Читать книгу The Texan's Engagement Agreement - Noelle Marchand - Страница 10

Chapter Two

Chris’s gaze continued to search his father’s for any indication that he was in pain or short of breath. Olan hated the worry his heart condition added to the family. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d tried to downplay one his heart episodes with a distraction. Olan was flushed, but it only seemed to be with excitement, so Chris reluctantly allowed his attention to be drawn elsewhere.

It landed on the woman standing just in front of his father. A hat dipped low over her right eye. Yet it did little to hide the perfection of her slightly turned-up nose, the rosy blush racing across her high cheekbones or the sweet curves of her bow-shaped lips. She was beautiful. She was familiar. She was achingly familiar.

He caught her chin, tilted her face upward and got lost in her light green eyes. “Adelaide.”

A fleeting smile touched her lips. “Hello, Chris.”

Silence filled the air. He released her. His words came out as more of a growl than a greeting. “What are you doing here?”

Olan slapped Chris’s back just hard enough to knock some sense into him. “Son, is that any way to greet your fiancée?”

Time slowed. Chris saw Adelaide turn toward his father. He knew exactly what was going to happen. The truth was going to come out. He could almost see the disbelief, the shock, the disappointment on his father’s face. His imagination went even further until he saw Olan’s face whiten, his hand covering his heart as he sank to his knees in pain. Chris couldn’t let that happen. Instinctively, Chris reached for Adelaide. He caught her by the arms, tugged her toward his chest, then stifled whatever she’d been planning to say with a quick, ardent kiss.

All it took was one slow blink of her long lashes for the dazed look in her eyes to change to pure fire. She opened her mouth to say something rude and incriminating so he kissed her again—gently this time. For a second he feared she’d pull away. Instead, she responded hesitantly by lifting her chin. Her fingers tentatively touched the nape of his neck, then slid into his hair. Suddenly, he was the one who was distracted. It wasn’t just by her kiss, either. It was the wisp of a dream that came with it, the vision of what could have been if she hadn’t rejected him.

But she had—soundly and irrevocably with little explanation and no warning. He’d do well to remember that.

His father clamped a hand on Chris’s shoulder, no doubt to remind him that they had a store filled with gaping customers. “Why don’t you two take a walk and sort some things out?”

By “some things” Chris was certain Olan meant a wedding date. In response, Chris gave a quick wave and a nod on the way to the front door. He didn’t have time to do anything else because Adelaide wasn’t going to stay quiet for long. He barely managed to tug her outside, then into the nearby alley beside the mercantile, before she whirled and punched him in the shoulder. “Have you lost your ever-loving mind?”

He winced more at her yelling than the blow. Realizing they needed a bit more distance from the street for privacy’s sake, he grabbed her hand and dragged her around to the back of the building. Placing his hands on the wall beside her waist, he caged her in and waited for the lambasting to stop. She’d lost her hat and a few tendrils of her auburn hair had tumbled loose to gleam in the sunlight. She distracted him from the temptation to smooth them back into place by pushing at his chest. It didn’t move him an inch. Her eyes flashed in frustration. “What were you thinking?”

Realizing she’d finally taken a breath, he tilted his head and lifted a brow. “You know, all of this indignation would be a lot more convincing if you hadn’t kissed me back.”

She froze. A blush suffused her cheeks. Her eyes met his, then narrowed. Her gaze drifted to his mouth. From the look on her face, he wasn’t sure if she was going to kiss him again or slap him. He figured a distraction was in order. “Adelaide, what are you doing here?”

To his relief, she calmed down enough to lean against the building though she continued to glare. “My stepfather had business in town.”

“How long are you staying?” He forced the words out, not wanting to acknowledge that a small part of him had hoped she’d come back intending to fulfill her promise to marry him. Not that he would have agreed to anything that ludicrous. Trusting her with his heart would be akin to trusting Billy the Kid to look after the Johansen’s cash drawer.

