Nadine Trades Her Partner

by Linda Hubalek

  “Why is her last name Wesley but your first name, Wesley? That doesn’t make sense,” Cecilia asked.

  “For some reason, the couple who adopted me used my last name as my first name, and then my last name became theirs, Preston,” Wesley patiently explained to the girls.

  “If we call you Miles, will you answer to it, then?” Cecilia asked.

  “Probably not, because my first name has been Wesley for nineteen of my twenty-six years.”

  “Makes sense,” Cecilia said as her finger trailed down the list of names he’d written down so far. Wesley planned to write about five letters a week and give them time to reply before writing the next set of names. No use writing all thirty-four letters unless he absolutely had to.

  “When you going to get married and have babies?” Phoebe asked, throwing Wesley’s mind in another direction he didn’t want to think about.

  “Don’t know. Why?”

  “You were supposed to get a wife with the Peashooter Society’s plan. You were matched with Amelia Shepard, but she married Barton Miller. Our sister Avalee was supposed to marry Tobin Billings, but she married Gordon Miller instead,” Phoebe stated, and Wesley knew what was coming next.

  “Why haven’t you asked our sister, Nadine, to marry you yet? She’s the only bride-to-be left,” Phoebe challenged him.

  “That’s my business, girls, not yours,” Wesley told them, although they’d probably ask him again in a day or two.

  Wesley really liked Nadine, but she had eyes on Gordon Miller, who married her sister, Avalee, instead. That jealousy had faded as Gordon became a good brother-in-law to the Paulson sisters, but Wesley hadn’t made much leeway in courting Nadine yet. Or, she didn’t like that her father gave Wesley the job of assistant manager instead of getting the position herself.

  Hmm. The three youngest sisters helped Gordon and Avalee see they were right for each other, which led to their happy marriage. Should he ask the girls to help him woo their older sister? Or, would it backfire in a big way?

  Wesley kept writing but nonchalantly asked, “Any ideas on how I can get Nadine’s attention? I wouldn’t mind courting her.”

  “Are you giving us permission to help you win Nadine’s heart, Brother Wesley?” Phoebe asked, draping her arms over his forearm.

  Wesley sighed. Was he asking for their help? He hadn’t had much luck on his own.

  “Okay, yes, you can help. But. No fake injuries, fake blood, or anything that might really be dangerous, understand? I want you to pinky swear on it.”

  Wesley held both of his hands up, wiggling his little fingers in the air, one in front of each girl on either side of him.

  “Really? Isn’t pinky-swear just for girls?” Phoebe asked.

  “Nope. I want your promise you won’t do something you shouldn’t do to Nadine or me.”

  “Cecilia, what you do think?” Phoebe leaned across Wesley’s arm to see her sister’s reaction.

  “Okay by me. We have backup this time.”

  “What do you mean by backup?” Wesley narrowed his eyes at Cecilia, but she just smiled at him.

  “All the Paulson sisters want you to marry Nadine,” Phoebe tattled. “We even voted on it at our last sister meeting. Of course, Nadine wasn’t there, so don’t tell her.”

  Oh, this was going to be interesting, trying to court Nadine with her sisters planning to help.

  Wesley wiggled his little fingers again. “Pinky swear to help, but not ruin my chance with your sister?”

  “Pinky swear!” Cecilia and Phoebe said at the same time when they gripped their small little fingers around his two and squeezed them for a few seconds to seal their promise.

  At least he had a little warning that subtle or not subtle things were going to happen to him in the future. He better clean broom closets out because he imagined he and Nadine would be locked in one or two of them in the near future.

  Chapter 2

  “Girls, whatever are you doing with all those envelopes?” Nadine asked her little sisters, Cecilia and Phoebe when she walked into the hotel office. They had piles of envelopes on the desk between them. “And what are you writing on them?”

  “We’re helping Brother Wesley address envelopes,” Phoebe said as she concentrated on her writing.

  Nadine rolled her eyes. “Brother Wesley? He is not your brother or brother-in-law, Phoebe,” Nadine said in exasperation.

