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doing. I’ll be back later. You feed my wife, though. She’s always hungry.”
    “Ben!” Rosalinda feigned embarrassment. Her dark eyes rolled. “He pokes fun, no?”
    “Yes, that he does. Come on, I’ve started on a pie, but I’ve got cheese and bread and fresh coffee ready now.”
    Ben kissed his wife’s cheek. “See you later, Rosie.”
    Jenna walked into the house with her older friend, her mind spinning in circles. She supposed Blue Montgomery was “her man,” but she wasn’t used to others thinking of him that way. “Sit down, Rosalinda, and tell me all about your trip.”
    Rosalinda took a seat and shook her head. “Thatwill come later. I want to hear of this man you call Blue.”
    Jenna sank down in a chair. How could she explain about Blue? All of her hopes for the future were tied into him, wrapped tight in the letters they’d shared, the hearts that had so unexpectedly come together. They hadn’t seen each other since childhood, yet they’d fallen in love with words written and dreams shared. Blue was everything she’d wanted in a man, and more, it seemed, now that they were actually reacquainted. She’d be truly overjoyed at her good fortune if only his memory would return. “Oh, he’s…he’s—”
    “Much handsome, yes?”
    “Oh, yes, yes. But he doesn’t remember me or the love we shared through our letters.”
    “He is here. Working the land, Jenna. He must care for you.”
    Jenna smiled, a tentative lifting of her lips. Yes, he is here. That thought comforted her, to know he worked the land beside her and that they’d be together to witness the wheat rise up toward the sun one day soon. “He asked me to marry him,” she confided.
    Rosalinda’s dark eyebrows shot up. “And when is the wedding?”
    Jenna chuckled. To Rosalinda, life was simple. You loved, you married, you had children. But for Jenna, it was different. She was a stranger to Blue until his memory returned.
    Jenna stood then and cut chunks of cheese. She brought out bread she’d baked yesterday to the table, unfolding the napkin and setting out thick slices. She poured coffee for Rosalinda, then answered her. “I’ve asked him to wait. It wouldn’t be fair to him…or to me. We are like strangers.”
    Rosalinda waved away Jenna’s explanation. “You love him, no? He is a good man. You are a good woman. Together you make many babies. I will be a grandmother.”
    Jenna had been plagued with doubt since Blue had asked her to marry him. Had she made a mistake in refusing his proposal? “Rosalinda, is it so wrong to want him to remember me?”
    “Ah, so that is it. No, querida, it is not wrong, but perhaps not so wise. We must not wait all of our life for something that will not come.”
    Rosalinda was right. Blue might never remember her, although Jenna sensed so strongly that he would regain his memory. And it would be soon. She had to cling to that hope. For years now, she’d had her heart set on Blue Montgomery, on the time he’d come to her with love in his heart for her and only her. Jenna wanted so much to be loved, truly loved, by this man. “We agreed to wait until the planting’s done.”
    “Then you will marry him?”
    “Oh, yes, then I will marry him.”
    “And you will make lots of babies.” Rosalinda’s satisfied smile brought moisture to Jenna’seyes. Children would fill up her house with joy and laughter. Jenna couldn’t wait for that. She wanted Blue’s children more than anything. If her prayers were answered, Jenna would have the family she’d always hoped for. “Yes. We both want lots of children. Blue loves children as much as I do.”
    “A man who loves children is worth much,” Rosalinda added, with an approving nod. “You will marry and have your family, Jenna.”
    Jenna nodded in agreement. “Yes.”
    Because whether his memory returned or not, Jenna wasn’t about to lose Blue Montgomery.
    Three days later, dark threatening clouds bunched together, a congregation of