Miss Hazel slept in again the following morning. Well, she at least stayed in the bedroom while Jess made breakfast for the Mounties again. They arrived right on time, and Jess blushed when she saw Theodore. Was he thinking about their kisses like she was?

When everyone was sitting, she gave them each an omelet and put a basket of muffins in the middle of the table. “I have another pan of muffins in the oven, so don’t worry about taking extra,” she said. “I have another omelet for you as well, Nolan. I know you’ll never make it to lunch with only one.”

Nolan nodded his thanks, his mouth already full. Once he’d finished chewing, he said to Theodore, “You’re the dumbest man alive if you let this one go.”

Theodore didn’t comment, just concentrated on his breakfast. He watched the way the other Mounties interacted with Jess, and he wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. On the one hand, he liked that she was friendly with his co-workers…but on the other, every time she smiled at one of them, he wanted to announce that she was his.

Jess talked to each of the Mounties as if they were important to her, making it clear she remembered little details she knew about them. When Nolan finished his first omelet, she jumped up to get him another. She talked to Kendall about his singing, and asked Joel if he was enjoying his time out in the field instead of having to work in the office.

She didn’t have a lot to say to Elijah, but she had an amused look on her face every time she looked at him. Finally, she said, “I have my scissors with me. Would you like me to cut your hair, Elijah?”

Elijah shook his head. His curl flopped onto his forehead, and he pushed it away quickly. “It doesn’t matter if my hair is cut short or not. It always does this.”

“Well, the offer’s open if you want me to do it while I’m here.”

Theodore knew his emotions were ridiculous, but that didn’t change them at all. He wanted her to get along with his co-workers, but he didn’t want her to get along that well! He took her hand in his, knowing they’d take that as a sign she was taken. “Are you going to have lunch with me again today?”

Jess was startled by his clear announcement that they were courting, but she nodded. “If you’d like. I need to do laundry and mending today, but I’d be happy to throw together some lunch in the midst of all that.”

“If you don’t mind, that would be wonderful. I’d definitely rather spend time with you at lunch than eat at my desk.”

Jess smiled. “All right. Do you want me to bring lunch to you, or do you want to come here?”

“I’ll come to you.” He nodded toward the closed bedroom door. “Mom can join us if she wants.”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll take her lunch outside or hide in there and read while you’re here. She’s determined we spend as much time alone together as possible.”

Theodore smiled. “For once, my mother and I are in complete agreement.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.

The other men slowly excused themselves, seeming a little embarrassed by the conversation. After they’d left, Jess frowned at him. “What was that about? I was beginning to wonder if you were going to make a sign saying that I was yours and hang it around my neck.”

He frowned at her. “Well, we’re courting. You shouldn’t be flirting with them.”

“Flirting?” Jess stood up, angry with him. “What was I doing that was flirting?” She began clearing the table, stacking dishes loudly. How on earth could he have taken her innocent conversation as flirtation?

“You made sure that Nolan knew you made him extra breakfast. And you offered to cut Elijah’s hair!”

She dumped the dishes into the basin and crossed her arms over her chest. “Nolan is always hungry and Elijah needs a haircut!”

“Maybe so, but you don’t need to be the one to do it!”

“I’m not sure that I want to have lunch with you today, Theodore.” She turned her back on him as she poured hot water from the kettle into the sink. “I won’t put up with you being jealous when I’m just being kind.”

Theodore closed his eyes for a moment. He knew she was right, but he didn’t care at that moment. “So because I got upset, I don’t get to eat lunch? Really?”

She stood there, washing the dishes, wondering why he was still there. What was wrong with him? Finally, she said, “Aren’t you going to be late for work?”

He walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, turning her around. “I guess I was being ridiculous, wasn’t I?”

She nodded. “Your mother made it clear that our job while we were here was to make life better for all of you—not just you. So I’ve been endeavoring to do that.”

“I’m sorry.” He pulled her into his arms, holding her close. “Will you forgive me?”

Jess tilted her head to one side. “I suppose I can do that.”

He smiled, leaning down to brush his lips against hers. “Well, then maybe I can come for lunch? If you don’t mind?”

“Yeah, I’ll cook something. But be nicer about your friends being around. They don’t get good homecooked meals very often either.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have been so rude.” Theodore rushed toward the door. “I’ll see you at noon.”

Jess stared at the door after he’d closed it. First he didn’t want her, and now he wanted her and got jealous with everyone who looked at her. She worried about his mental health.

Turning back to the basin, she finished washing the dishes, then started boiling the water again for laundry. It was going to be a busy day, but she would leave her mark on his cabin after she left. Every time he slipped into his bed with the clean sheets, he’d think of her. Every time he wore a sock that didn’t have a hole in it, he’d think of her.

