Promises Decide

by Sarah McCarty

  Cougar folded his arms and leaned back against the counter. “Looks like your woman’s going to give the Rev’s a run for her money in unconventionality.”

  “I’m not his woman.”

  “She’s not my woman.”

  They said it at the same time. No one looked convinced.

  From the doorway came a cheery revelation. “I saw them kiss.”

  “Go back outside, Melinda Sue.”

  “But I did.”

  The Rev grabbed four peppermint sticks and carried them to the door. “How about we have some candy while the adults talk.”

  Melinda Sue’s eyes grew big. When he went outside, she followed right behind him.

  As soon as they were out the door, Cougar observed, “I notice no one called her a liar.”

  Mimi stepped back and waved away the challenge. “What is it with men thinking a kiss is a claim?”

  “Do you go around kissing a lot of people?” Cougar asked.

  “No, I don’t, so I’ll thank you to keep that expression off your face.”

  Jackson knew from the crook of his brow that Cougar was amused. “And just how do you plan to make that happen?”

  Mimi pointed to Jackson. “Apparently, that’s his job.”

  Cougar chuckled. “I like her, Jackson.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  “It’s all wonderful that you’re happy, but what about me?” Sunny whined. She spread her skirts wide, revealing the flour stains and the tears. “My dress is ruined!”

  Mimi shot right back, fists balled, “So is mine.”

  Sunny frowned. “Mine was more expensive.”

  “Mine was more needed. What’s your point?”

  Jackson caught her hand just in case she decided to throw that punch she had brewing. “I’ve got a feeling you two could argue this all day.”

  Red wandered over to the other corner of the store where the fabric was displayed. The only corner of the store that was intact. She opened a chest and pulled out a bolt of bright red fabric. “Seems to me you’re arguing about something that’s easily fixed.”

  “Nothing’s getting fixed,” Clemit cut in, “until I get paid for all this damage.” He looked directly at Jackson.

  “I’ll cover it.”

  “Then I’ll go get the broom.” He did just that.

  The Rev came back in the building. “So now that things have settled down, do you want to introduce me to your friend, Jackson?”

  “Mimi, this is the Reverend Brad. Rev, this is Mimi Banfield.”

  The Rev tipped his hat as if the woman looking at him wasn’t just a pair of eyeballs caked in flour.

  “Nice to make your acquaintance.” He held out his hand.

  Mimi reluctantly gave him hers.

  The Rev looked around the destroyed store. “Now that tempers have calmed, what will it take to get you fine ladies out of the mercantile before Clemit bursts a blood vessel?”

  Mimi’s jaw set. “I need Sunny’s measurements.”

  “I told you—”

  Mimi threw up her hands. Flour flew everywhere. Jackson sneezed. Cougar laughed and the Rev stepped clear of the dust.

  “What is wrong with you? Why can’t you understand it doesn’t matter what your measurements are? When I’m done creating your lingerie, you’re going to look gorgeous and nobody’s going to be able to take their eyes off you, so what do you care what the numbers say? All you need to anticipate is the magic I’m going to create with the beauty that you have.”

  “I suppose . . .”

  “Goddess, remember?”

  While Mimi glared at Sunny, Cougar looked at Jackson. Jackson looked at the Rev. They all looked at Mimi, but Red was the one to sum it up.

  “And that, gentlemen, is a woman who can turn this town on its ear.”

  Ten

  It hadn’t been her plan to meet anyone in Cattle Crossing with a swollen eye, a torn dress, and caked in so much flour that she poofed with every step. It certainly hadn’t been her plan to meet some of Jackson’s closest friends in such a state. And it was absolutely the thing of nightmares to be sitting naked in a bathtub filled with fragrant bubbles in the upstairs of Clint McKinnley’s comfortable house while those friends’ wives sat around pelting her with questions.

  But she was, and it was all Jackson’s fault that she was now subjected to a very enthusiastic, well-meaning inquisition. If he’d just been satisfied with the wagon available in Rivers Bend, she wouldn’t be sitting here right now wishing a hole would open in the floor and swallow her up.

