Her Heart's Desire (10 page)

“
I’d love to. I have to
admit, I love looking at the land.”

“
And better yet, my father
and brothers are in the fields, and my mother and Jenny are resting
before they have to fix lunch. So, we’ll have our
privacy.”

“
I hope you’ll let me help
when it’s time to make lunch, Sally. I didn’t just come out here to
eat and drink.”

“
I won’t turn you down,
especially since you’re a better cook than I am.”

“
Oh, you do
fine.”

“
Not as good as
you.”

“
You sell yourself short,
Sally. You cook well, but I will admit you’re better at talking to
people than I am.”

“
You talk to me without any
problems.”

“
Because you make me
comfortable. You have a way with people.”

Sally shrugged as they made
their way to the porch and sat on the swing. Perhaps, but the only
one she wanted was Rick, and he was the one person she couldn’t
seem to get. At least not yet. She didn’t think it would be so
difficult to direct his attention to her instead of Ethel Mae, but
it was. Difficult but not impossible. He planned to come see her
again, so she’d get a better idea of what was happening
then.
Patience, Sally. You can’t expect
him to fall at your feet just because he’s been out here one time.
Patience.

Chapter Seven

On Friday as Rick was on his way out
of the courthouse so he could have lunch, Judge Townsend called out
to him from where he stood a few feet from the front doors. Rick
headed over to the older man who was talking with a young
man.

“
Rick,” Townsend began,
“this is my nephew Samuel Dixon. Samuel, this is my colleague, Rick
Johnson.”

Rick blinked in surprise. “Samuel
Dixon?” He had to make sure he heard right.

“
That’s me,” Samuel said
and extended his hand for a handshake.

Rick dumbly stared at him for a moment
before shaking his hand. Samuel Dixon really existed? Vivian, Ethel
Mae and Sally hadn’t made him up? “Do you know an Ethel
Mae?”

“
As a matter of fact, I do.
How did you know?”

Rick released his hand and shrugged.
“Just a hunch.”

Townsend chuckled. “That’s some hunch
there, Rick. Who is Ethel Mae?”

Rick cleared his throat. “Her full
name is Ethel Mae Jordan, and she lives on Elwood Street. I’ve been
to her house a couple times.” Glancing at Samuel, he said, “She
rather fancies you, even if she’s pretending that she doesn’t. Your
approach of playing hard to get works.”

Samuel opened his mouth to speak, but
Townsend turned to him and said, “Rick came out here from Vermont.
His father’s a good friend of mine. We go back to childhood, and I
tell you, Rick’s the spitting image of him.”

Rick stared at Samuel, still not
believing he had misjudged Vivian the other night. He thought for
sure the girl was lying to him by the way she was acting. But
Samuel was standing right in front of him. He was tall with broad
shoulders, held himself with confidence, and possessed blond hair
and twinkling brown eyes that probably attracted many women…Ethel
Mae included. Clearing his throat, Rick asked him, “So, what do you
do?”

“
I’m actually not working
at the moment. You see, I’m only here for a short while. I’m a
business man, and I wish to establish a hotel in California. With
any luck, I’ll end up with a chain of them.”

Townsend nodded. “Samuel’s always
dreamt big. He’s on his way to being wealthy.”

“
Oh, now I wouldn’t say
that,” Samuel argued with a laugh that probably made Ethel Mae
swoon in delight.

“
You’re modest.” Townsend
patted him on the back. “You’re going places, kid. You won’t settle
for second best.”

Just the thing a woman likes, Rick
thought, his head spinning from meeting Samuel Dixon.

“
I won’t keep you, Rick,”
Townsend said. “Have a good lunch.”

His gaze drifting back to Samuel who
was, without a doubt, a formidable opponent, Rick weakly smiled and
headed out of the courthouse. Unbelievable. Samuel Dixon wasn’t a
figment of Vivian’s imagination.

***

The next afternoon, Sally turned to
Rick who was sitting by her on the porch swing. “You met Samuel
Dixon?” she asked, thinking for sure she didn’t hear right because
Ethel Mae swore that she made Samuel up.

“
Yes, and he’s even better
than Vivian made him sound.” He leaned back in the swing on the
porch of Sally’s house and shook his head. “I can’t compete with
someone like that. He’s good looking, ambitious, nice.”

“
Oh now, you’re good
looking, ambitious and nice, too,” she quickly assured
him.

“
Not like he is. You should
have heard him talk about his plans to own more than one hotel. I
think Judge Townsend is right. Samuel’s going to be
rich.”

“
There’s more to a man than
how much he makes.”

“
He’s also nice and good
looking.”

Sally giggled and nudged him in the
arm. “And I told you that you are, too.”

“
You haven’t seen him, have
you?”

“
No, but I don’t need to
see him to know you’re better than him.” Seriously, she had no idea
how any man could be better than Rick Johnson.

He turned so that he was facing her
and brushed a wisp of hair away from her forehead. The touch was so
light that she almost fainted from his gentleness. “You’re too
kind.” With an apologetic smile, he added, “You’ll think it’s
foolish, but I have a confession to make to you.”

If this confession had to do with him
being glad Ethel Mae was interested in Samuel because he had fallen
in love with her, then Sally wanted to hear it! She leaned forward
so she could see his eyes when he revealed his feelings for her.
“What is it, Rick?”

Chuckling, he said, “I thought you,
Ethel Mae and Vivian were lying to me about Samuel.”

She blinked in surprise. That didn’t
sound anything at all like a heartfelt confession of his undying
love for her.

