Hometown Hearts

by Jillian Hart

  “Oh, stop. I’m just thankful to have found my happily ever after.” Eloise folded a lock of blond hair behind her ear. “What about you?”

  “Me and happily ever after? I can’t see it happening anytime soon.”

  “Are you sure there isn’t anyone who interests you at all? Even a little?”

  “No, I’m drawing a blank.” She couldn’t think of a single eligible bachelor in these parts who held her interest in the least. “You know the saying, ‘All the good ones are taken.’”

  “Edward really hurt you, I know. But trust me when I say that the right man is out there somewhere for you, a man who won’t let you down. If it happened for me, it can definitely happen for you.”

  “Not likely.” The clump, clump of a waitress on roller skates brought an end to the exact subject Cheyenne didn’t want to talk about. She’d hashed over her disastrous mistake with Edward enough lately. “Hey, Chloe, do you know why the diner was closed?”

  “I’m totally clueless.” The teenager flashed a bright smile as she skidded to an awkward stop. She caught the speaker for balance with one hand and pulled out her order pad with the other. “It was open for lunch, that’s all I know. What can I get you two?”

  After they gave their orders to Chloe and watched her thump away on her skates, Cheyenne deliberately turned the conversation away from any talk of bachelors, Edward or her unmarried state. “How are the rescued horses doing?”

  “Thriving, which is nice to see after all that has happened to them. I’m glad Cady decided to fill the inn’s stables with unwanted horses.” Eloise unbuckled and leaned back in the seat, getting comfortable. Mischief glimmered in her eyes. “The Stone girls spend a lot of time there. Sad how their mom abandoned them. Their dad is real handsome, isn’t he?”

  “I would say passable.”

  “Hardly. He’s got that tall, dark and serious thing going on. Besides, you’ve been spending so much time with him.”

  “Not intentionally. How did you know about last night?”

  “Jenny and Julianna hung out with Cady at the inn this afternoon. I heard firsthand how you put Tomasina back into her nest and stayed to have supper with Adam.”

  “With his family,” she corrected. “I’m friends with the girls, not with the father.”

  “But you spent a lot of time with him on the trail ride. I looked over my shoulder quite a few times to see the two of you talking like old friends.”

  “Only for part of the time and not like old friends. More like two strangers trying to have a polite conversation.” A tight knot of emotion bunched behind her sternum, emotion she didn’t want to feel. He’d opened up to her; she had been drawn to do the same and now she didn’t know what to think. “I’m not sure why God has put him in my path.”

  “Maybe it will take time to find that out. I believe the Lord has good plans ahead for you.”

  “Sure, but it can’t be for the reason you are imagining.”

  “Why wouldn’t God have a great romance in store?” That’s what being happily engaged did to a woman—it made her see romance everywhere.

  “Because I’m avoiding relationships of the romantic variety, so a great romance is impossible. I refuse to let it happen.” She paused to roll down the window. Chloe handed over two sodas and two big bags of food with good cheer. The fragrant greasy scent of hot French fries filled the cab as she skated away.

  “If not romance, then why are you and Adam being put together? Go ahead, I’m listening.” Eloise unrolled one of the bags.

  “Everyone in town has heard how his wife left him.” The bag crinkled as she extracted a red-checked French fry container and set it on the console. “My family went through the same thing long ago. I’m in a position to understand and maybe even help.”

  “The girls are hurting,” Eloise agreed, her expression growing serious as she opened the glove box and used it as a tray for her basket of fries. “As happy as they are spending time with the horses and with Cady, the shadow is always there beneath the surface.”

  “Yes. I remember feeling that way. I could almost forget what had happened but never quite get beyond the fact Mom left.” She extracted a straw from the bag and unwrapped it thoughtfully. She’d been doing a lot of thinking about this. Last night with Adam had been companionable and she felt, well, she didn’t know what she felt. Her emotions were muddled and not easy to analyze—not that she wanted to. “Maybe God is calling me to help Julianna and Jenny. With the animals that Julianna has been finding who need my help, I have to wonder if God is at work, leading me where I am needed most.”

