“I don’t want ya here,” Paxton bellowed, glaring at her from his seat in the creek.
“Fine,” Rivers retorted, stomping toward the house.
“Oh, no, Rivers! You have to stay!” Jolee exclaimed.
Rivers turned, completely baffled as the attractive man sitting in the creek began to laugh.
“She’s a pistol, Jo…I’ll say that for her,” he said. Then he looked to Rivers. “Ain’t a man in this state would dare pull me in the creek, girl! Or dump a cup of milk in my lap, for that matter. I’m sorry if my teasin’ offended ya. You can learn to ignore me, can’t ya?” he asked. “For Jolee’s sake, at least?”
Rivers wiped the tears from her cheeks with the sleeve of her drenched flannels.
“Come on now,” he said, extending a hand toward her. “Give me a hand up, and we’ll be friends.”
Rivers walked back to him. He took her hand as she extended it in an act of truce. But instead of standing to join her, he yanked hard on her arm, causing her to fall forward into the water again. She silently scolded herself for being so utterly gullible.
Paxton stood up chuckling. “Nobody gets the best of me, girl.” And he strode away toward the house.
“Ya see, Rivers,” Jolee said as they walked back to the house together. “He’s not so bad.”
“He threw me in the creek!” Rivers exclaimed in dismay.
“Well, just be glad he’s taken to ya. It could’ve been worse.”
“Taken to me? You call that taking to me?”
Jolee laughed. “Oh my, yes, Rivers. If you’d been a man, he woulda just broke your nose for dumpin’ that milk on him.”
“Don’t be scared of her, Paxton,” Jolee ventured as she approached her brother in the field later that afternoon.
Paxton hammered fiercely on a nail to hold the barbed wire to the fence post. “What are ya talkin’ about, Jo?” he grumbled, though he knew all too well what was coming.
“She’s very pretty,” Jolee stated.
“That’s a matter of opinion.”
“You like her,” she said, grinning at him.
Paxton took a deep breath and turned to face his sister. He felt sorry for her. She tried so hard for his sake.
“Jolee, let it lie. I ain’t fallin’ into any more traps…ever again. I’m fine as I am. I don’t need you tryin’ to…” he began.
“But she’s different, Paxton. I can see you fightin’ it,” Jolee interrupted.
Paxton chuckled and began hammering once more as he shook his head. “I ain’t fightin’ nothin’, Jo. ’Cept maybe gettin’ milk poured in my lap again.”
“Oh, you’re as stubborn as an old mule, Paxton Gray. You’re usin’ Ruby as an excuse, and ya know it,” Jolee grumbled.
“Ruby ain’t got nothin’ to do with this. That girl in there is trouble, Jo,” he said, raising the hammer and pointing it in the direction of the house. “Trouble, and then some. I can see it.”
“Yes. I’m sure ya can, brother,” Jolee smiled and turned away. “I’ll just bide my time. We’ll see, won’t we?”
When she’d gone, Paxton stopped his hammering again. He rested his arms on the fence post and looked out across the field.
“Ruby,” he said as his eyes narrowed in remembering. He’d sworn to himself she would be the only woman ever to cause him grief. He’d known for several years no one could ever convince him to trust a woman again—with the exception of his sister. He had sincerely thought for a time that he loved Ruby. The consequences of having been wrong were massive, and now he felt a sort of fear rising within him.
This girl—this beautiful brown-eyed girl who had come into their lives. He’d had an instantaneous attraction to her when he’d seen her lying asleep in the barn. What man wouldn’t have? But it was so much more than that. He actually liked her. Or at least he liked something about her. He liked the way she’d poured that milk in his lap. He liked the way she’d looked at him just before she pulled him into the creek.
Nope. Not her. She was trouble and more. Determinedly shaking his head, he resumed the hammering.
“Let’s go out on the front porch for awhile, Rivers,” Jolee suggested as the men sat down at the kitchen table for a game of cards.
