Page 18 of Love’s Silver Bullet

“Not if he falls in love with Megan Joy Burdzy or some other woman first! Don’t you see, Maggie?”—her eyes pleaded with Maggie to understand—“I have to follow my heart!”

“And I couldn’t agree more,” Maggie said softly, giving Sheridan’s hand a gentle squeeze. “We do have to follow our hearts, sweetheart …always!” She paused, gaze potent as it locked on her sister-in-law’s. “As long as our hearts are aligned with God’s, Sheridan. Because therein is the safest place to be …”

A sudden sheen glimmered in Sheridan’s eyes before she looked away, chin quivering. “I know, Maggie, and that’s what I want, too, truly. But I can’t go to New York without knowing if this attraction between Jake and me could grow into something more.” She offered a wobbly smile. “You already know how much I don’t want to leave home—you, my family, Jake—to go away to college. But it will be all the more unbearable knowing I could lose him while I’m gone, Maggie, and I can’t risk that.”

She reached to squeeze Maggie’s hand in return. “I only have three months left to make Jake fall in love with me or even just admit that he could and would be willing to wait. Honestly, Maggie, if that happened, I could wait the entire two years without a peep, perfectly content to get that teaching degree that Uncle Finn so wants me to have.”

Maggie smiled. “Deep down, you want that degree too, Sheridan Donovan, so don’t try and deny it.”

“Yes … yes, I do,” she said with a dip of her head, nodding her frail assent, “but only if I knew that Jake would be waiting for me when I got back because even deeper down, Maggie, I want him.”

Maggie’s bodice expanded with a heavy sigh, the idea of Sheridan getting hurt over Jake instilling a dull pain in her heart. Skimming her sister-in-law’s face with a light caress, she fairly ached over that very prospect, which given Jake’s response so far, seemed inevitable. “You know, Sheridan,” she said softly, “you can’t force a man’s heart.”

The seeds of a smile sprouted on Sheridan’s lips. “Why not?” She pressed her palm over Maggie’s hand, which now cradled Sheridan’s jaw, her voice husky with tease. “You did, Maggie.”

Maggie blinked several times, realizing that Sheridan was right. Why not, indeed? After all, hadn’t Maggie forced Blaze’s heart before they’d gotten engaged? All the time they’d been courting, he’d kept pushing her further and further for romantic favors while all the while pushing the prospect of marriage further and further away. It hadn’t been till she forced his heart—and his hand—by ending the courtship that Blaze not only eventually proposed, but discovered his newfound faith in God.

A mischievous gleam replaced the sheen of tears in Sheridan’s eyes. “So, if you could force Blaze’s heart to both turn to God and propose, why can’t I force Jake’s heart to admit he loves me?”

Maggie scrunched her nose. “I don’t know, Sher—maybe ‘force’ isn’t the right word …”

“Then, how about ‘enlighten’?” Sheridan said with a bright smile. “After all, that’s what God does for us when we ask Him for wisdom, right? So, actually, it’s almost spiritual!”

Maggie chuckled as she pinched Sheridan’s knee. “I suppose that depends on your methods, Miss Donovan.” She arched a brow. “For instance, I doubt the Almighty would look favorably on plopping on top of Jake to kiss him senseless!” Heat scorched Maggie’s cheeks the moment the words were out of her mouth, matching no doubt, the pretty shade of pink creeping up Sheridan’s face. She slapped a hand to her lips. “Sweet mother of mercy—I can’t believe I said that!”

“Me, either,” Sheridan said with a quick fan of her hand, giggles bubbling forth. “Because now I’ll be thinking about it!”

“Me, too, with Blaze.” Maggie delivered a smug smile. “Only I get to do something about it.”

Responding with a playful tease, Sheridan stuck out her tongue. “Rub it in, Mrs. Donovan, why don’t you? But don’t forget—someday I’ll be able to do something about it too.”

Maggie stayed her with a tender touch of her arm, sympathy soft in her tone. “Only if Jake’s the right one for you sweetheart, which he may not be, so if I’m going to help you, you have to promise me one thing.”

The smile faded on Sheridan’s face, her voice as fragile as Maggie’s. “What’s that, Maggie?”

A quiet sigh parted from Maggie’s lips, languishing in the air as she took Sheridan’s hand in her own. “It may not happen this summer, Sher, despite all of our efforts, if it’s not God’s timing and Jake refuses to comply. And if that’s the case”—she paused to give her sister-in-law’s hand a gentle squeeze—“I need you to promise you’ll let it go for the rest of this year until Christmas at least, and try to enjoy your new life at school with all the new people you’re going to meet.”

Sheridan bowed her head as if Maggie’s words had just sucked the wind out of her hope. Maggie ducked to peek up with a shadow of a smile skimming her lips. “Many of whom, I might add,” she said with a touch of tease, “will be very eligible and very attractive young men smitten by a certain Virginia City girl, I promise.” She reached to cradle a hand to Sheridan’s jaw, praying her sister-in-law would find God’s choice for her instead of her own. “So, promise me, Sheridan, that if this summer doesn’t go the way you hope, you’ll lay it aside for the rest of this year to enjoy your time away at school. And to pray for God’s perfect timing and beau, all right?”

Sheridan’s shoulders rose and fell with a heavy sigh as she cupped her hand over Maggie’s, a semblance of a smile flickering at the corners of her mouth. “All right, Maggie, you have my word. If nothing happens with Jake this summer, I promise to try my best to let it go and enjoy school.” A hint of mischief twinkled in her eyes. “Until Christmas.”

“And …?” Maggie arched a brow.

Teasing with an exaggerated sigh, Sheridan rolled her eyes. “And I promise to pray for God’s perfect timing and beau, all right?” Folding her hands in prayer in a dramatic pose, she cast a hopeful gaze toward the ceiling. “But if it’s all the same to you, God”—she paused to give Maggie a sassy wink—“could you please make sure it’s Jake?”

CHAPTER NINE

“What??!!” Blaze spun around, a branding iron dangling in his left hand as he gaped at Jake while they finished up the last few cows on the south 40. He stepped in close, shoulders as stiff as his jaw while his eyes fired up, hotter than the red-hot poker in his hand. Which he now held out like a threat. “So, help me, Sullivan, if you kissed her …”

Jake took a healthy step back, heat singeing the tips of his ears, a condition he wished he could blame on the hot Nevada sun after a full day of branding cattle. “Keep your voice down, Donovan,” he hissed, casting a nervous glance around to make sure the rest of the hands had moved on to the next pasture. As much as Jake hadn’t wanted to tell Blaze what happened between him and Sheridan, he knew he had to—for his sake as well as hers.

Heaven knows Blaze hadn’t taken any of the hints Jake had tossed around today about turning Sheridan’s shooting lessons over to somebody else, bucking him at every turn with one excuse or another. So, being a stickler for honesty, in the end, Jake figured the truth—or at least some of it—would be the best deterrent to keep Sheridan at a distance.

Wasn’t truth always the best option? Jake swallowed hard. Yeah, except with Sheridan.

But partial truth or not, that didn’t mean Blaze wouldn’t chew him up and spit him out when he found out.

“Then what the devil did you mean by, ‘things got pretty heated in more ways than one’?” Blaze shouted, waving that dad-gum poker like he wanted to brand Jake instead of the silly cow. “Did you kiss her or not?”