The Homesteader's Sweetheart (21 page)

Chapter Twenty

P
enny’s hopes that Jonas would reconsider her banishment from the homestead went unmet. Her only contact with the Whites was Oscar, who Jonas sent over faithfully each afternoon to finish the repairs in the kitchen and bring food. Maxwell was still recovering from his leg injury, and she missed the quiet boy.

Penny missed the children’s chatter, missed Breanna’s constant hugs.

Missed Jonas’s steady presence.

And the repairs were almost complete. Which meant she and Sam didn’t have a reason to stay on with their grandfather much longer.

She didn’t want to go back to Calvin without fixing things with Jonas. She valued his friendship and had thought there was something more between them.

She’d considered going over to his home and
making
him speak to her, though she knew it was against his wishes. But with all her spare time, she’d gone back to the medical journals and still couldn’t find any evidence that there were successful treatments for epilepsy, other than the bromide Jonas had told her affected Breanna negatively.

She didn’t think she could hold her opinion inside if she saw Jonas again. She loved Breanna too much to allow the girl to have a risky treatment without proof that it would heal her.

But with the information she could wrangle out of Oscar, she knew Jonas was still distressed and hadn’t figured out a way to find the money for Breanna’s treatment.

“Max won’t be able to ride in the Bear Creek Round Up, but Edgar and I are still planning on entering. Roping and bronc riding.”

Penny shook herself out of her musings and turned her attention to Oscar, who spoke quietly to Sam as they patched the wall behind the stove where she’d burned it all those weeks ago.

“We all talked about it and if we win, we want to give the money to Pa to help pay for Breanna’s medicine. He’s been real down since the fire…”

Oscar glanced over his shoulder, almost as if to make sure Penny heard him.

“Do you think you can win?” Sam asked, even as Penny’s mind raced ahead.

She’d been too wrapped up in her own misery lately and forgotten about the cowboy exhibition. She’d been clinging to the promises found in her gran’s Bible, but found it hard to trust the words when her heart seemed to be tearing in two.

“Pa says a lot of cowboys’ll be there from all over.” Oscar scowled, and Penny saw it even though she only had a view of his profile. “I dunno. Ed’s not near as good as Max with a rope. But if I can draw a good bronc and stay on…maybe.”

“Aren’t you afraid of getting hurt?” Penny blurted, unable to stay out of their conversation.

“Naw.” But a subtle quirk of his jaw told her he might not be telling the full truth.

“And Jo—your father’s all right with you entering the events? Edgar’s not even fifteen…”

He shrugged. “Pa says it’s all right. We both been riding since we was Seb’s age, ya know.”

“I know.” She did, but she also knew the cowpokes they’d be challenging were rough and tough, and they were just boys…

“Pa don’t know what we want the prize money for. You ain’t gonna tell him, are ya?” He glanced anxiously over his shoulder and met Penny’s eyes.

“No.” She doubted Jonas would even talk to her. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

“But you’re comin’ to watch, right?”

She had to clear her throat before she could speak. “Yes, we’ll be there.” Even if she had to saddle a horse and go by herself, she wouldn’t miss it if the boys wanted her there. There would be enough of a crowd that she could stay away from Jonas and still support the boys.

But what she really wanted was to load up in the Whites’ wagon and attend as a family, the way she would’ve before the fire had ruined everything.

* * *

Jonas spotted the familiar copper hair tucked into a braid down Penny’s back and started toward her before he realized what he was doing and stopped.

But it was too late. Breanna, clinging to his hand in the pressing crowd, had seen her, too, and cried out, “Miss Penny!”

Whirling, Penny’s face lit and she hurried through the jostling mass, bumping people out of her way. Breanna released Jonas’s hand and threw herself into Penny’s embrace, almost knocking the slender redhead off her feet.

Penny didn’t seem to care. She buried her face in the crown of Breanna’s head and hugged his daughter.

