does attract folks—kind of like red flowers attract hummingbirds. I’m Esther Mae Wilcox, by the way, and this is Norma Sue Jenkins.” She leaned forward slightly as if telling a secret. “She’s my sidekick.”
“Ha! Don’t believe a word of it,” Norma Sue huffed.
“She’s my sidekick.”
It was easy to visualize these two getting into all kinds of trouble.
“What brings you to town?” Esther Mae asked. “Are you here looking for a cowboy?”
The statement took Amanda by surprise, even though she knew the background of the town. She said the first thing that came to mind. “I don’t know, do you have some for sale?”
“We don’t sale ’um, but we sure do give them away at the altar,” Esther Mae volleyed back.
“To the right women,” Norma Sue added. “You need one, don’t you? I don’t see a ring on your hand.”
Amanda glanced at her finger where three weeks earlier there had been a ring. She blinked hard and stilled the sudden rolling of her stomach.
“Honey, you okay?” Esther Mae asked.
“Y-yes, I’m fine.” Meeting two sets of curious eyes, she pushed the jab of pain back into the corner of her heart where she’d barricaded it. “Um, how exactly do you get these cowboys to the altar?” she asked, a little too brightly. A vivid picture of Norma Sue behind them with a shotgun popped into her mind. “And is it legal?”
That got her chuckles from both women.
Norma Sue’s grin was wide. “Oh, the preacher makes it legal and the cowboys usually go willingly after a spell. Ain’t that right, Esther Mae?”
Esther Mae was watching her intently and Amanda feared she might have seen more than she’d needed anyone to see.
“Esther Mae, did you hear me?”
“Of course I did,” she said, her cinnamon brows puckered above alert green eyes. “So are you really telling us you haven’t heard about us?”
“No, I was teasing. I’ve heard a little about Mule Hollow.” It hit her that she had been teasing—it seemed like forever since she’d done that. She glanced at her ring finger, as empty as her heart felt. As her life was now. And yet she’d just teased these ladies spontaneously.
It was a good sign that maybe the entire trip out here hadn’t been a waste. “And no, I’m not looking to marry one of your cowboys. I came here from San Antonio for a job I was supposed to start today.”
“A job?” Esther Mae cooed. “What job?”
Amanda’s stomach growled loudly, reminding her why she’d come to town. She slapped a hand over it.
“Whoa, girl, that’s not good.” Norma Sue grabbed her by the arm. “C’mon, Esther Mae, we’ve got to get this young’un inside the diner and fill that stomach up with some of Sam’s good cooking.”
Esther Mae scooted to the door. “While you eat, you can tell us what job brought you to our neck of the woods.”
And just like that Amanda found herself being escorted into the diner by her new best buds. One thing was certain, this trip had been anything but boring. She might be headed home in an hour, but today—though disappointing in that she’d been dismissed basically on sight—she felt better.
“So you know about our little advertisements for wives?” Norma Sue asked.
“Yes, I don’t think many people, at least here in Texas, haven’t heard about it. My boss reminded me. I had forgotten about it when I first got my assignment, but I read a few of Molly Jacob’s columns back when they started.” Molly was a local newspaper reporter who’d begun writing a column about the goings-on of the little town that advertised for wives and it had been syndicated across the country. She enjoyed reading, but the column had taken a backseat to her always-full work schedule, training for the marathons she loved to run and…then, the connection she’d finally found with Jonathan. As soon as the thoughts of him came she pushed them away, refusing to go there.
“Then you know gals like you come from all over to marry our men. See, look over there.” Norma Sue pointed across the diner to a table where four cowboys were hunched over plates of food.
Esther Mae had slid into a booth and patted the seat beside her. “We’ve married off over a dozen couples with several engagements pending right now. And babies are arriving now, too. It is so exciting.”
Amanda sat down and inhaled the scent of food wafting through the air.
“Our church is busier than one of those tacky Las Vegas drive-through chapels.” Norma Sue grunted as she took the seat across from her. “Of course we just lost our preacher so we’ve got to find a new one to carry on the ceremonies.”
“Oh, brother, you two again!” A little man came out from the kitchen and headed to their booth. “I can’t get rid of you gals no matter how hard I try.” He settled teasing eyes on Amanda. “Hangin’ out with these two’ll get you inta trouble, little lady. Just so you know.” He held out his hand. “I’m Sam. Welcome to my place. These two git my Adela into more trouble than you can shake a stick at.”
Amanda introduced herself as she grabbed his hand and gave a firm squeeze, nowhere near the iron grip he attacked her with, but still, she gave as good as she could.
He grinned. “Fer a tiny woman, that’s some shake ya got thar.”
She flexed her hand. “You aren’t so bad yourself. My daddy always did say a person’s heart was measured by the firmness of their handshake. You must have a giant heart.”
That won her a big grin; his weathered face creased with a mischievous look. “Ain’t nobody ’sposed to know about my big heart. So let’s keep that one quiet. If these two or a couple of others, who shall remain nameless at the moment, were ta suspect I had a big heart, they’d thank I was a pushover and then I wouldn’t never be able to get my bluff in on ’em.”
Norma Sue rolled her eyes. “Don’t believe none of it. If it wasn’t for me and Esther Mae and his two ‘nameless friends’ keeping him in line, the man would be bored out of his brain.”
“Ha! I wish,” he grunted. “So, what brangs you ta Mule Hollow? And why in the world are you brangin’ these two back into my establishment when I jest got rid of them?”
Amanda laughed—it felt good. “Honestly, Sam, I just met them outside and they dragged me in here—”
As they all chuckled with her she thought they reminded her of her cantankerous grandparents who lived on a farm in West Texas.
“We thought she was here looking for a cowboy,” Esther Mae told Sam. “We were just telling her about what nice ones we have around here.”
Norma Sue nodded toward the window. “There are two of our success stories about to come through the door right now. That taller one is Seth Turner. He got married a couple of months ago. The other one is his younger brother, Cole. Cole is having a wedding in about four weeks—had
