was talking about. She was laughing because someone loved her. She was laughing to keep from crying because someone cared.
“Myron! Myron! You have to put me down,” she finally said, and thumped him on the arm. “What will people think?”
Myron laughed, but he stole a kiss on her cheek as he set her back on her feet.
“I suppose they’ll think I’m in love with my girl,” he said.
Fannie blushed, but her heart was singing.
“What brought on all this fuss?”
Myron clapped his hands. “The preacher. He’s here.”
Fannie’s eyes widened. Even when Myron had said he’d find one, she hadn’t really believed it would happen.
“Are you sure… I mean, are you sure he’s a preacher?”
“Yes, your father just told me. He showed up about an hour ago riding a mule. Said someone at Ft. Mays told him a preacher was needed in Dripping Springs. That had to be Murphy. He was in the saloon the night I proposed to you. I told all the customers that night to spread the word that a preacher was needed and Murphy was on his way to Ft. Mays.”
“Oh my!” Fannie murmured. It was going to take a bit of getting used to, to accept that her husband sold liquor and women, but then she laughed. So what. He’d kept his word, which was more than her father or Harley had even pretended to do.
“I’ve already talked to him,” Myron said. “He’s not going to be in town for long, so I thought maybe tomorrow…”
Fannie smiled, and laid her palm against the side of his face. His skin was smooth and he smelled of witch hazel. She could feel the pulse of his lifeblood beneath her skin and it was the closest she’d ever been to a man in her life. And if she married him as she’d promised to do, she was going to give herself to this man in the most intimate of ways. Could she do it? Myron smiled at her then and her heart fluttered. She put her hands over her heart to still the nervousness and nodded.
“Tomorrow would be fine.”
He whooped again and kissed her soundly.
“I’ll be back tonight. We can finish making plans together, okay?”
Fannie’s heart skipped a beat.
“Mrs. Bartlett brought us some fresh pork this morning. I was going to fry it up tonight. How does that sound?”
“Like heaven,” Myron said, kissed her once more for good measure, and then vaulted back over the fence and took off down the street.
Fannie turned to the clothesline and began hanging up the rest of the laundry. Nothing seemed any different than it had been five minutes earlier. The laundry was still wet. The sun was still shining. She hung her father’s shirt on the line and then bent down to pick up another article of clothing. Instead, she stopped, ran her fingers along the surface of her lips and smiled. Her lips were still tingling. Her heart was threatening to leap out of her chest. Tomorrow night she would be a married woman and all that implied. At the thought, she felt a moment of panic, and then remembered the gentleness in Myron’s touch. She might not know much of what was expected of her, but she wasn’t going to deny herself the opportunity to learn.
She could sew and cook and clean house better than most. She knew how to take good care of a man in every way but one. If only her mother was still alive. She very badly needed a woman to talk to, but there was no one in Dripping Springs with whom she was close enough to get so familiar.
Never one to dwell on what was missing in her life, Fannie threw the rest of the wet clothes across the line without care for how they were hanging and headed for the house. If she was going to get married tomorrow, there were some things she needed to buy.
Mercer’s Mercantile was empty, except for one woman at the back of the room, as Fannie entered the store. Lucy Mercer stepped out of the storage room long enough to see who’d come in, and called out.
“Fannie, dear, I’m in the back,” Lucy said. “I’ll be with you in a few minutes if that’s all right.”
“Take your time,” Fannie said.
Lucy waved merrily and went back to counting out the eggs she was buying from a local farmer, leaving Fannie to stew in her pre-marital woes a little longer.
Fannie moved toward a table where several bolts of fabric were