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Five days before the lunchbox social, a stranger rode into town. Otis saw him as he headed to visit one of the people who had been sick recently. He thought the man might look familiar, but decided he had to be wrong. After all, who would come to town that he would know?
That day was a rare, slow day for him and he got home before Mabel started making supper. When Otis walked into the house, she peeked in from the kitchen. After seeing who he was, she stepped into the doorway and hugged herself.
“He’s here.”
“Who?” Otis asked.
“Douglas Willoughby.”
All the air left him. “He is?”
She nodded, her eyes wide and her mouth set in a firm line.
“Do you know why?”
She shook her head. “But why else would he be here?”
His shoulders slumped. “Right.”
She groaned. “The timing is terrible!”
“Why?”
She shuddered and he quickly went to her and pulled her into his arms. “The social. He loves them. I don’t want any unsuspecting female to be forced to eat lunch with him. I’d volunteer, but I don’t want to either.”
He frowned. “I wouldn’t let him.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “Why not?”
“Because of what he did to you.” He thought he saw a flicker of disappointment in her eyes, but it was too fleeting to tell for sure. “Would Olive or Sarah be able to be around the next few days for your preparations?”
“Probably.”
“Good. You should ask them to do so.”
She nodded. “I will.”
Otis rubbed his hand on his chin. “Don’t let his presence in town upset you or your excitement over the social.”
She ducked out of his arms. “I’ll try not to.”
***
Mabel tried to avoid Douglas but found it impossible. The day after her talk with Otis, she headed to Olive’s, but a voice called to her before she even left town.
“Mabel!”
She froze at the sound of his voice. Why did her traitorous heart skip a beat in excitement? After being away from him and around so many gritty Western men who treated her like a lady, she shouldn’t be reacting this way. Especially since her heart made the same skip when around Otis, only that one lasted longer.
Before she could ignore him and continue on, he caught up to her. “Mabel, I know you probably don’t want to see me, but please hear me out.”
She turned toward him and crossed her arms. “Make it quick.”
He took a deep breath. “I need to apologize. I know I treated you wrong and got to be too controlling. I’m sorry. I really am. I have come to realize I have lived a spoiled life and need to change. Can you ever forgive me?”
Mabel sucked in a breath through her teeth. “I forgave you before I left because I needed to.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m a Christian and God tells us to forgive our enemies. I’ve held a grudge before, too, and it never did any good.”
“Oh. Well, thanks. Is there any chance I could court you again?”
She held up her left hand, flashing the ring in his face. “Douglas, I got married almost two months ago.”
He shrugged. “In name only. Unless something has changed.”
She held back from slapping him and demanding who told on them and chose not to say anything.
“Yes or no?”
“If I say no, will you go home and stay there with no more threats?”
Douglas narrowed his eyes. “I would rather not.”
“Why?”
“I burned too many bridges in Fort Wayne. I needed to move on.”
“Fine. I don’t want you to court me, so please leave and go wherever you want to go. But not here.”
Douglas searched her face. “Do you love this man you married?”
Mabel pursed her lips. “That is none of your business.”
His smile somehow looked both triumphant and evil. “Ha! I knew it. You are married in name only and did it to get away from me. Please, just have dinner with me one time. If you still do not like me, I will leave.”
Mabel clenched her jaw. Had he been guessing the first time he mentioned the marriage of convenience? “Where?”
“Isn’t there a café here?”
The snort that erupted from her was very unladylike. “No.”
Douglas wrinkled his nose. “How can you stand this place? They don’t have anything here.”
“It’s quiet, has great people, and best of all, I finally get to be around my brother again.”
He shuddered. “I will hire one of the women to make us a picnic lunch.”
Mabel gritted her teeth. “I’ll think about it.” She started to walk away.
“I know you have no reason to believe me, but I do still love you.”
A butterfly escaped the cage in her stomach. “You’re right. I don’t believe you.” Her tone was fierce and her eyes flashed as she spun around. “Do you want to know why? Because I don’t believe you ever truly loved me in the first place. You loved me because I thought I was in love with you and you liked that feeling. When I got distracted with the wedding plans, that feeling wasn’t so warm and fuzzy anymore because I wasn’t as devoted to you.”
Douglas stumbled backward a step. “No. You are wrong.”
“Goodbye, Douglas. Get on the horse you rented, leave town, and never, ever come back.”
He worked his jaw but didn’t say a word.
Mabel turned and walked away as fast as she could without looking like she was running. A plethora of feelings rolled around and through her body. Had she just dismissed her final defense? What if Otis didn’t love her as much as she loved him? Who could she turn to then?
