The Sweetest Mail Order Bride (Sweet Creek Brides Book 1) (7 page)

She made him remember there was more to life than work and responsibility. More to living than putting one foot in front of the other to get through the day.

And there was more to a woman than her ability to hurt a man.

It seemed as if the sunlight followed her, trailing her as she made her way down the road. She was leaving. Daisies waved in her wake. Dandelions seemed to bow as she passed by. She walked in sunshine, when it felt like he lived in the shadows. Was it wrong that she captivated him? It certainly went beyond his better sense.

“Wait!” He shouted, but she was too far away. The wind conspired against him, carrying his call the opposite way. His heart ached, seeing her so clearly—her wholesome charm and whimsical grace—and his feet were moving without conscious thought.

Surely reality would hit him any minute. But nothing could change the beautiful way he saw her.

“Girls, here’s the best way to catch a pony.” Clementine reached into her pocket and pulled out a sugar cookie. “Here, Pumpkin. Look what I’ve got.”

Pumpkin’s head whipped around. Her nose was up, scenting the wind. Her brown eyes sparkled. Her dainty hooves charged forward, and she snatched the cookie with her teeth so fast, she was a blur.

“You did it!” Gracie came running.

“You really caught her!” Hope came running too.

“I learned this trick with my pony.” Clementine slipped her fingers around the pony’s halter, holding her firmly in place. “Here’s a whole bag. I brought them with me from the boardinghouse. Mrs. O’Hurley and I thought they might come in handy for you.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Clementine!” the girls chorused. Hope took the bag and Gracie grabbed the halter. “Are you sure you can’t stay longer?”

“Leaving you two isn’t easy, but Mrs. O’Hurley is waiting for me. She wants to hear how well the cookies worked.”

“Oh, okay.” Gracie sighed.

Hope sighed louder.

There was no mistaking the longing on the girls’ faces or the disappointment. He wisely chose to remain silent. Worse, he wasn’t sure if he could trust his voice. Seeing her with his daughters made his chest tight and his heart do funny things.

“Good night, Mrs. Clementine!” the girls called out as they led the pony away.

“Good night, Gracie and Hope.” Love warmed her words, made her as luminous as the sun, so bright it hurt his eyes to see.

His throat ached with emotions he did not want to name.

“You can’t walk all the way to town,” he called out after her. “Let me get my buggy. We’ll all take you back.”

“Don’t even think of it!” She whirled around, walking backward, her adorable face framed by her blue sunbonnet brim. “You’ve had a long day, and I rather like walking.”

“That doesn’t matter. You wait while I get hitched up—” And that’s as far as he got because Jeremiah chose that moment to come rolling out of the barn, reining his team of draft horses down the rutted driveway.

“I’ll take her,” his little brother volunteered from his wagon seat. He tipped back his hat. “Climb on up, Clementine.”

Disappointment nearly choked him. Caleb cleared his throat, but a lump remained lodged beneath his Adam’s apple. He didn’t trust himself to speak, so he simply held out his hand to help her up into the wagon. She granted him a smile, and her blue eyes twinkled at him as she wrapped her slender fingers around his.

Tenderness flared through him like a new sun rising in a morning sky, blaringly bright and full of promise. She’d taken hold of his hand, but she’d touched his heart.

“Good luck to you, Caleb.” She settled onto the seat and let go of his hand.

“Best of luck to you.” His voice came out too gruff and scratchy. “Thank you for the cookie idea. It seemed to work.”

“It looks like the girls had better keep a few in their pockets.” She laughed, waving as Jeremiah drove away.

Caleb’s feet were rooted to the ground as he watched her drive away. She’d enthralled his daughters, she’d enraptured him and what he felt for her was not sensible. Not sensible at all. But he watched her move farther and farther away until she disappeared around a copse of trees, taking with her all beauty and light.

“Our father meant well,” Jeremiah told her the instant Caleb’s house was out of sight. “In bringing you here.”

“I don’t doubt that. Not at all.” Clementine turned to study the young man holding the reins.

He had that strength and confidence of youth, but a touch of sweetness, too. It was refreshing. With his thick hair and blue eyes, he probably had young ladies swooning all over town.

“I didn’t know Pa was going to do such a thing.” He tipped his hat against the low slant of the sun. “But he reads a lot of newspapers. Maybe that’s where he got the idea. Saw one of those advertisements and figured it was the solution to our problem.”

