Lacy Williams Read online

  Sam made what he hoped was an appropriate noise. He’d seen the note on the newspaperman’s overdue loan just that morning. Seemed he would need to tread carefully when he went to talk to the man about it.

  “And the druggist—” Emily went on, pointing to a different storefront down the street “—is actually a grandfather who took on the care of his five grandchildren when his daughter and her husband passed away last year. I can’t imagine how he must have to make each penny stretch to feed that many children. So we aren’t the only ones who have been struggling.”

  Emily’s compassion for her fellow residents was touching. From their shared past, Sam remembered how sensitive she’d been to Maxwell’s upbringing, helping him with the studies Penny had put him through, bringing him small treats from the store that he’d never gotten to have during his childhood.

  Emily was like that—thoughtful to the needs of others. But who took the time to care about her?

  “Oscar said you haven’t gotten out to many social functions recently, been stuck in the store a lot,” he said, as a way to broach the subject.

  She glanced at him again, this time with eyebrows creased. “You were asking about me?”

  He shrugged, his ears burning. “Just curious about an old friend.” Mostly.

  As they stepped off the end of the boardwalk, he tugged on the front of his Stetson, hoping it shadowed his face in case he was doing something as girly as blushing. He focused his eyes on the church steeple half-hidden behind a grove of trees up ahead, but still felt her gaze on him.

  Finally, she said, “My father hasn’t been the same since my mother’s death. She was almost a... partner to him in the store. When she died, it was as if he couldn’t perform all those functions without thinking about her, so I took over a lot of it. And there’s Winnie to take care of, as well.”

  That’s right. He’d only met Emily’s younger sister two or three times when he’d been in Bear Creek before, but it hadn’t taken him long to figure she was a little different, a little slow. A sweet girl, but he imagined it took extra time and care to raise someone like Winnie.

  “But, like I said, don’t feel sorry for me. There are a lot of folks in Bear Creek who’ve been having a hard time of it.”

  They’d passed the last business but hadn’t reached the church yet. Sam paused and wheeled around to look back down Main Street.

  “There are a lot of folks behind on their payments at the bank, it seems,” he said idly, trying to look at the town through unbiased eyes. There was plenty of foot traffic on the street, wagons traveling along, shoppers about.

  And Jonas’s homestead seemed to be doing well, from what Sam could see in the evenings. His herd was growing, and he’d been buying up additional land when each of his sons gained their majority. Sam knew not everyone was in the same position as his brother-in-law, but...

  “I just don’t see how people can’t meet their obligations,” he said.

  She inhaled a quick breath and he looked down at her, but her head was bent and he couldn’t read her expression. She clutched the basket handle with both hands.

  “You’ve worked the range enough to know what some of the residents go through.” She said the words a little sharply, surprising him. “With last year’s bad drought, some of the homesteaders lost stock animals. The deep freezes this past winter took the winter wheat. There was also a wildfire a few weeks ago that destroyed several homesteads.” Her voice grew softer, but she still didn’t look up at him. “I don’t think it’s that people don’t want to pay their loans. But if it’s a choice between feeding your family and paying the bank...”

  She still didn’t mention her father’s loan and Sam couldn’t be sure that she knew about it. She could simply be sharing about the people she knew around town. If her father wanted to keep it private, who was Sam to bring it up?

  “I’m sure you’re right,” he said, although he wasn’t entirely sure of any such thing. “It’s just...my father’s counting on me to collect on the delinquent loans for the bank here. That’s one of the major reasons he sent me.” He didn’t mention that collecting on those would make the bank more profitable.

  “If what you’ve said is true, though, then how am I supposed to collect from people who can barely take care of themselves?”

  His father would tell him to call the loans. But Sam didn’t know if that was the right thing, either. He shrugged, looking off into the distance, into the sky past the town. His father was counting on him to prove that he wasn’t the irresponsible person he’d been as a teenager. Prove that he was a man who finished what he started. He couldn’t let his father down. But could he really look someone in the eye and tell him he was repossessing his property?

