Sister's Choice (34 page)

Carrying her things out to the wagon for the trip, she looked up and saw Colby ride into the yard. It surprised her that he would show his face at her home after the cold shoulder she had extended him.

The family was going in and out of the house loading up the wagon, and Colby exchanged greetings with everyone; then he asked Maggie if she would mind taking a walk in the yard with him.

“Maggie,” he began when they had strolled over to the stone wall by the vegetable garden, “I know you are mad at me for testifying against Tommy, and I hope you can forgive me. I hope we can be friends again.” He spoke with sincere apology in his voice. The very words she had been longing to hear from Evan were quite unexpected coming from Colby.

“I was really disappointed in you, Colby.”

“I did what I felt I had to do, just as you did.”

“Mr. Cranston forced me to testify,” she said defensively, knowing that made her betrayal no less hurtful. Tommy hadn’t come to see her, either, deepening her sense of loss.

“Well, regardless of what we did,” Colby reasoned, “Tommy got off, so it all came out okay in the end.”

“It might not have. He might have hanged.”

“Aw, come on, Mags, can’t you give me an inch?” He offered her a lopsided, rather pathetic smile.

Her heart didn’t leap as it once might have, but she still thought what a handsome fellow he was. “I guess I can forgive you,” she relented. She’d lost too many friends over that trial to be hard-nosed about it.

He grinned his full, stunning grin, and his eyes sparked with playful charm, causing Maggie to remember all the time she had spent pining for Colby Stoddard when he had been so unreachable. She recalled that unexpected kiss in the apple orchard.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “You’ve become kind of special to me.”

“I have?”

“Didn’t we share a real nice kiss that day in the orchard?” His grin was just a bit devilish now. “I wouldn’t mind sharing another.”

“Oh, Colby!” She couldn’t help herself, but she actually giggled.

“I couldn’t win Ellie, but now I got a chance with you. That’s not too bad, eh?” he said.

“Not too bad?” Her brow creased. If he had intended his words to woo her, he was heading in the wrong direction.

“You know what I mean. You two are practically two peas in a pod.”

“Practically?”

“Let’s quit talking.” He slipped his arm around her waist and drew her close.

Maybe it was out of pure habit, but she was about to melt into the kiss he offered. Before she did so she had to clarify one thing. “Are you saying one Newcomb girl is just as good as the other?”

“Yeah, that’s it! You are almost as pretty as Ellie, and you got a lot more spirit.” He leaned closer.

Maggie stepped back and removed his hand from her waist. “Colby, your sweet talk is just about to give me vapors!” she said snidely. “Every girl wants to hear she is
almost
as pretty as another girl.”

“Come on, Mags. You know I’m no smooth talker. I got no fancy education like that Parker. Give me a chance.”

“A chance at what?”

“My parents say I have to settle down. My father is ailing, and it probably won’t be long till I am running the farm. They want me to get married.”

“I didn’t think you did what your parents told you.” By “parents” they both knew they meant “mother.”

“Well, it seems the right thing to do. I’m smart enough to know I’m not gonna go out and make my fortune in the wide world. Being a farmer in Maintown is what I’m fated to be. Why fight it? If that’s my destiny, then it may as well be with you.”

“So you are proposing to me?”

“Sure. Why not?” He grinned, as if he had just offered her the world.

She laid a hand against her forehead and simpered, “I do declare! My head is spinning with your vows of love!”

He laughed. “Like I said, you have spirit! And I do like that.

So you gonna say yes? I mean, if you don’t, it’s gonna have to be Tamara. She is fine but only my second choice. You are my first choice—”

“Wasn’t Ellie your first choice?”

“Oh . . . well . . . sure . . . but that was—”

“Colby Stoddard, get out of here right now—before I forget I forgave you.”

He looked shocked. Well, she thought, being rejected by one Newcomb girl was just as good as being rejected by another.

As he started to turn, Maggie added, “And, Colby, if you do propose to Tamara, do it on bended knee and try not to make her feel like you are looking to buy a cow.”

She added that only out of consideration for Tamara, whom she had grown to like.

She waited until Colby rode away before she returned to the house. When she saw everyone, she wanted to shout, “Colby Stoddard just proposed to me, and I turned him down!”

