Lone Star Romance Collection

by Cathy Marie Hake

  She didn’t know what to think. It was all very flattering, but she couldn’t help wishing that they were the sheriff.

  It was Saturday morning, near lunchtime. Patience had started to go up to Addie’s room above the store to eat with her, when a knock sounded on their door.

  Addie sighed. “I’d best go see who it is. It may be important.”

  Patience patted her on the arm. “You go on up, Miss Addie. I’ll go check.”

  Addie nodded and went up the stairs.

  Patience went to the door and was surprised to see Bobby Joe Aaron standing there.

  “Oh! Hi, Mr. Aaron. Can I help you with something?” she asked, marveling at the way he looked. He’d really gone out of his way to fix himself up! His hair was all slicked back, and he was nicely dressed in a black vest and pants with a crisply ironed shirt.

  Then she noticed the little girl standing beside him. It was his daughter, Beth.

  “Hi, Miss Primrose. Beth and I wanted to stop by to see if you’d join us for lunch,” Bobby Joe asked her shyly. Shy was not a word one would usually apply to Bobby Joe, but he was sure acting timid!

  Or was he just unsure of himself?

  Patience looked at him, then looked down at his smiling daughter. “Oh … well … sure! Let me go and tell Addie, and I’ll meet you back down here. All right?”

  Bobby Joe nodded, and his daughter said, “Oh goody. I told you she wouldn’t say no, Daddy!”

  His face turned red. “Beth, don’t …”

  “I’ll be right back,” Patience interrupted, not wanting him to take his embarrassment out on his daughter.

  She did think it was funny, though. But she waited until she was out of earshot before she laughed aloud!

  Lee was sitting with Susannah in the dining room at the Springton Inn. He’d asked her to lunch and felt pleased that she’d eagerly accepted. They were moving right along, now that he’d gotten his mind off of Patience. It was true that she kept popping up everywhere he went, but he was doing pretty well at staying focused on his courtship of Susannah. In fact, he was just about to invite her to attend church with him when she walked in.

  “Not again,” he groaned aloud without realizing it.

  Susannah looked at him quizzically. “What’s wrong?”

  “Huh? Oh … nothing. I was just thinking about … something,” he answered lamely.

  She was something all right. Today, she was wearing blue. Not just regular blue, but rich, royal blue. The neckline was scooped and showed off a little of her chest and her neck. He noticed that her skin wasn’t merely just pale, it was luminous.

  “What is Bobby Joe doing with her?” Susannah whispered beside him.

  What did Susannah mean? At that moment, he realized that Patience wasn’t alone. She was with Bobby Joe Aaron and his daughter, Beth! What was he doing with her?

  But then again, why was Susannah worried about it? He glanced at her and saw a look of hurt cross her face, but it was quickly masked by a friendly, sunny smile.

  He looked back and saw that the trio was headed their direction.

  “Aunt Susannah!” Beth cried out and ran to throw her arms around her aunt. Susannah hugged her and greeted her with the same enthusiasm.

  Slowly she looked up to her brother-in-law. “Hello, Bobby Joe.”

  Bobby Joe visibly stiffened beside her. “Hello, Susannah,” he said coolly.

  Lee frowned and wondered at the hostility that radiated between them. Then he wondered how Susannah could ignore Patience like that!

  He had been ignoring Patience for two weeks now. He guessed it wouldn’t hurt to be nice to spare her feelings today. He stood and greeted her. “Hello, Miss Patience.”

  Patience’s face was an unreadable mask as she looked back at him. “Hello, Sheriff Cutler.”

  Lee’s frown deepened. When had she stopped looking at him with adoration? Then it struck him that she didn’t look like a woman who was pining away for him! Wasn’t she affected at all after the way he’d ignored her?

  And why was she with Bobby Joe Aaron? The thought kept menacing him.

  “Can we eat with, y’all?” Beth asked. “Look! There’s enough room!” She motioned to the three empty chairs at their large round table.

