Change of Heart (13 page)

“You’re leaving? What do you mean? Where are
you going?”

He glanced away briefly before he looked at
her again. “I’ve got business to attend to. If I can’t have you, I
might as well go ahead with my plans for the land development. The
consortium wants to have the town open for business by the end of
next summer.”

“So soon?” She was amazed at how quickly
things could change in the West--from the weather to the landscape
to the growth of new communities.

“Of course. Lots of folks use the Oregon
Trail. People come through by the dozens needing supplies of all
kinds. The sooner we can provide for their needs, the better it
will be for all of us.”

She hadn’t thought about just how exciting
this venture would be for a man like Jase. He had indeed been
willing to make a huge sacrifice for their love. Blast her for
being so selfish and unwilling to compromise!

“Miguel will take you and Zack to the fort.
I’ll meet you there before the stage leaves.”

“Zack will be so disappointed.” Marietta
could feel her heart breaking. She’d thought she would have more
time with him before she had to leave.

His gaze drifted toward the parlor where Zack
was making noises as he played with his new handmade toys. “And
what about you, Marietta?” he said when he looked at her again.
“Are you disappointed that I’m leaving?”

She felt her throat tighten. She rubbed her
fingers over her neck as though the motion would loosen her
constricting muscles. Caught in the grip of his penetrating eyes,
she found that she couldn’t lie to him. “Yes, Jase. God help me,
yes. I didn’t want us to part yet.”

His Adam’s apple quivered as he took a step
closer to her and stroked her cheek with his fingers. “I’ll never
be ready for us to part, Marietta, but I can’t stand for us to be
so near to each other when I can’t take you in my arms.”

“Jase, please don’t say that.” She closed her
eyes and turned around, leaning against the cupboards to steady her
weakening body. She wouldn’t be able to think straight if he did
take her into his arms, yet she couldn’t help but wish he’d do
exactly that. Her heart wanted him to hold her and never let her
go.

“I’m sorry,” he said, fingering the hair
she’d allowed to lay around her shoulders. “I didn’t mean to upset
you. What I’m trying to say is goodbye.”

Her heart stopped beating, and she couldn’t
breathe. He placed his hand on her shoulder and pressed his lips
close to her ear.

“I’ll always love you, Marietta.” He kissed
her cheek, stood back from her, and left the room.

Marietta couldn’t move. Cold air blew through
the room when Jase opened the outside door. But it was the sound of
the door closing that roused her from her unresponsive state of
shock.

Jase was gone.

He’d never hold her again, never kiss her
again, never share her life. Could she live without him? Heaven
help her, she wanted him, but was it too late to have him? Now that
she knew more about his land developing project and understood the
dream he was willing to sacrifice to become her husband, could she
change her mind and accept his proposal? Could she ask him to give
up something so important to him?

Marietta watched Jase mount Beaumont and ride
away from the house. As he moved toward the pasture, she envisioned
him riding out of her life. She knew only too well the pain of
losing the people she’d loved in her life; could she stand to lose
love again?

As the first light of dawn filtered into the
barn, Jase saddled his steed and loaded the last of the supplies
he’d need to make his trip. He’d decided to ride to James Richards’
ranch east of the fort to discuss their plans for the spring trip.
It seemed like a good excuse to get away from his ranch.

No matter how much he wanted to spend more
time with Zack, it was too painful to be with Marietta, knowing
she’d never belong to him. He loved her more than he could have
ever imagined loving anyone. If only his whole life could be as
wonderful as the times they’d spent together since she’d come to
his home. But it couldn’t.

He was a coward for running out on Marietta
and Zack, but he couldn’t help it. The two of them would be fine
without him. Miguel would take care of them until it was time for
them to leave, and Jase would meet them at the fort to give them
their final farewell. Their separation would then last forever, and
Jase’s heart would truly be dead.

When his horse was ready, he left the barn
and walked ahead of Beaumont, reluctantly tugging the loyal
companion away from the house. As he prepared to mount his steed,
he heard his name screeched across the yard.

