I yanked my hand back like I’d been burned and left the piece of paper in his hand.
“I’m sorry. I saw you and your husband in church the first week you moved here. I wondered why you stopped coming. Then I heard the screaming that night and… well, I figured you could use some encouragement.”
He’d seen us at church? We’d only been one time, and then James died.
“I don’t need encouragement. I need my husband back.” A tear slipped free, and I swiped it away quickly.
“I understand that.” He nodded, his eyebrows knotting together in the center of his forehead.
“You couldn’t possibly,” I shot back, “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bother trying to fix the broken widow.”
His eyes widened suddenly as he looked at something behind me, and then he took off running that way. “Buster, don’t even think about it!” he screamed.
I spun just in time to see his black-and-white border collie lunge for Honey. The dang chicken had followed me over here!
The cowboy dove, grabbing the dog and doing a roll as Honey clucked and flapped her wings to get away from the dog.
“You silly chicken!” I yelled at the hen and ran over to where she was. “You followed me here? You could have been killed!” I scolded her.
The cowboy stood, dirt covering his entire left side as he held a whining dog in his hands. “Buster is a working cattle dog who also doubles as a bird dog when I go hunting. Chickens are dinner around here,” he told me, eyeing Honey warily.
I swooped down and grabbed Honey, pulling her into my arms, and he finally let Buster down.
Now that the dog was free, it sat patiently at my feet and peered up at the hen in my arms, licking its lips.
I was about to open my mouth to thank the cowboy for saving my hen when Honey began to purr. Honest to God, the chicken vibrated in my arms, eyes half-lidded and purring like a cat.
My eyes widened as I stared at the man who was watching me holding my purring chicken, and amusement danced in his gaze.
“Is this normal?” I asked him. He seemed to know more about chickens than I did.
He chuckled. “Little known fact. Chickens purr when highly content. Looks like you got yourself a best friend.”
Wow. I hadn’t known that. I’d been nothing but mean to this man, and he was so gracious with me. I felt so embarrassed and shameful I didn’t even know where to begin in apologizing to him.
“I… I’m…” I sighed, and he just gazed at me as if patiently waiting for me to find my words. “I’ve been in rare form lately and awfully rude to you, and I’m sorry. I just… I’m not myself,” I told him, hoping he would not judge my whole character based on these few horrible interactions we’d had. We were neighbors, and I didn’t want bad blood between us.
He gave me a sad smile. “I understand completely. Don’t worry about it.”
It was a sweet thing to say, but he couldn’t possibly understand my grief. Still, I was grateful he was accepting my apology, but I needed to kindly push that I no longer wanted the wood and Bible verses.
I opened my mouth to tell him as much when the front door slammed, and I jerked my head in that direction. I expected his wife or maybe a kid to step out and tell him it was lunchtime, but instead, an older woman in her seventies with a long silver braid over one shoulder came out onto the porch.
“Hi there!” She waved as she walked over to me, wearing a big smile.
The guy took his cowboy hat off as if it weren’t allowed in this woman’s presence.
He leaned into me. “Quick, what’s your name? I just realized I never introduced myself, and she’ll kill me if she knows.”
“Knows what?” the woman said over his shoulder, and he jumped a little.
“Hey, Maggie. This is…our new neighbor,” he said, and I grinned at seeing him squirm under the woman’s gaze.
She looked like his grandmother. At least, I assumed she was his grandmother based on the age and the same blue eyes.
“I’m Ella. What is your name? You never introduced yourself,” I told him playfully and held out my hand.
He gave me a withering glare as if I’d just started a feud, and I couldn’t help the smile that played on my lips.
