jacket still open, shirt half untucked. He looked uncertain and small and…nine years old. Hell, he was a boy missing his mother.
Leaving Will to cinch the saddle, Nick came down on one knee. “What is it, cowboy?”
“Georgie’s sleepin’. I’m gonna make sure she doesn’t run off again.” So serious, as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Nick put his hand there, on the slim curve of his son’s shoulder. One day Joey would be a good man, strong and hardworking and upstanding. The man he would be was easy to see in the boy, his chin set fierce and determined.
Nick’s chest ached. He wanted life to be better for his son. “You’re a good brother, but your grandfather is responsible for watching Georgie. You want to come riding with us?”
“Grandpop falls asleep sometimes.” Joey bit his bottom lip with indecision. He glanced over his shoulder at the house. “I’d best stay and watch over them both, I reckon.”
There’d been a time when the boy never turned down the chance to ride his horse on the range. Another thing Lida had stolen from him.
What am I going to do about Joey? Nick had no answer as he watched the boy amble back to the house, his boots dragging in the dirt. Would a new wife make a difference? A woman to lift the burden from Joey’s shoulders?
A housekeeper couldn’t do it. It would merely be a job to her, and one day she’d leave for a better opportunity.
No, his children deserved more than that. Needed more than that. They deserved stability and commitment. A woman who would always be there for them.
Joey disappeared from sight. The door slammed behind him, the smack of wood on wood carrying on the wind, sounding lonely and final and accusing. The image of Mariah Scott, holding Georgie in her arms, flashed into Nick’s thoughts.
Nope. Forget it. If he had his way, there would never be another woman in his life. Ever.
Will handed over the reins. “Children need a mother to grow up happy.”
“You’re an expert?”
“Not from personal experience, but I am a keen observer.”
“Of pretty women, maybe.” Nick gathered the reins and shot his foot into the stirrup.
“A pretty woman is one of life’s necessities. Another is a wife who can cook. We can’t keep eating our brother’s cooking. Dakota is likely to kill us with that slop he calls food.”
“Mount up. We’ve got cattle to check on. Save your great wisdom for someone who needs it.”
“If anyone needs wisdom, it’s you, big brother.”
“I’m wise enough to know I shouldn’t listen to you.” Nick eased into the saddle. “Are you comin’?”
Leather creaked as Will mounted up. “Know what you ought to do? Go to the fund-raiser they’ve got tonight for the town school. There’ll be plenty of women there. Maybe one of them wouldn’t mind getting married to an ugly cuss like you.”
Nick decided to let that one pass without comment. He didn’t feel like trading jests.
“Don’t say no right off, not until you think it through.” Will bent in his saddle to unlatch the gate. “The dance tonight will give you the chance to see what your options are. You could even dance with the lady of your choice. If she lowers her standards.”
Nick nosed his mare through the gate and waited with the wind knifing through his jacket while Will hooked the latch.
Go to the dance? Look over the marriageable women like horses lined up at an auction? That didn’t sit right. He had no interest in taking any woman to wife.
Except his children were what mattered, what counted.
The high plains rolled from horizon to horizon and gave no answers.
A wife? He had to consider it. Maybe he would go to the dance tonight. Look at his options. See what could be. Marrying this time would be different. He was older. No one expected a man his age and with children needing a mother to marry for love.
A marriage of convenience. Isn’t that what he and Lida had anyway? They’d lived in the same house and each did their work. Then fell into separate beds at night.
Troubled, he rubbed his chest. The spot behind his breastbone kept growing tighter and tighter. He didn’t want a wife, but Lord knew he needed one.
His children needed a mother.
“Your angel food cakes smells like heaven,” Rayna Ludgrin praised as she set her big wicker basket on the kitchen table. “Why, it’s as perfect as could be. You’ll put us all to shame at the supper tonight.”
Mariah blushed. She didn’t like praise, but she could see her friend only meant to be kind. “My cooking can’t beat yours, and you know it. Let me grab my apron and I’ll be ready to go.”
“You aren’t wearing that, are you?”
Did she detect a note of criticism? Mariah lifted a laundered and folded apron from the shelf. “It’s my Sunday best. I figured it would be good enough.”
“Good enough, why, yes.” Rayna didn’t even have the grace to look guilty. “Surely black isn’t the best color for tonight. This is a supper and a dance, Mariah. Men will be there.”
“Good for them.” Mariah slipped the glass cover over her best pedestal cake plate and lifted it into Rayna’s basket. “I’ve volunteered to help in the kitchen tonight, so black is a sensible color. What are you up to, anyway?”
“Not one thing. You might want to wear your beige calico. Quite fetching on you.”
“I see where this is going.” Mariah’s face heated. “You’re wasting your breath. The bachelors in this town are too young for me.”
“Not Nick Gray. In our day, I thought you two were going to be quite the couple.”
“Nothing came of it then, and I’m not about to change my dress just to please the likes of Mr. Gray.”
“What a shame.” Rayna snapped the lid shut on her basket. “A lot of women in this town don’t think the way you do. They’ll be all gussied up in their finest, praying for the handsome widower to ask them to dance.”
“Then he’ll not miss me.” Mariah kept her chin high, refusing to let even the slightest regret into her voice. She didn’t need Nick Gray. Not to dance with. Not to marry.
Maybe if she told herself that enough times, she would believe it. Then—maybe—it wouldn’t hurt so much.
Rayna hummed as she stacked molasses cookies from the cooling racks onto a plate. Her gold wedding ring caught the late afternoon light. Rayna would never understand. She was happily married and a mother of three sons.
What did she know about rejection? About watching the man you secretly loved marry someone pretty and vivacious? About spending every
