Page 64 of Cowboy Falling Hard

“About Katie?”

She nodded.

“Yes.”

“I’ve never wanted to murder someone so badly in my life before. Just take a skillet and beat him to death with it.”

There was so much anger in her words they shook.

He understood, at least in theory. The idea of wanting to hurt someone who hurt someone he loved.

He would want to do that to anyone who hurt Orchid.

“I guess I don’t really want to do that, but I’ll go with you.” He wasn’t sure where those words came from, but he realized as he said them that they were the truth. He wanted to be with her no matter what she was doing. Not that he wanted to kill someone, and maybe, he would be with her just to try to talk her out of it, but he would still be there. Beside her. Through whatever happened. Because he cared.

His words made her head jerk up, her eyes wide. “I think you really would.”

“I would. Might try to talk you out of actually killing anyone, but I’d be there.”

She nodded, slowly, like she was thinking about that along with everything else that had happened to her.

“I was sorry to hear that about Katie.” He wanted to insult her husband, belittle him, say what a slimeball he thought he was, but he didn’t want to come off as sanctimonious either. He’d done his share of stupid things. Even immoral things, or things that showed what a lack of character he had. And, by insulting someone else, he didn’t make himself look better.

“It was devastating. None of us wanted to tell her, someone had to. The jerk’s been getting away with it for far too long. It wasn’t hard to talk to a few people who knew what was going on.”

“What she is going to do?”

“I’m not sure. She didn’t want to do anything off-the-cuff. Even though the guy’s a jerk, slimeball, sneak, Katie wants to handle it the way a Christian should.”

Orchid pulled her lip back. “I think I was angrier than she was when we left. But she called her mom, and she had her sisters helping her with the kids when they get home, and she was going to pray about what she should do.”

“Wow. I don’t know that I would be that calm.”

“Me, either, but I think it really helped to have three of us there, beside her, telling her it wasn’t her fault, and encouraging her to do the right thing, as much as I wanted to grab a hold of his throat and just smack his head against the wall.”

“I didn’t realize you were so violent.”

“I didn’t either.” Her eyes were sincere, and she sounded half aghast at herself for even thinking such a thing.

“She’s not kicking him out?”

“I don’t know. She had said she would, and then she said it wouldn’t be right for her to be unkind just because he had. But I don’t think there’s any hope of reconciliation. Jesus gives one contingency for divorce, and that’s fornication. So, divorce is perfectly acceptable, and I would think it would be the preferred way, although there are people who have been able to forgive.”

“Seems to me, that unless God works in his life in some kind of supernatural way, if a man’s a cheater, he always will be.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” Her eyes lifted to his, and the lead weight of dread sucked his stomach in. “A man who has character, who is someone you can depend on, is hard to find.”

He didn’t say anything, because she seemed to be saying more with her expression then she was with her words.

“I thought about Russell, her husband, and, I’m sorry to say, I compared him to you.”

He wanted to close his eyes, hang his head back and howl. He could almost hear her next words, saying that she thought they were exactly alike, or something along those lines. Like being a celebrity baseball player automatically made a man lack character. Even though he knew that to not be true.

“I thought about how you spent the last eighteen months trying to talk to me. Trying to get me to notice you. Asking me out, being turned down, and not giving up.” She looked down at the crate of apples sitting at their feet. “Russell had never cared that much about Katie. He was very easy-going. He never seemed protective or devoted. I know that can get out of hand, where a man doesn’t want to let his wife out of his sight, wants her to ask permission before she goes anywhere or does anything. Wants to control her. So not what I’m talking about. He just... Didn’t seem to care.” She lifted her shoulders. “I don’t how else to explain it.”

He waited. She didn’t seem to be saying what he had been afraid she was going to say.

But it seemed a little premature to hope. Although, an optimist by nature, he had to hope. The lead didn’t feel quite so heavy in his stomach.

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