Her Heart's Desire (12 page)

But Samuel isn’t Rick, she thought as
she set the pot on the worktable and went to grab a tray. Samuel
was… Well, he was a man, just like Rick was. That much was true.
But he wasn’t anything like Rick. Samuel was…better. Much
better.

She shook her head. This was
ridiculous! She didn’t even know him. After she set the rest of the
items she needed on the tray, she picked it up, relieved her
excited trembling wasn’t making the teapot and cups wobble. She
managed to carry everything out to the porch and placed the tray on
the small table without dropping anything. So far, so
good.

With a nervous smile, she sat beside
him and poured the tea into their cups. “How do you know
Rick?”

“
I don’t really know him. I
happened to run into him when I was talking to my uncle.” He picked
up his cup and a cookie. “My uncle is Judge Townsend.”

“
Your uncle is the other
judge?” Just what were the chances that a Samuel Dixon would be
related to the judge when Rick was the other judge at the
courthouse?

“
Yes.” He bit into his
cookie and chuckled. After he swallowed, he added, “It’s a small
world.”

Was that ever an understatement! She
sipped her tea and nodded. “I can’t argue with that.”

“
I gather Rick is someone
you’d rather not be with?”

She almost spit out her tea at his
bluntness.

“
There’s no need to be
embarrassed around me,” he assured her before he took a sip of his
tea. “I understood the situation when he talked to me. As luck
would have it, I actually do know a woman by the name of Ethel Mae.
She’s a lovely old lady who lives down the street from the cousin
I’m staying with while I’m in town. So when he asked if I knew an
Ethel Mae, I said I did, and then he went on about how you were
interested in me. I knew he wasn’t talking about the same Ethel Mae
I was.”

She set the cup in her lap and took a
deep breath. Alright, now she was going to explain everything and
hope he understood. “Oh, well, you see—”

“
You don’t need to say it.
I already know. Sometimes you fancy someone and sometimes you
don’t. It’s not something you can control.”

“
Well, that’s
true.”

“
I figure there’s no harm
in letting Rick think you prefer me to him. Besides, he didn’t look
all that upset about it.”

At that, she straightened in the seat.
“He didn’t?”

“
No. He seemed to be
congratulating me.”

“
He was?”

“
Yes. I don’t think you
have anything to worry about.”

She didn’t know how he could be sure
but decided to ask, “Did he mention that he was interested in
someone else?”

“
No, but a man can tell
when another man is interested in a woman. I suspect he was at one
point, but something happened to change his mind. Perhaps he met
someone else.”

Sally! He got a chance to know Sally
and now he was interested in her. That meant the plan
worked!

“
Besides wanting to meet
you, I also wanted to assure you that you don’t have worry. Rick
won’t be asking to court you.”

She cleared her throat and smiled.
“That’s very nice of you.” After she took another sip of her tea,
she decided she might as well find out more about him, especially
since he wasn’t going to run off and tell Rick what she’d been up
to. And it certainly didn’t hurt that he was gorgeous. “You’re in
town to see your uncle. May I ask where you’re from?”

“
It isn’t where I’ve been
that’s as interesting as where I’m going.”

Curious, she raised her eyebrows.
“Oh?”

“
I’m on my way to
California to open a hotel.”

“
A hotel?”

“
Yes, but I expect it will
be the first of many.”

“
That’s rather
ambitious.”

He shrugged and finished his cookie.
After he took a sip of his tea, he leaned back in the swing and
gave her one of his heart-melting smiles. “I can’t help it. Ever
since I was a child, I wanted to be the best in everything I did. I
figure with people heading out west, I can use this to my
advantage.”

“
I really would like to
know something about your past.”

“
It’s a boring
story.”

Amused, her lips turned up into a
smile. “So bore me. I have nothing to do for the next
hour.”

“
Alright, but if you fall
asleep, it’s your own fault.”

“
I’ll take the
chance.”

“
I was born and raised in
Virginia. I was the eighth in a family of seventeen
children.”

Her jaw dropped.
“Seventeen?”

“
Yes. In a family as large
as mine, there was a tendency to get lost in the crowd.”

“
Let me guess. You competed
with your brothers and sisters to get noticed.”

“
Yes, but I did it in a way
where I learned to excel in everything I did.”

“
Like what?” she asked,
realizing she was enjoying this, even if he considered it
boring.

“
There are many things I
tried in my quest to find what I was best at.”

“
Then it shouldn’t be hard
coming up with something to tell me.”

The edge of his lip turned up. “You’re
quick with a comeback.”

“
Well, if you’re looking
for a woman who’s afraid to ask questions or voice her opinion,
you’ll do better to find someone else.”

He set the cup on the table and
clasped his hands together. “Why do I get the impression you didn’t
bother asking Rick about his life?”

“
I had no need to. He came
out and told me all about his past.”

“
Ah, then you do like a man
who can be harder to get.”

Her cheeks flushed. That wasn’t what
she intended for him to think, but maybe he was right. Maybe part
of the reason she wasn’t attracted to Rick was because he was too
easy to get. Perhaps a little mystery was what she
craved.

“
I’ll tell you what,”
Samuel said as he checked his pocket watch and stood up. “I’m due
to meet my uncle in a bit. Why don’t you come with me to a play I
planned to attend later this week, and I’ll tell you everything
about my boring past that you want to know?”

“
You’re a difficult man to
deal with, aren’t you?”

“
On the contrary. I am
quite agreeable, but I’ve stayed here for as long as I can today.
Besides, I don’t want to wear out my welcome. I promise I’ll answer
all your questions next time. Shall I pick you up at six? The play
starts at seven, and I plan to meet your parents first.”

