Come Spring

by Jill Marie Landis

  Buck Scott stepped into the kitchen. “Let her go, Thexton.” He didn’t know what was going on, but he had heard Annika demand release and intended to see that Thexton carried through.

  “Gladly,” Richard sneered. He shoved Annika aside so hard she hit her hip against the table and nearly stumbled over a chair.

  Buck flew across the room, tackled Richard, and shoved him backward until both of them crashed into the back door. The hinges gave way and the door fell with them on it, scarring the white enamel paint on the veranda. With a stranglehold around Thexton’s throat, Buck drew back his fist, ready to plunge it into the man’s startled face. Somewhere behind him, he heard Annika pleading with him to stop. He had hated this man on sight, and when he saw Richard Thexton shaking Annika, when he heard her demanding release, it triggered an immediate reaction. All of his bottled-up anger and frustration erupted. Thexton would be lucky if he didn’t kill him outright.

  As he took aim at Thexton’s face, a grip with the strength to match his own arrested Buck’s downward swing. He tried to shake off the hand that held his wrist but couldn’t, so he turned to glare at the offender.

  “Don’t do it,” Kase warned. “I don’t really have the energy to fight you again, but I will if you push me.”

  Annika stood beside Kase, clutching her brother’s arm, but her eyes were for Buck alone. She silently appealed to him to stop.

  Buck took another look at Thexton and then at the splintered door frame and shattered glass of the oval window.

  He had made a mess of things again.

  Buck unstraddled Richard and stood up. There was no apology in his tone when he said, “I guess I’ll be leaving.”

  “Leaving?” Annika couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. She turned on her brother. “Richard insulted me. Buck only did what you would have done if you had heard him, Kase. You can’t let him leave.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Kase ordered Buck. “Not until I’ve had a word with you.” He extended a hand to his sister’s former suitor and jerked Thexton to his feet. Kase then said bluntly, “You, on the other hand, Thexton, are leaving. If you hurry, you can catch the last train headed east from Busted Heel.” As Richard brushed past him to pack his bags, Kase lifted the oak door and leaned it against the house and then walked to the edge of the veranda. Over the sound of the rain, he whistled loud and long until a man appeared at the bunkhouse door. He shouted to the cowhand across the yard, “Will two of you come and get this door put back up, Tom? Can’t have the house get cold, not with my new boy in here.”

  The man in the doorway waved back and shouted, “Right away, boss.”

  Beaming despite two purpled eyes and a swollen nose, Kase Storm walked back inside and poured himself a cup of strong black coffee. His expression sobered as he pointed to two empty chairs at the table, took in Buck and Annika with a glance, and said bluntly, “You two sit down. We need to talk.”

  Annika held her breath, certain that Buck would bristle at her brother’s authoritative tone. She didn’t think she could watch the two of them come to blows. Instead, when Buck immediately pulled out a chair for her and waited for her to sit down, she simply stood and gaped at him.

  24

  “ANNIKA?”

  She glanced up at Kase, read the impatience in his eyes, and plopped down onto the chair Buck was still holding for her. Buck chose a chair opposite her brother’s. He leaned back, hooked an arm over the back of it, and appeared resigned to listen to whatever Kase had to say.

  “Coffee?” Kase asked.

  Buck shook his head. Annika declined, glancing from Buck to Kase and back. They reminded her of two titans ready to do battle. Everyone in Busted Heel must still be talking about their fight.

  “I know what went on between you and my sister, Scott,” Kase said without preamble.

  Annika felt her cheeks flame and knew without looking over at him that Buck’s eyes were on her. “Kase—”

  “Because of what you’ve done for Rose, and for me, I don’t intend to force you into anything.” Kase waited until Buck looked at him again. “But under the circumstances, I won’t have you under the same roof with my sister tonight. You’ll sleep in the bunkhouse.”

