Given by Lisa G. Riley, Roslyn Hardy Holcomb

back around to face him.

    “I'll not have you two fighting in the shop again. Destroyed darned near every piece in here the last time you decided to take up fisticuffs.”

    “He should not be talking about Mary Katherine that way,” Jacob snarled.

    “I agree that what he said was improper,” Caleb said with a warning glance at his younger son. “But I've certainly heard you say worse.”

    “Haven't you heard, Papa?” Matthew asked with undisguised glee. “Jake proposed to Miss Day.”

    “What? Is this true, Son? When did this happen?”

    Jacob shrugged. “I've been asking since the first day we met.”

    “Yes, she gave old Jake here the mitten,” Matthew said. “Turned him down flat.”

    Caleb looked back to Jacob. “Have you lost your mind?”

    “Curious how people keep asking me that,” Jacob said mildly.

    “Son, I know you've been gone for a long time, but here in Ohio, we generally go through a courtship before we ask a lady to marry us.”

    Jacob didn't respond. Instead he walked back over to his worktable, where he was milling a piece of molding. He worked in silence for a long while, with both his father and brother staring at him in bemusement. Finally he looked up from his work and raised a brow in inquiry.

    “As my brother so crudely put it,” Jacob began, “Miss Day is a lovely woman, and she's well past marrying age. Are all the men in this town blind, or is there some reason why she's not married?”

    His father returned his stare and hesitated as though he was considering not answering Jacob's question. Then he pursed his lips. “According to your sister, Miss Day has no desire to marry. She's always believed that marriage is too restrictive for women, and now that she's inherited such a fine business, that belief has strengthened twofold. She thinks she can run it herself without the aid of a man.”

    “Oh, does she now?” Jacob's lips curved upward in a smile that somehow looked more predatory than amused. “Then I guess I'll have to do what I can to change the lovely lady's mind, won't I?”

Chapter Six

     

    “So, Mary Katherine, are you going to tell me what has precipitated your sudden interest in my oaf of a brother?”

    Startled, Mary Katherine bought herself some time by taking a drink from her cup of tea. She sat in the Adamses' parlor, where she'd come to visit with her best friend. Finally he looked at Grace Adams, the only female and youngest person in the Adams household. At twenty-four, Grace was unmarried, mule-headed, outspoken, and oftentimes uncontrollable. And in Mary Katherine's opinion, much too perceptive. Therefore, equivocating with Grace was not an easy thing to do. Mary Katherine believed that she was up to the challenge. “I don't know what you mean,” she told her firmly, putting her cup back on the saucer with a snap.

    Grace only raised a brow. “Oh,” she said and took her time taking a sip from her own cup. “Don't you?”

    “No. I don't.”

    “Hmm. Strange,” Grace said softly with a frown, as if considering something quite complex. “I would think that having someone press his mouth so hard to yours would be something you'd have full knowledge of.”

    Mary Katherine grimaced and felt her cheeks heat. She threw her friend a chiding look, her lips twitching when the fiend had the nerve to look unflinchingly back at her. She had no doubt that Grace had seen Jacob and her kissing; she just didn't know when. Jacob had kissed her so often since that night in her house that Grace's sighting of them could have been any number of times. Mary Katherine had known that she was taking a risk every time she accepted and participated in his kisses, but well, she'd done it anyway. She liked it—a lot.

    She was a thirty-year-old, unmarried woman who wasn't a widow, nor was she affianced. That alone was enough to get her the occasional raised eyebrow and sidelong look. Add to that the fact that she had the temerity to want to take care of