Luke’s Runaway Bride (22 page)

“Oh, Olivia,” Jenny said, stepping forward to hug her dear friend, “I’m so happy for you.” She truly was. “And for you, Travis.” She shook his hand.

“Thank you,” he said.

Luke stood apart from the others for a moment, arms crossed over his broad chest, his black shirt neatly pressed and his black hair slicked back at the sides. Lord, he looked handsome today, thought Jenny. Extra handsome.

Luke stepped closer and clapped Travis on the shoulder, then shook his hand. “When did you decide to ask her?”

“Days ago,” said Travis, grinning through his wide mustache. He squeezed Olivia. “One morning before the rest of you were even awake, when the roosters were still crowin’—”

“Travis, watch what you say,” Olivia interrupted, squirming beside him, lowering her lashes. “You make it sound like…like we woke up together in the same bed—”

“Oh, no,” he said, trying to explain himself. “It happened—it happened…” He turned to Olivia. “When did it happen again?”

Jenny glanced at Luke. His eyes twinkled at her, and she gave him a warm smile, amused at Olivia and Travis’s obvious ploy to get their story straight.

Olivia’s lashes fluttered. “Why, you asked me during our walk.”

“Right,” said Travis, nervously, “our walk just before breakfast.”

“Just
after
breakfast, remember?”

“Just after breakfast,” Travis corrected.

Jenny noted the happy glow on Olivia’s face, and every loving touch she gave her beloved Travis, and her own heart ached. “I’ll miss you terribly, Olivia.” Jenny sniffed into her handkerchief.

Olivia’s mouth quivered. She wrapped her arm around Jenny. “That’s the only thing I can’t bear about this. I can’t stand to leave you. Please stay here a little longer.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Jenny looked at Luke. Other than a few polite comments, they hadn’t spoken since the funeral.

He inclined his dark head, waiting for her response. Did he want her to stay? she wondered.

She couldn’t read those glimmering, gray eyes.

What did
she
want?

How did she feel about him? After all they’d been through together, where did it leave them?

Two weeks ago, she hadn’t even known Luke. She’d been engaged to another man. How could she run into Luke’s arms in so short a time?

But what she did know, when she looked at him, was that he was the most honorable, decent man she’d ever known. And he still made her heart flutter and her pulse beat faster. And why was she never able to catch her breath around him?

Jenny grabbed Olivia’s hands. “Will you have lots of babies?”

“We want dozens and dozens,” Olivia cooed.

“You’ll have a long family tree to explain to them. All the way back two hundred years.”

Olivia’s tears spilled over. She nodded, unable to speak for a moment. “Thank you, Jenny, for being my sister.”

The two women hugged, and Jenny knew she’d explode if she thought much longer about being separated from Olivia.

Olivia pleaded, “Say you’ll stay two more weeks. You can help me look for a place to stay, something temporary for me and Travis. Travis said we might even look for a little house.”

“It’s all right by me if you stay longer,” her father boomed from the doorway.

Jenny straightened. With deep respect, she gazed at her father as he congratulated Olivia and Travis. He’d been through a lot these past three days, and he was quieter than she’d ever seen him.

“I’ll—I’ll catch the train tomorrow myself,” her father stammered. “You can follow in a week or two. I mean,
if
you’re askin’ me, it’s all right.”

“Thank you,” she said, embracing him.

As for Luke, her sentiments were still a confused tangle, but Jenny took a deep breath and faced the others. “Olivia, I’d love to stay with you for two more weeks.”

If Luke paced the floor much longer, he’d wear a hole in the kitchen planks. But he couldn’t get his mind off Jenny. Tonight, she’d said she’d love to stay for Olivia’s sake. Not his. Olivia’s.

Why wouldn’t Jenny talk to him? Every time he looked at her, he wanted to snatch her into his arms and carry her off to his bed. But things had cooled between them. She’d grown distant and detached. How could he approach her when she would barely look at him?

And how would the townsfolk react to seeing her with Luke, so soon after they’d buried her fiancé?

