After the Ashes(81)

Her chest rose and fell with her uneven breathing. “Then don’t.”

Braddock rested his forearms on his thighs and hung his head. “It’s not that easy.”

“Yes, it is,” she pleaded. “Give us a chance.”

“Lorelei,” he said, not knowing what went after that. Finally he glanced at her. “What would I have to do?”

She blinked, opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. His question took her as much by surprise as it did him. “I don’t know exactly. Come back for starters.”

He clasped his hands together. “I’m not a farmer.”

Her face lightened with her growing hope. “I never asked you to be.”

Braddock stared past the barn, trying to glimpse the white crosses in the graveyard. But the sun beamed in his eyes and the lone shade tree ruffled its leaves, refracting light like a thousand tiny mirrors. What was he doing? All he knew was that he couldn’t let her go. But he shouldn’t give her false hope.

“Is your brother being straight with me?”

“I think…” She paused, apparently startled by the change of subject. “Yes, he’d better be. He knows I’ll never speak to him again if he wasn’t.”

He took her hands in his before he came to his senses. “Give me a month.”

“For what?”

Some part of him was commanding the rest of him. His rational mind screamed for him to stop, to shut up, but he couldn’t. “Wait for me a month.”

“After that?”

“Hopefully you’ll smarten up and won’t even care after that.”

“Does this mean you’re coming back?” She scooted to the edge of her seat.

He rubbed his brow. “I can’t leave things like this.” He dropped his hand and told her the only thing he could decipher in all his warring thoughts. “I can’t leave you. I want to take care of you, but I’m afraid.”

She laughed. “I can take care of myself.”

“What’s so funny?”

“I didn’t think you were afraid of anything.”

He smiled. “I didn’t think I was either, until I met you.” She grabbed both his hands. “I’ll wait for you as long as it takes.”'

“No.” He pulled his hands away. “This is all new to me. I don’t want a forever kind of promise. Just give me a month.”

Her smile widened. “A month is what you have.”

He stood, not knowing what to do now, not even sure what he had promised. But his headache faded with the knowledge that he had a little more time to think of Lorelei as his.

She faced him, grinning from ear to ear. Suddenly she leaped toward him, throwing her arms around his neck. “I love you.”

He eased his arms around her waist and took the biggest risk in his very dangerous life. “I love you, too.”




CHAPTER FOURTEEN





Lorelei stepped off the empty porch and into the arms of the starless night. Christopher hadn’t said goodbye. He’d left a little before dark while she was occupied preparing dinner with Beth. Lorelei understood. Not even Beth’s sympathetic gaze when Jay delivered the news of Christopher’s departure could spoil her optimism. Christopher loved her, had said he was coming back in a month. His promise was more than she had dared to even hope for.

Corey on the other hand, instead of being thrilled by news of Christopher’s departure, seemed to have sunk into a funk. He barely ate his dinner, and even Alice’s glowing admiration couldn’t bring a smile to his face. After he excused himself with a mumble, he’d disappeared. Everyone had gone to bed and he hadn’t even returned to say goodnight.

Lorelei navigated the path to the barn in the pitch black night, expecting to find Corey fussing over Sugarfoot. Whenever he was upset, he turned to a horse. No matter how many times she told herself she wasn’t the cause of his troubles, she still felt guilty for being so happy because of them. If Corey hadn’t garnered a warrant for his arrest, she never would have met Christopher.

As she neared the barn, she could see the light seeping underneath the wide door. She doused the grin she’d been sporting ever since Christopher had told her he loved her, and swung the door open.

Corey sprang away from Jay’s horse, which occupied the first stall lining the barn’s long wall. When his gaze collided with hers, he sagged in relief. “It’s you.”

“What are you doing?”

The plow horse nickered and lifted its head, urging Corey to pat its long black nose. Green leaves crusted the horse’s upper lip.

She stepped over to the chest high gate to peek into the trough. “What did you give him?”