The Cowboy Takes A Bride Page 3

  "Jada, you're too hard on the man. He said he'd be back, didn't he?" Stella set the small garage pail on the floor next to where the fallen platter had been. Only crumbs remained. "I was eavesdropping from behind the kitchen door. He's a stranger we don't know at all. I suppose we have to expect the worst from him."

  "Why, that's what I would have thought too, but I like him a little despite my better judgement." Indignity roared up, a moment of self-censure because they both knew she shouldn't hold any interest in a man or any hopes for an attachment. Not with her past heartbreak.

  She was just glad no one here knew of what happened to her back home in Indiana, and she bowed her head for a moment. A lesson to remember when it came to letting herself like a man, even just the tiniest bit. "Just because he said not to clean this up, doesn't mean he will win any of my favor or good opinion. But I sure do hope he'll be fair to us."

  "It's hard to tell as you watch his backside walk away." Stella's sweet humor only made her more dear as she stepped over the scattering of cookie crumbs to look out the window. "I can see the giant mud puddle, or pond, of infamy right there. What about his sons? He must have realized the one boy fell off the pony and into all that mud. What if he was hurt? That can't be what a good father ignores."

  "No. Absolutely not." She rolled her eyes, unable to resist sidling up to her sister and staring out the window too, searching for any chance sighting of the man somewhere down the street, but he was already long gone. "I should be furious, and I know it. Is it me, or is this terribly humorous?"

  "It's funnier than the time the crow walked in the door when Mindy opened it for elderly Mrs. Sprouts." Stella gentled even more. "Oops, I've made a nose print on the window glass."

  "That's it, we're going to have to boot you out of the family now." Jada wrapped one arm around her sister's shoulder, careful of the mud on her skirt. It was just a momentary sideways hug, that's all, but she didn't want to let go even as she did it. Her heart ached with grateful love for her sisters. Her life was all the richer for them, and she hated to think what she would do without them, or who she would be.

  She blinked away the tears scorching her eyes, leaving silence between them as she stepped away, but the sisterly love they shared was not unfelt.

  The door swung open with a jingle of the bell overhead.

  "What is going on in here?" Mindy blew in with the crisp breeze. "What happened here? Ew, it's muddy. I've got some on my new shoes. Are those horse prints?"

  "Blame the Hayden twins. Whatever we do, I'm not even sure we should ever let them in again." Jada rolled her eyes to hide her humor, afraid what she might feel for their father next if they did, and spun around to take some of the bundles Mindy was carrying.

  "Mindy, you're a mess." Her hair was windblown, and her cloak was mud speckled at the hem.

  "True." She tiptoed around the mud the best she could. "But I'm not as bad off as the floor. This is probably not so good for business, that's my guess."

  "So far people walk right by the shop without stopping, although that's not so unusual," she admitted.

  Stella rolled her eyes. "Oh, we've only had one customer take a look and decide he might come back later. I highly doubt it, but we'll see. So, it's going terribly."

  "It usually does." Whimsically, Jada set the bundles she'd taken from her youngest sister on one of three still standing little round tables with chairs and thought of Frisco Hayden, the way he'd looked so commanding standing there, holding the door open for her, and she couldn't explain why her heart skipped a few beats. "Tell me you behaved yourself on the budget, Mindy, and that you didn't overspend."

  "Oh, I overspent, but I had a perfectly good reason." Mischief sparkled in her forget-me-not blue eyes. "I was unable to control myself at the ribbon counter."

  "Ooh, did you say ribbons?" Stella hopped over, eager to hear all about it. "Did they get their new summer shipment in?"

  "Yes, it was wonderful. It was like impossible to decide so I got everything I liked, and everything that I knew you liked. I may have gone way over budget, but think how fashionable we will all look come June."

  "Why am I not surprised?" Jada wished she didn't feel glad about the new collection of ribbons. Oh, the uses she could think of, but mostly, they were on a fledging budget, especially since they could not find suitable employment in this town.

