Riding the storm - By Julie Miller Page 0,74
in the loft, am I? Those repairs can wait.”
He’d stay if he thought she was in danger, but that wasn’t the choice she wanted him to make. Being a burden to him wasn’t exactly the romantic future she had in mind. “All my chores will be at ground level. I promise.”
“Ground level?” he asked, looking as though he was trying to find a hidden meaning in her words that he’d missed.
She raised her right hand. “No ladders. If I can’t fix the well pump, then I’ll start hauling water and boiling it. I’ll see what’s left to do after that.”
“Don’t haul anything too heavy.”
“Go.”
“And remember to eat. A couple of snacks besides lunch.”
“Nate.” She was actually pushing him away now, urging him toward his horse. If he still suspected something was wrong, he hadn’t guessed its cause and she wasn’t telling. “I’ll be fine.” His gaze dropped to her belly. “So will he. Now get out of here. Give my best to Lily when you see her. Tell Dad to get a cell tower hooked up and call me.”
Nate slipped his left foot into the stirrup and swung his right leg over the saddle. He was still stiff and sore, but moving with greater ease than he had two nights ago. He adjusted his hat, pulled on his gloves and nudged Checker forward.
He’d shooed the dogs out of the way and ridden beyond the mud pool that had once been her gravel driveway when she saw his posture stiffen. He reined in his horse and turned.
“I’m coming back.”
Jolene raised her voice to shout in return. “Of course, you are. I’ve already got dinner planned. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”
He looked at her a moment, then spurred Checker into a spin and rode straight at her across the yard.
Jolene retreated several steps, giving the horse plenty of room to stop. She hid her trepidation behind a joke and a smile. “You don’t like PB and J?”
In one fluid motion, he stopped the horse beside her, reached out with his gloved hand to palm the back of her neck, bent low over the horse’s shoulder and kissed her. A quick, deep, soul-stealing kiss.
The look in his eyes was just as potent.
“I’m coming back.”
He sat up straight, turned the horse and cantered away. Stunned, Jolene pressed her fingers to her mouth and barely breathed. She watched his straight, broad shoulders until he disappeared beyond the next rise.
I’m coming back.
Yes. But would he come back to stay?
THE PICKUP ENGINE sputtered, then caught and roared to life. Red lights blinked on. The noisy crackle of static flooded the cab and the tuner on the two-way radio flashed through every station until it hit a clear frequency and locked into place.
“Way to go!”
“Yessir!”
Nate’s relieved sigh was drowned out by a chorus of shouts from three little boys who didn’t know what the cheering was all about but who were as excited as the grown-ups around them.
Jolene’s sweet green power truck had been hit hard by Damon. Pummeled by debris, the body was totaled. But more importantly, winds had taken the radio antenna and shredded the connecting wires. Water had swamped the engine and shorted out the battery. Since there was no auto repair store on the corner to walk to for replacement parts, Nate had scavenged what he needed from Lily’s car and Deacon’s old farm truck. With Wes Mathis’s help, he’d pieced the engine together and gotten both it and the radio running.
He listened to the voices on the line with the dispatcher in Turning Point. They were connected to the world again. “Whaddya know? The damn thing works.”
Deacon slapped Nate on the back, then reached out with his good arm to shake his hand. “You’ve got a habit of savin’ the day, boy. Glad to know you.”
Nate nodded his appreciation for the older man’s grudging respect.
“Come on, you three yahoos!” Gabe, Jr., Seth and Aaron Browning circled around the old cowboy with an excitement that rivaled Broody and Shasta at suppertime. “I promised your mama you’d be inside taking a nap by now. You don’t want to get me into trouble, do ya?” They paraded up the porch and into the house, and Nate suspected Deacon would be napping right along with them.
Cindy threw her arms around Wes’s neck and kissed him in congratulations. Nate couldn’t help but shake his head and grin at their not-so-private celebration. In the hour since he’d arrived, he’d noticed that the newlyweds didn’t need their expensive hotel room