“I’ve missed you, darling girl,” she murmured.

Breanna sniffled as she drew away. “Me, too. I’ve been practicing my manners.”

“Have you? That’s wonderful.” Penny looked up at Jonas, their gazes connecting over his daughter’s head. He felt almost as if she’d reached out and touched his chest with her palm.

“Hello,” Penny said softly.

Chest tight, Jonas couldn’t return her greeting.

“Maxwell’s been helping me practice my reading, too, and I’ve even been trying to make the boys do better, especially when they’re eatin’.”

Penny looked down at Breanna, breaking the invisible connection and allowing Jonas to breathe again.

“Where are your brothers? I expected to see them with the prettiest girl in the whole crowd.”

Breanna smiled prettily at Penny’s compliment, twirling side to side so that her dress, the one Penny had made, swished around her ankles. “Me ’n Pa are s’posed to save some seats. Oscar ’n Edgar had to go get ready for their events and t’others wanted to look at the broncs.”

Just then, Walt and Sam approached from behind Penny. The older man spoke. “Well, hello, young man. You’ve been scarce lately.”

Jonas glanced at Penny, unsure if she’d told the older man what had happened between them. She shook her head slightly.

“I’m sure Jonas has been trying to get things back in order after the fire,” Penny murmured.

Someone in the crowd jostled Walt, and Penny took his arm, giving the older man a concerned look. Jonas looked closer at his friend. Walt appeared healthy, color in his cheeks. But he was a little more bent, seemed a little older than he had at the beginning of the summer. Even with Penny and Sam around, he seemed to have aged. What would he do after they went home?

What would Jonas do?

Guilt surged through Jonas. He should’ve been better at checking on Walt more often, should’ve seen to the repairs on Walt’s place himself. But he had been too afraid to see Penny.

He’d failed his friend. Just like he’d failed Breanna, though she didn’t even know it yet. No wonder everyone abandoned him.

“Why don’t you join us?” Walt asked.

Breanna jumped up and down. “Oh, Pa, please! Can we sit with Miss Penny and Sam and Poppy Walt? Please, please, please?”

That was the last thing he wanted—to be near Penny with the unsettling feelings still between them.

But then Breanna turned her pleading brown eyes to him. How could he deny his daughter this request when it might be the only thing he could do for her?

It might be the last time he saw Penny Castlerock.

He agreed and followed as Breanna clung to Penny’s waist while they made their way through the crowd to the grandstand. Jonas steadied Walt with an unobtrusive hand under his arm as they found a location in the middle of the grandstand with enough empty seats to accommodate his large family.

Breanna wiggled around and things got confusing when Seb, Matty, Maxwell and Davy joined them and greeted Sam and Walt boisterously, and somehow Jonas found himself wedged in next to Penny. Exactly where he didn’t want to be.

“Where’s Ricky?” he asked, hoping to be distracted from the feeling of Penny’s shoulder pressing into his.

“He had a nickel and went to get some taffy,” Davy responded, eyes on the first pair of riders who darted into the arena, chasing after a calf with ropes flying above their heads. “Here he comes now.”

The group shifted on the bench seat to make room for Ricky, and Jonas ended up pressed even closer to Penny. They were thigh to thigh, elbow to elbow. He couldn’t ignore the faint scent of flowers wafting from her direction, nor the strands of hair that had escaped her braid and tickled his cheek.

“Whew, they’re fast!” Maxwell commented as the first pair finished their ride, fists raised in the air to the crowd’s applause.

“How’ve you been?” Penny slanted a sideways look at Jonas.

“Fine.” He didn’t mean to be short with her, but the less spoken between them, the better. Even so, he couldn’t not reply. “And you?”

She tilted her head to one side and he felt her eyes on him, but forced his gaze to remain on the next team racing into the arena.

