Page 29

H ours later, Rebekah carried a stack of bowls to the table as Kaitlyn settled the pot of stew on a hot pad in the middle. Tillie darted around her to place spoons at each chair.

“Where are you going to sit?” Tillie glanced up at Rebekah from the other side of the table.

“We need to wait and see,” Rebekah hedged.

Isaac had come inside with the other McGraw brothers, and everything she hadn’t said to him was right there.

He stood in the parlor, speaking in low tones with Drew and Nick, while Ed had come to her by the dining table.

Until David had distracted Ed with a hand-drawn map laid out on a corner of the table.

“Everyone come and sit down,” Kaitlyn called from the kitchen. A pot rattled.

Ed’s eyes met Rebekah’s as Isaac strode toward the dining table. Ed moved to stand beside her, one hand coming to rest on her lower back. From the corner of her eye, she saw the way his chin jutted out. In Isaac’s direction.

Heat flamed Rebekah’s cheeks.

There was a shuffle as the kids scrambled for the table.

Ed pushed in Rebekah’s chair before taking his own next to her. Somehow, Isaac landed in the chair on her other side.

Rebekah caught the twitch in Isaac’s cheek as he glanced past her at Ed, then back to the bowl in front of him. She shifted in her chair. Could things be any more awkward?

“Let’s bow our heads,” Drew said.

“Hold hands,” Tillie instructed Rebekah enthusiastically.

Rebekah felt a moment of rising panic as everyone else bowed their heads.

Isaac’s rough hand hesitated before gripping her left hand as Ed’s fingers hovered close to her right.

With a quick motion, she threaded her fingers between Ed’s.

A jolt of warmth and comfort flooded her at his touch.

There’d been no feeling from Isaac’s grip, only a knotting in her stomach of what she had to tell him.

“Dear Lord, we thank you…” Drew began the blessing in his matter-of-fact manner.

How had she found herself seated next to the man she no longer wanted after all those letters?

“…and bless the hands that prepared it…”

And on the other side, the man she’d once despised, the one she’d once tried to avoid at every chance but now wanted to lean into. Her emotions tumbled wildly.

Her heartbeat drummed so loud in her ears that she almost didn’t hear Drew’s “Amen.”

Isaac released her hand in one quick motion, jaw twitching. Ed let his hand stay linked with hers until he was forced to reach for a bowl that was passed his direction.

“Uncle Isaac. Did you catch the wolves yet?” Tillie blurted her question.

“Another scoop?” Kaitlyn’s query didn’t distract Isaac.

Who looked like he would rather do anything other than answer. He wouldn’t be catching the wolves. He’d be getting rid of them.

“Not yet.” Isaac took the bowl from Drew to set it in front of him. “Wolves are good at hiding.”

“Did you know I taught Patch a new trick?” Tillie must have saved a hundred questions for her uncle while he’d been off hunting wolves or whatever he did up at that cabin.

Rebekah thanked Kaitlyn as she handed her a bowl of stew amidst all the giggles and voices around the table.

“I stopped off at your uncle’s place today,” Ed said, his head tipped closer and his words just for her. “Everything’s fine.”

She’d been trying not to think about what’d happened in town, how she didn’t want to go home. How she was letting down Uncle Vess by not taking care of things at the house herself.

“You okay?”

“Not really.” In fact, Tillie was a welcome distraction.

When she looked across the table, Kaitlyn caught her eye, brows raised.

Nick engaged Ed from his other side, something about a new water trough for the corral. Her arm brushed Ed’s as she lifted her spoon. She caught his warm gaze.

She took in all the sights, all the whispers between the children’s bent heads. A big family around a table. This was what her heart had wanted all along.

“I’m the better speller between us, anyway.” David’s response to Jo’s last whisper boomed out. “Boys always are.”

The whispering stopped as Jo raised her head. She stared straight at Rebekah. “Didn’t you beat Isaac at a spelling bee back in school? Uncle Nick said so.”

Rebekah’s face heated as silence fell over the table, all eyes on her. She felt Ed still at her side, the spoon frozen above his bowl.

“Rebekah used to beat everybody.” Isaac waved a hand in dismissal.

Ed shifted in his chair. “I was there when she won the award for the best poem. Beat out the entire school.”

Isaac let his spoon clank in his bowl, turning in Ed’s direction. “I was there when the teacher asked her to stand and read Shakespeare because she did the best dramatic reading. No one else read aloud that day.”

Drew and Nick shared a glance, then shifted their attention back to where she sat between Isaac and Ed. Ed had leaned over to send Isaac a side-eye. Rebekah squirmed a little in her chair, not sure how to deflect the attention of the table from her.