Jenny and Luke couldn’t, of course, explain about Daniel’s true nature and the cause of their fighting, because they wanted to spare Adam’s future feelings when he discovered that Daniel was his father. The judge was sworn to secrecy. And Luke and Jenny, with the others, vowed they wouldn’t tarnish Daniel’s name. His death had been an accident—caused by Harley, the judge had decided to rule. They would let Daniel rest in peace.

Luke was grateful to Judge Green for implying there must have been a business rift between Daniel and Harley, which allowed the townsfolk to mistakenly conclude the fighting had occurred between the two of them.

Meanwhile, the situation was complicated, and Luke knew Jenny needed more time to put her feelings in order. But how much time?

Lord, if she never got over it, he’d crack and crumble into a thousand pieces, wither like a dry weed blowing in the wind. To come this far, to open his heart and make love to her, and then never hold her again, would be the end of him.

He was still recovering from his wounds, and had his hands full trying to get his name cleared of the Denver robbery, not to mention tending and caring for little Adam.

Tired of thinking about it, Luke stepped into the spring room off the kitchen, pumped the well handle and filled the basin with cool water.

Adam burst in. “Can’t I stay up a little longer?”

“No,” Luke said, grinning, trying to be firm, but always ending up being soft. “It’s time for bed. Here,” he said, playfully tossing the youngster a washcloth, “wash your face and hands, then change into your nightshirt.”

Luke drew the boy closer, so grateful Adam had been spared witnessing the ordeal with Daniel. The boy was happy just to be with Luke, and thrilled they’d found Jenny.

“I’m never takin’ these clothes off,” Adam said proudly, “never.”

Luke laughed. The boy was wearing some new clothes Luke had bought at the mercantile. Nothing fit. While the trousers were a little snug, the shirt billowed and the sleeves hung too long. The new leather shoes flopped on his feet. He’d grow into those, Luke supposed, but he didn’t understand it. It seemed Adam needed a size six shirt, but size eight trousers and size one shoes. Who could keep track of all those sizes? Adam, bless his heart, wouldn’t let Luke return anything. The boy insisted he loved it all.

Luke sighed in deep contentment.

He smiled to himself at how nervous he’d been in the beginning. But he’d discovered he didn’t have to learn how to be a father overnight, he’d learn it one step at a time. Adam would guide him.

Hearing Jenny’s voice in the kitchen, Adam jumped up. “Jenny, Jenny, is it true? Are you staying two more weeks?”

Luke’s pulse began to hum at the sound of her gentle voice.

Jenny poked her face through the door with a rustle of skirts. She came in only so far and then stopped. She was avoiding Adam, too, Luke noted with disappointment. He knew why. It was as if she were afraid to become attached to the boy, in case…

With an uneasy glance at Luke, she settled her smile on Adam. The contours of her face softened, set off by the creamy apricot color of her new blouse. “Yes, it’s true.”

Surely, that day in the sunshine by the creek, when they’d joined in union, would be more than just a memory Luke would remember into his old age?

Adam asked her, “Can you help put me to bed tonight?”

“Oh,” she murmured, then looked at him brightly. “Sure, I haven’t done that for a few days. I miss it.”

When the boy was settled in his bed, Jenny and Luke standing above him, tucking him in, Adam whispered, “Tell me, again, Luke, how you’re going to adopt me.”

In the hazy glow of the lamp, Luke turned to Jenny and they shared a private smile.

Luke’s throat tightened. “I’m going to adopt you, Adam. You’re going to be my son and I’m going to be your father.”

“Do you promise?”

“Yup.”

“When?”

Adam already knew when. Luke had told him a dozen times already. “The judge will have the papers drafted tomorrow,” Luke said. “I’ll sign them as soon as they’re ready.”

“Promise?”

“Yup.”

Luke bent down low and kissed the boy’s brow. He ached to tug Jenny down with them, a circle of three, but she stood off to the side.

“Night, Jenny,” Adam whispered.

With a soothing murmur, Jenny leaned down and pulled Adam into her arms, looking as if her heart would break.

When Luke turned down the kerosene lamp and they left the room, Jenny spun away with only a simple nod in his direction.

What was she so afraid of? To go near the boy?

Or to come near him?

“P
a?” asked Adam, scooping Blackie into his arms and feeding him a biscuit.

