The Farmer's Wife

by Lori Handeland

  John lifted a brow at his daughter. “Mice are pretty hard to ferret out in the dead of winter.”

  Kim snorted. “Tell it to the great mouse detective. That’s the third one this week she’s dropped at my feet.” She swished her broom. “But I showed ‘em.”

  “I wish your mother had never taught you how to get rid of mice. You’re a menace.”

  “But only to mice.” She gave him a kiss, then waved at her mother, who waited in the truck.

  “Are you ready?” he asked

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  She reached back into the house, lost the broom to grab a small overnight bag, then gathered her dress over one arm. Beneath the ivory silk and satin, she had on clodhopper farm boots.

  John shook his head. “What happened to the little girl who wore high-heeled fancy shoes?”

  Kim jiggled the bag. “Wait until you see what I’ve got in here.”

  The drive to the church was filled with chatter. Things certainly had changed. His wife and his daughter were now closer than any of them could ever have imagined. Kim came to Ellie for advice; Ellie went to Kim to talk. They were pals, and while John missed the connection that he and his girl had shared, he had to admit that it had been time for his wife and daughter to work things out.

  A lot of problems had been worked out over the past several weeks, and some needed more time. His relationship with his sons, for one thing, was still not all he wished for it to be. But he was trying.

  John parked his truck at the back of the church. Though the wedding was family and close friends only, the tiny parking lot was nearly full. They were the last ones to arrive.

  Inside, Kim kicked off her boots and pulled from her bag the tallest, fanciest shoes John had ever seen. She grinned as she slipped on the crystal-clear pumps; their five-inch heels appeared made of gold.

  “I had to order these from New York and they nearly cost as much as a prize bull.” She winked. “But some things are worth it.”

  And some things never changed. Though Kim might live on a farm and be marrying a farmer, she would never be a true farmwife, just as Ba would never be a true black sheep and Precious would never be a true mouser. But it didn’t matter, as long as everyone was happy.

  John smiled and patted the breast pocket of his rented black tux. The cigarette was there, and he felt better just knowing that.

  He scratched his arm. The patch was there, too. He’d finally given up and given in, agreeing to wear the patch if he could keep one cigarette in his pocket, just in case.

  Ellie’s eyes met his. She smiled, winked and scratched the place where her own patch lay. She’d gotten sick of taking the pills and opted for a long- lasting patch. Which made Ellie and him two of a kind these days.

  With all the upheaval, they hadn’t made it to Tahiti yet. He was still spending his days, and his nights, convincing Ellie she was needed, wanted and loved. He planned on devoting the rest of his life to that task.

  Music began in the sanctuary. Kim caught her breath.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Better than okay.” She picked up her bouquet of miniature pink roses. “I love him. Always have, always will.”

  She put her face to the flowers, inhaled the fragrance, and a whisper of sadness passed over her face. John and Ellie exchanged glances.

  Brian and Kim had sat every available family member down and told them of the daughter they’d lost. After taking care of a few legalities, they’d held a memorial service at the gravesite in Wisconsin. From that day forward, Kim and Brian had changed. They’d looked ahead and not behind; they’d planned for a future and they were making it happen. John was proud of them both.

  With Kim between them, John and Ellie started down the aisle. The sanctuary was decorated for Christmas. Holly and ivy were strung from the rafters and the pews, poinsettias graced the dais and a huge tree covered with glass ornaments filled one corner. John understood why Kim had insisted on a Christmas Eve wedding. New life, hope is born, the world starts over again.

  The only friends missing were Kim’s friend Livy and her family. But Livy’s doctor had nixed the trip at the last minute. Nothing serious, but better safe than sorry.

  All the Luchetti brothers save Bobby were in attendance. Everyone was a bit worried at the inability to get in touch with him, but at least Colin had made it home—just in time, as usual.

  Dean stood next to Brian, serving as his best man. All seemed to be forgiven between them now. In fact, Dean’s defense of Kim had started the two of them on the road, if not to friendship, at least to tolerance. Anything was better than the way it had been.

