Page 79 of A Secret Heart
David placed his hands on the quilt covering his bed and leaned forward. “No way. A grown-up woman ain’t gonna believe I’m Uncle Isaac. Not if I answered one of those.”
As Jo jumped on the bed, landing on her knees, she threw a punch to his gut. He doubled over, stifling his yelp. He didn’t want the adults in here. Didn’t want to be in trouble again for something Jo had started.
“Uncle Isaac needs us.” She twisted his ear, and he barely held back a yelp.
David pushed her face away with his palm, earning a grunt.
She came right back, and he swatted her away.
“Uncle Isaac has to have a wife.” Jo gritted her teeth. “If not, he’ll never be happy again. Is that what you want?”
It’d be nice to see Uncle Isaac smile again.David thought about how Isaac was always serious now. The haunted way he stared at the horizon. His uncle was hurting.
“Ma knows it would bring him back.”
His heart pounded in his ears as Jo switched to a softer tactic. Even knowing how she worked to get her way, the words hit him in the gut harder than her punch. “All right.”
He’d barely mumbled the word, but Jo already had the letters fanned out in her hands.
Jo chewed at her bottom lip as she flipped through the letters. Her fingers grasped at an envelope. As she worked to pull it out, a faint scent of roses filtered into the air. Jo wrinkled up her nose. “This can’t be it.”
“Why not?” A gnawing started in his stomach. He wished she’d get on with this.
“If her letter smells like that, what is she gonna smell like?” She tossed the letter to the floor.
“Don’t you think Uncle Isaac wants a girl that smells pretty?”
“I’ve smelled pretty. That ain’t it.” Jo fingered the stack again, landing on another letter.
The apprehension grew larger in his stomach as he caught the gleam in his sister’s eye. She yanked at the envelope, pulling it triumphantly from the pile.
“Thisis the one.”
* * *