“Jase, wait!”

He turned to see Marietta standing on his
porch with a shawl wrapped around her nightgown.

“Jase, don’t go! Please!”

Something had to be terribly wrong. Was Zack
sick? Had he been hurt? Jase jumped on Beaumont and hastened toward
the house. As soon as he reached his porch, he dismounted and
hurried up the stairs.

“What’s wrong?” he said, grasping Marietta’s
shoulders. “Is Zack all right?”

“Zack’s fine.” She was out of breath, as
though she’d just run the distance he’d covered across his
yard.

“Then what’s brought you out here in your
nightclothes screaming at me so early in the morning?”

She took a deep breath and stared up at him,
her eyes glistening. “I’ve made some big mistakes in my life, Jase.
The worst ones have been those where I’ve thrown away opportunities
at happiness because I was afraid to take chances and venture into
unknown territories. I’ve never been like Kathy.”

“But what has that to do with anything? Why
have you come out into the cold so sparsely dressed?” He took her
arm. “Let’s go inside.”

“I’m fine, Jase. I’m not cold in the least.
Please, let me explain. I have so much to tell you.”

“You can tell me inside.” He squeezed her arm
and ushered her into the house.

She shivered when he closed the door. He
guided her into the parlor where the embers of a fire remained
aglow. “Now what is it that you have to tell me? You were saying
something about being afraid to take chances.”

“Yes, I’ve never had the feisty spirit Kathy
had, even though we were raised the same.” She stopped and drew in
a breath in an apparent attempt to calm down. “As I told you
before, when Kathy left Chicago, I was devastated. She missed me as
desperately as I missed her. She’d sent me dozens of letters
begging me to come to Nebraska to stay with her and Clint. I didn’t
come, Jase, because I was afraid. For so many years, I was afraid
to risk whatever lay on the path between Chicago and Kathy, so I
lived without experiencing her love or the love of Zack or
Clint.”

Marietta tilted her head as she stared up at
him, her eyes warmer than he’d ever seen them. “Jase, these last
weeks have been the happiest of my life.”

He wasn’t sure what she was going to say
next, but hope began to rise within him when he learned she’d been
happy in his home. “Go on, Marietta.”

A tear slid down her cheek. Jase pulled his
gloves from his hands and wiped it away, then threw his gloves on
the sofa.

“I don’t want to be afraid anymore, Jase. I
don’t want to lose any more love because I’m afraid.” She turned
away. “I couldn’t sleep last night, because all I could see was you
riding away from me--leaving me. All I could feel was emptiness
over another lost love, a chasm even deeper than the one that grew
in my heart when Kathy left me. I needed comfort desperately, so I
went to my trunk, the one that held my letters from Kathy. I took
them with me as I snuggled under my covers, hoping to find the
answers to my great confusion.”

She turned back to him and looked at him with
tears shimmering in her eyes. “I didn’t think I could stand to
leave you, Jase, but neither did I have the strength to stay.”

He’d never felt so helpless in his life. She
was playing with his heart, his mind, even his life. If she didn’t
make herself clear in the next two seconds, he was going to
explode.

“As I read Kathy’s sisterly words, I realized
how vital it is for a woman to follow her heart. Right or wrong, a
woman will never have happiness if she isn’t true to herself and
her heart.” She pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders. “As I
read Kathy’s letters over and over, I realized I had been wrong to
refuse your proposal.”

“Marietta--”

“Wait, there’s more.” She pressed her fingers
to his lips. “I know I want to marry you, Jase. I know being
together is the best thing that could happen to us and to Zack as
well.”

He pushed her hand away from his lips and let
the joy in his heart light his face with a smile. “You’ll marry me
then?”

She took a step back and said, “On one
condition.”

Her regression and reluctance confused him
once more. “I don’t like ultimatums, Marietta, and I won’t take
them from anyone, not even you.”

Despite his firm words, she grinned like a
man ready to show a full house to an opponent who’d just laid down
a King-high straight. “You’ll like this ultimatum, Jase. I
guarantee it.”

