“No one has ever said anything like that to me before.”
Charley’s face was an inch from hers. He breathed deep and said, “You always smell like fresh straw.”
Melissa leaned against him. Her warm breath fanned his cheek.
“Your skin is like a bowl of milk. I sometimes wish I were a cat so I could lap it up.”
“Lap all you want,” Melissa said softly, her arms rising around his neck.
The next fifteen minutes were paradise. Her kisses were molten honey, and the sensations she sparked in him were as delicious as hot apple pie. He never wanted to stop, but at length she eased back a trifle and rested her head on his shoulder.
“This is the happiest day of my life.”
The next words came out of Charley’s mouth in a rush. He had no conscious awareness of wanting to say them at that exact moment, although he had been thinking about saying them ever since he met her. “Will you marry me?”
Her gasp this time was a lot louder.
Charley waited. And waited some more. And when he couldn’t take the suspense any longer, he said, “Well?”
“A man should never ask a question like that lightly.”
Of all the things she could say, that was one Charley hadn’t foreseen. He pondered it, trying to unravel its true meaning. Women were unusual that way. They said one thing but meant something else. In this instance, the best he could reply was, “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life. You’re all I think about. But I would understand if you don’t feel the same. I’m not the best catch in the pond.”
“Oh, Charley.”
“If I’ve stepped too far past the rail, just say so, and I’ll never bring it up again.”
“Men are so silly.”
Charley took that as confirmation she wasn’t interested in tying the knot. The celestial spectacle above them seemed to break apart and come crashing down to earth.
“I don’t mean to be. It’s just how I am.”
“Yes, Charley,” Melissa said and kissed his neck. Something damp trickled down it.
Was that a tear? Charley wondered. She had him so confused, it was pitiful. “Yes, what? Yes, I’m silly? Yes, I went too far and should never bring the subject up again?”
“Yes, I will marry you.”
Charley never had every part of his body freeze up on him before. His tongue, his mouth, his heart, everything stopped, and soon his chest started to hurt because he wasn’t breathing. He sucked in a long breath and let it out again to get his lungs to work. “You mean that? Cross your heart?”
“Kiss me, Charley.”
He did. Again and again and again. Joy filled him until he was fit to explode, and when she leaned her cheek on his shoulder again, he was panting and tingling clear down to his toes. “I’ll be a suck-egg mule.”
“You’ll be my husband, Charley Pickett. We might never be rich, but we’ll have each other. We’ll live on a small farm and raise as many children as you want, and when we’re old and grey, we’ll sit on rocking chairs on our porch and look back at all the happy times, and we’ll be content. When we go to our graves, we’ll go knowing we did the best we could with what we had, and no one can ask more.”
“Yes!” Charley said, seeing it all so plain, as if they had already lived it. “That’s exactly how it will be.” He hugged her, and tears filled his eyes. It didn’t make sense to be crying at the most joyous moment of his life, and he tried to blink them away.
“When did you have in mind, Charley? I’m not fussy. If you want a justice of the peace instead of a minister, that’s fine by me. All I ask is that I get to wear a new dress, and I want some flowers I can press in a book and save to always remind me of the occasion.”
Charley hadn’t thought that far ahead and admitted it.
“That’s all right. First we’ll settle this Hoodoo business. Then you can take me anywhere in the world you want us to go. Anywhere at all. I’m not one of those women who will always be making demands, Charley. A house, a farm, children: that’s all I want.”
To Charley that seemed an awful lot, but all that was down the road. Right now the important thing was that she had said yes. He felt her hand caress the back of his neck, and he had a terrible thought. “Oh Lordy! What have I done?”
Melissa pulled back. “Having second thoughts?”
“Never in a million years.” Charley grasped her small hands in his big ones. “I just realized. When a man proposes, he’s supposed to give his girl a ring.” His voice broke, and his eyes misted over worse than ever. “I don’t have one.”
“Is that all?” Melissa touched his damp cheek. “You sweet, adorable infant, you. The ring isn’t important right now. It’s the love that counts.” She paused. “You do love me, don’t you?”
Charley was shocked on two accounts. First, he didn’t much like being called an “infant.” It implied he wasn’t mature enough to know what he was doing. Second, he wouldn’t have asked her to marry him if he didn’t love her. “I love you more than any man has ever loved any woman ever.”
“Then why don’t you say it.”
Charley thought he just had, but he humored her. “I love you.” He was rewarded with another fifteen minutes of passion the likes of which about scorched him alive. His wedding night promised to be a night most men would die for.
Melissa put her forehead on his chest and gripped his arms tight. “You do things to me.” She trembled, then looked up, as radiant as the sun. “We should get back. Do we tell the others or keep it our little secret?”
“Whichever you want.” Were it up to Charley, he would shout it to the world at the top of his lungs.
“I’d rather keep it to ourselves. It’s more special that way.”
Arm in arm, they headed toward the fire. Charley’s feet weren’t touching the ground. He was floating along like a leaf blown on the wind.
Enos was flat on his back, his arms wrapped around an empty bottle. His snores were loud enough to be heard in Arkansas.
“Back so soon?” Tony was eating some rabbit. He grinned at Charley, who was sure his face must be beet red.
Melissa detached herself, walked over to Tony, and thrust out her hand. “I’m declaring a truce between us. From this moment on, what you did in Denver is forgotten.”
“I had already forgotten it. You are the one who will not.”
Charley had to find out. “I don’t suppose either of you would see fit to finally tell me what has been going on?”
“He touched me,” Melissa said.
“Touched you how?” Charley asked, and even as he said it, he knew, or thought he did, and blazing fury coursed through his veins, fury as surprising as it was intense, because this was Tony they were talking about, and Tony was his best friend.
Tony muttered something in Italian. “How many times must I say I am sorry for the same offense? Accidents happen. Believe it or not, not everyone is as anxious to put their hands on you as Charley is.”
“You shouldn’t say things like that,” Charley said, barely able to keep himself under control. He glanced at Melissa. “Tell me,” he commanded and received another surprise when, without any hesitation, she did.
“Tony used to stop by every day and buy a potato, just like you. He would always say how much I reminded him of a girl he knew in the Old Country. The kind of things men always say when they want a woman to be interested in them.”
Charley thought of Maria, and his fury melted like mountain snow under a midday sun. Melissa had jumped to the wrong conclusion.
“Anyway, one day I turned to get some potatoes out of my sack, and it was closer than I thought, and I tripped over it. Next thing I knew, Tony had his hands around me, and was touching my—” Melissa looked down at her chest. “He says he caught me so I wouldn’t hurt myself, but I know how men are.”