Rivers was more than happy to oblige. She had felt so uncomfortable meeting Paxton and Jolee’s friends. They all looked so bewildered when she was introduced, and she knew there was no doubt they would question Paxton about her being there. Furthermore, she knew he would tell them the entire story—how she had shown up on their doorstep dressed up like a boy—how he had thrown her in the tub, found her in the barn and tied her up, carried her in the house, and so forth.
“Ya look so pretty in my dress!” Jolee exclaimed as the porch swing began to rock to and fro. “I don’t think I ever want to wear it again. You just look so perfect in it.”
“You are very sweet, Jolee—very skilled with flattery,” Rivers recognized, smiling and smoothing the pink and white gingham over her lap. “But I do thank you for lending me something to wear after my swim this morning.”
Jolee laughed. “Ya got Pax’s attention at breakfast, I’ll tell ya that for sure!”
“He’s…a different sort of man,” Rivers remarked.
“My brother? Oh, yes! Different…that’s a nice way of puttin’ it. Oh, just ’cause I’m his sister doesn’t mean I don’t know how handsome he is. All women do. But he’s a handful all right. I know how to deal with him ’cause I’ve grown up with him. But he can be a real pickle.”
“I’m can see that,” Rivers said, unable to keep from smiling.
“Now, me…I’m sweet on Weston Warner. You met him tonight. The one that’s near as tall as Pax.”
Rivers peered through the window and into the kitchen. She had noticed the way Jolee looked at that one. Weston Warner was a handsome man. Though lacking the unusually magnetic look of Paxton, he was also dark-haired. He had brown eyes and seemed a nice fellow.
“So…he’s your beau?” Rivers commented.
Jolee laughed. “Weston? Darlin’, Weston Warner doesn’t know I’m alive! I’m Paxton’s little sister, and that’s all I’ve ever been to him.”
Rivers looked at Jolee in disbelief. “You’re teasing me.”
Jolee shook her head. “Nope. I just don’t catch his eye. Oh, believe me, I’ve tried. But I guess I’m just not what he’s lookin’ for.”
“Is that why you’re not married yet? Because you’ve liked him for so long?”
Jolee hesitated. “You’re as sharp as my best kitchen knife, Rivers Brighton. Yes, that’s why. I can’t get that man out of my heart and mind long enough to consider anybody else.”
Rivers was silent for a moment. She listened to the creaking of the swing as it moved back and forth, to and fro. Then she asked, “Is that why Paxton isn’t married too? Some girl has had his attention for too long?”
Jolee looked at Rivers. Her eyes were serious and her mouth showed no trace of the smile that was ever present there.
“In a manner of speakin’,” Jolee answered. Her mind was awhirl. Should she answer the girl’s question with complete and unbridled honesty? Should she relate the story to her? Paxton would have a fit if he ever found out she’d told Rivers. Jolee knew that for certain. With a deep breath she made her choice.
“Ruby Catherine Dupree. That’s her name.”
Rivers sensed an odd twitching begin in her stomach at Jolee’s revelation.
Jolee continued, “She was very lovely. All the men and boys ’round here admired her. But, as so often goes, the two most beautiful people in the county found each other. Paxton thought he was plum gone on Ruby, and she worshipped the ground he walked on. Everyone talked about what beautiful children they would have. She had the lightest blue eyes I had ever seen and pure butter-blonde hair.”
Jolee stopped for a moment. Rivers peered through the window once again, this time at Paxton. He was smiling and talking to his fr
iends, completely unaware of the conversation going on out on the front porch.
“Did she die?” Rivers asked. After all, Jolee had spoken of her in the past tense.
“No. They were engaged to be married, Paxton and Ruby. And then one mornin’…’bout two weeks before the wedding…she was gone. Her family moved away in the middle of the night. No one heard from them. Paxton knows, though. I’m sure Paxton knows why they left.”
“And he never heard from her again?”
“Nope. Not that I know of.”
A chill traveled through Rivers’s body, and she shivered involuntarily. There was something unspoken in Jolee’s story. Something ominous and unpleasant.
