Part 15 (2/2)
Glenda invited the Sweet.w.a.ters to join her family's picnic at noon. Mildred declined, but Annie asked to stay. Finally, her father left her in Charmaine's care and the rest of her family moved into the crowd.
Glenda's daughters were fair-haired darlings, Gwen nine and Gerta seven. They wore simple calico dresses that had seen much wear, but were clean and pressed. Annie thought of the wardrobe in her room filled with frilly dresses she detested and wondered if she could figure out how to use the material to make clothing that would fit them.
Annie moved to sit on the quilt beside Charmaine and the girls. Glenda served them lunch, and they ate and visited and laughed.
Glenda's tall, mustached husband, Tim, wasn't the most handsome man Annie'd ever laid eyes on, but he had a genuine smile and a way of making people feel special. His interaction with his wife and daughters touched Annie. She remembered Glenda's tale of how he'd courted her with candy and flowers, and her esteem for him grew even more now that she'd met him.
A pair of lanky young fellows joined them as they finished their lunch. Gwen and Gerta immediately pounced on the youngest, and he hugged them good-naturedly, though he blushed.
”Annie, Charmaine, do you know my brother, Wayne?” Glenda asked. ”Wayne, Miss Renlow is Miss Sweet.w.a.ter's cousin.”
Annie had never met Wayne, but Charmaine said, ”I remember you from school before you graduated. You work on your ranch now?”
Wayne nodded. ”Always did.”
”And this is Wayne's friend, Levi Cutter,” Glenda said.
The young man she introduced removed his hat, bent to take each of their hands and gave Annie and Charmaine knockout smiles. He wore his fair hair a little too long, but it didn't detract from his compelling good looks. His blue eyes sparkled with humor and seemed to hold intimate secrets.
”Pleased to meet you, Mr. Cutter,” Annie said politely.
”You pretty ladies save me a dance tonight,” he said with a grin and a wink, then settled his hat back on his head.
The comment embarra.s.sed Annie, and she turned her attention to helping Glenda pack away the dishes and silverware.
The young men wandered back toward the busy street, and Charmaine grabbed Annie's forearm breathlessly. ”Isn't he absolutely the handsomest devil?”
She nodded. ”Levi's very nice looking.”
”No, not Levi. Wayne!”
”Oh-oh, yes, he's handsome, too.”
”Levi is a scoundrel and everyone knows it,” Charmaine whispered. ”He's ruined more than one girl's reputation. They say he lives on a ranch with a brother who is hideously scarred and never comes to town.”
”Oh.”
”But Glenda's brother is from a nice family, and he hasn't been seen courting anyone. Maybe he'll ask me to dance tonight.”
”I'm sure he will,” Annie replied. ”You'll be the prettiest girl there.” She stood and stretched her legs after being seated on the ground for so long, then sat in her chair and waited for Charmaine to push her back to the festivities.
They came upon one of the booths set up in the side yard of the church, and admired the prettily embroidered items for sale. Charmaine examined a pair of pillowslips with bright peac.o.c.ks st.i.tched in vivid colors and lace crocheted along the hem.
”That's always a popular design,” Mrs. Krenshaw said in her loud library whisper from behind the makes.h.i.+ft counter. ”They'd be a nice addition to any young lady's trousseau.”
”You made these?” Charmaine asked.
Mrs. Krenshaw nodded and turned to answer a question for a woman standing beside Annie.
”Aren't they stunning?” Charmaine asked Annie, running her fingers over the embroidered st.i.tches.
”Yes, they're lovely.” She pulled her cousin down close. ”I never pictured her sitting and embroidering, did you?”
Shrugging, Charmaine counted change from the coin bag in her reticule and gave it to the librarian.
Annie thought the purchase an odd one for her cousin. ”What are you going to do with those? Give them to someone?”
”They're for my hope chest.”
”Oh.” Annie's gaze flittered across the items on the linen-covered boards. Things for a young lady's trousseau, Mrs. Krenshaw had said. ”Do you have much in your hope chest?”
”Mama has sewn me dish towels and my great aunt Elsbeth made me a quilt before she died. Last year Papa bought me a set of dishes from a catalog.”
This was the first Annie had considered the notion. Lizzy had mentioned her hope chest, too, but Annie hadn't given it any thought at the time. Now here she was thinking about marrying Luke and she had nothing packed away for married life.
Of course her mother wouldn't have started or encouraged any such collection for Annie, since she didn't believe she'd ever be married. Not much hope there. But Annie's hopes had soared over the past months.
Her interest in the table tripled and she selected two pairs of pillowslips, one embroidered with purple pansies, the other with delicate pale-green ivy, both edged with crocheted lace. She added a set of dish towels and a baby bib to her pile and paid Mrs. Krenshaw.
Charmaine's brows rose into the middle of her forehead, but she only grinned and carried Annie's purchases with her own.
Occasionally throughout the afternoon Annie glimpsed Luke, watching games, tasting pies, drinking beer with the men. Before the sun started to set behind the mountains, people cleared the street to stand along the sides and horse races commenced.
Annie hadn't expected to see Luke on one of the horses that shot past in a cloud of dust, but when she recognized him, she worked her way to her feet and cheered with the rest of the boisterous crowd.
”Did he win? Did he win?” She jumped up and down in excitement, holding her cousin's arm for support.
”I can't see with you bouncing in front of me,” Charmaine replied, and they laughed.
After the races Lizzy and her new husband, Guy Halverson, greeted them. A glowing Lizzy stood beside her young husband with adoration, clinging to his arm and giving him coquettish smiles as they shared talk of the day's fun.
”That's enough to make you sick,” Charmaine commented after they'd moved on.
”I thought it was sweet,” Annie replied. ”You had that same look on your face when Wayne spoke to you.”
”I did not.”
”Did so. How do you know? I was looking at you. You were making goo-goo eyes at him.”
”You're making it up.”
”Am not.”
”Take it back or I'll push you into a pile of horse dung.”
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