  Brian stood straight, strong and tall in his black suit. His gaze never left Kim during her walk down the aisle. He looked at her as if his world lay in her eyes. John glanced at Kim. She looked at Brian in exactly the same way.

  He and Ellie handed their daughter into Brian Riley’s care, then they took their seats in the front pew.

  “You think they’ll be all right?” Ellie whispered, her eyes moist with tears as she watched their baby take her vows.

  “Knock-knock,” John answered.

  “Not now.”

  “Knock-knock,” he repeated.

  “Oh, fine. Who’s there?”

  “Ellie.”

  “Ellie, who?” she asked warily. “And so help me if you say phant I will kick you right here before God and everyone.”

  He shook his head and returned his attention to his daughter just as Kim gazed into Brian’s face and smiled with utter joy.

  “Ellie need is love,” John murmured.

  The reception was held in the basement room at the Edge of Town. Most of the county came. The neighbors were nosy; there was no help for that.

  Kim would get used to it. She had to. She planned on living here for the next fifty years—give or take. While the thought would have once made her run screaming from the room, the town, the state, now it gave her a measure of peace. The farm that had once reminded her only of the past now represented a whole new future.

  Her father selected the music for the first dance, then saluted Kim with a wink. As the strains of “Love Is All You Need” filtered through the smoky, noisy interior, Kim leaned her head against Brian’s chest and thought that John and Paul had known what they were talking about. But then, that had never really been in doubt.

  The last several weeks had been both the most challenging and the happiest of her life. She still sucked at being a farmwife, but with the help of her mother and a renewed friendship with Becky Jo, she was managing. And, as Brian had pointed out, he’d done just fine without a farmwife for a whole lot of years, why rock the boat now? To be honest, he made a better one than Kim ever could.

  She’d sold Livy her half of the law firm. Since her friend was married to a future millionaire—Garrett’ s next book, according to his agent, was going to hit the New York Times Best-Seller List and stay there for so many weeks they’d lose count—Livy could afford it.

  “When does school start?” Brian murmured.

  “Three weeks.”

  Kim had decided, at Brian’s urging, to take the money from Livy and go back to school. Gainsville wasn’t short on bars or doctors, but it was definitely slim on lawyers.

  “That’ll give us plenty of time for the honeymoon.”

  “Honeymoon? We can’t leave the farm. The cows will explode. My chickens will stop laying. Who will take care of Ba and Precious? There’ll be mice all over the house and—”

  He stopped her tirade with a kiss. The crowd whooped.

  They’d decided to wait until they were married before they slept together again. Even if that was closing the barn door after the cows were gone—

  Kim smiled. She seemed to be making quite a few allusions to the barnyard these days.

  Well, whatever. As a result of their agreement, every time Brian looked at her, touched her or kissed her, she wanted to crawl all over him and rip his clothes off.

  He lifted
his head. He was breathing as heavily as she. “The honeymoon I had planned involved staying at home in bed for as long as we could manage.”

  “Works for me.” She yanked his mouth back to hers.

  Later that night, as Brian made love to her for the first time as husband and wife, the last of the emptiness inside Kim dissolved. As he lay with his head on her shoulder, she twined her fingers in the tight curls of his hair the way she always used to.

  She felt healed as well as whole, and it was because of Brian, because of love. He’d given her such a beautiful gift—love no matter what. She wanted to give him something wonderful, too.

  “But I’m still afraid,” she whispered.

  He shifted and pulled her into his arms instead of the other way around. “Of what?”

  “What if—”

  He put his fingers to her lips, stifling the words.

  “What if she’s perfect? What if she’s beautiful?” He kissed her nose. “What if he’s strong, tall and brilliant? What if you never take a chance and never find out what could be?”

  He was right. She had to take a chance. She had to face her fears. She had to find her courage.

