An awkward silence hung in the air as he slowly moved around the room, checking things out before stopping by the window to peer outside. She felt jittery. She wished her mind would work properly.
“Um, Mr. Dalton? Are you hungry?”
He turned to look at her. “No. But I would like to see the wainwright shop if that’s all right.”
“Of course.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “And my family is there, so I’ll introduce you to them all.”
“Splendid.”
She turned back down the hallway, anxious to be around other people. Marrying a stranger would be difficult, but she must adjust. It was better than living a lonely existence, knowing the man she truly loved would never want her as a wife.
“Miss Murphy.” Mr. Dalton grasped her arm, stopping her before she reached the stairs. “Before we go meet your family, there is something I must do first.”
As she waited for him to explain, she wasn’t prepared when he took her in his arms and placed his mouth over hers. She stiffened, and her first instinct was to slap his face and kick his shin for taking such liberties... until she remembered that he would soon be her husband. Still, it was difficult to allow him to kiss her when she immediately compared him to Colt. Poor Mr. Dalton came up lacking.
Finally, the man ended the kiss and stepped back. At first, she saw confusion in his expression, but then he smiled at her.
“Forgive me for surprising you like that, but I felt by kissing you, we could get rid of the awkwardness between us.”
She laughed uncomfortably. “Yes, well... I suppose it needed to be done.”
“It did.”
She straightened and turned back toward the stairs. “Now, let’s go to the shop and meet my family.”
As she led the way, Mr. Dalton’s kiss wouldn’t leave her mind. He was gentle and not forceful at all. He smelled nice. And if she hadn’t have kissed Colt, she would have thought Mr. Dalton might be able to make her swoon a time or two. Yet, he wasn’t Colt.
How was she going to give her heart and soul to Mr. Dalton when she couldn’t stop thinking about Colt? She wasn’t looking forward to her wedding now.
* * * *
COLT STOOD BY THE FIREPLACE, heating the steel bar so that it would be soft enough to bend. On warm days like today, this was one thing he wished he wasn’t doing. However, it must be done to make the steel bar do what he wanted it to do. If only people were this easy. He hadn’t wanted to come to this little town to help his father, but his grandfather was the one holding Colt over the fire until he bent to the old man’s request.
Tightening his hold on the bar, he rotated it slightly. His grandfather’s inheritance was a lot of money – more than Colt would ever see in a lifetime. Being the oldest grandson, Colt would do anything to get the money. Yet, breaking Blaze’s heart and seeing her marry another man would make him want to leave this place before the year was up.
They could never go back to being friends. Not now, after sharing two steamy kisses and talking about their feelings. Not after holding her while she felt rejected when her mail-order groom ditched her and how Colt’s heart wrenched for her.
There was no denying he loved her and that she fit perfectly in his arms. Yet, he wanted her in his life all the time, and marrying her would only pull them apart. He was too much like his father and couldn’t stay in one place for very long. Colt saw the strain on his parents’ marriage as he was growing up, and then when his mother had become sick, his father acted as if she wasn’t important in his life, and Colt’s father moved them again, which killed her.
Because Colt loved Blaze so much, he couldn’t put her through that. She deserved happiness and a life married to the same man – until death.
He took the hot bar to his workstation and began to hammer the rod until it bent the way he wanted. So involved in his miserable thoughts, he didn’t realize the others had stopped working. Their voices lifted in excitement.
Colt lifted his gaze. Across the room stood a very alluring woman next to a man. Colt didn’t see the man as much as he studied Blaze. Maybe it was a good thing she didn’t dress pretty like this all of the time. Thinking of her this way only played with his emotions.
“This is Mr. Kent Dalton... My soon-to-be husband,” Blaze exclaimed mere seconds before her gaze rested on Colt. “He missed yesterday’s stagecoach, and so he arrived today.”
Shock spread through Colt, making him drop his hammer.No!This couldn’t be right.
“Dalton?” George asked, struggling to get out of his chair. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to Edward and Martha Dalton, would you?”
Kent’s smile widened, almost appearing victorious, which Colt didn’t understand. And yet, there could be only one reason why his cousin was suddenly in Blaze’s life.
“Yes, Uncle George.” Kent nodded. “Edward and Martha are my parents.”
Gasps exploded in the room, coming mostly from Blaze. Her eyes were wide as she moved her attention between George and Colt.
“You... are George’s nephew?” Blaze asked in a high-pitched voice as her gaze landed on Kent. “Did you know that before you answered my newspaper ad?”
“I didn’t.” Shaking his head, Kent placed his hand to his chest. “It’s definitely an odd coincidence.”
“Coincidence, my hide,” Colt snapped as he marched toward the well-dressed man and stopped in front of his cousin. “This was planned. I’ll bet good money on it.”
Blaze hitched a breath and stepped in between Colt and his cousin as she glared at Colt. “Just stop it now.” She pushed her hands against Colt’s chest, moving him back a few steps. “There was no way for Mr. Dalton to know that I lived with my aunt and her husband because I had never mentioned them in the few correspondences we had.”
“Son,” George placed a hand on Colt’s shoulder. “Calm down. Kent didn’t know. I haven’t talked with my sister for several years. She didn’t know we had moved here.”
Colt clenched his teeth. Perhaps Kent’s mother didn’t know they had moved, but there was one person who knew. Grandfather... the man who tried to control everyone’s lives and who might succeed in ruining Colt’s life.
