“Hey,” she said. “I’m not staying. But I did want to talk to you and Rosie. She’s here, isn’t she?”
Before he could speak, Rosie came around the corner, holding the knife in her hand. “I sure am. And before you say anything, thank you so much for the clothes, they were a real godsend.”
Lark eyed the knife with a twinkle in her eye. “I have no idea what you and Cord were doing just now, but I’m glad you like the clothes.”
“You grew up with him. You know how hard he can be to keep in line. Pain helps.”
Lark laughed. “That is so true. It’s funny that you learned that, only having a twin sister. I thought you needed to have brothers.”
Cord held up his hands. “Hey. I’m in the room, you know.” He waved at his ears. “I can hear.”
“Selective hearing,” Lark said.
Rosie had come over to stand beside him, but she didn’t touch him. They hadn’t talked about how they wanted to break this to their families.
His family would be fine with it. Her family might’ve been holding out hope for someone a little better. They hadn’t exactly been excited when Rosalin and he had announced that they were engaged.
His mom, actually, would probably be happier that he was with Rosie than with Rosalin.
Well, he was proud and excited, and if Rosie didn’t like it, she shouldn’t have stopped beside him. He put his arm around her, unsure he would ever get tired of feeling her next to him.
Her head tilted up. Not wanting to see irritation in her eyes, he steeled himself and looked down. She was smiling, that look he loved. The one where he could tell without her saying anything that she admired him. It always did something to his heart.
He smiled back, wondering if she could see the same thing in his gaze. It was one more thing he wanted to ask her. After he told her what he needed to.
He didn’t take his eyes away from her. But he spoke to Lark. “Rosie and I are together. Like not friends together, but together together.”
Rosie’s smile got bigger.
Lark squealed. “I knew it! I knew it! I don’t know what was going on with you and Rosalin, but I knew you and Rosie were made for each other. Everybody knew it. I’m so glad you two finally do too.”
Lark had made it over to Rosie by this time and put her arms around her, squeezing hard.
He loved both of his sisters, but Lark was so full of life and enthusiasm it was impossible to be down around her.
Rosie hugged her back. “Thank you. I didn’t know how your family would feel, because Cord and I have always been friends.”
Lark leaned back, dropping her hands. “Oh, I can tell you, my family is going to be thrilled. We love you. And sometimes Cord’s okay too.” She slanted her eyes at Cord with a grin. “But I didn’t come here for that, even though I’m happy for you. I came to talk about Joseph.”
Cord’s brows lowered immediately. “Is there a problem?”
“No. I just know you two have been kind of taking care of him. And I have some news and an idea.” She shoved her hands in her coat pockets. “First of all, around town, Joseph’s dad has been offering to hire Joseph out. Now I know we can report that, and child services can come in, and Joseph might or might not get taken and sent somewhere. But a few of us have been talking, and we know that’s probably not going to be the best thing for him.”
“But staying with his dad isn’t the best thing either.” The hand that wasn’t holding Rosie balled into a fist. “It can’t be good for a kid to know that his dad wants to basically rent him out.”
“I know.” Lark held her hand up. “Be patient. First of all, Jeb is going to need an employee. I think Joseph is old enough to work for him, milking cows.”
“But that’s your job,” Rosie exclaimed. “You’ve done that for years.”
Lark nodded, and it concerned Cord because there was no smile on her face. Not even in her eyes. That in itself was unusual.
“I know.” Her shoulders moved. “But I’m quitting.”
Cord knew his mother, and some of his brothers, had never been very excited about Lark’s job with Jeb. They felt she had a crush on him, and he was too old for her.
Maybe Lark did have a crush on him, Cord couldn’t say, but Jeb was a good guy. And good men were hard to find. It didn’t really matter how old he was, from the way Cord thought. Not if he would treat his sister right. And while Jeb and Lark were almost total personality opposites, that made them able to work together beautifully, like they had for years, since he was pretty sure Lark was around fourteen or so when she started working for Jeb.
Lark had pulled her hands out of her pockets and was picking at a string on her sleeve. Her head was down. “I decided to go to college in Pensacola. They’ve accepted me as a late enrollee, with conditions, for the spring semester, and I’m leaving tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? Nothing like giving your family a little notice.” Cord couldn’t help giving her a hard time about that. If he were moving a thousand miles away, Lark would flip at him for not telling her about it until the day before.
“It’s not like I’m leaving forever. I’ll be back in May.” Lark let go of the string and let her hands fall to her sides. “But that’s beside the point. My point was Joseph has a job. And Jeb doesn’t live very far from here. Fifteen minutes if he walks across the field. Whether Joseph’s father is serious or not about not wanting him, I was wondering if you might go talk to him. Let him know that Joseph can stay here.” She tilted her head and looked at Cord. It was that look she knew he could never resist, not like he had to try to resist this. He’d love to have Joseph. Joseph was a good kid. “That is, if you want him.”
His stomach rolled. He wasn’t used to thinking about someone else when he needed to make decisions, and he wished he had been able to talk to Rosie about this before Lark came.
