The Bride of Willow Creek(11)

Instantly he saw the reason for her anxiety. “You take my bedroom. I’ll set up my old tent in the backyard.” When she agreed that his solution sounded reasonable, he stared at her. Being displaced from his own house didn’t strike him as anywhere close to reasonable. Necessary. Expedient. Considerate. But it wasn’t reasonable to sleep outside on the ground when he had a house and a bed a few feet away. Already he could see another thing that he’d overlooked. His life was going to change, rapidly and not for the better.

“Well, since this has to be.” Placing her palms flat on the table, she stood and looked down at him, her face carefully expressionless. “Get what you need out of your bedroom. I’ll unpack what I require for tonight, then I’ll put everything else away tomorrow.” She shook her head. “I cannot tell you how much I hate this.”

So did he. Ten years ago he had wanted her with all his heart and soul, but he couldn’t have her. Now he didn’t want her anywhere near, but he was stuck with her.



Angie felt small-minded and childish about eavesdropping on Sam’s conversation with his daughters, but she managed to overcome the feeling enough to do it anyway. They sat on the steps just outside the kitchen door, and she could overhear by standing unseen near the big black stove.

“She’s your wife?” Lucy asked in surprise.

Daisy’s lighter tone followed. “Did you have a real wedding? Why didn’t we get to go?”

“The wedding took place a long time ago,” Sam explained in a grim voice.

He was telling them in a roundabout way that he and their mother had not been married. When the implication made no impression, Sam must have realized at the same time as Angie that the girls were too young to understand that he’d just blackened their mother’s reputation and exposed them as illegitimate.

Lucy had concerns more in keeping with the moment. “If she’s your wife, does that mean she’s our new mama?”

“Do we have to call her Mama?” Daisy sounded worried.

Sam cleared his throat. “I don’t think she’d mind if you call her Angie. The thing is, I don’t know how long Angie will stay with us. I suspect it could be for quite a while, until we can afford to get a divorce. Do you know what a divorce is?”

“No.”

“It’s when a husband and wife decide they don’t want to be married anymore. They go before a court judge and ask the judge to set aside the marriage. Then they go their separate ways. Angie and I don’t want to be married, so eventually we’ll get divorced.”

“Good,” Lucy said firmly. “We don’t need a wife or a new mama. But I don’t think we should wait for eventually. We should get our divorce right now.”

“It takes a lot of money to get a divorce. Right now we’re saving our money to fix Daisy’s foot. Daisy’s operation has to come first, before a divorce or anything else.”

Daisy’s foot? Angie blinked. Seeing the girls rush inside and throw themselves on Sam had been such a shock that she hadn’t concentrated on details. Now she reviewed the scene in her mind and she did seem to recall that the smaller one had appeared to stumble. In retrospect, maybe Daisy hadn’t stumbled. Maybe one leg was shorter than the other. Could that be the problem?

“I don’t mind waiting for the operation, Papa. We could get the divorce first.”

“No, honey, you’ve waited too long already. In fact, I feel a lucky strike coming, and we’ll use the money to fix your foot. So. Are there any more questions about Angie?”

“Is she going to boss us around?” Lucy again.

“Probably no more than Mrs. Molly. I want both of you to behave yourselves. No sass. It would be nice if you did your chores without being asked.” The girls giggled. “I want you to help me make this situation as easy as possible.”

A stretch of silence ensued during which Angie heard cheers and shouts from the distance. The crowd noise puzzled her until she recalled the fight of the decade. Which Sam had undoubtedly wanted to attend.

Grudgingly, she granted him a thimbleful of credit for not dumping her and the girls on one another and leaving for the fight.

“She’s pretty,” Daisy remarked, yawning audibly.

“I suppose she is.” No hint of expression betrayed Sam’s feelings one way or another.

“She’s not as pretty as Mama!”

Hearing Lucy’s tone, Angie wondered if Lucy would be a problem. What was she thinking? Definitely Lucy would be a problem. Daisy, too. They didn’t want her here, and she didn’t want to be here. Of course there would be problems.