He quirked a brow and folded his arms.
“Anything’s possible, I suppose.”

“Yes! That’s what I’m trying to tell you.
Until last night I never realized it, but anything is possible,
Jase. It’s possible for me to live here with you, it’s possible for
me to leave Chicago for good, it’s possible for the two of us to
find happiness and still live out our dreams.”

He couldn’t wait another minute. He scooped
her into his arms and whirled her around. “And it’s possible for a
stubborn woman to finally come to her senses.”

She giggled and pushed herself out of his
arms. “Wait, I haven’t finished saying what I have to say.”

He set her down but didn’t let her go.
“There’s more? What more can you give a man than the fulfillment of
his most desired dream?”

She gazed up at him with eyes and cheeks and
lips full of sheer delight. She was so beautiful he could hardly
stand it.

“How about the fulfillment of his second-most
desired dream?” Her gaze turned coy, then confident. “Jason Kent,
you’re going to go ahead with your land speculation, and I’m going
to help you every step of the way. We’re going to found and build
that town, and I’m going to turn that new community into a
civilized place fit for the best of society.”

“What?” He could feel his eyes growing as he
took in what she’d offered.

“It’s the perfect answer for both of us,
Jase. We both get what we want most--besides each other, of
course.”

“You’re sure this is what you want?”

She stretched up and kissed him on the lips.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

He crushed her against his chest and devoured
her with a kiss that expressed the love overflowing from his heart.
Then he kissed her some more and more, until he wondered if he
could separate from her long enough to take a breath. When she went
limp in his arms, he pulled away to gaze down at her lovely
face.

She smiled at him. “We’ll never build a new
town if you’re going to kiss me like that, Jason Kent. I’ll be too
weak to work.”

He lifted her into his arms and carried her
to the sofa. “Then I’ll carry you everywhere you need to go.”

“Let’s wake Zack and tell him the good news,”
she said excitedly.

“Zack will be awake on his own soon enough.”
Jase pulled her into his arms again. “I want you all to myself for
a few minutes.”

The sight of the shade of red that filled her
cheeks, the same vermillion color that the dawn had painted outside
the window, warmed him clear through. He thought of all the nights
and dawns they would share together in the coming years, and he got
warmer still. As he held her closer so he could kiss her again, he
heard a crunching sound that caused him to stop his advances.
“What’s that?”

Marietta grinned and pulled away to reach
into the pocket of her nightgown. “It’s the last letter I received
from Kathy, the one that finally opened my eyes completely and set
me on the right path.”

Jase tilted his head and quirked a brow as he
reached for the letter. “Just what sort of magic does this paper
hold?”

She blushed again and reached for the paper
he’d taken from her hand. “Never mind,” she said coyly. “You should
never pry into sisterly secrets.”

Her demure behavior roused his curiosity. He
held the paper away from her and began to read it. She grabbed it
away before he could read very far. All he had time to discern was
one insignificant little phrase that had been underlined several
times:
Mother was wrong.

Marietta stuffed the letter into her pocket
and grinned at him seductively. “Wasn’t there something you wanted
before we were distracted by the letter, Jase?”

Pleasantly surprised to see that she knew a
bit about teasing a man, he grinned at her and took her into his
arms. “What letter?”

He moved closer to her until his lips touched
hers softly. He kissed her slowly, carefully, until he was sure she
knew she’d be treasured for the rest of her life. Then he thanked
God and Kathy for Marietta’s blessed change of heart.

The End

If you liked “Change of Heart” you may enjoy
Fran Shaff’s “Heart Junction Series” which is set in the early
Twentieth Century. “Laura’s Lost Love,” “Stephanie’s Surprise,” and
“Mari’s Miracle” make up the award-winning Heart Junction Series.
Below are the opening chapters for each of these books.

Read the first half of these books on your
favorite e-reader for free at Smashwords.com. These books are
available for sale in e-format at Smashwords and at other on line
outlets and in paperback at on line stores.

LAURA’S LOST LOVE
,
Book One of the Heart Junction Series