Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek. Janet Tronstad

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СКАЧАТЬ just wore my chore clothes this morning.” Amy turned to Gracie and confessed, “I usually look better.”

      Gracie smiled. “Wade doesn’t care what you’re wearing.”

      Amy nodded. She supposed he didn’t, at that. God must be trying to teach her something about the value of humility.

      She followed Gracie to the open door, watching Wade all the time. His back was straight and strong as he walked slowly toward the pickups. His stride was a bit uneven, as though he was holding back a limp, but he seemed stiff rather than pained.

      Suddenly, Amy noticed the bumper sticker on her vehicle and remembered—she needed to be sure Shawn didn’t know Wade was back. Shawn never had known when to keep his mouth shut, and she didn’t want him saying anything to Wade about her waiting for him like some tragic figure in a soap opera. She was willing to try and put aside some of her pride, if that’s what God intended for her, but she didn’t want to be pitied.

      “It’s time we came back home,” Gracie said as she put her arm around Amy. “It’s God’s goodness that we can be here.”

      “Yes,” Amy agreed. She wondered if she should say something to Wade about Shawn’s speculations. She had no idea what that would be, though. Maybe if she just treated Wade with the right touch of friendliness, absent any of the closeness she’d felt at one time, he wouldn’t believe Shawn, even if the other man did say something about her waiting for Wade to come home. Surely, Wade would remember Shawn loved to tease.

      She looked through the door at Wade and almost sighed. She’d reached down and pulled out her feelings for him years ago, like her emotions were tough weeds that wouldn’t die unless the root was all gone. She wasn’t sure if enough of her love for him was left inside her that it would develop into something, but she hoped not. She couldn’t take the heartbreak again.

      Chapter Two

      Wade breathed deep as he stood outside looking at Amy’s red pickup. The paint had faded over the years, but the vehicle had been polished, and its silver chrome shone. The storm clouds had lifted, and the morning sun was finally here in all its Montana glory. Thankfully, the street was still quiet, and he took another determined breath. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. Seeing Amy again had him off balance.

      He hadn’t felt so tongue-tied and awkward since he left Dry Creek. During his rodeo years, he’d gained a reputation for being able to hold his own with women. He hadn’t dated much, but he’d had enough women say they were willing to go out with him that he knew he was doing something right. Being back here brought up his old insecurities, though, and made him feel like he was seventeen again.

      He heard Amy and his mother walk out of the café, but he didn’t turn around. Instead, he kept walking back to his pickup. It was then that he noticed there was a bumper sticker on the front of Amy’s vehicle in addition to the one in the back. She must really plan to vote for that man.

      “I didn’t know you were so friendly with old man Garrett.” He turned as he spoke. That made easy chitchat. It wasn’t difficult to find something a woman was interested in and ask her about it. There was no reason for him to feel awkward.

      Amy had her arm around his mother, but she stopped to look up at him.

      “Don’t worry. He might be running for office, but he’s not going to talk to the reporters, either.” Amy lifted an eyebrow in what looked like annoyance.

      Okay, so she’d been a little offended, Wade thought. He didn’t blame her.

      “It’s not that.” He nodded his head toward the bumper sticker. Maybe he needed a lighter approach. “I just wondered how the old man was doing.”

      “It’s Shawn,” Amy said, her lips pinching together.

      Wade looked at her in astonishment. “Our Shawn?”

      The years rolled away. He forgot about being easygoing as his mouth hung open.

      “He’s not our Shawn,” Amy snapped. “He’s just someone who wants to run for public office and—”

      “Shawn Garrett?” Wade repeated. “The guy couldn’t even get elected to the student council in high school. And I think he cheated in history. And math. Of course, he had to if he was going to pass anything. But the state legislature!”

      The color was high on Amy’s face, but it still took a moment for Wade to connect all of the dots. His heart sank. “You didn’t get married to him or anything, did you?”

      His eyes looked for her ring hand, but she had it around his mother’s waist as they stood there. He should have checked for a ring earlier when they were inside. He’d forgotten that nine years had passed. She was likely married to someone; he was a fool to think otherwise. But Shawn?

      “It’s none of your business if I did,” Amy said as she stepped away from his mother, stomped to her pickup and yanked the door open.

      Amy was six inches shorter than Wade, yet somehow she managed to look down her nose at him as she stood by that open door like she was defending her pickup from him. “I’ll come over to your house after I’ve stopped to let my aunt know where I am.”

      He shouldn’t be grinning, but he was. There was no ring on her finger.

      “You do that.” Wade watched her swing herself up into the vehicle. She had always been graceful, and her shoulders moved smoothly with her arms as she settled herself behind the wheel.

      He should have turned to go to his own pickup then, but he just stood there with his mother, both of them looking at that old, red Ford and Amy inside it. He didn’t know what his mother was thinking, but he was having a hard time catching his breath. He just realized a ring wasn’t a requirement anymore. Not all women were as tied to those gold bands as his mother was to hers. He didn’t like thinking of Amy married to anyone. But wouldn’t she have admitted the fact if she was married to Shawn?

      “She’s still as nice as ever,” his mother said, glancing up at him with that look he was coming to recognize.

      Oh, no. She thought God was talking to her again.

      Wade could only grunt. “It’s not a sign, Mother. Seeing Amy like this.”

      “Oh, of course not, dear.” She sounded innocent enough, even though he knew she wasn’t being straight with him. She thought it was a sign, all right.

      He needed to stop her matchmaking. “Amy’s probably married to someone, even if it’s not Shawn.”

      His mother grinned just like she had years ago when she caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. “She should be married. She’s cute enough any man would be a fool not to marry her if he had a chance to make it happen—good-tempered, too.”

      He kept his mouth shut. There wasn’t much he could add to that, anyway. His mother was right. Amy always had been sweet to everyone. He turned to walk away, and then he heard a grinding sound. He stopped and looked back. Amy was staring down at the wheel of her pickup or, more likely, the ignition. When the starter ground again, he began walking to her door. She had the window rolled down by the time he got close.

      “It’s not starting,” СКАЧАТЬ