Page 2 of A Secret Heart
“Need a plate?” Kaitlyn returned from the kitchen. Evidence of her fancy upbringing slipped out again as she handed him a china plate and enough silverware for a four-course meal. She expected a level of societal propriety the brothers hadn’t been used to abiding by before she’d shown up from St. Louis. She also brought more smiles to Drew’s face than Ed had seen in a long time, so he guessed he could forgive her.
“I’m fine.” No need for her to wash another plate for a piece of bacon stuffed in a biscuit. A cold biscuit. He tore off a bite as he pulled out a chair with his free hand to sit at the table, despite the wrinkle in Kaitlyn’s brow.
His brothers eyed him while Drew kept talking. “Isaac needs to be here. He can’t sulk alone forever.”
Isaac had been with the U.S. Marshals for years before he’d come home a year ago, subdued and quiet—not the brother Ed had grown up with. And now they were having a discussion of how to draw his older brother in from the old cabin at the far end of the McGraw property. Why hadn’t anyone bothered to wait for him to have this conversation?
“He’ll come around.” Nick leaned back in his chair, seemingly unaffected by their brother’s absence. Always a peacemaker, he also possessed an uncanny understanding of Isaac.
“I’m not so sure.” Kaitlyn put in her two bits from behind them. “The last time he came down for supplies, he seemed…lonely. As if he carried a burden and had no one to share it with.”
Lonely? How did Kaitlyn figure that? More like Isaac went around as if he had lemon stuck in his teeth. Had ever since he’d hung up his hat as a marshal, coming home only to spend his time repairing the old cabin or moving the cattle from pasture to pasture. It would’ve been nice to have him show up for the planting, but that would’ve meant socializing with other people. Like his brothers. Like Ed.
With only a year between them, Isaac being the older, they’d been close as boys until Isaac had started beating Ed at everything. And now Isaac had shut them all out. If he was lonely, it was his own doing.
Ed took another bite of biscuit. One with bacon in it this time. His eyes darted between Nick and Drew.
“Isaac will show his face when he wants to. When he’s ready.” Nick barely raised his voice.
“What if he had a wife?” Kaitlyn leaned in to grip the back of Drew’s chair. “Someone to care for him, to come home to.”
A gleam danced in Drew’s eye. “Who do you suggest? Widow Mayberry?”
Ed chuckled before shoving another bite in. Even Nick grinned. Heart-breaking, tough-guy Isaac married to Widow Mayberry. She had to be twenty years older, and she talked nonstop. At least hard-nosed Drew’s recent marriage to Kaitlyn had drawn out a bit of a sense of humor in him.
“Not funny.” Kaitlyn pretended to bristle, then another spark lit her face. “What about Rebekah Edwards? She isn’t married. Didn’t you say she was sweet on Isaac?”
The biscuit lodged in Ed’s throat. He choked back a cough. Not Rebekah. A quick wit and all those fiery red curls wrapped up in an annoying, although what some called “pretty,” package. Ed would take anyone but Rebekah for a sister-in-law. It was bad enough he had to put up with her as a neighbor. The nagging crumbs in his throat threatened to break him into a full-blown coughing fit. He went for Nick’s coffee. One swig and he set the cup down.
Nick gave him a sideways scowl.
“Rebekah’s too busy working at the paper.” Another sip of coffee gave Ed time to pull his thoughts together. “Speaking of the newspaper, they’re doing a special section for those mail-order bride ads now. You know, like the one you ran.”
“An ad?” Drew raised a brow in question. While he had run an ad, it’d been a rough road and a twist of fate that’d landed Kaitlyn here as his mail-order bride. “Sounds good.”
Drew sounded as if Ed had suggested a perfect idea when he’d only meant to divert the conversation.
“You’d post a matrimonial ad for Isaac?” Ed followed up. After all they’d been through with Drew’s ad, he wanted to try this again? “Our Isaac?”
His brother obviously wasn’t thinking straight. There had to be a better way to find Isaac a wife, if he even wanted one.
Nick shifted in his chair. “He doesn’t need us poking our noses where they don’t belong. Give him time to come around.” Nick had always been close to Isaac. It wasn’t a wonder that he was protective now.
“And if he doesn’t come around? If he hides out the rest of his life up in that sorry excuse for a cabin? Or worse?” Drew fixed his eyes on Nick as he jabbed his finger at the table. “I can’t even get him to tell me why he came back.”
“Wouldn’t be too bad to have his help around here either.” Ed dusted the crumbs from his hands. All eyes fixed on him as if he were interrupting. “Might do him good to be around family more. That’s all.”
“A wife will do the trick.” A dreaminess filled Kaitlyn’s words. “Someone to love the rough edges away.”
“He’ll never go for it.” Wise words from Nick. Surely no one imagined Isaac would agree to their plan. It might even drive him further away. But Drew wasn’t used to being questioned.
“We don’t have to tell him.” Ed finished the last of Nick’s coffee. He rose to refill the cup from the pot Kaitlyn had placed at the other end of the table. Steam rose from the liquid. Even if breakfast hadn’t warmed his belly, the coffee had.
“Good point.” Drew ran a hand along his chin. “We don’t tell him at first. We run an ad, evaluate the replies, then pick a woman or two that might fit him. We turn it over to Isaac from there.”
Nick shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“He’ll go for it when a pretty lady shows up,” Kaitlyn said. She shared another glance with Drew. Obviously, the honeymoon phase hadn’t passed yet.
