Chapter Twenty
Seth wiped the sweat from his brow. “Whew…” he sighed to Henry, leaning heavily on the handle of his hammer as he surveyed the charred remains of Jack’s store. The fire had done some serious damage, but at least they were making progress—slowly but surely.
“Tell me about it,” Henry groaned. “Glad that good-for-nothin’ is locked up.”
Seth watched Henry, whose eyes were narrowed as he looked over at the jailhouse. He spit off the roof toward it, as if he was spitting on Turner himself.
Seth sighed. Jack was barking out orders on the ground nearby, his tone sharper than usual, though Seth couldn’t blame him. Losing one’s livelihood would put any man on edge, and this general store was Jack’s bread and butter.
Jack kicked a nearby toolbox, and Henry flipped his expression entirely positive. “It ain’t so bad,” he called down. He grinned and hoisted a new plank into place. “We can get this built back and ol’ Turner won’t be causing any more trouble.”
Jack grunted in response, but Seth stayed quiet.
The only thing he needed to focus on was driving a nail into the wood.
One after another. He wasn’t about to disagree with Henry.
The man was right. Having Turner behind bars meant one less thing to worry about.
That man had been a thorn in everyone’s side for years now.
The town would be better off now that he was gone.
Good riddance. The townspeople could live their lives without being threatened. The saloon girls wouldn’t be beaten by him anymore.
It seemed like a fresh start for everyone.
Even Hazel.
Seth’s eyes left the general store siding and landed on the saloon.
Hazel was sitting out front with a gentleman.
She looked dressed up, in clothing a lot like she used to wear before she became a saloon girl.
The sight of her face still brought back hard memories, but he was glad to see that she finally looked happy.
He smiled faintly. Hopefully she would take her chance to get away from Turner. Fredricks was still around, but he wasn’t nearly as bad as Turner—and Seth was sure she could be resourceful enough to figure out a way around him.
“You know,” Henry said between hammering “I’ve got more good news. Found some fine suitors for the real Annabelle, Mary, and Sophie.”
Seth straightened, his brows knitting together. “Already?”
“Of course! Can’t leave things unsettled for too long,” Henry replied, his grin widening.
“Peterson boys just turned of age and would make fine husbands to a couple of wives, and their bachelor cousin Dwayne just came in from Austin last month. Once they’re married off, things can go back to normal. ”
“What’s normal?” Seth asked with a grunt as he started pounding another nail into one of his planks.
“Not sure, but at least people can stop talkin’ about us like we’re cursed, now that we have a bunch of newlyweds.” Henry wiggled his brows. “Newlyweds bring a bunch of babies in no time.”
Seth frowned, but he kept his thoughts to himself. “Normal” wasn’t a word he’d associate with any of this, and it rubbed him the wrong way how easily Henry dismissed it all: marrying strangers; lying and thieving wives; Jack’s store being practically barbequed.
But he had to hand it to Henry. The man could see the good in everything.
“Well, as long as they’re happy,” Seth said tersely before returning to his work. If only everyone could be as happy and in love as the two saps known as the Landry brothers.
Seth hammered the final nail into the beam and looked down at Jack again. The man had just lost his store, and although Henry was being positive, Jack was likely having a difficult time seeing the bright side.
“You alright, Jack?” Seth asked casually, realizing that he was starting to become fond of his best friend’s younger brother.
Jack stopped mid-motion. His hands gripped the wood tightly. Seth could practically hear the fiery breath from his lungs. For a moment, he thought Jack might snap at him, but instead Jack laid the wood down and wiped the sweat off his brow.
“When the fire started,” he began, running his sweaty hands through his hair, “all I could think about was whether Ada was gonna make it out.”
Seth froze, his brows twisting as the hammer grew heavy in his hand.
“This is my store. A legacy from my parents, and I love it. But I didn’t care about that at all when the flames were so hot that I could feel them from the bakery.”
Jack’s voice was cracking as he spoke, like he was about to start crying. Seth was too far away, but he could have sworn he saw his eyes glisten with tears.
“None of that mattered. I was worried. I ran as fast as I could and I remember thinking—” He cleared his throat roughly.
“…Thinking how I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her.
She’s... my whole world. I know she done wrong with lying, but she’s become my whole world. So I’m alright, knowing she is.”
Seth nodded, unsure what to say. But he didn’t really need to say anything. It was clear that Jack wasn’t looking for comfort. He had enough of that, it seemed, in knowing Ada was safe.
But his words resonated deeper than Seth expected.
Even when Jack turned back to work, Seth was still frozen… with thoughts of June. Jack and Henry had both forgiven their wives. And Jack’s words were some of the truest ones he had ever heard. They were from a man who deeply cared for his wife.
Maybe it was time.
Maybe it was time to stop clinging to his anger.
Maybe it was time to rebuild—not just the general store, but whatever he and June had.
***
By the time Seth made it back to the ranch, the sun was dipping low, and darkness was just about to blanket over the sky. He hung his hat on the hook by the door and paused, the smell of chicken wafting over him.
