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shoulders, looking him straight in the eye. “Love.”
    The floor beneath his feet fell away. He loved her. Had for years, but saying it to himself was completely different than saying it to her. What if she didn’t love him back? He couldn’t head to Texas this time.
    “There’s something I need to tell you, Spencer.”
    “What?” He hadn’t meant to sound so stern, but a fierce fear squeezed his chest.
    “Do you remember that night when you came to say goodbye before going to Texas?” she asked.
    Like it was yesterday, his mind screamed as he answered, “Yes.”
    “I thought marrying Isaac would give me everything I wanted until that night. Until you kissed me.”
    Guilt tried to wiggle its way into his chest, but he wouldn’t let it. He no longer regretted kissing her, matter of fact he’d wished he done it long before then.
    She glanced around before saying, “I knew that night I shouldn’t marry Isaac, but I was so set on having a home, of never having to move again…”
    Her sorrow ate at him. “You were young, Della, and—”
    “That’s an excuse, Spencer. Just an excuse. Yes, I was young, but I had choices. I could have found another position. If only I could have seen beyond sleeping in the same bed night after night. In an odd way I thought a home brought family, love and happiness.” She shook her head. “But it doesn’t. A house is just a house. A home is what the people living in it make it.”
    He took her hand, held it between both of his. “You made his house a home, Della. For you and your daughters.”
    She turned to gaze at the front door. “But deep down, I’ve always felt as if I don’t belong here.”
    The need to explain what he felt deep down escaped before he could stop it. “The entire way to Texas and back I thought about you. Prayed you wouldn’t marry Isaac.”
    “You did?”
    “Yeah, I did.” It was time to tell her everything. He had nothing left to lose. “I realized I loved you that night, Della, and I still do. I wish I’d known then what I know now.” He shook his head, tossing aside regrets that held no place in the future. “When I heard Isaac had left town, I accepted the deputy job so I could make sure you were doing all right.”
    Her eyes, slightly misty and shimmering green, darted over his face. “You put your life in danger every day as a lawman because of me?”
    He squeezed her fingers. “It’s not that dangerous.”
    “Yes, it is.”
    He didn’t believe that, but didn’t want to argue the issue. They had other things, more important things to discuss. “I shouldn’t have told you what to do that night. I’m sorry for that. It just caught me off guard. I felt responsible for you since I was the one that told Otis to come to Ester’s for work. I—”
    “Spencer,” she interrupted. “Were you the one who asked the city council to hire me to provide lunches for the jail?”
    His ears warmed. Swallowing, he nodded.
    “And the one who convinced the school board to pay for the teacher to stay here?”
    He nodded again.
    She appeared to be deep in thought. Spencer’s heart thudded painfully, and when it grew impossible for him to sit through the quiet, he said, “Della, I know it’s too soon after hearing about Isaac. I should never have asked you to marry me, but—”
    She laid a finger upon his lips. “When I was four years old, our plantation was raided during the war. Otis and I were the only survivors. For the most part, I don’t remember much, other than moving and moving. There weren’t many positions for a slave with a white child in tow. In Missouri Otis worked for an elderly widow. She grew ill and before she died she told us to go her son-in-law’s house in Kansas. She’d talked about him often and her grandsons, Spencer and Trig.”
    Spencer’s skin rippled under the weight of emotion. “My mother’s mother lived in Missouri, but I don’t remember her.”
    “She knew you. Even had a picture of you as a baby with