Oh, she waited on her, eventually, and she wasn’t exactly rude, but the blonde woman gave new meaning to the term ‘cold shoulder.’ Making her jealous was a huge mistake, both for Cara and Matt. Laurie was barely speaking to him and the odds of getting her to marry him were fading every day. Due to that, Cara was currently not Matt’s favorite person either.
Despite her gentle probing, Cara was frustrated when not one person seemed to know Laurie Dixon’s maiden name, nor where her folks came from. All they knew about her were a few details regarding her disastrous marriage to Floyd Dixon and his subsequent death.
Most everyone in town liked the young widow and frequently sang her praises. Talk was, there were other men eager to make her their own, including the marshal, but none had met with success. In fact, the closest thing to a male friend was none other than Matthew Whittaker, and thanks to Cara’s intervention, he wasn’t in her good graces, either. Hell, she’d made things worse, not better.
It was pure luck that she ran into Laurie’s three boys at the mercantile.
“My goodness,” she exclaimed, leaning down. “You handsome fellows must be Laurie’s sons, Jonah, Josiah, and Jacob. I’ll bet she’s proud of you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jonah beamingly replied. “She says she is.”
“I know for a fact that it’s true,” Cara continued. “Why, just the other day, she was telling me exactly that.”
“You know our Ma?”
“I sure do. We’re great friends. In fact, we went to school together back in…”
“Whishata,” Josiah chirped in, his lisp darling.
“Yes, Wichita,” Cara nodded, smiling. “How about I treat you each to a peppermint stick?” she suggested happily. “It would do my heart good.”
“Oh, that would be fine,” replied the boy, who looked to be around six years old. “I’m Jacob and she likes me best!”
“She does not,” Jonah and Josiah contradicted in unison. “You’re just the baby, that’s all.”
Cara quickly diverted the argument.
“I’m sure she loves you all just the same. Now, let’s go and pick one out for each of you. I have a bit of a sweet tooth myself,” she admitted, whispering, as though they all shared a great secret.
At the counter, she let them each pick out their favorite and chose one for herself. Outside on the boardwalk, they began to stroll after taking the wrapping off the candy.
“And how are your mother’s folks? I’ve been meaning to ask her, but I keep forgetting?”
“Gramma Mahoney died just before Pa,” the oldest replied, his candy still in his mouth. “Ma’s pa is still alive, but she don’t have nothin’ to do with him. Says he’s mean just like our Pa was,” he continued a bit sadly.
“Oh my, that’s a shame,” Cara sighed. “Tell me, the School Marm always called your Ma by another name, but for the life of me I can’t recall it.”
“It’s Lorraine, but Ma don’t like it. She says it sounds too prissy for her when she’s just an ordinary gal,” Jonah answered.
“It’s a lovely name. I think Laurie is pretty too. Do you boys think your Ma will ever marry again? I’d like to see her not having to work so hard,” Cara said sadly.
“We wanted her to, thought she might marry up with Matt, but it don’t appear so,” Josiah said.
“Why not?”
“She says he likes another lady, but we don’t see how that could be so. He’s always been so taken with our Ma.”
“I can’t believe that either. Perhaps she’s mistaken.”
“We hope so. Ain’t none of us would mind having Matt be our Pa.”
“He is very nice,” Cara agreed. “Maybe things will still work out.”
“Maybe. We gotta go. Ma will be looking for us. We’ll tell her you asked about her.”
“Yes, you do that.”
“Thanks for the candy stick,” Josiah called over his shoulder before hurrying to catch up with his brothers.