“
That’s silly, I know, but
if you were there when Vivian told me his last name, you’d
understand why I came to that conclusion. It really seemed like she
was making it up.”

“
You thought Vivian made up
his last name?” She dumbly stared at him, trying to figure out why
he was looking at her with those romantic brown eyes and that
heart-melting smile but not saying the right words.

“
I’m sorry I doubted you
and your friends. I promise I won’t doubt you again.”

“
Uh…” Her mind was still
trying to grasp what he was actually saying as opposed to what he
was
supposed
to be
saying.

He shrugged and put his hands on his
thighs. “I don’t suppose you still want to help me where Ethel Mae
is concerned, do you?”

It took her a moment to think of how
she might use this new turn of events to her advantage. If Rick was
going to see her in a more romantic light, then he needed to do
romantic things with her. She scanned the fields and was assured
her father and brothers were safely away from the house and then
saw her mother and Jenny sitting by the clothesline after hanging
the clothes. Everyone was far away enough so there was a sense of
privacy without being out of sight. Good. She’d much rather have
them think he was showing a genuine interest in her than someone
else.

Offering him her most attractive
smile, she said, “I’ll be happy to help. Are you sure you don’t
want anything to drink or eat? You did come a long way to talk to
me.”

“
No, thank you. I’ve
already imposed enough.”

“
It’s no
imposition.”

“
The lunch was more than
generous. I forgot you said you have lunch so late in the
day.”

“
We do during planting and
harvesting. In the winter, we settle into a routine where we have
lunch earlier in the day.”

“
Well, I appreciate the
fact that you invited me to lunch.”

“
It was my pleasure.” And
really, it was. She only wished he was coming over every Saturday
to eat with her family. “Besides, we always make more than enough
for everyone.” That was true, too, especially considering there
seemed to be no end in sight to what Tom and David could eat, so
her mother said they all needed to pretend they were cooking for an
army.

Rick shifted in the swing, and her
attention returned to him and his wonderfully romantic brown eyes.
“You can probably tell I don’t know anything about women,” he
said.

Well, that was true because if he did,
he might figure out how much she wanted to be with him. Clearing
her throat, she laughed and shrugged. “It’s not like you are one,
so how could you?”

“
And it didn’t help that I
spent most of my life reading law books.”

“
It’s what you were
interested in, and it led you to your job. Of course, you’d study
it.”

“
Yes, and I still think
it’s easier to deal with court hearings than try to figure out what
women want. I was hoping you could help me with that. You know,
what kind of things do women find attractive in men?”

“
A good job is certainly
attractive. A woman likes to know a man can provide for her and her
children. You have that already.”

He nodded and waited for her to
continue.

She thought for a moment and added,
“Women also like to be complimented.”

“
What would Ethel Mae like
to be complimented on?”

“
Oh, well… I suppose she
likes to be complimented on the same things all women
do.”

“
Including you?”

“
Sure. I don’t think it’s
any different from woman to woman. We like for men to think we’re
beautiful, sweet, desirable… I suppose if there’s something unique
about her, she wants to be appreciated for her cooking. Ethel Mae
is really good at cooking.”

“
Are you?”

“
Me?” She laughed. “Not
like her. I mean, I do alright in the kitchen, but I’m nowhere as
good as she is.”

“
Then what’s unique about
you?”

“
People say that I’ve got
the gift of gab.”

Smiling, he teased, “So would you like
to be told you can talk someone’s ear off?”

“
I suppose it depends on
how they said it.”

“
Well, they might add it
makes people comfortable around you. I don’t have trouble talking
to you like I seem to with Ethel Mae. That’s part of my problem,
you know. I don’t think I have anything interesting to say to
her.”

“
I find that hard to
believe. Hearing about your court hearings is fascinating.”
Actually, anything that had to do with him was
fascinating.

“
I don’t think she would
agree with you. I’ve noticed her yawn.”

“
Really? Did she do that
when I was there?”

“
Yes.”

She tried to remember Ethel Mae
yawning, but all she recalled from the days she was over at her
friend’s house when Rick was there was Rick. “I don’t remember that
at all. Maybe I’m not as observant as I thought.” She decided it
wouldn’t be good to add that she had been too busy watching him to
care about anything her friend was doing or not doing.

“
So, what else do women
want?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

Blinking, she turned her attention
back to him. “Well, a woman will never refuse a thoughtful gift.
Ethel Mae is partial to cameo lockets.”

“
She is?”

“
Yes. She says they’re
lovely to wear. She enjoys hats, too, but she’d rather have a cameo
locket.”

“
And what about
you?”

Surprised he even cared to ask, but
then the answer quickly came to her, and when it did, she wondered
why she even had to think about it. He was being polite. “I prefer
flowers,” she replied.

“
Any kind in
particular?”

She shrugged. “Not really. They’re all
lovely, no matter what color they are. I find they brighten the
room and make it smell better. Believe me, with three brothers in
fields all day, it’s nice to have the room smelling
better.”

He laughed. “You say exactly what you
think, don’t you?”

She wondered if he considered that to
be a bad thing. “I can’t help it. Well, I suppose that isn’t true.
I probably could. Tom and I made a bet one time where I was
supposed to be absolutely quiet for an entire day. I won that one,
so I can be quiet for a day.”

“
I don’t imagine it was
easy, though.”

“
No, it wasn’t.” She
thought to lie and say she talked because she chose to, but most of
the time the words came rushing out so why hide it? “I admit that I
tend to speak first and think later. Ethel Mae isn’t like that. She
watches everything she says.” And maybe he preferred that sort of
thing.