  “I would be disappointed if that were the only reason, at least for your sake. I want you to find the happiness I have.” Eloise poked her straw into the plastic lid of her soda cup, her voice gentling with the understanding only a good friend could have. “But if you are being called to help those girls, then that is just what those sweet children need.”

  Relief slipped into her heart, refreshing as an icy drink on a hot summer day. Eloise had said the precise words she needed to hear. The Lord had brought any number of souls in need into her life—albeit mostly animals. Julianna had to be a kindred soul for a reason. Cheyenne knew she was meant to help the girl and her sister, and that her heart with its scars would be kept safe.

  “As for the whole romantic issue,” she said in jest as she dug her cheeseburger out from the bottom of the sack, “I’m done with it. Going to skip it entirely. Maybe I should get a dog. They are great for companionship.”

  “They are, plus you can tell them what to do and they obey.”

  “Yes. Dogs are trainable. Men, not so much.” With a smile, she crumpled up the sack. “Do you want to say grace?”

  “I’d be happy to.” Eloise smiled in return, another kindred spirit the Lord had blessed her with.

  Adam cleaned the lint from the trap, listening to the muffled voices down the hall. The girls were speaking too low to make out the words, but they sounded cheerful about something they wrote with a sparkly pen. Their happiness was a nice change, considering their mother’s call had come at a pivotal time when both the girls had hit a good stride, were settled in here and happy.

  Lord, help this to get easier for them. The prayer accompanied the twist of the dial. He hit Start and as the dryer chugged to life, he tried to have confidence that interaction with Stacy would be better for the girls over time. He grabbed the full clothes basket, closed the small laundry room door behind him and followed the chime of little girl voices to their room at the end of the hall.

  “Cheyenne,” the girls said together with a cheerful trill of laughter. When he rapped his knuckles on the open door, both of them jumped and guilt dug into their button faces.

  Guilt? He wondered what they were up to now. Probably planning another reason to ride those horses they’d fallen in love with at Cady’s stable. He dropped the clothes basket on the foot of Julianna’s twin bed. “Okay, what are you two troublemakers up to?”

  “Nothing.” Jenny’s guileless innocence was suspect.

  So was the mischief in Julianna’s dark eyes. “We were just talkin’.”

  “So I heard.” He began sorting socks, making a stack for Julianna’s and one for Jenny’s. “Would you like to clue me in?”

  “No, we’re fine, thank you.” Julianna glittered a little more. “Daddy?”

  He knew she couldn’t keep quiet for long. He was about to discover the subject the girls had been conspiring about. “What?”

  “We gotta have new stuff. Can we go shopping tomorrow?”

  Not the Bambi eyes. He squared his shoulders, straightened his spine and steeled himself against the power of that gaze. “It seems to me you already have enough stuff.”

  Julianna’s brow furrowed. She tilted her head to one side, considering her answer before she opened her cupid’s mouth. “But we don’t have the right stuff, Daddy. I need new books real bad.”

  “Books.” That was the hardest thing for him to say no to, and
he figured the girls knew it. He tossed a pink T-shirt on Julianna’s clothes pile and a ruffled T on Jenny’s. He didn’t miss how they were both watching for the slightest hint he was wavering. “I’ve changed my mind. All that reading you do? It’s bad for you. I think you should both stop.”

  “Dad!” Jenny rolled her eyes. “You are so not funny.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m grinning.” He tossed a pair of summer pajamas with dogs printed on them on the Julianna stack, realizing he was grinning. How about that. Summering in Wyoming was doing him good. “What does Cheyenne have to do with your sudden need for books?”

  “For horse books, Dad.” Julianna shook her head sadly, as if she felt sorry for her poor, slow-witted father. “Cheyenne knows all the goods ones.”

  “She texted us a whole list.” Jenny gave her phone keys a few taps. “There. She said she’ll think up more titles and get back to us, and I said okay.”

