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“Oh, Michael, I’m so happy for you and Selina.” Aimee threw her arms around him and hugged him. He hugged her back, happier than he had ever been.
Selina slid from the buggy, bone tired. All she wanted to do was to head straight to bed.
Lights were on in the house. Michael must still be up.
Anxious to see him in spite of how tired she was, instead of climbing the steps she hopped onto the porch. On her way to the front door, she passed the living room window and glanced inside.
Jumpin’ crickets!
She backed away from full view of the window and peeked inside.
Michael and Aimee had their arms around each other. When they separated, Selina right away noticed the joy on her husband’s face, and her heart shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.
She closed her eyes and refused to let the tears stinging the back of her eyes fall. Her fears had come to life. She knew something like this would happen if Michael ever laid eyes on Aimee. Everything he said he wanted in a wife, Aimee was it, and Selina wasn’t.
Well, he could have her. They could have each other.
She quietly made her way back across the porch and hopped down. Where she would go this late, she had no idea, but she wouldn’t go back into that house ever again. She couldn’t. It hurt too much seeing them hugging and seeing the happiness on Michael’s face.
Michael paced between the living room and kitchen, peering out the windows occasionally. With Selina gone, he hadn’t felt right about having Aimee in the house, so he had taken her to his mother’s to see if she could stay the night there.
For the twentieth time, he looked at the grandfather clock. Doc said it would be late, but Michael thought he meant eight or nine, not midnight.
Every time he prayed, deep in his gut he felt something wasn’t right. He’d waited as long as he was going to. He grabbed his jacket and rifle and one other thing from his dresser and headed down to the barn.
When he stepped inside, he heard the muffled sound of crying. He strained to listen where it was coming from. Quietly he made his way to the ladder leading up to the loft.
The crying grew louder.
He climbed the ladder only as high as his head so he could peek around to see who it was. Laying on one of the blankets they kept in the barn was Selina, curled in a ball. Michael scurried up the ladder, rushed to her and dropped to his knees beside her. “Selina?”
She curled up tighter, keeping her back to him. “Go away, Michael.” She sniffed.
“What’s wrong, love?” He laid his hand on her arm.
She shoved it away with one swipe.
Fear clutched his insides. “Selina, what’s wrong?”
“You know good and well what’s wrong. Now go away.”
“No, I don’t know. And you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?” He dropped into a sitting position and pulled Selina onto his lap, cradling her stiff body against his.
She twisted, trying to get away, but he held her securely without hurting her. His wife refused to look at him. “Let go of me,” she whimpered before going limp in his arms.
Now he really was scared. Selina’s spunk usually rose to the occasion. So whatever had her upset must be huge for her to give up so easily. Whatever it was, he was going to find out. “I’m not letting go until you tell me what’s wrong.”
She yanked her tearful gaze up to his. Even in the dark shadows of the barn the moisture in and under her eyes sparkled. Seeing her pain, his heart rent into pieces. He laid his thumb under her eye to wipe away the tears, but she brushed it off with a yank, too.
Without warning, fire flashed through her eyes. She stiffened in his arms and tried to sit up, but he held her so she couldn’t move. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong, you no-good polecat.”
“No-good polecat? What did I do?”
“Don’t think I don’t know what’s goin’ on. I may not be the most learned person in this world, but I ain’t stupid, neither.”
“I never said you were. What’s this all about, Selina?”
“I saw you and Aimee huggin’.”
That was what was bothering her? Relief replaced his fear and he laughed with the release of knowing that was it.
“You think that’s funny? Well, I don’t.” Selina jerked upward, but he captured her around the waist and pulled her back onto his lap. She fought him, but he gently restrained her.
“Selina, listen to me. Yes, you saw me and Aimee hugging. Do you want to know why?”
“I already know why.” She squirmed some more. “’Cause she’s more what you’re wantin’ in a wife than me, and you couldn’t help yourself when you laid eyes on her.”
