Claire had packed up some of the vegetables from the garden she carefully tended to bring to Bella's when Ethan took them to dinner there.
Ben and George took off like lightning towards the barn where Bella said they should look for Clara to show them a litter of puppies that they found one morning belonging to a shaggy wolf-like dog. Claire had headed to the main house where Bella, Amelia and the others were in the kitchen. When they saw Ethan, several of the women flocked around him.
Amelia took the vegetables and put them on a small table.
"Do you want to help me cut them?"
Claire nodded and Amelia handed her a knife so she could get started. She had spent the day working in Axelrod's store and the man just drove her to wit's end. Always questioning every figure she entered into the ledger and making her total up a couple lists of them over and over again. She wanted to tell him to do his own books but she remained quiet, because she needed the money if she was ever going to get out of Paradise to travel or go to college.
"Axelrod is so difficult," she said, "Why does he have to be that way?"
Amelia chuckled.
"He was probably born that way," she said, "I've never known him to be nice to anyone except maybe once or twice."
Claire sighed.
"I wanted to throw the books at him," she said, "He acts like I don't know what I'm doing but I'm good with numbers. I worked at the bank didn't I?"
Amelia nodded.
"You were good at it too," she said, "Don't let what Axelrod has to say make you second guess yourself. I usually just ignore him."
Claire thought about doing that, at least as much as possible.
More people came in the house and Claire widened her eyes to see both Scarlett and Rosie show up. She didn't know them well but she'd seen them in the saloon's restaurant when she ate there with her family. She had some vague idea that they spent most of their time keeping company with the men who frequented the place and they were paid to do so. But whenever she had asked about it when he was younger, no one would elaborate. Bella directed them to some easy chores to do welcoming her and then Claire saw Dakota outside the kitchen standing there with Ethan.
Why did he have to show up? She liked him well enough but no…she liked him more than well enough but she kept that to herself. She'd nearly humiliated herself once trying to get him to look at her differently but she'd realized that Dakota wasn't that picky when it came to female company. As long as it wasn't Claire anyway and she guessed he'd never stop treating her almost as a younger sister.
Still a part of her hoped anyway.
"You men just are going to stand there," Bella said, hands on hips, "We need you to go fetch more water from the pump. That'll give those muscles a workout."
They smiled and went outside to do just that and Bella turned to Claire.
"That Dakota is sure a strapping young man," she said, "and he's actually got some manners. If he didn't gamble…"
Claire sighed.
"I know but he won't change his ways," she said, "not for anyone."
Bella chuckled.
"Men like him don't change much at his age," she said, "but I used to say that about your uncle and he proved me wrong."
Claire smiled.
"He takes good care of us and we try to take care of him," she said, "without getting in his way."
"That's the hard part isn't it," Bella said, "Knowing he's got a job to do, every fiber ever instinct pushing him to do it and you just have to let him go."
Claire nodded.
"Yeah I get the instinct part," she said, "John Taylor told me about it when Uncle Ethan went to find Amelia after she got kidnapped after he nearly died."
"He takes great care of those he considers family," Bella said, "and he gives people second chances unlike some people in Paradise."
Amelia looked up from her vegetable chopping.
"He's always been like that," she said, "Sometimes it's hard to live with if you love him."
Claire understood that and she understood a lot better now why Amelia had left them all over a year ago. She had been frustrated and feeling powerless herself when her uncle didn't come home for days while hunting someone down or when he got shot and could have passed on at any time. But she had no choice, he was the only family they had left, the only one who could take care of them and keep them from being orphans like the children who rode through on the trains almost like they were livestock.
"I imagine he's a hard man to love and survive it," Bella said, "but he's got his selling points too."
Amelia suppressed a smile.
"He certainly does. If things were different…"
Claire saw the emotions flash across the woman's face. She recognized some of them from the times that she knew her uncle had tried Amelia's patience like all those times they'd been so closed to getting married until Ethan's life interfered. Every single time he'd left her, a couple of times in her bridal gown while taking off after some outlaw. Claire didn't know if she could live like that, uncertain of the future.
She knew she wanted a husband and a family someday…into the future after she lived life traveling and experiencing new things outside her world here. But in the here and now, she asked the question.
"What has to be different," Claire said, "I know you love him."
Amelia looked around at the other women who looked at her.
"Everything's different Claire," she said, "I might love him even still but our lives…they're just so different now and besides he's been spending time with Martha."
Claire's brow furrowed.
"Oh that…she's only interested in him as a marshal because of what she and Mr. Wyatt have planned for Paradise."
"She's made it clear that she wants more from him," Amelia said, "and maybe she could give it to him."
Claire didn't agree but she saw the look on Amelia's face and knew there was more to it. Love just looked too complicated the way she saw it or maybe some people just made it look that way.
"I wouldn't count on wedding bells anytime soon," Bella said, "Miss Wyatt strikes me as more interested in striking it rich with her father than in anything else."
Ethan and Dakota worked the pump outside which put up some resistance but then it hadn't been primed in quite a while. Dakota finally got it singing as it poured water for them.
"Just like a woman…needs an easy touch."
Ethan shot a look at his deputy.
"Is that what they tell you at the saloon?"
Dakota shrugged good naturedly.
"I did run into Scarlett and Rosie and gave them rides here in my new buggy."
"I noticed."
Dakota smiled.
"They were very grateful to not have to walk out here."
"I'll bet," Ethan said, "I know that they've been offered work here by Amelia."
Dakota paused.
"I can't get over Amelia having anything to do with the likes of Bella. You know how she feels about outlaws. She's a sharp shot from what you told me."
"She is…but Bella is a former outlaw and Amelia said she owes her."
"Why?"
"I didn't really ask," Ethan said, "and she didn't tell me more than that."
Dakota sighed, as they each picked up a bucket filled with fresh water to tote back to the house.
"She seems…different."
"I noticed but it's been over a year. A lot can change."
"You didn't change that much," Dakota said, "You seem more domesticated but still the same man."
Ethan heard laughter from the boys come from the barn and knew they must have found the puppies. They'd have to be pried away from them at dinnertime.
"The children changed me," he said, "She did too."
They neared the house.
"She hasn't said anything about wanting to get back with you?"
Ethan shook her head.
"She's moved on with her life. Got to respect that."
Dakota just looked at him.
"No you don't got to do that. You don't got to do anything if it's not what you want."
Ethan stopped walking.
"Everything's the way it needs to be," he said, "Maybe not the way I'd want it but it takes two people to want to get together."
"You asked her about it?"
Ethan paused.
"No but I don't have to," he said, "She's talked about it as something that's passed and that's her answer."
Dakota shook his head.
"You are going to let her get away with that? Ethan I never knew you to not go after what you want and if it's her…she's too refined for the likes of me but if it's what you like…"
Ethan started walking again.
"It's not that simple. Life's never that simple like you make it."
"Bull Ethan…what's gotten into you to make you so damn cynical?"
Ethan didn't want to get into it or what he wanted. How his fingers itched to touch his former fiancée and his mouth to taste hers. But the signals she gave him, they couldn't be mistaken. She just no longer wanted him that way and he'd just have to live with it.
If he could just figure out how.