  “Well, he should be. He lives in the apartment across from ours upstairs and is part of our hotel family,” Phoebe answered.

  “And if you marry him like you are supposed to, he’ll really be family,” Cecilia added.

  “Why, pray tell, am I supposed to marry Wesley?” Nadine held her breath, wishing the answer was yes.

  “You and Wesley are the last two unmarried people in the Peashooter Society’s Plan. You have to marry to complete their plan,” Cecilia answered with a shoulder shrug.

  Nadine let out a breath, glad that her little sisters didn’t know she really liked Wesley. It was hard to keep any personal information private with seven sisters.

  “Back to the hotel stationery envelopes you’re wasting...” Nadine said as she pointed to the stacks they had placed across the desk.

  “Last night Wesley made a list of thirty-four families to contact looking for his sister. He borrowed Miss Beasley’s old journal and made a list,” Cecilia held up a piece of paper that was in Wesley’s handwriting. Did Wesley mean to leave the list in the office, or had the girls gone into his apartment to get it?

  “That’s going to take forever to write thirty-four letters. We thought we’d help him out by addressing the envelopes,” Phoebe finished her sister’s words.

  “That’s very commendable, but was he going to write all these people?”

  “He said so,” Cecilia said as she carefully wrote the next name from the list down on an envelope.

  “Is your schoolwork done?” Nadine asked the girls.

  “Yep, and everything else on Mama’s list to do after school today,” Phoebe smiled up at Nadine, knowing she was in her free time until supper and bedtime.

  “Back to marrying Wesley,” Cecilia said, turning the tables on their conversation again, “Why don’t you like the man? We all do.”

  It wasn’t that Nadine didn’t like Wesley, but it was complicated, more so than she wanted to explain to her little sisters.

  “I like Wesley, but he’s a hotel employee. We work together.”

  “Mama and Papa work together, and they’re married. Why can’t you and Wesley marry and work together too?” Cecilia needled Nadine again.

  Because Nadine confessed, she was holding a small grudge against the man. Nadine thought her parents would one day soon give her the job of assistant manager. She knew the business inside and out growing up in the hotel. But instead, they hired one of the Peashooter’s mail-order men to fill the job.

  That just miffed her every time Nadine saw Wesley behind the front desk register, looking so handsome and polished and…doing her job.

  “I know you liked Gordon Miller, but—” Cecilia started in again.

  “Drop it, Cecilia. Gordon married our sister, Avalee, and they are a good match.”

  As were all her friends’ marriages, Nadine thought.

  Amelia Shepard married Barton Miller, although she’d been paired with Wesley Preston, to begin with.

  The three Brenner sisters from the Cross C Ranch had moved into town this fall to take over Mary Jones’ dress shop.

  The oldest, Maggie, had been paired with the youngest Miller brother, Squires, which was so wrong; everyone could see that immediately.

  Maggie married Peter Gehring, the new barber, and they adopted three orphaned siblings. Maggie, the oldest of eight orphaned children adopted by Sarah and Marcus Brenner, was the perfect person to help the three orphans adjust to a new family.

  Meanwhile, the youngest sister, Maisie, was the perfect match for the youngest Miller brother, Squires. Maisie happily ran the dress shop by
herself, and Squires worked as a carpenter for Mack Reagan.

  Middle Brenner sister, Molly, moved into town with her sisters but was homesick for the ranch. Her pairing with Peter, the barber, fizzled before it started, but she fell in love with the new livery owner, Tobin Billings, and his horses and mules. Molly and Tobin also adopted orphaned twin boys. Molly kept busy chasing after the boys and their menagerie of pets, and Lucas Boyle, the former livery owner who stayed in the household with them.

  Everyone knew they were matched wrong, and the women visited the men, who were all staying at the barbershop’s upstairs apartment when the men first moved into town.

  On a bold move on the women’s part, they suggested a kissing game. The men sat in chairs blindfolded. The first kiss given to the men by the women was how the Peashooters had matched the couples. For the second kiss, the women lined up to kiss the man they were more interested in.

