Rocky Mountain Oasis (12 page)

“Fine,” she lied. Her eyes were on him as she reached for the bacon, and she knocked over her glass of milk.

Sky’s reaction was lightning swift. He stood, his chair scraping against the floor as his knees pushed it back, and reached over her head to grab a towel off the shelf behind her. But at her reaction to his movement he froze, stunned, the milk forgotten.

Brooke, ducking down, her face almost touching the table, had curled her arms over her head, as if to protect herself from a blow. Sky sucked in a slow breath. On her forearms, revealed by her rolled-up sleeves, were criss-cross scars that looked as if they had been left there by a whip of some sort.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt like crying, but tears stung his eyes now. He wanted so badly to pull her into a comforting embrace, but he had to keep his distance if she was ever going to know that he could be trusted. Instead, he squatted down by her, one hand on the table and one hand on the back of her chair. He whispered, “Brooke?”

She didn’t move at first. The silence in the room was broken only by the steady drip of milk hitting the floor.

“Brooke.” His voice cracked with frayed emotion.

She moved this time. Uncurling herself, but not looking at him. She stared across the room at the wall.

Sky dropped his head toward the floor. He didn’t know what to say. When he felt her move, he looked up to find her teary eyes on his face. He shook his head slightly. “I was reaching for a towel. Not...” He shook his head again, his shoulders slumping. “When I think of what you must have been through in the past, Brooke, I get so...so…angry. I can’t even imagine hitting you, but someone used to hit you, didn’t they?” He gazed into her face.

She looked away, but nodded slightly.

Tears welled in his eyes. “I will tell you this. It’s not going to happen to you anymore. As long as I am alive, I am your husband, and I will do everything in my power to protect you, not harm you. You have nothing to fear from me, Brooke. I know those are just words, but I mean them from the bottom of my heart. I wish I could make you believe them, but I can’t, so I will have to show you.” He paused. “Brooke?”

She turned her eyes back to his.

“I’m sorry for your past, the way you have been treated, but it’s not going to happen in our house.” He shook his head slowly to emphasize his point. “You said something the other day, when you mentioned feeling like you’ve been living in the desert, that reminded me of a passage in the Bible. I’d like to read it to you now. Would that be all right?”

She nodded.

Getting his Bible, he opened it to the 23rd Psalm and began to read. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

He thought on what to say. “That’s not the whole Psalm. I’ll mark it so you can read the rest later if you want.” He set the Bible down on the table. When he spoke again, it was with tenderness. “Brooke, without Jesus life
is
like living in the desert. Dry and parched. But there is an oasis. You’ve had a hard life, and I’m sure there will be hard times in the future as well, but you don’t have to go through the hard times alone. I want you to remember that. I want you to allow God to lead you to those green pastures and to restore your soul. Jesus wants to bring you to a place of rest and peace. Cool green pastures with fresh water nearby.

“This is not a mirage, Brooke. What you see in me is real. It’s not going to fade away before your eyes, because what you see in me is Jesus. My love for Him won’t allow me to mistreat others, because I know how much He cares for them. He cares for
you
.” He looked deep into her eyes. “I can’t force you to turn to Him, but I want you to think about what I am saying. Will you do that for me?”

He saw tears rise in her sea-green eyes and spill over, trailing down her cheeks. She nodded. And he was surprised beyond words when she reached out her hand and let her thumb trace over his cheek bone, brushing away a tear. He hadn’t realized that his own tears had brimmed over until that moment. She let her hand fall back into her lap and turned to survey the milk-sodden table.

Sky knew no more needed to be said right now. He got up slowly and began to wipe up the spill.

7

Sharyah Jordan placed the bowl of fluffy, steaming mashed potatoes on the table and straightened the silverware for the umpteenth time.

Mama, coming in from the kitchen, smiled at her nervous actions and patted her shoulder. “The table looks fine, dear. You can’t make that knife any straighter than straight.”

True, but she wanted this meal with her brother’s best friend, Cascade Bennett, to be perfect. Sharyah grinned over her shoulder at her mother.

“There is straight, and then there is straightest.”

Rachel threw back her head and laughed even as they heard the knock on the front door.

Sharyah smoothed the front of her dress and patted her blond curls into place as best she could. Her curly hair usually had a mind of its own. “Do I look all right, Mama?” Her dark brown eyes, so much like Skyler’s, shone with anticipation.

Sean entered the dining room on his way to answer the front door. “You look wonderful dear. Any man would have to be blind not to notice how beautiful you are tonight.”

Sharyah sighed, some of the tension leaving her shoulders, and Rachel smiled. Had she ever been this distressed over having a young man come to dinner? Then she remembered the first night she had gone to dinner at Sean’s house. She had practically run in circles that night trying to make sure she looked just perfect.
Still, I was a couple of years older than sixteen then. I can’t stand to see her growing up so fast. My last baby
...

Rachel’s thoughts were cut off as Sean ushered Cade Bennett into the dining room, and Rocky entered the kitchen from the back door, having finished the nightly chores out at the barn.

“Cade, how’re you doing?” Rocky called from the kitchen sink where he had paused to wash up.

Cade, Rocky, Sky, and Jason had all been the greatest of friends—and the worst of enemies—during their maturing years. Fishing, hunting, and sports had brought them together, and it was usually a girl that drove them apart. But the bonds of friendship had been greater than the throes of infatuation, and as they grew and matured they had become very close.

Since Jason and Sky had moved away, Rocky and Cade spent every moment they could spare from their busy schedules together.
I imagine that’s how Sharyah fell for Cade. He’s been at our house so much in the last several years.
With the young man’s charm and good looks, how could a girl keep from noticing him?