  “Uh … I don’t think …,” Bobby Joe began.

  “Well, we were just …,” Lee chimed in.

  “We really couldn’t …,” Patience said graciously, causing the frown to return to Lee’s face.

  “Isn’t that a wonderful idea!”

  All eyes went to Susannah. She looked at everyone with innocent eyes. “Well, for goodness’ sake! Are you all going to stare at me all day, or are you going to sit down and have some lunch?”

  It was a disaster. Maybe not as bad as the dinner party had been, but it was close.

  Bobby Joe, who earlier had been friendly and a little talkative—as much as Bobby Joe could be—suddenly clammed up and became a stone-faced grouch. Susannah was talking more than was even normal for her and trying to make everyone believe she was so happy, though it was obvious by the looks she kept sending Bobby Joe she wasn’t.

  And then there was Lee. He was acting just plain strange. He would look at Bobby Joe, then look at Patience, and a grim look would spread across his face. He did this about every five minutes; and after awhile, Patience got tired of it.

  Leaving her plate barely touched, Patience pushed back from the table and stood. Immediately, the two men stood up with her. “I’d better get back to work.” She turned to Bobby Joe. “Thank you for asking me to lunch, Bobby Joe and Beth. We must do it again sometime.” Alone. She didn’t say it, but it was clearly implied.

  Bobby Joe nodded to her with an apology in his eyes. “Yes. We will,” he agreed. “Can I walk you out?” He reached for his jacket.

  She held out a hand. “No. That’s okay. You sit and finish your meal.” She smiled at Beth. “It was nice talking with you, Beth.”

  The seven-year-old waved at her.

  Hurriedly, she said her good-byes to Susannah and Lee and quickly made her way from the inn.

  Lee didn’t even think twice about it. He jumped up, threw down his napkin, and excused himself. “I’ll be right back,” he mumbled and ran out of the restaurant.

  In three quick steps, he had caught up with Patience.

  Steering her into a nearby alley, he then turned her toward him. “What’s going on between you and Bobby Joe Aaron?” he demanded.

  Patience blinked a couple of times. “Pardon me? I don’t see that it’s any of your concern, Sheriff Cutler!” she announced huffily.

  His lips thinned. “See? You know me better than you know him, and you don’t call me by my first name!”

  “For your information, Sheriff Cutler, I’ve known Bobby Joe since I was a child. And besides, he asked me to call him by his first name!”

  “And I see that you gave him the same privilege,” he charged, pointing a wild finger in the direction of the inn.

  “That’s right, I did!”

  “Well …,” he blustered, searching for words, aware that he was behaving like a lunatic. “I don’t like it!”

  She actually laughed at him. “Well, la-de-da! I don’t care if you like it or not!”

  “Well, maybe you won’t care about this, either!” He grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her.

  Chapter 13

  Touching her lips was like getting zapped by lightning! Stunned, he let her go and stumbled back a step. He watched as she brought a hand up to her face, her eyes full of amazement.

  For a moment, they did nothing but stare at each other and try to catch their breath.

  Why had he done that? He’d been courting Susannah for over two weeks now, and he’d done nothing but hold her hand! Now, here he was kissing the one woman he did not want to become involved with!

  At that point, he lost all reason.

  “I do hope that you don’t think that kissing me means anything!”

  Her mouth fell open
with a gasp. “I didn’t kiss you! You kissed me!”

  He pointed his finger at her. “Well, you made me do it! And besides … you kissed me back!”

  She grabbed his finger and shoved it out of the way. “I didn’t make you do anything, Sheriff Cutler!” she taunted. “I think you have been wanting to kiss me! That’s why you did it!”

  He narrowed his eyes at her mean little smile. “That’s just wishin’ on your part, Miss Primrose! It will be a cold day in El Paso before that will happen! And I want you to stop following me around, too!”

  “I haven’t been following you around! How dare you …”

  “Every time I’m on an outing with Susannah, you show up! Don’t tell me it’s a coincidence!”

