Page 79 of A Forgotten Heart
How many conversations rang within those walls? The roughhousing his mom would never allow inside their home. The bunkhouse represented their family legacy. Their past.
It would never be like that again.
With a sigh, he turned back toward the house. Next to him, Isaac helped him keep his balance.
As they neared the porch, Clare ran outside and threw herself at Isaac. “I thought something had happened to you.” Her voice shook.
Nick held on to the railing for support. Where was Elsie?
She appeared in the open doorway, a gust flaring her skirt. She stared at him with a haunted look in her eyes. Until her face crumpled.
He used the railing to haul himself up the porch steps. She met him at the top.
When he opened his arm, she tucked herself into his chest.
He pressed his face into her hair. He couldn’t even care that he was getting her all sooty. She was all right.
She sucked in a trembling breath and eased out of his arms.
“Are you hurt? Did I hurt your shoulder? Your head? I just?—”
Her eyes shone with unshed tears, studying him.
She went still, and he reached up to smooth her hair behind her ears. “Nothing hurts right now. Not while you’re looking at me like that.”
Pink flushed her cheeks. She was looking at him with such vulnerability. Everything had changed over the past few days.
“Come inside. You’re cold, and you’ll catch your death.”
“You’re so bossy.”
Yet neither one of them moved. If the night had taught him anything, it was that tomorrow was never guaranteed.
“I need to talk to you?—”
“There’s something I need to say?—”
He cut off when she spoke at the same time. She ducked her head shyly and he chuckled.
He squeezed her hand. “You go first.”
A long moment passed as she seemed to gather herself. She looked up into his face. “Can we start over?”
Elsie watched emotions flicker across Nick’s face, afraid to move or even breathe. There was chaos all around.
She was aware of Isaac and Clare at the foot of the stairs, deputies loading up the bandits on horses nearby. A few menstill stood around the debris, throwing buckets on hotspots. Yet it felt like she and Nick were in their own little world.
Nick was opening his mouth to respond when another voice intruded.
“Miss Atchison, what are you doing here?”
Elsie knew that voice. She became instantly aware of Nick’s hands at her waist, how close they stood. She stepped away and twisted to face the ruddy-faced man she hadn’t heard approach. What was a member of the school board doing way out here?
Her throat swelled until she could hardly force out words. “Mr. Jamison. What are you doing here?”
He stared at her suspiciously. “I volunteered as deputy. You didn’t answer my question.”
The man’s eyes snagged on Elsie’s hands, where Nick’s hand had closed around hers. Disapproval flashed in his eyes.
