A Dusty Dreams Wedding

by Kat Carrington

  "You could be right. I just would have had to keep trying until she gave in. But I've been hoping for a long time to get to meet him, so it all worked out just fine. It is a small town; I was bound to run into the two of them eventually."

  "That's true too. It's a little hard to be a hermit in this day and age. I have to confess, I'm looking forward to meeting them both. It makes me curious, though."

  "Well, now you can see for yourself. There's nothing mysterious about Devon; she's just private. And protective of her little boy."

  "Mm hm. We'll see."

  Chapter 8

  Jessie took the last sheet of cookies out of the oven on Saturday morning. She figured every little boy loved cookies, and her big one did too. She had chicken ready for the grill, potato salad made, macaroni and cheese ready for the oven, a vegetable tray to munch on while the chicken cooked, and a watermelon chilling in the refrigerator. There were also bottled water and soft drinks in the cooler, along with beer and pitchers of fresh lemonade and iced tea. She knew she was going overboard, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. She even had a package of hot dogs to go on the grill and a pan of brownies freshly baked.

  Looking at the array of food, she shook her head and thought that they probably would be eating leftovers for a few days. Luckily, Brady was perfectly happy to do so, and she was too. Then she thought, I can send leftovers home with Devon, too. She was excited for the afternoon to come and she'd already brushed Pokey until he shone in the sunlight. When the time finally came for Devon to get there, Jessie and Brady were out on the back patio and Brady was scraping the grates on the grill with a wire brush while it heated up. Devon pulled in right on time and Jessie went to greet her, leading the two of them around to the back. Jacob greeted Indy joyously and the two of them ran ahead to the backyard. Jacob was beyond excited by their visit and he immediately spotted the tire swing Brady had put up for Caleb a few weeks ago. Jessie introduced Devon and her son to Brady, and he gave them his easy smile, immediately charming Jacob just as he had Caleb.

  Devon had a six-pack of beer and a bottle of wine with her.

  "I know you said not to bring anything, but I couldn't just show up empty handed."

  Brady grinned and said, "Beer and wine are always welcome."

  Devon handed him one, and she and Jessie had one too. She tried to see if Jacob wanted something, but he was too engrossed with tossing the ball for the dog. Jessie chattered away to Devon and soon put her more at ease, although she had a long way to go to be truly comfortable.

  "So, are you going to show me this bathroom you redid?" Devon asked.

  "Oh! Yes, let's go see. Jacob will be fine with Brady; he's great with kids."

  Devon called to her son and told him where she was going and instructed him to mind Brady, then she followed Jessie into the house. Jessie handed her before pictures to Devon to look over before they went through to the bathroom. Devon looked it over with approval.

  "This looks really good; you did an excellent job. I really like the colors and the little touches, like the pictures on the wall, bring it together well. This is really your first project like this?"

  Jessie was absurdly pleased at the words. "Yes, I never really thought about doing anything like this before. I thought I'd never be able to choose the colors, but once I did, I really liked the combination."

  "That's the way it goes; when you see the right thing, it just kind of jumps out at you. This is a nice solid house and it looks totally comfortable. I like it."

  Jessie grinned at her. "That's more important to me than anything else. I couldn't really care less about the latest style or trend as long as it's comfortable and welcoming."

  "I hate going along with the latest trend. Unless it's something totally practical, like something to make life easier. I'm a non-conformist at heart."

  Jessie giggled. "Life is just more fun that way."

  Devon actually grinned back at her, and then they went back outside, stopping to grab the vegetable tray and a bag of chips. When Brady asked Devon about having worked in construction, they launched into a long conversation about building things and Devon seemed to really be comfortable finally. Jessie had made Brady promise not to pry into Devon's personal story, and so far, he was keeping his promise.

  Jacob let out a yell and Devon's head shot up, but he was pointing with a huge smile on his face. "Mom, look! Chickens!"

  Jessie laughed and said, "I can show him how I check for eggs. We might even get lucky and find one. I usually get them in the morning, but now and then, there are some in the afternoon."

