The only trepidation came when she stood on the front stoop of the Barnes home and raised her hand to knock. A hummingbird took flight in her stomach, and the arm that had swung so purposely at her side a moment before now quivered with uncertainty.
Would he refuse to see her, as she had done him? What if he sent her away?
“Don’t back out now, Eden,” she whispered under her breath. Then, before any other questions could pop up to plague her, she rapped her knuckles against the door.
Mercifully, Georgia answered quickly. Eden had barely exhaled two steadying breaths before the door opened.
“Eden?” Georgia’s gaze moved up and down taking in her bedraggled state, the woman’s brows knitting together more tightly the longer she stared. “Has something happened?” She glanced past Eden’s shoulder at the buggy-less yard. “Goodness, girl. Did you walk all the way out here from town?”
“Yes.” Eden swallowed. “I need to speak to Levi. Is he here? It’s a rather pressing matter.”
Georgia pulled the door wide and gestured for Eden to enter. “He’s here. Fool man’s been out back choppin’ wood as if winter hadn’t already bowed out to spring.” She shook her head. “He’s nearly worked through that pile of mesquite Claude cleared off the north acreage last fall. I’m worried he’ll take after my peach trees next. I may have to ask Claude to hide the ax.”
Eden managed to smile at the jest, but Georgia must have seen the anxiety in her eyes, for she steered her toward a small parlor to the right. “Have a seat, honey. I’ll go fetch him for you. Might take him a few minutes to wash up, but I’ll let him know it’s important.”
“No. Please don’t trouble yourself. I’ll go find him.” She couldn’t stand the thought of sitting still and waiting for him to come. It would be too easy for him to have her sent away. If she caught him unaware, he might be more inclined to listen. Besides, she doubted he had told Claude and Georgia all the details of his past. And if he hadn’t, she didn’t want to risk one of them accidentally overhearing their conversation. Perhaps they would handle the truth better than she had, but she’d made things difficult enough for Levi without running the chance of his landlord evicting him due to his felonious past.
Georgia gave her another odd look, but she didn’t argue. “All right, then. Come through the kitchen. I’ll fix up a glass of water for you to take out to him.” She gave Eden another raised-brow inspection. “Looks like you could use one, too.”
This time, Eden’s smile curved with more enthusiasm. “Thank you, Georgia,” she said as she reached up to tidy her hair. “That sounds wonderful.” She didn’t have time to do much more than reposition a few pins, but at least the twist she had fashioned that morning no longer flopped around like one of Ornery’s ears.
Accepting the filled water glasses, Eden headed out to the porch, stealing a sip from hers as she proceeded across the yard. The cool liquid refreshed her parched throat and gave her dry mouth some much-needed moisture. She followed the loud cracks of wood splitting, navigating the hard-packed path that led to the barn. After circling the side, she caught sight of Levi standing over the chopping stump. He’d shed his shirt, draping it atop the corral post near the lean-to that sheltered a stack of firewood that already reached the low roof. She couldn’t imagine where he planned to fit all the pieces that were strewn on the ground at his feet.
As she watched, he grasped a large log and dropped it onto the stump. He raised the ax, and Eden’s mouth dried again at the play of muscles across his back and shoulders. So strong, yet so controlled. He was no brute. He was beautiful.
Not even the scars detracted. They made her heart throb in sympathy over the pain he had endured, but they no longer darkened her opinion of him. God used those stripes to humble him, Levi had said in his letter, so that he would be receptive to the prison chaplain’s message. How could she not love them as a part of this faithful man who had won her heart?
And how could she put off for another minute what her heart urged her to say?
After he swung a second time to split the log, Eden stepped closer. Taking a breath, and praying for guidance, she parted her lips. “Levi?”
He straightened from his bent position, his movements so slow Eden felt each second tick by. A chunk of split wood dangled from his left hand, the ax hung suspended in his right, but he did not turn to face her.
