Twice Blessed Read Online Free PDF

was very much at ease, wiping sweat from the back of his neck with his shirtsleeve. She noted tiny, perfect stitches where the sleeve had been recently mended. Her stomach cramped with sorrow, and she had to swallow her gasp. That the man obviously had a wife should not disturb her so much.
    â€œYou don’t owe me an apology,” she replied, struggling to make her voice have its normal cheerfulness. “You were angry, and rightfully so.”
    â€œRightfully so? That’s a change of heart for you.” He smiled at her.
    She wished he had not, for he had one of those smiles that could be described only as devastatingly charming. Miles had had a smile like that, too. She had promised herself she never would be suckered into believing a man’s disarming smile again. And she had not … until now.
    â€œMr. Sawyer, I assure you it isn’t a change of heart.” She did not add that she had refused to let her heart change in any way during the past seven years. It was set on the course she had chosen when she fled Kansas in the middle of the night. “The boy was wrong to be poking about in your wagon, but curiosity isn’t a crime in Indiana.”
    â€œI thought Hoosiers were known for minding their own business.”
    â€œHaven is like every small town. Gossip brightens many lives around here.”
    â€œBut not yours?”
    She needed to put an end to this conversation straightaway. All she had to do was excuse herself and go into the store to do any of a dozen tasks waiting for her. Yet she lingered, intrigued by his easy strength and his warm eyes.
    â€œI find,” she said, “it is simpler not to listen and trouble oneself about things that may not be true.”
    â€œA good credo.”
    â€œCredo?” she repeated, in spite of herself.
    â€œA credo is—”
    â€œI know what it is. I just haven’t heard anyone use the word around here in everyday conversation.”
    His face closed up as if she had accused him of stealing that seed from her store. Hefting the other bag into the buckboard, he motioned toward the door and said in the cool tone he had used before, “If you don’t mind, Miss Delancy, I’d like to settle up for this so I can get back to my farm in time to do the evening chores.”
    â€œYes … yes, of course.” Emma edged around the wagon to step up onto the porch. Noah Sawyer had to be the oddest man she had ever met. She had no idea why he was getting all testy over a comment she had meant as a compliment.
    His hands grasped her waist and swung her up to stand on the porch. Those wide hands sent heat through her blouse and corset to sear her skin and weaken her knees. She teetered, then grabbed one of the supports holding up the roof. The hands on either side of her waist kept her from tumbling back to the ground.
    â€œAre you all right?” asked Mr. Sawyer, with what sounded like muffled amusement.
    Emma looked down at him from the porch and frowned when she saw the mirth in his eyes. “Mr. Sawyer, I don’t know how things are done where you come from, but around here, women aren’t manhandled.”
    â€œWithout their permission?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI shall remember that the next time I halt a lady from walking blindly into a puddle.”
    â€œA puddle?”
    He pointed to what she knew was not water, because she saw the horse droppings beside it.
    â€œThank you,” she murmured.
    â€œMy pleasure.”
    â€œYou can release me now. I’m not in danger of falling off the porch.” She put her hands over his at her waist.
    The humor vanished from his eyes, and they burned with a far stronger emotion. His gaze cut into her, threatening to tear away the façade she had built with such care. Jumping up onto the porch beside her, he moved so they stood facing each other. His hands slid around her waist in a questing caress, and her breathing came fast and uneven in