Page 42 of Cowboy Falling Hard

Glancing up, he saw that Owen was climbing the hayloft, trying to get to the girls who were sitting on a couple of hay bales in the middle of the loft. They must have come in a different door. He hadn’t even heard them.

“That hay must be pretty old.”

“It is. I haven’t made any for ten years, but when I sold the animals, the fella didn’t want the hay to go with them. They were just going to a feed lot and auction. I’ve never gotten around to doing anything with it.” His voice held a smile as his eyes looked with indulgence at the kids playing. “Powell is here often, and she loves playing on it. I figure someday I might have grandkids, and they’d enjoy it too.” He looked back to Dwight. “Guess I’ll just leave it here.”

Dwight nodded, loving that the man considered the hay in his barn to be basically a big toy for the kids to play in. He bet when Powell got older, she would understand how blessed she was to have a neighbor who enjoyed watching her enjoy herself.

“I better go see if Orchid’s ready to go,” Dwight said, although he wanted to offer to stay and help Mr. Brown. It looked like a big job.

Mr. Brown said goodbye and bent back down to do whatever he had been doing behind the furniture as Dwight turned away.

Orchid opened the barn door as he reached it, and he laughed. “I was just coming to look for you. The kids are all in here playing in the loft.”

Her smile was small, and her brows furrowed like she was worried about something.

He reached out and touched her arm. “What is it?”

She bit her lip and looked up at him like she was worried about what he was going to say.

“Is Mrs. Brown okay?” he asked, pitching his voice low so he didn’t alert Mr. Brown to any issues that there might be, at least until Orchid had told him what the issue was.

“She’s fine. She’s just swamped with work. She has three five-gallon buckets of green beans to do, and that would be enough work to keep five people busy all day. I feel guilty using their property to play on when she has so much work to do.”

He let out a chuckle, which made her brows lift.

“I felt the same way. Mr. Brown is trying to get some furniture loaded, and he was hoping his boys would come help. But they have cows out, and they haven’t shown up yet.”

“Humph. Their cows are always out.” Orchid shook her head. “Coleman actually said last Sunday at dinner he was planning on going over to their farm south of Sweet Water and helping them fix the fence. It’s old. There are holes in so many places it’s not even funny.”

“So you’re saying they might not make it today?”

“I don’t know. I guess I wouldn’t hold my breath about it.” She hadn’t stopped biting her lip, and now she wrung her fingers together as well. “I know we had plans—”

“I was thinking—”

They both stopped short, then laughed.

“I think we’re thinking the same thing,” Dwight said, and he couldn’t keep the disappointment out of his voice. He had wanted to spend the day with Orchid. He enjoyed what they’d done together so far. And especially after the romance of the wedding, he wanted more.

But he loved that she had been just as convicted as he had. Maybe it had been the sermon, which had been about getting your eyes off yourself and looking around to help others. How that made a person’s own problems smaller and the world bigger and better. Or maybe it was just her influence and how that was helping him to grow.

“I think we are too.” She sighed. “The beans in the kitchen will take all day. Probably long into the night.”

“I don’t think the furniture will take that long. Maybe I can help when I’m done.”

“What about the kids?”

He looked over his shoulder. The children hadn’t even noticed that Orchid and he stood in the doorway or that he had been walking out. “I bet they’d be just as happy running around here all day, if the Browns are okay with that.”

“I know they will be, although I’ll say something. Especially if we are helping them.”

“That’s what I thought. Mr. Brown is letting that old hay sit in his hayloft, even though he could have sold it or gotten rid of it somehow, just because he loves to have it there for the kids to play on. He seems like such a nice guy.”

“Mrs. Brown is the same. She’s just a sweetheart.” Orchid’s eyes lowered. And her face took on a sad tone.

“But?” Dwight asked, wondering if she’d even tell him.

“They just don’t seem to love each other anymore. It’s weird. They’re kind people, everyone loves them, but I can’t remember the last time I saw them talking together. They’re never with each other. Like today, Mrs. Brown has all those beans to do, Mr. Brown is out here with all his work to do, and neither one of them is helping the other.”

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