Her Heart's Desire (5 page)

“
You see, that’s why I
think we could be friends.”
And eventually
more.
“You consider what’s best for
everyone.”

He studied the floor for a moment. “It
still doesn’t make much sense that Ethel Mae should prefer Samuel
when he seems to like someone else more, but you said that’s how
Ethel Mae is and her sister says the same thing. If I want to marry
her, then I’d be foolish to neglect your offer to help me, if
you’re still offering?”

“
Yes. I am.”

Ethel Mae and Vivian came into the
room, one carrying a tray of lemonade and glasses while the other
carried a plate of cookies and cloth napkins. Rick and Sally stood
up, and Sally helped Ethel Mae pour the lemonade into their
glasses.

“
Thank you, Vivian,” Ethel
Mae said. “You may play with your friends now.”

“
Can’t I stay and have
lemonade and cookies, too?” Vivian protested, a slight pout on her
lips.

“
It’s time for the adults
to talk. I’ll save you some for later,” Ethel Mae said. “Besides,
it’s a nice day. You should go out and enjoy it. See if Phoebe
wants to play dolls.”

Letting out a loud sigh, Vivian left
the parlor.

“
I’m sorry,” Ethel Mae said
as she motioned for Rick and Sally to get some cookies. “My sister
thinks she’s older than she really is.”

“
She means well,” Sally
replied as she sat down with a glass of lemonade in one hand and a
napkin with two cookies in the other. “At least she actually helps
you. My brothers plan ways to make more work for me.”

“
Surely, you jest,” her
friend said.

“
I wish I was.”

Sally thought Ethel Mae would sit next
to her and Rick would sit across from them as he did before, but he
sat next to her while Ethel Mae sat in the chair across from
them.

“
Tell us more about your
brothers,” Rick said, turning toward Sally.

Sally glanced at Ethel Mae whose
eyebrows rose in interest. Sally tried to answer his question, but
now that he was devoting his attention to her in an attempt to make
her friend jealous, her mind went blank. All she could think of was
his dark brown eyes, smooth dark hair, and charming smile. What she
truly wanted, more than anything, was for him to kiss her. But it
was too soon for that, and who knew if she could convince him to go
that far in their scheme until he realized he wanted to be with her
instead of her friend.

Ethel Mae cleared her throat,
directing Sally’s thoughts off of Rick’s delightfully sensuous
lips. “Sally has four brothers. I believe it’s her younger ones who
create the biggest mischief.”

“
Oh?” Rick asked, looking
much more interested than Sally knew he actually was.

Well, she had to hand it to Rick. He
was a good actor. Sally took a sip of her lemonade and nodded.
“Yes, they do. Specifically, my brothers Tom and Joel are the ones
I have to worry about the most. Tom’s seventeen and Joel’s nine. I
know the ages are considerably apart, but they tend to work
together. Sometimes I think they’d be lost without each other.”
Realizing she was rambling, she stopped and drank more lemonade to
slow down. “Tell me, Rick, do you have any brothers or
sisters?”

“
I had a brother, but he
died in infancy,” he softly replied.

“
I’m sorry,” both Sally and
Ethel Mae said at the same time.

“
It happened before I was
born, so I never knew him.” He set down his glass and motioned to
Sally. “I don’t wish to take away from what you’re saying about
your brothers. Two of them are Tom and Joel. Who are the
others?”

Shifting on the couch, Sally forced
her mind off of how hard it must have been for his mother to lose a
child and cleared her throat. “Yes, well, I have two more.
Richard’s already married. He just had twin sons.”

“
Really? That’s nice,” Rick
said.

“
Yes. My nephews are
adorable.”

Ethel Mae picked up a cookie and said,
“Their names are Mark and Anthony.”

With a wry grin, Sally added, “Amanda
loves history, and if you guessed she named them after Mark
Anthony, you’re right. She said she didn’t care much for the affair
between him and Cleopatra, but she loved his name. Richard says
it’s good she had twins because she kept going back and forth
between Mark or Anthony for boy names.”

“
And your other brother?”
Rick asked before he finished his cookie.

“
That would be David, and
if it weren’t for him, life would be unbearable. He’s fourteen, so
he was born between Tom and Joel, and he does a good job of
intercepting them on my behalf. Oh, I do have a sister named Jenny.
She’s twelve.”

“
That’s a good-sized
family.”

“
It never gets boring in
the house, that’s for sure,” Sally mused. “Of course, you’d have to
go out there sometime if you want to really appreciate how busy
things get over there.”

“
I’d love to.”

Blinking in surprise, she asked,
“What?”

“
Go out there to see these
brothers and the sister of yours, especially Tom and Joel. It’d be
interesting to see what they’re all like.”

She stared at him to figure out if he
was just saying this because they were in front of Ethel Mae or if
he really meant it.

Ethel Mae shifted in her chair and let
out a flirtatious giggle. “I don’t think that’s necessary, Rick.
All you really need to know about them, Sally can tell you right
here.” She tucked a few strands of her unkempt hair behind her ear
and shot him a coy look.

Sally’s eyes widened. She had no idea
her friend could put on the charm when she wanted to.

“
Nonsense,” Rick said,
waving his hand as if he didn’t care what Ethel Mae thought. “I
think it’s a good idea to pay you a visit so I can put the faces
with the names.”

Still unsure if he intended to do that
for real, Sally nodded. “It is.” Turning her gaze to her friend,
she shrugged. “And how else do you expect him to understand just
how troublesome Tom and Joel can be? Some things have to be
observed to be understood, and when it comes to those two, you have
to see it to believe it.”

“
It sounds intriguing. When
would be a good time to visit you and your family?”

Sally studied him. He seemed sincere
in coming out to her place. But how could she know for sure? “Um… I
suppose it depends on when you aren’t working. It should be soon.
We’ll start planting corn soon, and once planting season starts,
things get busy.”

