Page 23 of A Convenient Heart
If Jack left now, the men plotting to take the tract of land and get Merritt fired would have free rein to do whatever they wanted. No one the wiser.
Merritt would be alone. Without a job. Those kids would be without a teacher.
It wasn’t right.
And it was just the kind of problem Jack liked to solve. Men who thought they had power over others, who wanted to take something that wasn’t theirs, thinking they had the right.
This problem wouldn’t be solved by winning a few high-stakes hands at the poker table.
But was there another way?
Chapter5
“Whoa!”
The sound of a wagon creaking brought Merritt’s head up from the checklist she held in one hand.
The sky was clear and she smiled at Will Chittim, who drove the empty wagon down the rutted street and into place just beside where she stood.
She glanced over her shoulder to see Jack in the open doorway of Mrs. Steele’s restaurant. He was already carrying two straight-backed chairs, one in each arm, and moving through the doorway. His gaze glanced off hers, not holding.
There had been a few moments this morning as she’d been readying for the day when she’d feared that Jack wouldn’t meet her for breakfast. Even so, she’d spent a few extra minutes getting her hair just right in the looking glass.
He’d seen her a crying, sooty mess just the night before. Certainly that wasn’t the put-together, well-mannered woman he’d come here to find.
She’d woken from a deep sleep—a dream she couldn’t remember—with the terrible cramp in her stomach telling her he was gone. That he’d decided against marrying her after all.
But when she’d opened her front door to walk down to the café as they’d planned, he’d been there, standing on the path with his back turned to her door, staring at the house across the street.
She’d felt such a shock of joy at seeing him—and attraction when she’d realized he’d shaved the scruff from his handsome jawline—that she’d covered it by ducking her head shyly.
Their breakfast had been interrupted by Cody Billings, one of her students, who’d apparently been all over town looking for Merritt. The boy had rushed into the café, his hair windblown and mittens flying, to tell Merritt that the restaurant owner wanted her to use the tables and chairs for the interim school until the kitchen stove in the restaurant could be repaired.
Merritt and Jack had cut their breakfast short so that Merritt could oversee everything being moved into the dance hall. That had been about two hours ago.
Jack shuffled past her now with his arms full of chairs. Behind him came Mr. Carson, the preacher, also with his arms full, and the man’s two teenaged children, each with a chair.
Will had hopped from the wagon seat into the back and was reaching for each chair as it was handed up to him.
Jack was the first to give up his burden, and he came to stand next to her, arms crossed over his chest.
“This is the last load,” she told him. The morning had been spent wrangling wagons and moving furniture.
“If Mrs. Quinn and Mrs. Billings are finished sweeping out the dance hall, I can arrange the tables and chairs and perhaps I could feed you lunch at my house. I can meet you there—it’s not necessary—I’m sure you have other things to do than carting around furniture.”
He didn’t look away from where Cyrus Carson was handing his chair into the wagon. “It’d be better if we ate at the café.” Jack slid a glance her direction. “Better for your reputation.”
She flushed. “We’re to be married in a few days. Surely having lunch together isn’t inappropriate.”
His eyes shadowed and a muscle in his cheek jumped.
The Carsons excused themselves. Merritt waved as they moved down the boardwalk.
“You want a lift over to the dance hall?” Will called out.
She thought she would rather walk next to Jack for the few blocks.
“Love one,” Jack said before she could decline. He extended his hand for her to go first, and she didn’t want to be rude.