  Nadine, being the youngest of the women, who ranged between twenty-five, down to her age eighteen, wasn’t so sure they should be kissing men, but everyone else was game to kiss two men. Nadine kissed Gordon first, because they’d been matched, and she liked the first-ever kiss she’d ever given a man.

  Then everyone switched, and she was left having to kiss Wesley. Which was fine, because she liked his blond looks that reminded Nadine of her father’s fair coloring. And she did like the man—until she found out he was taking over her job.

  But oh, that kiss made sparks jump between them. How was she going to continue to resist his appeal as she worked beside Wesley?

  Chapter 3

  Wesley sighed as he sank down into the office desk chair. It was ten o’clock at night, and hopefully, he’d have a quiet night to write letters to look for Lucy. He spied the neat stack of envelopes on the corner of the desk, and the scrawled note sitting on top of it.

  He picked it up, trying to decipher Cecilia’s handwriting. For being such a tidy person, Cecilia’s handwriting was the opposite.

  Wesley studied the note and ready out loud. “Brother Wesley, we’ve addressed envelopes for the inquiry letters you’ll write to find your sister. Love, from your already sisters, Cecilia and Phoebe.”

  “They do mean well, even though they act like pests at times,” Ethan said from the doorway of the office. He held a wooden tray holding two china cups and a teapot to take upstairs for Helen and himself. Ethan did this every night for his wife after the girls were in bed.

  “I really don’t mind—if you don’t mind them wasting a lot of hotel stationery. I enjoy being around your girls, most of the time,” he chuckled. “But sometimes it makes me think of what I missed not being with my sister all these years, too,” Wesley sighed.

  “I can imagine in my own way, being a single child. But then I gained four daughters all at once when I married Helen. You can’t imagine having little girls taking over your life and home.”

  “But would you change anything?” Wesley asked, already knowing the answer.

  “No, I wouldn’t. It was kind of awkward at first, with the four girls having four different fathers. The first thing they did when they moved into the hotel after Helen was scammed into a mail-order bride sham was to set their fathers’ portraits on a little table in their living room. They were so proud of them, even though Avalee’s father was the only man they really knew.

  “Why was that?” Wesley asked.

  “Helen’s husband was killed in the Civil War, never getting to meet his daughter, Iva Mae. Maridell’s father…let’s just say he wasn’t a nice man or employer. I don’t think Maridell’s father’s photo was of him, but just a photo Helen had used for his appearance.

  “Arvid Lindsmeier hired Helen, even though she had two girls in tow, as a housekeeper in his hotel. He was an older widower and doted on the girls. Arvid and Helen married, producing Avalee before the man died. At the time, Arvid’s sons from his first marriage were livid with their father’s decision to marry, and kicked them out of the hotel, even though Helen didn’t inherit her husband’s hotel.

  “Desperate, she married a lowlife who worked for the railroad to put a roof over her daughters. When Luella was born with a club foot, the man kicked them out of his house, and they lived in depot waiting rooms before Helen answered a mail-order bride advertisement out of desperation. The man sent her a train ticket from Pennsylvania to Kansas, and Helen was hoping for a new life for her daughters.”

  “But then the man turned out to have already married Lorna Elison. I heard that story when we had our first meal together after we moved to town,” Wesley said.

  “So, you see how the Peashooter Society came up with the idea to bring men into town and check them out before letting them meet the unsuspecting women in town.”

  “And their idea has worked out in most ways. All of us have a job we like and a home.”

  “But are you wanting a wife and family like your friends, or are you all right remaining a bachelor?”

  “You know, that’s kind of hard to talk to you about since the only possible bride left in the group is your daughter,” Wesley smirked, but Ethan just laughed, set the tray down on the desk, and sat down in a chair opposite Wesley. The two men got along so well that Wesley could talk to Ethan about anything.

  “No, Nadine isn’t the only person you could marry in the world. And you’d still have a job and your apartment even if you married someone else.”

