Stealing Jake Read Online Free

little girl’s voice was a whisper in the cold night air.
    Luke’s heart slammed hard against his rib cage. “Where?”
    “In the other crate.”
     
* * *
     
    Would he see Miss O’Brien again?
    Jake hauled the wagon to a stop in front of the orphanage. He halfway hoped Mrs. Brooks would answer the door so he could complete his mission and hoof it back to town like a scared rabbit. He didn’t have time to think about a woman, but his thoughts didn’t seem to understand that fact.
    He set the brake and stared at the rambling old farmhouse nestled in a grove of trees, as if it had been waiting for a bunch of orphans to show up and take over. The snow had stopped for the time being, but the dark, moisture-laden clouds threatened to dump more anytime. He jumped down and crunched across the white surface to the front porch, knocked, and waited. He tugged off one glove and undid the top button of his coat before he suffocated. It might be below freezing outside, but the thought of seeing Livy again brought his temperature up a notch or two.
    Livy answered the door, and he blinked. Last night’s dim light hadn’t done her justice. Her eyes were bluer than he remembered, her hair a deeper russet brown. She’d twisted the mass up on top of her head, but a few curls trailed down onto the starched stand-up collar of her dress. What would her hair feel like? Would it curl around his fingers like it curled against her long, slender neck? He clamped his jaw, shoving down his distracting thoughts.
    “Good afternoon, Miss O’Brien.” Jake yanked off his hat and forced words past the coal-size lump in his throat.
    She dipped her head, prim and proper. “Deputy Russell.”
    “Just Jake, ma’am.”
    A hint of a blush covered her cheeks. “Won’t you come in?”
    He entered the warmth of the foyer and unfastened the remaining buttons on his coat. To his left, a savory aroma wafted out of the kitchen, and to his right, the sounds of energetic—if off-key—singing drifted out from the parlor.
    Livy tracked his gaze toward the noise. “The children have finished their chores for the day, and Mrs. Brooks decided to teach them a few carols.”
    “They seem to be enjoying themselves.”
    She gave him a bright smile that seemed to come out of nowhere and sucker punch him in the gut. “Yes, they are.”
    He cleared his throat, trying not to stare at the way her lips tilted just so at the corners. But he couldn’t help himself. The right corner tipped up slightly more than the left. His pulse ratcheted up a notch.
    Whoa, Russell. Think of something else.
    “Sheriff Carter and I spent the morning out at the site of the accident.”
    Her smile faded like the winter sun behind snow-laden clouds. “Did you find anything?”
    “A Bible with the family’s last name: Hays. The sheriff’s trying to contact the next of kin, but it might take a while. Anyway, I’ve got the family’s supplies in the back of the wagon. There are a couple of trunks, too. Where do you want them?”
    “Supplies?” Lines knit her brow.
    “Meal, flour, sugar. All kinds of provisions. Seems Mr. Hays was a careful man. Wherever they were headed, he didn’t intend to run out of anything.”
    “But we can’t take the Hayses’ supplies.”
    “The orphanage is taking care of the children.” He nodded toward the parlor. “And a lot of others from the sound of it. I’d say you’re more entitled than anyone else.”
    She worried her bottom lip for a moment. “I suppose you’re right. Pull around back while I tell Mrs. Brooks.”
    Jake went out into the cold and drove the wagon around to the side porch off the kitchen. Livy waited, the door open behind her. The two of them unloaded the wagon, Livy taking the smaller items and Jake wrestling with the kegs of flour and sugar and the two trunks. He shouldered the heaviest of the trunks, grunting. Finally they had everything stacked haphazardly inside the storage room.
    Jake stood with his hands on his