Wolf Creek Wedding by Penny Richards

Author:Penny Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2013-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

As expected, the Stones issued their usual Thanksgiving invitation, this time via Caleb when he went into town for oats. There had been no major problems the past few days, and he and Abby went about each day much as they had the one before, which made the decision of when to approach her about the invitation much easier. He would wait until after their evening Bible study and the children were in bed, since he was uncertain how the conversation might go. Instead of spending Bible time in his office pouring over bookwork, he decided to read his new farming journal in the parlor.

They were studying the parable of the seeds. Caleb admired how Abby not only related the different soils with the conditions of peoples’ hearts but also how she wove it into their own planting of crops in the upcoming spring. Caleb tried to focus on the pages of the magazine but couldn’t keep his gaze from straying to her any more than he could keep from remembering the way her lips felt beneath his. Several times during the lesson, she looked up and caught him watching her. To his surprise, she looked uncomfortable with his presence, but was trying her best not to let it show.

He wondered at the new demeanor, one he’d seen more and more often lately. She’d seldom been this uneasy with him. In fact, he didn’t think she had been since those early days, and it wasn’t like her. He liked the fiery Abby who talked back, who challenged everything about him from his attitudes to how he expressed himself. He liked the gentle Abby, too. The one who patiently explained things to Ben, who sang to Betsy and Laura and smiled at him when he stepped through the kitchen door at night. He didn’t like the wariness or the fact that ever since he’d kissed her, she’d seemed...

The kiss! She’d been acting funny ever since he’d kissed her. Caleb considered his own actions. If his goal was to hold Abby at arm’s length as he had Emily, he’d done a bang-up job—except for the kiss.

A sudden thought held him stock-still. He and Emily had liked each other well enough when they married, but that relationship had deteriorated through the years until they might as well have been strangers living beneath the same roof. Was it possible that his detachment and cool behavior toward her lay at the root of their inability to connect in any meaningful way, or had his behavior come about because of her own standoffishness? He supposed he would never know.

What he did know was that he had no idea of how to be tender, how to accept or demonstrate simple acts of kindness, something that had hit home when his neighbors had come with condolences after Emily’s death. He had no idea how to love or be loved. Lucas had done a remarkable job of teaching him and Gabe that any show of gentleness made you less a man.

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