She shrugged before she stood abruptly and took the tray, then looked at him and smiled, but didn’t answer his question. “Good night.” And that was it. She walked away, her backside swaying gently, causing her skirt to swing against the top of her boots.
He watched her go and wondered what it might be like to see that sight for the rest of his life.
Evie closed the door and just stood there for a moment, fighting for her equilibrium. The whole time they’d been talking, all she could think about was kissing him again. She felt off-kilter, unsure. And yes, a bit cowardly, which was so unlike her. Why did this man, this stranger, make her feel this way?
“You just going to stand there or are you going to give me that tray?”
Evie faced Hilde. “Yes, yes, of course.” But instead of moving toward Hilde at the sink, she strode across the kitchen to the swinging door, the tray firmly in her hands.
“Evie!” Hilde’s strident voice cut into the fog in her brain, a fog that seemed thicker than anything she’d ever experienced in San Francisco.
Evie looked down at the tray still in her hands. The heat of embarrassment rushed to her face.
“What is the matter with you?”
“Nothing,” she said, as she headed toward the sink, where Hilde waited patiently, her hands on her ample hips.
“Hmmm, nothingmy foot.” Hilde clicked her tongue as she took the tray. “Your head is in the clouds,liebchen. I have never seen you act like this…except once.” The older woman’s hazel eyes twinkled with humor as she started taking plates and silverware off the tray and putting them in the sink.
“When? I don’t recall that at all.”
“A long time ago. I remember a certain young man, a certain Marshal, who turned your head. So much so, you were going to marry him,” Hilde said, sympathy flashing in her eyes. “I know how much you loved Tom, but he’s gone,liebchen. It’s time to open yourself to new possibilities.”
Evie nodded and gave her a gentle smile. “Perhaps you’re right, Hilde. Perhaps it is time.”
Surprised, Hilde stopped wiping off the tray with a washcloth and just looked at her. “Well, that wasn’t what I expected.”
Evie laughed, equally surprised. “It wasn’t what I expected to say, either.” She reached out and touched Hilde’s arm gently. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to check on the children.” She started for the door, then stopped when she saw it opening.
“Ah, Evie, you’re here.” Antonio entered the kitchen, followed by Uncle Charley and Aunt Felicity. “I think Jake’sready for riding lessons,” Antonio announced, as he settled himself at the table and reached for the pot of coffee.
Uncle Charley and Aunt Felicity sat as well. It wasn’t long before Hilde joined them.
“That would be fine,” she said, her mind still on Hilde’s words and the possibilities for a future different than the one she had imagined.
“I’d like for you to do it.”
“Of course.” She snapped herself to attention, realizing what she’d just agreed to. “Wait, you wantmeto teach him?”
He exchanged glances with Charley and Felicity, then one with his wife. “I can’t think of anyone better.”
Evie nodded and let out a sigh, but didn’t argue. “I’m going to bed,” she said instead, then pushed through the swinging door, grateful to escape Antonio’s intense stare and smiling countenance as well as the smothered laughter from Hilde and Uncle Charley.
She grabbed one of the lamps from the table in the hall, struck a match and lit it, then climbed the stairs.
She checked on the children, all sleeping in their beds. Ramón clutched his stuffed lamb, thumb in his mouth, sleeping like an angel. She crept into the room and picked up the light blanket from the floor; he’d kicked it off again. He didn’t really need it. This June had been unusually warm, the temperatures higher than normal. Or maybe it was just her. She’d never been particularly bothered by the heat, but the last two weeks, she seemed to be warm all the time. And that wasn’t the only thing unusual. When had she become so scatterbrained, unable to complete a thought in her head?
She laid the blanket over the rail of the crib, then headed toward her room. She set the lamp on the dressing table, pushing several ribbons out of the way, then removed some of her clothing. Still in her corset, chemisette, and drawers, shewashed her face from the bowl and pitcher on her bureau, dried her skin, then sat at the dressing table. Opening a jar of cream that was supposed to prevent wrinkles, she smoothed it on her face.
She stopped and stared at her reflection.Is that a new wrinkle on my forehead?She ceased frowning and it went away, but of course, it would come back. She put the lid back on the jar and dropped it in the wastebasket. Whatever claim the cream made was a lie. There were still fine lines on her face, especially around her eyes and mouth.
There seemed to be more strands of gray in her hair, too. She’d found her first gray hair when she was thirty and immediately, despite Hilde’s warnings, plucked it from her scalp. It hadn’t helped. Oh, she didn’t have a head full of silver hair, like Antonio, but there was enough to be noticeable. Too noticeable?
Does Jake see an old woman when he looks at me? He is younger than me, maybe not by much, but still? And yet, he kissed me, not once but twice. Granted, the first time was because I asked him, but the second time, he’d done it on his own.
She let out a sigh. All the creams in the world and all the plucking of gray hair wouldn’t change the fact that she was, indeed, as Teddy put it, too old. She rose from her seat, tugged on the corset strings, and removed the garment, then slipped out of her chemisette and drawers. Nude, she turned in front of the mirror. She was still slim and trim, muscles defined from riding and working the ranch, belly rounded but not overly so, breasts not quite as perky as when she was young, but not bad for a forty-year-old woman.
She put on a clean cotton nightgown, propped the pillows against the headboard, and slid between the sheets. Grabbing the book from the nightstand, she opened it at the bookmark.She wouldn’t sleep until her nephews and their wives were back home and safe, but she could relax with a good story.
