Love Finds You in Daisy, Oklahoma Read Online Free Page B

are.” She bit back the words that threatened to escape. Had she not shown Sadie love throughout the years, even when Reuben and Virginia were too busy doing good for others? Hadn’t she negotiated Sadie’s needs a time or two?
    Her brother leaned back in his expensive leather chair, his brow so wrinkled that she almost called out to Katy to fetch an iron. Why, oh why, did Reuben always feel the need to tell her how to live, where to go, and what to do? This time he didn’t speak a word. Apparently she had rendered him mute.
    “There’s one thing you should know,” Rena said, finally breaking the silence. “I have already written to the sheriff and told him I will be there by early October. There’s no point in waiting until November. Oklahoma is cold in the wintertime, you know.”
    “W–what?” His jaw dropped and he pushed back his chair. “Impossible.”
    “Not impossible. What I’ve said is true.” She squared her shoulders. “This means I will be leaving in a week. So I would appreciate not just your letter of recommendation on my behalf, but also your blessing and your prayers.”
    Reuben shook his head and said nothing for a moment. When he finally spoke, his words surprised her. “Well, then, there’s much to be done, isn’t there? You will need Virginia’s help, no doubt. I will put her on the task right away, as soon as she’s rested up. And Katy too.” He rose.
    “You…you want to help me?” She gazed into her brother’s eyes, suddenly energized. “Really?”
    “You are my only sibling, Rena, and I want God’s best for you. If you truly feel you are to go, then it would be wrong of me to keep you here. I’ve never known you to be impulsive or flighty, so I can only imagine you’re following the prompting of the Lord.”
    “I am,” she whispered. “Oh, I am.”
    The words came out sounding bold and confident. Inside, however, she quivered like a bowl of tapioca pudding. Soon enough her nerves would calm down. Right after she boarded the train. Right now…well, right now she had a lot of work to do.

    Gene pulled off his hat as he made his way into Daisy’s new schoolhouse to visit with Miss Jamison, his boys’ teacher. She’d asked for a special meeting with him. He half-dreaded the meeting, but spending time with the green-eyed beauty couldn’t be that bad, even if she did offer a bad report about the boys. He would gladly spend time with Jenny Jamison and hoped she felt the same.
    It didn’t take long to find out why she had requested his presence at the schoolhouse. Miss Jamison, with enough dramatic flair to earn her a spot on the stage, told him a story of how the boys had locked one of the female students—the mayor’s daughter, no less—inside the water closet, keeping her there for a half hour during recess time.
    “I feel sure that Calista’s father will be along shortly to talk with us about it.” Jenny took a lock of her long blond hair and wound it around her finger then glanced out the window. “And I can’t imagine what I’ll tell him. Mayor Albright is a rather intimidating fellow, you know.”
    “That he is.”
    “Poor Calista was both terrified and humiliated, as you might imagine.”
    “No doubt.” Gene shifted his hat from one hand to another. So now the boys had taken to picking on girls? In vulnerable situations, no less? Why in the world had they chosen Mayor Albright’s daughter, Calista? And what would they try next?
    “I know they’re wonderful boys, Sheriff,” the teacher said. “Truly. And Lord knows I’ve worked extra hard to convince them of their value. I’m sure you have too. Why, I reinforce them with positive words as often as I can.” She placed her hand on her heart. “Praising them for their good behavior—when it comes—is key to seeing even more of it. I believe that. Sincerely.”
    “Ah. I see. Well, actually, I…” His words drifted off. To be honest, he hadn’t spent a lot of time in telling the boys how