Meeting Her Match

by Debra Clopton

  It was then she understood Samantha had gotten a glimpse of the yellow candy in her hand and was hinting that she would enjoy sharing.

  Despite her heavy heart Sheri chuckled. She quickly poured herself a cup of coffee, grabbed the candy and went outside to join the nosy animal on the porch.

  “Hey, Samantha, how’s it going, girlfriend?” She held out the already unwrapped piece of taffy, holding her palm flat as she’d seen Lilly do, and watched as the roly-poly burro placed her lips to her palm and very daintily picked up the treat. This animal was almost human, Sheri thought as she started walking and Samantha trotted beside her happily smacking away.

  It was a lovely warm early morning and Sheri decided to walk. She carried her coffee and candy across the large gravel drive to the stables where she’d seen a double swing sitting. She eased down and sipped her coffee.

  Not-to-be-forgotten Samantha stood beside her, eyeing the pocket that contained the taffy.

  “Hey, stop eyeing the goodies. You’re still smacking on your first piece.” She had to laugh when the burro swallowed with a gulp then puckered her lips indicating it was time for another.

  “Ya little piglet. You’re getting a little round on the sides there, ya know.” Samantha just blinked, as if to say that there were just some things in life worth sacrificing a good figure for. Sheri had to admit that the taffy was growing on her, too.

  Tucking her feet beneath her, she set her cup on the armrest as she unwrapped two pieces of candy for each of them. A few seconds later, to the melodious sound of Samantha’s smacking, Sheri stared out at the horizon and the thin thread of light separating night from morning. It reminded her of the morning Lacy dragged her to watch the mustangs arrive. The morning she met Pace. The morning her troubles began.

  Today, there was a soft mist hovering over the ground where the pasture sloped away from the yard. Sheri felt herself relax, lost in a sleepy daydream.

  She’d recently watched the movie version of Jane Austen’s classic romance, Pride and Prejudice. It wasn’t an old Western, but she’d really enjoyed it. Thinking about it now, she realized Pace reminded her of Mr. Darcy with his quiet ways. The thought brought a tired smile to her lips. Not much of a reader she was a bit behind the curve, having never read the book. Over the years she’d heard comments about Mr. Darcy and she’d envisioned an older man with graying hair who was the butler or something. Not until the movie did she realize that Mr. Darcy was the handsome hero, prone to bouts of clipped words and a seemingly harsh attitude. But really, once you got past that he was actually magnificently wonderful.

  Just like Pace.

  In one of the most beautiful and romantic scenes of cinematography Sheri had ever admired, Mr. Darcy was filmed walking across the moors. Wearing a billowing white shirt, dark riding pants and boots, he advanced through the morning mist, appearing as if the heroine had dreamed him in her longing to see him. Now, sitting here watching the early dawn’s mist glisten in the soft glow of light, Sheri’s eyes felt heavy and she found herself watching and wishing that Pace would come. She could see Pace, tall and handsome, his hat off, his hair swept back from his face as if he’d been running his hands through it restlessly waiting for morning’s light so that he could follow his heart to her.

  Sheri’s heartbeat drummed at the base of her neck as ridiculously she strained to find Pace in the mist. Of course, it was only a movie and a make-believe hero. Sheri blinked and looked away from the horizon to the empty coffee cup she held limply in her hand. She hadn’t even remembered drinking the coffee she’d been so lost in her imaginings.

  She closed her eyes reliving the look in Pace’s eyes when he’d asked her to start over…

  And her heart wished it could.

  “Don’t touch her, Frankie.”

  “I wasn’t gonna. Do you think she slept out here?”

  “What happened to her hair?”

  “What’s the big deal? That’s how my mom looks when she wakes up in the morning.”

  “Ick. You mean you gotta look at that every day?”

  “That’s how moms look. You get used to it.”

  Sheri was dreaming. In her dream she could hear boys talking but couldn’t see what they were talking about. Groggily she rubbed her eyes, stretched and rolled over on the small twin bed, settling in for a little longer. Funny she hadn’t remembered the bed being so small and bumpy.