“We’re leaving on the next train.” Her gaze turned searching yet guarded. “Why did you kiss me?”

“I couldn’t let you tell my pa that you weren’t my fiancée anymore. He still thinks... Well, my whole family, except for Sophia, still believes that you and I are planning to get married eventually. I never told them we—you broke off our engagement.”

“Then this is the perfect opportunity to do so.” She tried to dislodge his hand from the wall but he refused to move, allowing the desperation he felt to show in his eyes. She gave a reluctant sigh. “All right, Chris. What is going on? Why don’t they know?”

“It all started out innocently enough. On my eighteenth birthday, which was only a few months after you left, my parents sat me down ‘to talk about my future.’ They told me that when the time came for me to take a wife they wanted me to marry a girl from Norway.”

“What girl from Norway?”

He shrugged. “Any girl, really. Of course, at the time, that didn’t matter because I was engaged to you. I told them as much and showed them your letters. They were pretty shocked to hear I’d kept that from them, but they respected my commitment to you. They also agreed not to announce anything about it until your mother approved. But as much as they liked you, they never gave up the hope I’d change my mind and let them send for a mail-order bride.”

“So even after I ended our engagement, you just let them keep on thinking you were engaged to me because that meant you had a safeguard of sorts against their meddling.”

“Exactly.” He grimaced. “I guess that was a pretty self-serving thing to do.”

She bit her lip. “Don’t say that.”

“Why not?”

“Because it sounds like the kind of thing I would do.”

He laughed. “Really?”

“Honestly. The stories I could tell you about my mother and her matchmaking attempts...” She rolled her eyes. “Actually, I’d rather not think about them. My point is, I understand why you did what you did. I just don’t see how you got away with it for this long. It’s been four years.”

“It helped when I moved out of the house. That kept them from knowing your letters had stopped coming. They knew the fact that I didn’t have your mother’s approval was a sore point for me, so they didn’t bring the engagement up often. If they did, I changed the subject.”

“What about other girls? I know we never announced that we were engaged, but your parents and siblings knew. Didn’t they notice you courting women who weren’t me?”

Chris rubbed his jaw, wondering at the edge in her voice that made him feel lower than pond scum, as if he’d been unfaithful to her. She’d been the one who’d broken their engagement. Not him. If she hadn’t wanted to him to court other women, she shouldn’t have given up her claim on him. Still, it was a good question that begged an answer. “My parents didn’t know I courted anyone else. It wasn’t too hard for me to hide. After all, I’ve always had a lot of friends who were girls. We all spent time together in groups, so any courting I wanted to do was done then. Sophia would cover for me if things got sticky. It also helped that I’m one of five children. My parents can’t always keep track of us that well. Besides, it’s only been in the last year that my father really started to pressure me to settle down.”

“Why the last year?”

“That’s when...that’s when his heart started acting up. Or, at least that’s when he couldn’t hide it anymore. That’s part of the reason he’s so anxious for me to get married. He wants to see at least one of his grandchildren before he—”

“Oh, Chris.” Concern filled her voice as she placed a hand on his arm. “Isn’t there something that can be done?”

He swallowed hard. “Doc Williams wants Pa to see a specialist for some more tests. Pa says there hasn’t been time to go. I don’t think that time is the problem. I think he’s...”

“Afraid,” she offered softly.

Chris nodded. “He knows he may not have much time left, but I guess he doesn’t want to know how bad it really is.”

“But what if there’s something a specialist could do to help?”

“I hope there is. That’s why I want him to see one. Until then, we may not know what—if anything—could make him better, but we know that stress can make it worse.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “This whole debacle with my supposed engagement has spiraled out of control. It’s bound to upset him if I tell him I’ve deceived him all this time.”

“I know, but he needs to know the truth.”

Chris knew she was right. He couldn’t keep this going. Especially not now with Adelaide’s return. There was only one thing left to do. “I’ll go back to the store. I’ll take my pa aside and explain everything as gently as possible, like I should have done long ago.”

