“What you thinkin’, Johnny?” His buddy, Pete, jostled his arm with his elbow. He glanced at him.
“Just lookin’ at that buggy. My fiancé is in there. I ain’t seen her in a week.”
“Well, what you standin’ here for then? Go say hi. I’m sure she wants to see you too.”
Johnny swiveled his eyes back to the buggy, waiting to see where it came to a stop. They went past the saloon and the general store, the barber and the restaurant. They pulled to a stop in front of the dress and fabric shop.
Pete shoved him from behind, gently but with enough force to make Johnny take a step forward.
“Go get her, Johnny. I can see you been missin’ her. It’s all over your face. Go on now.”
Johnny glanced over his shoulder, giving his friend a warm smile. “Yeah, yeah. I’m goin’.”
Johnny looked to his left and his right before crossing to the other side of the road. He stepped up on the walkway and hurried in the direction where he knew Flo and her employer to be. There were people coming toward him and walking in the same direction. They weaved around each other, usually with a nod and a “howdy” as a greeting.
He had only one more shop to go when he felt a thin hand grip his arm. He looked down and was dismayed that he was looking into Marian’s dark eyes. The smile on her red lips didn’t meet them, indicating the smile was less than real.
“Johnny darling!” she gushed, pushing her body as close to his as she could so she was looking directly up at him, her head tilted back. He knew for a fact she liked to expose her neck that way in the hopes of churning him up. It was a subtle way of asking to be kissed there.
Weeks ago, months ago, he would have begged for the chance to land just one kiss on her neck. Now she exposed it like she wanted it covered in kisses and he just wasn’t that interested anymore. For months before he’d turned his attention to Flo, Marian had done everything she could to make him jealous. Now, she was the jealous one and he no longer cared.
It was hard to admit to himself. It would be harder to admit it to Marian.
Especially after the week they’d had together. Without Flo around to caution him constantly he’d agreed to every outing Marian suggested, even if he already had plans to work or was thinking of going to the Fitzpatrick ranch.
“Howdy, Marian. You’re looking… energetic today.”
He saw a flicker of confusion in Marian’s eyes. She didn’t know whether to take that as a compliment or not. In his mind, it was not given as a compliment. But still, for her own sake, he hoped she took it as one.
“Well… I guess, thank you?” she laughed softly. “Where are you headed in such a hurry?”
Johnny lifted his eyes and looked over the heads of the shorter people, trying to see Flo, but she was nowhere to be seen. He turned his eyes to the road to look for the Fitzpatrick buggy. He saw it and felt his body surge in that direction.
Marian’s look of confusion deepened and she looked over her shoulder to see what Johnny was looking at. “Oh, I see. Now that your woman has finally decided to show up, you’re going to ignore me? Hasn’t any of the time we’ve spent together made you think a little?”
Johnny dropped his eyes to her face and studied the expression he saw there. She was usually so pretty. And her outside beauty was still something to behold. But her eyes looked different to him.
Was it time to tell her the truth? That the time they’d spent together had indeed made him think and it wasn’t looking like things were going in her favor.
But he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He looked back up at the buggy, watching Flo stepping away from it and go into the fabric shop with the other two women.
He sighed. “I’ve been thinking, yes.” He nodded, his eyes on Marian.
“Well, good.” He wasn’t surprised she thought he was thinking the opposite of what he was thinking. This was what he’d wanted all along. He’d never been quiet about it, practically begging Marian in the past just for a bit of attention. Now she was giving it to him.
And now he wasn’t sure he wanted it anymore.
“I want you to promise me something, Johnny.”
Her request made his heart pound and his stomach turn. He didn’t particularly want to do her any favors.
“What would that be?”
“My parents are having a special dinner in three days. I want you to be my escort.”
Johnny instinctively frowned. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
“That gives you plenty of time to break this engagement off with Flo and get the ring back. Then you can announce something for us at the dinner instead. Everyone should know the truth. It’s not fair to keep stringing Flo along. She deserves better than that, doesn’t she?”
Johnny didn’t think Marian was in the least bit concerned about how Flo was or would feel in the future. The two women shared a mutual dislike and distrust for one another. No one knew that better than Johnny.
“You’re giving me two days to break things off with Flo and give you the ring instead?”
Marian smiled brightly, her eyes narrowing. Johnny didn’t think it was a very loving smile. It looked more manipulative than anything else.
“Don’t you think that’s plenty of time? If you want, you can just go down there to the dress shop and tell her now. Get the ring and bring it back to me.”
Johnny shook his head. “I’m not doing that today. I have to think about this first.”
