Page 19 of The Rancher's Wedding

“She said she’d write to me.”

“Yes, but imagine her delight to discover that you’d written to her first. I’d be happy to help you.”

He considered it as Estelle looked hopefully on. “Okay, yeah. Let’s do that, then.”

Estelle tried on the jeans and flannel shirt in the back and traded out the jeans for another pair that were in a lighter shade of blue and fit better.

She came out and modeled them for Jacob. “How do I look?”

He looked, but he didn’t stare. “They’re not for looks,” he said, “they’re for function. How do they feel?”

“They feel great.”

“Good,” Jacob said. “I think they suit you nicely.”

They bought the clothes and walked back to the ranch.

“I’m glad you joined me today,” Estelle said. “It’s so much easier shopping for clothes with another pair of eyes.”

“It was good to get out of the cabin,” Jacob replied. “At first, I was a bit nervous when Michael asked me to go with you because I’ve gotten used to being in my space all the time where it’s comfortable. I’d forgotten how nice it is to be around other people, even strangers. I’m glad I came.”

“Well,” Estelle said, “then I suppose we should do it again sometime. How does that sound?”

“I think it sounds wonderful.”

Chapter Seven

As the week went by, Michael found himself more than pleased with Estelle as his wife. She was everything he had hoped for. She was also more than that, though he tried to push that thought out of his mind, reminding himself that, in this marriage of convenience, love and attraction could only spoil things.

True, she wasn’t quite adept at all the skills that he’d like her to have. She didn’t have any former ranch experience and, from the looks of things, she hadn’t had much experience in the kitchen, either. This was to be expected, though, as life as an orphan in a city couldn’t possibly have prepared her for the life out on the farm.

He was impressed, however, with how she held herself. She was very intelligent, speaking with that perfect English that he gave her a bit of a hard time about. Perhaps, in a large city, even orphans received a strong education. It would certainly explain how she could write so well, with her perfect penmanship and her way with words, which flowed out of her into the letters that they exchanged that it almost felt like he was speaking to her face to face.

They had finished with the day’s work and the sun was setting.

“It’s so beautiful out here,” Estelle pointed out. “Would you like to have some tea and look at the stars?”

“I’d love to,” Michael said.

This was it: a moment for Michael and Estelle to spend time together, really together, without having to worry about getting work done or him teaching her how to do something.

And, yet, he felt discomfort between the two of them. The truth was that they didn’t know each other very well still and, despite the letters, felt like strangers. When he looked in Estelle’s eyes, what he saw was the slightest hint of worry, as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to really be alone with him. At least, not yet.

And perhaps that was why she said, “You should invite your brother to join us.”

Jacob had certainly opened up more in the past few days than he had in the previous three years, and Michael wanted to embrace that. He was also worried that maybe this was just a short-lived phase that Jacob was in and, before too long, he’d return to his old self, refusing to speak.

But inviting him could help ease the tension of the two of them being alone.

“Sure,” Michael said.

“Very well. You can go ask him and I’ll get started on the tea.”

***

Michael had a lot on his mind as he made his way up to his brother’s cabin. If he was going to be honest with himself, though, most of it was just Estelle. He couldn’t get her out of his head, no matter how much he tried. He felt as though he was fighting himself and his desire to love someone. And he felt ridiculous. He’d known it was going to be a problem from the moment he saw her picture. She was just too beautiful. He wanted to break through the awkwardness and truly build a connection.

With each step, he found himself hoping that his brother would say no, that he didn’t want to join them for tea. And it tore him up inside. At a time when his brother was finally starting to open up, Michael was tempted to push him away. He’d waited so long for this moment, when he could reconnect with Jacob, and there was a part of him that was willing to throw it all away to spend just a little more one-on-one time with a woman he’d barely just met.

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