A Prescription For Love: An Oklahoma Lovers book Read online

  Heidi glanced from Papa to her mother and despite her anxiety, she smiled. Her wedding had apparently unhinged Mother.

  Papa took Mother’s arm, and spoke to the Pastor. “She does.” He escorted her back to the pew, his face flushed.

  Clarence took Heidi’s hand and gave it a slight squeeze. “You look beautiful, my dear.”

  Bile rose in her throat, and her fingers itched to slap his face.

  They turned and faced the Pastor.

  Silence descended as the Pastor adjusted his glasses, and opened his mouth to speak.

  “My baby!” Mother’s wail reverberated off the walls, causing everyone to turn wide-eyed in her direction.

  “Mary, what are you doing?” Papa spoke out of the corner of his mouth, even as he smiled and nodded at the people seated closest to them, and patted her hand.

  Heidi bit her lip to keep from laughing. What in heaven’s name was her mother up to? She never drew attention to herself. Did she think maybe Clarence would change his mind if he thought Heidi came from a family of unbalanced women? She frowned. Not likely.

  Mother stood, and fumbled with her handkerchief. “I just realized my baby is getting married. Oh dear, my baby.” She brought her hands to her face and sobbed, the handkerchief waving as she shook.

  “For heaven’s sake, Mary. Sit down, you’re overwrought.” Papa ran his finger under his collar.

  This time Heidi giggled. Whatever Mother hoped to accomplish would certainly not work. She glanced in Clarence’s direction. Stiff-necked, and tight jawed, he glared at her mother.

  Mother sighed, and patted her eyes. “If I could have a drink of water, I’m sure I’ll be all right in a bit.”

  Papa nodded at their numerous guests, and left the pew. He hurried to the back of the church, while Heidi, Clarence and the preacher stood, waiting.

  Clarence cleared his throat, and shifted from one foot to another. His eyes narrowed and he looked from Heidi to her mother. “What sort of game is your mother playing?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she huffed.

  “It won’t work, you know.”

  Heidi’s fingers gripped the bouquet in her hands so tightly, little pieces of baby’s breath fell to the floor.

  “Here you are, my dear.” Papa shoved the glass of water at Mother, and climbed into his seat.

  The pastor cleared his throat, and slid his eyeglasses up his nose. “Dearly beloved…”

  “Wait!” Mother climbed over Papa’s feet and headed to the altar. “I forgot I wanted you to wear my mother’s pearls.”

  Heidi could not keep in the giggles, and snorted as one burst forth.

  Mother fumbled with the pearls around her own neck, and then pushed aside the back of Heidi’s veil and fastened them around her. She turned her to face the congregation. “There. Doesn’t she look lovely?”

  Papa pulled Mother away from Heidi, and with his hand wrapped around her arm escorted her back to the pew once more. “Mary, you are making a spectacle of your daughter’s wedding.”

  “Harold−”

  Papa held up his hand. “This nonsense will stop now. Sit down and be quiet.” He nodded to the Pastor. “Continue.”

  “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the presence−“

  The door at the back of the church flew open, and slammed against the wall. “Stop!”

  “Thank God,” Mother exclaimed, and slumped against the back of the pew. Papa blinked rapidly, his gaze going from her mother to Michael.

  Michael?

  Heidi’s eyes grew wide as he ran down the aisle, waving his arms. What’s Michael doing here? Her heart thumped, and she broke into a smile.

  He raced up the few steps, wrenched her hands from Clarence’s grasp, and whipped her around to face him. The congregation sat in silence for a moment, then gasps and murmurs rose in the air.

  “What are you doing here?” Heidi’s heart beat a rat-a-tat-tat and she tamped down the desire to yank Michael down the steps and race for the door. This sweaty, hair-falling-onto-his forehead, flushed, and panting man never looked so good.

  Michael took a deep breath and pulled her to him. “You don’t have to marry him, sweetheart.”

  She took in a sharp breath. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I know about the blackmail.” Michael turned to Clarence, his jaw tightening. “And your little scheme won’t work.”