  “So Jackson just wandered up to your house one day and saved you from a well full of snakes?”

  She thought the speaker was Mara, Cougar’s wife. It was hard to imagine this petite, vivacious woman with brown eyes, cinnamon red hair, and delicate frame with the ferocious-looking Cougar, but there was no doubt that she was adored by her big husband. And that she adored him back. It did, however, boggle the mind. And not because Mimi didn’t really believe in love. But because she couldn’t imagine a love that big.

  “Yes.”

  Mara sighed and put her hand on her very pregnant stomach. “That’s so romantic.”

  Mimi discreetly piled bubbles up around her chest. “Actually, it was completely terrifying.”

  “I’m sorry, that was insensitive. Pregnancy makes me emotional. Were you hurt?”

  “My arm and my pride took a heck of a beating. Jackson took the worst of it. If that snake had gotten all its fangs into him instead of a glancing bite, he’d be dead.”

  “But it didn’t and now you’re here. Together.”

  It did sound romantic when Mara said it that way.

  “Busting up the local mercantile,” Evie, the Rev’s wife, added dryly.

  Mimi groaned. “I might never live that down.”

  “Live it down?” Mara gasped. “Heck, I’m hoping you’ll top it.”

  The door opened, and a tall, statuesque, blond woman limped into the room. Mimi smiled. There was something inherently welcoming about Jenna McKinnley. She just radiated kindness. The complete opposite of Evie. Whereas Jenna was sweet and calm, Evie was all quick wit, optimism, and restless perception. Mimi could see how she fit so well with the Rev. Just as she could see why Clint would love Jenna.

  Setting the tray of tea down on the table, Jenna shook her head at Mara. “I thought we agreed to ease into these conversations. You’re going to scare Mimi away before we have a chance to convince her that Jackson’s worth her time.”

  They were matchmaking?

  “She’d be easier to convince if the man didn’t insist on sporting all that curly hair,” Mara grumbled.

  Jenna smoothed her hand over her neatly coiled hair. “I would love to have his hair. Mine’s as straight as a stick.”

  Pouring tea into the four cups, she handed one to Mara.

  Mara rolled her eyes. “That’s the problem. It looks like it belongs on a woman.”

  “Oh, please,” Evie interjected as Jenna set a cup in front of her. “No amount of hair could disguise that man’s masculinity.”

  For some reason, Mimi felt compelled to defend Jackson. “His hair suits him.”

  Evie clapped her hands. “Oh, good. Someone on my side!”

  Mimi blinked. “We have sides?”

  “We certainly do.” Taking the tongs from the tray, Evie added a sugar cube to her tea. “I’ve been trying to convince that man to sit for a portrait forever, but every time I broach the subject, he threatens to see the barber.”

  “Why can’t you paint him with short hair?”

  Evie was shaking her head before she finished the question. “That won’t work at all. I want to capture that whole dichotomy of beautiful wavy hair and utter masculinity. It’s very unique.”

  Yes, it was, and so was he, but being u
nique didn’t obligate him to sit for a portrait. “But Jackson doesn’t want his portrait done.”

  “Evie doesn’t accept that,” Mara explained.

  “That’s because it’s ridiculous.” Evie set her cup and saucer smartly on the table. “His portrait would be fabulous.”

  Jenna hid a smile and placed her cup on the small table, too. “Evie doesn’t understand that not everyone wants to be immortalized.”

  Evie huffed. “I repeat. Because that’s ridiculous.”

  “Is it time to change the subject yet?” Mara asked, scooting back in her chair, trying to get comfortable. With a grunt, she leaned back and propped her cup on her belly.

  Jenna pulled the wooden tray over. In the middle sat a cloth-covered plate. “Absolutely.”

  “So, Mimi, what was your first thought when you saw Jackson in that well?”

  “Mara,” Jenna chided. “Mimi might not want to discuss her relationship with Jackson.”

  “She doesn’t have to answer if she doesn’t want to.”

  “Mara’s got a point,” Evie countered. “So, do you feel like sharing, Mimi?”

  Surprisingly, she did.

