did her best to smile and play along like she was thrilled things had gone so well that day.
“Fashion show,” Bishop said. “I’m sure your mom wants to see what we got.”
“Do you?” Aurora bounced on the balls of her feet, and Montana grinned.
“Of course. Fashion show.”
Aurora squealed and took her bags into the bathroom, as her bedroom was on the second floor. “I’m not climbing up and down,” she called.
Montana took a breath with the relief of the resulting silence.
Bishop took her into his arms. “She’s fantastic.”
“I think so too,” Montana said. “She just talks a lot.”
“I had so much fun with her.”
“I’m not sure what that says about you,” she said, only half-teasing.
Bishop laughed too, and Montana didn’t want to say anything to ruin this day. She’d been swallowing her feelings for decades. They actually went down easily, but Montana knew what happened with them after that.
They festered and grew into resentment. The negative things she felt for Bishop right now would not simply go away. She wouldn’t “get over them.” Hadn’t she learned that over the past several months?
The only way to heal was to speak. She could be kind and honest at the same time.
“Bishop,” she said.
“How was your meeting with Micah?” he asked, his eyes bright and interested. “What did he have to say?”
Montana looked at the man in front of her. He’d made her life so much better. He’d taken a chance on her, a pathetic carpenter looking for work by knocking on doors and asking for it.
He’d taught her so much about herself, and about the Lord.
She loved this man standing in front of her, and it wasn’t because she was in pain. It wasn’t because she was engaged. It wasn’t because her life was just better than before, so of course her renewed happiness would feel like love.
When he’d told her he loved her a few weeks ago, Montana hadn’t said the words out loud to him. She’d only kissed him, hoping that would be enough for now.
“Montana?” he asked.
“Okay,” Aurora said, her voice loud and piercing. “Here’s the first pair.”
Montana turned away from Bishop to look at her daughter’s jeans. “Oh, those are so cute.” She let her gaze drip down the length of her daughter’s legs, the purposeful rips in the jeans, the cute roughed-up cuffs on her ankles. “That blouse is new too.”
“Yes,” she said, looking down at the dark purple blouse with yellow and white butterflies on it. “Bishop found it. Isn’t it so cute?” She did a little twirl, and Montana loved seeing her daughter so happy.
She was generally a happy child anyway, but this was a new level of joy Montana hadn’t seen in a while. Maybe because you never take her shopping and let her buy whatever she wants.
Montana didn’t have a lot of money for new school clothes, and Aurora had never made a big deal of it.
She knew now that her daughter loved clothes and would like new ones a lot more often than Montana had been able to deliver them.
Inadequacy filled her. This was just another gap in her daughter’s life she couldn’t fill. Another space Bishop had filled instead.
“Love it,” Bishop said, grinning at Aurora. She squealed and twisted to go back into the bathroom.
Montana couldn’t hold back her tears, and she sniffled as the door clicked closed.
“Baby,” Bishop said, pure kindness in his voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Be honest with me,” she said. “How much of that did you pay for?”
“I don’t know the exact number.” He reached for her hand. “I don’t care, so I didn’t keep track. You don’t owe me anything.”
She nodded and wiped her eyes. “When did you call Micah and suggest he partner with me?”
Bishop opened his mouth, but it fell closed a moment later.
“He told me,” Montana said, some of the ice that had filled her veins in that cat coffee house returning. “And I want to know when that phone call was made. To the very hour.”
“I don’t remember,” he said. “April or May.”
“Before or after I told you about my feelings for him?”
“Before, Montana. I swear. It was before. After you told me, I was horrified I’d called him, and I thought about calling him and telling him not to say anything. But he hadn’t said anything yet, and then he never did, and….” He looked down, his apology right there in his whole countenance.
“And you thought you were in the clear,” Montana said.
Bishop nodded without looking at her. “You’re the best carpenter in