Yukon Cowboy. Debra Clopton
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looked sheepishly at her, with big, long-lashed, amber eyes. “Harry Peters.”
The name was almost a whisper, but it had Bethany’s ears perked up. Harry Peters! “From The General Store?” she clarified, thinking, surely Joleen had said something similar to Harry’s name and she’d misunderstood. This woman and Harry were as far from what she would have ever matched up as any two people she’d ever worked with.
Joleen nodded. “Isn’t he the cutest thing you ever saw?”
Well, there you go—love was the weirdest thing sometimes. Bethany grinned, feeling Joleen’s delight roll over to her. “Congratulations. I think that is wonderful,” she said, sincerely.
“I just came to town a few weeks ago and he has just been so helpful. He is really a dear. Don’t you think so?”
“Always. When is the wedding date?” Pen poised to write she waited for the answer.
Joleen placed a long, red fingernail on her bottom lip and hesitated. “Um, there isn’t a date set. Yet. He hasn’t asked me out yet, you see. But I’m sure that he will.” Her words had started out hesitantly, but she ended in a rush, as if she were trying to convince herself of the fact. This was odd…two-in-a-row odd. There had been a lady in earlier, asking about planning a wedding for Christmas. That fancily dressed lady, Delilah Carrington, also hadn’t had a groom. But she was different than Joleen, she hadn’t set her sights on anyone in particular yet. Oh no, Delilah was shopping the field and ready to pounce on whomever proposed first. She’d set a deadline for herself to be married by Christmas, and she’d come to Treasure Creek to fulfill that deadline. She struck Bethany as the type who would get what she wanted. It was crazy, but it might be fun watching her in action.
Bethany certainly wasn’t here to judge anyone, her job was just to plan beautiful weddings and carry them off with grace and expertise.
“He hasn’t asked you out?” she asked, because she couldn’t come up with anything better to ask. And she was curious and hoping Joleen would explain.
Joleen bit her upper lip and blushed. “No. But it’s because he’s shy that way. I guess I’m jumping the gun here, trying to get an appointment. This probably sounds a little crazy, doesn’t it? No, wait, don’t answer that. I know it sounds crazy.”
“No,” Bethany began, then got honest, “actually it does…a little, but I’ve seen stranger things.”
Joleen smiled in relief and relaxed. “I guess I am ahead of myself. I…I do want you to know I will be using you sometime in the near future, though. Harry is sure to come around.”
Bethany’s heart tugged at the angst she could hear in Joleen’s voice. She knew all too well how it felt to love a man and not be able to have the happy ending she want—stop! She snatched her purse and forced her smile wide. “Joleen, I’m here when you need me. And as soon as I get up and running, you come by anytime you want and we’ll get details perfected, so when your special man does pop the question you’ll be all set. It takes time to get all the details right, so nothing says you can’t already be working on your special day.”
Her positive words must have seemed like music as they hit Joleen’s ears. She straightened, and a warm smile that was free of any hesitation blossomed across her pretty face. “You really wouldn’t think me too crazy to do that? I mean Harry, the sweet man, is just a bit slow on the uptake—if you know what I mean. He does care for me. I’ve seen the way he looks at me when he thinks I’m not looking. He’s the strong, silent type.”
Bethany almost choked. “I don’t think you’re crazy at all. Hey, I’m a romantic through and through, and this is very romantic, if you ask me. Harry Peters is a lucky man to have you, and he’d be smart to open his eyes and ask you out.” It was the truth. That dry piece of toast needed a gal like Joleen to top off his life like sweet jam.
Joleen startled her by embracing her in a big hug. “Thank you. You have absolutely made my day.”
“You’ve made mine. It was really nice meeting you,” she said, and meant it. As they parted and headed in opposite directions, Bethany hoped Joleen got her happy ending. Glancing over her shoulder, she watched Joleen round the corner and walk daintily toward The General Store. Bethany suddenly wished she were a fly on the wall so she could see the grumpy Harry Peters’s face when Joleen was around.
Before she realized what she was doing, she said a prayer that Harry would be the hero in Joleen’s life. It would be nice if the Lord chose to work that out for her.
She continued on toward the tour company, glancing across the street at the quaint church where children played in the playground. Bethany had spent many Sundays sitting beside Nate on the second-from-last pew of that church. Since moving from Treasure Creek, she’d not been in church on a regular basis. Her faith, like her heart, had taken a hit when Nate had told her he didn’t love her, and that she shouldn’t hang around town because of him.
Bethany’s dreams back then had conflicted with one another. She’d wanted to be successful in her own right as a wedding planner, and she’d wanted Nate. And she’d wanted children with Nate. In her naivety, she’d thought she could have it all. But there weren’t many weddings in Treasure Creek before the article.
Now she was just looking to have a lovely life. She wanted satisfaction and fulfillment. She wanted…something elusive that she hadn’t found with her career in San Francisco. Sure, she’d flown to Italy and Australia and other places to carry off the weddings of wealthy clients for the firm she’d worked for, and loved every minute of it. But now, at twenty-nine, with no husband and no children, she knew she wanted more. And she hoped that more was here in Treasure Creek.
She wanted to know that God had a plan for her life—a plan that she would understand soon. Maybe, being back in Treasure Creek, she’d find the faith she once had. The faith to believe that God really did have her in the palm of His hand.
A prayer for Joleen was a start.
Out in the wilderness, she’d always felt closer to God. Who wouldn’t? Maybe out there she’d feel the peace she’d missed.
“Nate, I want you to look around the cabin at point three on your tour, but I really don’t want you going to Klink’s Ridge,” Amy said, from across the desk in her office. “We both know no good can come of that. And if by some stretch of the imagination the treasure is in there, then it will just have to stay there, unless you find another entrance. I can’t imagine my great, great grandfather scaling the wall to hide something in such a dangerous place.”
Nate ran a finger along the crease of his cowboy hat. He planned to scale that ridge and find the cave that his grandfather had believed held the treasure. He’d tried it once and almost fallen to his death, just like his grandfather had. But Nate had made a careless mistake. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. He’d been thinking about it, and felt he owed it to his grandfather to figure out if he’d discovered anything before he plunged down the face of that cliff. Amy didn’t need to worry herself about it, though, so he kept his plans to himself.
“I’ll be checking around the cabin. When you showed me the map I realized—because the map leads me to believe the treasure is buried near a cabin—that maybe my grandfather thought the same thing. This opening on the face of Klink’s Ridge may be a cave opening he thought linked to a cave. I’m not sure what my grandfather was thinking. I may never know. But I’m going with my gut here and checking all this out.”
Amy nodded. “There are just some things in life only God knows the reasons for.”
Nate’s thoughts went instantly to the day he heard the doctor tell him he would never father children. After a mild case of the measles—despite his childhood vaccine—Nate had been shocked when his dad suggested the doctor test him during his checkup. He’d been nineteen, and when the test revealed that he was sterile his world had changed. He’d gone from being a man with everything to a man with nothing in an instant, knowing there was no way on earth he would be able to look