The Cowboy's Enemy by Jessie Gussman

Author:Jessie Gussman [Gussman, Jessie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessie Gussman
Published: 2019-10-29T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

“I need the matches, Mom.” Andrew stood in the kitchen doorway, his hands shoved in his jeans pockets, leaning his shoulder on the doorjamb. Just a few days and already her kids were imitating Abner in everything. From his speech to his expressions to the casual way he leaned in the doorway and followed her with hooded eyes.

“Please,” Andrew added.

She bit back a grin. She’d just been about to correct him.

Walking to the cupboard for the requested item, she said, “What are you using them for?”

In the middle of summer, she might have allowed her children to go out and sit on the sidewalk and play with them—what was it going to hurt, short of setting themselves on fire, which, she had to admit, she assumed her kids had slightly more common sense than that. But it was fall, and there were leaves and sticks, and everything was dry. That’d be a nice exclamation point to the middle of her life—be responsible for the fire that burned the town down.

“Mr. Abner wants them.”

She noted he didn’t answer her question.

“For?” she asked again, holding the box of matches in one hand while cradling Claire, who grabbed at her hair, with the other.

“We been raking up leaves since we got home from school, and he said we could take the sticks and stuff that we got along with them and make a bonfire and roast marshmallows.”

“I don’t have any marshmallows.” She felt a little bad about that. Abner had told her he’d take care of supper. She’d appreciated that since she’d put the babies down for naps and gotten started on the project she’d won the bid for. Claire and Luna had been up for a while now, but they’d been happy playing in the living room, and Cora had been able to keep working on her laptop. She’d only stopped about ten minutes ago.

“He walked to Martin’s store and got them. He has hot dogs, too, and he said we’d eat supper around the fire tonight.” Andrew’s eyes sparkled.

Conflicting emotions warred in Cora’s chest as she handed the matches over. Guilt was a big one. She’d never done anything like this with her kids. Fear. Her kids were going to fall in love with a man who was leaving. And, yeah. There was heat along with something softer and warmer that spread out from her heart and made her lips want to curl up and made her feet walk to the window so she could pull the curtain back.

The tall man in jeans and a ball cap, a flannel whose sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, helped Kohlton arrange a bunch of sticks in the fire pit that hadn’t been in her yard when she woke up this morning. Luna squatted beside him, adorable in her purple coat and big pink hat. The leaves that had been spread all over her yard were in a pile beside the street, and the lawn was clean and neat. Even the weeds in the flower beds had been removed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.