Page 56 of Montana Bride By Christmas
“You make me want to believe.”
“Then choose to do so.”
He caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger. Her skin was soft and warm as summer air. His heart overflowed with pleasure at her encouragement. And to think he thought her unsuitable. “You make me want to kiss you.” And before he could think better of it, he lowered his head to her tipped-up face and caught her lips in the gentlest of kisses. He lingered for a long, forgetful moment, mesmerized by the warmth of her lips. Her hands clung to his arms, accepting and giving.
A log in the fireplace fell to the grate with a noisy explosion of sparks.
He jerked back. Or was she the one to move away? They stood a foot apart, staring at each other. Her eyes were wide with shock. Remorse and a hundred accusing thoughts filled him.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” He scrubbed at his hair. “I only meant to be grateful.” It had started out as gratitude but shifted rather sharply to something else. Something he couldn’t even identify. A feeling so intense it felt like he’d stepped too close to the fire. Those feelings lingered still, though he tried to drown them in apology. “Forgive me.” He should promise it would never happen again, but was it a promise he could keep? Unless he could be certain of doing so, he wouldn’t give it.
She shifted her gaze to the fire, leaving him feeling cold and empty. “No need to apologize. After all, if we’re to be married, I expect we’ll have to practice kissing.”
Her airy words sucked at his insides. She spoke of marriage as if it would happen. He knew he should remind her he had almost three weeks to find someone more suitable, though the days were slipping by so fast.
He had to find someone else. Someone less appealing.
Less threatening to his peace of mind.
Someone not so given to pointing out the flaws in his thinking.
Was that what he really wanted? He could not answer the question honestly. Instead, he made preparations to go to bed, waiting only until Annie went to her own room and closed the door behind her.
If only he could close the door as firmly to his errant thoughts.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It took Annie a long time to fall asleep. She couldn’t say who had initiated the kiss, but it didn’t matter. She had kissed him. And he’d kissed her. It wasn’t her first kiss. She and Rudy had kissed a time or two, but it was nothing like this. It seemed her heart would explode with warmth and longing. With joy and hope. And when she’d reminded him of his promise to marry her in three weeks, he hadn’t added unless he could find someone more suitable. Maybe he’d seen that she was perfectly suitable.
Suitable? What an empty word. And yet wouldn’t Hugh have rejoiced if his mother had found seen him as such? The poor man to have had his own mother treat him so poorly.
Perhaps God had sent her here for Hugh’s sake as much as for Evan’s.
She could live with being suitable if it helped Hugh. And if it made her needed so badly that he would never consider anyone else.
It would provide the security she craved without the risk of loving. She ignored the twist in the bottom of her heart. The protest that it was too late. She closed the door firmly to such thoughts.
There was one more way she could prove herself invaluable, and she’d broach the subject with Hugh in the morning.
The room wasicy cold when she awakened, and she dashed to the kitchen to start a fire in the stove. She tried to see out the window, but snow crusted the outside. The wind tore at the eaves and howled around the corners. The sound made her shiver every bit as much as did the cold.
Hugh hurried into the room and held his hands out to the warmth of the stove. “I peeked out the door. I still can’t see past the corner of the house. I wonder how long this will last.”
Grandfather hobbled into the room. “Another day, according to my bones. Maybe longer. Sure glad to be indoors where it’s nice and warm.” He eyed the coffee pot, which had not yet boiled. “I recall a time I was outside in weather like this...” He launched into a story that Annie had heard before, but Hugh hadn’t, and he listened with interest as Grandfather told of being caught out in a storm and how he’d fashioned a shelter out of bushes and survived. “Could’ve died. Sure thought I was going to, but the good Lord saw fit to spare me. That coffee ready yet?”
It was, and Annie poured him a cup and set it on the table. She did the same for Hugh.
Hugh met her gaze, his eyes searching hers. She gave a slight lift of her shoulders. If he thought she’d be thinking about last night’s kiss, he needn’t worry. She had other things to consider.
Grandfather harrumphed. “God has left me here to make sure my family live good, God-honoring lives and conduct themselves appropriately.”
Annie hurried back to the stove lest Grandfather see the heat rushing to her cheeks. Not that she’d done anything wrong.
Except let her heart go beyond the boundaries she’d set for it. That must not happen again. Despite her mental warning, she recalled that kiss and how something inside her had burst free.
She shook her head. Her imagination was running away with her.
Evan and Happy hurried into the room. Evan stopped by the stove to get warm.