  “When Jackson came down into that well and lit that match, I thought for a second that God had sent one of his archangels to my rescue. But then . . .” She sighed dramatically. “Jackson opened his mouth.”

  Evie snorted and grabbed a napkin. Mara and Jenna laughed right along with her.

  When she caught her breath, Jenna wiped her mouth. “That was a good one.”

  “Speaking of good . . .” Evie peeked under the napkin on the tray.

  “What?” Mara asked, struggling to get out of her chair. “What else did she bring?”

  “Hush.” Still smiling, Jenna waved them quiet. “I baked a cake today, but if you don’t lower your voice, Clint will be up here and we’ll have to fight for that cake.”

  Everyone clustered around the tray. All except Mimi. She was trapped amidst her rapidly disappearing bubbles in the slippery tub.

  “There’s cake?” It’d been years since she’d had cake. “What kind?”

  Mara listed to the side and stretched for the napkin. With the tip of her finger she managed to get a peek. “It’s her mocha walnut chocolate torte.”

  A collective moan went around the room.

  “But there’s only one piece.”

  Another moan followed the first. But this one was of disappointment.

  Jenna shrugged. “Clint and Cougar got into the kitchen when I was putting Bri down for her nap. It’s a big piece, though.” Mara stretched a little farther, clearly angling for a taste. Jenna slapped her hand. “And it’s for Mimi.”

  Mara eyed Mimi assessingly. “You wouldn’t want to deprive a pregnant woman of cake, would you?”

  Such generosity would likely gain her a place with these women, and Mimi might’ve considered it, but just then Jenna lifted the napkin off the cake and she had a glimpse of the prize she’d be surrendering. The thick slice that sat on that pure white plate sported not one but four glorious layers of chocolate decadence.

  “Not a prayer.”

  Mara’s beautiful brown eyes creased at the corners with laughter before she attempted the most pathetically sad expression in human history. “But I’m pregnant. The deprivation could send me into premature labor.”

  “I’ll chance it.”

  Evie harrumphed. “You’ve been moaning for a week that you’re overdue and ready to burst. As a matter of fact, rumor has it that you were considering seducing your husband just to bring on labor.”

  Mara didn’t look at all guilty. “Seducing a man is only a sin if one isn’t married.”

  “True, but I’m pretty sure trying to talk Mimi out of that piece of cake is.”

  Mara switched tactics. “Would you take a bribe?”

  “No.”

  “Well, darn.”

  Jenna picked up the big kettle off the fire and limped to the foot of the tub to add more water. Mimi immediately felt guilty. Even though Jenna had explained the limp was from an old injury, she still felt uncomfortable. Jenna waved away her concern.

  “If it makes you all feel better, imagine how much Clint is going to moan when he finds that slice missing. Word is, he’s been hiding the cake from Gray. Piece by piece, though, it’s been disappearing.”

  “And now it’s gone.” Evie chortled.

  The ladies chuckled.

  Warmth swirled around Mimi’s toes. It was heavenly. She’d never been so pampered. And despite her nervousness, she’d never been so amused. She’d also never been so uncomfortable. Friends weren’t something that she’d been encouraged to have growing up. This kind of camaraderie was new. And scary. And tempting. Why did everything forbidden always have to be so tempting?

  Jenna huffed. “It’s the competition they enjoy.” She brought the slice over and handed it to Mimi along with a fork. “Don’t take any of us too seriously, Mimi. We’re just very happy that Jackson’s finally found someone.”

  Steam swirled as Mimi reached for the plate. The scent of chocolate wafted up to tease her senses. Saliva flooded her mouth and her stomach rumbled. Any hope she had that no one would notice died with Mara’s next comment. “Don’t worry, we all react that way to Jenna’s cooking. She has a restaurant in town and is becoming quite famous for her baked goods.”

  It was Jenna’s turn to blush. “It’s nothing.”

  Mimi took the first bite. She might not have had cake for years, but her taste buds remembered what it was supposed to taste like, and this far surpassed the most fantastic of memories. As all that buttery frosting and chocolate melted on her tongue in a perfect symphony of flavor, she had to disagree. “This is fabulous.”