Rachel was afraid, however, that Cade only saw Sharyah as a younger sister, and hoped and prayed Sharyah’s heart would not be broken too badly.

Cade removed his hat and tossed it on the hat rack in the corner. An easy gesture that said he felt at home. “Hey, Rock! Just fine. Looking forward to some of your mother’s and Sharyah’s fine cooking. I don’t get fed like this out at the ranch, you know.” His dark hair and face, deeply tanned from all the hours spent in the sun on his father’s ranch, contrasted with his twinkling, ocean-blue eyes as he glanced around at the people in the room.

Rachel laughed. Cade’s mother, Brenda, her best friend, was one of the finest cooks in the whole county. “You are a flatterer, Cade Bennett. I will admit I enjoy compliments about my cooking, but wait until I tell your mother what you said.”

A pained look crossed his face. “Ma’am, if we could keep that little comment between you, me, and the doorpost, I would greatly appreciate it.” He gave a mock shudder. “I might live a whole lot longer, too.” Rachel, Sean, and Sharyah burst out in laughter at his exaggerated, pained contrition.

When the laughter had died down and Rocky had sauntered into the room, Sean spoke up. “Have a seat, Cade.” He indicated the seat immediately to his left. To Cade’s left sat Rocky. Rachel was at the head of the table closest to the kitchen, and Sharyah sat across the table from Rocky and Cade.

They all held hands for grace and then the meal commenced with the clatter of utensils on bowls and plates and easy conversation. Rachel noticed that Sharyah hardly ever took her eyes off Cade, but he seemed oblivious.

Halfway through the meal he grinned across the table at her. “Sharyah, you are looking especially nice this evening. Do you have an admirer coming over later?” He winked at her with a teasing glint.

Sharyah blushed and shook her head.

“What’s the matter with those boys in town, Rocky? Don’t they have eyes in their heads? Why, when we were kids—” Rachel and Sean caught each other’s eyes and lifted napkins to their mouths to hide their smiles. At twenty Cade was hardly more than a kid himself—“we would have gotten into our biggest fight ever if there had been a girl as beautiful as Sharyah in our class.”

Rachel pierced Rocky with a stare. She did not want him to embarrass his sister further.

He gave her a discreet nod and made no mention of the number of boys who had indeed shown interest in Sharyah, only to be turned down. Instead, he met his sister’s warm brown eyes across the table and smiled reassuringly.

“Yeah, I guess we would have.” Then he turned the conversation away from Sharyah. “Remember the fight we all got into the day that Victoria came to town?”

“Remember? I still have the scar along my jaw where you cracked me with that uppercut! Sky and Jason—”

“I can’t believe you boys!” Rachel tossed her serviette on the table in disgust. “Still laughing and reminiscing about that day! Brenda and I were so disappointed in you, and all Sean and Smith could do was laugh after we finally got you all apart. Oh,” she threw her hands up in disgust, “that was one of the worst days of my life, seeing you boys brawling like that and over a
girl
, and here you sit laughing about it like it was one of the most exciting things you ever did. I will never understand the male species! Never!” She marched into the kitchen to get the coffee pot, but not before she glared daggers at her husband, who was busy trying to hide his smile as he stared into the bottom of his empty coffee cup.

Sharyah watched the whole exchange with a quizzical look. Rachel knew she hardly remembered the day of the fight. She’d been drawing at the kitchen table when Rachel and Brenda, Cade’s mother, had come into the kitchen crying, but she had been too young to really understand what it was all about. The boys had been ten, Jason and Sky a little older, and she had only been six at the time.

A long awkward silence enshrouded the room as Rachel refilled each coffee cup, returned the pot to the stove, and took her seat once more.

Rocky was the first to break the silence. “We got a telegram from Sky the other day, Cade. He got married.” Rocky left out all the details. He would probably fill Cade in later.

Rachel sighed. Her firstborn son had gotten married to a woman the family had never met and no one from the family had been at the wedding. No one had even known about it until afterward. To top it off, Sky’s new wife apparently wasn’t even a Christian—that was the hardest of all.

Before Cade could respond to this surprising statement, Sean broke in, “Your mother and I have been meaning to talk to you and Sharyah about this, Son. Since Cade is practically family, we can discuss it now. We feel like we should go and meet Brooke, so we want to take a couple of weeks and go out there to visit. Do you think you could handle the Sheriff’s office for a couple of weeks?” The question wasn’t necessary. Rachel and Sean both knew that their son was perfectly capable of handling any situation that might arise in his absence.

Rocky shrugged. “Sure, Dad. If anything big happens, we will leave any decisions until you get back.”

Sean nodded and then turned to Sharyah. “With school about to start, I don’t think you should make the trip with us. Do you think you could handle the household chores while your mother and I are gone?”

Sharyah began to nod when Cade spoke up. “My parents would be happy to have Rock and Sharyah stay out at our place for a couple of weeks. It would mean a little longer ride in the morning for both of you to get to town, but you’re more than welcome.”

“That would be such a relief,” Rachel said. “I worried about Sharyah trying to do her school work and the cooking and cleaning, too. That would set my mind at ease some about leaving.”

Sharyah wondered how she was going to stand staying in the same house as Cade when he didn’t even seem to notice that she existed as a woman. He treated her like a little sister! She held the threatening tears at bay and escaped to the kitchen on the pretense of filling the sugar bowl.

Sighing inwardly, she
thunked
the sugar bowl onto the counter and leaned heavily on locked elbows. She stood still for a long time, staring down with unfocused eyes. Timothy Jorgenson had come calling again, yesterday. Maybe she ought to accept his invitation to Friday night’s dance. She gave herself a shake and reached for the sugar canister.

Someday, Cade Bennett, you will see I’m a woman. I just hope I’m not old and gray by then
.