“What problem would that be?”

“Caleb’s unhappiness. Oh, he won’t admit it, but he’s lonely and he’s been a widower for a long while. Lena left him in a bad way. Their marriage hadn’t been a happy one, and I know Caleb agonized over how to make her happier. She just wasn’t the same after she had the girls. She fell into a depression she never came out of.”

“I’ve heard of that happening.” She stared down at her hands, fighting more sympathy for Caleb and his girls. “It must have been hard on all of you too.”

“It sure has been. We all love the girls. I watched you this evening. You love them, too.”

“I can’t deny it.” She bit her lip, almost telling him about her child. Jeremiah seemed easy to trust, but she held back. There was enough sadness in her heart as it was.

She breathed in the wildflower-scented air and drank in the sight of the sun glinting behind the tall, proud peaks of the Rockies. The sunset glowed like jewels—rubies, amethysts, and opalescent shades of gold. This was a perfect ending to an evening she would always remember.

Her hand still tingled from Caleb’s touch. So did her heart.

Town came into sight and so did the depot and Mrs. O’Hurley’s boardinghouse. The streets were empty, no one was out on the boardwalks. The train tracks were empty and silent.

Jeremiah drew the horses to a stop. “There’s something Pa wanted me to give you. He’d wanted to come by supper tonight and see you, but he had one of his spells late this afternoon. He made me vow not to tell Caleb.”

“One of his spells?” Now she was concerned.

“I’m sworn to secrecy on that, too.” Sadness flickered in his blue eyes, before he shook it away and pulled something from beneath his seat. “This is for you.”

“What is it?” She took the envelope. “It feels like a piece of paper inside.”

“It’s the deed to a house.” Jeremiah hopped to the ground and circled the wagon. “It’s for the little cottage down the street, do you see it? The one with the white picket fence? It’s yours.”

“No, it certainly isn’t. I mean, how can that be?”

“Because Pa bought it and put your name on the deed.” Jeremiah held out his gloved hand and hauled her down from the wagon. “There’s a note inside and a door key.”

She couldn’t move. She could barely feel the ground beneath her feet. Her jaw had fallen and she couldn’t seem to close her mouth. “I can’t accept this.”

“You have to. Or you’ll hurt his feelings.”

“But it’s not right.”

“Yes, it is.” Jeremiah nodded, as if absolutely sure of it.

“When did he do this?”

“He finalized it earlier today. I think he wants you to stay in town and give Caleb a chance. Will you?”

It was hard to look into those eyes and say no. “I think that’s up to Caleb.”

“Good.” Jeremiah flashed her a dimpled smile. “See you soon, Clementine.”

“Good night.” She stood in the road, watching him drive off. A house? She’d been given a house. She didn’t even know how to feel about that. Maybe she should sign it right back over to Jeb.

“How did it go?” Effie O’Hurley asked from the doorway.

Clementine blinked, realized she was still standing in the road, and forced her feet forward. Her knees were watery and her legs shaky, but she made it to the boardwalk. “I’m okay, I think.”

“I’m glad Jeb did that. He owed you, after bringing you all the way out here. Let him do right by you. I say, take advantage of that.”

She was still a little shell-shocked. “Why didn’t he give this to me himself?”

“Probably because Jeremiah is hard to say no to.”

“I can’t deny that.” Clementine stumbled into the lobby, blinking against the light. Lamps lit the way to the staircase, and all she wanted to do was to collapse on her bed. This was something she had to think over. She had a house?

“I put a fresh pot of tea in your room.” Effie closed the door and came over to pat her on the shoulder in the kindest way. “I put the envelopes the girls left behind up there, too. Perhaps you won’t be looking to leave our fine town after all?”

“Maybe not.” The floor beneath her feet didn’t seem real, the lamplight that guided her way up the stairs too bright. At the end of the hallway, she pushed open her door. Her heart didn’t feel as if it was beating. Not at all. Not a single beat.

If you come, I promise you won’t be sorry,
Jeb had written in one of the letters.
No matter what, I vow this to you. You are coming home for the last time.

The last vestiges of hurt over being brought out here on false pretenses faded away. This was kindness, pure and simple. She knew without asking that Jeb had sacrificed a lot to bring her here for his son, the proof of it was in her hand.