That would have been silly. Nevertheless, she did feel a certain victory. More than that, she felt as if she had shed one of the last vestiges of her childhood. How many times over the last couple of years had she complained that everyone treated her like a child? Now she realized she had been just that, clinging to youthful fancies, scheming to get her way, pouting and sulking when she didn’t. While grasping for adulthood, childhood had continued to pull her back. For the last year or so she’d been mired in some in-between world, as though caught in a huge spider’s web and trying to claw her way out. Suddenly she felt that she had broken through.

What it all meant, she didn’t know. Would it make her a better person? Would she not argue as much with her mother? Would she make better choices? Would she suddenly enjoy housekeeping?

She wanted desperately to talk to Ellie and get her insights on the matter, but when Maggie returned to the house, everyone was coming out, ready to board the wagon. Maybe once they got to Scappoose there would be a chance to get Ellie alone. Maggie needed to know how to navigate in this new adult world. She had to know what to do next. This first step into being a grown-up hadn’t cured her impatience. She couldn’t just sit and let it happen. She still had to do something about it.

On Saturday, Evan went first to the Donnelly place and had a long talk with Tommy. Evan felt Tommy better understood the position Maggie had been in and that it had pained her deeply to testify against him in court. Tommy said he’d go see Maggie real soon and clear things up.

Then Evan went to the Newcomb place but found it deserted. He sat on the front step and waited, hoping someone would return. Finally, two hours later, he rose dejectedly and left. Back at his house Mabel said she’d heard that the family had gone to Scappoose for the weekend to visit their grandparents. Mabel also said that it was a beautiful day, and instead of his moping around the house as he had been doing lately, he should ride over to the Stoddard place. Tamara had asked about him the other day.

He just looked at his sister as if she was speaking gibberish. But she couldn’t possibly know that he had not thought romantically about Tamara in weeks.

THIRTY

Tommy came to see Maggie the next week. She was pleased to see him, though she couldn’t help a small pang of disappointment that he wasn’t the person she had been hoping and praying would come.

It had rained all day and the sun had just come out, so Maggie had decided to take advantage of the bit of late afternoon sunlight to sew. She had just a little more to do on her final block. Then she could sew the blocks together, and she would have her first finished quilt top. Maybe she would still show it to Mrs. Stoddard, though it really no longer mattered what she thought. Maggie was proud of her work, regardless.

“Well, look at you!” Tommy said, striding up to the porch. “Sitting and stitching just like your ma. A fellow’s in jail just a couple of months and everything changes.” He grinned to show he was teasing.

“It’s really good to see you, Tommy!” Maggie replied with a welcoming smile. “Come sit and visit for a while.”

He sat on a porch step, leaning against a post facing her. He removed his hat and fiddled with it a moment before speaking.

“Maggie, I’m sure sorry I got riled at you in the court place.”

“I understand,” Maggie said earnestly. “You had every right—”

“No, I didn’t. That’s just it. Mr. Parker, he explained it all to me and made me realize you had to tell the truth. He said you prob’ly helped me more than anyone else.”

“I don’t know about that—”

“Mr. Parker pointed out some of the good things you said.

’Course I heard ’em, but didn’t really listen at the time ’cause I was mad.” Pausing, Tommy scratched his head thoughtfully. “I also heard all the bad things other folks said ’bout me. I guess I saw for the first time just what a no-account fool I was. I told Mr. Parker and Zack that I ain’t gonna do no bad things no more.”

“That’s real good, Tommy.”

Tommy studied his hat for a few silent moments. Maggie put a few more stitches into her block. As she had said in court, she and Tommy didn’t often have long conversations, so it was no wonder there was some awkwardness now. Other than that, she felt things were healed between them, or at least on the way.

Then Tommy spoke. “Maggie, when I was in jail, I had nothing but time to think and think—you know I ain’t much good at thinking. I thought lots and lots ’bout you. I made myself think I was sweet on you—”

“Oh, Tommy,” Maggie said sadly.

“Now wait,” he said. “I know it ain’t so, not really. And that you aren’t sweet on me. Maybe that’s why I got so mad like I did. Anyway . . .” He paused and wrinkled his brow. “You ain’t sweet on me, are you?”

She opened her mouth to reply, but he cut in, “No, ’course you ain’t. But can I ask why not?”

“I don’t know,” she said gently. “There is just no telling why a person cares for one person in that way and not another.”