Luke’s hair ruffled in the cool breeze. He crouched down to the boy’s level and stroked Blackie’s fur. Would Luke ever get used to being called that? In wonder, he drew a hand over the young boy’s shoulder. “Yeah, Son?”

“Can I keep Blackie for myself?”

“Are you going to look after him?”

“Sure I will.” Adam buried his face in the puppy’s soft fur.

The boy had already proved he could look after the strays. “All right, then, I reckon you can keep him.”

Beyond the valley, a train whistle blew and echoed off the buildings behind them, giving Luke a jolt. The eleven-twenty was arriving from Denver. It was Saturday morning, and Jenny was leaving today.

Two weeks had passed and they weren’t any closer to coming together. He’d kept his distance, giving her time, hoping and waiting for her to come to him, but she never had.

Not once.

She’d spent her time with Olivia and Travis. And after all she’d done to stay away from Adam, it seemed she couldn’t. She’d spent hours with him daily for the past two weeks.

“Jenny’s not stayin’, is she?” Adam’s brown eyes pierced Luke’s.

“I don’t think so.”

Adam lost his smile. “Why not?” he asked with such honesty Luke couldn’t answer for a minute. “Can’t you make her stay? Don’t you want her to stay?”

“I do, but it’s complicated.”

The steam engine blew again. In just over an hour it’d be gone. And Jenny with it. Before she left, he had to show her something, something he’d planned specially for today.

Should he spill his heart to her, as well?

How much longer should he wait? Till she went to Denver and settled in down there? Till she completely forgot about him, that he even existed?

Adam lowered Blackie to the water bowl. The puppy slurped. “Jenny’s gonna be all alone when she leaves.”

Luke startled at the thought.

It was true. She’d be alone. Like he’d been once in a former life, before he’d found Adam.

Jenny had lost Daniel, and then Olivia, and all her plans for her store.

Most of all, if she left, the two of them would lose each other.

He rose to his feet.

No.
He couldn’t let that happen. No matter how much more time she thought she needed, or what the townsfolk thought of them, he had to find her.

“Why do you have to go?” sobbed Olivia in their bedroom at the saloon.

Jenny folded a dress into her satchel. “My life’s in Denver.”

“But I’ll miss you so much,” her friend wailed. She pulled out her damp hanky and buried her face in it. The brown bow on top of her curls bobbed.

Jenny flopped onto the bed. Her eyes grew misty. “Please don’t cry, or I’ll start all over again. I’m thrilled it worked out for you and Travis. He’s a good man and you deserve happiness and sunshine. Just think of the nice house he bought for you, where you’ll raise your family.”

Olivia’s chest heaved with sobs.

“Be happy for me, too,” Jenny said, trying to calm her.

Olivia glanced up. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m going back to Denver, and I’m going to work hard to open my lingerie store.”

“Oh, well, that is good news.”

It wouldn’t be so bad in Denver, Jenny told herself. She’d stood up to her father, although he still disapproved of her store and wouldn’t back her. But in the spring, her brothers would be joining them, and she was looking forward to that.

She’d do whatever it took to provide capital for her store. In the last two weeks, she’d earned twenty more dollars sewing for the dancing girls. When she returned to Denver, she’d scrub floors and sew fancy dresses until her fingertips were raw. And she’d take pride in every cent she earned.

Denver bankers had turned her down, but there were a number of businesswomen cropping up here and there. Maybe they’d loan her the money for start-up. She’d certainly give it a try.

Jenny heaved her heavy satchel off the bed. Her heart thudded. How would she say goodbye to Luke? To the man she loved with all her heart? She freely admitted it now. In these two longest weeks of her life, he hadn’t approached her. Every time she tried to muster her thoughts and words to speak to him, she wound up remaining silent.

Thankfully, her anguish over Daniel’s death was fading, and whenever she saw Luke and Adam together, her heart filled with joy, so very pleased Adam had Luke as a father now.

Luke had been the better man all along.

She pressed a hand to her fluttering stomach. But Luke had never promised her a future.

He’d never promised her anything, and anything she might have hoped for was just a wild, runaway dream of her own foolish imagination.

She inhaled a steadying breath of Wyoming air. Well, she’d have to make her own future, then. And she wasn’t as scared to do it as she’d been a month ago, before she’d set foot in his saloon.

