Redemption

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Colt worked on painting the porch railing a few days later, humming as he did. The noon sun beat down hot in him, causing sweat to roll down his back and forehead. The white paint had covered the entire porch except the railing, which still remained its original wooden color. He was fixing that today, and then the entire house would be finished.

He had to admit that the place had turned out better than he had expected. It was the best-looking place outside of Plateau, that was for sure. To Colt, it even outshone the ranch house.

“You thirsty?” a feminine voice came from the door.

Colt turned and smiled at Jessie.

“Carby sent some lemonade,” she said, holding up the glass pitcher filled with the yellow liquid.

Colt looked at the half-painted railing. “I reckon I’m due for a break.”

Jessie smiled and poured him a glass of lemonade. Colt motioned to the steps as he took the glass from her.

“Care to join me?” he asked.

Jessie smiled and nodded, taking a seat. Colt refused to be seated when a woman was standing. Grace had raised him that way since he was a boy, and it never left him.

“You want a glass?” he asked after he was seated.

“I don’t think I’d mind one. Let me run get one right quick,” Jessie moved to stand.

Colt stopped her with his hand. “I’ll go get it. You sit tight.”

He walked inside and to the cabinet in the wide kitchen, smiling at the sight of the red and white checked curtains that Jessie had made. To think that he had once dreaded seeing them finished and hung up. Bliss wouldn’t have enjoyed them as much as he had.

Suddenly, he noticed how the thought of Bliss didn’t sting at all. It was just a normal thought.

He smiled as he walked back out the open door and sat down on the steps beside Jessie, holding the glass out to her.

“For you, m’lady,” he grinned.

“Thank you,” Jessie smiled in return.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, content to sit there and drink their lemonade.

“I’m surprised that Adam hasn’t shown up yet,” Jessie sighed.

A knot formed in the pit of Colt’s stomach. She had probably been looking for him.

“You think he’ll change his mind and apologize?” he asked.

Jessie shrugged. “I don’t really care one way or another. It… it doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, losing him. Sure, I think about him every once in a while, but I think I’m better off where I am. Even if it is in the middle of nowhere in Arizona.” Her eyes twinkled at the last statement.

Colt chuckled, the knot in his stomach unraveling into butterflies.

“I guess I expected to be more heartbroken, you know?” Jessie sighed. “The only thing I really regret is that I had to let it get this far before I finally understood what kind of man he was.”

The sorrow in her voice made Colt’s heart sink. He wanted to punch that low-down idiot until he saw the error of his ways, perhaps longer. No one deserved to be treated that way, let along a woman like Jessie. She wouldn’t hurt a soul, and yet she had been tricked because of the money she didn’t even know she had.

“I went through the same thing as you, once,” Colt told her with a sigh.

“What do you mean?” Jessie asked.