sure do miss your smile, darlin’.”
Her reflection in the mirror frowned at him.
“Do you think you might spare me one if I never try to drag you off your land again?”
She turned but didn’t look at him. She studied the ruffle at the hem of her dress and folded her arms over her chest. “No more trying to woo me into changing my mind?”
“That won’t be easy, darlin’, but I promise.”
Finally she smiled at him. It wasn’t the usual bright and shining Emma smile, but it would do for the moment. “You look like sunshine.”
This time the smile shone from her eyes. He had made her a fool’s promise, one that would be harder than rocks to keep.
“So beautiful.”
Too beautiful to be living out here alone. Any one of a dozen horrible things could happen to her. What if Billy was right about Emma needing Woody? His cousin saw the long and short of it plain enough.
The problem was that Billy cared for Emma in a different way. His belly wouldn’t feel as if it had barbed wire twisting in it. Clearly, Billy’s fingers didn’t itch to punch the farmer in the gut.
In his way, Billy was the more loyal friend. Matt ought to be enough of a man to face what needed to be done and leave Emma safely in the arms of another.
It would soothe him to make up a song about Emma’s pretty yellow party dress, to yodel out a tune about her inner sunshine. But it would break his heart, too, because it would be Woody’s song. The sodbuster might be the one to see the sun rising with her each morning and setting with her in the evening.
Emma would be Woody’s sunshine.
“You clean up just fine yourself, cowboy,” Emma said.
“I think I’d like to see your hair down loose tonight. Would you mind?”
Her smile told him that she wouldn’t. She reached into a drawer beside her dressing mirror and pulled out a long fat yellow ribbon the same color as her dress. She laid it over her shoulder and turned to the mirror, plucking her hair out of the bun.
A golden wave that swallowed him whole rolled down her back. He shouldn’t touch her—there was a promise to be kept. Even if there weren’t, touching would make the parting so much harder when it came.
How long had he waited, though, for a moment just like this?
He walked up behind her and took the ribbon from her shoulder. With both hands he spread his fingers through the long glowing strands. He let her hair loop and twist around his fingers from the nape of her neck to the curls flirting at her waist. At last he tied the ribbon in a bow at her slender neck.
Golden hair, bright yellow bow.
Woody’s sunshine.
* * *
Standing on the front porch, Emma watched a pair of buggies stirring the dust less than a quarter mile from the house. It was a relief to face the party without the shadow that had been between her and Matt lately. At least they now had an understanding. Now they could go back to the Matt and Emma they had been before…or nearly.
“Mama! Mama! Somebody’s coming!” Lucy dashed down the steps and then up again to get a better view of the approaching guests. “All the kids can play with my puppies.”
“That sounds just fine, Lucy.”
Boots thumped on the porch from behind.
“Papa, look. The party’s starting…I see kids!” Lucy hopped down the steps, one at a time.
“She brings to mind a butterfly,” Matt said. “Pretty as anything you ever saw and twice as busy.”
“It’s a sign of good health.” Emma had never seen Lucy sick and prayed she wouldn’t. The baby that Mrs. Sizeloff had gone to pray over had barely recovered and now another child in town was ill.
“Matt, do you think we should have called off the party? That’s two little ones now with the cholera.”
“Life’s got to go on. We can’t hide from it.”
Matt was right. Two sick children did not make an epidemic. Emma stored the concern in the back of her mind. For now, all she needed to worry about was feeding everyone and making sure they had a fine time.
“Here come the Sizeloffs…I can’t make out the other wagon,” she said.
“Looks like Sarah Michaels and her brother.”
Matt took her shoulders in his hands and turned her toward him. Another foot closer and it would be a hug.
“I’ll say it again—you look so pretty. I just want you to