Always Dakota - Debbie Macomber [72]
“I’ve always been fond of Margaret. Her daddy used to bring her into town, back when she was a little girl.”
Matt listened, wondering what his wife had been like as a child.
“She used to try to imitate Bernard’s walk. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. She dressed just like him.”
Still did for that matter, Matt mused, grinning to himself. He’d never known a woman more comfortable in coveralls, but it was what she wore underneath that enthralled him.
“I’m not sure how well you knew Bernard Clemens.”
Matt wished now that he’d had the opportunity to know Margaret’s father. He felt sure he would have enjoyed a friendship with the man.
“His wife, Maggie, was nearly twenty years his junior and as pretty as a picture. I remember when he brought her into town the first time. He was the envy of every man in the county. Maggie was a gentle creature, very elegant and refined. It damn near killed him when she died.” She shook her head. “I don’t think he ever recovered from her death.”
Matt’s heart ached for the father-in-law he’d only briefly met. “He had Margaret.”
“That he did. And to give him credit, he did the best he could with her, but I’ve often wondered what her life would have been like had her mother lived.”
One thing was certain: she wouldn’t be married to Matt.
“It’s worked out for her, though.”
Caught up in his own thoughts, Matt had lost track of the conversation. “Beg your pardon?”
“For Margaret,” Hassie said as she set the bubbling soda in front of him.
“What’s worked out for her?” he asked.
“Well…you fell in love with her, didn’t you?”
Her words hit him like a fist in the face and he blinked back his surprise. Circumstances being what they were, he didn’t feel he’d done Margaret any favors. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” he murmured.
Hassie gently patted his hand. “You love her.”
Matt nearly swallowed the straw. Love Margaret? He narrowed his eyes, wondering what the old woman knew that he didn’t.
“You seem a little shocked,” she said, apparently finding his reaction amusing. “But you couldn’t hide your feelings if you tried. She’s got you, Matt Eilers, hook, line and sinker.”
Until Hassie said it aloud, Matt hadn’t thought about it, but she was right. “I do love her,” he said, and found it only slightly amazing that the first person he told was a busybody old-lady pharmacist.
The person who deserved to hear this was Margaret. The woman he loved. His wife.
“We can’t put it off much longer,” Rachel said, finishing her breakfast coffee.
Heath nodded, wandering into the living room. He knew his wife was right, but he didn’t think he was emotionally capable of sorting through his grandmother’s things. She’d been gone two months, and he was only now becoming accustomed to her loss.
For three years, he’d talked with her on a daily basis. Until the very end, she’d been involved in the business. Countless times Heath had gone to his grandmother for advice and guidance. She’d shown him that he possessed every bit as much financial sense as Max, although she’d rarely mentioned his brother’s name. There’d been a valid reason for that.
Neither Lily nor Heath would ever forget Max—that would have been impossible—but his older brother’s death remained a painful subject for them.
Max had been the one with the brains. The brother who’d been groomed from his school days to take over the bank. Then, in an instant, Max was gone.
Heath had hurried home to North Dakota.
Lily hadn’t been easy on him during those early years. The first thing she’d done was appoint him loan manager at Buffalo Valley. In the beginning he’d been insulted. Outraged. He was the only surviving heir, and his grandmother had sent him to work at a minor branch in a town that was all but dead. Every farmer in the area needed money. It was a terrible position to find himself in, and after a few months he’d hardened his heart. Being appointed to this less-than-desirable job had been a punishment, he guessed, for having left, for not allowing her to control his life the way she had Max’s. They’d started off on hard ground, the