A watery sob escaped her. "I'm afraid." "Will you let me try to help you? I learned a lot watching my friend."
She hiccuped. "I dunno. What if?" "No what ifs, Katie. You can do it. You can. All you have to say is yes."
Katie swallowed thickly and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I wanna learn to read," she said quietly.
Tess felt a sense of accomplishment and pride and love so big, she couldn't believe it. Smiling, she ruffled Katie's hair. "Come on, kiddo, we better get back to the house before your daddy and sister call out the National Guard."
"The what?"
Laughing, Tess got to her feet and brushed the burrs and grass stalks from her skirt. Together, hand in hand, they walked back to the house.
Chapter Fourteen
High overhead, the hot sun peeked through a layer of cottony clouds. The sapphire-blue sky melted into the equally blue Straits, its watercolor wash broken only by the huge green hump of Vancouver Island.
Jack poured a bucket of water into the long metal trough. At the splash, sheep turned in unison and herded together, moving in a huge dirty white bubble toward him. He shoved the hat back on his head and reached down, grabbing the empty pails. Buckets clanking, he walked down the gravelly dirt path toward home. "Hey, Jack!"
Jack yanked his head up and looked at the road above
the farm. A wagon was rumbling past in a cloud of dust.
Jack forced a thin smile and waved back. Damn, he'd
forgotten that the Hannahs were coming today with the
supplies he'd ordered.
It wasn't surprising that he'd forgotten. He'd been sort of ... unfocused today. No matter how much he tried to bury himself in work, he hadn't been able to concentrate. Hadn't been able to forget. The kiss.
He groaned, feeling again the wave of desire and need that had coursed through his body as her moist, tempting lips had touched his. The kiss had been ... special. He couldn't think of any other way to put it. Like Amarylis
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and yet unlike her. Crazily, he thought it was like the woman she'd become recently?caring, tender, loving. Like Lissa.
Jesus, he was starting to lose his mind.
"Shit," he cursed softly, his fingers tightening involuntarily around the thin metal handles.
All morning he'd reminded himself of who she was and what she was doing. Over and over again he'd told himself it was simply another game, another ploy to ultimately hurt him and the kids.
But, God help him, this time he couldn't make himself believe the damning words. Every time he thought of the cruel things she'd done in the past, he saw her as she was now. Laughing, smiling, standing up to that old battle-ax at the school, throwing burnt biscuits, kissing Caleb's tummy.
Maybe. It was that word, and everything it represented, that kept tangling up his mind. Maybe she really had forgotten the old hatreds, the old wounds. Maybe this time it was all real. Maybe ...
He said under his breath, "Christ, don't let me believe it unless it's true."
Tess heard the unmistakable thud of running feet, and paused in her work. Wiping her sweaty hands on her apron, she went to the kitchen window and peeked outside.
Jack was running toward the house. She let the curtain fall back in place and nervously rewiped her hands.
She hadn't talked to Jack since yesterday. Since she'd kissed him. They'd sat across from each other at supper, each silent and thoughtful, then Jack had bolted from the house and disappeared in the barn. Not surprisingly, he'd stayed there until long after Tess went to bed, and left the house before she wakened this morning.
She'd wanted to talk to him. She'd even thought about
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