A Restless Wind (28 page)

     “Winter is almost here,”  Hetty reminded him.  “Just where is it that you think I need to grow flowers?”

     “Of course you would want to wait for Spring,”  he said with a half-smile.  “But I thought you might like to plant them around the new house I’m building.”

     “New house?”  He had surprised her there.  It was the first she had heard of it.

     “Yes.  That’s part of why I went up to Wolf Ridge.  To order lumber and supplies.”

     “And where are you building this new house?”  Hetty wanted to know. 

     “Right over the foundation of an old barn,”  he answered her.

     Hetty stared at him.  “You mean where-  ”  she began, her voice trailing off softly.

     “Just where,”  Jesse said just as softly.  “Something inspired me to build there. 
You
inspired me.”

     He was building a house over the very place where they had shared their first kiss.

     “Did I?”  she asked, a wistful smile curving her lips, matching the feeling in her heart.

     He nodded.  “You did.”

     Her eyes took on a soft dreaminess.

     “I have some fond memories of the place,”  Jesse went on.  “I’ve discovered I’m kind of sentimental that way.”

     “You really are thinking about settling down then?”  was her next question.

     “I’m thinking pretty serious about it.”

     And then he was down on one knee before her.  Hetty was deeply aware of everything around her.  The sunlight flashing on the leaves.  The birds chirping sweetly in the trees.  She saw and heard every detail.  She knew she would fix the moment forever in her mind.

     “You seem surprised,”  Jesse said with a bemused smile.  “I always thought a woman couldn’t help but know when a man was in love with her.”  He glanced briefly at Pierce.  “But then I learned that she might like to hear him declare it.”

     She smiled at Pierce who smiled back at her.  She looked back at Jesse.  “Are you in love?”  she breathed.

     “As deep as a man can be.”

     Jesse took her hand in his.

     “And since I plan to be in love for as long as I have breath, I think it’s only right to ask her to marry me.  If she’ll have me.  Bad reputation and all. “

     Everyone on the porch seemed to hold a collective breath.  All eyes were on Hetty.  And Jesse.

     She felt right.  She felt complete.  Jesse made her feel that way.

     The whole town would talk.  But they could think what they wanted.  Say what they wanted.  Jesse was the man who had stormed the depths of her heart.

     No one spoke.  The maple tree sent crimson leaves pirouetting slowly down around them.  They landed on the sunlit porch and settled softly on the women’s skirts and on the melting snow in the yard.

     “Yes,”  Hetty whispered.  “She will have you.”

     She closed her eyes as Jesse’s mouth touched hers, at the very same moment that she heard Adalia Sweet’s shocked gasp.

the end