RNWMP: Bride for Theodore (Mail Order Mounties)(18)

She got her own lunch and joined him at the table, smiling when he took her hand for their prayer. “Thank you for getting so much done,” he said softly. “I had no idea this place could look so good. It was dirty when I moved in, and I’ve done little to help it over the years.”

“Oh, that’s not true. I could tell you’d swept it out nicely before we came.”

“And you’ve scrubbed the floors since. I appreciate everything you’re doing for me.”

She hoped she was doing it for both of them, but she didn’t say that. She didn’t want him to know how strongly she was hanging her hopes on him asking her to stay as his wife. “Tomorrow’s Sunday. Are there church services?”

He nodded. “It’s our weekend for a preacher. There aren’t enough ministers in the area, but we have one that comes in every fourth week. We Mounties take turns the other weeks. Well, not Kendall yet. He’s too shy to speak in front of others.”

“He does seem shy. He plays guitar well, though? I have a hard time reconciling the shy young man I’ve met with someone who plays guitar in front of others.”

“It’s odd, but he seems to forget he’s in front of other people when he’s playing.” He nodded toward the bedroom. “Is Mom in there?”

“No. She went looking for more blackberries. She thought it would be nice if we could make enough jam for all five of you men before we go. And more muffins, of course. When I offered everyone muffins for their lunch, I was shocked at how quickly they disappeared.”

Theodore laughed. “I wasn’t. It was exactly what I expected to happen. I almost shouted that they needed to leave the muffins for me, but I knew that wouldn’t go over well.”

“How long does the preacher stay when he’s here?” she asked, wondering if he would even be around to marry them if they did decide to marry. She may have to go home to Ottawa at the end of her week there, just because she couldn’t marry. She knew Mounties were able to take the place of clergymen often, but not in the case of marriage.

“He’ll be here through Tuesday, then leave again.”

“I see.”

“So tell me what it’s like to work for a bank?”

She shrugged. “I enjoy the other women I work with. We talk when it’s not busy. Mostly it’s just a lot of work.”

“But you still find time to do things with the ladies’ group at the church. Mom talks about you being there all the time.”

“I work, have friends, and I volunteer at the church. It keeps me busy.” Jess had found that being busy was one of the most important things to her. She couldn’t abide sitting around idly. It made her crazy.

“Why hasn’t there been a man in your life? I know I asked that before, but I didn’t feel like I got a real answer.”

Jess bit her lip for a moment. She thought about avoiding the question, but she decided to just be honest with him. If it scared him and he ran away, then he wasn’t worthy of her anyway. “Because even though men asked me out regularly, none of those men were you. I always felt like I should be waiting for true love in my life, and to me, that meant waiting for you.”

He swallowed the bite of food in his mouth and slowly wiped his lips with his napkin. “Do you mean to say if it had been another man my mother asked you to travel to marry, you wouldn’t have agreed?”

She nodded. “I wouldn’t have. I only agreed because you were the one at the other end of the train. I used to follow you around at recess because I had a terrible crush on you. I followed you home from school that day because I was daydreaming, and I just kept walking, my eyes on you. When I realized that you’d seen me, I was mortified.”

“Does my mother know all of this?”

Jess shook her head adamantly. “She didn’t know I had feelings for you until you rejected me at the train station. She guessed then. I’ve never said a word to her.” She shrugged. “I’ve always liked Miss Hazel. She’s felt like a friend to me. My relationship with her was always separate from my feelings for you. I would love to have a mother-in-law like her one day, but I would never become friends with someone so I would have a chance with her son.”

Theodore frowned. “Well, I didn’t think you’d become friends with her just to get closer to me. I—I’m not exactly sure how I feel about all this. I mean, I know I have feelings for you now, but I certainly didn’t all those years ago.”

She nodded. “You left town when I was still a girl. The fact that you stayed in my mind as the only man I could ever marry was something that you couldn’t have known. I did want to scratch Judy’s eyes out of her head.”

He laughed. Judy was the girl he’d squired around town just before he’d left to join the Mounted Police. “You already mean more to me than she ever did, if that helps your feelings at all.”

Jess smiled. “It doesn’t really matter how you feel about her. She’s married with two small children now. She seems happy.”

“I didn’t realize she’d married, but I haven’t really thought of her in years, so I guess that doesn’t matter to me a great deal.” He stood. “I have to get back to work.”

Jess nodded, standing up to clear the table. “What would you like for supper tonight?”