Page 55 of A Secret Heart
Rebekah felt a moment of rising panic as everyone else bowed their heads.
Isaac’s rough hand hesitated before gripping her left hand as Ed’s fingers hovered close to her right. With a quick motion, she threaded her fingers between Ed’s. A jolt of warmth and comfort flooded her at his touch. There’d been no feeling from Isaac’s grip, only a knotting in her stomach of what she had to tell him.
“Dear Lord, we thank you…” Drew began the blessing in his matter-of-fact manner.
How had she found herself seated next to the man she no longer wanted after all those letters?
“…and bless the hands that prepared it…”
And on the other side, the man she’d once despised, the one she’d once tried to avoid at every chance but now wanted to lean into. Her emotions tumbled wildly.
Her heartbeat drummed so loud in her ears that she almost didn’t hear Drew’s “Amen.”
Isaac released her hand in one quick motion, jaw twitching. Ed let his hand stay linked with hers until he was forced to reach for a bowl that was passed his direction.
“Uncle Isaac. Did you catch the wolves yet?” Tillie blurted her question.
“Another scoop?” Kaitlyn’s query didn’t distract Isaac.
Who looked like he would rather do anything other than answer. He wouldn’t be catching the wolves. He’d be getting rid of them.
“Not yet.” Isaac took the bowl from Drew to set it in front of him. “Wolves are good at hiding.”
“Did you know I taught Patch a new trick?” Tillie must have saved a hundred questions for her uncle while he’d been off hunting wolves or whatever he did up at that cabin.
Rebekah thanked Kaitlyn as she handed her a bowl of stew amidst all the giggles and voices around the table.
“I stopped off at your uncle’s place today,” Ed said, his head tipped closer and his words just for her. “Everything’s fine.”
She’d been trying not to think about what’d happened in town, how she didn’t want to go home. How she was letting down Uncle Vess by not taking care of things at the house herself.
“You okay?”
“Not really.” In fact, Tillie was a welcome distraction.
When she looked across the table, Kaitlyn caught her eye, brows raised.
Nick engaged Ed from his other side, something about a new water trough for the corral. Her arm brushed Ed’s as she lifted her spoon. She caught his warm gaze.
She took in all the sights, all the whispers between the children’s bent heads. A big family around a table. This was what her heart had wanted all along.
“I’m the better speller between us, anyway.” David’s response to Jo’s last whisper boomed out. “Boys always are.”
The whispering stopped as Jo raised her head. She stared straight at Rebekah. “Didn’t you beat Isaac at a spelling bee back in school? Uncle Nick said so.”
Rebekah’s face heated as silence fell over the table, all eyes on her. She felt Ed still at her side, the spoon frozen above his bowl.
“Rebekah used to beat everybody.” Isaac waved a hand in dismissal.
Ed shifted in his chair. “I was there when she won the award for the best poem. Beat out the entire school.”
Isaac let his spoon clank in his bowl, turning in Ed’s direction. “I was there when the teacher asked her to stand and read Shakespeare because she did the best dramatic reading. No one else read aloud that day.”
Drew and Nick shared a glance, then shifted their attention back to where she sat between Isaac and Ed. Ed had leaned over to send Isaac a side-eye. Rebekah squirmed a little in her chair, not sure how to deflect the attention of the table from her.
“Well, I remember when she beat everyone at marbles.” Ed moved forward, glaring at Isaac. “Or what about when she tagged you in that game of blindman’s bluff?”
“Speaking of school days,” Rebekah interrupted, “I remember when Ed won the horseshoe contest at the Fourth of July picnic.”
