“You mean the next time I introduce you to a horrible man? That’s never going to happen again, believe you me, and to ensure it, I’m never introducing you to anyone ever again as long as I live.”
Meredith chuckled. “Well, that’s fine by me because I don’t want to be introduced to anyone ever again as long as I live. I’m happy, Cissie. I don’t need another relationship to make me feel complete.”
Cissie helped her rinse the remainder of the dishes, and then they carried everything back inside. Long after Cissie left, Meredith sat on the porch, staring down the road. Luke was in Salina. How long would it take for him to come see her? Or would she have to swallow her pride and go find him?
Chapter Nineteen
As soon as Meredith arrived at the dress shop the next morning, Mrs. Crosby asked her to run over to the general store for some supplies. Meredith looked at the list and laughed.
“You realize, you might as well start ordering white thread by the case for how much of it we use.”
“You’re probably right. I’m sure that would save a lot of time and frustration in the long run. Oh, and I’m also nearly out of black. Can you add that to the list?”
“Of course.” Meredith scribbled herself a note so she wouldn’t forget, and then she was off.
She entered the store and called out a greeting to Alice, the shopkeeper’s teenage daughter who sometimes ran the front counter, then made her way to the back where the sewing notions were kept. As she piled the different colors of thread into her basket, she heard two women talking on the next aisle, and they weren’t being quiet, either.
“Well, now that Luke Ridley’s back in town, we can guess what’s going to happen next,” one said. “He’ll head right over to the Atwells’ and try for Meredith again. That boy always was determined.”
“Do you think he still wants her after everything that happened, though?” the other voice asked. “I mean, not only is she a widow, but her husband was killed . . . that’s an awful lot to overcome.”
“You wouldn’t think so to look at Meredith these days,” the first woman said. “The way she parades and prances around this town as though she owns it. It’s like she’s completely forgotten her scandal.”
Meredith now had all the thread she needed, and she’d also had all she was going to take. She rounded the corner of the shelving with a smile on her face. “Hello, ladies. You know, I couldn’t help but overhear your most fascinating conversation. Of course, you knew that because you seem to be standing in perfect proximity to where I was standing, and things like that are hardly ever coincidental. I have to say, though, that I’m disappointed in your lack of originality.”
Mrs. Baker, the woman who had spoken first, seemed flustered. “Originality? I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
Meredith increased the brightness of her smile. “Oh, come now. Chatting with each other about my unfortunate situation here, in the middle of the general store, where I’m sure to overhear you and become upset and run home crying . . . and then you could shake your heads and mutter about what a shame it is . . .” Meredith sighed. “It is a shame. It’s a shame that you gossips can’t invent any new gimmicks in your objective to bring the whole town to its knees.”
“I must say, I’ve never wanted to bring anything to its knees,” Mrs. Tate replied, glancing at Mrs. Baker nervously.
“That’s hardly accurate, but we’ll overlook it just this once,” Meredith replied. “Oh, and for the record, I do sometimes prance, but I rarely parade. Parading is a little gauche, don’t you think?”
With that, Meredith turned and pranced up to the front, where Alice tallied up her thread and packaged it for her. “I’m afraid I’m not a very nice person,” she whispered to Alice.
“What do you mean?” Alice replied. “I thought you handled that very well.”
Meredith glanced behind her to make sure they weren’t being overheard. “I handled it, but I didn’t do it nicely. Someday, I’ll get the nice part figured out too.”
Alice gave her a wide grin. “Well, until then, you’re awfully entertaining to watch. Have a good day, Miss Atwell. Or should I call you Mrs. Bingham?” she faltered.
“Miss Atwell is perfectly fine. Thank you, Alice.” With that, Meredith tucked her package under her arm and left the store, glad she hadn’t let those women get away with anything, and yet frustrated that after all this time, her name was still on the tongues of the gossipers in town.
***
Meredith was halfway home from the dress shop late that afternoon when she looked up ahead and saw Luke leaning up against the fence that lined the road. It was all she could do not to pick up her skirts and run to meet him, but four years had gone by and she could certainly try to be more mature. Regardless of how long it had been, though, her heart leaped and she almost started to cry, it was so good to see him.
As she drew closer, she could see that he was broader, and perhaps a little taller too. He was a man now, a man with responsibilities, and he wore them well.
“Hello there,” he called out. “I thought you might like a little company on your way home.”
“I would love some company,” she replied, taking the arm he offered as she came up alongside him. It wasn’t quite the hug she’d been longing for, but she’d take whatever he felt he could give. “I understand you’re running a ranch in Colorado these days.”
“I am. Jesse asked me to take it on, and I couldn’t say no. He’s been a good boss, and I’ve been happy to do whatever he asks.”
“Is Colorado as beautiful as I’ve heard?”
“Well, I don’t know what you’ve heard, so how can I answer that question?”
She threw her head back and laughed. Oh, it was so good to be with Luke again. She’d missed him so much. “All right, let’s suppose I’ve heard that it’s very, very beautiful.”