“Wait.” She caught his arm to keep him from turning away. “You don’t have to go in there alone.”

Chris recognized her offer for what it was—an olive branch bridging past the disaster of their engagement back to the friendship they’d once shared. He’d missed their friendship. He’d missed her. Unfortunately, going back to the way things had been before was impossible. Even now, the hurts from the past that should have been healed flared with old pain.

He took her hand, removed it from his arm and gave it a small squeeze before letting it go. “Actually, Adelaide, I’d prefer it.”

* * *

Stunned by Chris’s gentle but unmistakable dismissal, Adelaide stared at him as he turned on his heel and walked away.

She charted his progress down the alley as he neared the front of the store. His steps were determined but slow. His head was down. She recognized that posture. It meant he was thinking hard about something—no doubt trying to summon the words he’d need to break the news to his father.

Or some other way to twist the truth? Surely he wouldn’t. Perhaps she ought to make sure.

She pushed away from the wall, grabbed her hat from where it had fallen in the dust and followed him inside the mercantile. She found that the number of customers hadn’t dwindled in the least, which meant that folks were sticking around to see what would happen next. They might as well have gone home. All of the excitement was over. There was nothing more to see here.

She caught sight of Everett leaning against the store’s gleaming oak counter with his arms crossed in front of him. He lifted one brow, then pinned her with his brown gaze. She swallowed and found herself easing closer to Chris’s side. “Oh! Hello, Pa.”

“Is there something you’d like to tell me?”

“Um, I—” Her panicked gaze refused to meet his. Instead, it flitted to where a wide-eyed Ellie stood by a shelf of books. Lawson stood beside her looking decidedly confused. Finally, she saw Mr. Johansen watching from his spot in front of the register. A smile tipped his lips, and he offered her an encouraging nod. Chris’s words concerning his father’s health filled her mind. She hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a strain around Olan’s eyes and tiredness to his bearing that hadn’t been there five years ago.

She hated the mere possibility of anything bad happening to him. He was such a kind soul. Even when she and her mother had missed a payment or two toward their store credit, he’d always welcomed them into the mercantile and his home. He was a fixture in the Peppin community. He served on the school board, was a deacon at church and was always the first to support a charitable cause. He didn’t deserve the embarrassment that would come his way if she answered her stepfather’s question, in front of all these people, with complete honesty.

That being the case, she said the one thing that would make her sound guilty without being an outright lie. “I can explain.”

“Well, you’d better. And, while you’re at it, I’d like to know why this is the first I’ve heard of your engagement.”

Chris turned to level her with his gaze. Surprise and bewilderment flashed across his face. To an outsider, his reaction might have seemed to be prompted by the news that she hadn’t mentioned their engagement to her stepfather. However, she knew it was because she hadn’t immediately spilled the truth. His jaw flexed. Indecision warred in his eyes before he gave in with a minuscule nod.

She swallowed, unable to drag her gaze from his even as she addressed Everett. She didn’t want to lie—but there were some evasions she could make while still being honest. “Mother didn’t want me to mention it.”

Chris glanced away, freeing her to meet her stepfather’s eyes. Everett frowned. “Your mother knew?”

“Well...let’s just say she preferred to ignore it.” That was also true.

“That does sounds like her.” He ran a hand over his beard, weighing her words and searching her eyes. He gave up trying to figure her out with a little shake of his head. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your fiancé?”

“Of course. Pa, this is Chris Johansen. Chris, this is my stepfather, Everett Holden.” She smiled as she watched the two them exchange a handshake. Everything would be all right. Rather than air all of the Johansen’s family business before their customers, she’d given Chris a reprieve. He could tell his father the truth in private later. If he didn’t... Well, as much as she hoped he would, that wasn’t her concern. She was leaving on the next train out of Peppin.

Olan stepped around the counter. “You must come and have supper with my family this evening.”

Everett nodded. “Yes, I think we’d better.”