  “Hey, guys, what are y’all looking at?”

  Sheri jumped, recognizing Pace’s voice as she rolled off her bed. She woke with a start lying facedown in the grass staring at a pair of scuffed cowboy boots with exaggerated silver spurs.

  “I guess it goes without saying that you didn’t have a good night,” Pace drawled from above her.

  Looking up, Sheri found herself gazing into his laughing eyes. He was flanked by six ten-year-old boys who were gawking at her as if she were an alien from another planet. If she looked as bad as she felt then it was pretty nightmarish.

  Her mouth was so dry she knew she’d been sleeping on the swing with it wide open. Swallowing hard, she blinked and wished she could sink into a hole and disappear. It took her a moment to remember why she was even outside.

  “Okay, the show’s over. Move ’em out, boys.”

  “Sure thing, Mr. Pace,” one boy said, turning to leave but stopping to grin back at him. “But you gotta admit it was way funny finding her lying asleep out here with her mouth hanging open like that.”

  “Yeah,” crooned another one. “Man, I wonder if she swallowed any bugs.”

  Sheri choked.

  Pace smiled down at her and held out a hand. “Come on, you can get up now.”

  She took the offered hand and let him pull her up off the ground. Instantly remembering the weird vision she’d had as the pleasant thrill of Pace’s touch brought thoughts of Mr. Darcy crossing through the mist.

  She tried to pull her hand free the moment she was on her feet.

  “No,” he said, holding her hand securely then tugging her within inches of him. Unlike her, he was freshly showered and smelled so good she wanted to lean in and just breathe him in, all zesty and fresh. Instead she tugged her hand harder and stepped away from him when he released it.

  His smile said he knew exactly what she was doing. Just as she suspected he’d known exactly what he’d been doing when he’d tugged her so close and held her hand so long. What was he up to now?

  Had the man not heard a word she’d said last night? She’d laid everything out clearly and he looked and acted as if nothing had happened.

  “Cute outfit,” he said, his smoky gaze drifting down her, humor lacing his words.

  Sheri looked down and realized she was wearing her smiley-face cotton pajama pants and a bright yellow sleeveless T-shirt. “Funny man,” she snapped, irritated. “What time is it?”

  “It’s seven, grumpy. The guys wanted to come down and get a head start riding the horses before breakfast. If I’d known we’d find you here I’d have come earlier.”

  “Breakfast! I need to go help Lilly,” she gasped, thankful she had someplace to be instead of here. Pace was barking up the wrong tree if he thought she was going to change her mind about what she’d said. It didn’t matter that she’d hardly slept, or even if she managed to eat a bug. Or that she’d gotten all mushy with her lack of sleep. Mr. Darcy, indeed! What had she been thinking?

  She had a job to finish here, and then she had a path to find. The only way that path was going to include Pace was if God changed her DNA.

  And she didn’t see that happening.

  She could never trust herself not to follow in the footsteps of her parents.

  After a rowdy breakfast they took the kids on a hayride. It was the first one that Sheri had ever been on so she was as excited as the kids, even with the strain of her confrontation with Pace hanging over her head.

  Determined to get her head back on straight she’d refocused her energies on the opportunity she’d been given to be around the group o
f youths. She’d actually relaxed about being around them now. Everything changed when she’d been painting the zillions of sets of toes and fingers they’d had her paint. It was really weird when she realized that instead of the girls being scared off, they were actually seeking her out. She didn’t guard herself around them and she thought that might have been part of why they liked her.

  By the time everyone loaded onto the hay-covered flatbed trailer that Cort was pulling behind his tractor, Sheri was more than ready to sink into the soft hay surrounded by a gaggle of giggling girls.

  Lilly had the most beautiful singing voice Sheri had ever heard and soon had everyone joining in as they rode along through the pastures. Cort drove them through freshly-mowed hay fields and along the perimeter of a large tree-shrouded pond.

