Chapter Thirty-One

"What in the world is wrong with you?" Kaitlyn demanded when she stepped into the gun shop at only a couple hours after dawn to find Langley already hard at work on his forge.

"I'm a little tired," he replied without looking up. "Other than that I'm just fine." Truth was he had run from the house that morning before his mama had been up and around because he knew she was going to corner him soon for a heart to heart and he just wasn't ready to deal with that yet.

"Langley stop!" Kaitlyn exclaimed when he lifted his hammer.

Langley frowned at her sudden and out of character display of temper. He sat the hammer down and pulled off his gloves. "What do you want?"

"Jessie is staying at my house," she blurted.

Langley glared at her and fought the urge to grab his sister by her shoulders and shake sense into her. "Why would you do that to me?"

Kaitlyn shook her head. "It had nothing at all to do with you. The woman had just traveled for weeks in the cold to get here and she needed a warm place to stay."

"It's the beginning of winter, not the middle, and you could have sent her to the hotel," Langley grumbled.

Kaitlyn snorted. "You know me better than that. And I know you pretty well also. Why were you so mean yesterday? The woman came to apologize and you treated her terribly."

"I did not," Langley countered, ignoring the glare in Kaitlyn's eyes. "You don't understand, Kaitlyn. You have Pete and Pete would walk across burning coals barefoot before he'd hurt you. Jessie hurt me more than once and she did it without batting an eye each time."

"Langley, you have a chance to be happy. Why are you fighting it so hard?" Kaitlyn demanded passionately. Then her hand went to her brow and she swooned, nearly falling backward.

Langley caught her by the elbow and steadied her. "Are you okay?" he asked gently, smoothing a strand of hair from her pale face.

She waved her hand. "Yes. I've been having dizzy spells but it's nothing serious."

Langley frowned. "Are you sure?"

"I'm a doctor, Langley," she snapped irritably. "Of course I'm sure!"

Langley's eyes widened as he released her and took a step back in surrender. "You're getting moodier than mama."

He turned his attention to a rifle that needed cleaning. Kaitlyn was quiet a moment before whispering. "What did you say?"

"I said you're getting moodier than mama," he repeated. "And you're wasting your time trying to talk me into running to Jessie with open arms. A man has to have some pride. You don't understand. You don't know what it is to have someone you trust hurt you."

"You're more stubborn than mama and pa put together," Kaitlyn grumbled. "I need to go talk to Pete but please think about at least talking to Jessie. I know her apology yesterday didn't seem all that sincere but from what I've seen of her she's a lot like several men in our family. You would have accepted that kind of apology from them because you would have known it was the best they could do."

"Thanks for the advice, doc," Langley replied, refusing to admit out loud that Kaitlyn was right. For Jessie that apology last night had been a decent one but Langley wasn't satisfied. He wanted more than a 'sorry I broke your heart but I'm here now so smile'.

***

"Pete, we need to talk," Kaitlyn said, stepping into their bedroom and finding him pulling on his pants.

"Where did you sneak off to while I was sleeping?"

Kaitlyn pulled off her coat and gloves. "I wasn't sneaking. I saw Langley go into the gun shop so I went to speak to him." She waved her hand. "But there's something else we need to speak about."

Pete's brown eyes narrowed as he crossed the room and took her hands in his. "Are you okay?"

Kaitlyn pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and nodded. "Yes... Maybe you should sit down."

Pete's expression filled with concern. "Why would I need to sit down? Is something wrong? Did something happen to the family?"

"Everybody is fine, Pete," Kaitlyn insisted soothingly. "Better than fine actually." She took his hand and laid it over her stomach. "I figured out why I've been so temperamental lately."

"What are you talking about?" Pete flashed a teasing smile. "You temperamental? Never."

"Oh hush." Kaitlyn blushed and swatted his arm. "I've been a monster."

"Maybe a little one," Pete agreed, pressing a kiss to her hair. When she glared he laughed. "But you know I love you."

"Pete, aren't you understanding me?" Kaitlyn inquired softly. She pressed his hand more firmly over her stomach. "I know why I've been so cranky lately."

Every bit of color drained from Pete's face. "Are you....?"

Kaitlyn nodded and happy tears filled her eyes. "We're going to have a baby."

Pete stared hard at her stomach and then suddenly, his brown eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed on the floor in a crumpled heap.

"Pete!" Kaitlyn exclaimed, dropping to her knees beside him and cradling his head in her lap. "Pete, wake up!" She patted his face several times and he groaned.

His eyes fluttered open and stared into hers. "I'm going to be a pa?"