She hurried to start her day. He’d be home for lunch in four and a half hours.

* * *

When Theodore left the office for his lunch hour, he was reluctant to see Jess. He felt like he’d made a fool of himself with the way he’d acted at breakfast time. She’d said she’d forgiven him, but she shouldn’t have to put up with jealousy from him. She’d given him no reason to think that she was interested in any of his co-workers.

When he got to the house, she was out back, checking the laundry on the line. He stepped inside and shook his head in amazement. All of the curtains were off the windows and hanging on the line. “You worked hard this morning.”

She shrugged, hurrying into the house. “I always work hard. I can’t bear to sit around idly.” She hurried to the stove, dished up a big bowl of soup for him, and cut him a piece of fresh bread. They’d eaten every bit of the loaves she’d made the previous night, so she’d made twice as much for today. Maybe the men could take some for their lunches the following day.

She got her own lunch and joined him at the table, smiling when he took her hand for their prayer. “Thank you for getting so much done,” he said softly. “I had no idea this place could look so good. It was dirty when I moved in, and I’ve done little to help it over the years.”

“Oh, that’s not true. I could tell you’d swept it out nicely before we came.”

“And you’ve scrubbed the floors since. I appreciate everything you’re doing for me.”

She hoped she was doing it for both of them, but she didn’t say that. She didn’t want him to know how strongly she was hanging her hopes on him asking her to stay as his wife. “Tomorrow’s Sunday. Are there church services?”

He nodded. “It’s our weekend for a preacher. There aren’t enough ministers in the area, but we have one that comes in every fourth week. We Mounties take turns the other weeks. Well, not Kendall yet. He’s too shy to speak in front of others.”

“He does seem shy. He plays guitar well, though? I have a hard time reconciling the shy young man I’ve met with someone who plays guitar in front of others.”

“It’s odd, but he seems to forget he’s in front of other people when he’s playing.” He nodded toward the bedroom. “Is Mom in there?”

“No. She went looking for more blackberries. She thought it would be nice if we could make enough jam for all five of you men before we go. And more muffins, of course. When I offered everyone muffins for their lunch, I was shocked at how quickly they disappeared.”

Theodore laughed. “I wasn’t. It was exactly what I expected to happen. I almost shouted that they needed to leave the muffins for me, but I knew that wouldn’t go over well.”

“How long does the preacher stay when he’s here?” she asked, wondering if he would even be around to marry them if they did decide to marry. She may have to go home to Ottawa at the end of her week there, just because she couldn’t marry. She knew Mounties were able to take the place of clergymen often, but not in the case of marriage.

“He’ll be here through Tuesday, then leave again.”

“I see.”

“So tell me what it’s like to work for a bank?”

She shrugged. “I enjoy the other women I work with. We talk when it’s not busy. Mostly it’s just a lot of work.”

“But you still find time to do things with the ladies’ group at the church. Mom talks about you being there all the time.”

“I work, have friends, and I volunteer at the church. It keeps me busy.” Jess had found that being busy was one of the most important things to her. She couldn’t abide sitting around idly. It made her crazy.

“Why hasn’t there been a man in your life? I know I asked that before, but I didn’t feel like I got a real answer.”

Jess bit her lip for a moment. She thought about avoiding the question, but she decided to just be honest with him. If it scared him and he ran away, then he wasn’t worthy of her anyway. “Because even though men asked me out regularly, none of those men were you. I always felt like I should be waiting for true love in my life, and to me, that meant waiting for you.”

He swallowed the bite of food in his mouth and slowly wiped his lips with his napkin. “Do you mean to say if it had been another man my mother asked you to travel to marry, you wouldn’t have agreed?”

She nodded. “I wouldn’t have. I only agreed because you were the one at the other end of the train. I used to follow you around at recess because I had a terrible crush on you. I followed you home from school that day because I was daydreaming, and I just kept walking, my eyes on you. When I realized that you’d seen me, I was mortified.”

“Does my mother know all of this?”

Jess shook her head adamantly. “She didn’t know I had feelings for you until you rejected me at the train station. She guessed then. I’ve never said a word to her.” She shrugged. “I’ve always liked Miss Hazel. She’s felt like a friend to me. My relationship with her was always separate from my feelings for you. I would love to have a mother-in-law like her one day, but I would never become friends with someone so I would have a chance with her son.”

Theodore frowned. “Well, I didn’t think you’d become friends with her just to get closer to me. I—I’m not exactly sure how I feel about all this. I mean, I know I have feelings for you now, but I certainly didn’t all those years ago.”