She wanted to tell him she cared for him as she did one of her brothers, but she knew better than that, so she said no more.

“Well, I’m glad if it ain’t gonna be me, it’s Mr. Parker,” Tommy said.

Maggie stared, unable to speak, especially unable to deny Tommy’s statement.

“He’s a very fine fellow,” Tommy went on. “Why, I’d say I think almost as much of him as I do Zack.”

“He is a fine person,” Maggie finally said. A grin slipped across her face. “Oh, my goodness! I do care for Evan. I am sweet on him!”

“I knew it!” Tommy smiled. “You and him will be fine together. But once you and Mr. Parker hitch up, will you still go fishin’ with me?”

“We both will, Tommy. You’ll get two friends for the price of one!”

“Price? Well, I don’t got much money—Oh, I get it!” Tommy laughed. “Mr. Parker will be my friend, too. That’ll be nice.”

Maggie chatted with Tommy for a few more minutes.

Then he rose to leave. “I gotta get back to the farm. There’s loads of work to do. Zack did the best he could helpin’ Ma while I was gone, but he couldn’t do everything. I’m gonna be able to take care of my ma now.”

The last few minutes before Tommy left, Maggie had a hard time sitting still. Her heart was racing, and her feet were itching. She could barely wait to go see Evan and tell him her astounding revelation. The moment after Tommy left, Maggie began packing away her sewing into her basket. Before she finished, her mother rode up on the saddle horse. She had been to the Wallards’ to help with wedding preparations.

“Maggie,” Mama said, dismounting and tying the reins to the hitching post. There was a high-pitched, almost nervous quality to her voice and a crease in her brow.

“Mama, is everything okay?”

“Maggie,” Mama said again. “Oh . . . Maggie.”

Maggie jumped up. “What’s wrong? Is it Dad—?”

“No, everyone is all right,” Mama said quickly, but she didn’t seem fine herself. She came up the steps and put an arm around Maggie’s shoulder. “I have some disturbing news. Let’s go inside.”

“Mama, what is it?” But Maggie curbed her impatience as she went in with her mother’s arm still around her. If the family was okay, what else could be so awful? Though Maggie’s tendency would have been to insist her mother tell her without all this fanfare, she wasn’t anxious for bad news to ruin the elation she felt with her realization about Evan.

Once in the kitchen, Mama said, “Perhaps you should sit down, Maggie.”

Grandma and Ellie were there, too. Seeing Mama’s expression, they were looking just as concerned as Maggie.

“I don’t want to sit down. Just tell me what’s wrong,” Maggie insisted, impatience finally getting the better of her.

“When I was at Nessa’s today, Mabel stopped by—”

“Something’s happened to Evan!” Maggie exclaimed, her heart clapping hard against her chest.

“No, Maggie,” Mama said. “Mabel told us . . . well, that Colby and Tamara are engaged.”

Maggie blinked. She felt as if she had braced for a thunderstorm and received only a sprinkle. She looked at her mother, expecting more, something really terrible.

“I know this is difficult for you, dear,” Mama said tenderly.

“Is that all?” Maggie asked.

“You’re devastated, aren’t you?”

Then Maggie smiled.

Mama looked confused. She glanced at Grandma then at Ellie. They had peculiar looks on their faces, too—“the cat who swallowed the canary” looks.

“What’s going on?” Mama asked.

“Mama,” Maggie said, “Colby proposed marriage to me before we went to Scappoose, and I turned him down. I don’t care to marry him.”

“You don’t?” Mama’s voice came out in a small squeak, confusion deepening on her face.

“Mama, perhaps
you
should sit down,” Maggie entreated.

A little giggle escaped Ellie’s lips. She probably already guessed what Maggie was going to say.

Just as stubborn as Maggie, Mama remained standing.

Maggie continued. “Mama, I don’t love Colby. I barely even like him anymore.” Maggie paused. Though she was sure of her feelings, they were so new. It would be the first time she had spoken them aloud. “Mama, I’m in love with Evan Parker.” Oh, that felt so good to say!

“Evan . . . Parker?” Mama squeaked. Then she did sink down into a chair. “Evan . . . ? You love Evan . . . ?”

Ellie clapped her hands as Grandma came and gave Maggie a hug. “I just knew you were trying to impress the wrong mother!” Grandma laughed.