A Love Most Worthy by Sandra Ardoin

Author:Sandra Ardoin
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Sandra Ardoin
Published: 2019-02-05T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Hallie stood at the porch rail as water poured off the roof and splashed into the muddy yard. With the rainy weather these past couple of weeks, wagon wheels had cut deep ruts through the street in front of the house.

She hadn’t seen her neighbors in days. At first, the flowers showed appreciation of a good drink after a dry start to the summer. Now, they appeared as tired of the sogginess as everyone else.

Thankfully, the boys were still sleeping. The longer, the better. They were bored and irritable being caged inside. She had read them every book within reach, led them in singing every song she knew by heart, and played all the games she recalled from her childhood.

She wrapped an arm around the thin post by the step, stared at the rain-blurred scene, and practically tasted the moist air on her tongue. A brisk wind pinned her skirt to her legs. Would the storms never stop? Would the sky never clear? Even her normally sunny disposition was taxed to its limit.

“Aunt Hallie?”

She whipped around at hearing the little voice behind her and brushed aside the wind-loosened strands of hair that blew across her face. Robbie stood on the other side of the threshold rubbing his eyes. “Good morning, sleepyhead. Is Davie up too?”

“Not yet.” Once he could see clearly through the fog of a half-sleep, the boy pouted. “More rain.”

Hallie closed the gap between them. Hands on his shoulders, she turned him from the dreary sight. “Are you hungry?”

“Yes, ma’am. Is Uncle Rance gone?”

“He left a short time ago for the store.”

With each step, Rance’s rubber boots had left tracks in the muck. Hallie had stood outside for several minutes after he hiked out of sight, watching in silence as water filled the prints he’d added to the yard.

More than two weeks had passed, and the two of them hadn’t discussed what happened the day of her shooting lesson. Instead, he tiptoed around her, and it was her fault.

Why had she kissed him while he’d napped?

No matter how many times she re-ran that moment through her mind or how many ways she tried to twist it, she couldn’t deny her culpability. Good heavens, he had looked so peaceful, his lips so enticing. It felt right. More than right. Then again, maybe she had pushed for it to feel that way. Maybe she wanted to be the right one for him.

And he had kissed her back.

Contrary to Rance’s renewed distance, she hadn’t shaken the hope that the passion in his response meant he thought of her as more than a substitute mother for the children or a maid around the house. The idea of a lifetime of sharing little more than an affection for the boys gripped her with too many memories of the past.

What would she know about a man’s feelings? She had little experience with kisses, certainly none like that one. And what made her think he kissed her in his sleep? For all she knew, he’d been dreaming of another woman.

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