  Because he knew the man was right, because he would have handled the situation in exactly the same way, Buck listened to Kase Storm without uttering a word. He refused to glance over at Annika again but he knew by the riot of color that had stained her cheeks, she was completely embarrassed by her brother’s frankness.

  There was nothing Buck could say to Kase Storm, no excuse he could give for what had happened at Blue Creek. Staring down at his torn and filthy shirt, the blood stiffened on the front of the plaid fabric, at his scarred, work-worn hands, Buck wondered how he’d ever dared to touch her in the first place.

  Even now she looked like a ray of sunshine in the afternoon gloaming. Despite all she’d been through that day, her colorful striped gown was still nearly spotless. Perched as she was on the edge of her chair—all prim and proper like—he could not even believe that she had ever made love with him on his own table. It didn’t matter that his memory told him different. Nor could he imagine this new, elegant Annika Storm ever living in his cabin again.

  “What did Richard say to upset you?” Kase demanded of Annika.

  Buck looked up and watched Kase interrogate his sister. He, too, wanted to know what Thexton had said to upset her so.

  Annika, to her credit, drew a deep breath, locked stares with her brother, and told him, “That’s something I want to discuss with you later. Right now, since you’ve insulted both of us, I think Buck and I are entitled to at least one conversation alone. That is, if you are finished upbraiding us like two disobedient schoolchildren.”

  Buck bit the inside of his lip to keep from smiling. He had to hand it to her: there weren’t many women who would have faced up to a man as forbidding as Kase Storm. He watched Storm drain his coffee mug, then surprisingly enough set it down, turn, and walk to the kitchen doorway. “I’m going up to see that Richard leaves immediately, then I’ll visit Rose and Joseph. I’ll expect to speak to you in the library when your conversation with Mr. Scott is over, Annika.”

  When he left the room, Annika sighed. Buck could not relax as he stared at her openly for the first time. She remained on edge, perched as if the first loud noise would send her flying. She traced a knothole in the wood on the table. “I’m sorry about my brother’s rudeness, especially after all you’ve done for him today,” she said.

  “Yeah. I beat him up, broke his door, hit your fiancé. I’d tally that as a good day’s work, all right.” His words hinted at humor, but he failed to smile.

  Boot heels louder than the rain sounded on the veranda outside as two of the hired hands came across the porch to fix the door. They set their tools down with a clatter and then stared curiously at Buck and Annika as they fit the door in the opening.

  “Do they know all about us, too?” Buck asked softly as he watched the men.

  “Of course not, and I’m sorry now that I even confided in Kase.”

  “If he knew what went on, I’m surprised he didn’t kill me this morning when he had the chance.”

  She shrugged. “It looks like you got in one or two good punches yourself. He’s really not as bad as he seems.”

  “You could have fooled me.” He licked his cracked lower lip.

  While the men on the porch cast suspicious glances their way, Annika stood up and twined her fingers together in front of her striped skirt. “If you come upstairs while I check on Buttons, I’ll help you get cleaned up.”

  He almost declined and denied himself the pleasure of being completely alone with her, but as always where she was concerned, his will gave out and he followed the delicious sway of her skirt as she led the way up the stairs.

  She didn’t need to warn him to be quiet; he’d heard Buttons protesting her bedtime all the way down the hall when he’d been finishing up with Rose. When they reac
hed the room that Annika shared with Buttons, she opened the door and stood aside so that he could enter first. The child was sleeping on a featherbed amid a mound of bleached and starched embroidered pillows. He tried to read the saying across the closest and wondered if the sewing was her handiwork. As if she guessed what he’d been thinking, she said, “Rose bought them from a woman in town. She can’t sew very well either.”

  “Oh.” The frilly atmosphere was so foreign to him, he felt lost. It made Buck want to run for cover.

  He stood uncomfortably in the center of the room, afraid to move and wake up Buttons, unwilling to even perch on the edge of the bed or the chaise near the window and smear dirt on the clean upholstery or eyelet bedding. He wanted to touch Buttons, smooth back the riot of curls that kissed her pink cheeks and feel the satin ribbon that adorned the neck of her stark white nightgown, but she was sleeping so blissfully with her old wooden doll clutched in her arms that he dared not.