“
But I didn’t say yes yet.”
She stopped herself before she could gasp. Did she really add the
word
yet
? Good
heavens. The man had her saying things she shouldn’t! The least she
could do was make him wonder if she’d join him for this
play.

“
Ah, but why make me wait
when I need to leave?” He lifted her hand and kissed it. “I look
forward to seeing you at six on Wednesday.”

Before she could respond, he let go of
her hand and headed down the porch steps. He glanced at her once to
offer her a smile that made her weak in the knees. Once he was
safely out of sight, she released her breath. That man was much too
charming for his own good. She wondered if he did that with all
women or just her. A man like that surely had a lot of women
falling at his feet.

As charming as he was, it’d be
dangerous to fall in love with a man like him. Who knew if he went
around inviting a lot of women to plays? She could be one of
many—maybe even the one he’d take out this week. Turning her
attention to the tray, she decided to collect the refreshments and
take them back into the house. Yes, that’s how it was. He invited
women to attend plays with him and lost interest in them after
going. Wednesday, she’d see the play, ask him her questions, he’d
grow bored of her, and he’d move on. There was no reason to invest
any more thought in him, even if he was incredibly handsome and fun
to talk to. Feeling more in control of her swirling emotions, she
took the tray back to the kitchen. Yes, come Thursday morning,
Samuel Dixon would be nothing but a memory.

Chapter Nine

Rick caught himself whistling as he
got ready to leave work that Monday. He stopped and glanced around
his chamber. Good. No one had come in to check on him. It wasn’t
exactly a crime to whistle at work, but he didn’t want to be caught
doing it. Standing up from his desk, he retrieved his hat and
headed out of his chamber.

He kept thinking of how far away it
was until Saturday. Five days wasn’t really a long time, but it
would take that long before he could see Sally again. It might be
nice to surprise her with some flowers. He wasn’t sure if she liked
him or not, but he found himself thinking of her more and more each
day and realized he wasn’t as interested in Ethel Mae as he used to
be. He didn’t know when or how it happened, but it did. Now he
faced a problem: did he come right out and say it or let Sally
think he was still seeking her advice on how to get Ethel
Mae?

Maybe she’d start finding him to her
liking. For sure, she showed more interest in him than Ethel Mae
did. Well, Ethel Mae showed a bigger interest in him after he went
to Sally’s house for supper, but playing that kind of game to get
her attention just didn’t hold much appeal to him. What if he
started courting her and she lost interest in him because he was no
longer paying attention to Sally? Maybe Samuel didn’t mind that
scenario, but he did.

Rick left the courthouse and nearly
ran into Samuel. Laughing, he shook his hand. “It’s ironic that I
keep bumping into you now that I met you.”

“
It only proves how small
the world really is,” Samuel replied with a grin. “I hope there are
no hard feelings about Ethel Mae.”

“
No, there’s not. Besides,
I’ve found someone else who interests me more.”

“
Good to hear.”

“
You know, if you want to
surprise Ethel Mae with a gift, her friend said she likes
cameos.”

“
Does she?”

Rick nodded. “But don’t tell her how
you found out. It’d ruin the surprise if she didn’t think you came
up with it on your own.”

“
You’re a good man, Rick,”
Samuel replied. “It’s not everyone who’d help out the
competition.”

“
I don’t think of you as
the competition. I thought Ethel Mae was the right one, but it
turns out she’s not. She’ll be happier with you.”

“
I appreciate that, and if
there’s anything you need, just let me know.”

“
Will do.” Though he didn’t
think he’d need Samuel’s help with anything, he thought it was nice
the man made the offer.

As they said good-bye, Rick’s mind
turned back to Sally and how he might surprise her on
Saturday.

***

By Saturday, Rick timed it so that he
arrived at Sally’s house after lunch when the women wouldn’t be so
busy. While her family had been gracious to feed him the last two
times he’d been out there, he didn’t want to wear out his welcome.
As he arrived on the land, he saw her father and brother working in
the fields and nodded as he passed by. They returned the gesture
before returning to their work.

When he rode up to the house, he saw
that Jenny was sweeping the porch. He turned to the bouquet of
flowers resting on the seat next to him and picked them up. The
woman who owned the boarding house let him have them from her
garden for free, though he’d offered to pay for them. When she
found out why he wanted them, she said she was excited to help him
and assured him the tulips didn’t last long anyway.

“
Might as well get some use
out of them before they die off,” she’d added before she went to
pluck them from her garden.

Now as he examined the purple, red and
yellow tulips, he thought the variety in color might appeal to
Sally. Taking a deep breath, he straightened his tie before he set
the brake and got out of the buggy and picked up the bouquet of
flowers.

He expected Jenny to be at the porch
steps waiting for him, but she went back into the house. Curious,
he headed up the porch steps and saw Sally coming toward the open
door. So that’s what Jenny was doing—getting Sally.

Sally wiped her hands on her skirt and
opened the storm door. “Hello, Rick. I didn’t expect you
here.”

He shrugged. “I thought I’d come by
and thank you for all you’re doing to help me.” While that was
partially true, he decided it wasn’t best to give away his other
motive. At least not yet. He held the flowers out to her. “So,
thank you.”

“
Oh, they’re beautiful,”
she replied as she took them. She smelled them and grinned.
“They’re lovely.”

“
I’m glad you like
them.”

“
I do.”

She glanced at them before turning her
lovely blue eyes back to him. That was funny. Why hadn’t he noticed
how nice they were to look at before?