Love Her Softly

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"I say we call this canning business quits for the day," Anita declared as she wiped her arm across her sweat-slicked brow.

Emma was happy to agree. With Cassandra and Lauren's help, the women had been canning apples and pears since just a little after dawn. Their hands were aching and each of them were overheated and tired of standing over the boiling water.

"We got quite a bit done today," Emma observed, taking note of the cans—well over one-hundred of them.

"I want you to know that at least one-third of these are for you and Liam," Anita stated. "You can use them to get through winter and help with your pies."

"I couldn't take them!" Emma argued. "These are all from your fruit trees."

"Yes, which you helped pick and you helped with all this canning. You've earned them," Anita assured her in a tone of voice that made it clear she was done with the conversation.

Lauren chuckled. "You oughta know better than to turn down free food."

"Yeah," Cassandra agreed. "As my daddy always says, you should never look a gift horse in the mouth."

Anita raised a brow. "Are you comparing me to a horse?"

Cassandra's cheeks flushed slightly. "No, of course not."

"I should probably be heading home. I'm sure the men are getting hungry," Emma noted, glancing at the clock on the wall.

"I'll ride with ya," Cassandra offered. "That way you're not alone. I'm sure Miss Anita is tired after working so hard all day."

Anita smiled. "I have plenty of energy left to take Emma home... unless the real reason you're so eager to ride with her is so you can once again ride back into town with Ben."

Emma smiled at the embarrassment and surprise on Cassandra's face. It was no secret to anyone around them that Ben and Cassandra had taken a liking to one another in the last few weeks.

Ben had been working quite often on the cabin additions with Liam and nearly every day Cassandra would ride out to the cabin just so that Ben would offer to accompany her back to town.

It was certainly an odd match. Cassandra cussed more than it would deemed proper a preacher's wife to do and, while Anita had finally convinced her that trousers were not proper lady attire, she had insisted on only wearing split skirts—as dresses and proper skirts made it too difficult to hop straight onto a horse's back and ride off.

But Ben didn't seem to mind Cassandra's quirks. Her lack of filter and her tendency to say whatever came to mind. As a matter of fact, those are the very things he seemed to like most about her.

"Come on, Cassandra," Emma smiled. "We better be going so Miss Anita can get her rest." She paused at the door. "Anita, if you're certain that Liam and I can have some of the cans, I'll have him come into town with me tomorrow to get them."

Anita rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm sure, sweetheart." She made a big show of stifling a yawn. "You girls should get going now. This old woman needs her beauty rest."

Lauren snorted. "Better be a long nap."

She dodged a head smack from Anita before running from the room with laughter. Anita lips twitched with a suppressed smile. "A long nap sounds pretty good to me."