Page 71 of A Convenient Heart
He had no choice but to turn at the soft query in her voice. She had the note open but was looking right at him.
He knew what she’d seen on that paper. The crudely drawn letters that Jack had tried to assemble into words. He’d used a dime-store novel he’d found beneath the bed in his room at the boardinghouse to help him with the spelling.
He’d given up halfway down the page when he’d realized the words that slanted across the paper, falling off their lines, looked more like something a first-year student would write than anything else.
He cleared his throat because Merritt was waiting on an answer. “You started liking your John because of his letters. I thought I might write a letter for you, but?—”
Here he had to swallow hard as she glanced back down at the paper in her hands. It was silly, but he felt a flush climbing into his neck. “What little schooling I had was in broken snatches. I couldn’t finish.”
Her eyes were soft as she stepped forward and came easily into his arms. There was a relief in burying his face in her hair, even as she spoke into his shoulder.
“He was nevermyJohn. Not in the way you’re mine.”
The emotion that was never far away swirled inside him in a dizzying spiral, and he held her that much more tightly.
“We should get in the buggy and go,” he murmured into her hair. Because the longer he kept holding her like this, the less he wanted to let her go.
“Not yet, I want to?—”
But another sharp knock on the door interrupted her.
She wrinkled her nose as she pushed away from him. “We’ll never leave if students keep stopping by.”
But there was clear affection in her voice, and he knew how each student who delivered a gift made her feel valued and loved. As she deserved.
But it wasn’t a student in the doorway when she opened it this time. It was the marshal. She had the baby in the crook of her arm, and a little girl with pigtails, wearing a coat that almost swallowed her, peeked past her thigh.
Jack’s stomach did the same funny little shiver it always did when he was faced with a lawman, but he also had the echo of her words from the other night in his memory.
“Merry Christmas.” Danna hugged Merritt and stepped inside. “I’m glad I caught you before you left.”
“If you need a last-minute gift for Chas, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
Danna pulled a face at her friend. “Actually, I need to talk to Jack.”
She did?
For a moment, his thoughts tunneled into a negative spiral. She’d changed her mind about him. He wasn’t welcome here.
He steadied himself on an inhale as Merritt came to stand beside him and slipped her hand into his. It was a reminder that whatever happened, he wasn’t alone. Not anymore.
Danna appraised him steadily. “Wanted to let you know that Morris is long gone. I escorted him onto the train myself. My deputies will keep an eye out if he tries to return.”
The last bit of tension from that situation dissolved like snow on a hot stove.
But the marshal wasn’t finished. “I’ve spoken to several folks about what happened in the dance hall two nights ago.”
That didn’t sound promising. Jack’s heart sank.
“Every single one of them mentioned how calm you were under pressure.”
Her words had him blinking in surprise. He hadn’t felt calm, not with Merritt within arm’s reach of that thug, Morris.
“And I’ve been told you’re looking for work.” That matter was a bit more prickly. He felt Merritt tense at his side and realized she must’ve been the one to share that with the marshal. He couldn’t fault her; he knew the two women were friends. It was his own pride that was pricked, knowing he didn’t have many skills that would translate well to a life in this small town.
“I could use another deputy,” the marshal said. “Some of the homesteaders are getting into disputes with the ranchers who have bigger spreads. Burns’s attempt at getting his hands on that land was shut down, but he still plans to build another saloon. That’ll mean more drunken cowboys. I think you’d be a good fit for the office.”
He must’ve looked as bowled over as he felt, because Merritt hid a laugh behind her hand.