  “You are bothering Cheyenne at this time of night?” It was nearly the girls’ bedtime. “You two are going to wear out your welcome with her.”

  “We’re friends.” Julianna bounced off the edge of her bed and began to match up her socks. “Friends can text each other anytime. Dad?”

  “What now?” He grabbed the last garments from the basket and tossed them onto their respective piles.

  “I can’t text because I don’t have a phone. It would be real handy if I had one.”

  “I’m sure it would.” He shook his head when Jenny’s phone chimed. “Now get these clothes folded and put away, and then brush your teeth for bed.”

  “I want a pink phone, like Cheyenne’s.” Julianna rolled up a pair of socks, pigtails swinging as she worked.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Why wasn’t he surprised? The woman’s image sluiced into his thoughts like the gentle waters of a creek, flowing lazily. Mental pictures of her leading the cows off the road, of the sympathy in her blue gaze when she’d realized how afraid he was of horses and of the compelling gentleness that made her beautiful and easy to trust.

  He grabbed the empty basket and stepped out into the hall. The girls were huddled side by side over the phone, giggling excitedly over something on the screen. Something from Cheyenne.

  The woman was treacherous. If he wasn’t careful, he would fall for her and fall hard. That was the last thing he wanted to do, the one thing he was not ready for.

  He headed down the hall, dropped the basket in the laundry room and stretched out on the couch, where a book awaited him. He wasn’t aware that he was whistling the whole time.

  That was one long day, and Frank Granger felt it in his bones. Dog tired, he gave Buttercup one last scratch behind the ears. The heifer, curled up on the soft lawn for the night, fluttered her long curly lashes at him.

  “You have a good night, sweetheart.” He checked the gate to make sure there would be no escaping down the driveway and clomped onto the porch. Moonlight lit the way to the back door. His muscles protested as he hunkered down on the bench in the mudroom to kick off his boots. His joints ached, his muscles protested and his work wasn’t done yet. He would see the glory of an early dawn from the cab of his tractor tomorrow. He planned to get as much work as he could in before heading over to the tux shop in Jackson. The weather had stayed good for cutting, and this time of year it never lasted. Thunderstorms popped up but wet hay wasn’t his top worry these days.

  He hung his hat on a peg and wandered into the dark kitchen. The faint scent of meat loaf lingered in the air. Mrs. G. had left the kitchen spick-and-span and he grabbed a cold glass of milk and a handful of ginger snaps from the porcelain cow cookie jar, which had been his mother’s.

  The house echoed around him, as empty as could be. There used to be a time when so much noise filled this house it was deafening. A time when a baby was teething, toddlers were at play, his girls racing through the house playing ball or tag and his boys in the middle of a rough-and-tumble wrestling match.

  He stopped in the family room, took a soothing swallow of milk and remembered. His chest ached a little with the power of those long-ago times. Of later years when the kids were busy with homework, after-school projects, teenage woes and the sadness when Lainie left.

  He bit into a cookie, soft just the way he liked it, bless Mrs. G., and headed through the double doorway of his study. The room had always been his sanctuary during the rambunctious times. It was his hideaway to deal with bills and budgets and taxes and, if he wasn’t in the mood for those things, to bury his nose in a ranching magazine.

  These days his movements whispered around him, noisier in the vast stillness than the pleasant chaos of those lost days had ever been. For a long time he believed the best part of his life was behind him, but as he nudged a framed photo on his desk closer, he had to admit his life had taken a whole new turn. He polished off the cookie, let the chewy goodness fall onto his tongue and the silence shattered.

  The back door squeaked open, footsteps drummed on the floor and the thump of boots being taken off and hitting the hardwood echoed through the family room. Sounded as if Cheyenne had found her way in from her late shift in the fields.

  “Dad? Are you around?”