“Can you give me any kind of idea what you mean by ‘very’—that’s such a vague descriptor.”
“It is, isn’t it? So why don’t you tell me what Colorado’s like.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’d have to say it’s very, very beautiful.”
She nudged him with her elbow. “Stop it.”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “The mountains are incredible, especially in the winter when they’re covered with snow. Of course, in some places, the snow never entirely melts, so you see patches of white up there all during the summer.”
“Snow during the summer? Now you’re joking.”
“No, not at all. It can stay quite cold in the mountains year round.”
“It sounds amazing.”
“It really is.” He didn’t speak for a moment, and the only sound was that of their shoes on the road. “You should come for a visit. Maybe when Jesse and Cora head out that way to check on things in a month or two.”
“Maybe so. Are you planning to stay out there, then?”
“Yes, for as long as Jesse needs me. There’s something about Colorado that seems to match up with something inside me.”
“Did you get the card I sent when your mother died? I was so sorry to hear about that. I would have liked to come for the funeral, but I wasn’t able to leave Topeka as often as I wanted.” The little white lie sat heavily on her tongue. “Well, I wasn’t able to leave at all, actually.”
“I did get your card. Thank you.” He didn’t acknowledge the rest of what she’d said, and she found that to be a relief. She didn’t want to go into that. Not right now, at least.
All too soon, they were at her house, and he paused by the gate. “Thanks for letting me walk you home,” he said.
“Thank you for doing it.” Why did everything seem so awkward all of a sudden? This was Luke, for pity’s sake. Her dear friend. “Can’t you come in for a little while? I’ve missed you.”
He smiled. “I have some other things I have to take care of, but I could come over tomorrow.”
“I’ll be done with work around five.”
“All righ
t. I’ll see you then.”
He turned and walked back the direction he’d come in the gathering darkness, and Meredith watched him go. Things had seemed the same for just a few minutes, but she knew on every level that they would never really be the same again.
Chapter Twenty
“You could have told me Luke was coming back,” Meredith chided Jesse as he walked into the kitchen later that evening.
“I didn’t realize I was supposed to tell you every single thing my employees do,” he retorted.
“Well, you are.”
Jesse grabbed a cookie from the jar on the counter and sat down at the table across from Meredith, where she sat shelling peas. “That’s why I’m here, actually. To tell you that Luke’s back in town. I’ve got some stock for him to take back to the ranch in Colorado.”
Meredith looked heavenward. “You’ve come to tell me something I already know?”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that you already knew it?” He finished his cookie in one bite, then sat back and regarded her. “So I take it you ran into him.”
“He was waiting for me along the road when I came home from the shop today.”
“And how was it, seeing him again?”
Meredith laughed. “You sound like one of the gossips, wanting to know every detail.”
Jesse held up both hands. “That’s not a fair comparison. Fact is, he mentioned being a little hesitant to see you again, and I wanted to make sure everything was all right.”
Meredith was surprised. “He felt hesitant? Whatever for?”
“If you think about it, it should be pretty obvious. He tells you he loves you, you marry someone else, and now you’re back . . . of course it’s going to be a little awkward. But if it makes you feel any better, Cora had to explain it to me.”
They both laughed. “I think it went all right, as far as first meetings after four years go,” Meredith replied. “He’s coming over again tomorrow, and maybe we’ll have a chance to talk more then. I mean, really talk—not just make polite conversation. He told me a little bit about Colorado, but I don’t even have enough information to picture his new life there now.”
Jesse nodded. “Well, he’ll be here about a week, so hopefully that will give the two of you time to work out this weirdness or whatever it is.”
“Just a week?”
“It really doesn’t take that long to gather up some animals and get them ready for transport.”
Meredith sighed. “I guess you’re right. I just hoped we’d have a little more time, that’s all.”
“It’s not like Colorado is on another continent. He’ll be back again.” Jesse stood up, then paused, his hand on the back of his chair. “Unless there’s another reason you want him to stay.”
Meredith concentrated on the pea in her hand. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure you don’t.”
“Honestly, Jesse, I’m not ready to think about a relationship. It’s too soon.”
“It’s been two years. Just how long do you think you need?”
She tossed the peapod into the large bowl to her right. “I don’t know! In fact, I sometimes think I’d be just as happy staying right here forever. I don’t have to get married again, do I? Or is there some kind of rule that says I do?”
“There’s no rule. I just want you to be happy.”
“And that’s what I’m trying to tell you—I am happy.”
Jesse pressed his lips together and shrugged. “You know, I used to think I was happy. Cora and I have a nice little home, a business—if you’d asked me on any day of the week, I’d have told you I was the happiest man alive. But you know what? I was wrong.”
“You were?” What was Jesse hinting at? Was something going on that Meredith didn’t know about?
“Just this morning, Cora told me that I’m going to be a father. And I realized that now, now I’m the happiest man alive. It took so long to happen, I thought maybe it never would, and I’d made my peace with that because Cora means everything to me. But for some reason, things have changed, and you’re going to be an aunt.”
