To Have and To Hold (32 page)

could tel my ma we’re expecting a baby this Christmas?”

She shifted Rachel on her hip and shook her head. “Dave! I’ve never heard of a man who’s

more eager to have children more than you.”

He motioned to Isaac who was running after the dogs. “Wel , he won’t be wanting to hang

around his pa forever.”

“That’s what grandchildren are for, but we stil have a ways to go before that happens and we’l

have more children in the meantime.” She kissed his cheek. “I promise.”

“Maybe one wil be on the way by Christmas.”

With an amused sigh, she shook her head and headed for the house where a group of children

played on the lawn while the men sat on the porch. “I don’t know where you’re going to sit or

stand. The whole area is crowded.”

“I’l squeeze my way in. I’m sure we’l find something to do soon enough instead of wasting the

day on the porch talking.”

“Probably.”

As he fol owed her up the porch steps, Tom cal ed out, “We were beginning to think you al

weren’t going to show,” from where he was sitting by a window.

“Have more faith in Dave, Tom,” Owen said from where he was sitting next to him. “Of course,

Dave was going to show up. Mary was there to remind him.”

“I didn’t have to remind him,” she replied. “He remembered.”

“You’re getting better then,” Tom told Dave with a grin.

Dave rol ed his eyes. “Sometimes I ask myself why I bother coming out here at al .”

From where he was sitting next to Richard, Rick said, “He didn’t forget because he knows Sal y

wil go out to his place and get Mary herself.”

“That’s Sal y for you,” Joel jested, “always dragging wives away from their husbands.

Sometimes I wonder how you put up with her, Rick.”

“Sal y has a good heart,” Rick said. “You need to understand she gets enthusiastic about

getting everyone together because she cares.”

“You also need a good pair of cotton bal s to plug up your ears.”

Mary smiled at Joel’s joke. “You better watch it. Your wife won’t like hearing you talk like that

about her friend.”

“Yep,” Dave added as he pushed Joel aside so he could sit on part of the bench Joel had been

hogging. “You get that wife of yours riled up, and she’l let you have it.”

“I stil remember how she gave us an earful that time we fixed up that room in your house,

Joel,” Tom agreed.

“That’s because she won’t tolerate anyone being mean to me,” Joel proudly said with a smug

smile.

“Ah, no one is more in love with himself than Joel,” Richard commented from where he stood

against the porch railing next to Tom.

Ignoring him, Joel looked over at Mary. “How are you doing?”

“Good,” she replied, pleased he thought to ask. “I remember everything.”

“That’s great, Mary,” Rick said.

“It is,” Joel agreed. “Thankful y, it wasn’t Dave who forgot. He’d be forgetting what he

remembered.”

Dave shoved him off the bench. “Oh, sorry, Joel. I forgot you were sitting by me.”

“Ha ha.” Joel stood up and put his hat back on his head before he wiggled back onto the bench.

Mary decided to leave the men to their good-natured ribbing and entered the house ful of

women and the smal er children. In the parlor, Dave’s mother, Amanda, and Jessica were

watching Tom and Jessica’s three-year-old daughter Daisy and infants Emma, Laura and

Hannah. She entered the room and smiled. “I hope there’s room for one more.”

The women looked up and returned her smile. “There’s always room for more,” Dave’s mother

said and held her arms out to Rachel.

Mary set Rachel down so she could wobble over to her grandmother.

“Did you have a good trip to Maine?” Jessica asked.

“It was nice to see my father before he passed away,” Mary replied, not wishing to go into it

any more than that. There were some things she’d like to forget, and her trip to Maine—minus

meeting her father and seeing Grace—was one of them.

“I’m sure he was glad to see you, too,” Dave’s mother added.

Mary nodded. “Yes, but it’s good to be back.”

“It’s good having you back.” She glanced at Rachel, her other granddaughters, Amanda, and

Jessica. “A ful house is a happy house.”

“Ful being the word,” Amanda commented. “If we had any more babies in here, the room

would explode.”

Jessica giggled before she tapped Daisy on the back. “Give Emma that cloth to teethe on.

The poor girl’s going to suck her fingers off.”

Daisy took the cloth that was on the table and handed it to her cousin. As she returned to her

mother, she gave Mary a curious look. “Do you remember me, Aunt Mary?”

“Yes, I do,” Mary replied. “It took a while, but I do.” She turned her gaze to the expectant

women and added, “I remember everything now. I have for about two weeks.”

“Then going to Maine was good for that as wel ,” Jessica commented.

Maybe. Mary didn’t know if she would have remembered that part of her life if it hadn’t been

for seeing everyone to prompt her memories, but maybe she had to go back in order to for it to

happen.

Sal y came into the room. “April said she heard your voice. Do you want to come to the

kitchen? Jenny, April and I are in charge of supper this time.”

“Recruiting for help so the kitchen doesn’t catch on fire?” Jessica mused.

Sal y groaned. “It was only one time, and I was sixteen.” Looking at Mary, she rol ed her

eyes. “You do something one time and they never let you forget it.”

“See, Mary?” Amanda began. “We could have fil ed you in on al the details of that fire if you

didn’t remember us tel ing you about it shortly after you married Dave. Except we have no idea

what she was trying to make.”

Sal y raised an eyebrow. “No one needs to know what I was trying to cook when the fire

started.”

Dave’s mother shot her a pointed look. “I don’t see why you don’t just come out and tel us.”

“It’s my secret, and I’l take it to my grave,” Sal y answered, not seeming the least bit tempted

to tel the group of curious women. “Would you like to come to the kitchen, Mary?”