  The kids spotted several animals along the way, including a rattlesnake. When one of the boys pointed it out all the girls screamed, including Sheri. She hated snakes and had no problem admitting it. Pace was sitting at the back of the trailer with Pastor Ron and was able to calm everyone’s fears.

  The man had no trouble getting the kids’ attention. When he spoke everyone listened, and he was good with them. Sheri was a little surprised at that. But why shouldn’t they like him? She watched him with interest as he explained to the group that they were too far away for the snake to harm them, but that it was a good reminder to be careful when they were out and about. Very quickly the boys started asking Pace questions about his life as a cowboy. One question led to another and soon they had him telling stories about living alone out in the deserted country. Sheri wondered if he even realized how easily he was interacting with the kids.

  Despite her need to distance herself from thinking about him, Sheri was mesmerized, as usual, listening to Pace talk about his past. Who wouldn’t be? He’d been right in following the path he felt the Lord had called him to seek out. He could be a great influence.

  The hayride turned into a lesson in respecting nature. It was obvious he still missed his Idaho and that he loved the wilderness of the Great Basin. Goodness, listening to him talk she wanted to go live in a shack in the vast wilderness herself.

  He had an endearing way of telling about his many adventures that drew a person to listen to what he had to say. Sheri was not surprised by the way the kids on the trailer hung on his every word.

  He’d come to Mule Hollow looking to be used by God, looking to move out of his comfort zone and reach for something he couldn’t see but that he knew God wanted him to go after. Sheri admired him for what he’d done, and she had a sense of pride knowing that his dream was going to come true. God was already using him and she knew in her heart that this was only the beginning.

  Sheri’s longing to find God’s path in her life grew watching Pace. God had a plan for her life, and she had finally decided she was going to seek it out. The Bible said, “Seek and ye shall find.” Well, she was going to do just that, and she wasn’t going to let anything stop her.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Pace was about to enter Sam’s Diner when Cassie almost ran over him plowing through the swinging door.

  “Hey, Pace, you’re late. The lunch crowd already left. Lucky for you Sam’s still got some food in there.” She stopped on the sidewalk and smiled up at him. She was a baby-faced kid, and Pace had to remind himself she was almost twenty and not the sixteen she looked to be.

  “I wanted to tell you thank you,” she said.

  “For what?”

  “For teaching Jake. He’s really enjoying working with you.”

  “He’s doing me a favor helping out and he’s a fast learner. I’m proud to have him helping me.” He was. “He tells me you’re thinking about taking some college courses over in Ranger.”

  “Yes, sir. I want to take some business courses.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  “Yeah, a girl needs a plan. Well, I gotta run. Watch out in there. Sam’s grumpy.”

  What else was new? Sam was grumpy all the time these days. “What’s wrong now? Did someone stick a nickel in the jukebox?”

  Cassie shook her head. “No, it’s about Adela. For a smart man he’s real dense. I told him he needs to just do it. Ask her to marry him and live happily ever after.”

  “And what did he say?”

  Cassie jogged down the steps and opened the door of her compact car. “Actually, he surprised me by saying he was thinking about it.” She paused before sitting down. “Of course, as slow as he thinks, it could be next year before he makes a decision. Someone needs to go in there and give him a push.”

  Pace watched her drive off then strode inside. He’d come to a decision himself concerning Sheri. He’d prayed hard about it during the week since the youth retreat. He was going to pursue Sheri Marsh whether she wanted him to or not. He’d come to realize that he had never felt the way he felt when he was around her. She brightened his day when she was near, and he thought about her all the time. He’d tried to give her some space, but it was starting to drive him crazy knowing she was within a stone’s throw from him and he couldn’t spend time with her. She was almost all he thought about. He’d given the whole issue over to the Lord, and he was trusting the Lord to show him the way. He wondered as he saw Sam busy behind the counter if Sam was trusting the Lord.

  “Hi, Sam,” he said and called out a louder greeting to Applegate and Stanley, not certain if they had their hearing aids on.