  And that was partly her fault, since she had no good letters of recommendation from a former employer. And in this part of the wild west, it was hard to find a non-shifty, non-lothario, or non-criminal employer. It was safer to take this risk opening their own place, since she'd financed it with the gold claim, as poor of a one as it was proving to be. Still, even then, they were staying mostly even and that was hopeful. So, good for deciding to go with Pa to live in the wild west.

  "No worries. I'll just buy less and stay under budget next time I go out shopping for us, but I wouldn't count on it." Mindy gave her golden hair a toss. "I had the best time. Come on, Stella, let's go in the back and unwrap everything. Oh, I can't wait to show you the pink ribbons I picked out just for you."

  "Were they the flowery ones that I liked?" Stella wanted to know as she swished off to the back room with her arms full of packages.

  Jada rolled her eyes as she was left behind with the work again. She grinned, not that she minded. What was the point of having younger sisters if not to spoil them? And where had the mop gone to? She wasn't about to follow Frisco's orders. As if she were going to put up with a muddy floor for a moment longer! She had her profit (or loss) to think about, depending on the way the sales went by month's end.

  The faint melody of laughter rang from the back, muffled by the walls, and made the shop feel happy. The mud was beginning to dry and cake up, thanks to the heat from the potbelly stove, and so maybe the delay in cleaning up was not such a bad thing. Flaky dirt was easier than sticky mud to cope with, so she laughed at the man's wisdom in waiting.

  She really shouldn't have gotten so upset with him. It was only a little bit of dirt, after all, and it could be washed away. The fallen tables and chairs could be righted and the cookies baked new. This was all fixable, when so much of what truly hurt in life was not. She hung her head, something to remember, she thought, struck by the memory of the easy-going, seemingly unconcerned look on his face.

  What had he been through? He was a father on his own and alone. She didn't know what he'd been through but it was a reminder that people battled hardships, and it was best to tread gently with others. If only she had been kinder to him. She regretted it now, but oh, how Frisco Hayden had irked her temper! Somehow he'd gotten her so worked up!

  And he clearly had a lot of responsibility on his sturdy shoulders, remembering reading his name in the local newspaper. He was a member of the sheriff's posse, devoted to keeping the town safe and that was admirable.

  She swiped a lock of tumbling down hair out of her eyes. Whew, why did her heartbeat kick up over that man? Why, she couldn't begin to guess. It wasn't as if she liked him especially, or anything.

  A rap knocked on the glass panel of the front door, startling her out of her thoughts. What now? She whirled around, blinked in surprise and felt foreboding when she saw the door swing open, heard the bell overhead jangle and saw Heather Pratt marching into her store.

  3

  Why me? Why now? Jada rolled her eyes. What else could go wrong? Wait. I do not want to know!

  Heather looked handsome in her finely tailored wool coat with fur-lining that was loosely buttoned over a stunning tailored velvet burgundy-colored dress. Her narrow, cold eyes squinted with ardent disapproval.

  "Look at all this!" Heather curled up her top lip, ready to sneer. "I'm afraid that it's another one of those. You know, violations of our agreement."

  "I can't deny it, but this wasn't our fault this time," Jada explained, her throat tight with strain, her chest cinching up with nerves. "We had a runaway pony situation. Mr. Hayden is the one responsible. They were his boys."
>
  "I don't accept any excuses, you should know that about me by now. I haven't forgotten the incident where the noxious odor coming out of your rental space offended everyone who walked by. My mother was one such unfortunate soul and I just can't get over how you vowed it would never happen again. Again, yet here we are." Miss Heather Pratt gave the little shake of her head, and her carefully coiffed ringlet curls gave a little bob. A muscle strained along her jawline. The woman was like a tightly wound spring. "This is your third warning I've been forced, just forced, to give you since you started renting this space in March."

  "This isn't something we did, unlike the unfortunate skunk that wandered into the alley out back of our kitchen and began eating our garbage in the can the wind blew open. Unfortunately I opened the back door, surprising him. That was the noxious smell. This is different. I'm hoping you can forgive this, just this one time?" Jada doubted there was a chance, but she had to ask, even if it nearly killed her pride to do so. As if she could deal with losing this place, and out of the blue! It wasn't as if they could live in Pa's tent. "Please?"