  The mumbling from the congregation grew louder.

  “Unhand my bride!” Clarence stepped forward, and grabbed Heidi’s hand, attempting to pull her to him. Michael held firm.

  “Clarence, let go.” Heidi fumed.

  “No. You are my bride. This…this shopkeeper, who comes from a family of whores doesn’t deserve you.”

  Heidi drew her arm back, and slapped Clarence in the face with her bouquet. Rose petals flew in all directions, and Clarence spit greenery from his mouth.

  “How dare you?” She lowered her voice to a stage whisper. “You brought your whore to our wedding.”

  The Pastor’s eyebrows shot to his hairline, and he swallowed furiously.

  “Gloria is not a whore. Not any longer.”

  The Pastor groaned.

  “She’s your whore, and you intended to bring her on our honeymoon!” Her voice grew louder.

  “There won’t be any honeymoon,” Michael announced, and pulled Heidi to him. “Not with him, anyway.”

  Clarence yanked back. “Yes, there is.”

  “No there isn’t.” Michael and Clarence stood nose-to-nose.

  The Pastor withdrew a handkerchief from his pocket, and wiped his forehead. He cleared his throat. “Perhaps we could all move to my office?”

  Everyone ignored him.

  Michael cupped Heidi’s face in his hands, while Clarence pulled her arm, his hand clamped around her wrist.

  “Let go, Clarence!” Heidi snarled, attempting to tug her hand free.

  Michael moved to block Clarence. “Honey, your mother showed me the letter. I talked to Uncle Jesse, and he doesn’t care. Do you hear me? He doesn’t care.”

  Heidi ran her tongue around her dry lips. “He doesn’t care?” she responded with a shaky voice, hope soaring in her heart.

  “No.” He pulled her closer, stepping on Clarence’s foot.

  “Ouch.”

  Michael dug the heel of his shoe in, and twisted. “He said nothing was more important than love.” He caressed her cheek. “And Heidi Lester, I love you.”

  “Oh Michael.” Her voice caught. “I love you, too.”

  The Pastor fidgeted, looking from side to side as if to escape.

  Putting all his weight onto Clarence’s foot, Michael glared in his direction. “Let her go. Now.”

  Clarence released Heidi’s hand, and Michael scooped her up in his arms and hurried from the altar. When they passed Papa, his jaw practically touching his chin, and Mother, her eyes sparkling with tears, Michael mouthed thank you. Heidi tossed her broken bouquet to her mother, and slid her arms around Michael’s neck. His mouth covered hers and they continued down the aisle.

  Once at the back of the church, Michael pulled his lips from hers, and set her on her feet. “Never again in my whole life do I want to repeat the horrors of this morning.”

  “Me, neither.” She shuddered.

  He kissed her briefly on the forehead. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”

  Michael strode back to where they’d left the wide-eyed Pastor and Clarence in the sanctuary. “Excuse me, sir,” he said to the Pastor. Then he turned and drew his arm back, and slammed his fist into Clarence’s face, knocking him backwards to land on his rear end. Blood spurted from his nose. “The only reason I’m not beating the hell out of you is because we’re in church.”

  He nodded to the Pastor, straightened his jacket, and headed to where Heidi stood, hugging her middle, and laughing.

  Mrs. Manfred ran forward, glaring at Michael, and knelt in front of Clarence. He shoved her flutteri
ng hands away.

  Tears of happiness spilled from Heidi’s eyes, and ran down her heated cheeks. Mother approached, and enveloped her in an embrace. “I’m so happy for you.” She released her, and held her at arm’s length. “You really do have a knight in shining armor.”

  Michael joined them and slid his arm around Mother’s shoulders. “Wait until you see the horse this knight in shining armor rescued his damsel with.”

  Papa smiled brightly after winking at Heidi, then shook Michael’s hand. “Young man, I’m assuming someone will explain everything to me one day. But since my wife and daughter are smiling for the first time in weeks, I’m mighty glad to see you.”

