And Baby Makes Five (20 page)

“N
ope, never did see anything quite like it,” Applegate Thornton said, scratching his gray hair. His wrinkled face was scrunched up in a corkscrew grimace and frankly, Cort had never seen anything quite like
it
before.

It was six-thirty in the morning and Cort had come to Pete’s feed store for, of all things, alfalfa. Samantha had stolen all of his, and Pete had informed him at the wedding that he’d finally gotten in a fresh supply. Since Cort hadn’t been able to sleep, he’d decided to get a head start on the day by coming out first thing and picking it up.

He hadn’t thought there would be a line.

Applegate Thornton and Stanley Orr had their morning checkers match over at Sam’s Diner every daybreak until after nine. Once a week they came to Pete’s for a new bag of sesame seeds. This morning Cort found himself behind them as Pete weighed and bagged the seeds, and then they weighed and balanced everything that had happened at the wedding reception Saturday night. Obviously a lot had happened after Cort left, having listened to about all the love singing he could stomach for one evening.

Not that he didn’t appreciate love. He did. But when a fella was in over his head, with weights on his ankles, the last thing he wanted to hear was the fifty greatest love songs sung by fifty not-so-great crooners. But that hadn’t been what sent him packing. It hadn’t even been when Applegate had decided to try his hand at singing a Beatles favorite.

Cort had left when he’d seen Bob whispering in Lilly’s ear and watching the pretty shade of pink she turned and the adoring way she stared into the cowboy’s eyes.

Needless to say, Cort hadn’t slept a wink, and he hadn’t slept well last night, either. His mood was about as dark as the night he’d barely made it through. And standing in line at the feed store wasn’t improving his attitude one bit.

“Did you hear what I said?” Applegate leaned toward him, as if Cort was the one who couldn’t hear, and repeated himself, louder this time. “I said, never did see anything quite like it.”

“He heard ya the first time, App. He ain’t hard a-hearin’. I am. And I heard ya the first time. You ignoring him, son?”

Cort stared from one man to the next. “I heard him the first time.”

“Then you were ignorin’ me.” Applegate’s expression grew dark, his bushy eyebrows met in the middle and his skin wrinkled up around his nose as his lips drooped.

“No, sir, I was not ignoring you.”

“Did ya hear that, Stan—says he wasn’t ignoring me. Pete, did ya hear that?”

Cort prayed for patience and tried to step to the counter, but the older man slapped him on his back and chuckled.

“I saw you sneak off before Lacy threw that boo-kay of flowers. You shoulda stayed. Your girlfriend was standing there, not looking too happy…. Did you think she was looking happy, Stan?”

“Nope, she looked like she wanted to be home long ’fore they threw that flower ball. Can’t say I blame her. Poor thang.”

Cort shifted from one boot to the other. He didn’t want to hear any more about Lilly. She’d probably caught the bouquet and would be the next bride in Mule Hollow. She and Bob would make a great couple. They’d have a houseful of kids.

“Tell him what happened, App.” Pete said, trying to get App to tell, or move, probably so the line would thin out and he could get back to warming his feet over by the stove Cort saw in the corner.

Cort scooted his hat back from his eyes and studied the older man. “Mr. Applegate, what was so bad about Saturday night?” He’d decided it was better to ask and get it over with rather than wait.

“Okay, so there your girlfriend stood all quiet like with all them other outsiders. Them women were huddled up in the corner like a bunch of running backs going out for a pass. Lacy chucked the flowers, and I’m telling you they were heading straight for your girlfriend—”

“She isn’t my girlfriend,” Cort interrupted—to the wind, because Applegate kept right on going.

“We were all holding our breath that Lilly was going to raise her hands, so the ball of flowers wouldn’t give her a black eye or anything, and all of a sudden like Michael Jordan getting hang time, football and basketball collided, along with a couple of them women. Right there in the building. This ole gal rose into the air in a dive that lasted all of ten minutes in slow motion. Yes, sir, that gal hung in the air with one arm out ahead of her and she snatched that bunch of flowers right before they hit Lilly. Onliest problem was, another of them gals was hangin’ ten coming from the other direction.”