  Emily seemed more subdued now than when she’d arrived at the office. Probably bored, talking business with him. Sam didn’t even want to think about it anymore, and it certainly wasn’t her problem.

  He touched her arm. “So where is this perfect picnic spot?”

  She seemed to come out of her thoughts, finally looking up at him. But her smile stayed restrained. She inclined her head toward the church. “Over there, beneath that largest oak.”

  He followed her, spreading the blanket where she wanted it. The spot overlooked a sunny meadow, enclosed by a plank-rail fence. Inside, a mare and her young colt grazed. Sam propped a boot on the lowest rail and watched the horses while Emily set out the food.

  He breathed in deeply of the fresh, sun-kissed air, and some of his tension floated away on the breeze that rustled the nearby grasses. With the mountains in the distance and the bright sunlight streaming down, it made a pretty picture. The only thing that would make it better would be if he had his horse saddled and could race over the gentle hill to see what lay beyond.

  And maybe if Emily rode behind him, arms wrapped around his waist.

  The errant thought startled him into turning to face her. He leaned back against the fence, resting his elbows there.

  With her honey-crowned head bent over her task and the dappled sunlight beneath the tree kissing her profile, she was even nicer to look at than the horses. He cleared his throat.

  “So you don’t have time to court because of helping your father run the store—but is there anyone special you’ve been seein’?” He hadn’t really meant to utter the question, but maybe if she said yes, the cinch squeezing his chest would ease.

  “No, there’s no one like that.” She said the words absently, setting one more item from the basket onto the blanket, then looked up at him and waved him toward her.

  Heart bucking again, he joined her on the blanket, tossing his Stetson onto the soft grasses next to him.

  “Have you heard from Maxwell recently?” He had to know.

  She handed him a plate piled with delicious-smelling foods. “I get a letter every now and again but haven’t for months. We’d gone from being sweethearts to friends even before he left for college.”

  So she counted Maxwell a friend. That answered how she felt about him, but what if Maxwell still carried a torch for her?

  “What you said... about people paying their loans?” Her change in the topic surprised him momentarily. “I think if you get to know some of the Bear Creek residents, you might change your opinions about us.”

  He started to protest—he didn’t think she or her father were the kind of person who left a debt unpaid, but she kept speaking.

  “Next Saturday, almost everyone in town is coming out to help the Bradfords rebuild the house they lost in the wildfires. You should come. Meet some of the people. See what we’re all about. Maybe getting to know some folks will help you figure things out.”

  Maybe it would. And maybe it wouldn’t. He still had a job to do. Still had to prove himself to his father. But maybe the event would give him a chance to speak to some of the residents about paying their loans in a casual setting—one where they wouldn’t be as offended as if he approached them in their own homes.

  And maybe he could
use the chance to make sure Emily was truly all right. It sounded like things had been difficult for her since her mother’s death. He’d like to find a way to make things easier on her.

  He could only pray for a way to do that without entangling his heart more.

  Chapter Three

  “When I invited you to attend the house-raising, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

  Emily’s soft-spoken words seemed to drift off into the early-morning darkness. The sun was still only a hint of silver light on the horizon as they made their way to the Bradfords’ property outside of the town proper.

  “I can’t believe your father would let you make a delivery like this on your own,” Sam countered. He glanced behind him at the over-full wagon, stacked with heavy lumber. The movement shifted his shoulder against Emily’s on the narrow wagon bench, and he became aware all over again of her closeness, the way she pressed into his side. With the darkness surrounding them, it gave the moment an intimate feel.

  He squinted his eyes, trying to see over the horses’s ears in the darkness. Though he held the reins loosely, he could feel the horses straining in their traces with the effort to pull the heavy wagon. And Emily’s father would have let her drive the wagon alone, if Sam hadn’t insisted on doing it for her.

  “It isn’t the first time, and I doubt it will be the last,” she murmured.