“I want you at the dinner party, Johnny,” Marian used a very soft voice, almost pleading. Johnny didn’t trust it was valid. “You’re the only man I want at my side. I know it will be good for you, too. You’ll make a lot of new friends and acquaintances who can help you in business. You might be able to expand your ranch. Your father would like that, wouldn’t he?”
Johnny pressed his lips together, trying to keep his frustration inside. Flo wouldn’t care if he went to the dinner party. But he didn’t want to call off the engagement. He could simply say he and Marian had already had it planned and that he didn’t want to let her down. That could be his excuse, if anyone asked.
They shouldn’t ask, he thought sourly. It was none of their business.
Still, the more he thought about it, the more he felt like he’d hatched a bad plan. Someone was going to be hurt. And it was looking more and more like it would be Flo who would suffer the most from this scheme.
He wished that wasn’t so.
Suddenly he realized he was, in effect, paying for her to isolate herself in the country, ashamed and seemingly discarded, and Flo would become a recluse and a spinster. She would die alone with no husband or children to remember how wonderful she was.
Johnny didn’t want that. He would die before he’d let that happen to his sweet Flo.
Chapter 18
Flo saw Marian and Johnny talking as she went into the fabric shop behind Mrs. Fitzpatrick. She pretended she didn’t but as soon as she saw them, she felt nauseous and had to hurry away. Once inside, she went directly to the wedding dress rack and began to push through the small variety of premade dresses.
“If you see one that is the style you want for your wedding reception, pull it out,” she heard Mrs. Fitzpatrick call out from behind her. She turned her head to give the woman a nod and then looked back at the dresses.
Her mind was not on the dresses. She wanted to talk to Johnny. Seeing him with Marian made her all the more aware he’d been spending time with her. She’d probably sweet-talked him into God knows what, maybe even suggesting Johnny break it off with Flo and go to her instead.
That was what Johnny had wanted all along. If that’s what Marian managed to do, Flo would have to accept it. She’d agreed to make the woman jealous in order for Johnny to get more attention from her.
This week, he had gotten that attention. From the way Marian hung off him, it seemed they had bonded quite a lot.
“Looking for a new dress for your wedding?”
The voice coming from directly behind
her made her skin crawl. It was Marian’s voice.
She spun her head to the side and gave Marian a narrow glance. “I have a dress for the wedding. This is for the reception.”
“Well, you’re just not sparing any expense, are you? Or is it Johnny who is paying for all of this? You realize if he doesn’t want to go through with it, you will owe him a lot of money from what you’re doing here.”
Flo clenched her jaw together. Her first instinct was to deny what Marian was saying, tell her that the Fitzpatricks were helping her with most of the planning and paying. But it wasn’t Marian’s place to know any of that.
“Don’t concern yourself with mine or Johnny’s financial situation. I assure you we are just fine now as single people and will be just fine as a married couple. It’s really not any of your business, is it?”
Marian leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, “I hope you don’t mind I’ve been keeping him company while you were away.”
Flo pulled her eyebrows together, wondering what the other woman knew about where she’d been. “While I was away?” she prompted further explanation.
Marian answered in a slow voice, looking Flo directly in her eyes with a stone-cold stare. “Yes. Johnny said you went on some kind of vacation. I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.” She looked down her nose at Flo, batting her eyelashes. “Whatever is in your life obviously isn’t important to me.”
Flo thought that if what she did wasn’t important to Marian, the woman wouldn’t even think she’d gone on vacation. She would never have asked nor remembered.
Marian knew exactly what she was doing when she flirted with Johnny.
“Do you want to know where our boy, Johnny, is right now?” Marian hissed, covering one side of her mouth with her hand.
Flo felt a tremendous amount of frustration fill her chest, making her tense. She knew the look on her face displayed her irritation for everyone to see. Hopefully only Marian was looking at her.
“He isn’t our boy, Marian.” The charade was much too real to feel like she would have to share his love. “He’s my fiancé. It’s best you remember that or risk the scandal you’re about to create.”
Marian’s eyes flashed with anger. “Whatever you choose to believe, Flo.” Her voice had dropped even lower. Flo was giving her such a stare that it felt like the room around them melted and it was just the two of them. She pictured herself wrapping her fingers around Marian’s neck and squeezing with all her might until the woman’s face turned blue and her eyes rolled back in her head.
She pictured the many ways she would like to put Marian in her place and none of them were pleasant. But she did nothing. She only gave Marian the look of death and kept her voice low so as not to create too much of a scene.
