Page 9 of A Soft Kiss in Summer
He headed back toward the jail, but movement to his right drew his attention.He inhaled a breath when Edwin hurried down the front steps of Mabel’s boarding house, his gaze locked on him.Great.This should be fun.
The man still looked mad as hell, but he wasn’t sure what about, exactly.Was it because Violet had turned him down?
Or the fact she’d told him she was already engaged?
Or maybe it was the fact she’d told him she never intended to marry him in the first place?
“Marshal, I’d like a word with you!”
Of course, he did.Josiah stopped and crossed his arms over his chest and waited by Mabel's fence gate.
“Did you know Violet was promised to me before you asked for her hand?”
Josiah chewed on the inside of his lip while trying to think of how to answer him.He hated lying.Lies always came back to haunt you later on but Violet had dragged him into this and the only way out was to tell Edwin the truth, but doing so would put Violet in a position he couldn’t bear to put her in, not when he could help it.
“Did Violet ever say she’d marry you?”he asked instead.
“Of course she did.”
“I see.”He nodded.“So she actually said the words, ‘Yes, Edwin, I’ll marry you?’”
He stuttered a few words before his face turned red.“She didn’t use those exact words, but we talked about it for years.”
“Did you both talk about it, or just you?The way Violet tells it, you just assumed she’d agreed.”
“That’s not how it was at all!”Edwin’s face turned a deeper shade of red.His hands were clenched and Josiah raised an eyebrow.Surely this man didn’t want to let this turn physical.Edwin was tall, but looked as if a strong wind would blow him over.It wouldn’t take more than a single punch to take the man down.
“When are you marrying?”
Josiah blew out a breath.“We haven’t decided yet.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why haven’t you decided?What are you waiting for?”
Good question.He scratched his jaw.The sound it made as his fingernails brushed across his whiskers was loud while Edwin waited for an answer.
“Well,” he finally said.“There’s no preacher here in town.”It wasn’t a lie.There wasn’t.Never had been.“The circuit preacher doesn’t come through but every couple of months.”
“That’s just an excuse.You could easily travel to any surrounding town to get married.”
“True, but I can’t leave the town unprotected while I take off.”Also true.
Edwin narrowed his eyes.“So, the only reason you’re waiting is that there’s no one here to perform the ceremony?”
“More or less.”
Edwin nodded, sizing him up from head to toe before lifting his chin and turning on his heel to head back into Mabel’s.
Josiah watched him until the door shut behind him before continuing on his way.His gaze darted to the mercantile when it came into view.When he was close enough to see inside the windows, he looked for Violet.He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed by the fact he didn’t see her.At least watching her gave him something to do.
Stepping back into the jail, he hung his hat on the nail hammered into the wall by the door and sat down at his desk, tapping his fingers on the weathered wood before dragging out the letter he’d been working on.He put pen to paper and started writing, counting the minutes until the day was over.
ChapterThree
As much as she tried to convince herself otherwise over the past year, Violet knew her feelings for Josiah weren’t as buried as she’d thought them to be.Watching him smile so big, her heart should have been stuttering with glee, and it would have been, had he been smiling at her.