Taking a final glance in the long mirror, she smoothed her beaver tail, adjusted her blue feathered bonnet and ran a hand down her newly sewn, blue twill dress. The bustle shimmered in the sunlight streaming through the window.

“Do you promise you’ll visit often?” Olivia sniffled.

“I do.”

“I still can’t say goodbye.”

“Then please don’t follow me to the station. I’ll fall apart.” Jenny’s throat burned with hot tears. “Let’s say goodbye at the saloon doors instead.”

Olivia nodded in agreement and headed down to the saloon, where they embraced.

Pensively, Jenny dropped her bag by the bar and glanced around for Luke. The moment of reckoning couldn’t be postponed forever. Would this be it, then?

The saloon was almost empty, except for the dancing girls moving behind the stage curtains, and the two bartenders polishing and stacking glasses along the mirrored wall.

Jenny didn’t see Luke. It was getting late, quarter to twelve.

“I’ll look in the kitchen,” Olivia said, disappearing in that direction.

“Are you looking for me?”

Jenny’s breath caught at the sound of Luke’s deep voice behind her. She spun around to face him.

Tall, rugged and dangerous.

Dressed in black from head to toe.

He seemed overwhelmed to see her. His full lips parted slightly. When he grazed her body with his eyes, slowly working his way up from boots to bonnet, over her blue dress and bustles, heat raced through her bloodstream.

She was shocked at the impact of his deep gaze when he finally peered into her face. “You look so different. Did you make that dress yourself?”

She nodded proudly.

“And the bonnet, and the cloth gloves?”

She nodded again.
And the lacy cream corset, and the fleeced petticoat, and the silk stockings with the monogrammed initials, Miss J.E.

“You are indeed a very talented woman.”

He was so good-looking, and she reacted so powerfully to him, that she could barely speak. “Thank you.”

Her thoughts filtered back to the day she’d made love to him. How beautiful his body had been beneath hers, how remarkably sensitive those callused palms were. She yearned to reach out and wind her fingers through the soft hair at his temples.

Instead, she glanced away. “I’d like to find…
Adam
to say goodbye.”

“Weren’t you going to say goodbye to
me?
”

She raised her gaze slowly to look at him. His eyes glistened. Nervously, she ran a hand over her skirt. What was that? Something hard in her pocket. With a frown, she dug it out, staring at a hard black lump. Then she smiled.

“What is it?” Luke asked.

“Olivia must have put this in my pocket. It’s a lump of coal…for good luck.” She gripped it firmly between her fingers, about to place it on the bar, but changed her mind and slipped it back into her pocket.

“You have a good friend in Olivia.”

If he started talking about her dear friend, Jenny would likely start crying again. “Will you keep an eye on her? I know Travis is a good man, but will you just watch out for her?”

He nodded. His voice grew husky. “You’ll never change, you know.”

If she looked at him much longer, her heart would burst. He reached out, about to stroke her face, but she stepped to the bar to get her satchel.

Before she could stop him, he yanked it from her grasp.

“Hey, I need that.”

He placed it firmly back on the floorboards. “I want you to follow me first. Take a look at this.”

“At what?”

“The sign beside the door.”

She frowned and slipped out to the breezy boardwalk. A freshly painted sign was nailed to the wall.

Ladies’ Luncheon on Saturdays. All Ladies Welcome for Complimentary Meal.

Her mouth gaped open. “Luke, what have you done?”

“I took you up on your business idea.”

She’d thought the idea was sound when she’d mentioned it, but putting it into practice made her insides jump. “But are you sure it’s wise?”

“I want to show you how much I believe in you.”

He grabbed her by the hand and led her back inside. Her skin prickled all the way up her arm; it felt so wonderful to be touched by him. And did she hear him right? He said he believed in her.

“It’s true,” said Mona, handing her the morning paper. “Winslowe wrote about it in his editorial. Look behind you, there’s a few ladies coming in now.”

Jenny still couldn’t believe it. Luke was actually taking a chance on her idea. That’s why the tables were covered with checkered red cloths.

Outside, the train whistle blasted. With a jolt, Jenny dropped the paper. “I’ll miss my train.”

“Don’t you want to see how your idea pans out?” Luke asked.

