The Sweetest Mail Order Bride (Sweet Creek Brides Book 1) by Jill Summers Page A

that bad having a pony on the boardwalk. Say, compared to losing your husband to small pox.” Shocked, she fell silent. That wasn’t what she’d intended to say at all. The words had simply rolled off her tongue. Now her heart was wide open, when the last thing she wanted was to deepen any kind of tie between them.
    “I’m sorry.” He looked down, startled. “I guess that explains why you placed that advertisement. I’m glad my girls chose you.”
    “They chose me.” That was the simple truth. “I was charmed right from the start. They are why I worked so hard to come here.”
    “And not me?” The corners of his mouth twitched, and his blue eyes glittered with the promise of humor. When Caleb Blake let himself go, she bet he could be a funny, amusing man.
    “Of course I was captivated by you, too,” she assured him. “But it turns out that you’re not my type.”
    “I’m not?”
    “No. You’re way too tall and handsome for my taste. I was hoping for short, fat and ugly.”
    He nodded in agreement. “If I ever married again, I was hoping for an ugly, shrew of a wife.”
    “Seems like we agree. We would have been wrong for one another.”
    “Very wrong.” He nodded, and then they were laughing.
    The entire kitchen shrank, the world melted away until there was just him. He was all she could see. The dimple in his chin. The bronze threads in his eyes. My, but he was dashingly handsome with his slightly tousled dark hair. His muscled arms that made her wonder what it would feel like to be held by him, safe against that iron chest.
    What kind of thinking was that!
She flushed, her heart kicking up wildly, and tore her gaze from his. She whipped around to stare out the window where the twins chased after the pony, who was dashing merrily around the yard, and Jeremiah, stopped to offer his advice.
    “I suppose I’ll be heading back to Mrs. O’Hurley’s.” She stole her sunbonnet from the peg by the door. “Thank you for supper, Caleb. It was delicious and most entertaining.”
    “I can’t argue there.” He leaned in to open the door for her.
    At such closeness, her skin tingled. A place in her heart opened a little more. Looking up, she could see past the man’s granite exterior to the soft heart within. To the healer, the father, the broken hearted man. Seeing those layers, those places in him pulled at her, where nothing had touched her in a long time.
    He cleared his throat, nodding his chin toward the outside world. “Look at them. The more they chase that pony, the more the pony runs.”
    “Pumpkin is playing tag.”
    “If the girls stood still, the pony would too. Do you think the twins will always be, this, uh, spirited?”
    “If you’re lucky, yes.”
    “That’s not helping.” Humor crinkled in the corners of his mouth.
    “You’ve stopped being wary of me.” She saw that too. “I can see you don’t trust women easily.”
    “Not after my marriage, no. Lena was not easy on me. But you aren’t here to try and talk me into the marriage you need so badly. You’re a good woman, Clementine.” He opened the door to the pleasant evening.
    “You’re not so bad yourself.” The long rays of the sun blinded her as she stepped onto the back porch. She liked to think it was the sun that made her eyes water and not the wish for him.
    Focus on the moment,
she told herself.
Not the past, not the future.
The sun on her face felt sustaining, the warm breeze in her hair reassuring. The larks chirping and the rustle of grass were like a song. The roll of the Montana meadows were filled with color. The girls chased the troublesome pony, who stopped and started and dashed to evade them. The little girls’ laughter rang loud.
    “Where did Jeremiah go?” Caleb called out to them.
    “He left us!” Gracie tried to grab Pumpkin’s halter, but the mischievous pony jumped back at the last minute. “He’s a bad uncle.”
    “Very bad! He’s in the barn hitching up!” Hope’s laughter belied