Panic filled her. “Oh, but our train—”

“It’s all right. We’ll stay at the hotel tonight and catch the train that leaves in the morning.”

She bit her lip to keep from protesting again as Chris offered to see them to the hotel. Mr. Johansen waved his customers toward the register and it went back to business as usual inside the mercantile. Adelaide said goodbye to Ellie and Lawson before hurrying toward the door where Chris and Everett waited. They were already deep in conversation as her journalist of a stepfather plied Chris with question after question. By the time they made it to the hotel, Everett had learned Chris’s entire life story, from his humble beginning in Norway to his future plan of running the mercantile for his family.

While Everett spoke to a hotel clerk about renting rooms for the night, Chris caught her hand and tugged her into a quiet corner of the lobby. “I know you’re just trying to help. At least, I assume that was the motivation behind this. I would just like to point out that you’re making things more complicated.”

“I’m not sure that’s possible. Look, I thought this through. Where’s the harm in keeping up the act for one more night? I’ll play along until it’s time to leave, then we’ll pretend to fight and you’ll say we ended the engagement.”

He shook his head while exasperation filled his voice. “Adelaide, we both know that your plans never work out. They always do the opposite of what you intended for them to do.”

“Pardon me. It’s been five years. You don’t know the first thing about me or what I’ve accomplished anymore, so I’ll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself.” At his disbelieving look, she rolled her eyes. “Fine. Maybe you’re a little bit right, but you have to admit my idea is much better than letting your father be humiliated in front of all of his customers. This plan will work.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, it doesn’t really matter because there’s no going back now, is there?”

“Nope.”

He sighed. “I’m going to go let my mother know we’ll be having company for supper. I’ll meet you and your stepfather here at six and we’ll walk over to my parents’ house together. All right?”

She nodded. He offered her a rather poor excuse for a smile before he hurried away. She rejoined her stepfather just as he handed a bellboy the check for the luggage they’d left at the station. After they were shown to their suite, Everett caught her arm and directed her to the settee in the parlor that connected their rooms. He sat beside her and looked her in the eye. “Explain to me again how you’re engaged to that man.”

Just like that, the truth came tumbling out. Everett listened without asking a single question until she finished. He stroked his graying beard. “That’s quite a story.”

“I shouldn’t have misled Mr. Johansen.”

“Maybe not. I understand why you did, though. Really, this is a matter that needs to be discussed between Olan and Chris—privately. There was no need to air their family business in front of all those customers. It would have caused unnecessary embarrassment.”

She nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

He patted her hand. “You got caught in the middle of a messy situation and did the best you could.”

“I did.” She bit her lip. “What if Chris is right? What if I make everything worse?”

“Well, we can’t back out on the dinner. That would be rude.”

Her sigh turned into a groan. “I never should have walked past that store in the first place. I knew better. I just...”

“You wanted to see him, huh?”

“Yes. Don’t ask me why.” Twisting her lips to the side, she stared at her ink-stained fingers. Chris had looked good—too good...the kind of good that could only mean trouble for the woman who loved him. Those classic features of his were so handsome they ought to be carved in marble and placed in a museum. Not that she’d been swayed by them. Or by the way the sun set his wheat-gold hair glimmering. She’d just observed, that’s all. That was different. She lifted her gaze back to Everett. “Why can’t all men be like you? Honorable and kind and—”

“Plain?” He chuckled. “Don’t look so shocked. I consider myself blessed to be not-quite handsome. It took me a year to convince your ma to marry me with this face. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken if I looked as good as your young man. I know how you and your mother think. Y’all are outright snobs when it comes to the handsome men in this world. That’s unfair of you, but I know there’s a reason for it so I won’t push you. I will say this. Chris Johansen might be worth a second chance if he’s half the man his father seems to think he is. Of course, if Olan doesn’t know the truth about the engagement, it makes me wonder what else he might not know about his son.”

“Plenty, I’m sure.”

As for giving Chris a second chance at breaking her heart...she wasn’t that crazy.