“I brought you some water.” She extended the glass to him even though he couldn’t see it. Recognizing the foolishness of the gesture, she pulled her arm back.
“Please, Levi?” she begged. “Please look at me.”
With a flick of his wrist, he flung the wood aside. Then, with measured deliberateness, he set the ax head on the ground and leaned the handle against the chopping stump. Only then did he turn.
Chapter Thirty-One
Levi steeled himself as he bent to set the ax down. That voice. The voice from his dreams. It cut through him with bittersweet agony. Why had she come? She’d communicated her distaste quite clearly that morning. Yet here she was, pleading with him to look at her. Determined to hide his turmoil, he schooled his features into the stoic mask he’d perfected while in prison and slowly turned to face her.
“Would you care for a drink?” She held out a glass of water to him.
Levi stared at her. What was her game? And why did she have to look so pretty with her cheeks flushed and stray curls falling loose about her face?
He raised an eyebrow at her in question but made no move to take the glass from her. She bit her lip, straightened her shoulders, and took a step toward him.
“You’ve been working hard,” she said. Her gaze traveled from his face to his chest. The pink in her cheeks deepened, yet her eyes didn’t skitter away. “Take the water.”
A perverse part of him wanted to ignore her offering, to make things as uncomfortable for her as she’d made them for him, but his heart wouldn’t allow it. He took hold of the glass, careful not to let his fingers touch hers, and lifted it to his lips. He gulped down the contents in a single guzzle, not noticing whether the water was warm or cool, sweet or bitter. He just drank to get it done, then set it aside on the chopping stump.
Eden timidly sipped at her glass, then set it on the stump next to his. She had trouble meeting his eyes—her gaze kept straying to his torso. It was good to know he wasn’t the only one affected by the attraction that continued to hum between them despite the emotional distance that now pushed them apart.
But then, what good was attraction without love to lend it depth and meaning? Levi paced to the corral fence and grabbed his shirt. He poked his arms into the sleeves but only fastened a couple of buttons before crossing his arms over his chest.
“You didn’t come all the way out here to bring me water. What do you want?”
She flinched at his brusque tone. “I want to talk.”
Levi blew out an impatient breath. “I think you made your opinion clear already. Go home, Eden. And don’t worry. I won’t bother you anymore.” He unlaced his arms and turned away to pick up a new log.
“But I want you to bother me!”
What?
Eden lunged forward and seized his wrist. Too stunned to protest, he offered no resistance as she yanked him around to face her and pressed his back against the slatted fence. “You don’t have to say anything. Just listen, all right? When I’m finished, if you still want nothing to do with me, I’ll honor your wishes.”
His wishes? Wasn’t she the one who wanted nothing to do with him?
“Will you hear me out?”
How could he not with those green eyes pleading with him? Levi nodded, feeling as if he’d just exposed his wounds and handed her a bucket of salt.
She retreated a step, staring at the ground as she wrapped her arms around her middle. “I’m ashamed of the way I’ve treated you the last few days, Levi.”
His heart gave an involuntary leap, but he quickly restrained it. Hope would only flay his wounds wider.
Ede
n’s chin lifted. “I’m sorry.”
Her eyes shimmered, but he hardened himself. He leaned back against the fence, giving no visual clues to whether he accepted or rejected her apology, though he’d forgiven her in his heart before she ever walked up the road. His control was too threadbare. He couldn’t risk letting it slip completely. She’d told him he didn’t have to talk, and he’d never been happier to keep his trap shut.
The expectation that had lit Eden’s face dissipated at his continued silence, and a nearly imperceptible sigh slid from her lips. Then all at once, she dropped her hands to her sides and stiffened her spine.
“I was engaged to be married once,” she blurted.
The change of topic caught him so by surprise he forgot to guard his reaction.
She must have caught a glimpse of the fevered curiosity he struggled to tamp down, for she plunged ahead with her explanation.