Mary hid her grin, for Sal y had confided in her a couple years back that she’d been burning the

letters an old beau had written to her when she got distracted by a mouse that ran through the

kitchen and a dishtowel got too close to the cook stove. Perhaps everyone had something they

wanted to keep to themselves or share with a very close friend who knew how to keep a

secret. It was why she’d told Sal y everything about Maine but decided not to tel anyone else.

Mary turned her attention to Sal y and smiled. “Yes, I’d like to help cook supper.”

“Good because the men wil complain if they don’t get one of your apple pies,” Jessica teased.

“Plus, who’d want to miss Tom and Joel fight over the last slice?”

As the others laughed since the matter was true more often than not, Mary turned and went to

the kitchen with Sal y, eager to spend the day with her friends. This was what being home

meant, and she was glad she had the rest of her life to enjoy it.

Coming Summer 2012

Sometimes men don’t realize the right woman is the one they aren’t pursuing…

As soon as Sal y Larson meets Rick Johnson, she knows he’s the one for her. The catch?

He’s interested in her friend. But she has a plan. With the help of a couple others, she

manages to convince Rick that if he wants to attract her friend, then he must make her friend

jealous by pretending to be interested in her.

Between the scheming and getting him to spend time at her parents’ farm, Sal y might discover

that Rick has a trick or two up his sleeve as wel . If she’s not careful, she might find that the

one playing the cat just might be the mouse.

This romantic comedy is rated R.

Preview of Her Heart’s Desire…

Omaha, Nebraska

April 1867

As soon as Sal y Larson saw him, she fel in love. Rick Johnson. That was his name, and she

decided right then and there that she’d one day be Sal y Johnson. How she was going to make

this happen, she didn’t know. At the moment, Rick was hoping to court her good friend, Ethel

Mae Jordan. But Ethel Mae confided in her that she did not return his affections. So, there

was nothing stopping Sal y from pursuing Rick. Al she needed to do was convince Rick that

he’d be happier with her than with Ethel Mae.

Ethel Mae motioned for Rick to sit in the chair which was across from the couch where Sal y

rested. “I hope you don’t mind that my friend is here,” Ethel Mae told him as she poured him a

cup of tea. “Here. I’l take your hat.”

Rick handed her the hat and smiled. “No, I don’t mind. It’s nice to meet you, Sal y.”

He said her name! Sal y thought she might swoon. She loved the sound of his voice, especial y

when he spoke her name. The word seemed to rol so easily off his tongue, almost like he’d

spent his whole life saying it. And he was gorgeous. In fact, she was certain that in al of her

nineteen years, she’d never seen a better looking human being. Dark brown wavy hair, parted

neatly on the right side, brown eyes and the hint of a dimple on his cheeks when he smiled. He

wore a nicely pressed dark blue suit that fit just right on his broad shoulders and tal , slender

frame. She’d love nothing more than for him to pick her up and carry her right over the

threshold to their new home.

“Do you want more tea?” Ethel asked her.

Blinking away the images of their future wedding day, Sal y forced her gaze off of Rick so she

could answer her friend. “Yes, please.” She lifted her cup while Ethel poured the hot liquid into

it.

“Before you came, I was tel ing Sal y you recently moved to town,” Ethel said.

“Oh?” Rick asked as he squeezed his slice of lemon into his tea.

Ethel put the teapot down on the tray which rested on the table between the couch and chair

and sat by Sal y. “Yes. I was saying you came from Vermont.”

“Vermont?” Sal y’s eyes widened. “And you didn’t come out west because of the Homestead

Act?”

“No.” He shook his head and laughed. “I wouldn’t know the first thing about raising crops. One

time I had a plant, and I don’t know what I did or didn’t do that kil ed it.”

Ethel laughed a little too loudly, a nervous habit Sal y recognized. “Plants can be tricky, I

suppose, but Sal y would know how to care for one. Her parents maintain a farm just north of

town.”

“My family came out here three years ago from New York,” Sal y explained. “My father found

out about the Homestead Act and decided to try his hand at farming. We didn’t know anything

about it until we got here.”

He took a sip from his cup and said, “Then your father is a braver man than I am.”

“Oh, I don’t know if he was brave,” Sal y began, holding the cup in her lap. “He was sick of

being in a crowded area. We had neighbors on either side of our house, and the street we

were on was a busy one with horses and people passing by al the time. We owned no land,

so it was the acreage that appealed to him. Stil does, in fact. He prefers to wake up in the

morning, step outside, and see nothing but open land and big sky. He says it’s the best

decision he ever made.”

Realizing she was rambling, Sal y stopped and retrieved a cookie so she’d have something to

put in her mouth to shut her up. She didn’t want to lose his interest because she said too

much. Her brothers often chided her for talking too much, especial y her seventeen-year-old

brother Tom who said he couldn’t imagine any male who wanted to sit and listen to a woman al

day. And Sal y could talk al day long if someone let her.

Ethel Mae patted Sal y’s hand. “I’m glad your family came out here. We wouldn’t have met

otherwise.”

As Sal y chewed the cookie, she nodded her agreement and tucked a stray strand of her blond

hair behind her ear. Her gaze kept going to Rick. How could her friend resist him?

After Rick took a drink from his cup, he set it down on the table and said, “My true love is the

United States Constitution. I’m afraid nothing wil ever pul me away from it, though I have al

the respect in the world for farmers. They rely a great deal on the providence of God, what

with the weather and insects.”

Sal y shuddered. “Like a swarm of locusts devouring crops.”

“Exactly,” he replied.

“Rick is the new judge at the courthouse,” Ethel Mae told Sal y.

“I heard we got a new judge,” Sal y said, wondering why Ethel Mae didn’t mention that Rick

was the one who took Judge Wil iams’ place after his untimely death. “Is that why you moved