Applegate rubbed his chin with two fingers and studied Cort. “Yup, Lilly just stood there. What’d you do to her? Seems to me a woman would have lifted a hand to catch a boo-kay if she wanted to get married.”

“Yep, I think you’re probably right about that, sir.”

“Well, son, I’ll tell you it was a good thing she didn’t catch the flowers. That gal that did went down under a herd of brawlers. I think everybody came up with a petal.”

“I don’t know about coming up with a petal, but I know they were wearin’ them in their hair,” added Stanley.

“All I can say in their defense is that the cowboys didn’t act much better when Clint threw that pink hatband. Yep, Lacy designed that thang all special like with them words proclamating “I’m next” stitched across it. Yep, quite unusual, but there’s a few black eyes this morning over that little piece of elastic. And onliest one fella wearing it around his hat.” Applegate popped a few seeds into his mouth. Cort figured he’d grown tired of waiting till he got over to Sam’s to chomp on the little fellas.

“In their defense,” rambled Stanley—he was on a roll, too—“there were a few ladies that remained out of the scramble. Those nice teachers living over at Adela’s didn’t get into it—matter of fact, none of the ladies already living here got into the fight. They was real ladies about the whole thang and let them that wanted to brawl have at it. Can’t say I blame ’em. It ain’t like that boo-kay-catchin’ thang is ever accurate.”

Cort had about lost patience, and stepped up to the counter. Pete grabbed his pen from behind his ear and took his order while Stanley and Applegate eased up behind him.

“What you need all that alfalfa for?”

Cort looked to his right at Applegate. “For my stock.”

“Leroy always ordered a ton of that stuff, too. Said his jack—”

“Donkey.” Cort cut in on Stanley. “Samantha prefers burro or donkey to the biblically correct name.”

Stanley scratched his head. “That’s exactly what Leroy used to say about that donkey. She been letting your stock loose?”

“Yep.”

“She’s a stinker. Leroy used to get mad enough to spit nails at that little donkey,” Applegate said, setting his bag of seeds down.

That wasn’t a good sign for Cort. He figured this was going to be another long story, and he really needed to go.

“Said to us many times that he raised that donkey to sell as a nursemaid to livestock, and he’d have sold her many times over just to get her out of his hair. But he couldn’t do it, seeins how that sweet, lonesome Lilly needed something to love. And she shore nuff did love that Samantha. Ain’t that right, Stanley?”

Cort’s heart started thumping hard in his chest just thinking about Lilly needing something to love. He felt bad standing in the feed store listening to gossip about her and was glad when Pete came out with his order and they could go outside and load it into the back of his truck.

The two older men followed them.

Cort didn’t hang around and encourage any more talk about Lilly. It was exactly as he’d thought. Lilly needed a large family to make up for all the years of loneliness she’d endured growing up. No matter how cute Samantha was, Lilly needed more than a donkey to love. She needed children and a husband who would love her the way she deserved.

Lilly stepped from the barn and ran a hand through her hair. It was a beautiful day. A robin ate feed off the ground near the door, promising that spring was soon approaching. Lilly stretched her arms above her head and arched her back to ease the strain of having unloaded the forty-pound sacks of feed from her pickup to the feed room. It felt good to be getting back in shape, but she’d very nearly overdone it today.

Walking to the gate, she propped one booted foot on the bottom rung and leaned her arms on the top rung as she watched her cattle grazing in the distance. The baby monitor was sitting on the hood of her truck to alert her when Joshua awakened from his afternoon nap. It was a good day. It would be a perfect day if…

Tears pricked her eyes, then she lowered her head in prayer. It was the only way she could find peace from the heartache plaguing her. From the what-ifs. There was no solution unless God stepped in and changed either her heart or Cort’s. She’d realized the night of the reception when she’d watched Cort leave minutes after she and Bob had come in from the cold that she might not get her wish.