  Turning back to Heidi, he drew her into his arms, and kissed her cheek. “My dear, I can see you’re finally happy.” He placed Heidi’s hand in Michael’s, and murmured, “Welcome to the family, son.”

  Papa stood on tip-toe and addressed the guests leaving the church. “Everyone, please join us as planned, for the wedding breakfast turned into an engagement party for my beautiful daughter, and Michael Henderson, a pharmacist from the fine town of Guthrie.”

  Heidi and Michael climbed into the back of Papa’s buggy, waving at the crowd, who continued to mumble to each other, shaking their heads at the turn of events.

  Michael pointed. “Look.” Heidi turned as Gloria left the church on the arm of a tall, gray-haired man, who had been sitting two pews behind her. The handsome man leaned in to hear what she said, and patted her hand. Together, they strolled in a different direction from the hotel where the wedding breakfast awaited the guests.

  “Gloria will always land on her feet,” Michael said.

  He returned his attention to Heidi, and cupped her face in his hands. His gaze softened as he stared into her eyes. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  “Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes.” She threw her arms around his neck, then pulled back. “Thank you.”

  Michael grinned. “For what?”

  “For being my knight in shining armor.”

  “Always.” He bent his head and took possession of her mouth, leaving no doubt to whom she belonged.

  Her heart beating rapidly, she licked her lips. “Um, one thing.”

  “What, sweetheart? Whatever the problem is, we can work it out.” He smiled, his eyes warm with love.

  “I hope you plan on having children.”

  He grinned. “Of course. One day I want a little girl who looks like you.”

  She blew out a breath of air. “Good. How about a little less than eight months from now?”

  Michael’s eyes grew wide, and his face broke out into a grin. “Yes!”

  His deep voice carried back to the crowd as the buggy rumbled down the street, the horses kicking up red dirt.

  The End

  Oklahoma Lovers series:

  A Run for Love (Tori & Jesse)

  A Prescription for Love (Michael and Heidi)

  A Chance to Love Again (Rachel and Rusty)

  A Wife by Christmas (Ellie & Max)

  Anyplace but Here (Hunter & Emily)

  A Dogtown Christmas (Priscilla & Miles)

  All books can be read as stand alones

  Turn the page for the first chapter of A Chance to Love Again

  Chapter One

  Guthrie, Oklahoma

  June, 1906

  The brown-haired young boy rounded the corner, smacking his arm on a counter, bouncing off the display. With a yelp, he crashed into Rusty McIntyre. “Oomph.”

  Rusty was shoved back into another counter filled with thread. Dozens of spools crashed to the ground, rolling in every direction. He straightened up and glared at the child who had finally come to a halt. “What’re you doing, boy? You can’t run around like that in a store. Where’s your mama?”

  “Um, she’s—”

  “Never mind, just get down on your knees and pick up all these threads.” Rusty knelt and started to gather them up. The boy hesitated for a moment, then joined Rusty on the floor, scooping up threads, then dropping them just as quickly.

  Rusty leaned back on his heels and used a fistful of thread to push back the brim of his hat. “I’ll get these.” He waved in the direction of the shelves stacked with canned goods. “You go fetch the ones that rolled over there.”

  The boy scooted away just as a woman hurried up the aisle. “Will, what in heaven’s name have you done?”

  “Nothing, Mama. I was just going to look at the candy barrel.”

  Rusty stood, his hands full of thread. He deposited his load onto the counter and fixed the woman with a stare. “Is that your boy?” He nodded in the direction of the kid trying to hang onto the spools.

  At the tone of his voice, the woman’s face went from anxious to surprised in a split second. She straightened her shoulders and offered him a cool glance. “Yes. That is my son.”

  Rusty rested his hands on his hips. “Ma’am, I don’t mean to criticize, but you need to take better notice of what your boy is doing.”

  “Indeed?” Her eyebrows rose to her hairline.

  “He came barreling around that corner like his feet were on fire. Crashed into me, which caused this entire counter of thread to land on the floor.”

  The woman turned to the boy. “Will, please apologize to the—gentleman.”

  Rusty almost grinned at her hesitation to call him a ‘gentleman.’

