A Kiss for Cade (8 page)

Hooking his hat over the chair back, he took the seat opposite her. “Yes. About the Brightons.”

She totaled a column. “Bonnie and Seth?”

“What kind of people are they?”

“Good people. You remember Seth’s folks, Frank and Helen?”

“I remember the old man being strict. He was quick to take his kids behind the woodshed and use a hickory switch on them.”

Her pencil paused in midair as she thought about it. “I don’t know that Frank’s like that now. He seems to be a reasonable man, and his children are all responsible, hardworking adults.”

“Do you think Bonnie and Seth would make a good home for Addy’s kids?”

Zoe sipped her coffee, facing him over the rim of the cup. “Yes, but I don’t think that’s the best place for them.”

He glanced toward the stove. “Any more of that coffee?”

“No. This is the last of it.”

“The last of it?” He shifted slightly in his chair. “Don’t you own a general store?”

“I do, but I have to pay for my coffee like everybody else.”

He reached across the table and took her cup. Their hands touched, and she jerked back as if she’d encountered a hot stove. He flashed a disarming grin as he took a long sip. When he handed the cup back to her, she deliberately wiped the rim where his lips had been.

He chuckled. “Afraid of me, Red?”

She got up and took her cup to the sink. Wild horses couldn’t make her put her mouth where his had been. She wasn’t playing games with him. He was trying to evoke memories that were better left alone. “When have I ever been afraid of you?”

“If you’re not, the kids are.” He turned the ledger she was working on and scanned the long rows of figures. “So far they haven’t said a word to me. They can talk, can’t they?” He moved back when she returned to the table and snapped the book shut in his face.

She stuck the ledger into a drawer. “The children are intimidated at the moment. They’ll eventually warm to you.”

“I
don’t have time. How do I get them to open up to me now?”

“Give them a few days.” An edge of impatience crept into her voice. “You surely have a few days, don’t you?”

“Very few. They did come over and watch me shave yesterday morning.”

Zoe opened her mouth and then quickly shut it. It had been the wee hours of the morning when she’d finished Mrs. Penscott’s ironing and then fell into bed. She mentally groaned when she recalled having slept later than usual and let the children fend for themselves. They had gone out early and come back wide eyed, chattering about their uncle’s strange behavior and how they had missed Sunday school and weren’t happy about it.

“They didn’t know I saw them,” Cade added. “I got the feeling that if I’d turned around and said ‘boo’ they’d still be running.”

She picked up the whistling tea kettle and poured hot water into the dishpan. “They thought you were a bit strange, talking to yourself about the Brightons and their supposed ponies and litters of kittens. That’s deceitful. We don’t mislead the children.”

“I didn’t lie to them. Pop told me Seth and Bonnie have a good-sized farm and chances are they have cats and horses. Seth’s made his wishes known.”

“He has, but that doesn’t mean Addy would want Seth to have them.”

His features sober. “Exactly where does Addy want them?”

She scrubbed a pot, bracing herself. “They’d be better off with me.”

“With you?”

The skepticism on his face assured her he’d never even considered the option. Before her confidence wavered, she went on. “Apparently you’ve decided not to keep them.”

“I can’t keep them, and I can’t believe you’d want them.”

She turned to confront him. “And why not?”

“You don’t have a husband. If Seth and Bonnie take them, they’ll have both a mother and a father.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and she resented her fragile emotions. Fighting the tight knot in her throat, Zoe struggled to keep her feelings in check. He knew how to get under her skin, but she wouldn’t let him. There was too much at stake to let him intimidate her.

“No one could love those children more than I do. I was there the day each one was born. I helped deliver Missy and Will. They’re like my own. I’m the one who nursed Addy until her last breath, and believe me, Cade, I would never have sent for you if it wasn’t your sister’s dying wish. Next to you, I’m the closest thing to family the children have, other than John’s Aunt Laticia. I won’t let you give them away!” She heard her voice choke with emotion. He’d gotten to her again. How dare he sit there and calmly discuss Addy’s children as if they were nothing more than strangers in need of a roof over their heads.

“Won’t
let me? Aren’t you forgetting that I’m their uncle and I can do what I think is best?”

The tone of his voice forced her to meet his defiant gaze. “You don’t know them, not one thing about them. How could you? You never once bothered to come home and meet them. Do you think the presents you sent at Christmas made up for your absence? I don’t know what Addy was thinking when she put her children’s welfare in your hands—a man who doesn’t care whose feelings he steps on. A ruthless killer.”

He didn’t waver. “I’m all they’ve got right now. And I’ll decide who raises them.”

She swiped her nose with a hanky. “You had better make the right choice.”

“Look, Red, I’m not trying to hurt you…”

“Of course not. I don’t have a price on my head. Why would you waste time on me?” Her eyes held his, refusing to break contact.

Brody and Will stirred on their pallets. The last thing she wanted was to involve the children in their quarrel. Lowering her voice, she whispered, “Addy’s dead, and her children need a home—a home I can give them, a home I
want
to give them. Please don’t take them away from me, Cade. There’s no reason to uproot them from everything they’ve known. Let them stay here with me. I can raise them as well as Seth and Bonnie can.”

Arms crossed, she stepped to the window, watching a sparrow flit in and out, building a nest under the kitchen eaves. At the moment, she envied the bird. The only problem it faced was today. She had years of loneliness ahead of her if Cade took the children or, worse yet, gave them to the Brightons. If that were to happen, she would be relegated to being a doting “aunt,” bringing gifts at appropriate occasions but never really sharing in their lives.

