The Cowboy's Love

{Chapter} 33

{Chapter 33}

“Don’t leave me, Erik” Toni clung to her husband before he left to go work.

“Toni, I have to work, honey” Erik rubbed her back. “The man wants this horse saddle-broke by next week.”

“Can’t it wait?”

“Not if you want the money, sweetheart.”

“Are you saying that a horse means more to you than me?”

She heard Erik sigh. “No, I’m not. This is my job, and I have to do it.”

“Can you at least sit with me for a little while? You’re always gone” Toni whined.

Erik sighed again and sat beside her on the little sofa across from the fireplace and she laid her head in his lap.

Just then, someone banged on their door.

“Come in” Erik called.

Katie burst through the door, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“It’s awful” she blubbered.

“What’s happened?” Toni sat straight up.

“Aubrey’s gone. She left five days ago and we’re just now finding out about it. I had to find out from Jay,” Katie explained, wiping tears from her cheeks. “He tried to stop her, but she left anyway.”

“Is that why he came rushing back down here the other day?” Erik asked.

Katie nodded.

“Why did she leave?” Toni asked.

“She thinks that Wade cheated on her, but he didn’t. I should have known this would have happened. I should have declared the thought impossible the moment Aubrey mentioned it to me” Katie sat down in a chair beside the sofa and tried to calm down.

“Where did she go?” Toni asked.

“Back home, I guess. Wade’s just a mess. He looks like a mountain man and probably feels worthless. No wonder he’s been acting so strangely. I figured he was just tired,” Katie told them.

Toni slapped Erik on the leg. “Go make him go after her, Erik.”

“Now wait a minute. Maybe if she trusts him that much she should just stay away,” Erik said.

Both women stared at him.

“What a terrible thing to say!” Katie exclaimed.

“Well, think about it. What’s to say that she doesn’t turn around and do this again? I’m not gonna make it easier for her to put him through this over and over” Erik explained.

“They love each other, and if I have to ride to Lovelace myself, we’ll try to get her back here,” Toni said, sounding like her old self.

“At least go talk to him, Erik” Katie said.

Erik sighed. He was outnumbered. “Fine, I’ll go see how he’s holding up. But I’m not going to tell him to go after her.”

Both women huffed and leaned back, not looking at him.

“Fine. I might mention it once.”

**********

Aubrey had never worked harder on her relationship with the Lord. Every morning and night, she read from the Bible and spent an hour in prayer each morning. She prayed for her family and how to forgive them. She prayed for Toni and her growing family. She prayed for the cowboys and their safety. Yet most of all, she prayed for Wade and Jay. Every time she thought of them, which was often, she sent a prayer up to Heaven that they would have a good day. She prayed that they were eating regularly. She prayed that they were taking care of each other, and she prayed that they forgave her. While she still found it hard to believe that Wade had cheated on her, she knew that evidence didn’t lie. Where else could that perfume have come from? Though he might not have cheated on her, he was still seeing another woman somewhere.