Mail Order Bride

Chapter 13

              Everyone was in the living room when they got downstairs. Brent was sitting on the loveseat waiting for her to join him as he'd done countless nights before. Cassie was in the recliner all curled up, and Bill-much like Brent had done with Anna-was waiting for Denise to join him.

              Before Anna had a chance to sit down Bill rose and shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

              Anna touched a piece of hair behind her ear and replied as she sat down next to Brent. "Thank you. It's great to finally meet Brent's parents." She looked over at Brent and he smiled at her.

              When Cassie saw Brent smile at Anna adoringly she crawled up into an even smaller ball. It looked like she was about to cry. Denise looked over at her youngest child and was immediately worried no one had said anything about Cassie not being her usual self. But that look made Denise want to go and hold her baby while she whispered soothing words to her, and so that's what she did.

              "Oh, baby girl, what's wrong," Denise cooed as she walked over to her daughter. By then everyone had noticed that Anna was close to tears. Both Brent and his father looked like they wanted to be sick, and Anna wanted to help comfort her, but she knew that Denise would do a far better job than she could.

              One silent tear rolled down Cassie's face as her mother sat down next her. The comfort of being held by her mother broke the last of her resolve, the tears just flowed, unable to be stopped by anything or anyone.

              "Shhh...it's okay. Momma's here. Don't worry, whatever it is it will be okay." Cassie was crying silent tears into her mother's chest. When she heard that it would be okay she broke into sobs. "Oh, Cassie I really wish you would tell me what's wrong."

              Cassie laid there for several more minutes while Denise continued to coo to her before she spoke. "It...it won't be...be oh...okay. He le...left me... I love...him...and he left...me."

              One look at Bill's face told everyone that he wanted to kill whoever had hurt his little girl.

              "Who left you, baby?" Denise asked while she rubbed Cassie's back soothingly.

              "Cli...Clint." Bill and Denise both looked over at Brent and Anna obviously wanting answers to whom this Clint character was, and why he'd left their daughter in pieces.

              Brent just shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't even know that she was dating someone until we got back from our date and found her crying, saying that he'd left her." Brent sighed and Anna held onto his arm. "He used to work here, he was a great guy-"

              "A great guy?!" Bill boomed, clearly not happy with Brent's choice of words. "How could he be a great guy when he did this to your sister?"

              Brent tried to speech, but Cassie wiped her eyes and looked up at her father. "Daddy he was a great guy. He told me that he had to leave, and make something out of himself. He thought that he could never be good enough for me if he was just a ranch hand."

              "Well, that's just stupid," Bill told Cassie. "Your grandpa wasn't much more than a ranch hand when he met you grandmamma, and he built this ranch up to what it is today with the help of her."

              "I know that," Cassie's head was still resting on her mother. "But Clint doesn't understand that we could do that together."

              "I'd like to teach this young man a lesson, but I can tell none of you know where he is, or else he'd be in a hospital because of what Brent would have done to him.