She set down the envelope with the deed inside on her bedside table, next to the envelopes with Caleb’s funds. She would return that to him later. For tonight, she would just savor the luxury of sitting in the wonderfully comfortable chair by the window, put her feet up on the ottoman and sip the fragrant herbal tea.

It had been a long journey. Watching her husband and baby die, burying them, losing their little home. She’d struggled to pay off the debts. She’d lost everything. For a time she’d been homeless. She’d confessed that to Jeb in her letters, and this is what he’d done for her.

It was far too extravagant to accept, but the gesture meant everything. Oh, she owed Jeb. She would never forget this moment. It gave her hope that she could find a family again somewhere, one she could keep.

Thunder boomed across ominous skies, echoing through the valley. Clementine watched water drip off her sunbonnet brim, giving a shiver as the wind rose up. The quick summer storm had a cold bite to it. Raindrops pelted her like buckshot.

Just her luck. Couldn’t it have waited another five minutes? Honestly. She spotted Jeb’s grand two-story log home tucked on a rise and surrounded by a copse of evergreens. It wasn’t much farther now, but she feared she’d be a drown rat by the time she sought shelter on that wide front porch.

The charcoal clouds roiled, darkening, draining the last of the morning light from the sky. Lightning crackled, magnificent as it traveled in a white-hot bolt toward the mountains. She lifted her skirts to keep them out of the growing puddles of water on the road, and a trickling sensation zipped down the back of her neck. Awareness. Every nerve ending vibrated, as if waiting.

Then she heard the clomp of a horse and the jingle of buggy rigging coming around the bend in the road. She looked up, veiled by the misty curtains of rain was a familiar man shrouded behind transparent rain curtains. Dr. Caleb Blake.

His gaze met hers and the pummel of rain, the boom of thunder, the ice of the wind—all of it vanished. The only thing she could hear was her pulse drumming in her ears.

Caleb drew his horse to a halt, surprise lining his granite face. He drew back the rubber curtains and the intensity of his gaze deepened. She froze, and in that moment that became eternity, her heart stilled. Her soul sighed.

The magnitude of it was life altering, unlike anything she’d ever known. A quiet wish, the one she could not have, rose up within her. What would it be like to have the privilege to love this man?

“What are you doing out in this weather?” His forehead furrowed. “Why are you going to see my father?”

“Is there a law against it?” She tilted her head, trying for humor, for a casual smile, for anything that would help her hide her true, growing feelings.

“No, I suppose not, but shouldn’t you be on a train to somewhere? Not that I’m trying to get rid of you. I just thought you’d move on to the lucky man who was next on your marriage list.”

“I don’t have a marriage list.”

“That’s hard to believe. Surely men are lining up to marry you.”

“Funny thing, no. I only received two letters from my advertisement. Apparently I’m a hard-luck case. That’s why I wound up with you.”

His laughter was rich and honest. “Do you want a ride?”

“No. You probably have patients waiting.”

“True.”

“How is Jeb this morning?” She had to ask because he was clearly leaving his father’s home. “Surely you are keeping an eye on him.”

“He doesn’t know it, but I heard all about him cheating on me with the doctor from Hillsdale.”

Oh, those dimples. She could just stare at them forever. She blinked, forcing her gaze away from his mouth, from that smile and those lips, but failed. His mouth was attractive—masculine and spare, but somehow strong. A kiss from him would be substantial, powerful and yet tender, something a woman would never forget.

The clouds opened up, sending down a harder torrent of rain. It pounded the earth like bullets, driven on an icy wind. Clementine shuddered. Water sluiced down her face and dripped off her chin.

“Quick, get in.” He gestured for her to join him in the buggy, but she was stubborn.

And she was afraid. If she spent any more time with him, he might claim a piece of her heart. Then what was she going to do? She backed up, shouting to be heard about the pounding rain. “Goodbye, Caleb!”

She turned and ran, blinded by the downpour, not daring to turn around and see if he was still watching her, or if he was coming after her or if he was sitting there, flummoxed by her. She ran until her side hurt and her shoes tapped a rhythm on the house’s front wooden steps. Breathless, she landed on the covered porch. Caleb’s buggy was only a distant shadow in the veil of rain. Finally, his horse and vehicle started moving down the road, splashing away from her.