  Instead, he looked away and took in the abundance of toys scattered about the hooked rug on the floor. A well-dressed doll with bisque head and arms was seated on a child-sized rocker in the corner surrounded by small wooden animals around a toy Noah’s ark. He reached down and picked up a book that lay on the table beside the bed. The Brownies, Their Book, he read before he flipped it open and stared down at the peanut-shaped little men that adorned the pages.

  “She loves those stories,” Annika said, startling him. He snapped the book closed and carefully set it down. While he waited, she poured water from a pitcher into a washbowl and then dipped a clean towel into the tepid water.

  “Sit down.” She indicated the chaise.

  “I don’t think—” His response was a whisper accompanied by a shake of his head.

  “Please. Let me help you.”

  He did as she asked, hoping she would touch him. As she moved close to stand beside him, his senses ran riot. The rustle of her silk petticoat jangled his nerves. She smelled like rose water while the warmth of a spring day emanated from her like captive sunshine. He held his breath as she reached out and pressed the wet towel to his battered face, touching it here and there as lightly as the wings of a dove might brush against the sky.

  He felt her hesitate before she pressed the cloth against his lips, and when she did, he closed his eyes and imagined that the soothing moisture was from her kiss.

  When he opened his eyes, he discovered hers were but inches from his own. Blue on blue, they were gazing back at him as if she were seeking out the secrets hidden in the very depths of his soul. He longed to hold her, but found her as untouchable as a priceless museum piece. An unbearable ache made him long to get away.

  When he pulled away from her touch, she immediately stepped back.

  Annika wadded up the towel in her hands to hide their trembling. She had nearly kissed him while his eyes were closed. What would he have done if she had? Buck still had not explained the reason behind his sudden appearance. Had he come for her? She could see him poised and ready to get away. Annika didn’t think she could bear the thought of seeing him walk out the door.

  “Did you find the buttons I left?” The moment the words were out, his face darkened, the expression behind his eyes shuttered until it grew cold and hard. It was the wrong thing to ask.

  “I did. But I don’t need your charity.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I thought you left them behind as payment.”

  She wrinkled her brow. Her trembling had subsided, but she still didn’t trust herself to free her hands. She twisted the towel and then began to fold it. “Payment? For what? I left them so you’d know I didn’t leave of my own free will. Clemmens and his men didn’t give me time to write a note. They made me pack up Baby and our things and go. I thought when you saw the button tin that you’d know I would never willingly leave it behind.”

  “I thought you left on your own,” he admitted.

  Annika was stunned. “How could I?”

  He shrugged. “I wasn’t in much shape to ask myself that question.”

  At first she took his statement to mean that he was upset about her leaving. “What do you mean, not in any shape?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Buck...”

  “I didn’t get home until late that night. I met up with that mountain lion I had told you about.”

  She twisted the carefully folded cloth again. “Were you hurt? How badly?” He didn’t seem scarred in any way that she could see, aside from the cuts and bruises he’d sustained in the fisticuffs with Kase.

  “Got me in the leg. I took fever and probably would have died if Old Ted hadn’t come along.”

  It was true she hadn’t really studied his walk, for he’d followed her up the stairs. Earlier, in Rose’s room, her mind had been elsewhere. Speechless, she slowly lowered herself to the chaise beside him. The minute she sat, he stood up.

  “You could have died and I would never have known.” Her voice was so soft it was barely audible above the sound of the rain.

  He limped across the room and stood with his back to the window. Even the soft glow from the lamp on the side table couldn’t dispel the evening gloom. “Would you have cared?”

  Realizing that he could be wounded frightened her more than she would have guessed. He was mortal, after all. Annika was on her feet in an instant. “Buck Scott, what are you talking about?” Thankful Buttons was not a light sleeper, she lowered her voice again anyway. “I told you the last time I saw you that I loved you. My feelings haven’t changed.” Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself and delivered the questions that had plagued her since she’d laid eyes on him. “Have yours?”