  “You’re not a freighter.”

  She didn’t respond to his mumble, only jostled his elbow with a hint of a smile, a flash of white teeth in the growing light. “Besides, my father will be bringing the second wagon, along with Winnie.”

  It wasn’t the first time he’d had a suspicion her father took advantage of her, worked her too hard. In the past ten days, Sam had taken to riding past the Sands Mercantile on his way into town. No matter the early hour, he often saw Emily through the window, straightening or stacking or sometimes sweeping off the boardwalk outside. Almost always with her sister at her side. And when he rode home, often as twilight fell, she was still there. Still working.

  Other than the picnic lunch they’d shared, he rarely saw her leave the shop during the daytime hours. So he’d taken to stopping by on his own lunch break. Sometimes he would bring by a treat from the café or hotel restaurant. Most of the time, he just tried to make her smile. He’d even gotten used to Winnie’s often awkward presence and had found ways to relate to the younger girl.

  Each time he saw Emily, his feelings grew. He was beginning to drift into dangerous territory—at risk of falling in love with her again. He couldn’t let that happen. Not only was Sam convinced that it was possible Maxwell still had feelings for her, but she seemed determined to keep him firmly in “friend” territory—treating him the same as any of the White brothers who might happen into the store.

  But he was resolved to stick it out. Emily had reached out to him those first two days when he’d been struggling, sitting in the banker’s office. It still wasn’t easy for him to be confined to the desk all day, but her insights had helped him think about relating to the customers in a better way. She’d been a friend to him, and he could do no less for her.

  He hadn’t found time yet to approach her father about the overdue loan. Maybe he could catch a moment with the man today.

  “I can’t believe you slept outdoors last night. You should’ve slept at the store—I’m sure Father wouldn’t have minded.”

  He rubbed one palm over the scruff on his jaw. He probably looked a lot more like a cowboy today with unshaven cheeks and slightly rumpled clothes. But he’d been afraid she would try to leave without him, wrestling the large, overburdened wagon on her own if he hadn’t been there in time, so he’d spent the night beneath the same tree where they’d had their picnic, his horse ground-tied nearby. He’d been lucky to find out about the planned trip when he’d wandered into the shop late yesterday afternoon, and made his plans from there.

  “It’s plenty warm this time of year. It’s no worse than when I’m out on a cattle drive. In fact, I kept coming awake, expecting to hear cattle lowing and was surprised to realize where I was.”

  She laughed. “I’ve been wondering if you were missing your cowboy days. I guess if you were dreaming about cattle, I’ve got my answer.”

  He chuckled with her but then admitted what he hadn’t said to anyone else. “It’s not only that. Being stuck in that stuffy office all day... it starts to wear on me by mid-afternoon. My legs get twitchy, and I get this urge to get on my horse and go for a ride. Get into some wide-open spaces.”

  He missed being out of doors. Missed the challenge of outsmarting wily critters and the need to keep ahead of the ever-changing weather. The travel from one spread to another, long cattle drives and not having a place of his own, he could do without.

  But if he couldn’t complete this job, prove himself to his father, he would never earn his father’s respect.

  “There’s something to be said about settling down. Having a place of your own to call home. And someone to come home to,” he murmured.

  * * *

  Something in Sam’s words hinted at a deeper meaning, and Emily’s heart thumped sharply.

  Maybe it was her imagination, but she thought she heard a wistful note there.

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up what you love,” she argued. “If you’d rather work outdoors, why not settle your own homestead? Or work horses for a while with your grandfather until you decide what you want to do?”

  The sun had finally tipped the horizon, and Emily could see the silent struggle cross Sam’s features. “Maybe,” he finally said. “After I finish with the Bear Creek Bank.”

  She wished she knew why this job for Sam’s father was so important to Sam. He was a man of honor, and she expected no less than him giving it his all. He worked nearly as many hours in the bank as she did at her father’s store—practically sunup to sundown. But what was he trying to prove?

