Page 13 of Mia’s Misfits

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Filled with nervous energy, she found several cans of peaches in the root cellar. After liberally sprinkling them with sugar and cinnamon, they enjoyed their sweet supper on the front porch, listening to the cicadas.

“I would never have thought to add sugar and spice to the fruit, but it was delicious. Thank you,” Josiah said as he swiped his finger along the inside of the glass jar and sticking it in his mouth. “If I could lick the bottom of the jar, I would.”

Mia handed him hers. “Here.”

He smiled and used his finger to lick as much from the inside of her jar as well then set the jars on the porch next to their chairs and leaned back. “Tomorrow we’ll look for the children.”

Mia gave him a sad smile. “Thank you. I haven’t even met them yet and feel somewhat responsible. If I wasn’t here, they would both be inside, sleeping in their beds.”

“Don’t think like that. It was their choice to run off. You had nothing to do with that.”

The silence stretched between them, both knew the inevitable was almost there and Mia had no idea what to do about it, much less how to broach the subject. She was terrified but knew sleeping with her husband was natural and something God-given. The prospect still terrified her. The idea of someone seeing her without clothes wasn’t right…and no one had ever seen her bad arm. No one knew she was deformed, and that bothered her.

Josiah cleared his throat. “Did I mention it was Summer’s idea about rebuilding the house for you?”

“So much has happened, I don’t recall if you did or not. You mentioned something about the bedroom…I do, however, remember you were going to explain why you hadn’t planted the garden in time.”

“I ran into a bit of an issue with the Creeks. The women hold all the power—and the land. They’re a matriarchal culture?” She nodded and he continued. “Evidently, when I came here, my great aunt had to approve of me, which she did, of course, but only shortly before she died. I was left the family house and land. By the time everything was settled, and I was given permission to move in, planting season had passed. Summer helped me get a few things planted, so we’ll have some fall vegetables. Next year, though, will be better.”

Mia picked up the jars and spoons and took them inside. Washing and drying took too little time and before she knew it, she was staring at her reflection in the mirror trying to force herself to leave the bathroom. She had done everything she could possibly do: bathed, washed her hair, toweled it dry, and cleaned her teeth. There was nothing more for her to do. Closing her eyes, she counted to ten then pried her fingers from the sink and opened the door.

Creeping into the bedroom, she made her way to the edge of the bed and climbed under the light coverlet as gently as she could. She let out a long breath, the pain in her chest finally easing as her cramped muscles relaxed.

Josiah rolled over and propped his head on his hand, his elbow digging into his pillow beside hers, causing her to let out a high-pitched squeak and pulled the cover up to her chin. “Are you always this jumpy?”

“Ohh! Don’t do that! You scared me half to death!” She shoved her hand against his chest, which he grabbed and held over the spot where she’d pushed him. “I thought you were asleep.”

“As you can tell, I’m not.” He chuckled, his thumb rubbing back and forth over her knuckles and doing wicked things to her insides. All sorts of funny flutters were creating havoc in her stomach and her lungs decided they needed to breathe faster. All that did, of course, was pull in his scent, which she’d been trying not to do all evening. It reminded her of pine and leather, and some other spice that was driving her quite mad.

“Did you want something?” she asked and immediately regretted her poor choice of words.

“Yes, I do,” he said in his sinfully low voice, which sent tingles all over her body. He pulled her closer, his face inches from hers. “I want you, but I am a gentleman, which is what I was going to tell you.”

She swallowed. “You do?”

He slowly nodded. Without curtains, the moonlight filled the room with a silvery glow, and his eyes glistened as he stared down at her. “Yes,iskitini chukfi luma,I do,” he whispered against her lips and showed her what heaven on earth was like.

Josiah watched his wife work in the kitchen with Harjo’s wife, Maria. Mia had surprised him several times since he’d picked her up at the train station yesterday. His first surprise had been her. He had not expected someone as pretty as she was. At first, with her hair pulled back in the severe bun and covered in soot, he’d been worried, but once he’d seen past that, he had realized she was beautiful both inside and out.

His second surprise had been her acceptance of his Indian heritage, seemingly without censure. She had even asked questions and wanted to know more about both his Choctaw and his Creek families, not to mention her acceptance of his lovemaking last night.

The third had been when she’d bounced out of bed early that morning and demanded they search for Summer and Billy. The day had dragged by as they searched the fields, river, and every place Josiah could think of, but neither child had been found. Returning home empty-handed had been difficult, especially when he saw the disappointed expression on Mia’s pretty face. The only bright spot had been when Harjo arrived an hour later with an invitation for supper, which Josiah was thankful for. While the peaches had been delicious, he wanted something a bit more filling in his stomach tonight.

Harjo scooped up a large helping of the delicious-smelling deer stew and filled two bowls. He handed one to Josiah and took the other for himself while the women prepared their own. The only sound in the room was the clicking of spoons against bowls and the slurping of stew while everyone ate in silence.

Harjo took a long drink of tea then let out a loud belch. “Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

Josiah shrugged and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Not too many options left open for me.”

“You still have one.”

Mia’s gaze moved between the men. “Josiah? What is he talking about?”

Harjo’s gaze narrowed on Josiah’s face. “You haven’t told her?”

“I haven’t had a lot of time. She only just arrived yesterday afternoon, and we spent all day today looking for two elusive children.”

“Seems like plenty of time to me.”


Tags: Heidi Vanlandingham Romance