  Devon said, "Are you sure? He'd love that and I think he'd be careful."

  "Sure, let's go try it."

  They took Jacob into the barn and let him go into the chicken coop and follow Jessie's instructions, His eyes got as big as saucers when he found an egg in one of the nesting boxes. Altogether, he found three eggs and Jessie promised he could take them home and have them for breakfast. After they went out of the barn, Jessie took him over near the fence where he could get a glimpse of the cows and calves and the three horses, all grazing peacefully.

  The three of them walked back to the yard and went inside to wash their hands and Jacob's eggs before they went out and got into the vegetable tray. Brady had put the chicken on the grill and Jessie popped the macaroni into the oven, smelling the delicious aroma of chicken. Jacob liked the fresh vegetables better than the chips and he had a bottle of water to wash them down. When the chicken was done, Devon helped Jessie bring everything out to the table and they all gathered around the picnic table for dinner.

  Brady told Jacob the story about when he had tried to get his sister to get honey out of a beehive and Jacob's eyes got huge when Brady explained to him what the beehive was like.

  "Did you get in trouble?" Jacob asked.

  "Boy, did I! My dad was pretty mad, and then he took Becca out and showed her the right way to get the honey."

  Jacob was fascinated with Brady's explanation of how they smoked the hive so they could get the honey. "Mom, do you think there's a beehive at our house?"

  Devon considered his question thoughtfully. "No, I'm pretty sure there isn't, but we'll take a walk tomorrow and see."

  Devon told Brady about her progress on her house, with Jessie jumping in now and then to tell him what things looked like. Brady was impressed with the woman's knowledge and obvious expertise in what she was doing. When she described how she had built her cabinets, he was openly impressed, and she gave him a proud grin. Jessie exclaimed over how beautiful they were, and then Devon told her own story about falling through the front porch the first week they had been in the house. She was laughing as she told them about Jacob trying to pull her free.

  Jessie was beyond pleased with how the day was going. She felt like she and Devon were at the beginning of what could be a real friendship. She had a strong feeling that the other woman really needed at least one real friend in her new community, and she was determined to be that friend.

  After they finished eating, they took Jacob to the barn and Brady let the horses in. He put his horse and Red's in their stalls and put Pokey in crossties so he could saddle him. Jessie showed Jacob how to brush the horse, and he was obviously thrilled to be up close with the big, gentle gelding. When Pokey was all saddled up, they led him into the paddock and Brady lifted Jacob up and into the saddle. Jacob held onto the saddle horn, his little legs not coming anywhere near the stirrups, and Jessie led Pokey around the paddock at an easy walk. Jacob looked like he was in heaven, his grin nearly splitting his face in two. Devon bit her lip, trying not to get emotional at her son's reaction to being on the horse, but it made her so happy to see him that way that it was tough to hide it.

  Brady nudged her and grinned. "There's nothing like a kid's first time on a horse," he said. "I still remember mine and Becca's. It's a pretty special feeling."

  "It sure is for him, it's obvious. I've never been on a horse."

  "Well, we'll have to
fix that one day," Brady said easily. "Jessie loves to ride. You should have seen her the first time we moved cattle on horseback. She looked damn near like he does right now."

  Devon laughed. "I can see that. She gets such a charge out of everything; she's kind of like a little kid."

  "Yep, she definitely does have that side to her personality."

  Devon snapped a couple more pictures of Jacob on the horse and then said, "I like her. I didn't expect that to happen, but she's kind of hard to resist, isn't she?"

  "She sure is; she took my heart right over."

  "She's maybe the happiest person I've ever been around. Is she always like that?"

  "She is now," Brady said.

  Devon nodded. "That's good."

  Jessie led Pokey back to the gate and Jacob grinned at his mom. "Did you see me, Mom? I couldn't yell at you because that might scare Pokey."

  "I saw you every minute," Devon said. "And I took lots of pictures. I'll print one off for you and we'll put it up on the wall."