  "I think not. You have violated your agreement and I shall need to terminate it immediately."

  "Immediately?" She nearly screeched, but the words actually came out like a quiet, cracked whisper. Only in her head was she panicking. Evicted? How would they make a living? What would they do? They lived upstairs above the shop! She could not let this happen. "Please, take a moment and reconsider. It's hard to find good tenants, and we are reliable. I've paid every month's rent on time and twice early. Doesn't that count for something?"

  "No, it doesn't, and it makes no sense to throw good money after bad or accept unruly and unauthorized behavior from a bad tenant."

  "Bad?" Her voice cracked again. "But we're not, I mean, please? Oh, just please?"

  "Sorry, my decision has already been made and there will be no changing my mind." Miss Heather Pratt handed over a piece of parchment that looked very official.

  Jada grabbed the paper and stared at it. The black inked words blurred a bit until she blinked her stinging eyes. This wasn't the worst thing that could happened, but it was very bad. She hung her head. Her entire future faded away in that single moment. She exhaled slowly, the paper rattling in her hand.

  "It's not the end of the world, Jada." Heather Pratt's lip curled an iota less, the most amount of concern she'd ever shown for any of them since she'd known her.

  "Of course, you're right." Jada lifted her chin and met the woman's eyes. She hated to admit it, but she was a little bit defeated. "We were just getting our enterprise started."

  "Well, you didn't have much business anyway," Heather stated. "Fledging businesses often fail. I've seen it time and time again. You, Jada, simply do not have what it takes to be a successful businesswoman."

  "Oh." Jada's stomach bunched up.

  "You don't have the drive and the determination to do whatever it takes to get what you want, at any cost. That's why you are doomed to fail and, in this case, find a new place to live and a new way to support yourself." Heather cast her discerning gaze at the muddy tracks and cookie crumbs. "Well, I for one will not be forgiving about this mess. Get it cleaned up. Immediately."

  Her stomach bunched up a little more. "I'll get right to it. Don't worry, this will all be cleaned up and this place back to sparkling in a jiffy."

  "That's not good enough. This unsightliness never should have happened in the first place. This is a nice establishment." Pride and a helping of disdain shone on Heather's face and rang in her voice as she spun crisply around and tapped back through the doorway and down the boardwalk, into the cold and out of sight.

  Well, so much for attempting to make this business endeavor prosper. Now what did she do? Jada couldn't ignore the pain setting right over her heart. How was she going to make a living now? She'd simply have to work harder and hope that led her in a better direction, that was all. She still hoped she could make this business profitable. There were so many bachelor miners and prospectors in the area who had yet to find them. Since marriage was not turning out to be an option for her ever again, this, working, was her life.

  She gave a quiet, hopeless sigh. She looked down at the spots of mud lightly pocking the ruffle of her dress hem. That was easily fixed too, and all it took was water. She thought of the troublesome but good-hearted boys and the overwhelmed look that had briefly passed over Frisco's face when he'd taken a look at what his boys had done. His wide, rock-hard shoulders had straightened just a bit, betraying him and his strength and determination.

  Maybe it wasn't so easy being a single father. It was impossible not to feel sorry for him. He, who had two healthy and good, bright sons, so very much to have in this world, worth their weight in gold. Not that Jada ever expected that a good marriage-minded man would come her way, not one that wouldn't break her heart, at least, so she had no chance for such a precious gift as a child.

  She gave a small sigh, trying not to mind being a spinster and that life had passed her by when she felt the back of her neck tingle. She wasn't alone, was she?

  "I saw that." Knuckles rapped on the glass door panel of open door. Mr. Frisco Hayden towered in the doorway, and every thought she had slipped out of her brain. Her jaw dropped open and she snapped it shut. Had he always been that compelling with his solid-shouldered, substantial height, his collar length brown hair and a day's shadow darkening his angular jaw? "What a rough landlady, huh?"