Ethel Mae winked at her, indicating
that she thought Sally was brilliant.

Sally breathed a sigh of relief when
she realized Rick was too busy looking at her to notice Ethel Mae’s
secret message.

“
If it’s imperative I get
out there before next month, then will Saturday be alright?” Rick
asked.

“
Saturday? This upcoming
Saturday?” Sally responded, immediately kicking herself for saying
something that stupid because it was obvious he didn’t mean another
one.

“
It is the last Saturday
before May.” His lips turned up into a smile and his eyes twinkled
when he added, “Unless you mean next year. Then I suppose we have
more Saturdays to work with.”

Sally laughed at his joke. It was nice
to know he had a sense of humor. “I suppose we could try for next
year, but who knows if my brothers will be pulling their usual
stunts by then? Our best chance to catch them at their worst is
sooner rather than later,” she teased.

“
I better go this Saturday
then. You’ll have to give me directions.”

Glancing at Ethel Mae who smiled at
her in encouragement, Sally said, “I’ll do that.”

“
Great. I’m looking forward
to it,” he said.

She smiled as if she believed he was
going to actually show up at her house.

Ethel Mae adjusted her blouse so that
it wasn’t so disheveled and cleared her throat. “Rick, I hope you
won’t mind coming by here again. It suddenly occurred to me how
much we have to discuss.”

“
Has it?” Rick asked, not
seeming the least bit interested in what she just said.

Sally chewed her cookie and thought
both Rick and Ethel Mae were excellent actors. She was trying to
play her part, but it was hard to know if she was as convincing as
they were.

“
Oh yes,” her friend said,
not missing a beat. “I’d like to hear more about your job. Didn’t
you say something happened during one of your court hearings that
required you to look something up?”

He furrowed his eyebrows. “Did
I?”

“
You mentioned it on
Thursday.”

“
Hmm… Thursday. I’ve been
to so many places this week. I came here?”

“
You did. We sat on the
porch swing.”

He stared at his glass of lemonade for
a long moment and then snapped his fingers. “Oh, right! I remember
now. The evening was quite remarkable.” Smiling at Sally, he
continued, “You would have loved the sunset, and the weather was
perfect. It’s too bad you weren’t there to share the evening with
me.”

Sally sighed with longing. How she
wished he meant those words!

“
Maybe Saturday, the
weather will be good, and we can enjoy the sunset together,” he
continued.

At this point, Sally thought he might
be laying it on a little too thick. She understood what he was
doing and why, but she figured enough was enough, especially since
this Saturday supper wasn’t likely going to happen. She swallowed
her cookie and took a drink of her lemonade. “Yes, that will be
nice. I enjoy the sunrise and sunset.” Clearing her throat, she
continued, “I’d like to know the court hearing that Ethel Mae
referred to just a moment ago. Did something interesting happen
while you were presiding over a case this week?”

“
Oh, that.” He shrugged.
“I’d probably bore you both. It’s not that interesting, now that I
think about it.”

Sally nudged his arm, wanting to know
more about his job since it’d give her more insight into who he
was. “Please tell us about it, Rick.”

“
Well, if you’re sure.” He
glanced from Sally to her friend.

“
Yes, we are.” Sally leaned
forward and waited to hear what he had to say.

He shifted and shrugged. “Alright. I
was listening to the plaintiff and defendant giving their
testimonies, and the plaintiff said something that struck me as
odd. So, during the recess, I checked one of my law books. I found
a law that was passed ten years ago that contradicted what he was
saying. From this, I was able to deduce that he was
lying.”

Unsure of how much he could discuss
about court hearings, she asked, “Are you allowed to say what the
case or the law was about?”

As he opened his mouth to answer,
Vivian ran into the room, her face red and her hands on her hips.
“Ethel Mae, you better tell Ada to get her brother away from
me.”

Sitting up straight, Ethel Mae’s eyes
grew wide. “What did Hugh do this time?”

“
He said I was pretty,”
Vivian said, her tone indicating that it should be obvious to
anyone why being called pretty was a horrible thing.

Ethel Mae chuckled. “That’s a
compliment.”

“
Then he can compliment
someone else, and you can tell Ada that next time you see
her.”

Sally laughed and held out a cookie
for Vivian to eat. As she took it, Sally said, “There’s no harm in
a boy telling a girl she’s pretty.”

“
You don’t know Hugh.” She
bit into the cookie and sighed. “He is worse than other boys. Not
that I like boys, because I don’t. They’re all yucky.”

Rick’s eyebrows rose in interest.
“They’re all yucky?”

Vivian shrugged. “I don’t think of you
as a boy in the way Hugh is a boy. You’re just here to court my
sister. There’s a big difference.”

Noticing Rick’s embarrassment, Sally
handed Vivian a couple more cookies and said, “In the future, try
to avoid Hugh as much as possible.”

“
I’ll try, but it’s not
easy when he lives down the street. I really think he looks out the
window just so he can be outside whenever I leave the house,”
Vivian replied.

Sally laughed. “That’s ridiculous. If
he’s out when you are, it’s a coincidence.”

“
I’ll talk to Ada later
today,” Ethel Mae told her sister.

“
Good,” Vivian replied
before she took her cookies and left the room.

Looking at Rick and Sally, Ethel Mae
gave them a wry grin. “I’m afraid Vivian and Hugh will always have
problems. But never mind them. What were we talking about when she
barged in here?”

“
Rick was about to tell us
about how he discovered a law that told him the plaintiff was
lying,” Sally replied, turning her attention back to him. “Can you
tell us what the case was about?”

As Rick told them what he could about
the court hearing, Sally sat back and got comfortable so she could
enjoy the rest of his visit.