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He took his hat off and repositioned it. “I stopped by the land office before I headed out of town and told them where to find me if anyone came looking to buy the place. With luck, I’ll be able to use the money for some land here in Willow Creek.”
“Your ma will be pleased to hear it. She was scared you weren’t ever going to come back.”
“I would have eventually.”
“Your ma wanted you home for good, not to be passing through.”
Tension stirred the air and he and Noah both felt it. He cleared his throat and said, “I headed north when I left Great Falls and found myself in Fort Benton. Stayed a few nights and set off again.”
“And the girl? Where did you meet her?”
“Silver Falls. I found the town by accident. I had to swing around the mountain and it was tucked down beneath the sight of a waterfall. It reminded me a lot of Willow Creek when we first got here. Everyone knew who everyone was. Only spent a day there, though. I was asked to leave, more or less.”
“Asked to leave? By who? And why?”
Aaron snorted a laugh and scratched at the whiskers coming in on his jaw. “Well, I shot the man who called himself MorningDove’s husband and the marshal made sure I would be on my way come morning.”
Noah’s head whipped around to where he stood, eyes wide. “You did what?”
“Don’t worry, he lived.” Aaron patted the horse on the neck. “Although some days I wish he hadn’t.”
“You shot a man and stole his wife?”
Aaron huffed a breath. “Hell, no. What sort of man do you think I am?”
“A hot-headed one who acts before he thinks.”
He had him there. He was all those things and more. “They weren’t really married. Him and a few other men killed her family and he kept her. When they arrived in Silver Falls he told everyone she was his wife.” The things Morning Dove had told him about that old man filled his head and heated his blood all over again.
“He was a dirty old man who took in a young girl, had his way with her when she was too young to even know what was happening, and basically made a slave out of her. The day I met her, she’d caught me staring at her on the sidewalk. I apologized but the look on her face—“ He shook his head. “I don’t know what made me stop, but I did.” He told the story to Noah and when he was done, Noah made a soft grunting noise that he took as some odd sort of approval. Noah had done almost the same thing years ago when his uncle found them and stole everything Noah had and taken them with him. The sound of his ma screaming and Sophie Ann crying as Robert tried to shoot them still haunted him at times and Noah had beat Robert senseless for it.
They stabled the horse, the wind whistling through the rotten boards in the barn again. Aaron looked toward the roof and sighed. “You got the wood to fix those holes?”
Noah didn’t answer.
“I’ll fix it tomorrow if you do.” He looked over and caught Noah staring at him. “What?”
“You don’t have to come home and start doing all the things you hate just to try and please me.”
“I’m not. I should have helped when you asked me too instead of …” He sighed and met Noah’s gaze head-on. “I’m sorry. You’ll never know how sorry I am. I never should have … I don’t even know why I reacted the way I did. I guess the allure of joining the Avery’s cattle drive outweighed common sense.”
“We all make mistakes, Aaron. No one is going to think less of you because of the choices you made, least of all me. I’ve made more than my share over the years, too.”
Betsey’s tear-streaked face filled his mind’s eye and he wasn’t so sure the mistakes he made with her could be so easily overlooked, nor that ache in his chest every time he thought of her. It had taken him months to realize why he’d run so fast and far to get away. Why he’d ignored her tears and left without a backward glance.
He’d fallen in love with her and it scared the hell out of him. It still did, truth be known. Loving her meant things would progress and put him in a place he’d never seen himself at. Married with a family and a whole lot of responsibility he didn’t want to have but those long months away made his heart ache with longing with each passing day. The need to see her, gnawing at him until he thought he’d go crazy with the wanting and now that he was back, the need to run to her place was like a constant drumbeat in his head, telling him to run as fast as he could and beg her to forgive him. But, Noah may have forgiven him with nothing more than a pitiful, “I’m sorry,” but he didn’t think Betsey would. He’d hurt her too deeply. Knew it the moment he’d yelled those hateful words at her and saw the first tear fall. He had groveling to do and he wasn’t sure anything he said would ever be enough. She may never forgive him. He might never forgive himself either.
He’d been running from responsibilities he didn’t want so, he headed out of town so he didn’t have to deal with any of it. It had been a mistake. The entire past year of his life had been one big mistake after another.
Someone called them into supper and Aaron followed Noah to the house, putting thoughts of Betsey out of his mind. He’d have time to work out how to properly grovel at her feet later but right now, he was near starved.
The house hadn’t changed much, if any, since he’d been there last. The sitting room, which had once been the entirety of the original one-room cabin, was still homey and warm, the hallway jutting off from the room dark as the sun began to lower in the sky.
Sophie Ann was in the dining room setting down plates and silverware. The house smelled of fried chicken but he didn’t see it amongst the bowls of food on the table. He headed that way and saw Morning Dove by the entrance to the kitchen. When she spotted him, relief flooded her face. Being thrust into a house full of strangers left the strain of anxiety on her he could see from across the room but now her body seemed to deflate a bit, the tension in her limbs relaxing.
His mother swept past Morning Dove and laid a platter of that fried chicken he’d been smelling on the table. His stomach rumbled at the sight. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a full, decent meal.
“Come sit down, everyone.” His mother motioned for Morning Dove to sit. Once she’d settled, Aaron slid into the chair beside her.