The house felt emptier than usual, even though he knew June was inside.
He found her as soon as he walked in. She was in the small sitting room, kneeling next to the fire as she stoked it.
Her eyes were transfixed on the flames, like she’d been staring them down for hours.
She didn’t look up when he kicked off his boots, but as he walked further into the house, she broke the silence.
“Long day?” she asked softly.
They’d been doing this dance for three days. That was how long it had been since the truth had come out. June had none of her old brashness anymore. She was almost afraid to speak, ever since that darn conversation about Thomas Turner and the fire.
For good reason, too.
Seth wasn’t keen on having a liar living with him, and he wanted her to know it.
She doesn’t belong here.
“Long enough,” he said before traipsing across the rest of the room to lower himself in the chair next to her. His body ached from the day’s labor, he still had to figure out how he was going to make up the work at the ranch.
As the fire crackled, he took a deep breath. He kept reminding himself of one thing.
She’s your wife.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said finally. “About everything.”
June looked at him then, her expression cautious, possibly even afraid. “Everything?”
He nodded. “I don’t know what’s going on in your head, but I figure I ought to ask.”
Her eyes softened to the point he felt lost in them as she drew her knees up to her chest. “What do you want to know?”
“Whatever you’re willing to tell me,” he said simply. “About where you’ve been. What you’ve been through. Why you lied to me…”
She hesitated and her fingers tightened nervously around the fabric of her dress and then moved up to fiddle with her necklace. Then, slowly, she began to speak.
“I was an orphan. I met Etta and Ada at a girls’ orphanage east of here.
We ran away because our guardian Madam Pilser was horrible.
So were the other girls. They bullied Etta most days—beat her up, just to entertain themselves.
We ran away to Galveston. We were hoping to make our dreams come true… ”
She gave a hollow laugh, but tears formed in the corners of her eyes.
Seth felt his chest ache at the sight.
“We met a man named Trey Bishop there. He took us in. At first, he was nice. He was a gentleman. Distinguished. Fancy. The fanciest man I’d ever saw.”
She wiped away the tears that now fell freely and her lip began to tremble.
“He started out as kind, and quickly he wasn’t.
He started asking us to steal from the stores in town, and then eventually, he had us pretend to be maids and steal from wealthy ladies.
Always the ladies, because if anyone ever found stolen goods on us, we could pass it off as ours or trinkets our mothers had left us.
We would take everything we gave to Trey to pay him back for his graciousness of housing us.
But every time we gave him money, we owed him even more.
It was clear that we weren’t going to get out of there. ”
Her entire body began to shake, and Seth felt a desire unlike any other to lean forward and hold her, but he wouldn’t.
He couldn’t. He didn’t want to scare her off. He didn’t want her to stop talking.
She was beginning to tremble now as she wiped at her eyes again.
“I went to Trey and I told him I’d get him all the loot he wanted if eventually he let Etta and Ada go, and he told me if I could help him get the money to buy two more ranches out west, then he would let them go.
But I would never make enough for him to let me go.
I agreed to it, and he told me if I ever crossed him, I’d wind up dead. ”
Her voice shook, and she looked up at Seth, fear in her eyes as tears trickled down her cheeks. “I believed him. I’d seen him kill before, and I knew he got rid of other girls that told on him, or worse—got caught.”
With the way she was telling her story, it seemed to Seth like she was telling him everything. His chest had tightened with every word. She looked scared to death.
Her eyes were glistening with very few unshed tears. “Your turn,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Seth drew in a deep breath, his fingers brushing the armrest of his chair. “What do you want to know?” he asked. “About Hazel?”
“That… and your family—all of it.”
“Hazel was my girl before the war,” he said softly.
Almost uncomfortably. He wasn’t good at being vulnerable, and that was one of the most vulnerable and heartbreaking times of his life.
“I thought we’d have a life together when I came back, but…
things didn’t work out that way. Turner seemed to have already tricked her into working the saloon. ”
June tilted her head, waiting.
“She didn’t wait for me,” Seth continued, the words heavier than he expected. “And I wasn’t the same man I was before I left. I told you my parents died while I was gone. My little sister Lilian, too… but Hazel was the final straw for me in a lot of ways. She broke me.”
Silence fell between them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was the opposite, in fact. If anything, it felt like the tension that had been simmering for weeks was finally starting to ease.
“I guess we’ve both got ghosts,” June said softly.
Seth nodded. “Guess so.”
She smiled faintly, her eyes dropping to look at her own hands. “Maybe… maybe it’s time to let them go.”
He looked at her then, really looked at her, and something in his chest shifted.
She is so darn beautiful.
Slowly, he leaned forward, his hand brushing over hers. She didn’t pull away.
“Maybe,” he said, his voice husky, “We could start fresh. Together.”
June’s breath hitched, and for a moment, neither of them moved. But then, she did. She leaned closer to him, and her lips brushed against his in a kiss that held more than he ever had known a kiss to hold.