“It’s been quiet.” Did her voice sound sad? Surely not. He must be mistaken. She went on, this time louder and her voice more cheery. “Oscar finished getting the kitchen back in working order and I thought I might try another of my Gran’s recipes since Breanna and I did so well with the carrot jam.”

Penny leaned away briefly, bumping Breanna’s shoulder and making his daughter giggle.

One of the riders in the arena wheeled his horse sharply and the animal rebelled, rearing and throwing off his rider. The crowd gasped; Jonas winced.

“Are you sure the boys will be all right?” Penny asked, voice low for his ears only. Her concern twisted the knot in his stomach even tighter. She sounded like a mother, worrying about her own kids. Like she cared about them.

Something she’d proved over and over.

“Oscar and Edgar have been roping during branding season for years. They’ve also been bucked off a time or two. They’ll be all right.”

He felt her eyes rest on his face for a long moment. Heat rushed to his neck at her scrutiny.

“I forget they’ve been working with you for so long. They seem so much like Sam and his friends that it’s hard to think about what they’ve come through.”

Another team came out and had a bit more flair with their ropes, whooping and getting the crowd riled up.

“I think Oscar and Edgar are next,” Maxwell said.

Sure enough, Jonas recognized Oscar’s distinctive tan Stetson just outside the arena. Edgar was mounted up next to him, though the distance was too far for him to see the boy’s features. Edgar’s horse danced beneath him. Was the animal responding to his son’s nervousness?

Jonas gripped his knees, knowing how important this was to his sons.

Penny tensed. Holding her breath?

The gates opened and the calf shot forward into the arena. The boys’ horses quickly followed. Lariats flew overhead and Edgar jumped from his horse to tie the calf’s hooves, quickly raising his hands in the air when he finished.

It was over.

The crowd erupted with cheers and applause, but Jonas was so focused on the woman beside him that he heard her quiet exhale and the softly spoken, “Thank you, Lord.”

The heartfelt prayer of thankfulness struck Jonas like a fist to the chest. He couldn’t breathe.

He wanted her in his life, in his boys’ life.

“Didja see, Miss Penny? Didja see, Pa?” Breanna’s excitement spilled over as she jumped up and down, wobbling the entire grandstand row. Jonas didn’t have the heart to correct her, though Penny quickly reached out and settled the girl with a hand on her shoulder.

“They were fast!” Davy exulted.

The other boys were chattering, too, excited, thrilled.

Only Jonas was silent, consumed with misery but not knowing what he should do. He just wanted to escape.

* * *

Penny sensed Jonas pulling away as he went quiet. Luckily, the children were so occupied with excitement for Oscar and Edgar’s performance that they didn’t seem to notice their father’s lack of reaction.

She’d tried her best to reach out without saying anything directly about Breanna or money, but each of his answers had been subdued, even for the usually quiet man. It was obvious he didn’t want to be sitting next to her. Didn’t even want to speak to her.

Tears pricked the back of her eyes, but she put Mrs. Trimble’s training to use and resolutely pasted a smile to her lips and did her best to respond to Breanna’s excited statements.

A few moments later, shouts from the crowd milling behind the grandstand began causing a stir; heads turned.

“Miss Penny.” Maxwell caught her attention from Jonas’s other side, pointing to the disturbance: a hat waving frantically above the milling crowd.

Penny stood and shaded her eyes to try and see what was going on. It was Edgar, waving and calling out to her.

“Excuse me,” she murmured, grateful for the chance to escape Jonas’s presence, even for a few moments.

“Should I—” Jonas started to ask something and she was afraid he was about to offer to escort her down to meet his son. She needed to get away before he saw her tears!

“I’ll see what he needs and be right back,” she interrupted, and edged over the people sitting down the row, stepping on toes as she tried to move quickly.

She met Edgar at the edge of the crowd and immediately noticed his hobbling gait.

“What happened?” she demanded, taking hold of his arm to support him.

“Jarred my ankle when I came off the horse, that’s all.”