  She’d chickened out on asking him for an extension on her family’s mortgage on the day they’d shared their picnic. He’d been so adamant about his job and making things right and so critical of those who couldn’t pay their loans.

  She hoped that by meeting some of the Bear Creek residents today, he would see they were real people with real struggles. If he could find compassion for them, maybe he would be more open to her request. She was running out of time. They were already overdue on the next loan payment. Her father had mentioned going to Sam to talk man-to-man, but Emily had put him off. She was Sam’s friend. The request should come from her.

  “What do you want to do with your life?” he asked.

  It was only fair for him to turn the tables on her after she’d asked, but the honest answer was... “I don’t know.”

  She couldn’t see beyond her family’s financial troubles. And even if they did find a way to save the store, there was Winnie to consider. Emily’s sister was more like a child than a teenager. Emily’s middle sister Marjorie had married and moved away, so there was no one else to share the burden with.

  “Seems like you and Maxwell always talked about having a passel of kids that you’d take care of while he doctored the town.”

  “I can’t believe you remember that,” she said. “It seems like a long time ago.”

  It wasn’t the first time Sam had brought Maxwell into their conversations. She was surprised he remembered so much about the time they’d spent together over two years ago now, she and him and Maxwell. By the time Maxwell had left for college, the romance between them had faded. Both she and Maxwell had realized the sparks from their teenage years had gone, and that what remained was a strong friendship—probably not the romance Sam was imagining they’d had. Sometimes, she’d thought perhaps Sam had had feelings for her. The occasional glance she would meet when he hadn’t thought she would be looking...

  “So... do you still want to have a passel of kids?”

  She laughed, because it was either that or fight off tears. Having a family of her own
was one of her most closely held dreams, but she didn’t see how it was possible with her mother gone and her father and sister needing her so very badly. “I don’t know. I suppose I’d like to have children someday. Why, are you offering?”

  He coughed abruptly, jarring her elbow and rocking the wagon seat beneath them.

  “I—” He spluttered and she laughed.

  Although, all of a sudden, the thought of having Sam Castlerock as her husband didn’t seem quite so funny.

  * * *

  “Watch your toes!”

  Sam heard the cry moments before the wide plank would’ve smashed into his feet and was able to jump back out of the way.

  “Sorry,” Oscar called out, approaching. The other man swept off his hat and wiped his brow with a red kerchief. “Thought I could handle it. Where’s your head, anyway?”

  Sam shrugged, glancing over at the long tables where the womenfolk were laying out lunch for the men. Emily was there, bouncing a baby on her hip, smiling and talking with the women, Winnie at her side.

  “Oh, I see.” Oscar lined up shoulder-to-shoulder with Sam and nodded. “No wonder you’re so distracted. Miss Emily’s a sight. Especially with that baby on her hip. Could make a man start getting ideas about courtin’... or marriage.”

  Sam turned his back, purposely knocking his friend’s elbow. “Too busy to be getting ideas like that,” he mumbled. “C’mon. Let’s get this board in place.”

  Oscar followed suit as Sam hefted one end of the board and put it in place against the home’s outer wall. The house was taking shape beneath the hands of the workers who had shown up—almost all the town, it seemed.

  “You sure? Seems like you’ve been distracted all morning.”

  Sam couldn’t deny it. He’d had trouble keeping his gaze—and his mind—from wandering to Emily all day. Watching her interacting with the women, often reaching out to squeeze someone’s arm, or interacting with the baby, looking natural and motherly—it cinched him around the middle and wouldn’t let go. He knew it was wrong to want to be with her, but he couldn’t help his feelings. When he completed this job for his father, he’d been promised a position but doubted it would be with the Bear Creek Bank. He could just imagine his father asking him to take on a business in Calvin, where his parents lived. To keep an eye on his son. Before coming to Bear Creek, Sam had seriously considered a position like that, even though he’d rather be riding the range. He’d do it to please his father, and ease his own guilt for the vandalism and pranks he’d pulled as a teen.