She sighed and trudged to Olive’s house.
***
Otis waited all week to hear Mabel say a word, a phrase, or anything about Douglas Willoughby. But she said nothing. Had he actually not talked to her? He knew that couldn’t be, but what did he know?
The day before the lunchbox social, Otis walked into the kitchen and saw a large vase of flowers on the table. “Did you pick some flowers?”
She didn’t even turn around. “No. They were left on the back step.”
“That’s odd.”
“Yes.”
“Any idea who—”
“Yes, but I told him to leave town. Unless he didn’t and has avoided me that well.”
Otis sat down. “You talked to him?”
She nodded.
“About what?”
She left the stove, sat down, folded her hands, and set them on the table, staring at them the whole time she relayed their conversation together.
He sighed, but inside, his heart hurt. She wanted to go back to him, she wanted to believe him. She couldn’t love Otis back because she still loved Douglas. Otis almost couldn’t get the next words out, “He hasn’t left.”
She glanced up. “He lied?”
“Does that surprise you?”
Her shoulders dropped. “No.”
She didn’t say anything for a while and he tried to work on patching up the wound in his heart.
Suddenly, she looked up, her eyes wide. “The social. He can’t be there. We can’t let him trick any other young women.”
Otis leaned across the table and put his hand on hers. “It’ll be fine. He only has eyes for you. Keep your box until last. The only thing I’m worried about is having enough money to outbid him.”
She started. “Why?”
He smiled, but his heart wasn’t in it. “I want to have a guaranteed, uninterrupted meal with my wife.”
She pulled her hands from his and stood up. “I have things to do.”
“Can I help?”
“No.”
Otis watched her flit around the kitchen for a few seconds and then trudged to his office to find something to busy himself with.
***
Otis escorted Mabel to the social and helped her put the finishing touches on the decorations. People trickled in wearing their Sunday best and he went out to talk and mingle. Mr. Willoughby came in after at least half the people had arrived. Otis watched him closely. Mr. Willoughby looked around, and when he caught sight of Mabel, his eyes never strayed from her. Even when he talked to other people.
After a while, Otis pasted a smile on his face and walked over to the unwanted guest. “Hello, Mr. Willoughby.”
He turned, tearing his eyes from Mabel. “Hello. Do I know you?”
“Not really. Mr. Parker is a mutual acquaintance of ours. You were at his wedding dance where we both met Mabel. My name is Otis Miller.”
“Ah. I thought you looked familiar.” He smiled and they shook hands. “You are the one who married Mabel.”
“Yes.”
“You will not mind if I eat lunch with her today, will you?”
Keeping the smile on his face was harder than he thought. “Yes, actually, I would.”
Mr. Willoughby looked him up and down. “We’ll see who wins the bidding, then.”
“Yes, we will.”
He walked away and Otis kept an eye on him the rest of the morning.
Everybody finally arrived and Mabel clapped her hands to quiet the crowd. “Thank you all for coming. As you know, this social is being held to raise money for the church. I hope you have all brought some money and your appetites. We’ll start the bidding with this lovely box.”
She went through all the boxes, saving her own for last.
The bidding for her box started at twenty-five cents and slowly went up from there. There were four men left counting Otis and Mr. Willoughby. The other two dropped out when Mr. Willoughby jumped from two-fifty to five. Otis bid seven-fifty.
“Eight.”
“Ten.”
“Twelve.”
“Fifteen.”
Mr. Willoughby checked his money. “Twenty.”
“Twenty-five.”
Otis didn’t look at him directly, but did watch him out of the corner of his eye. Otis could almost feel the questions. How much did Mr. Willoughby dare risk to try to outbid him? They were already close to what many cowboys and ranch hands earned in one month. Of course, Mr. Willoughby probably didn’t know that.
“Twenty-eight.”
Otis responded immediately. “Thirty.”
“Thirty-five.”
“Fifty.”
Mabel’s mouth fell open and a collective gasp murmured through the crowd. From what Otis recalled of the bids and numbers of lunches, his bid probably matched the total sum already raised.
“Sixty,” Mr. Willoughby said through clenched teeth.
“Seventy-five.”
Mr. Willoughby threw his hat on the ground. “He can have it. This is not over, Mr. Miller. Not over at all.”
Otis took a deep breath and headed to the table, enduring the multiple back slaps he got from the men he passed—including an extra hard one from Tyrel.
Mabel’s hand shook as he gave her the money. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“We can afford this?”