  “Worth being the center of gossip in Cattle Crossing for the next few months?” Mara asked hopefully. “Pregnancy has so stunted my fun.”

  “Oh, yes.”

  Jenna limped back to her chair. As she sat down, she asked, “Did you really brawl with a prostitute?”

  “I was merely getting her measurements.”

  “For what?” Mara asked. “A casket?”

  The cake was wonderful. The laughter even more so.

  “I’m a seamstress.”

  “Who deals in black eyes,” Evie boasted. “I heard Sunny won’t be able to work for at least a week.”

  Mara grinned. “I’m really going to like you.”

  “At last, someone who’ll be more notorious than me,” Evie added.

  “And me,” Mara interjected.

  “And me,” Jenna echoed before going on to say, “Which is just another sign.”

  Their assumption that she and Jackson were a couple made Mimi feel like a fraud. “There’s nothing between Jackson and me.”

  Jenna raised her eyebrows. “Melinda Sue says you’ve kissed.”

  Melinda Sue had a big mouth. “Do all of you marry the men you kiss?”

  Everyone but Jenna said “no,” which had everyone in turn looking inquiringly at her. Jenna immediately blushed and rubbed her thigh. As Mimi was beginning to notice, being the center of attention made Jenna uncomfortable.

  Everyone spoke at once.

  “Are you saying your first husband never kissed you?”

  “Clint’s the only man you’ve ever kissed?”

  “Oh, Jenna.” Mara waddled over and hugged her. “I’m so sorry.”

  Jenna was clearly having none of it. “Why are you sorry?” she asked serenely. “It thrills me to the soles of my feet that I can give my husband that. I adore that man.”

  “Does he adore you?” The question just popped out. Not that a woman loving a man was an unusual thing in Mimi’s world, but a man loving a woman back to the point she melted at the thought of him—Mimi had never seen anything close to it.

  Jenna’s smile
was a breath-catching combination of confidence and bliss. “With every breath he takes.”

  She wanted to be loved like that, Mimi realized. She wanted to smile like that. To know from the top of her head to the soles of her feet that she was adored. For who she was, as she was, because only that kind of love could put that expression on a woman’s face. “I’m glad.”

  “Damn it.” Mara dabbed at her eyes. “Now I’m going to cry again. I swear, if this baby doesn’t come soon, I’m going to be a mental disaster.”

  “What does Doc say about the delivery?” Evie asked.

  “What does Doc know?”

  “Apparently a heck of a lot more than you’re sharing.”

  Mara cupped her belly protectively. “I’m going to be fine and so is the baby.” She glared at all three women. “And if any of you say one word to Cougar that hints the opposite, I’m going to shoot holes in all your drawers every time you hang them on the line.”

  The next bite of cake caught in Mimi’s throat on a choke of laughter. She could picture that.

  “Now, Mara. You know we’re just concerned. You had such a rough time before—”

  The atmosphere changed. Humor fled to be replaced by concern. Mara held up her hand.

  “Please, don’t say it. You’ll jinx me and I refuse to be jinxed.” Mara rubbed her belly. “I will give Cougar a child this time.”

  Jenna squeezed her hand. “Don’t do this to yourself. Don’t make it all-or-nothing in your head. All Cougar wants is you.”

  Mara shook her head. “Every man wants a son.”

  “Your man wants you.”

  Mara bit her lip as her face crumpled. Turning into Jenna’s shoulder, she whispered, “But I want his child.”

  The pain contained in that utterance filled the room, bonding them together in an instant of common struggle. Mimi’s heart wrenched.

  “Oh, Mara,” Jenna whispered.

  Mimi turned her face away. She shouldn’t be here. Be part of this. It wasn’t her place. Passing Evie the cake, grabbing the jar of shampoo, Mimi sank down. Submerging under the water provided her with at least an illusion of distance. Above her their voices rumbled, carrying on the conversation with that intimate camaraderie that lured even as it intimidated. She didn’t know how to belong here. Anywhere. She was the outsider. The one who watched from afar and wove daydreams of how it could be. She was never the center of attention. At least not the happy kind.