“Over five years ago. Before I left Austin.” Roses bloomed in Eden’s cheeks again, and she glanced down, kicking at the stump with the toe of her shoe. “He worked for my father,” she said. “That’s how we met.”
Levi braced his elbows on the top fence rail and propped a bootheel on the lowest. Acting indifferent was killing him. The very idea of Eden married to another man tore at his gut. He’d suspected there was a beau in Eden’s past after Verna mentioned a fellow in Austin, but hearing that the two had planned to wed was torture. Another man holding her, touching her, kissing her . . .
“Stephen Hartshorn was handsome and refined and had a way about him that always put me at ease.”
Levi hated him already.
“He took me to the finest restaurants and escorted me about town in a fancy carriage that all my friends envied. Everyone gushed about how fortunate I was to have such an eligible gentleman paying court to me. And I believed them. I was young and fancied myself in love, so when Stephen proposed, I begged Father to accept on my behalf.
“Everything progressed like a dream after that. Mother hired a team of seamstresses to create a sophisticated wedding gown fashioned after the latest Paris styles. She sent invitations to all the political and social elite Austin had to offer and spent days finalizing the menu while Stephen escorted me to events and showed me off to his friends and family. I was caught up in a delightful whirlwind. I had no control over where we spun but was too happy with the ride to care.”
Eden gazed off toward the hills to the south, a rueful expression twisting her lips. “Stephen left a week before the wedding.”
His casual stance forgotten, Levi jerked away from the fence. “What do you mean, he left?”
She shrugged. “He received a better offer.”
A better offer? What could possibly entice a man to leave a gal like Eden? No better offer existed.
“From what my father told me later, he overheard Stephen bragging to some of his cohorts on the success of his coup. The eighteen months he’d invested in winning my hand was about to pay dividends. As Spencer’s son-in-law, he’d no doubt be named partner within the year.”
Levi angled his body back toward the corral and gripped the top rail in both hands, squeezing the wood so tightly, splinters dug into his palms. He wanted to hit something. Hard. Preferably something named Stephen Hartshorn, but he’d have to settle for strangling a fence rail instead.
“Unbeknownst to Mother or me, Father met with Stephen privately to determine for himself where the man’s heart resided. He gave Stephen a choice—he could marry me and continue on as a clerk in Father’s local land-development firm, or he could leave Austin a single man with a pocketful of earnest money to start his own business elsewhere. He chose the money. He didn’t even care enough to tell me good-bye.”
The wretch. Levi grimaced and forced himself to release the fence. As he slammed his back against the post and started pulling the splinters from his palms, he saw Eden reach for her water glass and take a drink. Her hand trembled slightly, as if the retelling of the tale had shaken her.
He wanted to go to her, comfort her. But before he could do more than lean forward, she set the glass down on the stump and cleared her throat. She finally looked him in the face, and the naked vulnerability in her eyes pinned him to the post.
“Stephen wasn’t the man I thought him to be.”
The quiet statement hit him like an uppercut to the chin. “I’m not either, am I?”
No wonder she’d pushed him away. To her, he was no better than that Hartshorn fellow.
“When I came to Spencer, I left all hope of marriage behind,” she said, neatly avoiding his question. “I made peace with being a spinster and found purpose in operating the library and reaching out to the town’s children. Then you came along and stirred feelings inside me I was afraid to explore.”
Levi’s heart thumped an uneven rhythm, and he couldn’t seem to take in a full breath.
“As I came to know you better,” Eden continued, “I started to believe that you represented everything I’d ever wanted—a man of faith who held fast to his convictions, a man of peace who despised violence as much as I did, a man who loved literature and could expound on philosophical ideas, a man with a tender heart who would go out of his way to help the unfortunate.”
Eden stepped closer, and suddenly Levi was the one trembling.
“I put you on a pedestal. And when I read that letter, my image of you tumbled from its perch and shattered. How could I love a prizefighter, a felon, a man who had taken the life of another?”
