Page 77 of More Than Meets the Eye

He cupped her face and gently tilted her eyes up to meet his. “When a man meets the girl he wants to spend the rest of his life with, his mama needs to know about it, don’t you think?” The intensity of his regard stole her breath.

Just that morning, she’d believed she’d lost him forever. She’d grieved, prayed, then set her mind to fixing things, but it seemed there was nothing left to fix. God in his goodness had done the mending for her, responding to her petitions with a swiftness she’d never experienced. It left her a mite dizzy, truth be told.

“Do you mean it?” Her whispered words were barely audible, but it was the best she could manage with a blanket of awe mummifying her.

Logan smiled with such sweetness, she swore she could taste the sugar on her own tongue. “Did you mean it when you said you loved me?” he asked.

She nodded. “With all my heart.”

His smile brightened, his gray eyes twinkling like polished silver. “Then that settles it,” he announced with a slap to his thigh. “Time to hang up my gambling boots, finish our cabin, and get to work making a more reputable living. I was thinking cattle. Or we could clear the land and try our hand at cotton. What do you think?”

Our cabin. It was as if he had peeked inside her heart, seen her dreams, and then set himself the task of making them all come true.

“I might even shave off this hairy mess,” he said, since she hadn’t yet found the wherewithal to string any intelligible words together. He rubbed the beard that camouflaged the bottom of his face. “It gets mighty itchy in the summer.” He made a comically pained expression. “And since I don’t have to intimidate saloon folk anymore, I don’t really need it.”

Finding her balance—and a touch of boldness—Evangeline projected a ponderous mien as she took hold of his face and turned it from side to side. “Hmm. I suppose kissing would be easier without all this scruff in the way.”

Logan’s eyes widened. “Tonight.” He sat up straighter on the examination table. “I’ll shave it off tonight.”

She laughed softly, then leaned in and touched her lips to his. Not a deep kiss, just a light touch, a promise of love and belonging. Her lashes flickered closed as she savored the soft joining. Drawing back slightly, she ended the kiss but lingered nearby. Her lips hovered above his, almost touching. The memory of the kiss was so vivid, it was as if they were touching. Her breath mixed with his. Her pulse thrummed.

Then the door opened.

Dropping her hands from Logan’s face, Evangeline lurched backward. Logan didn’t let her go far, however, keeping hold of her with the one hand still at her waist.

“If you’re done mauling my sister,” Zach said, his scowl firmly in place, though his words didn’t carry their usual heat, “we got some plans to work out.”

Logan waggled his eyebrows. “I believe your sister was the one doing the mauling. Not that I’m complaining.”

“Logan!” she scolded under her breath, mortified.

Zach grunted. “If you and that scratch of yours can walk, we’re supposed to meet Seth and Christie at the parsonage.”

Logan stretched his long legs down from the examination table and gained his feet. His gray eyes lost their teasing light. “We’ll be right there.”

Zach nodded once, then pivoted and left the room with the same abruptness with which he’d arrived.

Logan held out his hand to her, and she clasped it. “Ready?”

“Ready.” Because as much as she wanted to bask in her love for this man and revel in happy dreams of their future together, she couldn’t ignore the danger that threatened both him and the young woman they’d rescued.

Dreams would keep. Reality wouldn’t.

When darkness finally fell that night, Evangeline climbed beneath the covers next to Christie in Charlotte Clem’s guest room, fully expecting to fall unconscious the moment her head hit the pillow. This had to have been the longest day of her life. Her heart felt like it had been thrown around like a child on a twenty-foot seesaw—exhilarating highs followed by crashing lows, only to repeat with new joys and terrifying fears. It left her light-headed, off-balance, and a tiny bit nauseated.

Evangeline rolled onto her side and drew her knees up to her belly, breathing through her nose to help her stomach settle. She should be deliriously happy after Logan’s change of heart and declaration of intentions—this very moment he could be writing about her to his mother!—but the uncertainty of what lay in store for them over the next few days ate away at her serenity.

“Do you think their plan will work?”

It seemed she wasn’t the only one unsettled.

Evangeline stretched an arm across the bedside table, turned up the lamp, then rolled over to face Christie. “Having second thoughts?”

The girl nibbled her bottom lip. “Yes,” she finally admitted, “but not about trying to find the ledgers. Mr. Benson’s trip to Cooper offers the best opportunity to search the schoolhouse. I just wish Seth wasn’t the one doing the searching.”

“Well, it’s less dangerous than tracking Benson’s movements in Cooper.” The queasiness in Evangeline’s stomach intensified. “Benson has never seen Zach, so that gives him a layer of anonymity, but Logan? They’ve been face-to-face. Even if Logan shaves and alters his clothing with the items he borrowed from Seth, there’s no hiding that scar on his face. If Benson gets a glimpse of that, he’ll recognize Logan at once. The snake already took a handful of shots at him on the road today. I don’t want to tempt a repeat performance.”

Christie’s face tightened. “So our men risk their lives while we hide away.”