“And you sent me your first letter.”
“I sure did. Wasn’t sure what was gonna happen—whether you would be considerin’ better offers—but I didn’t wanna take a chance on you gettin’ away.”
Their smiles blossomed forth at the same time: warm, sweet, generous.
“You didn’t, really?”
“No, ma’am. I felt right from the beginnin’ you were a keeper. But—”
“—But—?” Letitia’s heart had begun beating a muffled lub-dub lub-dub, like the slow up-and-down swishing of a butter churn.
“—I have some reservations.”
“Do you, now?” As a defense against implied criticism, she lifted her chin, proudly, and carefully slid her hand free from his. Was their arrangement for this marriage contract to suddenly fall apart, after her slow but apparently inevitable capitulation to his charm during the past few days? “Well, then, perhaps we ought to part ways, here and now, instead of—”
“Tish, no. Not that. Listen to me, just a minute.”
That insistent breeze was ruffling his hair again, tempting. It made her long to brush it back, twirl the recalcitrant locks between her fingers, curve her palm over that nasty scar as if to heal the wounded flesh.
“I’m listening.”
He couldn’t help hearing the tears in her voice. With a sigh, he caught up both her hands again and brought them to his breast, to hold tight against his beating heart.
“I liked what I saw, the second I laid eyes on you, from across the street.” Reese told her gently but with resolve. “It didn’t take long, gettin’ to know you, to find out how much you’ve come to mean to me. I love you, Letitia Burton, I love you with all my power and all my strength. And I’m hopin’ you feel the same about me.”
This time she did reach up, away from his clasp, feeling that his declaration had given her permission to toy with that reckless wayward curl. Overwhelmed by the utmost tenderness, she murmured, “Yes, Reese, I do. I do love you so—so much...”
A sudden burst of light centered upon his face, as if radiance and glory had come careening down from above. “Do you, darlin’? Do you, really?”
Oh, blast this annoying tendency to blush at the slightest provocation!
“Forever and ever,” she admitted shyly but solemnly. “Do you suppose you could let go my left hand, now, Reese? I’ve lost all feeling in my fingers.”
Had the sky ever been colored such a stunning October blue? Had the branches overhead ever displayed their leaves so clearly, with pattern and green hue of every range mixing together? Had angels on high ever sung so sweetly and insistently, however only in her own fancy?
For a few ecstatic minutes, they billed and cooed like every courting couple, speaking of time and emotion and things both important and unimportant. “What did you—” and “When did you—” and “How did you—” all with but parcels of answers. Along with touches and caresses, and the hungry kisses from which it was almost impossible to break away.
“Tish, sweetheart. You’re all I’ve ever wanted—and never expected to find. If you only knew...”
Sentiment paused what he was trying to explain, and couldn’t. “But you and me—together...It isn’t... I’m not sure we can...”
Letitia, the shining mass of her hair disordered, the natural flush of her cheekbones deepened, looked up in consternation. “It isn’t—what? We just can’t—what? What are you talking about? I don’t understand, Reese, and you’re making me—very—anxious!”
“I want us married,” he said so earnestly that no one could doubt his intentions. “I want us married, and settled somewheres nearby, in a nice home. But I ain’t about to ask that you take on a man with no means of providin’ for you. Gotta have work, first, Letty. Gotta be engaged in gainful employment.”
“And you won’t set a wedding date just because of that?” Her disbelief showed in rounded eyes and parted lips.
“That, yes. And—more; part of my history that wouldn’t ever concern you, except for—this...”
From a mood of acceptance that had morphed into mellowness, her Burton blood now began to simmer, and she pulled away. “You came to Turnabout for the express purpose of arranging our marriage, Reese Barclay. If you have some reason—some logical, understandable reason—to delay, or even indefinitely postpone—our wedding, then you owe me an explanation. And you shouldn’t have traveled all the way from Denver if you can’t do that much!”
“Letty, darlin’, I already said you’re the only woman for me! Ain’t you willin’ to be patient, and just wait, until I can square away some details?”
“Wait for what, in particular?”
“Well—as I said, till I—till I can work things out. There’s some stuff goin’ on that—”
Suddenly she surged to her feet, as abrupt and as fierce as a volcano exploding hot lava from deep in the earth. “That isn’t good enough.”