  “Afternoon, Pace,” Sam said, slapping his dish towel across his shoulder. “I hear ya had a right nice little campout for that church group out at Cort’s place.”

  “Yes, sir. It was real good.” Pace took a seat at the counter and nodded when Sam held up the coffeepot. “Sam, can I tell you something?” He glanced over toward Applegate and Stanley, but they were caught up in their game.

  Sam set Pace’s coffee on the counter and nodded. “Sure ya can. Don’t mind them two. Is somethin’ troublin’ ya?”

  “When I came to Mule Hollow a month ago, I didn’t know what to expect. You know how I loved living out in Idaho.”

  Sam snorted. “Yep, I know. Took guts to do what you did.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk about. Everybody thinks that, but I have to confess I didn’t have the guts everyone is giving me credit for. I had a backup plan all along.” He fiddled with his cup. “See, I figured that if I kept certain options open, didn’t tie myself down, if things didn’t work out I’d be free to head back up to Idaho.”

  “Nothin’ wrong with that,” Sam said, wiping down the counter.

  “Except that I’m a fraud. I had options, when everyone is patting me on the back for following God blindly into unknown territory.”

  Sam slapped the dish towel over his shoulder again and crossed his wiry arms. “I still don’t see what’s wrong with that. You took action. That’s more’n most of us can boast.”

  Pace nursed his coffee and thought about how to proceed, then just trusted the Lord. “See, Sam. What I’m trying to say is that all that’s changed now. I really enjoyed giving those kids hands-on experience with horses, and I had the opportunity to speak to a few of them about the Lord.”

  “Sounds like you might be hatching a plan for a future.”

  Pace nodded slowly. “This is where it gets tricky. It’s more than realizing I might be able to make a difference in a kid’s life. It’s about Sheri, too.”

  Sam’s expression changed. “Oh, boy.”

  Pace chuckled. “That’s exactly what I said. I fought it for the first few weeks. But I figured out this weekend that I came here looking for God’s plan for my life, and suddenly I was limiting Him.”

  “What do you mean?” Sam had started drying cups from a pan but his hands stilled.

  “It means I’m giving God total control now.”

  “And that means Sheri?”

  Pace smiled. “Yes, or at least I’m going to give it a chance.”

  Sam looked around the diner. “I’ve lived my life inside these wall
s, watching everybody else living their lives out there. Kinda partaking through them. I admire you for what yer doin’, Pace. What does Sheri say about all of this?”

  “She basically told me to get lost.”

  “That figures,” Sam snorted. “She ain’t one to mince words, and I never took her for one set on settling down.”

  “I think she doesn’t have enough faith in herself and in God. And I think I’m here to give her a hand with that.”

  Sam put both hands on the counter. “That’s a tough one. I know ’cause I hate to admit it but I’m living it myself.”

  Pace had opened up to Sam wondering if the Lord would use the conversation. Now he prayed that he’d continue to have the words Sam needed.

  “How’s that?”

  “I’ve been a bachelor all my life. I fell in love with Adela the first time I saw her. We were just kids, but her heart already belonged to Theo Ledbetter. I figure Theo was the luckiest man on earth to have had the privilege of being loved all his life by Adela and to have her as his wife.”

  “But Theo’s been dead for years.”

  “Nearly sixteen years,” Applegate yelled from the window.

  So much for his hearing aid being turned off, Pace thought. “I never understood why the two of you haven’t married.”

  “A man’s got to ask before a woman can say yes,” Stanley called and Pace decided the two men had a pretty good racket going by pretending they didn’t hear what was happening around them. They had selective hearing loss.

  “Well, that’s true enough,” Sam added, glaring at his two friends.

  “Why haven’t you asked?”

  “Might as well admit the truth, Sam,” Applegate said. “You can’t be helped until ya admit ya got a problem. Ain’t that right, Stanley?”

  “Yep—”

  “Fear,” Sam snapped, cutting Stanley off. “I’m a blamed ole coward. There. Are you two old goats satisfied?”

  Pace looked from one to the other. “But it’s obvious she loves you and more than apparent you love her.”