Kaitlyn nodded, finding that she was too overcome with emotion to speak. One of the happiest smiles she had ever seen curved Pete's scarred cheek and he grabbed her cheeks tenderly and pulled her face to his, kissing her long and deep.

"I can't believe it..." he whispered after the need for breath had forced them apart. "It took us long enough."

Kaitlyn was laughing as she rose to her feet and helped Pete to his as well. "Are you truly happy?" she asked.

He pulled her into his arms. "I'm thrilled and terrified all at the same time."

Kaitlyn laid her head against his thundering heart. "I can't wait to tell mama and pa."

"Uh..." Pete rubbed furiously at the back of his neck. "Yeah, I'll let you do that."

"You have to come with me," Kaitlyn insisted.

"Nope. Don't think so." Pete shook his head and took a step away. There ain't no way I'm gonna be within shooting range of your pa when you tell him."

"Honestly?" Kaitlyn demanded with a raise of her brow. "They'll be happy to know they're going to be grandparents."

Pete shook his head once again. "But your pa will know that we...uh... you know..."

Kaitlyn flushed bright red and wrapped her arms around herself. "He already knows that we've done that! We've been married for almost a year."

Pete raised his hand and shook a finger. "No, he suspects that we have but has no proof. This will give him proof and that's all he'll need to shoot me."

Kaitlyn glared and stomped her foots. "You're coming."

Pete took one look at the fire in her eyes and sighed. He was going. "Fine. But if he'll kills me, my blood will be on your hands."

Kaitlyn kissed his cheek. "He won't kill you."

Movement down the hall indicated that Jessie was stirring in the house. "Now finish getting dressed and go ready a cart. We can be out to their house right about time mama has breakfast ready. I'll talk to Jessie before we leave."

"Yes ma'am."

Kaitlyn gave her husband a quick kiss and left the room. "Come in," Jessie called when Kaitlyn knocked on her bedroom door.

Kaitlyn stepped into the room to find Jessie tucking her blouse into her pants. "Did you sleep well?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Not a wink," Jessie admitted. "I'm beginning to think that coming here was a mistake. Langley clearly don't want me around and I ain't the type to stick around where I'm not wanted. I reckon I'm gonna just move on today."

"No!" Kaitlyn cried out and then she cleared her throat and smoothed out her skirt. "I mean, he doesn't want you gone. It was shock yesterday that had him acting so rudely. Shock and hurt. You need to talk with him again."

"You honestly think so?" Jessie asked with uncertainty as she tightened her gun belt around the swell of her hips. "The man seemed pretty damn sure I was the devil."

"Talk to him again," Kaitlyn insisted. Then she nibbled at her lip. "But can I offer you a word of advice before you do?"

Jessie snorted. "Advice?"

Kaitlyn nodded. 'You need to attempt to sound more sincere and more sorry."

"But I was sincere and sorry," Jessie growled, tying her knife to her thigh.

Kaitlyn decided now was a good time to stop being so polite and simply tell the woman like it was. "You say you were being sincere but anybody else listening to you heard an arrogant child who simply expected to ride in and get her way. It seemed you believed there was no way any man could possibly turn you down and my brother was nothing more than some whipped pup who would crawl back to you."

"Is that right?" Jessie drawled, her eyes narrowing.

"Yes, that's right. If you really love my brother and you really want to be with him then you need to soften up a bit. That means letting tears fall if they want to and doing a bit of begging. Oh and you might want to try something like 'I understand if you can't forgive me and want me gone. Just say the word and I'll leave you right now.' Sometimes you have to make the man believe that he is the boss and the decision is entirely up to him."

Jessie stared at Kaitlyn as if she'd suddenly sprouted a second head. "Thanks for the advice," Jessie muttered.

Kaitlyn shrugged. "I'm sure you already know this but, Langley loves to read. He has a mountain of books but the mercantile just received a new shipment recently and I know he hasn't purchased any yet. Sometimes showing up bearing gifts can work wonders as well."

Jessie plopped her hat atop her head. "I'll take that into consideration."

Kaitlyn headed for the door. "I have to head out run some errands. Langley is at the gun shop.... If you were wondering that is."

Jessie stood there alone in the empty room for a long while. Could she be soft in order to win Langley back? Could she cry? Could she beg? She had thought she'd been begging yesterday but apparently she'd been an arrogant child.

Jessie growled and strode to the window, staring out at the frost and cold. She had lived her whole life being hard, strong and tough. It had kept her alive since childhood and now she was expected to do a complete reversal and be a soft woman just for Langley. Could she?

Jessie sighed. She would do anything to have Langley. She needed that man more than she needed anything else in the world and if buying him a book and letting him see a few tears was what it would take to win him back then she would do just that.