Page 45 of An Unexpected Welcome

"He's finishing up his chores, wants to go fishing this afternoon." Lilly smiled. "I can't hardly keep him away from that fish pond, wish it was further from town and he wouldn't go so often."

"That boy loves to fish, doesn't he? Nothin' wrong with that. You can't coddle the boy, you know." Doc chuckled. "Boys have to learn to do for themselves, and you can't hold the apron strings forever, he's growing up Lilly."

"Yeah, but I can't complain, catfish are mighty good for supper." Lilly laughed.

Doc stared into her eyes now. "Well, I'm proud for you and for Charlie."

Lilly studied doc's expression for a moment. She knew he was sincere. She knew Doc has a soft spot for Cord too, almost fatherly. "So you been out to see Cord?"

"Yeah…and I couldn't be happier for Cord either. I have never seen him so happy." Doc said with satisfied smile on his face. "He's doing well, Lilly. And I for one am glad to see it. You know, when he first hit town, I saw a strange kind of sadness in Cord. My heart went out to him. He took the war hard, Lilly. It changed him, made a man of him."

"I saw that too, Doc. But Cord's always had a soft spot." She watched his expression.

"Yeah, I remember one time when he was little, he found this pup that was all chewed up and brought to me to doctor. The look on that kid's face, nearly broke my heart. I patched him up and he lived. Goes to show you what love can do." He watched her closely.

She sighed heavily, "Doc, you know Cord wants to adopt Charlie don't you? It was all his idea. He didn't want Charlie finding out about Sam and what he'd done. He's claimed him as his own Doc, and that alone is enough to make me love him."

"It's for the best Lilly. It sure is, and I have to say I'm very proud of Cord for stepping up like that. He's a good man Lilly, but then…we've always known that, haven't we?" The old doc nodded with satisfaction.

"Yes, we have," She smiled. "I better get back to work. Thanks for stopping by, Doc."

"You betcha…" He winked at her.

***

"Dan, you ready to go?" Charlie asked as he found him out back that afternoon hiding in the bushes.

"Yeah…are you?" Dan asked eyeing the kid.

"Yeah, I brought my pole. Do you want me to dig up some worms before we go?"

"Naw…we'll get some there…" Dan told him. "Let's get on out here."

Charlie nodded, and Dan let him slide on the back of his horse. As though it just occurred to him he asked, "Why were you hiding in the bushes?"

"Well, your ma don't like me much, she might not let you go, if she knew I asked you."

"That's true, but we're just going fishing." Charlie told him.

They rode out of town quietly only a couple of people seeing them. Dan was nervous but Charlie didn't seem to be.

Dan took him out to his place and after he got his gear they headed for the creek.

From what Charlie saw of the house, it was big and sprawled out. It was a man's place, no frills and Charlie liked that. It was fun being with someone a bit older who would buddy with him.

Charlie was excited, he'd never fished out here and just getting away from town was a good thing to him. In the back of his mind, he knew his mother would be furious if she knew he'd come here, but sometimes he wanted to be on his own, away from his mother. In fact, more lately. He loved her, but after all, she was a woman.

Dan pointed to an old cottonwood tree he liked to fish under and they set up their gear. Charlie dug for worms and found an abundance once he scraped the hard dry earth for them.

They were all set up and had caught several catfish a couple of hours later, when Jason and Butch rode up.

Charlie didn't care for either one of them, but they were Dan's brothers so he had to be polite.

"Well, you fellers caught anything yet?" Butch asked his eyes going around the place and landing on Charlie who was eyeing him suspiciously.

Butch didn't like kids, they were noisy and always asking questions.

"Yeah, got a string of catfish for supper." Dan told him. "Did you take care of everything?"

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