Meredith almost knocked over her bowl of peas, she stood up so fast. She threw her arms around Jesse’s neck and hugged him tightly. “I’m so excited for you.”
“And I’m excited for you. How many people get to be the aunt of the world’s cutest baby?”
She pulled back and made a face at him. “Do Mother and Father know?”
“Not yet. I was about to go in and tell them, but I wanted you to hear it first because I just wanted to get you thinking. There is more to life, Meredith, and I hope you have a chance to explore it.”
He left her there with a big bowl of peas and a whole lot of thoughts buzzing around in her head.
***
“So there I was, covered in honey, with a bear sniffing me up one side and down the other.”
Meredith was laughing so hard, she was almost choking. “What did you do?”
“I woke up and vowed never to eat stale cake before bed again.”
“What? That whole story was just a dream?” She reached down into the stream and flicked Luke with water. “That’s mean, you know, stringing me along like that.”
“But it was a good story, you have to admit.”
“It was a very good story.” She leaned back on her hands and looked up at the sky. On days like this, she could almost pretend that they were children again, that they’d never really grown up and that things were just the same as they had always been. But then she looked over at Luke, at how much he’d changed, and she was brought back to reality. She’d changed too, and she knew it. Hopefully it was all for the better.
“Tell me,” Luke said at last. She didn’t have to ask him what he meant—she’d been waiting for the invitation, and she was ready for it.
“At first, everything was wonderful. It was only after the pressure of running the family business began to mount that he became someone else,” she said. She told Luke all the things she’d enjoyed about Topeka, the fun parties they’d attended, the nights they’d stayed up and watched the stars until they faded away with the coming of dawn. Then she told him about Alex’s drinking, how it started as something small and hardly even noticeable and then increased until he was rarely seen without a glass in his hand when he was home.
When she told Luke about the night when Alex had nearly crushed her wrist, her voice was soft, her tone nearly emotionless, but Luke’s face grew darker and darker. When she paused for breath, he spoke.
“My father always taught me that the worst thing a man could ever do was hurt a woman. For a lot of years, I had to wonder about that. Isn’t murder the worst sin ever? Then I realized that hurting a woman is murdering her spirit, and it’s very much the same thing.”
“Your father taught you well.”
“He did it mostly by example. The way he cared for my mother every day right up to the end . . .” Luke cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
“I probably needed to be interrupted. You don’t need to know every little thing.”
“I only need to know what you want me to know.”
His voice was soft, mellow, and accepting, exactly how she knew it would be, exactly why she’d wanted to talk to him so very badly. “I wish you’d come back to Salina sooner.”
“I thought it would be too difficult.”
She looked out over the water. “Being with you is never difficult.”
“Maybe it would be difficult for me.”
She inhaled as she heard his pain. “I’m sorry, Luke. I wish—”
He held up one hand. “But we can’t wish. The past is the past. I’d rather think about tomorrow because tomorrow, your mother invited me over for roast. And isn’t roast a very nice thing to think about?”
She smiled, recognizing instantly everything he was trying to say. It was all right. She didn’t need to apologize. He understood. And in that moment, it really was all right, and she cou
ld breathe again.
“Well, not only will there be roast, but cherry pie.”
“You see? Cherry pie, Meredith. How could we ever be sad in a world that has cherry pie?”
“I really have no idea.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jemima walked into the kitchen, took one look at her daughter, and gasped. “Meredith Atwell, you march right back up to your bedroom and change out of those trousers at once!”
Meredith laughed. “Don’t you like them, Mother? I borrowed them from Kizzie.”
“The day Kizzie married Leander and moved out of this house, I thought for sure I was done seeing my daughters wear men’s clothing. What on earth is going on?”
“Luke’s riding out to Jesse’s corral to get the horses he’s taking back to Colorado, and he said I could come along.”
“To Colorado?”
Meredith laughed again. “No, Mother. To Jesse’s. I’ll be home by supper—one of Jesse’s other men will help Luke drive the horses to the ranch. My services will be needed no longer.”
Jemima shook her head. “Women doing men’s work . . . wearing men’s clothes . . . very well. Go do whatever you must to get this out of your system. But as soon as you walk back through that door, I want you dressed properly. Do you understand?”
“Of course, Mother. I’ll see you tonight.”
Meredith couldn’t help but chuckle as she walked out to the barn to saddle a horse. Jemima often seemed to forget that Meredith wasn’t nine years old anymore.
Once the horse was ready, Meredith climbed on and rode to the edge of the Atwell property, where she was expected to meet Luke. He was there just a few minutes later, and they rode side by side out to Jesse’s corral.
“I must say, you look rather fetching in those trousers,” Luke said, giving her an appraising look.
“My mother nearly fainted when she saw me, but I don’t think she understands how hard it is to wear a dress while doing certain chores. She simply doesn’t do certain chores.”
“I don’t see any harm in trying new things if you’ve a mind to. I’ve become a fair hand at making bread since I went to Colorado.”
Meredith's Mistake (Grandma's Wedding Quilts Book 4) Page 10