  "She's been an utter professional, what else can I say?" She swallowed hard, attempting to clear the grit of emotion from her cracking voice. "You surprised me."

  "Good. It's always promising when a father can be stealthy. It helps when I'm sneaking up on the twins to catch them at whatever they're doing. It's good to know that I still have some element of surprise skills that work." He moseyed into the shop, trailed by two small shadows, down-hearted but scrubbed clean little twins. The big strapping father cleared his throat. "Thanks for waiting for us. I'm glad you didn't clean up yet. Now, don't you have something to say to nice and pretty Miss Shepherd?"

  "Uh, we're both extremely sorry." The cowlick on the back of Aiden's head bobbed, sticking straight up, as he nodded with great emphasis and apology. "I didn't know that Chester could open doors. If I could have stopped him, I would have."

  "Yeah, he never, ever would've rode him inside," Austin spoke up, pure sincerity.

  Jada bit her bottom lip for a moment to hold back the grin. "I have to admit that was one eager pony. I noticed he liked my apple cookies."

  "Apple? Do you know how to make gingersnap?" Aiden's eyebrows shot up, giving him an adorable urchin look.

  "Gingersnap?" Austin's knit hat rim slip forward over his eyes and he pulled it off with one hand. His dark hair stood up straight with static electricity. "We really love those types of cookies."

  "It's really all types of cookies." It was hard to miss the wish on Aiden's button face as he gazed at the glass display case. "All those cookies look awful tasty."

  "Terribly, utterly tasty," Austin added wistfully.

  Okay, she was too soft, everybody who knew her knew it, although she did her best to hide it, to keep it secret or look at what happened. She would never make a profit for her sisters, ever. She slipped behind the display counter. "Do you boys want to come over and help me pick some out for you to take home?"

  "Oh! Yes! Thank you, Miss Shepherd!" Aiden dashed excitedly up to the glass and his fingers landed there, leaving smudges.

  At least they were clean smudges. He gazed up at Jada trustingly. "Grandmama's most favorite cookie is chocolate."

  "Yeah, chocolate," Austin agreed, his fingers landing on the display case, too.

  "Then we'd better pick out the very best ones for her." Jada grabbed the mid-size bakery box from the stack on the lowest shelf behind her. "Mr. Hayden, maybe you'd like to come oversee this endeavor."

  "Oh, I'm pretty much a cookie expert." Frisco stepped around the dried mud and kept on coming. "I've been
the official taste tester in my family since I could hold a cookie by myself. Let me take a look."

  "Pa, Grandmama will like the peppermint ones too." Aiden eyed the baked goods with great seriousness. "Her very favorite color is always peppermint."

  "Unless it's chocolate," Austin added.

  "Yes, unless it's chocolate," Aiden corrected.

  Hard not to be charmed by that.

  "Do you two want to get the sugar cookies with the pink frosting for her?" Jada waited while the boys scrunched up their faces, heads tilted to one side, trying to decide. She felt something graze against the side of her face: the heat of Frisco's gaze, as tangible as a touch.

  He came up to the customer side of the display case, leaning in close, so very close that she could plainly see the gold and bronze threads in his blue eyes, eyes that seemed kind.

  Not just kind, she realized, but arresting. Well, that was an interesting development. No way should she be noticing how handsome the man was, or how much she adored the exquisite, little laugh lines adding character to his very handsome face.

  "Um, yeah," Aiden decided. "She should have the pink ones, too."

  "But what about the snickerdoodles?" Jada gave her best advice. "They are very popular, if you want to get them."

  "Yeah, both Grandmama and Grandpop really love those, please," Aiden said. The sweet, child-like notes of his voice rang like a bell, betraying how sweet he was. "It all has to depend on how much money Pa has."

  "This time you don't have to worry about it. The cookies are my treat. Your pa can keep his wallet in his pocket. What else do you want?" Jada suggested, grabbing a square of waxed paper from the holder. She began adding cookies to the box. "Did you boys see the gingerbread men? Let me put a few of those in too."