Her heart hadn’t been into the rest of the evening. It was as if it had walked out with Cort. Even when the fight broke out over the bouquet she hadn’t felt much. Let them fight over who would be the next wife of Mule Hollow. Unless God changed Cort’s heart, she would never marry again.

But she knew she had a calling and she was blessed to have it. Raising a child to love the Lord was the most important thing she could do. Her highest calling. The world needed more godly men. She had begun diligently seeking God’s wisdom and guidance in building her personal relationship with Him. She wanted her heart to be fully prepared to guide Joshua as he grew. If God chose to bless her with a godly husband, then He would. She had peace, along with a few tears at times, but still she had peace knowing she was on the path God wanted her to be on.

If it was to be, then it would be. God was in control. Her insides were still turned upside down, though.

Thank You, Lord, for blessing me so. For giving me a son, good friends who shared Your love with me and have pulled me into their fold. I am truly blessed. I thank You for giving me such a wonderful place to raise Joshua and such wonderful godly people to look up to as I endeavor to do Your will in this calling. Thank You, Father. I pray all these things asking that Your will be done. Amen.

Lilly laid her head on her crossed arms and relaxed, watching the cattle mill around in the distance. They worried about nothing. Their food was provided, their welfare taken care of, by her, their caretaker. Lilly knew Joshua’s and her welfare was being taken care of by the best caretaker there was.

Looking at her watch, she started walking toward the front of her driveway. Bob was supposed to be showing up any minute to start the new single-pole gate he was welding for her. It was an easy fix for her Samantha problem. With the gate in place Samantha could continue to have the run of the place without being able to get out on the dirt road. Thus she’d be unable to go down to Cort’s and cause any more problems.

She, on the other hand, needed to see Cort. She was dedicating Joshua to the Lord on Sunday, and also wanted to announce that Cort was Joshua’s godparent. She needed to make certain he still wanted the responsibility and that he would be at the service with her.

She hadn’t considered how uncomfortable standing up there with him would be.

She hadn’t really thought about a lot of things when she’d asked Cort to be Joshua’s guardian. In the event that something did happen to her, it was crucial that Joshua be comfortable in the new environment with his guardian. With Cort. That meant Lilly might have to be around Cort more than she could—no, she could handle anything. Cort was her friend. Nothing more. And she could handle this. With God’s help she could.

That is, if Cort still wanted Joshua.

Cort was in the barn when he heard Loser go bonkers. Samantha was on the premises. Coming out of the barn, Cort saw her back end as she disappeared inside his house.

“Samantha!” Cort yelled, not certain why he even attempted to call out to her. It was as if she was deaf by choice. Loser was barking inside and Cort could hear crashing in the few seconds it took him to get to the back door. One look inside and he was ready to…well, he wasn’t ready to shoot her or anything, but he was ready to sell her. Even if she didn’t belong to him.

His temper was short anyway and the disastrous donkey tearing up his kitchen was the last thing he needed.

Yanking open the door, he stormed into the kitchen just in time to witness Samantha knocking the toaster to the floor as she wrapped her chubby lips around the bread bag and squeezed. The bag popped and bread blew out the end. Several pieces hit Loser on the head, causing him to jump, and run into Samantha’s legs as the donkey spun toward the door—knocking his coffeemaker off the counter as she swung her bread-bag-filled mouth around.

The moment Samantha saw him, he figured she knew she was in big trouble.

Lilly was expecting Bob when she saw Cort’s truck making slow progress toward her. Tied to the tailgate was Samantha. One look at Cort’s scowling face told her Samantha had been up to no good. Again.

“Get in,” he snapped, coming to a halt beside her. Lilly didn’t ask questions. She could tell by the contrite look on Samantha’s long face that he probably had good reason to be upset.

“I’m afraid to ask what happened,” she said, slamming the door. Loser bounded into her lap with a joyous yelp and immediately tried to lick her to death.