“She’s a good-looking woman. I didn’t even recognize her at first. Though in all fairness, she was pointing a shotgun at me.”
“What?” Rose laughed.
“I was poking around the place, looking for someone to help me find Mama, and when I opened the bunkhouse door, there stood Maggie, pointing the double-barrel at my face.”
Rose threw back her head with laughter.
It made Will feel good to see her enjoying herself. He knew the last few weeks had been an absolute nightmare.
But Rose had adapted quickly.
That was a family trait.
“So are you gonna marry her?” Rose asked, nearly knocking him out of his saddle.
“Marry her?”
“Why not?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Why?”
Will sputtered, having no real answer, then settled lamely on, “I just got home.”
“All right. So you just got home. You can marry her in a few days.”
He quirked an eyebrow at his grinning sister.
Grinning… but serious.
He could see she meant it.
“Being locked up in Pew’s house must’ve messed up your head, Rose.”
“No, it didn’t. But it did give me time to think. And since I knew you’d come to save me, I got to thinking that you should marry Maggie.”
“She’s just a kid,” he said.
“If you saw her bathing in the creek, you wouldn’t say that,” Rose said. “She is all woman now.”
Will’s face burned at his sister’s words.
Rose laughed. “Will Bentley, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you blush. She’s white as milk under those clothes. Whitest skin I’ve ever seen. Except for a few pale freckles on her?—"
“That’s enough of that sort of talk,” Will said. His voice came out sort of strange and husky.
This made Rose laugh all the harder. When she recovered, she said, “I’m serious, though, Will. You should marry her. You two are perfect for each other.”
“I don’t even know her.”
“Don’t know her? Now you’re just being difficult. Maggie and I have been best friends our whole lives. You’ve known her since the day she was born.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know her now. All I ever knew was a pain-in-the-neck kid. And she doesn’t know me, either. Besides, you’re forgetting her end of the deal. A pretty young thing like Maggie wouldn’t want to hitch her wagon to somebody like me.”
“You’re crazy, Will. Maggie loves you. She always has.”
“Loved me? She always messed with me while I tried to work.”