When she turned to face him, she saw his anger, as well as…disgust and pity?
Please, God, not pity. Not from him.

“I’m not saying you wouldn’t love them,” he said, “but look around you. How can you raise four children? You’re practically walking on kids.”

Zoe cringed as he sized up the room, his gaze lingering on the old, worn-out furnishings. She bit her lower lip, aware of her faded dress and obvious lack of means. If he were to guess just how badly off she was financially, he would never let her have the children.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she said, “that I wouldn’t be able to afford them—but things are picking up. As soon as I get the new shipment of yard goods, I’ll make a tidy profit.”

“Money isn’t the only consideration. I can provide you with all the money you’ll ever need.”

Rinsing a dish, she said softly, “I don’t want your money.”

“Too dirty for your taste, Red? I wasn’t offering you my money. I was talking about the kids. Whoever has them, I’ll see that they’re taken care of financially. But I want them to have a mother and a father. That’s what Addy would want.”

“So if I had a husband, you’d let me keep them?”

“Do you have someone in mind?”

“No. Merely asking.”

“You surely wouldn’t marry someone in order to keep the kids. You wouldn’t take a vow to God and not keep it?”

“You don’t know me at all, Cade Kolby. Any vow I would take I would keep. There are plenty of men who would welcome a ready-made family.”

“Name two.”

“Perry Drake and Ronald Fell.”

“Drake? The banker?”

“Yes. He’s a wonderful man.”

“Who’s Fell?”

“A man—a very nice man who bought a farm east of town a few years back.”

Cade leaned back in his chair. “Funny. Addy never mentioned Ronald Fell. Maybe I’ll bump into him while I’m here.”

“You won’t. He’s…back East on business.” Actually, she’d never met Mr. Fell. Perry mentioned that the bank held the mortgage on the Fell farm. For all she knew, Ronald was married or too old to care, and as far as Perry was concerned, he’d taken her to the Saturday night dance a couple of times, but that was all.

Straightening the sugar bowl, Cade cleared his throat. “I know you mean well, Red, but if Addy wanted you to have the children, she wouldn’t have involved me.”

She jammed a skillet into the dishpan. “Oh, yes, I forgot who I’m dealing with. Cade Kolby, Prince of Uncles—Prince of Lovers—Prince of—”

He slammed both hands on the table and got up. The warning in his eyes said she’d made her point.

Brody stirred on his pallet, opening one eye. When he spotted Cade, he quickly shut it.

Cade reached for his hat. “I’m taking the kids swimming today. Is that all right with you?”

She shrugged. “Why ask? Addy made you king, not me.”

He put his hat on and adjusted it low on his forehead. “See that they’re ready in an hour.”

Zoe turned and flung a wooden spoon at him as the screen door slammed. The spoon ricocheted off the wire mesh and took a hard bounce onto Brody’s pallet.

Brody picked it up and looked at her. Will lifted a tousled head and rose on an elbow, sleepy eyed and yawning.

Staring at the screen door, Zoe slowly counted to ten. Clenching her hands into fists, she silently ranted and railed, calling Cade every name under the sun. Throwing a spoon at him had probably lessened her chance of keeping the children, but she didn’t care. It was hard to control the anger that simmered inside her, anger that
he
provoked.

Brody and Will were still focused on her. For their sake, she would pretend their uncle wasn’t the most impossible man on earth. Turning from the door, she met the boys’ curious stares brightly.

“Guess what? Uncle Cade is taking you swimming!”

Chapter Nine

C
ade left the Bradshaw store and walked down the street to the jail. When he opened the door, he found Pop sprawled on the cell bunk, white faced and moaning.

“Pop! What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

The sheriff drew his knees up to his chest with a groan. “Goose-berry pie,” he rasped.

Cade entered the cell and knelt beside him. The old man’s face was nearly as white as his mustache. “How much did you eat?”

“Three, maybe four pieces. I lost count.”

Cade shook his head. “Green apple quickstep. That’s rough.”

“Dadburn that Lilith! She knows better than to let me make a hog out of myself on her pies!” Pop doubled over again.

Cade glanced around the empty office. “What can I do to help?”

“Just get out of my way, I’m coming through.” Pop hauled himself off the bunk and made a bee line for the back door.

Sidestepping the sheriff’s hasty departure, Cade called, “Maybe next time you’ll stop at one piece!”

Moving to the desk, Cade sat down and leafed through the wanted posters. He laid two aside, knowing he had already collected the rewards on them. Hot bile rose to his throat when Hart McGill’s picture came up. He stared at it long and hard. They had upped the reward another five hundred dollars. The worthless being was overvalued. When he thought of Owen Cantrell, shot in the back walking through his own front door, it turned his stomach. Owen had been gunned down for no reason other than because he was Cade’s friend. The image of Bess Cantrell, grief stricken as she was carried away from the graveside by her two sons, would stay with Cade for as long as he lived.

Pushing bitterness aside, Cade moved to the window and thought of more pressing matters. If Hart got wind that Cade had loved ones in Winterborn, their lives would be worthless. He’d talk to Seth and Bonnie about getting the kids settled as quickly as possible.

The back door opened and Pop returned, carefully easing onto the nearest chair and releasing a sigh. “That was close.”