A Reason to Stay

Chapter one

 One quick thing before you get started reading... This is my very first time to "publish" anything. I'm a bit nervous and would love to hear how you think I am doing. Good or bad. Please feel free to leave me advice on how I can improve or ideals of what you would like to see or know about my characters. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my book. I'm very excited about it!

Chapter one:

Payton McGraw watched as they covered her husbands casket with dirt. It was the emptiest, loneliest feeling she had ever felt. No one could fill the hole he had left behind. Doris Smith, an elder lady in the community put a loving arm around Payton and squeezed her shoulders. It did little to comfort her. It only reminded her that she was alone here. Her family was back east. They had no way of knowing she was now a widow. She had composed a letter and sent it to the post with someone. She wasn't sure who. It would be weeks maybe months before they knew of her awful fate and what would she do until then? She had no money to buy passage back for her and her two small children. Thomas had borrowed money from the bank to plant the crops that were now dieing from the drought. She could sell the farm and then pay off the loan but she doubted if she would even have enough money left to buy even a sack of sugar.

Payton felt weak in her knees and almost faint. She knew she was going to swoon but didn't fight it. Doris called someone to help when she realized that the young widow was swooning. With the help of Mr. Joshua Owens, together they kept her from hitting the ground. Mr. Owens quickly and without any strain lifted her body into his arms and carried her to the house. Doris was almost running to match his long stride. “Oh, Mr. Owens, what would I have done with out you?” Doris was saying from behind him. “I tried to catch her but my old body just wasn't fast enough.” Several other women came to the house and once Joshua had lain her on the bed went to work at helping her come back too.

Joshua watched as they took cool, damp cloths and pressed them to Mrs. McGraw's head. She was pale; even more so than usual. Joshua had seen her at church several times with her family. She was slim and small build, she didn't weigh as much as his saddle. She was short, probably no taller than five feet two inches. She had dark blond hair. That, to him, looked to be just a bit unruly. It was kept, she always had it pulled up and combed down but it seemed she was forever pushing strays away from her face during services, not that he really watched her that much. He like to watch the children. She had soft blue eyes and a pretty smile. He had seen her smiling and laughing often with the other ladies at church. She seemed to be a rather happy woman. Of course one couldn't be expected to put on a smile and pretend nothing was wrong at her husbands grave side. No, he knew to well the pain of loosing a companion.

He sighed as the hurt of losing someone so dear crept into his heart. He quickly shook his head to rid the sobering thoughts from his mind but he knew they were never far away. It was the reason he had yet to find someone else. No one could replace his Liza. She had been his heart and soul. His whole world. No, he would never settle down again. His heart ached for the young wife and mother who was just coming too on the bed, for the life that awaited her. He knew how lonely she would be. How the pain was constant but she had her two young ones to keep her company. Joshua saw that she was waking up and decided to take back to the grave. It was sure not filled yet and he could be better help there than here. He wasn't any good with crying women.

Doris watched Joshua leave and her heart ached for the sad man. He was so soft hearted but you'd never know it by looking at him. He was tall, most likely over six foot. His long legs were almost as tall as her entire body. She had stood next to him once and noticed that her shoulders were just about even with his navel. He wasn't fat at'tall. No, he was rather slim, always had been. She sighed remembering his sad blue eyes hid behind a pair of spectacles. He was dear to Doris. His mother had run off with another man when he was too young to care for himself. She and her husband had helped his father raise the boy and his sister too. She hadn't turned out any better than her mama. Joshua's father had died a year after he had married that nice young Eliza Bergman. Poor child, he had known nothing but sorrow in his young life.