“Well, I remember when she beat everyone at marbles.” Ed moved forward, glaring at Isaac. “Or what about when she tagged you in that game of blindman’s bluff?”

“Speaking of school days,” Rebekah interrupted, “I remember when Ed won the horseshoe contest at the Fourth of July picnic.”

Ed blinked in surprise. Rebekah was aware of the entire table watching her watch him.

Isaac cleared his throat. “I think he still has the ribbon.”

The moment was broken, and murmurs of conversation started up again.

She tried to keep her focus on her food but felt Ed shifting in the chair next to her. Under the table, the soft pressure of his boot pressed against hers from the side.

The basket of biscuits made its way to Isaac.

He reached in to grab the next to last one.

Ed had his hand out for the basket, but turned to Nick to answer a question.

In a quick motion, Rebekah reached for the last biscuit.

Everyone else was distracted, and Rebekah slid the biscuit, still warm in her hand, onto the edge of Ed’s plate.

“Pass that basket this way.” Kaitlyn called from the other end, and Isaac handed it off without looking inside.

Ed’s shoulders slumped until he turned to his plate. His eyes darted up to hers, questioning. A blush flooded her face as he mouthed a thank-you that sent a warm, pleasing sensation through her.

“How long is Rebekah staying?” Tillie pushed the chunks of venison around her bowl.

“As long as she needs,” Ed piped up from beside her, answering before she had a chance. His expression reminded her of their confrontation about the interviews. All the protectiveness of Ed rolled over her as he leaned out to focus on Isaac. “How long could it take to track down a single outlaw?”

Isaac stirred his stew around, refusing to meet Ed’s stare. “Not sure I’m the one to ask.” His spoon scraped against the side of his bowl, a disjointed sound.

Something in his answer unnerved her. This wasn’t the man she’d known, even from afar, all those years ago. And yet she sensed it had nothing to do with her or her letters.

Ed focused on her as if no one else were there. “When do you plan to get back to the paper? We’ll plan for a way to get you there safely.”

Warmth filled in the cold cracks of her heart at the thought of going back to town. Ed hadn’t asked her to give up working at the paper. He knew how much it meant to her.

Conversation had dwindled and Drew stood. Ed pushed away from the table. When Drew called to him, he offered a quick “I’ll be back” and followed his older brother out the front door.

“We’ll go draw you some water for the dishes.” Nick nodded to Kaitlyn as Isaac grabbed the wash buckets and followed Nick outside.

Rebekah and Jo cleared the table, then Rebekah helped Kaitlyn wash up the dishes. As Kaitlyn finished putting away the last of the bowls, Rebekah took the dishrag out to wipe off the dining table. Isaac sat in a chair at the end, watching the children on the other side of the room.

When Tillie summoned him with a wave, he shook his head.

He rose to move as he saw her approach.

“I need to talk to you.” Her fingers trembled in time with her insides as she pushed the rag over the table. This was her chance to set things straight.

He shifted. Uncomfortable?

Boots shuffled on the front porch. She’d best speak quick before they were interrupted again.

“You never answered my last letter.” She rushed on without waiting on him to answer. “I think I was…letting my imagination get the better of me. Although you wrote me those beautiful letters, in person there’s no spark between us.”

Meeting his gaze was difficult, but she forced herself to do it. It was the first time he’d really looked at her since she’d arrived at the ranch.

The front door opened, and she was aware that the time for this conversation was over.

“I’ve never been one to put stock in writing letters.”

She smoothed her apron with shaking hands.

No stock in writing letters? She’d expected more than that.

Disappointment surged. He had written such lovely sentiments.

Did he feel nothing for her now? Was it so easy for him to accept she didn’t want him?

It was better that he wasn’t making things difficult, but somehow, things still felt unfinished.

Drew’s and Ed’s voices filtered into the front room as they entered. Rebekah lifted her eyes. Ed’s watchful gaze caught hers. What had been a smile on his face faded to a frown. Just then, Kaitlyn called Rebekah back into the kitchen.

Was something wrong?

* * *

“Uncle Ed, come with us. Please.” Tillie held up an empty jar that Kaitlyn used for canning. Rebekah stood just behind her. “We’re going to catch fireflies.”

“I don’t know, Tillie girl,” he hedged. He cut his eyes away, unable to keep away a flash of memory of Rebekah and Isaac in a serious conversation, only a few minutes ago.

Part of him wanted to confront Isaac, who’d already slipped away from the family gathering.