Page 45 of Her Summer Hope

Evans came into the room with a handful of meat in his fingers. “Hey, Madison, do you have any more of that horseradish sauce? That damned barbarian stole the whole bowl, just took it right out the back door to the woods with him!”

She grinned, slightly relieved that she’d been stopped before she could blurt out her life situation. “Which barbarian?”

“Murdock! The only barbarian in the house!” he complained.

“Says the man holding a fistful of beef in the living room,” she snickered and walked past Kyle to go to the kitchens. She was sure that wasn’t the end of their conversation.

Wyatt was giving her puppy dog eyes. “Sauce?”

“Yeah. I’ll bring out the cake too,” she relented.

“Sweet.”

∞∞∞

She managed to avoid talking to Kyle again for the next several days.

The bookshop was extremely busy due to a special sale they were having, so she had no time to sit and think about anything. Christian watched her occasionally with an expression that she couldn’t understand.

It seemed like an assessing kind of look, and slightly sad.

Saturday dawned much the same as every other day. It was warm, but not hot, and the shop was still teeming with people from the time it opened. Christian had set up a small stall outside with their more eclectic works which she was responsible for managing.

Farther up the street, the farmer’s market was bustling in the brilliant sunshine. Late colorful vegetables were piled high in bushel baskets and lined up neatly on tables under the bright awnings. Saturdays were one of her favorite days in Endurance.

She only wished she could bring the kids more often.

There were small booths for children and others that offered paintings, lemonade, and raffles, among other things. The holiday atmosphere was charming and it lightened her burdens a little just to be a part of it.

Christian beckoned her into his office as soon as she had hung up her purse. “Can I speak to you for a minute?”

She nodded, puzzled.

He shut the door behind them and then licked his lips, seemingly nervous. “Madison, I…there is something I want to ask you and I don’t really know how to begin.”

“At the beginning?” she suggested, amused and slightly wary.

He flashed her a rare little smile and leaned back onto his desk, studying her face. “You know I have the utmost respect for you as a…a person and a mother. You are an attractive woman and a trustworthy one. I know your situation with the house and the kids and well…I think maybe there’s a way that I can help.”

She waited.

“Well, we’ve known each other for…quite a while now. I know that I’m considerably older than you and that I’m not the most exciting person or the most handsome, but I think we could have a good life together. I would treat your children as if they were my own and I would cherish you and respect you. Would you consider becoming my wife?”

She sat down abruptly in the hard wooden chair across from him, thoughts racing through her head a mile a minute.

“I’m not wealthy, obviously, but as my wife, you wouldn’t have all the financial worries that you do now. You could have the same freedom to work or not, your choice.”

She frowned. “But what about you?”

He looked surprised. “Me?”

She nodded and he studied his hands before looking back up at her.

“Look, I’m not that great at meeting people, and when I went through my twenties and thirties and never met anyone I could see a long-term relationship with, I just gave up I guess. Like I said, I have a lot of respect for you, Madison. I like you and your companionship and partnership would mean the world to me. I think I could make you happy if you let me. Maybe you aren’t in love with me, but I think over time we could be something to each other. A comfort, at the very least.”

As far as proposals go, it was definitely a few steps up from John’s ‘you cook good meat, marry me’ and she knew Christian was serious.

The thing was, she probably could grow to love him a little. He was solid and dependable, respectable and responsible. He maybe wasn’t an overtly nice man, but he was kind—and kindness in a man was underrated. He was also selfless.