If she didn’t get away from the evil woman soon, though, she was sure to flip her lid, which would do no good in her current environment. It would look terrible on her employer, not to mention herself.
“This week has been really special for us,” Marian went on. Flo glanced around her, noticing Mrs. Fitzpatrick and Maggie were both mulling over three different types of curtain fabric, trying to decide which one would look best in the parlor. Flo brought her attention back to the bitter woman in front of her, who was currently leaning forward just a little. Flo wondered if she was trying to intimidate Flo.
Flo was not intimidated.
“And how is that?” she asked. If she said she and Johnny had grown closer and she should be expecting the worst from both Johnny the next time they spoke, Flo was going to get upset. She wouldn’t call it being intimidated as much as she would call it becoming aware.
“Oh, you know, since you had to leave town and Johnny had to stay behind, he was a little lonely. I spent a few nights cheering him up. We would have those nice little intimate dinners, you know, the ones you two can’t have because of your work schedule? My schedule is always clear. Especially for him.”
Resentment slid through Flo, lodging in her chest. She did not want to hear about intimate dinners with Johnny. Did he enjoy them more than he did spending time with her? Had Marian won him back over?
She felt sick looking at the woman, so she moved her eyes back to the dresses and pretended to be very interested in them. She felt like a snake was coiled up behind her and she just didn’t want to cause any more attention to herself than she had to. She dreaded knowing Marian was going to say something else. Whatever it was, Flo didn’t want to hear it.
“Surely you have something to say to me, Flo.”
Flo held in the urge to turn and slap Marian across the face. She was on the very edge of doing so when Mrs. Fitzpatrick came down the aisle toward them both.
“Well, howdy and good afternoon to you, Ms. Voorhees,” Mrs. Fitzpatrick said, her most charming smile on her face.
Flo didn’t think the return look she got was equal in respect. But it mattered little to Mrs. Fitzpatrick. She had a good, mature head on her shoulders and nothing made a difference to that, especially not the disrespect of a spoiled town girl.
“Hello, Mrs. Fitzpatrick. You are accompanying Flo since she doesn’t have a family of her own? It is such a pity, isn’t it?”
Flo wondered for a moment whether Marian really thought she was fooling Mrs. Fitzpatrick with her fake polite behavior. It was obvious to Flo she wasn’t fooled in the slightest.
“A pity indeed,” Mrs. Fitzpatrick said, lifting one eyebrow and looking at Marian with open amusement. She moved her eyes to Flo. “Those are some lovely dresses, my dear. But I think it would be best to wear something a little plainer that goes along with the style of your wedding dress. Remember, this is only for the reception. You will want to wear something more comfortable during that time, am I right?”
“You are right, Mrs. Fitz.” Flo nodded, relieved the attention was off her, even briefly. “I don’t want anything to go wrong for the wedding or the reception. We are all going to have a good time.” She flashed a bright smile at Marian, whose face had turned dark when she realized it was Mrs. Fitzpatrick who was Flo’s benefactress, not Johnny or his money.
Flo didn’t even know the current state of Johnny’s ranch or the money he had in the bank. They hadn’t talked about it. It didn’t matter to her. She knew he worked hard for a living and assumed he was keeping it that way.
“I probably will not be able to come,” Marian said, her voice as cold as ice. The expression made her entire face look frozen in frustration. “I am sure I will be out of town that weekend.”
Mrs. Fitzpatrick jumped in before Flo had a chance to say anything. “I’m sure we will miss you, dear. Come, Flo, I absolutely must show you this dress I think would look lovely on you. Maybe you want to try it on?”
Flo followed the woman to the other side of the store, where there was a curtain hanging over a doorway that led to three changing booths. Mrs. Fitzpatrick didn’t speak again until they were in the changing booths with a dark green gown that Flo had loved from the moment she laid eyes on it.
“I don’t want you being bothered by that woman,” Mrs. Fitzpatrick said. “I see her taunting you and it makes me want to put her over my knee and give her a good spanking! She is disrespectful and rude and her words are only meant to hurt. You must always remember that there are some people in this world who are just plain not nice. No matter what you do. You can be as nice as pie, as sweet as strawberries and still never get anywhere with people like that. They are usually unhappy in their core. It makes them act out and hurt the innocent people around them. She’s made you her target. But that’s not what I see for your future. You remember these words, Flo. I speak them into action. You will marry Johnny Mason and you will have a family with him. You will have a loving family. And you will be happy. Mark my words. You just mark my words.”
True Love Leaves no Doubts: An Inspirational Historical Romance Book Page 11