  The kid hung his head. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not me you have to apologize to, young man. You have to go on up there to the front of this store and tell that woman behind the counter that you’re sorry. Then you need to fix up the display that you—”

  “Wait just a damn minute!”

  Rusty jerked and glanced from the boy to the woman. She was so red in the face, he wouldn’t be surprised if her cheeks caught fire. Her eyes snapped, and she worked her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but was too agitated to get it out.

  “How dare you presume to tell my son what the proper thing is for him to do!”

  She surprised the hell out of him by poking him in the chest. Not once, or twice, but several times until he had backed up and was pressed against the counter with the thread all piled in the jumble in the middle.

  Despite her agitation, he couldn’t help but notice her smooth skin, dark blond hair and crystal blue eyes. And when she’d come racing down the aisle after her child, he’d taken in her curves. Yep, a fine-looking woman.

  “He is my child, and I am perfectly capable of instructing him on proper behavior.”

  Rusty leaned in toward the woman. “If that’s so, then this disaster would have been avoided.”

  “Oh, how dare you! Have you never been a child, anxious to get somewhere? Or were you born old and crotchety?”

  “Old?” He narrowed his eyes at her.

  “Yes. Old. You are a grouchy old man.”

  The blood rushed to his face at the audacity of this incompetent mother defending her recalcitrant child by calling him names. “Ma’am, I hate to add to the misery you already have by being saddled with this unruly child—”

  “How dare you!”

  “—but you are addled, and I am not old.”

  “It doesn’t matter. You are grouchy, and mean to children.”

  “Mean?”

  The boy had been watching them go back and forth, his eyes wide. Finally, he walked up to his mother and tugged on her hand. “Ma, can we go home now?”

  She took the boy’s hand as all the air seemed to go out of her body, and looked down at the kid. “Yes, Will. We’ll go home now. But first we must straighten up this counter so Mrs. Wells doesn’t have extra work to do at the end of the day.”

  He nodded.

  “And, I’ve told you many times not to run in stores, haven’t I?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The woman turned to Rusty and looked down her nose. “Is there something I can help you with, sir?”

  He almost laughed at her dismissal, but instead, tugged o
n the brim of his hat. “No, ma’am. Have a pleasant day.” With lengthy strides he left the store.

  ***

  Rachel Stevens glared after the man. Of all the nosy, mean-spirited, rude people she had ever encountered in her entire life, that—that man was by far the absolute worst. How dare he chastise Will? She was a good mother. A very good mother, and he had no right to insinuate anything different.

  “Ma, you’re crushing my hand.”

  “Oh, sorry.” She released Will’s hand and began to sort out the threads. “Go on over there and check the floor to make sure we have all the threads.”

  After about fifteen minutes of sorting and straightening the counter, she chose the last few items on her list and brought them to Mrs. Wells to add up her bill.

  “What was that all about?” Mrs. Wells nodded toward the back of the store as she tied a string around the fabric Rachel selected for a new dress.

  “Oh, nothing, really. Will was disobedient and dashed around the corner and knocked into a grouchy man who took it upon himself to chastise my child.”

  “Never saw that one around here before.”

  “And I hope to never see him again.”

  “Good looking, though.”

  “Huh. I didn’t even notice. I was too angry to notice anything.” The lie rolled easily off her tongue. He was a good looking man. The sunlight through the store window had highlighted the red streaks in his brown hair. He obviously worked for a living, with the way his shirt stretched across his muscular chest. His eyes were a shade of green she’d never seen before. But that wasn’t important. She had no need for a man.

  “Honey, you need to start paying attention to the male of the species. That little boy of yours needs a daddy.”

  “Will and I are doing just fine. We don’t need a man. I have my brother. Michael spends time with Will. And Uncle Jesse takes him fishing all the time.”

  “Well, I wasn’t thinking in terms of fishin’. What you need is a man to warm your bed.”

  “Mrs. Wells!” Rachel took a quick look at Will, but he was busy counting the licorice sticks in the jar on the counter.