“I do, definitely, I want him.” He looked down at Rosie, but he was fairly certain what she would say too. They might not be married, but this was a big decision, or could end up being a big decision, because having a kid stay at your house wasn’t a small thing.
Rosie was nodding, as he figured she would. That wasn’t the problem.
“I’ll talk to Joseph’s dad. Tonight, if possible. Joseph has been staying here, and he’ll be here after school today. Right, Rosie?”
“That’s right. I’ve been taking him to school since Cord’s been gone and bringing him back here after. I think he’ll be really excited about having a job. But I hope that doesn’t mean that he can’t help you with your horses anymore.”
“I need to run,” Lark said. And Cord was glad for the interruption. “I’ll let you guys talk about it. But I figured I could count on you.”
They chatted a bit more as Lark walked to the door. Then she left, and Rosie and Cord walked into the kitchen. She set the bread on the small kitchen table while he carried the soup from the stove.
“Do you think Joseph will still be able to help you with the horses? How long does it take to milk the cows?” Rosie worried her lower lip with her teeth. Cord couldn’t watch, because he knew he had to say the hard thing.
“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about before Lark came. The man that was just here...he bought the team.”
Rosie had gone to the refrigerator to get butter out. She had it in her hand, the refrigerator door open, as she turned around, her mouth opened, her brows drawn, her eyes narrowed.
Several beats of silence ticked loudly in the kitchen.
“You sold your horses?” she asked softly, almost in a threatening tone of voice. “Sadie and Bill? The horses we trained? The ones we grew up with. The horses that just took us for a sleigh ride. You sold them?”
Oh boy. He knew she wouldn’t be happy about it. But it hadn’t occurred to him until just that second that she might consider the horses partly hers too. Sure, he paid for them. But she’d helped in everything that he’d ever done with them. She might not have any money in them, but she had a lot of bl
ood, sweat, and tears invested. Just as he did. It hit him hard that he had been extremely inconsiderate.
“The money that I’m going to make, and have already made, from the sale of my sleds will pay the mortgage on this place for the winter. But I didn’t have any way of helping you with a library. All I had were the horses.” It hadn’t been an easy thought, but it also hadn’t been a hard sacrifice. Not for Rosie. “What I got for them will build a new library. It won’t be fancy, but the money will pay for the materials, and my brothers and I can build it. I wanted that more than I wanted the horses.”
She stood in the middle of the kitchen floor, the refrigerator door hanging open, the butter still gripped tightly in her hand, her mouth still open, and her eyes still narrowed. Finally, she started shaking her head. “I can’t believe it. I really can’t believe it.”
She slapped the butter down on the counter and shoved the refrigerator door closed so hard it bounced back open. “I can’t believe that you would think for one second that I would in any way believe that me having a library was more important than you having your horses. I can’t believe you would think that of me.”
Cord shifted, moving the knife she’d used to cut the bread to the other side of the cutting board. “I have to admit that I didn’t really think about it that way.”
“What other way is there to think about it?” she asked incredulously, her voice almost shrill.
“I knew you wanted a library. I knew that was your dream. I knew I had a way of making sure that your dream happened. That’s exactly what I thought. Of course, it was hard to sell the horses. But I never, not for one second, thought it wasn’t worth it. I would sell them again. One hundred times, if I could.” He didn’t say “for you,” but the words shimmered in the air between them.
He reached in his pocket and pulled out the check. “I had them write it out to you.”
He set it on the counter. She didn’t look like she was any happier with him then than she was when he started talking. “It’s obvious to me now that maybe I should’ve said something to you.” He took a step closer to her. “But honestly, I truly didn’t think about it. All I wanted was to be able to help you.”
She looked down, her fingernail scraping on the counter. When she looked back up, there were tears in her eyes. It made his heart lurch and screech painfully. He’d never wanted to make her cry.
“I loved Bill and Sadie.” She bit her lip. It trembled. “I know it’s crazy, but they were like old friends.”
“No, that’s not crazy. I felt the same way.”
“What kind of home did they go to? Is that guy gonna take care of them?”
He wanted to touch her, ease the pain he could hear in her voice. But she didn’t look like she liked him very much right now.
He kept his tone low, soothing. “Yes. Of course. I would never sell them to someone I didn’t know. You’ve actually met him. Last summer at the show we went to in Pierre. Remember he came up and talked to us? He had those two little girls? And he had to practically drag his wife away from Sadie?”
Rosie nodded. Her lip wasn’t troubling anymore. “Yes, I remember. That whole family was in love with them. Of course, it wasn’t hard to love Bill and Sadie. But didn’t he have experience with draft teams? And he wanted to teach his kids.”
“Exactly. But he wanted a team that was tried, that wouldn’t get excited and hurt his little girls, that his wife could handle easily. Bill and Sadie were perfect for him, and he paid top dollar for them.” He pointed at the check. “It’s kinda crazy. When I was looking for a team, I couldn’t afford anything but the two little foals that we got. And now I’m the one selling the high-dollar horses.”
Her lips turned up. Maybe her smile was still sad, but she definitely shared in his accomplishment.
“You know I’m proud of you,” she whispered softly. “I didn’t mean to take away from what you’ve accomplished by my sadness of losing Bill and Sadie.”
