Page 44 of A Steadfast Heart
Kaitlyn’s heart twisted in her chest. His pain was a living thing, crowding them together. He was shouldering a burden he was never intended to carry, but he couldn’t see it. “Drew, who decided that it was your job to make everyone happy?”
He stared at her. Had he really never thought of it that way? No wonder he tried to do anything to make everyone else’s life easier.
He ran his hand through his hair, and his eyebrows pulled together. Finally, he collapsed against the back of his chair. “I don’t know. It’s just always been that way.”
She tightened her grip on his arm and drew his eyes back to hers. He had to hear her. “Drew, who is supposed to make you happy?”
Chapter10
Would she ever see the bottom of this sink?
Kaitlyn ran her fingers around the edge of the basin of soapy water, searching for any piece of silverware from lunch that she had missed in the cloudy water. Not finding anything, she picked up a few plates from the stack on the chair beside her. Some days it felt like she never got out of this kitchen and Drew never got off the range. Today he hadn’t even made it back for lunch, and dinner was hours away.
She’d almost think he was avoiding her, except that when they were together, he smiled more. Shared more about his day. Listened to her share about her own.
“Hey, Marshal.” Ed’s surprised voice floated through the open kitchen window. Kaitlyn had already learned that May wasn’t a good time for visits on a ranch. The work list was long, and spring in Wyoming was all too short. They hadn’t made it to town since the picnic a week and a half ago.
Kaitlyn stacked the plates into the soap-water basin. Dishes could wait. She looked around the kitchen, then snatched the lid off the cookie jar, breathing a sigh of relief. David hadn’t emptied it yet. She piled cookies onto a plate, ladled water into the teapot, and placed it on the stove. They’d have tea shortly.
Rap, rap, rap.
Her first visitor in her new home. Kaitlyn forced herself into a normal pace across the living room to the front door. Skipping would hardly give her visitor a good impression of her maturity, after all. She opened the door, and Danna stepped inside, the end of her dark braid swinging along the waistband of her pants. Kaitlyn gestured toward the parlor. “Hi, Marshal. Come on in. I’ve got tea warming and cookies waiting. I’m so glad to see you.”
“No need to stand on formality. Coffee in the kitchen will be fine.” The marshal didn’t return Kaitlyn’s smile. She stepped inside and examined the room, then her gaze swept Kaitlyn.
Disquiet pinged through Kaitlyn’s heart. Danna was the closest law enforcement officer. Was this not a social visit? She pushed her doubts aside. The marshal had been friendly at the church picnic. Just because she was an officer didn’t mean she was here on business.
Kaitlyn gestured toward the door. “The kitchen is through there.”
Danna’s posture would have made a finishing school graduate jealous as she passed through the dining room, but her walk was businesslike. Kaitlyn’s gaze settled on the gun belt Danna wore around her hips. She bit her lip. Surely this was only a social call.
Kaitlyn followed her through the kitchen door, but she could not bring herself to hurry.
The teakettle whistled. “I’ll just, um, take the teakettle off. The coffee’s always hot.” Kaitlyn grabbed a kitchen towel and moved the teakettle, then grabbed the coffeepot. Danna leaned against the counter.
“Do you take your coffee black?”
Danna nodded. Kaitlyn filled two coffee cups. “It’s so good to see you. Thanks for stopping by.”
Danna quickly scanned the kitchen, as if categorizing evidence in a case. Queasiness tried to rob Kaitlyn of her appetite. She pressed a hand to her stomach but controlled her expression. She was overreacting, surely. She’d left any danger far behind. “Have a cookie?” She nudged the plate toward the marshal.
“None for me, thanks.” Danna took a sip of her coffee, then put the cup back on the counter. “Tell me, Kaitlyn, what brought you west?”
The hairs on the back of Kaitlyn’s neck stood up. How could she answer that? No one around Calvin needed to know what Kaitlyn had left behind. She sipped from her cup, hiding as much of her expression as she could from the too-observant marshal. “I came here to marry Drew. You know that.”
“Were you leaving trouble behind you?”
Her breath caught, but she met Danna’s gaze steadily. “I suspect nearly every woman who agrees to be a mail-order bride is leaving some kind of trouble behind her.”
“Kaitlyn, I got a wire from a man claiming to be your brother.”
The cookie Kaitlyn had eaten threatened to make a reappearance. She wanted to squeeze her eyes closed, wanted to go back in time to lunch and ask Drew if she and the kids could join him on the range. Anything but to be here and realize her hiding place was threatened. She swallowed hard.
Danna’s gaze sharpened. Not that she had missed much before.
Kaitlyn forced her breathing to steady. “Michael Montgomery is my half-brother.” Why did she bother? No one had ever cared about the distinction besides her.
Her attorney must have told him where she was. She had thought that would be privileged information.
