Free Sudden Storms by Marcia Lynn McClure Page A

when I’m just bathed, ain’t that right, girl?” he asked as he motioned for Rivers to follow him as he started back toward the others.
    The refreshing shower ended quickly, however. By the time they were all in the wagon, the sun was shining bright and high in the sky. This time returning home, Jolee sat with Weston as he drove the team, and Rivers found herself next to Paxton in the wagon bed.
    Paxton stretched his arms along the sideboards of the wagon and breathed deeply. “Ain’t nothin’ like a quick shower to freshen up your mood, right?”
    “I’m drenched,” Rivers mumbled, a chill causing her to shiver slightly.
    “Ya do look like a drowned kitten, now that ya mention it,” Paxton chuckled as he studied her from head to toe.
    “I think you owe me an explanation,” Rivers blurted.
    “About what?”
    “About Ruby Dupree, and why she left you at the altar and why you still pine away after her,” she said abruptly.
    His amused smile faded then, his eyes narrowing as he looked at her. “I don’t owe you no such thing, girl,” he growled in a low voice.
    “Yes. You do,” Rivers argued. “I’m staying here at your request, remember?”
    “You’re stayin’ here ’cause ya got nowhere else to go, remember?” he spat.
    Rivers looked away from him and muttered, “You’re right. Forgive me.”
    “I ain’t told nobody the whole story, girl. Weston knows a tale or two of it, but not the whole thing. I went to her daddy about two weeks ’fore we were supposed to get married and told him I couldn’t marry Ruby,” Paxton confessed in barely a whisper.
    Rivers looked at him quickly. “I wasn’t in love with her. That’s the meat of it. Then there was her mother…” he added, pausing.
    “She’s…she’s mad?” Rivers asked. “Were you afraid that Ruby might inherit the insanity?”
    Paxton shook his head. “Wouldn’t have mattered to me if I had really been in love with her. I would’ve married her anyway. It was…well, her mother…” He sighed exasperated. “Dang it all, Rivers…I’m confessin’ to ya here! Quit readin’ things in. I didn’t love the girl! I thought I did—thought I should. But I couldn’t. Believe me, I tried. But when I told her daddy I was backin’ out…well, they left that very night. They hired some folks in town to pack up their house and move their belongin’s for them. Nobody heard a word from ’em…until now, I guess.” He looked at her, and Rivers was shocked at the expression on his face. An expression of guilt and shame. “Ya see, I done her wrong.”
    “Marrying her when you didn’t love her would’ve been wrong, Paxton,” Rivers assured him.
    “Yeah? Well, you didn’t see the look on her face when she walked in havin’ overheard what I told her daddy,” he grumbled.
    But Rivers could all too well imagine what Ruby felt and how she had looked when she’d heard she had lost Paxton Gray. All too well did she hold an unspoken kinship with the woman.
    She pressed her fingers to her lips, trying to smooth away the delightful sensation of his kiss lingering upon them. But it didn’t help. She doubted anything ever would.
    Paxton and Weston were unhitching the team when Jolee said to Rivers, “I want to check on Mary Belle, Rivers. Her udder was in sorry shape when I milked her this mornin’. Come with me, will ya?”
    Rivers nodded and followed Jolee into the barn and toward the cow. “That was a nice piece of refreshment for us, wasn’t it?” Jolee asked, kneeling down beside the animal.
    “The storm? Oh yes,” Rivers agreed.
    Jolee giggled. “Well, that’s not exactly what I meant, Rivers. But the storm was nice, too.”
    “Her udder still looks a bit irritated,” Rivers answered, kindly patting the cow on the back.
    “While we’re out here,” Jolee said, standing, “I’m lookin’ for that little hatchet of Paxton’s.” She began rooting through some tools in a wooden box near the stall.
    “Oh, I’ve seen it!”