Read Online Yesterday's Magic by Beverly Long - Free Book Online

Freida.
“Who are you taking to the dance?”
    The man turned as red as the handkerchief
wrapped around his neck. “I’m working.”
    Elizabeth seemed to consider his response.
“Well, I suppose there’s always Earl Bean?”
    Bella tried not to flinch. “Really, I don’t
mind staying home by myself.”
    “I won’t hear of it,” Aunt Freida said.
“Thomas will under—”
    “Jed.” Elizabeth poked her finger into her
brother’s chest.
    The store was so quiet that Bella could hear
her own heart beating. Jed yanked his hat lower onto his forehead.
“Oh, Christ, fine. I’ll take her to the damn dance.” He looked and
sounded miserable.
    Elizabeth and Aunt Freida looked
satisfied.
    Bella bit the inside of her lip and knew that
when she got the chance, she was stepping on Jedidiah McNeil’s
foot. Hard.
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Jed had just finished his monthly accounts
when the door of the sheriff’s office swung open so hard that it
hit the wall behind it. He was half out of his chair, with his hand
on his gun, when he realized it was his deputy and that the man was
grinning like some fool.
    “You son-of-a-bitch,” Bart said. His tone was
agreeable, like he was discussing the weather, not like he was
insulting Jed’s person. He stood in the doorway, his arms crossed,
tapping the toe of his right boot.
    Jed knew he’d trust the man to ride beside
him on any given day but there were times when Bart Schneider was
simply an idiot. He sat back down in his chair. “It’s cold outside,
Bart. Shut the damn door.”
    Bart did so and then plopped down in the
chair next to Jed’s desk. “You’re a sly one, Jedidiah,” he
said.
    Jed didn’t bother to answer. Bart clearly had
something to say and Jed knew from past experience, there’d be no
need to encourage him, nor any way to stop him.
    Bart leaned forward in his chair. “Not that I
blame you. She’s a pretty thing with curves just where a man likes
them.”
    He wanted to play dumb, to ask who Bart was talking about? But given that he’d spent
the better part of the morning trying to forget about Bella
Wainwright, he didn’t trust himself to manage his way through that
conversation. “I assume you’re talking about Freida Stroganhaufer’s
niece?”
    “Oh, yes indeed. I fairly had to fight my way
through the crowd at the Mercantile. But once I made it to the
front counter, I introduced myself with pleasure.” Bart patted his
chest. “Nothing prettier than a woman with black eyes that
twinkle.”
    “I didn’t notice her eyes,” Jed lied.
    Bart raised a pale blonde eyebrow, which
exactly matched the hair on his head. “I suppose you did manage to
notice that when she smiles and you see all them nice, white teeth
and those pretty pink lips, that it makes you feel good to be
alive?”
    When she’d smiled at him last night, he’d
almost dropped a load of firewood on his toe. And then this
morning, he’d lost complete control of his senses. Now he was going
to some damn dance. “I don’t have time for things like that.”
    “But suddenly you’ve got time to go dancing?”
Bart asked, his tone now taking on a truly perturbed tone. “I
thought you planned to be busy watching over the jail.”
    Jed closed the notebook that he’d been
working in. “Do not start with me, Bart Schneider. I was in the
wrong place at the wrong time and I couldn’t say no without getting
both Freida and my sister all riled up. And on any given day, I’d
rather have you pissed at me then either one of them.”
    Bart seemed to accept that. He took off his
hat and put it on the corner of Jed’s desk. “Patience was sorely
disappointed when I told her you couldn’t take Madeline. The only
thing that saved me was that Madeline found someone else to take
her to the dance.” He looked over his shoulder, towards the door,
as if he was making sure it was shut. “You know, Jed, I do have one
little problem.”
    Bart’s little problems had a way of turning
into big