“It’s getting chilly out. Let’s go in and go to bed, what do ya say?” Jolee suggested.
Rivers nodded, although she hated the idea of having to walk past the men. No doubt by now they all knew her story.
As the women entered, all the men stood up, and Paxton said, “You ain’t turnin’ in already, are ya, Jo?”
“Some of us enjoy a good night’s rest. Especially before the Sabbath,” Jolee teased.
“It sure was nice meetin’ you, Miss Brighton,” one of the men said, smiling at Rivers.
She nodded and tried to force a friendly smile.
“Yes. We’re glad to hear you’ve come to visit Jolee and help her with this mean ol’ cuss,” Weston Warner added.
Rivers looked to Paxton. He knew she was looking at him but did not return her gaze.
Instead he said, “I told the boys how plum tickled Jo was when ya wrote and said ya were comin’ for a long visit.” Then his eyes did meet hers and he added, “And how glad we are to have ya here.” The intense blue in his eyes caused Rivers’s heart to leap.
She looked away quickly, unable to meet the piercing stare.
“Did my dear brother mention my friend Rivers don’t much put up with his vinegar? She poured a cup of milk in his lap at breakfast this mornin’ and half drowned him in the creek to boot!” Jolee teased.
“Now, dang it all Jo! Don’t go tellin’ the boys things like that,” Paxton pled as he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment in a humiliated grimace. “She’s exaggeratin’, boys. Don’t listen to little sis,” Paxton chuckled, turning back to study the cards in his hand.
“Well, good night, boys. You all be good now,” Jolee called over her shoulder as she walked toward her room.
Rivers followed, catching wisps of the conversation behind them.
“She’s a quiet one,” someone said.
“Oh, don’t let her fool ya, boys. She’s tough as an old cowhide,” Paxton answered.
That night, Rivers dreamt of trains—of fast, rushing air and the smell of boxcars. Of rain and storms frocked with thunder, lightning, and the sounds trains make as they travel over wet tracks. Ever present in those dreams, however, like a ghostly visitor watching her, was the disturbing and handsome figure of Paxton Gray.
Ruby would never have pulled him in the creek, Paxton thought as he lay in bed after a long night of cards with the boys. Ruby was frail and beautiful and knew her manners. He closed his eyes and tried to envision her. But that danged girl kept coming into his mind instead. He had sworn to himself he had learned his life’s lesson at the hand of Ruby Dupree. He had done what he knew to be right and look how it had turned out. Nope. No female would have a chance to blame Paxton Gray for heartbreak again.
Still, Rivers had looked as delicious as fresh cherry pie when she came walking out of Jolee’s room in that dress, her hair braided after cleaning up from her dip in the creek that morning. For the first time in his life, Paxton felt his mouth literally begin to water at the sight of a girl. As pretty as Ruby was, his mouth had never watered when he’d looked at her. He told himself it was because he had missed a good breakfast, that’s all. Didn’t his morning milk end up in his lap?
He couldn’t help chuckling to himself at the thought of that girl pouring milk in his lap. He liked her for it! She wasn’t gonna let anybody treat her badly—something to be admired in a person. He turned over and was soon sound asleep.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Wash the beans, stem the beans, snap the beans. Shell the peas, wash the peas. Does it ever end?” Rivers asked Jolee as they each collapsed into a kitchen chair.
“Oh, eventually,” Jolee sighed. “But it’s a pretty sight, isn’t it? Rows and rows of jars bottled up with vegetables for the winter months.”
Rivers nodded. They were lovely. She felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment at the sight of the preserved food. She had helped Jolee cut her bean and pea putting-up time in half, at least. Besides, she and Jolee had become good friends over the past few weeks. Rivers no longer felt like an intruder at the Gray farm. She knew Jolee wanted her there, even if Paxton was averse to it. And she had a plan—a bit of mischief swarming around in her mind where Jolee and Weston Warner were concerned. She had watched Jolee when Weston was around, and she knew that, although her friend talked lightly of her attraction for the man, Jolee was deeply in love with him. Rivers had stayed on at the Gray farm for one reason alone—to repay Jolee’s kindness to her.