  His grin got even bigger, and Jessie said, "Two more times around, and then we'll take Pokey back in the barn and give him his supper."

  "Okay." Jacob leaned over and patted the horse's neck. "Good boy, Pokey."

  Before Brady lifted Jacob out of the saddle, the little boy leaned over and hugged the horse's neck. "I love you, Pokey," he said.

  Brady showed Jacob how he fed the horses and let the little boy help scoop out the grain and toss in flakes of hay. Then he took the boy for a ride in the four-wheeler, with Indy up on the seat between them. By the time they finished that and went back for cookies, brownies, and watermelon, Jacob was beginning to yawn, tired out from the big day. Brady went about cleaning the grill, and the other three went into the house so Jacob could use the bathroom while Jessie packed some cookies and brownies for Devon to take home. Devon and Jacob were on their way back to the kitchen when she noticed the framed picture on top of the piano. She stepped a little closer to look at the picture of the two men in uniform and the color drained from her face.

  Jessie turned to hand the bag of sweets to Devon as she walked back into the kitchen and thought that Devon looked different, kind of strained. "Are you okay?" she asked.

  "Yeah, I think the day just caught up with both of us. We'd better get going. Thank you for everything; we really enjoyed it."

  Jessie and Brady waved as Devon drove away and Jessie couldn't stop smiling at how the afternoon had gone. "I'm so glad they came," Jessie said, giving Brady a hug.

  "She's a hard one to figure out. She carried on a perfectly normal conversation, but she never mentioned anything personal, even indirectly. I don't know a bit more about her than I did when she got here. I mean, I know some about her work and the building projects she's done but nothing more at all. She never mentioned where she lived before, anything about Jacob's dad, nothing."

  "There's probably a good reason for it, Brady. She doesn't have any obligation to tell us personal things about herself."

  "But most people talk about themselves at least a little bit. She's very mysterious; don't you think so?" Brady asked.

  "She'll tell me when she's ready. And if she's never ready, she has that right. I'm not going to expect to know her secrets, if she has any." Jessie was a little frustrated at Brady's insistence that Devon was hiding things.

  "Well, you sure wanted to know more about her before you went over with the welcome pie, remember?"

  "Yes, but now I've met her and I'm just not comfortable with trying to grill her."

  Brady said, "Oh, come on; I didn't try to grill her."

  Jessie said primly, "No, you behaved very well. I'll give you that."

  "Well, I'm going to keep my ears open."

  "Maybe I'm not keeping you busy enough to keep your mind off other women."

  Brady made a grab for her. "Yeah, maybe you need to keep me busier. Let's go into the house and get busy."

  Jessie laughed and dodged his hands. "First, I have some cleaning up to do."

  Brady pulled her against him and fastened his mouth on hers. "Cleaning can wait, darlin', I need to be busy right now."

  He chased her into the house, and not long after, they really were busy.

  Devon was lecturing herself about accepting Jessie's invitation. She had told herself over and over that she wasn't looking for a friend, she had no intention of making a friend, she didn't need a friend. The problem was she had let herself get snared into going over to enjoy Jessie's hospitality and had discovered that her son needed friends. He'd had such a good time, and her heart melted every time she pictured the look that had been on his face when Brady had put him up on the horse. The whole afternoon had been heaven for a little boy. And she wasn't able to give him any of those experiences, at least not yet. Now she felt like she had painted herself into a corner. The fact that Jessie had been so happy to have them come over didn't help any.

  If it was just herself she had to consider, Devon wouldn't have a bit of trouble cutting Jessie off and putting an end to the budding friendship. But now that Jacob was involved, everything was changed. It was a bad idea in so many ways to be friends with Jessie Mills, of all people, and yet her son had just had one of the best days in his life. The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became. She stuffed all the tumultuous feelings away and concentrated on Jacob for the rest of the day, giving him his bath and reading to him before bed.

  As she tucked him in, she asked, "You had fun today, didn't you, bug?"