He moved closer and put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him easily.
He swallowed. “Believe me, you didn’t. I’m sorry. I can tell you with assurance that the next time anything like this happens, you and I will talk about it and agree on it.”
She shook her head. “No. You really didn’t need to. They weren’t mine. I just helped you with them. And it’s okay for me to be sad that they’re gone.”
“Yeah, it’s okay to be sad. I’m sad too. But I felt the benefit outweighed the sacrifice.”
Her eyes shifted to the check lying on the counter. “I don’t want to use that for the library. It would never make me happy. Not using something you had sacrificed to get me what I want.” Her finger slid over the counter, then her hand fell to her side. “I wish you could get them back.”
Could he? Probably. “I wish you’d use the money to build the town a library. I’m sure I probably could call him right now and tell him I changed my mind. But his wife and children would be extremely disappointed because they were really looking forward to this. And Sadie and Bill are going to be great for them.” He put a hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him. “While I was delivering those sleds, I spent a little bit of time on the phone. I’ve got four teams that people want me to train starting in March. You know I’ve turned people down for years, but when I thought about selling Bill and Sadie, I thought instead of working with them to take them to shows and competitions and the things that we’ve done, I could get paid to work with other people’s horses.”
He blew the breath out. “Maybe I was daydreaming, but also while I was driving, I thought it’d be really nice if you and I did it together. After all, I didn’t train Bill and Sadie by myself. You were there the whole time. You were always there.”
He couldn’t stop his hand from running down her arm, and he stepped closer. “I think it’s so crazy that we worked together for years, and now all the sudden, I can’t be within three feet of you without wanting to touch you. Am I the only one?”
A small smile lifted her lips, and she shook her head. “It wasn’t even two hours ago that you gave me a big lecture about how I don’t get to kiss you for a really long time.”
“I didn’t say anything about kissing. I said touch. I want to touch you.”
“Okay. You say touch, I think kiss, maybe we’re not as in tune with each other as we thought we were.” Her hands reached out and settled on his waist. “And maybe we ought to change the subject.”
He nodded immediately. “Something easy. It’s hard for me to think when you’re touching me.”
“I like the idea of training new horses. I know it’s something that you’d be good at. And I know you enjoy it. I’m going to miss Bill and Sadie, but I think you have a great idea.”
“Then you’ll take the money and build a library?”
Her head went back and forth. “You’ll have to think of something else to do with the money. Maybe you can train other people’s horses and buy a young pair of your own.” She lifted her brows in question.
“No. I want it to be something for you. And I prefer a library.” His hands tightened around her waist. “But it’s your choice.”
They stared at each other. He didn’t know what she was feeling, but he wouldn’t have been too upset to kiss her again. Even with a stomach growling and the smell of food in his nose, he was way more interested in kissing her.
“How about we eat?” His grin was self-effacing. “If we stand here staring at each other for too much longer, I’m definitely going to kiss you. It’s pretty much all I can think about.”
“I think we already established the fact that I’m not going to argue with you about that. You want to kiss, I’m down for it.” She tilted her head and gave him a little grin. “I’m also down for eating though, because I’m hungry.”
They sat and ate, chatting about Cord’s trip. Rosie told him what she and Joseph did while he was gone. Soon, an hour had passed.
“It’s about time for me to go pick Joseph up. I won
der if Lark meant for him to start today?” Rosie stood and gathered up the dirty dishes.
Cord got the bread and the soup and carried them to the counter. “If you hold on for just a minute, I’ll call Lark and ask her.”
“That’s great. If he’s supposed to go, I’ll need to take some clothes for him to change into. Make sure there’s a place for him to change, otherwise we’ll stop here first.” She wet a rag and wiped the table.
“You know maybe after you do that, we’ll go into town and see what we can find out.” Rosie looked over her shoulder at him, and he could tell by the look on her face that she knew exactly what he was saying. He wanted to try to find Joseph’s father and talk to him.
Chapter 17
IT TURNED OUT THAT Jeb could use Joseph, so Cord and Rosie drove him out. Then they drove to Sweet Water.
There was one bar in town, and Cord figured if Joseph’s dad wasn’t in the converted bus, he’d be in the bar. Although where he’d find the money to pay was a mystery Cord had no idea how to solve.
They parked along the street and went in the bar first. He’d been in it a few times. The place also served food, and their fries were really good. He’d never come in and sat down for any length of time, though, and he doubted Rosie had ever darkened the door. But he knew Lucas, the owner, and his wife, Francine. Nice people, and Cord thought they might say the same about Rosie and him.
Rosie didn’t say anything when his hand slid into hers and closed around it, but her fingers squeezed, and when he looked down, she was smiling up at him.
The interior was dark, which seemed to be a requirement of taverns. The dark paneling along the walls and the dark wood tables, chairs, and bar added to the gloomy atmosphere. There was some twangy music playing in the background, but not so loud that one couldn’t have a conversation.
Surveying the partially full room, Cord nodded at Lucas who was behind the bar and at Francine who was waitressing tables. Francine had both hands full, but she nodded at them and Rosie lifted her hand.
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