  “Okay! I won’t tell you! I’ll just let you wallow in your conceit!”

  “Conceit, is it? Don’t tell me you weren’t hoping that I’d court you when you told Doc to bring me to your house. Well, it didn’t work then, and it’s not going to work now! I’m not going to court you, Patience. Not ever!”

  Lee thought he saw her wince, but he wasn’t sure. Even as the words were coming out of his mouth, he regretted what he said. But she rallied back quickly.

  “Don’t worry! I don’t want you,” she sneered. “Just make sure that you don’t ‘accidentally’ kiss me anymore. I’d rather kiss.. . Bobby Joe! In fact, I just might do that. Today!”

  His face darkened. “Now, don’t you do anything stupid, Patience, I …”

  “I didn’t say you could use my first name, and I’ll do whatever I please!” She started past him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me …”

  He grabbed her arm, but his grip was gentle. His face lost its anger, and a look of concern replaced it. “I mean it, Patience. Don’t do anything stupid just to get back at me.” He looked away for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts. “He’s not a churchgoing man. You should keep that in mind.”

  She smiled at him sadly. “I’m not planning to marry him, Sheriff. And what do you care, anyway, huh? You’ve ignored me and … and laughed at me … and insulted me. You don’t have the right to tell me anything.” With that, she pulled her arm from his grip and walked away from him.

  She waited until she was well away from him before she broke. She leaned against the back side of the store building and covered her face with trembling hands.

  She was through with that man. She didn’t want to see him and especially didn’t want to talk to him. She wouldn’t marry him if he was the absolute last man on earth!

  Not that she ever would be given the chance.

  Patience showed up at church the next morning, sporting her new green dress. Rachel had told her it was the latest design from New York, and she had fashioned a small hat to match it.

  While the dress caught everyone’s eye, it was the little girl holding her hand that made everybody do a double take.

  Patience could just imagine what they were all thinking of her coming in with Beth Aaron, but she didn’t really care. The little girl was so eager to go, Patience couldn’t have said no, even if she wanted to.

  It was really the sheriff’s words that made her bring up the idea with Bobby Joe in the first place. When he said that the sawmill owner wasn’t a churchgoer, Well, Patience thought, it wouldn’t hurt to invite him to go with me.

  Unfortunately, he turned her down, but Beth had chimed in that she would like to go. Bobby Joe didn’t have any concerns about the matter, so they agreed that Patience and her mother would pick Beth up the next morning.

  As usual, her mother balked, saying that she could just imagine what people would think! Instead of riding in the wagon with her daughter, Prudence went with a neighbor.

  That was fine with Patience. She didn’t feel like dealing with her mother anyway.

  She guided the little girl into the nearest pew, not really looking at whom she was sitting by. She got Beth all seated and patted her on the head. Then she looked up at the person just on the other side of the child.

  She really should start paying more attention….

  Lee watched as Patience came in and sat by Susannah and himself. He noticed that she looked well rested and refreshed.

  At least somebody got some sleep last night. He hadn’t gotten any! He kept playing Patience’s parting words over and over in his head, and he knew that he’d been behaving in a manner that was unbecoming and unchristianlike. Who was he to judge Bobby Joe, when he could treat another person the way he’d treated Patience?

  He admitted to himself, finally, that he was very attracted to Patience Primrose. He didn’t want to court Susannah, nice and pretty as she was. He wanted to court Patience.

  He couldn’t understand why it took him so long to figure that out. Probably it was because he’d been swayed by others’ opinions.

  Poor Patience was talked about and laughed about and called a plain old maid by every bachelor in town. He’d thought he was too good for her.

  What a fool he was.

  The truth was, Patience was too good for him. She was honest and kind, and someone with whom he could sit down and have a real conversation. She was a true friend and could be more than that to him.

  But it could be too late.

  He glanced down at the child beside her and wondered what was happening between her and Bobby Joe. Were they courting? He dearly hoped not.

  Not when he wanted his chance at courting Patience.

