Page 25 of The Heart’s Charge

After patting Cooper’s neck and murmuring a few words of praise to his faithful steed, Mark unhooked the sack of supplies he’d picked up from the hardware shop that morning. He held the sack aloft as he strode toward the house. He placed one boot on the lowest stair but didn’t ascend. Not yet. Best to be invited.

“I noticed a healthy dose of wobble in your railing,” he said, tipping his head toward the wraparound porch balusters. Some leaned inward, some outward. Some were missing entirely. “Thought I could fix those up for you. I brought nails, sandpaper, and paint. Wasn’t sure what you’d have on hand.”

The pucker around her lips softened just a hair, and her shoulders relaxed a smidgen. “That’s kind of you, but we’re managing. I wouldn’t want to delay you from whatever business brought you this way in the first place.”

“My business is complete. And before you ask,” he said, holding up his hand as if he could hear her next argument, “my boss agreed to let Jonah and me take a few days off before heading back to San Antonio. I wired him this morning.”

Kate’s arms uncrossed completely, and a hint of a smile curled her mouth. “Mr. Brooks is coming too?” She glanced behind her toward the house, as if thinking about how that news might affect someone inside. Like the sassy headmistress who’d opted to let Kate handle guard duty on her own.

“Yep.” It was going to be interesting to see how things played out between those two later today. “He’ll be here in a bit. He mentioned something about repairing a wagon axle.”

Kate’s smile faded. “I know it needs work, but we don’t have the funds to cover that expense right now. It’ll have to wait.”

Mark grew serious. He climbed two of the four porch steps. “I’m not sure it can, Kate. Not if you want to ensure the children’s safety. I’ll cover the cost. Think of it as an investment in Sarah’s future.”

“I can’t take your money, Mark. It feels too much like taking advantage of our past friendship.”

Was that what she called it? Friendship? In his mind it had been a lot more.

“This is a charitable organization, isn’t it?” he pressed. “One funded by donations?”

“Yessss,” she hedged, obviously not wanting to go down the road he was steering her toward but unable to refute his logic.

He took the third step then the last. Watched her blue eyes lift to follow him. His heart kicked in his chest as he drew nearer. When he finally stood with her on equal footing, her head tipped back in order to hold his gaze. A gaze currently absorbing the beauty of her face. Sky-blue eyes framed by long auburn lashes. Slender nose that turned up just enough to be adorable. A delicate jawline that invited a man’s hand to cup her cheek, and a chin that attested to her determined nature. Until yesterday, he’d never thought to see this face again. What a tragedy that would have been.

Mark grabbed hold of the banister to keep from reaching for the woman in front of him. “Consider any work and expenses incurred by either Jonah or myself over the next few days a donation.”

“But . . .”

“If it makes you feel better,” he said with a waggle of his brows and a mischievous grin, “I’ll let you reimburse us with two home-cooked meals a day.”

She shook her head. “I swear, Mark Wallace, you could convince a tree stump to uproot and move to a different yard with that smile of yours.”

His grin widened. “Is that a yes?”

“I suppose, but I won’t have you traipsing around the house uninvited and disrupting the children’s lessons. Eliza’s liable to take a rolling pin to your skull if you interfere with her teaching.” Her arms crossed again, as if she’d decided to retrieve her armor. “Besides, we are two single women responsible for the raising of children and reliant on the good opinion of potential donors. I know the cost of a damaged reputation, and while I was happy to pay the price when I was the only one to suffer the consequences, I won’t put Eliza or the children at risk. They have to come first, Mark.”

The weight of those words slid over him like a leaden blanket, but he accepted it willingly. She hadn’t let him rescue her from scandal a decade ago, but he could take steps to ensure he didn’t endanger her reputation in the present.

Placing his hand on his chest, he said, “You have my word, Kate. Jonah and I will remain outside at all times unless invited in for a specific repair. We can eat on the porch steps like any other hired hands, and if we need to speak with one of you, we’ll knock and await your pleasure.” He pulled his hand down and extended it to her. “Deal?”

She eyed his hand for a long moment, then slowly untangled her arms and slid her palm into his. “Deal.”

The moment their skin touched, something jerked in his gut. Rather like a loose peg driven back into its proper place by the firm swing of a carpenter’s hammer. Shock waves rippled out from his core to shiver along his extremities as his attention riveted on her eyes. They widened ever so slightly when his fingers closed around hers, as if she too had felt the tremor.

He’d thought he’d made his peace with leaving Kate behind all those years ago. Thought the hole inside him had been filled with the purpose he’d found in military service and in the brotherhood forged with the Horsemen. He’d never felt like anything was missing.

Until now.

Kate drew out his protective instincts like no other, but he wasn’t the naïve kid he’d been the last time he’d seen her. He remembered the sting of her rejection far too well to get carried away by the excitement of seeing her again. He’d test the waters, see where this reconnection led, but he wouldn’t make the mistake of handing his heart to her on a silver platter again, not unless she offered hers first.

An hour later, Mark had dismantled much of the railing on the east side of the wraparound porch. He’d extracted the weakest spindles, leaving more than a dozen gaps in the railing. He needed to inspect each one for rot. See how many could be salvaged and how many would require replacements.

As he examined one spindle missing a hefty chunk of wood from around the nail hole, the sound of a door opening brought his head up. Running a sleeve over his forehead to wipe away the sweat that had accumulated from laboring in the morning sun, Mark straightened in anticipation of seeing Kate. Who else could it be? The children wouldn’t be released from their lessons until noon when they took a break for lunch.

Yet it seemed a pupil had escaped, for instead of the lovely Kate rounding the corner, Abner strode down the porch, a glass of water sloshing slightly in his hand.

“I finished my reading early, so Miss Katherine asked me to bring you a drink.”