His gaze traced her movement, lingering at her breasts then widening as it raised and locked with her own. A grin suddenly lifted his lips as a look of acknowledgment warmed his eyes. Mina smiled back.
For a moment, she savored his grin for all it promised.
For a moment, she let him see that she was making a promise of her own.
And for a moment, she hoped that both promises might lead him to love again, if he would allow himself the chance.
“Was the imp hard to settle in for her nap?”
Mina allowed him a better view of the child that rested behind her. “No trouble at all for an even bigger imp to handle.”
“You may be just what we…
“I promised her if she took a long nap, I would take her on a treasure hunt after I finished my work.”
“A treasure hunt?”
Violet’s well eye opened. “Yeah, Daddy, and I slept real good. You gonna let her stop now? She worked real hard.”
Both adults laughed.
“Tell you what I’ll do. I’ve got about another hour of cleaning the roundhouse. That’ll see the six-fifteen come and gone. I don’t think Sam will mind taking the reins forty-five minutes early. He’s wanting some extra hours with his oldest’s birthday coming up.”
Briar stood and glanced around the office. “This place hasn’t looked so good since we opened it.” He picked up an old boot standing on the corner of her desk. Indian paintbrush, blue flax, and yucca stalks filled the tanned leather in a colorful bouquet of red, white, and yellow. “You’ve added a decoration or two.”
“I brung her the flowers from out at the breaks, Daddy.” Violet got up and lifted the boot so her father could have a better look. “Old Joe decided to have his annual foot washing in the creek and threw away his old boots. I couldn’t lift but one of ’em, so I put the flowers in it to make it smell better. Angel said it was the best thing she ever got.”
She picked up what was left of the brassiere Briar had ripped off Mina. “I seen her picking stuff up like this off the ground, so I figured she’d like Old Joe’s boot since he didn’t want it no more.”
“Ye figured right,” Mina complimented, quickly taking the bra from her hands and stuffing it in a pocket. “And it is the nicest present anyone ever gave me. If not the most odoriferous.”
“The most odorous?” Panic seemed to etch Violet’s expression. “Can you still use it when the flowers go away?”
Mina’s heart lurched. What was the child really asking her? Was she hearing something in Violet’s tone that wasn’t there? Was she being too sensitive? She couldn’t take the chance of saying the wrong thing. After all, she’d been seven once and left behind. What would she have understood at that age? What had she needed to hear?
“I never throw anything away, lass.” She fingered one of the blue petals. “If I canna keep it, for whatever reason, I fix it and give it to someone who will love it more than me. And the word is odoriferous.”
Violet returned the boot to its place. “Good. ’Cause them flowers got mean stickers, and it was hard picking ’em.”
The wire started humming, signaling an incoming message. Glad for the interruption, Mina turned her attention to duties and let the Duncans visit while she took the message. She needed time to quiet the memory Violet’s question had evoked in her own past. Yet the more she heard of the message, the less she wanted to decipher it.
“Mina?” Briar put a hand on her shoulder. “You look pale.”
“Do I?” She tried not to lay her cheek upon the back of his hand.
“Take your time. The roundhouse can wait.”
It was all she could do not to run outside. Mina forced herself to walk as if she had no concern for anything but a breath of fresh air. Once outside, she took long strides away from the depot so that no one would stop her and ask questions. She needed time alone. Time to get hold of herself.
She chose a path alongside the roadbed, allowing it to lead her away from the hustle and bustle of the busy station. Once she felt no one could see her, she searched the ground for a rock, found one, and threw it as hard as she could against the iron rail. It shattered into tiny pieces, mirroring the way she felt at the moment.
“Why is it that Ye want me alone?” she yelled at the blue sky above, her voice taking on volume as rage erupted from her. “I did what I should have. I proved I could take care of meself. All by meself, I grew to a woman, fine and true to Yer good ways. And with no help from either father or mother.” Her sails were full of breath and bluster. “I learned to wait.”
She pointed at the roadbed that led to the station. “And now, just when I found someone who doesna fear me shadows and makes me light up like the dawn, Ye’re gonna send him a fine message such as that! Take him from me like Ye have everyone else Ye ever put in me life? Take him from what’s best for
If Briar was this busy in Amarillo, no telling what would happen to Violet if he carted her off to who-knew- where. Mina picked up one of the pieces of the rock and crumbled the rest of it between her fingers, letting the wind carry it away. “Ye’re gonna lead him off to somewhere in Texas or Mexico where he’ll find her too much of a distraction. Where he’ll not need or want me?”
The tears came now, unbidden, hot, cruel. “Am I such a tribulation, Lord? Why does no one want me?”
Two strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her back into a familiar embrace. Her eyes closed as she breathed in the essence of Briar and the haven he offered her. The sanctuary she needed.
“Don’t cry, Mina.”
“Ye heard?” She prayed he hadn’t. She wondered if he understood.
“I knew something was wrong. I couldn’t let you go without finding out. I left Violet with the wire. She’s probably contacted Japan by now.”
Mina laughed, grateful for a way to stop the flow of tears. Awed that he had cared enough to follow. She faced him, finding comfort in the fact that he continued to hold her. “I promise you I’m worth wanting, Briar.” Her eyes met his. “And I’m willing to wait however long it takes for ye to want me in return.”
“I’m not going to accept Pershing’s offer, Mina. Raising Violet right is my true adventure now. It has been all along and I just was too blind to see it. I have you to thank for that. And just so you know”-his breath mingled with her own as his lips lowered to hers-“wanting you has never been in question.”
She held nothing back. The first kiss they’d shared had been one to tempt him. This one meant to seal their fate so that nothing would ever keep their hearts apart. Shadows that had been so long a part of Mina suddenly vanished with the promise of a radiant dawn. The abandonment that had cloaked every fearful night of her life was now vanquished in the heated wake of belonging somewhere and to someone. The earth seemed to rock beneath her feet, as if the roots of their future had buried themselves deep within the soil.
When the kiss ended he took a step backward, looking dazed. “I vowed to love Katie forever, Mina. I just don’t know if I can make such a promise again.”
It wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but she’d learned to be patient. To wait on life to lead her in a better direction. She knew now, beyond a shadow of any fear, that Briar was the pot at the end of her rainbow.
Forever meant different things to people, but the one thing true for everyone was that forever could always be exchanged with
Chapter 9
“Where did you find that?” Briar took the sack of flour from Mina’s hand. They had been walking the streets between his house and the restaurant for an hour. The stores were closed so she couldn’t have got it from the mercantile.
“Someone must have dropped it off one of their wagons when they headed home. I put a notice up at the filling