“You couldn’t.” The words choked him, nearly tearing a hole in his throat.
“That’s what I told myself. But I was wrong, Levi.” She took another step and touched his arm. His bicep jumped at the feel of her fingers through the thin cotton of his sleeve, while his pulse jumped at the impact of her words. She was wrong?
“I’ve been hardhearted and selfish these last few days.” Her lashes lowered over her eyes, as if she was too ashamed to hold his gaze. “You’ve been nothing but honest, honorable, and kind, yet I lashed out in the most hurtful ways.”
Finally those lashes lifted to reveal shimmering pools of green. “God reminded me today that you are no longer the man you described in that letter. You are a man redeemed. I came here to beg your forgiveness.”
She inhaled a tremulous breath, and he found himself holding his.
“I’m so sorry, Levi. So, so sorry.” Her voice closed up and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Levi couldn’t stop himself from reaching for her. His heart was too full. He clasped her face between both of his hands and tilted her head up to meet his kiss. His lips descended on hers. As if a dam had burst, all the feelings he’d worked so hard to restrain suddenly burst forth. He’d thought her lost to him, but here she stood, clutching his arm and returning his kiss with a sweetness he’d only dreamed existed. Levi stroked her damp cheeks with his thumbs and burrowed his fingers into the hair at her nape. He angled his face to deepen their connection, and when Eden made a tiny mewling noise in the back of her throat, exultation coursed through his veins.
She leaned into him. His left hand relinquished the softness of her face to caress her back and draw her closer to his heart. Her fingers twined in the short curls at his neck. He swallowed a moan as delicious shivers scampered over his skin. Kissing Eden was like tasting a miracle. He never wanted it to end.
Good sense and an increasingly adamant conscience prevailed, however. Levi gently pulled away, pressing his lips to her eyelids and forehead before completely letting go. He watched her breathe, her mouth slightly swollen. And when her lashes lifted, her dewy eyes looked up at him in a daze that filled him with masculine satisfaction.
A small sigh passed her lips. “Does this mean you forgive me?”
Laughter burst from Levi’s chest, and he tugged Eden back into his embrace, holding her close as giggles claimed her, as well. Loving this woman was either going to kill him or make his life richer than he’d ever imagined.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The following morning, while adding the finishing touches to her pressed flower design, Eden hummed a Stephen Foster tune about a cheery maiden frolicking in the fields. For the first time in days, the sight of the wedding bouquet brought a smile to her heart instead of a pang of bitterness.
Levi had forgiven her. Not only that, he had kissed her—kissed her like a man kisses a woman he intends to wed. At least she assumed that’s how a man with strong feelings kissed. The only other man who had ever put his lips to hers was the one who’d jilted her, and while he’d initially had marrying intentions, his brief pecks had been too tame to stir more than a tepid reaction from her. Levi’s kiss, on the other hand, had stolen her breath and set her heart to palpitating at such a rate she’d feared she’d succumb to a fit of the vapors. Thankfully, she’d remained conscious and blissfully aware of every delicious second of Levi’s embrace.
Eden’s cheeks grew warm at the memory, and she fanned herself with her hand. His lips had felt so wonderful against hers, soft and tender; yet they’d moved with an urgency that had her pulse fluttering more erratically than an autumn leaf caught in a whirlwind. And when she’d finally worked up the nerve to bury her fingers in those thick curls of his? Ah. Perfect was too poor a word to describe it.
Realizing she had stopped humming while her mind wandered, Eden cleared her throat and started the song again as she refocused on the task before her. Her toe tapped out the melody’s jaunty beat while she applied a layer of glue across the gathered stems and pressed a strip of pink ribbon onto the surface. Eden held it in place, and while it dried, her humming gave way to singing.
“Fairy-Belle, gentle Fairy-Belle,
The star of the night and the lily of the day.
Fairy-Belle, the queen of all the dell,
Long may she revel on her bright sunny way.”