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Kathleen’s hand froze for just a fraction of a second before continuing with her task. “Wherever did you hear that name?”
“Uncle Wade keeps using it.” He pointed a chubby little finger at his uncle.
This time his sister shot him a look, but didn’t have time to respond as Danielle apparently had already come to her own conclusion. “I think she’s Uncle Wade’s imaginary friend. He said she was mysterious. Sometimes he talks to her, but there is no one there but us and Peter.”
Kathleen tried hard to hide the laughter in her eyes from her children. “I suppose you would have to ask Uncle Wade.”
Annoyed, Wade sighed heavily and shrugged out of his heavy winter coat. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Mother, I think Uncle Wade is lonely because he doesn’t have a wife so that’s why he made up an imaginary friend,” Danielle stated with all sincerity.
Kathleen looked stunned by her daughter’s maturity, however Wade felt himself growing annoyed. “No Danielle, I do not have an imaginary friend by the name of Anna. Nor am I lonely.”
“Yeah,” her young brother agreed and tugged at his mother’s hand to lead her back toward the great room. “He’s got Peter.”
Chapter 16
The months that followed were cold and long. Most of the ranch hands had no plans on returning to the ranch until the spring, since work was little next to none. Usually, there were a few who had no other home outside the Circle H so waited out the long winter in the bunkhouse. However, that year all the wranglers had found either employment or substitute lodgings. Even Kim Whong took advantage of Anna’s presence and decided to visit family in Vancouver.
Anna would have surely gone insane with boredom if she hadn’t wandered past the reading room one winter morning. She was surprised to hear Wade call out to her from within. “Anna, would you bring me a cup of coffee, please.”
Upon her return with the requested drink, she found him perched in one of the lush red chairs flanking the marble fireplace. He wore his usual casual attire of cotton pants and buttoned down shirt. The beard he had shaved for the Christmas ball was beginning to return quickly. Already there was a thick dark mat covering the lower half of his face. Though she was relieved to see him looking more familiar, she admitted missing the clean shaven look. He was far too handsome to cover up.
“Thank you.” He put the book in his hands down and reached out to take the steaming mug. She glanced at the book, startled to discover he had been reading.
He noticed where her attention was drawn. “Sit and keep me company.”
Nodding, she obliged and went to sit on the small chair tucked in the back corner.
“Not there.” He stopped her and gestured toward the chair next to his. “Here.”
She took the seat he offered and watched as he picked his book back up and began to read it once again. Her brow dipped and wondered why he had asked her to sit while he silently read. Her eyes fell on the book and noticed its thickness. She wondered how long he expected her to stay.
The fire was warm on her back and it brought back a memory of home. Why, she wasn’t certain as it compared nowhere close to Wade’s house. It had been small and cold and contained only two rooms. One for sleeping and one for everything else. In the winter they often never removed their coats for the cold had a nasty way of creeping into the thin walls.
Anna could remember wishing they had one of those beautiful houses built along the streets of Lantern. But her father had always said it didn’t matter the size of the home. It was the amount of love within that mattered most. She thought of her father with a glow in her heart. Along with her brother, they were the only men she ever truly loved. Of their own accord, her eyes shifted to Wade and felt her heart ache. Unlike her father, he would never return her love.
She sat there far longer than she would have liked. Quiet time had an awful way of luring memories from the past. Memories that at times, were far too painful to bear. Several hours later he finally excused her to begin the dinner meal. He smiled at her but Anna felt hollow. She shared so few solitary moments with him that she hated herself for having wasted them.
But she was given another opportunity the following day when he beckoned her into the reading room once again to sit next to him in the large red chair. As his eyes studied the words on the pages in front of him, she used the opportunity to stare at him openly. He had cut his long, thick, and wavy hair at Christmas, which admittedly emphasized his spectacular face, but for some reason Anna missed it and hoped he planned on growing it back. It was almost as if she had lost something before ever having the chance to own it. She thought how ridiculous that sounded, but couldn’t shake the loss of never being able to run her hands through its length.
“Anna?”
She blinked and realized he noticed her studying him. Embarrassed, she quickly looked away. Wade said nothing else and went back to his book. Anna felt a sense of gloom and worried her fantasies of him were growing out of hand. She already knew that she loved him dearly, but if she didn’t watch herself, she would become far too attached. Her eyes slid over to the book he was reading and her attention was drawn to the long and strong fingers holding it. They gently cupped the spine of the book and it suddenly reminded her of when he held her on the front porch on Christmas Eve. His hands had felt so big and protective on her back.
“Anna,” he said again, his voice slightly firmer this time, and put his book down. “You’re sulking. What’s wrong?”
She frowned. She wasn’t sulking.
He sighed. “If you keep your forehead wrinkled like that any longer, it may become permanent.”
Immediately, she wiped the frown from her face
and looked away. Her gaze fell on the book in his hands.
He glanced down at it as well, then back to her face. “It’s the story of a man who travels to India to track down the killer of his father.”
Her eyes shifted back to him.
