A Kiss for Cade Read Online Free PDF Page A

when they came to visit.
    “Well, well. Cade Kolby.” The old man got up to shake hands. “Heard you were coming back.” Chuckling, he studied Cade from head to toe. “You’ve grown a bit.”
    Cade clasped Pop’s hand affectionately. “I was born taller than you,” he teased. Actually, the last time Cade had seen him, the sheriff had been thirty pounds lighter and had fewer wrinkles.
    “Aw, I’m falling apart, but at sixty-eight, who’s complaining?” He smoothed his mustache with his forefinger and then rubbed the bald spot on top of his head.
    “I thought you might have turned in your badge by now.”
    “Nah, I’ll be here until they throw dirt in my face.” A wide grin split the older man’s face. “Look at you.” He squeezed Cade’s bicep. “All muscled up. Hard to believe you were that tall, scrawny whippersnapper who used to come in here, nosing into everything.”
    Cade glanced at the empty cell. “Looks like business is booming.”
    Pop laughed. “Chicken thieves are about it. Oh, and there was that bank robbery last year that got Zoe’s husband killed. We had that criminal for two days. Poor Jim Bradshaw. Just standing there making a deposit and bam! Shot dead.”
    “Addy wrote me about that. Zoe must have taken it real hard.”
    “You know Zoe. She’s tough as a boot.”
    Cade smiled. She certainly hadn’t had any trouble expressing herself a few minutes ago. His gaze roamed the small room. The jail hadn’t changed. It had the same battered wooden desk, potbellied stove, a couple of straight-backed chairs, and one cell that, if things were still as they had been before, wasn’t used much.
    Sitting down again at his desk, Pop propped up his feet and crossed his arms at the back of his neck. “So. Heard you got Luke Biglow.”
    Cade straddled a chair and sat down. “Luke and I bumped into each other around Houston a few months ago.”
    “Heard the reward was mighty hefty.”
    “Some people are worth more dead than alive.”
    “Tell me about it. Look at this.” Pop held up a handful of wanted posters. “Half my time’s spent nailing these up around town.”
    Cade took the notices from him and leafed through them, handing them back without comment.
    Pop’s features sobered. “Sure sorry about Addy and John. Sad for those young’uns. Zoe’s had her hands full lately.”
    “Maybe that’s why she’s in such a foul mood. She just threw me out of her store.”
    “She did? And you lookin’ so pretty.” Pop winked. “How long you stayin’?”
    “Not long.”
    “You plan on raising the kids? If not, there’s an Amish couple over near Salina that might be interested. But, you know, the Brightons sure do want ’em.”
    “The Brightons? Frank and Helen? Aren’t they a little old to take on four youngsters?”
    “Not Frank and Helen. They’re close to sixty now. Frank’s youngest boy and his wife, Seth and Bonnie. They got three of their own, but they want more. They’ve sent word they’d sure like to be considered. Seth’s building another room on and said he wants to have a whole houseful.”
    Cade got up and moved to the window. His gaze traced the town where he’d spent his youth. “I can’t keep them, Pop. I know that’s what Addy hoped I’d do, but I can’t.”
    Pop dropped his feet to the floor and leaned forward. “I guess it’s a jolt to have four kids dropped into your lap.”
    Cade watched a wagon pull up in front of Zoe’s store. “They’ll need a better home than I can give them.” Pa and Ma had gone to their graves thinking their son had turned away from God. He hadn’t turned away, but he sure wasn’t the son Pa deserved. When he’d ridden away that day, he thought he was smarter than most. There were pennies on the dollar to be made around Winterborn. His family needed much more. The boys in this town could stick around and farm if they wanted, but he was looking for a better way to support the family. Pa pastored the local church until he