AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Adam frowned. “For what?”
It took the man a minute. He wasn’t one for words, so Adam patiently waited.
“I was lost for a long time. When my wife died, I didn’t handle it well. She’d been everything to me and when she was gone…well…”
Adam nodded. He could imagine all too well how it would feel to lose the love of your life, what you might do if you found yourself suddenly facing decades without the person who made your world turn round.
Mr. Schumacher cleared his throat again. “Nora was still so young. But she stepped up, took on all the responsibility, took care of everything. She made it look so easy. Nothing ever seems to fluster her. She just deals with whatever needs doing. It made it easy, I guess, for me to just let her put everything on her shoulders.”
He rubbed his forehead, his pain and regret palpable. “I didn’t realize what kind of toll it was taking on her until you came along, until I started seeing her smiling again, enjoying life, that I started realizing how long it had been since I’d seen her that way. It woke me up,” he said, finally looking at Adam with a small smile.
“Then watching you start to fix the place up, seeing how happy it made her to have you helping her…made me realize how much I’d put on her. How little I’d done to help and how much I’d been doing to make it worse.”
Adam wanted to stop him, tell him it was all right, but the man clearly needed to get it all off his chest. So Adam just waited and listened.
“Then that night, that night you left to draw out the lawman.” His jaw clenched so hard it made a popping noise, and Adam briefly closed his eyes. He’d never forgive himself for the things he’d said to her that night, for what he’d done to her. Even if she’d forgiven him.
Her father blew out a long breath. “I’d never seen her cry before that night. Not ever. Even after her mother died. She was always so strong. To see her cry like that…it broke something in me. I should have been able to protect her. Maybe if I hadn’t been so…if I’d been better…I could have helped. I could have done something so that you wouldn’t have had to…do what you did.” He took a deep breath again and blew it out. “I don’t ever want to see her like that again. Anyone ever makes her feel like that again and I’ll deal with them,” he said, pinning Adam with a stare that he had no trouble mistaking.
“She’ll never feel another ounce of pain if I can prevent it,” Adam said. “I swear it.”
Mr. Schumacher nodded. “Good.” He clapped a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. Maybe a little harder than necessary.
“Anyhow. I just wanted to say thank you. For helping to open my eyes. For being there for my daughter when I couldn’t be. For making her happy since then.”
Adam nodded. “It’s my great pleasure.”
Mr. Schumacher just nodded and left to go back to his chores.
Nora came to stand beside Adam, sliding her arm around his waist so she could lay her head on his shoulder.
“Husband,” she said, giving him a smile that warmed his very soul.
“Wife.” He leaned down and gave her a lingering kiss.
She looked out over the gardens with their new fences, the new paddock behind the barn, and the potting shed he’d built. “You know, you’re getting surprisingly good at building things. Mr. Vernice would be proud.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know if I agree with the surprising part, but thank you. Practice makes perfect, I suppose.”
“That’s true. You’ve actually managed to make several pies now without burning down the kitchen.”
He gave her a mock glare. “Keep teasing and I’ll stop making them.”
She held up her hands. “I won’t say another word.”
Her father crossed the yard toward the barn and waved at them along his way.
A loud crack echoed through the air, and Adam and Nora jumped, looking toward the garden just in time to see a bright blue ribbon fluttering in the opposite direction of a cracked fence post.
“Damn it, Lucille!” Mr. Schumacher took off after the errant goat, shouting curses at it until he and the goat had disappeared down the lane.
Nora and Adam held on to each other and laughed until their sides hurt. Then Adam pulled her close and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“How much did you hear?” Adam asked. “Before Lucille showed up, that is.”
“Most of it.” She snuggled closer to him. “He’s going to be all right, isn’t he?” she said, smiling up at him.
“Yeah. I think he will be.”
He leaned down to give her a soft kiss, and she sighed, hugging him tighter.
“Now, what was that you were saying about something being your great pleasure?” she asked, looking up at him with a suggestive smile.
“Oh, that. Well, I was talking about how making you happy was my great pleasure…or maybe it was that giving you great pleasure is what made me happy…” He frowned, tilting his head as he pretended to think about it. “You know, I think it’ll be easier if I just show you.”
He bent and tossed her onto his shoulder, grinning as she squealed out a laugh. Matrimony had never felt so sweet.
