budge. All her life she’d hated meeting strangers. Her father had never made her wait on customers in his shop as her sisters did. Now, everything and everyone about her was a stranger, and she longed for her quiet days spent in the back of the shop.
She glanced up at Hank. He smiled slightly, but didn’t say a word. He looked like if she planned to remain rooted at the front door, he’d stand right beside her.
Mary Carol misunderstood Aggie’s hesitance. “Don’t worry about getting this floor wet, we’d outlast Noah, and don’t pay no mind to that basket of cats. I found them out on the back porch without no momma to look after them. I couldn’t stand them newborns getting soaked in this rain, so I put them as close to the fire as I dared.”
Forgetting her own worries, Aggie looked at the basket by the stove. Wet, crying kittens wiggled about. She crossed and knelt, seeing that they were newly born and shivering. Blindly, they searched for their mother.
“If you have a cloth,” she asked the lady staring at her, “I could wipe them dry.”
Mary Carol smiled down at her. “I’ll get one for them, and one for you too.”
Aggie removed her ruined bonnet and wet coat, then sat beside the basket to begin rubbing each kitten down.
“She’s a pretty one,” Jeb Diggs said as he watched Aggie. “An angel you got there, Hank.”
“She needs dry clothes and a warm coat. Just put whatever she picks on my bill,” Hank said as he shoved back on his hat. “I have to get my horse unloaded.”
Aggie looked up, hating that he had to go back out in the storm.
“You be all right here?” he asked, studying her.
She nodded.
Mary Carol waved Hank away. “You hurry right back. Jeb will put on a fresh pot of coffee and it’ll be waiting for you. I’ll see to your new missus.” She studied Aggie. “I’ll bring out the few choices of clothing we have to pick from, and you can change in the storage room when you finish with them cats.” As she walked away she mumbled, “You’ll be needing boots as well.”
The woman disappeared behind the stacks of clothing, but her voice continued, “You’re lucky, we got in a huge shipment last week of winter wear. Nothing as fancy as what you have on, but good sturdy clothes.”
Aggie looked down at the wrinkled violet dress she wore. Two of her sisters had picked it out, saying she needed something elaborate to attract a man, but the frills and buttons weren’t comfortable and hadn’t worn well.
Mary Carol tossed clothes over the stacks. A dark, rich, blue wool skirt landed at Aggie’s feet, and a blouse cut like a man’s, except for the collar and cuffs, followed.
Aggie ran her hand over the outfit. Growing up, her clothes had always been hand-me-downs. Pale yellows and washed-out pinks. She’d never worn anything in dark blue and couldn’t wait to try it on.
“I got just the right vest to go with that,” Mary Carol shouted as she hurried into sight. She held up a multicolored vest that looked like it had been made from an Indian blanket. “What do you think?”
Aggie grinned. It wasn’t like anything she’d ever worn. It was perfect.
Twenty minutes later, when Hank stomped back into the store, Aggie sat by the stove drying her hair. He almost didn’t recognize her. From her black boots to her western vest, she put any model he’d ever seen in a catalog to shame. He felt his mouth go dry. How does a man tell a beautiful woman she’s just improved on perfection?
Tiny gray kittens, now fluffy and dry, were at her feet wrapped in a towel. Hank tried to concentrate on them as he moved closer, but five feet from her he made the mistake of looking up and froze.
“What’s wrong? Is the storm worse?” She stood.
“No, I think it may be letting up a bit,” he said, studying the way the mass of curls danced around her shoulders. “I just didn’t know you had so much hair.”
She frowned. “I’m afraid it curls when it gets wet. I’ll . . .” Lifting her hands, she tried to pull it back.
“It’s nice. Real nice,” he said, wishing he could think of something more descriptive than “nice.” He should have told her that the beauty of it took his breath away, but words like that would never make it past the lump in his throat. She must