Yet that reason for staying, she whispered to herself, was a lie, and deep within her she knew it. Certainly she wanted to see Jolee happy. But the truth was Rivers was finding it increasingly difficult to think of leaving Paxton, even though she knew he held her in no great esteem whatsoever. He was addictive somehow. She found herself waking up in the morning drenched in a sort of desperation—a need to see him as soon as she could. She thought of him almost constantly, thrilled at the simplest touch or attention from him. Her fascination with Paxton Gray was dangerous, and she knew it. Yet she couldn’t help it! She couldn’t give the sight of him up! In truth, Paxton was the thing keeping Rivers from running to the tracks and hopping a train to escape the odd aching in her heart, the longing to be of value to him.
Thus Rivers had settled into a happy routine of farm life. Through Jolee, she felt at home, welcome, and not the least bit indebted. She knew Jolee enjoyed having her there, whether or not Paxton did. Most of the time, Paxton simply seemed indifferent to Rivers’s presence at the farm—seemed no more interested in her than he did the sacks of potatoes in the root cellar.
As Rivers sat reflecting on the past weeks, she and Jolee both startled at a knock on the front door.
“Let me see who it is, Jo,” Rivers said, rising and walking through the parlor. “You just sit there and rest.”
“Hey there, Rivers,” Weston Warner greeted as Rivers opened the door.
“Hello, Weston. What brings you out this way?” Rivers asked as she stepped aside to let him enter.
“I’m lookin’ for Pax. He around?” Weston asked.
“Jo…it’s Weston,” Rivers said. She smiled as Jolee appeared a moment later, a scarlet blush of delight warming her cheeks.
“I’m lookin’ for Pax, Jo,” Weston said, removing his hat and smiling at Jolee. “Seen him ’round anywhere?”
Jolee walked over to them, and Rivers could see her friend was all too aware of her peas-stained apron and the strand of hair escaping from her braid.
“Um…” Jolee stammered, trying to tuck the strand of loose hair behind her ear, “I think he’s in the barn fixin’ one of the stalls.”
Rivers smiled at the amused grin spreading across Weston’s face as he looked Jolee up and down.
“Been cannin’ this mornin’, Jo?” he asked.
“Beans and peas,” Jolee answered.
It never ceased to amaze Rivers how tongue-tied Jolee became when Weston entered a room.
“You all will have to invite me for supper some time and let a neighbor sample ’em for ya,” Weston coaxed.
Rivers quickly looked to Jolee, but the girl only stood smiling. She couldn’t believe it! Jolee didn’t seem to notice the insinuation Weston was hurling at her.
“Tonight would be a good night, wouldn’t it, Jo? You come on over for supper to
night, Weston. We’ve just taken a couple of cherry pies out of the oven,” Rivers said, winking at her friend.
“Oh! Oh, yes! Tonight. Tonight would be a good night, Weston. For you to come to supper, I mean,” Jolee stammered.
“Well now, that’s just fine. But a man practically has to invite himself.” Weston smiled and asked, “Now, ya say Pax’s out in the barn?”
Jolee nodded.
“All right then. I guess I’ll be by about…” Weston coaxed again, motioning with one hand for Jolee to finish his sentence.
“Oh! Um…Five. Five should be about right,” Jolee stammered.
“Well, you ladies have a nice day now,” Weston offered, tipping his hat to Jolee and then Rivers.
“You too,” Jolee called as he sauntered across the front porch.
When Weston was well out of earshot, Rivers exclaimed, “Jolee Gray! I swear you’re as dumb as an ox when he’s around! He’s gonna think you’re not interested.”
Jolee rubbed her forehead with one hand. “He just makes me so nervous, Rivers! I can’t help it. Did ya see the way he was lookin’ at me? I know he just thought I was the plainest thing on earth. I mean, look at me. All covered in preservin’ mess, hair flyin’ every which way…”
Sudden Storms Page 3