  Kim took a deep breath, picked up the box of condoms from the bedside table and tossed it into the trash. “No guts, no glory?” she asked.

  “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

  Nine months later.

  From the announcement page of the Gainsville Gazette:

  Brian and Kim Riley are proud to announce the birth of their daughter.

  Glory.

  About the author:

  Lori Handeland is a Waldenbooks, Bookscan, USA Today and New York Times best-selling author, as well as a two-time recipient of the Romance Writers of America’s RITA award.

  Read more about the Luchettis in The Luchetti Brothers,a five book series.

  The Daddy Quest (Aaron)

  The Brother Quest (Colin)

  The Husband Quest (Evan)

  A Soldier's Quest (Bobby)

  The Mommy Quest (Dean)

  For more information on Lori or her books, please go to:

  http://www.lorihandeland.com

  Lori also writes under the name Lori Austin. Please scroll for an excerpt of the first book in the Once Upon a Time in the West series, BEAUTY AND THE BOUNTY HUNTER,

  Available Now

  followed by an excerpt from the second book,

  AN OUTLAW IN WONDERLAND.

  Coming Summer 2013

  BEAUTY AND THE BOUNTY HUNTER

  Lori Austin

  Alexi cursed. French? Spanish? Italian? Cat wasn't certain, but whatever language, the words, the tone, the cadence were both beautiful and brutal. Kind of like Alexi himself.

  She brushed her fingertips across his face. "Why did you let him hurt you?"

  "Sometimes," he said, "the hurt just happens."

  She narrowed her eyes. She didn't think he was talking about Langston anymore.

  Cat paced in front of the window. The urge to peer from it again was nearly overwhelming. What was out there that was bothering her? If there was a rifle, and considering the prickling of her skin, there might be, she should stay away from the window.

  She sat. First on the bed. Then on the chair. Then on the bed again. Alexi ignored her, seemingly captivated with the cards.

  Cat went to the door, put her hand on the knob. Alexi "tsked," and she turned away. Her gaze went again to the window, and from this angle, with the horizon framed like a picture, she saw what was wrong. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed it before, but she'd been Meg, and Meg wouldn't recognize that vista. Only Cathleen would.

  She had not been back to the farm since she had left it nearly two years ago. It only took Cat an instant to decide that she was going back now. Or at least as soon as she could get away from Alexi.

  "Deal," she said. Alexi glanced up, expression curious, hands still shuffling, shuffling, shuffling ."If we have to stay in here, we can at least make it interesting."

  His lips curved. "Faro?"

  Cat took a chair at the table. "You know better."

  Cat loathed Faro, known by many as "Bucking the Tiger." Every saloon between St. Louis and San Francisco offered the game, and most of them cheated. Stacked decks, with many paired cards that allowed the dealer, or banker, to collect half the bets, as well as shaved decks and razored aces were common.

  Alexi wouldn't stoop to such tactics; he'd consider mundane cheats beneath him. Besides, he'd already taught her how to spot them, so why bother? Certainly he cheated, but with Faro, Cat had never been able to discover just how.

  He'd swindle her at poker too if she wasn't paying attention, but at least with that game she had a better than average chance of catching him.

  Alexi laid out five cards for each of them. "Stakes?"

  "We can't play just to pass the time?"

  He didn't even bother to dignify that foolishness with an answer.

  For an instant Cat considered foregoing the wayward nature of the cards and, instead, getting him drunk. But she'd attempted that before. Alexi had remained annoyingly sober, and she had been rewarded with a three-day headache, which Alexi had found beyond amusing.

  She had more tolerance now--Cat O'Banyon had drunk many a bounty beneath the table--but she still doubted she could drink this man into a stupor. Sometimes she wondered if he sipped on watered wine daily just to ascertain no one ever could.

  Which meant her only other choice was this.

  Cat lifted her cards. She gave away nothing; neither did Alexi. After pulling her purse from her pocket, she tossed a few coins onto the table. With a lift of his brow, he did the same.