“Yes.”
Their eyes connected. “You made an enemy today.”
“I know. But I also think he would have already considered me an enemy.” Otis sighed. “Shall we go eat?”
She shook herself. “Yes, of course.”
Otis held out his arm and she slipped her elbow into his. He grabbed the box she had decorated with bits of scrap material. Most of them were from what she had left over from her first wedding dress. They found an open spot and sat down on the grass.
Mabel reached for the box, but Otis kept it out of her reach and opened it himself. The smell of grease, spices, and chicken came out as soon as the lid came off.
“Fried chicken?”
She nodded, biting her lip.
Otis removed the napkins that covered the food. “All of these are my favorites.”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“You did this on purpose?”
“Yes.”
He handed her a plate. “Let’s eat it then.”
***
Mabel watched Douglas out of the corner of her eye while trying to pay attention to what Otis said. Why did Douglas have to be so selfish? He was her definition of the perfect-looking man. He could talk so sweetly and give compliments at the drop of a hat.
Otis was handsome, but in a more rugged way. He also rarely, if ever, used sweet talk or gave compliments. One thing he had that Douglas didn’t was a strong set of morals and trust in God—the most important things in a husband.
She clenched her jaw and tore her thoughts away from two of the more important men in her life. She finally had Otis for a hopefully uninterrupted meal and she was wasting the opportunity.
“Have you heard a word I said?” he asked.
She grimaced. “Sorry. No, I haven’t.”
He chuckled. “I thought not. What were you thinking about?”
Mabel shrugged. “Nothing important. What were you talking about?”
He searched her face. “Nothing important.”
“Doctor stuff?”
A sheepish grin spread on his face. “Not at first. Only after I thought you weren’t really listening.”
“I’m sorry. Is there anything you wanted to talk about?”
He took a bite of his chicken and nodded. “What was your childhood like?”
Mabel smiled. “What do you want to know?”
“Do you have any other brothers or sisters? Were you poor or rich? What are your parents like?”
A voice came from behind them. “She has two brothers, they grew up in a middling family, not poor, not rich, and her parents are doting and kind.”
She closed her eyes as her chest tightened and her breathing grew heavy. Don’t react, don’t react, she repeated to herself.
“Mr. Willoughby,” Otis’s voice seemed to be coming from a tunnel, “this is a private conversation to which you were not invited. Please leave. I’ve been doing my best to be hospitable while you have been in town, but you are trying my patience.”
“You can’t throw me out,” he said.
Mabel’s eyes snapped open. “Yes, he can. His grandfather bought the land and built the town and mine. Otis inherited it.”
Douglas’s eyes narrowed. “So that is why you married him. For his money.”
“No!” She balled her hands into fists. “No, it isn’t. I think you actually have more money than he does. I married him because he was the only man in town I knew well enough to trust.”
“And he had plenty of—”
“Leave now, please,” Otis interrupted him. “Before we both do and say something we’ll regret. This is the last time I will ask you politely to leave town. Next time I will not be so polite.”
Douglas bowed and walked toward the street.
Mabel sucked in a breath, held it a few seconds, then let it out.
“You okay?” Otis asked.
She nodded, then shook her head. “No, but I’ll be fine. To answer your questions, I have two older brothers. I am exactly seven years younger than Tyrel. I wanted to be married on our shared birthday, but that dream faded with each thing Douglas did.
“Papa had a good job and we were better off than many people in town, but not wealthy like your grandfather and Douglas. My parents are hard-working, kind, generous, and probably spoiled me more than they should have.”
He laughed, though it sounded a little forced. “You were their only daughter. Of course they spoiled you. Let me guess, you were always the princess and your brothers were the knights and dragon?”
A spark of joy bubbled up in her as memories flooded back. “Not always. There were a few times, especially as I got older, and learned about the suffragettes, that I refused to be the helpless maid and I slayed the dragon.”
Otis’s eyes widened. “I didn’t expect that.”
“Why should you have?”
Someone came over. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but it looks like everyone is basically done.”
Mabel nodded. “I have to go thank everyone.”
“Can I join you?”
She nodded and he followed her up to the table.
“Thank you all for coming and for your generous donations. I hope you had a good time and enjoy the rest of your day. Remember to join us this evening for the dance.”
They went back to where their lunch had been, but it was gone and none of the couples were nearby anymore.
“Odd,” Otis said.
Mabel sighed. “Quite odd. Shall we take the decorations down?”
“Sure. I’ll start with the ones that are up high.”