Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek

Amy looked back and forth between the concerned faces of Wade and his mother. “I’m fine. Really. Shawn just meant it as a joke. About his campaign. Shawn isn’t—I mean, that’s not it—”

“A man should never joke about a proposal,” Gracie said, her lips firm.

“No, with Shawn, it’s okay,” Amy said. “Really.”

They were all silent a minute, and then Wade opened the driver’s door and started to slide out. He looked at Amy like he was wondering why she hadn’t moved to follow him.

“I’ll go out your mother’s door,” she said, in case that was his problem.

“Oh, there’s no need for me to go inside, dear,” Gracie said with a slight smile that puzzled Amy until she heard the rest of what the woman had to say. “I’ll just sit here. You and Wade go ahead. You young people need some time alone. We old people just get in the way.”

“You’re not old! And—” Amy protested, but Gracie handed her the metal bowl for the eggs.

“You can come this way,” Wade added as he finished getting out of the pickup.

Once he was on the ground, he even held a hand out to help her move past the gear shift. Then, when she was ready to step down, he held his arms up and lifted her down as though she were an invalid. Or a china doll.

“We don’t need any time alone,” she said when her feet were on the ground. “Don’t worry about your mother. She’s just—”

She glanced up in time to see his lips tighten. He moved back, pulling her sideways with him so that they were no longer in the space left by the open door.

Instead, her back rested on the frame of the pickup. His mother couldn’t see them.

“Is that Spearmint gum I smell?” he asked with a little bit of a smile curving his lips as he kept looking at her. He held out his hand for the bowl, and she gave it to him. He set it back inside the pickup.

The day was warmer than it had been, but she could still see her breath with each word. And the wind was blowing. “I don’t know why I cried.”

“Shawn has me to answer to if he doesn’t treat you right.” Wade brushed some strands of loose hair away from her cheeks and then left his hands there to cup her face. “He might joke around some, but he should know better than to upset you.”

“Yes, well …” Amy murmured. No man had ever upset her as much as Wade, but she couldn’t find the words to say so. Not when he was looking at her like he was ready to do battle on her behalf.

“It’s not Shawn’s fault. I’m sure he’ll make a fine husband. He just needs to settle down,” she said, trying to be fair to the other man.

That only made Wade press his lips closer together. His eyes grew tawny and one of his thumbs moved to caress her jaw, making her shiver where he touched her.

She thought for a moment that he was going to kiss her, and her heart almost stopped from the wonder of it—or maybe the terror of it, she wasn’t sure. She’d never recovered from their one kiss all those years ago.

Then his eyes changed. His hands dropped down to his sides, and he stepped back.

“We better go get those eggs.” He reached back into the pickup to get the bowl.

She could only nod. Her heart started back up again, and she took a deep breath.

The wind seemed colder than it was before. She started to walk toward her family’s house. Wade followed behind her.

When they were almost to the front steps, her grandfather opened the door. He usually sat in his recliner by the television all day, but he must have looked out the window as they drove up. She wished he’d combed his hair, but white tufts stuck out from his balding head. The black suspenders he wore held his jeans in place, and he’d obviously forgotten again where his clean shirts were. He was wearing a thin undershirt that she recognized from the rag bag she kept under the kitchen sink. He held something behind his leg, and she assumed it was the steel cane he sometimes used.

“Is that the Stone boy with you?” He scowled as she and Wade started to climb the steps.

“Yes,” she murmured, a little surprised. Her grandfather didn’t recognize many neighbors anymore. Or, if he did, he confused their names with people on the television shows he watched.

Then her grandfather moved quicker than he had in years and pulled the old BB gun out from behind him. He pointed it at Wade. “I don’t want any of you Stone men messing around my girls. Not anymore. No siree. You’re trouble, you are, and I won’t stand for it. I saw you out there by the pickup.”

Her grandfather wobbled, and the gun moved back and forth until it was pointed at her. Wade moved quickly, standing in front of her, alarmingly close to the gun.

“I mean no harm,” Wade said cautiously. “Just bringing Amy home.”

She gasped as she tried to move around Wade, but he gripped her arm preventing her.

“‘We’re just here to get some eggs,” she said.

She was pretty sure that gun wasn’t loaded, but she didn’t want to take any chances. “Set the gun down, Grandpa. What television show do you have on anyway?”

Maybe this time, he had gotten the names right and the story wrong.

“There’s nothing worth watching this early in the morning,” her grandfather complained, but he lowered the gun, and the fire went out of him.

Amy felt Wade’s grip lessen on her arm. She didn’t know how she was ever going to explain what had just happened. She remembered how proud her grandfather used to be. He’d be mortified if the neighbors knew how confused he was these days.

“Are you ever going to fix me breakfast?” her grandfather complained, sounding even more peevish than usual. “I’m hungry.”

“I’ll get you something to eat just as soon as I get some eggs for Gracie,” Amy said, trying to soothe the old man. He was seldom up in time to join her and her aunt for breakfast.

With that, her grandfather turned and stepped back inside, leaving the door to the house open.

“It isn’t always like this,” Amy whispered as she walked with Wade into the place where she’d been raised. He’d been inside her house before, but not many times. Usually, she was the one who escaped over to the Stone place. Aunt Tilly was very particular about spotless floors, and she and Wade had always had mud or dried grass on their shoes after they had tramped through the coulee that ran along the south border of their two ranches.