  Jacob smiled sleepily and said, "It was the best day ever."

  Devon closed her eyes for a second and then said, "That's good. Now, you go to sleep. Sweet dreams; I love you."

  "Love you, Mommy." His eyes were already closing.

  Devon went into the kitchen and sat down with her sketches and plans, trying to work on a problem with the bathroom upstairs. Disgusted, she found that she couldn't concentrate on any of it.

  "Well, you sure stuck your foot in it this time, Devon," she said out loud. "What were you thinking? If you make friends with people, then they want to know all about you. You hate lying, so why did you get yourself into this mess? You can't tell them, and you can't make things up. God, this is ridiculous!"

  Devon took out her phone and browsed through her pictures, from Jacob's baby pictures all the way to before he was born. There was a picture of her with a good-looking hunk of man, his arm draped over her shoulders. She gazed at the picture for a long time then swore under her breath and switched the pictures off. She suddenly wished she had someone to talk to about the past and, a moment later, kicked herself mentally. The whole point is not to have someone to talk to about the past. There's nobody in the whole world who was around for that past and nobody who knows anything about it. That's the way it has to be. Stop thinking about it; it's pointless. And if you want the present to be good, you need to just forget about it.

  It was a long time before Devon fell into a restless sleep that night. Just before she did, she resolved to get a nice thank you card and send it to Jessie, thanking her for the afternoon and letting her know that she was going to be too busy for socializing for a while.

  A few days later, Jessie got the card in the mail. She smiled when she saw the return address and tore it open to find a nice card of thanks. There was a little note inside from Devon thanking Jessie for her hospitality and for showing Jacob such a fun filled day and then giving her a polite brushoff. Jessie's mouth fell open as she read Devon's words and when she was finished, she looked blankly at the card. The note had been perfectly polite and perfectly clear. Devon did not want to become friends with Jessie and, Jessie thought, most likely, she didn't want to become friends with anyone else, either.

  Brady was right. Devon Bridges didn't want anybody to know anything about her. Now, Jessie was the curious one. Even though she had defended Devon's right to keep to herself over and over, now she thought there was something decidedly strange about the extent to which the other woman really wanted he
r privacy. What kind of secret could she have? Then, feeling guilty, Jessie wondered if Devon really was running from some kind of abuse. If that was the case, then Jessie could actually be causing her danger if she pried into her secrets. Finally, she sighed and decided that she had no choice but to respect Devon's wishes.

  Jessie was out of sorts for the rest of the day and when Brady came in for lunch, he found a moody fiancée in the kitchen. She had lunch ready as usual, but she was definitely unhappy about something. He had too much to do outside to hang around trying to solve it then, but he resolved to get to the bottom of it when he was finished with his day's work.

  Jessie took out her bad mood on the house, scrubbing, mopping, cleaning windows until she glanced at the clock and saw that it was past time to start dinner. She stood staring into the refrigerator and realized that she didn't have time for the meal she had planned. Finally, she pulled out some hamburger and made spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner.

  The house smelled just as good as it always did at dinnertime when Brady came in for the evening, and he walked over to nuzzle Jessie's neck. "It smells great in here, and so do you," he said, slipping his arms around her.

  Jessie raised her eyebrows and said, "Oh, great. I make a half assed dinner and you think it smells just as good as a meal I really put my heart into."

  Brady laughed and said, "Baby, everything you make is so good, I'm fine with your half assed dinner."

  "Why don't you go get a shower, and then dinner will be ready," Jessie said.

  "Okay," Brady said agreeably, snagging a beer on his way out of the kitchen. He whistled as he went, and Jessie rolled her eyes in irritation at his good mood.

  Jessie's mood hadn't improved any by the time she put dinner on the table. Brady tried several times to engage her in a conversation about the day, but she answered him with the shortest possible answers and remained stubbornly silent otherwise. Brady studied her as he ate, wondering just exactly what it was that was upsetting her. After a quiet but tense dinner, Jessie rose and began clearing the table.