  “In here.” He nudged the photograph closer, a snapshot he’d taken about a month ago at Autumn’s wedding. His heart tugged at the sight of his beautiful daughters surrounding Cady, who was in the middle of the group smiling at the camera as pretty as could be. Cady. That woman had stolen him, heart and soul.

  “Addy says she’ll be driving in early in the morning. She’s tired, so she’s stopping for the night. She’ll make it for the final fitting.” She called out to him and the patter of her gait grew closer, accented by the faint tap of keys and an electronic chime. Cheyenne rounded the corner, more chipper than he’d seen her lately. Something had put a snap in her step.

  “That’s sensible of her. Type howdy from me.” He swiveled his chair around. Just yesterday Cheyenne was a little auburn-haired sprite trailing him through the barn at his knee, doctoring cow and horse alike with her earnest sympathy. He thought of all the hours they’d put in together nursing a calf with pneumonia back from the brink, bringing a new foal into the world or staying up all night with a colicky horse. He could still see the glimpse of his little girl in the woman with her hair pulled into a ponytail, wearing an old feed-store T-shirt and battered jeans.

  “There. Message sent.” She went to pocket her phone but another chime stopped her. “Oh, not from Addy. It’s from Jenny.”

  “Jenny Stone?”

  “Yes, I recommended some horse novels I thought she and Julianna might like. They are big readers.” Her smile widened as she typed a response. Something within her brightened more.

  Interesting.

  “They are meeting with me at the bookstore in Jackson tomorrow. I figure I can squeeze that in before the dress fitting.” She glanced up enough to reveal the dazzle lighting her eyes. “You know how I love a good horse story.”

  “Sure.” He doubted that was the reason the girl glowed from the inside out. “You’re awfully taken with those girls.”

  “We have a lot in common.” She finished typing and slipped the phone into her jeans pocket. “There. Done. How about you? Did you and Justin make good progress in the south forty?”

  “We got all of it cut. A big job, too, what with having to take part of tomorrow off.” Nerves bunched in his chest like a heart attack, but he faced the fear head-on. “I was wondering what you girls were up to before your appointment at that fancy bride shop.”

  “We were going to meet for lunch at our favorite burger place. It’s been a while since we all sat down together. This summer has been crazy and it’s not over yet.” She leaned against the door frame. “Why? Did you need me to run an errand for you?”

  “Not exactly.” Sweat broke out all over, collecting on his palms, beading on his forehead, snaking down the back of his neck. The nerves began to press with the weight of an elephant. He’d made up his
mind, so he couldn’t let a bucket load of panic stop him. “I need you girls to meet me sometime before or after your dress appointment.”

  “Sure. What is it? You don’t have bad news, do you? You don’t look well suddenly. Really pale.” She launched off the doorjamb to kneel at his feet. “Correct that. You’re totally ashen. Are you having any chest pain?”

  “Don’t worry, missy.” He chuckled. If he didn’t know better, he would worry about the stymieing pain in his chest, too, but it was purely emotional. “I need help picking out an engagement ring. I don’t know where to start.”

  “What?” Surprise passed across her darling face. Her eyes widened with delight. A smile cinched up her mouth in sheer glee. “Oh, Dad! You’re going to propose to Cady.”

  “Shh, now that’s a secret between you and me, at least until tomorrow. Will you set it up for me?”

  “I got my phone. It’ll take a few text messages and we’re set.” She flung her arms around him and he gave himself permission to hold on tight, just for one too-short moment. All the years behind him, valuable beyond belief, came back around again. It was like holding the little girl his Cheyenne used to be. Too soon she broke away, ecstatic, his beloved daughter. Her ponytail bounced as she fished her phone out of her pocket.

  “Daddy, this is great. We all love Cady so much. Oh, I’m going to burst not being able to tell anyone. Don’t wait very long to ask her or I won’t be able to stand it.” Her blue eyes shone with a deep joy he hadn’t expected. Her thumbs stilled on the little keyboard of her phone. “It’s time you found some happiness of your own. You worked hard to raise us and you never faltered. You deserve this, Dad.”