  He couldn’t lie. But he couldn’t tell her the truth, either. It would complicate things, so he said, “No. I still want what’s best for you and Buttons. I came to see her. To see if she was happy.”

  Annika weighed his words. “So you didn’t come for me?” Framed by the weak light from outdoors, his blond hair shone where the lamplight caught the highlights. His eyes narrowed in thought as he stared back at her. She was desperately afraid of what he would say next.

  “Look around you, Annika. Wake up to the way life really is. I can’t give you half of what you already have. You and I are from two different worlds and any idea I might have had to the contrary was a damn crazy one.” He ran his hand through his hair and then shook the long blond curls against his shoulders. Placing his hands wide apart on the window-sill, he leaned back and rested his hips against it. “Coming here has only reconfirmed what I’ve known from the beginning. Seeing the proof for myself, I know you’d never adjust to living with me in the mountains. But now I do know that Buttons can adjust to another way of life. She’ll have everything she deserves.”

  “Buck, it looks like that now, but she cried herself to sleep asking for you for the first two weeks we were here.”

  “But she’s forgotten that now.” He paused, as if afraid to say what he thought, then added, “I’d rather she not live with you and Thexton, though.”

  “That’s over now. Besides, how can you think I’d even consider marrying him?”

  “He’d be a fool not to want you.”

  She crossed the room and stood directly in front of him. “Tell me you don’t love me.”

  “Don’t do this, Annika. Let it go.”

  She was tempted to tell him about the baby now that she was almost certain she was pregnant. For a moment she was tempted—it would be a way to keep him by her side—but she didn’t want Buck that way, not trapped like one of the animals he hunted. He had to want to come to her of his own free will, had to want her without the flimsy excuse that he wasn’t good enough, that their worlds were too far apart to bridge even by love.

  Turning aside before he could see her tears, she walked to the washbasin and set the towel down beside it. “I think you had better go before I make a fool of myself.”

  “Annika...”

  She heard his footsteps, could feel him sta
nding behind her, hovering there, waiting for her to turn around. She gripped the towel rack on the washstand so hard she thought it might snap.

  He said, “I’ll spend the night in the bunkhouse.”

  Barely able to choke out a reply, she straightened, but did not turn around. “Will you say good-bye to Buttons tomorrow?” Will you say good-bye to me?

  He paused in the doorway and glanced once at the child asleep on the bed. “I can’t.”

  Annika watched his reflection in the window, saw him lean down and kiss Baby Buttons tenderly on the cheek. She closed her eyes against the sight and the intense pain that accompanied it.

  * * *

  ANNIKA met Kase in the library after she had given the hired hands a supper of cold chicken and fried potatoes. The meal was nothing compared to the ones Rose usually prepared, but it was edible and no one went hungry. Buck hadn’t appeared with the others, although casual questioning revealed he had indeed taken a bed for the night in the bunkhouse. Terrified that he would leave before she could talk to him again, Annika thought about taking him a covered dish later in the evening. When Kase came in and told her he wanted to see her in his library immediately, Jim volunteered to take Buck his dinner and Annika could think of no plausible reason to refuse to let him.

  She followed her brother down the hall and stepped into the cool dark room. While he lit the lamp, Annika looked around. Kase’s library was reminiscent of her father’s with its wall-to-wall bookshelves, massive burl wood desk, and stuffed chairs. The shelves were not all lined with books, not yet, but there were family photographs of the Storms beside Rosa’s family in Italy. Annika picked up a small silver frame and stared down at a photograph of Kase and her that had been taken when she was six, the year before he went off to school. The picture reflected their personalities—she sat posed on a small wooden wagon, her head tipped to her shoulder, smiling gaily into the camera, while Kase stood beside her protective, proud, and unsmiling. They were holding hands.