Wild Texas Rose by Jodi Thomas Read Free Book Online Page A

buy, but I won’t have folks thinking the Donnelys don’t have enough to outfit them all. What we can’t find in an hour, we’ll do without until we slaughter another hog.”
    Abe almost swore as the arguments started. Old man Donnely, who obviously stayed home, thought shoes should last two years and there were always younger kids to pass them down to. The offspring might not argue with their father, but they thought nothing of yelling at their siblings.
    Mrs. Donnely sat down on the stool by the boxes of shoes, slapping away children who were not eligible for a new pair. “All you get black lace-ups except for my Carol Ann. She’s thirteen and almost marrying age so she can pick out a girl’s shoe.”
    Three girls giggled behind him and Abe looked at them trying to figure out which was the oldest. None showed any sign of developing into “marrying age.”
    “You interested?” Mrs. Donnely smiled an almost toothless grin.
    “No,” Abe answered. “I don’t plan to ever marry.”
    Momma Donnely looked disappointed as Abe tried to help a few of her brood while others pulled pairs off the shelf and began trying on whatever they could reach.
    He heard Henry threaten a few by the counter. The youngest girl, about three or four, Abe guessed, was sitting among the bolts of material. Her crying blended in with the chaos, and he didn’t miss the fact that every few minutes she blew her nose on the end of one of the bolts of material. He planned to roll off a half yard and send it home with Mrs. Donnely.
    Forty-five minutes later the place was a total mess, the counter was head high with the Donnelys’ annual clothing purchase and Abe was seriously considering drinking the vanilla even if it was only twelve percent alcohol.
    The front door chimed.
Let it be Marshal Courtright coming to arrest all the candy thieves,
Abe thought. He should have weighed the lot when they came in and again as they left. He had no doubt at least five pounds of chocolate had been consumed.
    No sheriff, though. The one person he prayed wouldn’t come in until the mail run tomorrow morning stood just inside the door looking as if she’d just stepped into an ant bed.
    “Evening, Miss Norman.” One of the Donnely boys pulled off his hat and stepped out of the schoolteacher’s way.
    Abe watched as she moved in her proper little march toward him. He noticed the noise in the place dropped. Wild children paused in mid-rampage. For them, this one lady had more power over their world than anyone alive.
    She smiled at each but didn’t say a word until she stood a foot in front of him.
    “Have the last of my supplies arrived, Mr. Henderson?” If she weren’t a woman, he swore she’d be a general. She seemed to be willing her things to appear by the commanding tone of her voice.
    In the eight years he’d known the schoolmarm, she’d never been anything but formal, even cold, to him. Never a hair out of place or a smudge on her clothes. Pretty washed down to plain, he’d always thought. Hair too tightly knotted. Not a touch of makeup. Clothes in only browns and dull blues. Women respected her and men never gave her a second look, except him maybe, when he thought she wouldn’t notice.
    Only today, for some insane reason, Abe found himself mesmerized by her mouth. The woman frightened him almost speechless, but he liked the way her mouth moved, when she wasn’t pressing her lips together in impatience.
    “Well, Mr. Henderson?”
    “No,” he managed.
    She pointed a finger at the storage room behind his long counter. “I saw a wagonload of boxes being delivered earlier.”
    He forced himself to think, but exhaustion weighed against him. “I haven’t had time to check the shipment, but I’m sure your things are not among the boxes.” Staples came by train and were delivered by one of the men who worked at the depot. Her supplies were ordered by mail.
    She looked disappointed and he saw a hint of doubt in her eyes. The proper Miss Norman