  “I can’t believe it!”

  Susannah’s outraged whisper pulled his attention away from his thoughts of Patience. He looked sideways at her and saw that she was near to crying. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice full of concern.

  He watched as she looked over at Beth with a longing expression, then looked back to the preacher. “Nothing.”

  Huh? He sighed silently and then glanced Patience’s way. As if she felt his gaze, Patience turned her eyes to him. Then she lifted her head, looked down her nose at him, sniffed, then looked away.

  Lee had just been royally snubbed!

  Great! he thought morosely. He was sitting by two women who either hated him or wanted to cry all over him for no reason.

  He felt a pull at his sleeve, and he looked down to see Beth staring at him. She grinned, showing him two big spaces in her mouth where teeth should be, then she winked at him!

  He bit his lip to keep from laughing, then he moved his eyes back to the preacher.

  At least somebody liked him!

  She couldn’t believe she had sat by Lee Cutler! Of course, he would think she did it on purpose, the conceited man!

  Well, let him! She no longer cared what he thought.

  Susannah could have him!

  Lee was taking Susannah back to her house, when he decided to ask her again what was wrong. She’d been strangely quiet ever since they’d left the church.

  Susannah sniffed and blinked, obviously trying hard not to cry. “I’ve been asking Bobby Joe for months now to let me spend time with Beth. He always says no. Do you know that he won’t even let her come to the town school? He hired a tutor to come to his house three times a week to teach her. It just hurt my feelings, I guess, to see that he allowed Patience to bring her to church.” She looked off in the distance for a moment, then looked down at her clenched hands. “I guess they’re getting close, huh?”

  Her words struck fear into his heart. He wasn’t the only one thinking it, then. “I don’t know, Susannah. What’s between you two anyway?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess he blames me for my sister running off. Then to find out she died without him ever being able to understand why she did it …” She let out a breath. “She left for reasons that I don’t understand; and by the time she reached our parents’ house, she was dying. There was nothing I could do. Nothing anyone could do.”

  “Well, he’s a lot different since his wife died. He’s really bitter.”

  “I know,” Susannah answered sadly. “I just wish I could help him.” She shrugged her shoulde
rs. “Maybe Patience can.”

  Lee felt like shouting No! He didn’t want Patience helping anybody but him!

  They were silent for a moment. Lee knew what he had to do, he just didn’t know how or the right words to say. He took a deep breath and just told her.

  “Susannah, there’s something I need to tell you….”

  “You’re in love with Patience,” she interrupted him calmly.

  “Now, I’ve never said anything about … about … love!” he sputtered. “I just …” He stopped suddenly and looked at her with amazement. “How did you know what I was going to talk about?”

  Susannah smiled at him and patted him on the cheek with a gloved hand. “Oh Lee. It’s been obvious to me for weeks. I was just wondering when you were going to notice.”

  Lee scratched his head. “But I thought you’d be mad at me for courting you all these weeks….”

  “I’m not in love with you, either, Lee, so you can quit worrying.”

  Lee opened his mouth and then shut it. “You’re not?” he finally asked.

  She laughed. “No, but I have really enjoyed your friendship. Now, what you need to do is forget about me and start working on winning over Patience!”

  Lee blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t think she’ll let me. And you said it yourself, she may be leaning Bobby Joe’s direction.”

  Susannah sat back in her seat and crossed her arms around her middle. “I hope not,” she murmured.

  Lee studied her face and began to realize things he’d totally missed before—that Susannah had her own feelings for Bobby Joe. Why hadn’t he seen it before? But he kept his thoughts to himself.

  With a flick of his wrist, he snapped the reins to urge the team to a faster pace.

  Chapter 14

  It was two weeks later, and Patience was busy writing up Mrs. Perkins’s purchases when Lee walked in the door.

  She determinedly ignored him as he milled around the store. “Here you go, Mrs. Perkins. You have a nice day,” she told the newly married woman while handing her the bundle of goods.