She nodded. “You left town when I was still a girl. The fact that you stayed in my mind as the only man I could ever marry was something that you couldn’t have known. I did want to scratch Judy’s eyes out of her head.”

He laughed. Judy was the girl he’d squired around town just before he’d left to join the Mounted Police. “You already mean more to me than she ever did, if that helps your feelings at all.”

Jess smiled. “It doesn’t really matter how you feel about her. She’s married with two small children now. She seems happy.”

“I didn’t realize she’d married, but I haven’t really thought of her in years, so I guess that doesn’t matter to me a great deal.” He stood. “I have to get back to work.”

Jess nodded, standing up to clear the table. “What would you like for supper tonight?”

“You don’t have to feed us every night you’re here.” He didn’t want her to think that he was taking advantage of the way she felt about him to get meals for him and his friends.

“I know I don’t. I enjoy cooking.”

He stepped toward her, gripping her shoulders. Just as he started to lower his head to kiss her, the door slammed open. “How was lunch?” Miss Hazel asked.

He squeezed her shoulders in farewell and turned to his mom. “It was delicious. Jess could give you cooking lessons, Mom.”

“I know. She’s always been better than me. I pretended to teach her to cook though.” She put the basket of berries onto the table and linked her arm with his. “I’ll walk you back to the station. I haven’t had any time alone with you since I got here.”

Jess watched them go with a look of longing on her face. She so badly wanted to be part of their family, but would he ever be able to trust her again after she’d told him she’d had a secret crush on him for years and years?

She looked down into the berry basket. She could make muffins a couple of more times with that amount of berries, but she wouldn’t be able to make jam. She’d go out herself on Monday and see what she could find.

Once the dishes were done she brought the clothes in from the line and started the long process of mending. Jess was good at most domestic tasks, but she hated sewing. She could do it with the best of them, but she’d rather poke the needle into her eye than spend hours and hours sewing garments. Better to get it over with.

When Miss Hazel returned thirty minutes later, she sat down across from Jess and picked up the next garment that needed mending. “I love sewing, don’t you?”

Jess didn’t answer. She just kept sewing on buttons.

* * *

It wasn’t until church on Sunday that Jess realized just how isolated she would be if she stayed in Squirrel Ridge Station. There was one older woman in the congregation, and everyone else was male besides her and Miss Hazel. She’d really thought that Theodore must have been exaggerating about the lack of women in the area, but he wasn’t.

After the service, there was an entire line of men waiting to meet her, and Jess wanted to disappear into the floor. It wasn’t that she was shy, she just wasn’t interested in meeting a new man. Theodore was the only man she’d ever want.

Finally, he had introduced her to the last man. “There really are no women here,” she said to him.

He nodded. “Could you handle it?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I think I could, but I’ve never been in that situation, so I can make no promises.” She knew if she had just one female friend to be close to it would be easier for her, but she would just pray for the other Mounties to find wives.

“You’re wise to hesitate. It’s hard for us, and we have each other.” He offered her his arm, and they walked together out of the church. “Everyone is planning to get their own lunch, so you’re off the hook for that, but we’d all appreciate it if you’d make supper again tonight.”

“I was planning to do that. Any idea what you want?”

“How about a thick, hearty beef stew? With big chunks of potatoes and carrots. And fresh bread.” Theodore broke off. “I’m practically drooling thinking about it. If I don’t stop, you’ll think I’m Nolan.”

Jess laughed. “I think I know the difference between you and Nolan now.”

“I hope so!” He smiled at her, wondering how it was going to feel to be alone again. When she got back on that train for Ottawa, she’d be taking his heart with her, but he didn’t know how she’d do in their little hamlet with no other women. It wouldn’t be right for him to ask her to stay.

“Am I fixing you lunch today?” she asked.

“Would you mind? I’d really rather not have to eat my own cooking any more than absolutely necessary.”

She shook her head. “I’d be happy to. How would you feel about breakfast foods? They’re quick and I can have something on the table in a few minutes.”

He shrugged. “I’m sure if you make it, then it will be absolutely delicious.”

“You have more confidence in me than I do.” She led the way into the house, immediately stoking the fire so she could cook. “You know, it’s easier to cook over coal.”

He laughed. “I’m afraid a coal stove is a bit too pricy for a Mountie’s budget. I make do with what I have.”

Jess was surprised by his words, because she knew his family had money. Surely he could just ask for what he needed, but he was a man. She knew there was probably pride involved. “I understand. I learned to cook over a wood stove, but my mother upgraded when I started working at the bank, and there was more money in our household.”

He sat at the table watching as she pulled on an apron over her Sunday dress and got to work. He could watch her cook all day.