Homeplace by Laura Browning

Author:Laura Browning
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mountain Meadow, cancer survivor, alcoholism, horse, horseback riding
Publisher: Laura Browning Books
Published: 2021-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

Amanda was nervous. She’d thought she’d have a day or two to prepare for giving Noah the camera she had bought, but fate had taken it out of her hands. Noah had shown up in her barn this morning. Even if he had initially shown up out of concern she was pregnant. One fact was abundantly clear. He had shown up out of concern. Whether for her or him, she wasn’t going to examine too closely at the moment.

As they walked from the barn to her house, Amanda kept tossing around ways to present her present. She didn’t want to come off as too preachy, or I’m-here-to-save-you-from-yourself. This gift was as much for her as it was for him. Maybe that was what she needed to play up.

After swiping her muck boots through the boot scraper, she opened the door. Noah followed her example, toeing off the heavy-soled moccasins he wore.

“Come on back to the kitchen. I think I should give you the present first. If you don’t kill me, I’ll make coffee and whip up some breakfast.”

She had set the camera and the lens it came with on the small desk she used for keeping track of household accounts. It was right there with the receipt just in case he rejected it. Amanda picked up the plain, white plastic bag and handed it to him.

“Take it over to the table.”

His expression was curious and a little bemused. As he opened the bag, though, his brows drew together and his lips tightened. The silence in the room was heavy.

“You bought me a camera.” A statement, not a question. “Is this a joke?”

The dark gaze he gave her simmered with anger and hurt he tried hard to hide.

Amanda took a deep breath. “No joke. It’s—it’s left-handed, Noah. I thought—”

“What, Amanda? That you could save the poor cripple?”

“No.”

He closed the bag, his expression just as tightly shut, and turned to go.

She needed him to stay. “I thought you could save me.”

He stopped. His back was still turned toward her, but at least he’d not yet left.

“Please,” she whispered. “You have the most incredible talent. I thought, maybe, if you’d let me help, we could both learn together.”

He turned around, wary and guarded. Still, he didn’t speak.

Amanda’s throat clogged. Everything was so much harder this time. “I need something to take my mind off the waiting,” she choked out. “I saw this camera. There’s a remote, too, so you could do everything with your left hand.”

He pushed his hand back through his inky hair. “Make the coffee, Mandy.”

She sucked in a deep breath and gave him a tentative smile. “Well, okay.”

As she went about the routine task of putting grounds in the filter and water in the reservoir, her mind was spinning. He hadn’t walked out. He hadn’t smashed the camera. From behind her, she heard the sound of the box being opened. Unable to stand it any longer, she turned sideways to watch him.

A lock of his dark hair had tumbled across his forehead.

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