Sure she did, but she only had about thirty minutes left. Regulars began trickling in, settling at the bar. Franklin tipped his hat to her, then Reverend Thomas and Winslowe. Mona and Olivia. Travis and Lee. The cook and his wife.

“I’m not sure about your idea, myself,” Mona complained, leaning closer and wiping her fingers on her apron.

“It’ll work,” Luke said.

“Anyone comin’ in yet?” asked Beuford.

“Well, not too many yet.”

“This I gotta see,” said one of the stagecoach drivers, ordering an ale.

Women began arriving. Old Mrs. Robins and her granddaughter, then the bank teller and her mother, and then a dozen more women with their daughters and grandmothers. This was not exactly what Jenny had in mind. Where were the men?

Well, at least the women would have to pay for their drinks. Jenny listened to them give Mona their orders, and groaned along with Luke.

“Water, please.”

“Just a glass of water.”

“Water will be fine, here, too.”

“Hey, Luke,” said a laughing man. “I see a lot of women, but I don’t see no payin’ customers.”

Jenny looked around in frustration. Only women. Lots and lots of women, but no husbands.

An elderly woman timidly opened the saloon doors and approached Mona. “Can my sisters have free meals, too?”

Mona glanced at Luke in disbelief. Jenny held her breath.

“That’s what the sign says,” Luke stated. He said it very calmly, but Jenny noted the perspiration collecting at his temples.

Finally men start crowding into the bar, until there was standing room only. “We want to watch this nonsense,” they hollered to Luke, putting down their money for drinks and calling out for bacon and eggs and fried cornmeal and roast beef dip.

Luke turned to her with a wide grin on his handsome face. “I think your plan’s working. Not quite like we expected—it’s the spectators who are buying—but your plan’s working.”

She smiled back in utter relief.

“I hired two extra cooks today, and Lola’s singing,” Luke told her.

“Oh, no,” said Jenny, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“She’s wearing one of the costumes you sewed her.”

“That’s an even worse idea.” Jenny hadn’t sewn her any costumes, she’d sewn mainly undergarments. And if Lola was wearing one of her corsets for a costume…

Lola came out in the crisp yellow Sunday dress Jenny had sewed for her. She made a very respectable sight.

The women diners settled in, gazing at the menus, listening to Lola sing a beautiful Irish ballad.

Luke turned to Jenny. “Now I’ve got something to say to you.”

“I’ll miss my train,” she said, striding to the bar and picking up her satchel amid the noisy crowd. “Where’s Adam? I’ve got to find Adam. Adam!” she hollered.

Jenny was almost at the kitchen door when a black Stetson whirled overhead and landed at her feet. She halted in midstride.

“Come back here,” Luke told her.

The crowd around them began to hush.

She turned to face him. What could he possibly want? “You can handle the Ladies’ Luncheon all by yourself. You don’t need my help.”

“I’m not talking about the luncheon. I’m talking about you and me.”

Her heart stopped pounding.

Lola finished her song. The crowd grew silent. Jenny wished someone would talk to break the spell that filled the room. What did he mean?

“Uh-oh,” said Lola. “Ladies, hang on to your drinks.”

Not another public display, thought Jenny. She spun on her heel toward the kitchen.

Behind her, she heard a loud thud and a jangle of spurs. Ladies began to laugh.

Jenny whirled around. Luke was standing on a red-checkered table. “Stay here with me, Jenny.”

The crowd gasped. One lady spoke up. “Is this part of the show?”

“I think so,” her friend replied.

Jenny met Luke’s unwavering gaze and thought she’d melt right there. “Don’t say things if you don’t mean them,” she whispered.

“I never thought I’d be up here saying this, but I don’t want to be alone anymore. I never knew what I was missing until I met you. I love you, Jenny. Share my life with me. Be my partner.”

“Your partner?”

He swallowed hard. “My wife.”

Jenny’s satchel dropped to the floor. She gulped and stared at him.

Luke continued earnestly, “I didn’t think you’d even consider me until…you were free to do so. I didn’t want to put any pressure on you, and that’s why I left it so long. Please, Jenny…” His voice strummed through her like a warm welcome breeze. “Please say you’ll be my wife.”