing here, Addie?”

His eyes, those beautiful midnight blue eyes, were bleak and weary. Go slow, Addie cautioned herself. If you push him, he'll run like a wounded mustang. “I didn't see you at the festivities,” she said, strolling into the shop. “I wondered why.”

“Don't feel much like merrymakin', I reckon.”

“Oh? What are you in the mood for?”

His gaze traveled down her body with the heat of a full-fired furnace.
Love makin'. Seen' you in that dress, all gussied up, I'm havin' a helluva time not flippin' up your skirts to see if you're wearin' those candy-striped underdrawers.

His gaze fell. So did his voice. “You shouldn't be here, Addie. Ain't proper for a bride-to-be to be visitin' another man.”

She dragged a finger along the edge of a stall door. “I suppose I wasn't in the mood for merrymaking,
either.” As she looked steadily into his eyes, she hoped he would understand how much she still wanted him.

“What do you want from me, Addie?” he finally whispered. “You want my blessing? I can't give it. You want my heart? I gave it to you. You threw it back in my face. Just what the hell do you want from me?”

She swallowed over the tears clogging her throat. “Another chance.”

He gave a harsh laugh.

“Oren, please. I can't bear this,” she whispered in agony. “I made a mistake.” She hastened toward him, closing the physical distance between them, wishing she could close the emotional distance as easily. “I only promised to marry Daniel because Linsey wants it so badly.” She took a deep breath and confessed everything—the mirror, the list, their scheme to trap Daniel into marriage. “All of that happened before I met you—before I fell in love with you. After the night the foal was born, I knew something had to be done. So Daniel and I thought if we proved to her that the superstitions were invalid, she'd realize that she wasn't going to die, and I could tell her about you.”

“I know what it's like to lose someone close to you, Addie. But being dishonest ain't fair to anyone—most of all yourself. The only way we've got a chance for a life together is if you tell her the truth about us.”

“I know. I planned on telling her—after the first of the year.”

“No, Addie. As long as you give her this
power over you, you can never fully be your own self.”

“Oren, please try and understand—Linsey is more convinced than ever that she will not live out the year, and I'm beginning to fear she's right. Sometimes I think this is all that's keeping her going. What if she does die, and I haven't lived up to my promise? I'll never be able to live with myself.”

His features closed, going as dark and stony as an abandoned cellar. “Then you and Doc have a good life.”

As Addie watched him turn away, it felt as if her world had just crumbled to ash. How could he expect her to turn her back on her sister?

Then again, how could she let him believe he would be second to any other commitment she made? How could she let go of the one person she wanted to be with more than anyone on earth?

She couldn't. Before, it had never been important to take a stand against Linsey on an issue—because before, there hadn't been anything at stake. Now there was. If she didn't do this one thing, if she didn't confess her love for him to her sister, if she didn't find the strength to stand up for them, she'd lose him. He'd walk out of her life, and she'd never get him back again.

“All right!”

He stopped, looked over his shoulder, and waited.

“I'll tell her,” Addie said in a rush. “I'll tell her tonight—under one condition.”

“What's that?”

“You give me twelve more babies like Bryce.”

The next thing Addie knew, she was being swept up in Oren's powerful arms.

“You dad-blamed woman—I thought you'd never come to your senses.”

“I love you, Oren.”

He gave her a slow, wicked smile that had her nerves sizzling and her toes curling. “Show me.”

Ask your sister.

The words pounded through Linsey's brain as she searched high and low for Addie. She remembered seeing her in the hotel, but when she went back to look for her, she wasn't there, nor could anyone tell Linsey where she had gone off to. Home, maybe? Why, she couldn't guess, but neither could she think of anyplace else her sister might be.

She crossed Wishing Well Lane, thankful that at least she didn't have to worry about Bishop jumping out of the woodwork anymore. Several of the men at the reception had heard the ruckus and had come out to investigate. Linsey had quickly explained what happened. Her report had aroused the men's protective instincts as well as their outrage, and they vowed to send someone to track down the county sheriff. She'd press charges against Bishop if she thought it would do any good, but the best she could hope for was that the mayor and Mrs. Harvey might at last see their son for what he really was, and take measures
to see that he didn't accost another woman.

Linsey frowned, her thoughts once again circling around to Daniel—to his defense of her, to his astounding declaration. She'd never been so angry to hear anything in her life. It just wasn't fair. Even if she didn't have one foot in the grave, she could never betray Addie by stealing the man she adored. Already the guilt of having kissed Daniel, of having fallen in love with him, was almost too much for Linsey to bear.

Ask your sister.

Again the words echoed in her mind. What could he possibly know about Addie that she didn't?

As she passed the smithy, a feminine giggle wafted through the doors, followed by a masculine rumble of laughter. Linsey's steps faltered. There was something very familiar about that giggle.

