Jodi Thomas: Texan's Touch

“But,” Adam was flattered, and a little frightened, “I haven’t delivered a baby since medical school.”

“Doc Wilson said he’d be near to act as second in case the new uncle faints.” Daniel joined them, slipping his arm lovingly around May’s shoulder. “But with the war over you’ll be birthing plenty of babies now. You might as well start by bringing a new McLain into the world.”

They moved into the kitchen with Wes mumbling about how he hoped he wasn’t going to be asked to do anything. Children had never liked him, he claimed. And now with the scar, most were afraid of him. In fact, he went so far as to comment that babies were like cats-a man wasn’t meant to hold them, but he ought to avoid stepping on them.

Adam stopped just inside the kitchen, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Nothing had an aroma like his mother’s kitchen. The stove, the hint of soap, the years of baked cinnamon bread and apple pie.

“The smell of home,” Wes echoed Adam’s thoughts.

“Nowhere else in the world,” Adam added.

May moved to the stove to stir a pot of stew while Daniel poured his brothers coffee.

“We’ve been living here for about three months,” he said as he handed them each a cup. “I thought of getting my own place, but I had to wait for the leg to heal, and I didn’t like seeing this house empty. I’m preaching at a little church near Twin Rivers, but I’m here with May the rest of the time. We’ve planted a big garden and the orchard’s almost ripe. I’ve taken care of the horses Dad had left, but the few the rebs didn’t manage to round up have about gone wild from lack of riding.”

“I’ll help you break any horses you need to sell before winter,” Wes volunteered.

“Thanks, I’ve been waiting for you to make it back home.” Dan rubbed his leg. “There’s also-”

Dan would have added more to be done, but Wes interrupted. “I’ll help while I’m here, but as far as I’m concerned, this place is yours now, Daniel, not mine,” Wes said calmly as he gave away his inheritance. “Yours and May’s and your children to come.”

“But…” Daniel began shaking his head.

“Wes is right,” Adam added. “The farm should belong to you. You can’t raise a family on what a preacher makes on Sunday. I’ll need a house in town with my practice. I’d never make a farmer. And though I enjoy riding, I’ve never been good with animals like you are, Danny. I think Mom would like the idea of you and May filling that second floor with children.”

Wes looked up over the rim of his cup. “I’ve had offers in Texas. With my back pay, I can make a great deal of money moving cattle to market. A friend of mine said you can round up cattle, or pay a dollar a head for them in Texas, then move them north and sell them for twenty, maybe twenty-five in Kansas. I could never stay out of the saddle long enough to see roots grow.”

The brothers respected each other enough not to argue. The farmhouse would be Daniel’s. Adam would live with them until he found a place in town. Wes said, none too convincingly, that he’d like to stay until the baby came, but he had to get to Texas as soon as he rested a few days.

They ate breakfast, all talking and questioning at the same time. A silent bond was still between them, but Adam felt them pulling apart as he had when they’d left for war. No matter where he was, or how far away they were, they were his brothers, his blood. He guessed he’d always carry both their joy and their pain inside him.

An hour later, as Adam climbed the stairs to what had always been his room, he relaxed. It would feel good to sleep the day away and wake to another one of May’s meals. She might be a quiet little lady, but she could sure cook a meal worth shouting about. The war seemed a lifetime away as he stretched out atop the quilt covering his bed and slowly closed his eyes.

A moment before he fell asleep, sudden insight flashed across his tired mind. No one had mentioned Bergette.

Adam tried to push worry from his thoughts, but he couldn’t. Daniel and May lived in the same town with her. She was Adam’s fiancée. Wouldn’t they have mentioned Bergette’s name once? Or sent word that he was home? Why hadn’t he thought of going to her first?

He didn’t bother to pull on his boots. He ran down the stairs in search of May or Danny.

May was sitting at the kitchen table with her sewing in her lap as he entered. She smiled, telling Adam without words that he’d always be welcome in what was now her home. Adam could see why Danny had loved her since childhood. She had a kindness about her that made everyone want to try harder. Daniel called her his touch of heaven, his private angel.

“May?” Adam pulled a chair across from her and forced himself to be calm even though he was in a hurry to know. “Is something wrong with Bergette? Has she been killed? Did she tire of waiting and marry someone else?” When May looked at him with doe-round eyes, he added, “I have to know.” She didn’t smile as he’d hoped she would, telling Adam something was wrong.

“No,” she whispered. “When I saw her in church last Sunday she was well and still unmarried. As far as I know, she still waits for you, Adam.”

Her words should have calmed his worry, but they didn’t. “What is it?” He hated pushing May, but he had to know.

“Bergette is a lady, a grand lady now,” May’s voice was without judgment or emotion. “Her father made a great deal of money during the war, making her quite wealthy.”

“There are worse things I can think of than coming home to a rich fiancée.” Adam grinned. “Are you sure she still wants to marry me?”

May didn’t return his smile. “She still wears your ring. And Nellie Wilson said she sent all the way to Paris for a wedding dress as soon as she heard talk of the war ending.” May didn’t look at him as she spoke. The sewing seemed to demand her attention.

He couldn’t push her more. Whatever it was about Bergette that saddened May, he’d find out soon enough for himself. Maybe the two women simply weren’t fond of one another. Adam grimaced. If that was true, he wasn’t sure he could marry Bergette. A woman who didn’t like May surely wouldn’t be able to live with any McLain.

“I think I’ll ride into town and pay her a call.” He stood. “I’ll be back by supper time.”

He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Maybe it had nothing to do with Bergette. Maybe it was him. Maybe he wasn’t as interested in getting married as he thought. For the past few months whenever he tried to sleep, it was green eyes he saw and not Bergette’s crystal blue… it was short midnight black hair he reached for and not sunny blond.

But Bergette had been the only future he’d let himself believe in for so many years. The plan of coming home and living a normal life someday had been the only dream that had pulled him through the years of night. He wouldn’t give up that dream, even if he had to court Bergette all over again.

One hour later as Adam stood outside her door, he thought himself a fool. Of course he loved Bergette and she loved him! He’d loved her since they’d danced that summer he’d come home from medical school. Just because he’d kissed a woman one night in the middle of a war didn’t matter. Bergette and he were alike. They’d both come from hardworking, stable families. They were alike in their values and beliefs. Four years couldn’t change the core of a man, or a woman. Nichole had just been a shadow that passed over his thoughts, nothing more. Bergette was his future.

An aging lady Adam didn’t recognize answered the door. When he asked about his fiancée, she pointed, “Go past the state capitol building one block. It’s the largest house on the left.”