  They played in silence as the day waned. The room grew hot. In the way of cards, first Alexi was ahead then Cat. She watched him as closely as he watched her. Neither one of them cheated.

  Much.

  There was something in his face she'd never seen before. Was he scared? Had coming a hair from a hanging frightened him at last? Or was she merely seeing in Alexi a reflection of herself?

  Cat bit her lip to keep from looking at the window. Instead she continued with the game. When the sun began to slant toward dusk, and the pile of coins on both sides of the table lay about even, Cat lifted her eyes. "Wanna make this interesting?"

  "Khriso mou," Alexi murmured. "When you say things like that . . . " He moved a card from the right side of his hand to the left. "I get excited."

  "How about we raise the stakes to . . . " She drew out the moment, and even though he knew exactly what she was doing, as he was the one who had taught her to do it, eventually his anticipation caused him to lean forward. Only then did Cat give him what he sought. "Anything."

  "Anything?" he repeated.

  "Oui." He cast her an exasperated glance as she purposely mangled one of his favorite words. "I win this hand, you give me anything I ask. You win--"

  "I get anything I ask." "You've played this before." "Not with you." She doubted he'd played it with anyone. What moron would promise anything? Only someone with little left to lose or . . .

  Cat considered her cards without so much as a flicker of an eyelash. Someone with a hand like hers.

  “All right,” he agreed. “Who am I to turn down anything?”

  Not the man she knew and--

  Cat brought up short. Not the man she knew and what?

  Well, not the man she knew.

  Alexi turned his cards face up. Cat kept her face blank as she placed hers face down.

  "You win."

  AN OUTLAW IN WONDERLAND

  Lori Austin

  "Beth?" Ethan stepped into the room. Hands open to show he held nothing in them, he stared at her as if she was a wild thing. "What are you doing?"

  "What you should have done." She tightened her grip. "Long ago."

  "Honey," he began. "Shut. Up." Annabeth swung the axe. The crib shattered into several large chunks.

  She continued to hack away at it until the thing lay in several do
zen small ones. When she finished, she tossed the blade in the center and peered out the window. She needed to leave--this room, this house, this town, this life--but right now it was all she could do to stay on her feet.

  "Why did you keep it?" she whispered. "I . . . " he began, then sighed. "I don't know." On the street below, a few people still paused and pointed, but most of Freedom had gone about their business. No doubt the doctor and his no- longer-dead wife would be a topic of conversation on street corners for weeks to come, but folks had work to do and only so much time to do it in.

  Annabeth's gaze went to Lewis's Sewing and Sundry. The sun glanced off the windows bright enough to blind. Ethan came up beside her. He didn't speak; she had told him to shut up. Annabeth still couldn't look at him.

  "Why?" he murmured. She wasn't sure which why he meant. Why was she here? Why had she left? Why had she lied, spied? Why had they even tried?

  Or maybe just why had she used his axe on their dead child's crib? At least for that question she had an answer.

  "You might have put Cora Lewis in our bed," she said, "but you aren't putting her child in the one you made for ours."

  "I wouldn't," he began.

  She had no idea anymore what he would or wouldn't do, but she knew one thing for certain. "Now you can't."

  They continued to peer outside. Did Ethan see the streets, the buildings, the people? Or had his vision blurred with memories too?

  Standing in this room all those years ago, the town below them dustier and smaller, but back then wasn't everything? Laughing together, her belly round and taut. When he'd laid his palm against it everything in the world had seemed so right. How could it have gone so quickly, and so totally, wrong?

  Lies.

  His. Hers. She still wasn't sure where one began and the other ended. She probably never would be.

  A flash of light near the edge of town drew her attention. She’d seen sparkles like it before.

  Annabeth shoved Ethan aside as the window shattered all over them. They bounced off the wall, landing on the floor in a heap of limbs and glass and crib chunks as the echo of a gunshot rang in her ears.