Linsey pushed on the door with her fingertips. Brows drawn, she peeked inside the shop, the darkness broken only by the mellow glow of a lantern hanging on a hook outside a stall.

She knew better than to barge into a neighbor's property uninvited, and yet the playful noises coming from within compelled her farther into the shop.

But when she peered over the stall, she gasped at the sight that met her eyes—a man and a woman, locked in a passionate embrace. She recognized Addie's long, straight blond
hair instantly. She couldn't see the man's face, for he had it buried between Addie's breasts, yet Linsey knew only one man would ever be allowed such liberties.

Daniel.

Anguish seared her heart. A tight fist of betrayal plowed into her middle, stole her breath, drove her backward. She choked on a sob and spun around, blindly seeking escape. She stumbled over her skirts, against a barrel, and it toppled over with a crash.

Linsey regained her footing. Behind her, she heard a violent rustling, then a slam of a door being flung open.

“Linsey . . .! Oh, my heavens . . . Linsey, wait!”

She couldn't. She couldn't bear the sight of them.

“Miss Linsey!”

The deep, drawling voice yanked her to a stop two feet from the smithy doors. Slowly she looked over her shoulder. Addie was hastily buttoning up her gaping bodice. Behind her loomed Oren Potter—his clothes rumpled, straw clinging in hair dark as coal.

“Mr. Potter?” she asked in confusion. “Addie? What's going on here?”

“I didn't want you to find out like this. I meant to tell you . . .”

She sank to the crate. “I don't understand. I thought you wanted to marry Daniel. I thought you loved him.”

“No.” Addie shook her head sadly. “Oren's the man I love. And he loves me.”

“When did this happen?”

“There wasn't any certain day. It just started . . . and grew.”

“That long? For the love of Gus, here I've been shoving you and Daniel together, and the whole time you've been rolling in the dirt with the smithy?”

“Now see here, Miss Linsey—”

“No, Oren, please. This is between me and my sister.”

It was the first time Linsey had ever heard such backbone from her sister, and amazingly, she'd done it with nothing more than a soft tone and a gentle hand to the strapping man's arm.

Addie stepped forward, smoothing her rumpled skirts and licking her kiss-swollen lips. Her eyes were filled with sorrow, and maybe a little regret, yet Linsey had a difficult time seeing past the haze of betrayal. The whole time she'd borne the burden of guilt for kissing Daniel, the timid, proper sister she'd cared for for fifteen years had been trysting with the local blacksmith—and never said a word about it.

“Linsey, I never meant to keep this a secret from you.”

“But you did! How could you not tell me? Your own sister?”

“I wanted to tell you—I
tried
to tell you.” She gave a watery laugh. “God, I can't count how many times I've lain awake over these last weeks, trying to find the words.”

“Why didn't you just say it?”

“Because you were so busy planning your death and my life that you wouldn't listen.”

The statement drove through her like a pickax. Daniel had said almost the exact same thing to her only hours before.

“Linsey, I love you. And I know you had your heart set on me marrying Daniel . . . but he isn't the man of my dreams. Oren is. I want to walk at his side down the center of town. I want to fix his meals and share his home and bear his children. I want to spend the rest of my life looking at him, touching him, being with him. I don't want to look back one day and say, ‘I had love, and I threw it away,' and it isn't fair for you to make me feel guilty about that. Because I do love him, Linsey, with all my heart and soul—and if you can't accept that, then you're not the sister I've looked up to all these years.”

Slack jawed, Linsey could only sit in amazed silence, partly over the strength of Addie's commitment, partly over her own blindness to what should have been noticeable all along. “I had no idea you felt this way. If I had known . . .” She swallowed and blinked back a film of moisture gathering across her eyes. “Addie, I never would have tried to force you into doing something you didn't want to do. All I ever wanted was to make sure you would be happy.”

“I am happy. With Oren.”

She was. Linsey could see it in the shy glow in her cheeks, in the sparkle in her eyes. Addie had found her Prince Charming.

It just wasn't Daniel.

He stood on the banks of Horseshoe Creek, skipping rocks in his black coattails, looking
more handsome than a body had a right to. His Sunday suit fit him to snug perfection, emphasizing those incredibly broad shoulders, that lean waist, those straight hips and long muscled legs.

As always, the power of him lured her like a blossom to sunshine. Linsey picked up a flat-sided stone and joined him at the banks. She let the stone fly. It bounced twice across the smooth surface, making double plops.

“Not bad,” he said.

“I used to be better.”

The idle chatter didn't cover the underlying tension between them. There had been so many words flung at each other, so many emotions brought to the surface. . . .

She was probably making a fool of herself by coming here and seeking him out. She imagined what it must have cost this proud man to say what he'd said earlier: that he . . . that he loved her. They were the most beautiful words a woman could hear from the man who had stolen her heart, and what had she done? Screamed at him like a shrew.