Page 46 of My Heart Will Find You

An angry Max got out of the elegant buggy and started to go around to help Cornelia down. But the handsome Hank beat him to it.

Max gave a look of disgust and went to the house and straight to Etta.

“She was on her way here,” he said, his jaw clenched. “Her father sent her back to finish the job she failed at today.”

“What job?”

“Of getting me to annul our marriage and marry her. Or her father’s going to sue me.”

“Oh,” Etta said. “Can you afford that?”

“Not at all.”

“Then help me marry Corny to Ben-Bert.”

“Ben what? And Corny? I dare you to call her that to her face.”

Etta was thinking. “It would be better if you weren’t so friendly to me. I don’t want to set her off.”

“What gave you the idea that I was friendly? And she knows it’s over between her and me.”

“You say that because you won the fight. That poor girl has a narcissistic, power-hungry father who is demanding that she do whatever he wants. She is not going to give up.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Today? You saw her today? You didn’t tell me that. When?”

His eyes said he was getting her back for her threats to him. “She showed up between the preacher and the lawyer. She pulled me into the shade and kissed me. She said she wanted to marry me.”

That he’d kissed another woman but not her, made Etta angry. “Maybe youshouldmarry her since you like her kisses so damned much. And just so you know, I’m better at kissing than I am at cooking.” She did a spin on her heel and turned away from him.

In the next moment she was in his arms and he was kissing her.

It wasn’t an ordinary kiss. There was no awkwardness to it, no strangeness. It was as though they knew each other. And now, in spite of time and distance, they were at last together.

It was Max who broke away, then he held her close to his chest. She could feel his heart pounding under her cheek.

“Who are you?” he whispered. “Where have you come from?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly.

When they heard voices, they broke apart. For a moment they stood there looking at each other, hearts pounding hard and fast.

Then the doors to hell seemed to open up. Alice came out from her side of the house. The lawyer came in the front door, and the divine Miss Cornelia entered the house from the back.

In the middle were Max and Etta. For a second their fingertips touched. “The war begins,” he said, then he stepped forward.

At dinner, Etta couldn’t bear to look at Alice. What she was feeling was so clear she might as well be wearing a sign. Why have you done this to me?

Max sat at one end of the table and Etta at the other end. She’d meant for the lawyer and Alice to sit across from each other. They did, but Cornelia sat herself next to Bert. She even moved her chair closer to him. Her actions were understandable after having been dumped by Max.

Etta didn’t know Ben and Caroline in the twenty-first century, but if their attraction to each other was as quick as between Cornelia and the lawyer, it’s a wonder they didn’t elope on the first day.

“I met your father,” Bert said to Cornelia after the introductions. “And I saw you with him.” He didn’t need to say that “him” was Max.

“A goodbye. That’s all,” Cornelia said, sounding wistfully sad. “He insisted.”

When Max started to contradict her, Etta glared at him. Wisely, he didn’t speak. She nodded at the big chunk of Kansas beef that she’d roasted. He was to slice it. “Tell us about your job,” she said to Bert.

“It’s good,” he mumbled. He couldn’t take his eyes off Cornelia.

“I heard you were moving to Wichita,” Max said.

---