  “But how would that go if I married and moved another woman into the hotel? Don’t you think your youngest girls would raise a ruckus and try to run the poor woman out of the hotel?”

  “True. I can’t figure out how I’m their father and have no control over those girls,” Ethan laughed, so in love with his family.

  “But seriously, marriage is a lifelong commitment, Wesley. Pastor Reagan won’t let you ever forget the wedding vows you made in front of him.”

  “Yeah, I’ve thought about this a lot. I didn’t have good role models growing up. I’m not sure I’m husband and father material.”

  The Preston’s didn’t show any affection, especially compared to the Paulsons. Helen and Ethan were constantly touching and flirting with each other, even after being married almost two decades. He’d even caught then kissing in the broom closet one time. Talk about embarrassing, but the couple just laughed about getting caught.

  The younger girls would hug anyone they knew, not thinking at all that it was unusual. Wesley was finally getting used to Cecilia and Phoebe hanging on to his arms while they talked to him. He’d miss their contact when they grew older and didn’t do it anymore.

  “I really like Nadine, but if she doesn’t feel the same about me, there’s not much I can do about it,” Wesley answered.

  “I’m glad you realize that. I thought I loved Sarah Brenner, and when my mother insisted I ask for her hand in marriage, I went along with her wishes. Even though in the back of my mind, I knew my mother was pushing us together because she thought Sarah would be a good hostess for our new hotel.

  “It took Sarah galloping away from our wedding on one of Hilda Wilerson’s racehorses to make me see we had no spark between us.”

  “But then Helen and the girls moved into town,” Wesley stated, knowing how the females took over the hotel when they arrived in Clear Creek.

  “Yes, I’m so glad Sarah had the guts to run away from our wedding. We both found the right spouses because of it. Sarah married Marcus, and I married Helen and her girls.

  “Now you have to decide if there’s enough spark between you and Nadine to pursue marriage, or not. Personally, I think Nadine likes you—a lot—but me putting you in charge of certain responsibilities in the hotel—shall we say ruffled Nadine’s feathers.”

  And pride, Wesley could add.

  “Why did you do that, knowing how it would affect Nadine?” Wesley felt comfortable to ask his boss.

  “We didn’t want Nadine to feel tied down to the hotel. If she wants to do something else, like Avalee has done as Doctor’s Pansy’s assistant,
we want to give her a chance. Nadine would consider the hotel assistant position as permanent, and we wanted to give her a chance to do something else, either in town or elsewhere.”

  “Has she ever indicated she wanted to do something else?”

  “No, not like our other daughters have, but she’s still young,” Ethan shrugged.

  Nadine might be only eighteen, but she had her sights set on taking over the hotel when her parents retired. She was smart, focused, and as organized as her mother. Nadine felt as if she’d been groomed for taking over the management of this hotel and dearly wanted it.

  Enough that she’d sacrifice a potential marriage between them because of it?

  Maybe.

  “What are your and Helen’s plans for the future of the hotel, if I may be so bold it ask?” Wesley asked, not quite sure if Ethan knew, but he bet Helen had already thought about it.

  “I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised if I said Helen already had a timetable figured out for the next ten years.”

  Wesley nodded, knowing he was right about Helen being in charge of the future, and that Ethan was happy for her to make the decisions.

  “Daphne has already hinted she wants to attend college, majoring in journalism. She sees herself as a future columnist or reporter for a newspaper. Daphne has always been enthralled with Tully Reagan’s working for the Chicago Tribune as a travel writer.”

  And so, Daphne wasn’t a candidate to stay on at the family hotel, then.

  “At their age, I can’t tell what Cecilia and Phoebe will want to do when they reach adulthood, but Helen has always drilled into her children; they are capable of doing anything.”

  “Maybe they would start a detective agency,” Wesley joked. The girls were good at snooping around his things.

  Ethan looked shocked for a second and then laughed. “Oh, I can see both of them working for the Pinkerton Agency, can’t you?”